First Steps to Solvency

PassElephant

alt80 said:

This week: 
1. Stick with the budget. So far so good. 🙂
2. Not spend my free time looking at cars / property rather than doing something with my family. Left the office early and picked son up from school with wife today. Spent the afternoon / evening doing family stuff - home workout, dinner prepared and ate together, dog walk, little bit of tv and bedtime story for son.

3. Check yolt app everyday. Check. 
4. 4 day working week for me. Check.

5. 3x workouts, 1x 5km. 2x workouts, no 5km yet got the weekend for that!

A good day. That is lovely.

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver the older guys in my industry say the same things - when I'm 60 I won't have the same drive / work won't be my be all etc. A lot of people don't get why I want to move think I've mentioned before on here I used to drive by the houses in the area I live and think I will have arrived if I ever buy one. Remember telling my wife 'I'm going to buy that house one day', I didn't but I live next door to it lol. It's not that I don't like my home - I love it actually.

I know I have a big weakness for cars. I see £93k/a net not £60k so it's not that bad. If you're talking from my business not counting the income taken from btls then yes it's just under £70k net. My mate with the MGB hasn't really got a lot but has three classic cars and a 25 year old Land Rover, he's probably more mad for cars than I am tbf but no debt. One of the classics is worth about £30k - he bought it for £5k 10 years ago. That's one reason why I think getting rid of the BMW and buying an XJS would be a nice idea. I need to address the Range Rover balloon tbf - think I'll have to refinance it else I've got just over 3 years to find nearly £50k which is going to be impossible.

Usually when I have a goal in mind I get fixated on it and make it happen to the detriment of family time normally. Always been competitive and if someone is clearly doing better it makes me think I'm a complete loser to be where I am in life whilst they have the supercar or the 7 figure listed house with a swimming pool. I'm struggling with the counselling definitely because I don't want to hear I'm not going to make it in life. 

@clairebeth thanks. My wife has been cataloguing stuff to sell today, she's come up with £16k of stuff if we get rid of it all including the 2 watches and all sells at the amount we think. If we manage that it will put us in a brilliant position and if we stick to the budget there's £1k/m coming off the card balances. She really wants us to have a bit of a fresh start - more trust more time for each other. 

Next level - next level of the life game. eg I have a Range Rover but the next level is a Bentley, I have a £600k house next level is £1M house, I have 9 BTLs next level is 20 BTLs etc. 

My wife thinks I'm an idiot for chasing around after a 7 figure 6/7 bed Georgian / Regency listed place when we have our house. £600k buys a lot here, appreciate its nothing in some parts and London but I do appreciate my home just again want to get to the next level - doesn't everyone, really?

I'd rather the payments than not get to the next level. 

Why do the things matter? To feel like I'm successful. I'll be honest it's selfish reasons. If I get that 7 figure house, I'll feel I've been a success like I've made something of myself. 

Not going to be able to get the finance forever - no one's going to lend an 80 year old much so no plans to leave my wife with a load of debt to clear up. 🙂

@getmore4less I need to get into the right mindset to really start planning how I'm going to sort the income out tbh stop panicking about the debts and work out how to sort the income out. Things tick along nicely at the moment and I have a good balance of workload - if I did more of the fee earning work and had a few less staff I could definitely take more but I was at the point of burnout when I was doing this before. Now have a nice mix of fee earning and overseeing the business. Before lockdown I was planning to expand but lockdown happened and I'm feeling really cautious right now. 

Also aware I'm in a position where if the income goes up it's probably better used elsewhere eg pension etc rather than paying a stupid amount of tax but that doesn't really help me on a month to month basis. Already pay the higher rate of dividend tax - not really very tax efficient. Have managed to offset a bit through wife's tax allowances and have another meeting in the next month to discuss moving forwards in the future - working out best way.

PassElephant

Done the swimming pool, best house in the neighbourhood.
The best bits were just being with someone who loves me and hoping for more time together.
You can't buy that. See Bill Gates for confirmation.

ryanm8655

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver the older guys in my industry say the same things - when I'm 60 I won't have the same drive / work won't be my be all etc. A lot of people don't get why I want to move think I've mentioned before on here I used to drive by the houses in the area I live and think I will have arrived if I ever buy one. Remember telling my wife 'I'm going to buy that house one day', I didn't but I live next door to it lol. It's not that I don't like my home - I love it actually.

I know I have a big weakness for cars. I see £93k/a net not £60k so it's not that bad. If you're talking from my business not counting the income taken from btls then yes it's just under £70k net. My mate with the MGB hasn't really got a lot but has three classic cars and a 25 year old Land Rover, he's probably more mad for cars than I am tbf but no debt. One of the classics is worth about £30k - he bought it for £5k 10 years ago. That's one reason why I think getting rid of the BMW and buying an XJS would be a nice idea. I need to address the Range Rover balloon tbf - think I'll have to refinance it else I've got just over 3 years to find nearly £50k which is going to be impossible.

Usually when I have a goal in mind I get fixated on it and make it happen to the detriment of family time normally. Always been competitive and if someone is clearly doing better it makes me think I'm a complete loser to be where I am in life whilst they have the supercar or the 7 figure listed house with a swimming pool. I'm struggling with the counselling definitely because I don't want to hear I'm not going to make it in life. 

@clairebeth thanks. My wife has been cataloguing stuff to sell today, she's come up with £16k of stuff if we get rid of it all including the 2 watches and all sells at the amount we think. If we manage that it will put us in a brilliant position and if we stick to the budget there's £1k/m coming off the card balances. She really wants us to have a bit of a fresh start - more trust more time for each other. 

Next level - next level of the life game. eg I have a Range Rover but the next level is a Bentley, I have a £600k house next level is £1M house, I have 9 BTLs next level is 20 BTLs etc. 

My wife thinks I'm an idiot for chasing around after a 7 figure 6/7 bed Georgian / Regency listed place when we have our house. £600k buys a lot here, appreciate its nothing in some parts and London but I do appreciate my home just again want to get to the next level - doesn't everyone, really?

I'd rather the payments than not get to the next level. 

Why do the things matter? To feel like I'm successful. I'll be honest it's selfish reasons. If I get that 7 figure house, I'll feel I've been a success like I've made something of myself. 

Not going to be able to get the finance forever - no one's going to lend an 80 year old much so no plans to leave my wife with a load of debt to clear up. 🙂

@getmore4less I need to get into the right mindset to really start planning how I'm going to sort the income out tbh stop panicking about the debts and work out how to sort the income out. Things tick along nicely at the moment and I have a good balance of workload - if I did more of the fee earning work and had a few less staff I could definitely take more but I was at the point of burnout when I was doing this before. Now have a nice mix of fee earning and overseeing the business. Before lockdown I was planning to expand but lockdown happened and I'm feeling really cautious right now. 

Also aware I'm in a position where if the income goes up it's probably better used elsewhere eg pension etc rather than paying a stupid amount of tax but that doesn't really help me on a month to month basis. Already pay the higher rate of dividend tax - not really very tax efficient. Have managed to offset a bit through wife's tax allowances and have another meeting in the next month to discuss moving forwards in the future - working out best way.

Personally, in your position, I’d forget about this next level thinking in terms of goals. I don’t mean don’t aspire for those things but set goals in your business and focus on those would be my approach. You can cheat your way to this next level stuff by sticking cars on finance and buying things to keep up appearances. You can’t shortcut your way to improving your business. So push the business goals and the other things will come with time.

getmore4less

alt80 said:

...
@getmore4less I need to get into the right mindset to really start planning how I'm going to sort the income out tbh stop panicking about the debts and work out how to sort the income out. Things tick along nicely at the moment and I have a good balance of workload - if I did more of the fee earning work and had a few less staff I could definitely take more but I was at the point of burnout when I was doing this before. Now have a nice mix of fee earning and overseeing the business. Before lockdown I was planning to expand but lockdown happened and I'm feeling really cautious right now. 
...

We are in uncertain times but it does sound like you have the common problem with scaling up when you are the main fee earner.

IT can be hard to let go and employ people to do some of that work, giving time to focus on the business of getting the work which is where the real growth happens.

ladyholly

"Not going to be able to get the finance forever - no one's going to lend an 80 year old much so no plans to leave my wife with a load of debt to clear up. 🙂"

Thats fine but what if you die at 55 or 60. It can happen. A friend of DH recentlly died at 51 and another at 49. Life is short dont spend it looking for things. I hope you have good life insurance.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

This week: 
1. Stick with the budget. So far so good. 🙂
2. Not spend my free time looking at cars / property rather than doing something with my family. Left the office early and picked son up from school with wife today. Spent the afternoon / evening doing family stuff - home workout, dinner prepared and ate together, dog walk, little bit of tv and bedtime story for son.

3. Check yolt app everyday. Check. 
4. 4 day working week for me. Check.

5. 3x workouts, 1x 5km. 2x workouts, no 5km yet got the weekend for that!

It sounds like you are getting a better work life balance. 

I'm glad to hear that the wife is now onboard as well. You will have this sorted out as a team 👍 

enthusiasticsaver

If you are a HR tax payer which presumably you are a pension is the most tax efficient way of investing for the future. Is the commercial mortgage for the BTLs due to be paid off within a suitable timescale? Most are over shorter periods than residential in which case it is feasible to use BTL as funding in your later life if the mortgages are small or repaid by then but because you have (last year?) taken most of the equity out to pay off personal borrowing that no doubt has extended the term again. Given you will find it more difficult to borrow the closer you get to 70 what is your long term financial plan? I am not talking about spending priorities (houses, cars etc etc) but how you intend to finance your living expenses. 

getmore4less

Although there are currently  the personal guarantees on top,  commercial borrowing  within a company is more about the business than the age of the shareholders.

clairebeth

Ok, I see what you mean by 'next level' now... and no I don't think that's how most people think. 

I think you have the wrong impression of the counselling... it's not to help you see that you haven't 'made it,' it's to help you set that your definition of success is skewed. 

I consider my husband and I to be successful. Between us we bring in £4500net a month (that's BIG money for a teacher and nurse combined). We both work part time, enjoy our jobs, have several holidays a year, visit my family in Australia every two years and make good extra pension contributions. We feel secure financially. We love our flat (a 2 bedroom Georgian in Edinburgh city centre) and have two happy and heathy young children. We love the fact that our children learn about different places and cultures by having visited them, from all round Europe to Thailand.  We have time to remember that we still love each other just like we did 17 years ago. I'm exactly the same age as you, and I count my lucky stars every day for the life I have. Although, as well as good fortune, we have purposely created our lives this way.  I think to be content is the ultimate goal, yes?

Do you really think you'll live to 80 with your stress lifestyle? The amount of people who I've seen die, or have a serious life changing event, like a stroke under the age of 50 is not worth thinking about... it's tragic, and it happens to the best of people. Don't waste your precious life chasing houses and cars, their worth is only monetary. 

Not ever, as I've sat with a patient in the last moments of their life, have we or their family talked about their house or job. Not ever, as we've desperately hoped that a family member makes it to the hospital on time before the patient dies has anyone asked 'is she driving the range rover?' No, because all that matters is that she is there.

The things we talk about in those last moments are their wedding day, their children, their happiest memories, and then, right at the end, it's just a lot of cuddling and tears as they take their last breath. 

That's the sum of it. Not possessions. Not the 'next level'. Because life isn't a game where you are competing with others.  It's a 'Choose your own adventure'.