First Steps to Solvency

mamamu

Your son doesn’t need 500£ presents for xmas and birthday. One decent present is more than enough. 

That what we do from birth and he is not expecting pile of presents and is very grateful for what he gets. 

Also if you are paying cards 1k/m you are going to pay off 12000 a year. If you hand BMW back you then can start paying 1550£/m. With all your sails you should pay your cards in 24month. Than still got almost 18month to get RR baloon payment saved at the rate of 1550£/m.

If you give up your RR now and BMW next year and get decent car through buisiness. You can pay your cards very quickly within 12 month.
And then if you put into savings what you paying for cars and cards now:
1200RR
550BMW

1000CC
you can save 99000£ in 3 years time and have New RR 2024 bought outright and not your old one with massive baloon payment you can’t afford.

you can be debt free and owning sparkling new RR by the end of 2024 and have surplus of 2500£ a month on top of your budget.

think about it. 

getmore4less

A couple of things (turned into 5)

Analyse the impact of the car through the business on the business  currently the business pays you to subsidise the business costs,  by handing them back to the business it may need to pay you a bit less but at least that is gross and you never saw all of it anyway.

Clothes audit  :  still might be a good idea, the last time you shrugged that off as I know we have everything yet there have been further purchases, check what you all will need for the next 12months.

You have got the place where you can run the finances with no new credit and pay at least the mins on the debts, that is a great position to be in from where you started just a short time ago,  I think it is time to give it a rest and get used to the "new normal" run with this budget for a while to get used to it, there are places you could try and improve but they will most likely just happen as you settle in.
Don't bust a gut trying to save another £50 of the food throw that energy at the family and  business where you can make a difference  that will make your dreams happen.

On the BTL business, right to be cautious, I think there will be some good buying opportunities with potential to add value and get yields back up closer to 10%, probably a case of keeping the powder dry ready for the right one to crop up, passing that one you were thinking about into the network it's good see you are getting back into the game.
Might be a bit morbid but do you or anyone in the network get involved in probate valuations?
Can be a good source for a refurb and often difficult purchases for those looking as owner occupiers. 

On the main business you mentioned there is work out there and you have someone in mind you would like to take on, any way to structure that so they are aware that if moving from another job it might be risky for them if the work dries up.
If this is quite regular where there is transient business you would like to capture perhaps think about ways to make your capacity more flexible.
 

monetxchange

alt80 said:

@RelievedSheff all about priorities. RR is high on my list so that could be a plan for me. 

@monetxchange haha wife and I have actually had a good laugh tonight about our insecurities but together 12 years and not messed around. Must be ok really lol. Might have been the bottle of wine we shared loosened things up a bit living the lockdown life haha. Said on someone else’s diary - I still have to go to tenants’ and also to houses for work ... Worth the risk? Tenants couldn’t care less about distancing but they see you giving an inch they’ll take a mile and can’t get rid of bad paying tenant right now bank still want money though. 

Congratulations on house. 🥂 I’m assuming you’re a FTB. No better feeling than that first set of keys to your own home. 

Cheers. It's been my goal for a long time so really proud it's happening. It's just a small overpriced London flat, but you'd be pleased - definitely a good capital growth opportunity!

Re the presents - I also think token gifts are fine between you and your wife. Wrap up a Chocolate Orange etc to make it seem like more in volume terms. You could have a laugh with it too - you get her a phone case and she gets you some exercise shorts so you're forced to keep up the work outs etc 😂 Your son won't notice what's being opened and will just like to see you smiling.

purplehippo276

Just catching up with your diary @alt80 and you are doing so well!  Fantastic work on keeping to your budget, and paying down your cards.  Reading it all feels like you really are turning a corner when it comes to your debt and your personal relationships.  Can't wait to read more.  

alt80

Going to have a look at the budget etc later, need to work lol but had a really difficult but informative counselling session fairly certain it’s put me in the certified nut case category but oh well can only come up from that … mindset definitely the thing holding me back. I’ve always thought I was a bit special, usual rules don’t apply to me. Nothing ever enough then putting myself under constant pressure to get to that next level. Until now I think a bit of youthful arrogance carried me through. Even the blind panic remo stage didn’t do much and think I’ve only had the wake up call now after a stress free lockdown and no chance of dodging another bullet by some other stupid refinancing decision. Tbh until seeing some of the feedback on here I thought the only reason someone would have a personal debt problem would be too fond of the toys and the lifestyle and too proud to admit you can’t have it all so suppose I thought it’d be a bit of a ‘safe space’ FML with some ‘there, there things are tough now but you’ll get the AM next week if you move this around’ haha. Wife and I had an argument when I bought the RR – it’s the P525 Autobiography one under from top spec. The top spec is more money, extra 40bhp and it gets a unique grille. £150k and that’s the one I wanted but she begged me not to buy it remember her saying in JLR dealership ‘this is not spare money to us’ not worth it for a grille etc etc etc 100% right but I’d convinced myself I needed that grille or everyone would comment it wasn’t the top spec (no one has lol). We argued all the way home about her saying in the dealership it wasn’t spare money, I saw it as the ultimate embarrassment and went home punched my garage wall so hard my hand was bandaged up for weeks. Doing myself no favours whatsoever I know and god only knows what people thought had happened to me. It wasn’t even about the spec of the car it was being told it wasn’t spare money- she knew it was a lot for us and knew it wasn’t something we could buy for cash. I’m looking at that moment with a bit of a different mindset now and thinking how completely ridiculous it was. I’m sharing this because I’m sure there are others on here with a similar mindset always need the best and willing to financially f**k yourself for it. Let me tell you it’s not really worth the stress and the sleepless nights trying to juggle payments around knowing you spend a lot more than you earn.

purplehippo276

Sounds like the counselling is really helping you unpack your past behaviours and attitudes.  What you are saying sounds really positive - being able to look at past behaviour like that with a different mindset now.  

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like a lightbulb is really switching on for you.  I think given where you were the new budget looks ok.  As you say if you want those cards gone and to be able to save for the balloon payment for that RR then you need to get to £1500 spare each month.  I am beyond thrilled you are at least now saving for emergencies to be able to avoid anything else going on cards. 

Shame you did not listen to your wife in JLR and well done for admitting you are now realising it was a mistake.  I think there is a variety of reasons why people are on here and sure some of it is living up and beyond income or what I would call inflated lifestyle but some are here because of low income, unemployment, sickness, divorce,  maternity leave and moving house.  Those are the most common reasons but there are a few I can think of who just like spending and have ignored the warning signs until it gets too bad.  We all make mistakes though and you have time to sort this out. 

KayBur

alt80 said:

Going to have a look at the budget etc later, need to work lol but had a really difficult but informative counselling session fairly certain it’s put me in the certified nut case category but oh well can only come up from that … mindset definitely the thing holding me back. I’ve always thought I was a bit special, usual rules don’t apply to me. Nothing ever enough then putting myself under constant pressure to get to that next level. Until now I think a bit of youthful arrogance carried me through. Even the blind panic remo stage didn’t do much and think I’ve only had the wake up call now after a stress free lockdown and no chance of dodging another bullet by some other stupid refinancing decision. Tbh until seeing some of the feedback on here I thought the only reason someone would have a personal debt problem would be too fond of the toys and the lifestyle and too proud to admit you can’t have it all so suppose I thought it’d be a bit of a ‘safe space’ FML with some ‘there, there things are tough now but you’ll get the AM next week if you move this around’ haha. Wife and I had an argument when I bought the RR – it’s the P525 Autobiography one under from top spec. The top spec is more money, extra 40bhp and it gets a unique grille. £150k and that’s the one I wanted but she begged me not to buy it remember her saying in JLR dealership ‘this is not spare money to us’ not worth it for a grille etc etc etc 100% right but I’d convinced myself I needed that grille or everyone would comment it wasn’t the top spec (no one has lol). We argued all the way home about her saying in the dealership it wasn’t spare money, I saw it as the ultimate embarrassment and went home punched my garage wall so hard my hand was bandaged up for weeks. Doing myself no favours whatsoever I know and god only knows what people thought had happened to me. It wasn’t even about the spec of the car it was being told it wasn’t spare money- she knew it was a lot for us and knew it wasn’t something we could buy for cash. I’m looking at that moment with a bit of a different mindset now and thinking how completely ridiculous it was. I’m sharing this because I’m sure there are others on here with a similar mindset always need the best and willing to financially f**k yourself for it. Let me tell you it’s not really worth the stress and the sleepless nights trying to juggle payments around knowing you spend a lot more than you earn.

At some point in our lives, we all try to give ourselves the status that we do not reach. We take a car for ourselves a little more than we can afford, a phone is a little more expensive than necessary. Sometimes it helps, stimulates development and earn more in order to afford to buy good things. The desire to live a better life is a wonderful incentive. But at the same time, trying to give yourself more status than it really is is a mistake. And we men make this mistake often. For women, in this regard, everything is different. For this I love their approach to business. Although they often make emotional decisions. But this rarely applies to large purchases.

Mrs_F_2017

I've caught up on this thread today..was on holiday for a week and came back to about 30 pages of comments.....reading it all in one go there were some real lows and today seems to have ended on a high with you thinking about the RR in that light. 

All I would say is that you can't change the past but you can decide how you want things to be going forward and have the capability to make them happen.  Sounds like a lot of positive changes to come, well done for your progress (that sounds sarcastic but I promise you it is not mean in that fashion!)

clairebeth

Wow! That must be very difficult looking back to that moment in the Range Rover garage. But also extremely enlightening, you sound like you were stepping out of yourself and watching it over (like Scrooge when he visits the past but can't change it).

I can imagine your wife felt then that things were spiraling out of control, I feel like breaking out into a cold sweat on her behalf. 

Have you discussed this with her? When you're ready, it might be really worthwhile, and I'm sure an apology would go a long way. She must have been quite terrified when you reacted the way you did. 

Seriously, well done.  Counselling can be so tough. What you might find is that it's not just during the sessions that the progress happens, that's just like a boost to get you unraveling things in your mind in your own time too.