Squirreling Away Those Nuts

FtbDreaming

Ooh it looks lovely! Well done x

killerpeaty

I'm hoping your first picture is the finished one! Your decoration is really good, makes the space really light and happy. So annoying about the loft, builders know that the loft is used for storage

I am disappointed in your experience with accounting, I would like for you to have had more support. Don't get me wrong, it's not exciting work but it is deceptively social and can have variety. I'm constantly speaking with my colleagues on how to do this and that, discussing principals with clients and avoiding the bosses. I hope you find a role that is better suited to you. Gutted for your exam, it'll probably be a while before you can take your exam as I imagine that June is over subscribed.

Grogged

It's a really good job. It looks light and modern.
Darn cash eh? Can't remember when I last used it!😆

ruby_eskimo

Love the stairs!  I wish we'd got someone in to paint ours but DH insisted he could do it himself.  It looks ok if you don't look too closely at the wobbly edges with the ceiling 😂

Raincoat

Hi Squirrel, I've finally read your posts - well done, it sounds you have been super productive juggling exams, work, kids and renovation work! I echo @killerpeaty, its a shame that you haven't felt accounting is fulfilling so far. I'm also an accountant and I love my job, it has a surprising amount of variety. It sounds like you work for a company, so the "audit" part of A&A must have been tough - I always felt it was easier if you had done audit work previously, as its easier learning from practice rather than theory.    

Squirrelz92

Its been just over two years since I last posted... Wow!

So much has happened in this space of time I am not even sure where to start on updates! 

I still own and live in the same house Renovations came to a halt as I decided to have a semi midlife crisis moment and bought an ex racer to fulfil the dream of owning a ponio again. Naturally all of my surplus funds got sucked up on everything equine which meant work on the house sadly got put on the back burner.

I no longer work for the company mentioned in my previous posts. I moved to a much healthier company as their management accountant where I flourished and learnt so much; mainly because I was thrown in at the deep end with no finance team to support me in running and reporting for a project company. It has been a rollercoaster for sure but have loved every second. Only the week before last I handed in my notice here to move to a much larger food manufacturing business a little closer to home, with another lovely pay rise, hybrid working and the chance to put my stamp on the place alone as I will be the Finance Business Partner and sole member of finance on site! It has been my dream to get to this position and I plan on using every skillset obtained at my current place of work to help this company and further my career! Excited is an understatement! My last day of working in my current employment is the 19th so this week is my last full week I have worked it so I will have 2 weeks off to refuel and recharge as when moving jobs previously, I have always finished on a Friday and started the next Monday. 

Exam wise, I did pass my FR exam first time which was ruddy amazing!!! Over the moon there. I have since also sat PM twice, the first time missing out on a pass by 7 marks which I knew was coming. This syllabus killed me over and over again but I passed the second time round. I am now on my last applied skills exam being FM. I left this until last because when reading up on what each syllabus contained, this sounded the most boring and complex. I was right and then some! I have spent the last 8 weeks making notes and trying to understanding all 636 pages of content. I thought I was making headway until I opened the exam kit and tried to put into practice what I had learned. Dear lord, I feel as though I may as well have not bothered! I have already booked to sit this exam in the first week of March but annoyingly and most inconveniently, it also lands in the first week of me starting my new job. I think it is sensible for me to push this exam back to June as I really do not want to be taking the time out of my new job to sit an exam where I will no doubt cry plenty of tears in those 3 hours from not knowing anything. I would rather pass first time and go through the misery once!

Back to the house ... this is a mortgage free diary after all! So my 1.79% deal ran out Nov 2022 and ended up staying with the same bank and fixing on a 5 year deal for 3.56%. Thank god I did because of what happened shortly after with interest rates! I made small overpayments totaling £465 from Nov 2022 to May 2023. I then decided to stop again as I wanted to focus on getting rid of all of my debt. I kept a diary throughout this journey and managed clear 7k in 6 months which I am really chuffed about. Since becoming debt free at the end of October, I ploughed all free funds on payday eve into building my £3500 EF. Since then, I have been saving as much as possible to renovate the rest of the house as I now want to be able to live in a home I am proud of for the next ten years before moving on. That plus I am sick of living in a half done up house!

With my current salary I am able to now save roughly £1000 a month on pay day eve. I think that £200 of this will be put towards overpaying the mortgage and the rest will go into my renovation pot. My current mortgage balance is £89,271.44 and the aim is to stick with paying £200 p/m until I have finished my renovations. After this, the plan is to max out my overpayments each year at whatever I can afford each month pending anything that requires holding funds back for such as a family holiday.

Renovation wise, I have the three biggest projects left; the kitchen, the back garden and the driveway. I am hoping to have completed these projects by September 2025 so I can crack on with squirreling away as much as my yearly OP allowance allows!

Here's to the next adventure!

Gemma x

Squirrelz92

So I have been listening to this incredibly good podcast called 'Meaningful Money' and it has really opened my eyes further to how I would like to look after my money and make it stretch right the way through to retirement. I have managed to become debt free in less than 6 months and currently have a spending/earning split of roughly 60%. I have always debated opening and S&S ISA but never really understood the point of doing so as I have never had enough funds in a normal savings account that provides me with over 1k of interest to want to take advantage of the ISA features. However, since listening to a chapter on compounding and investing, I have decided to make the most out of some of my spare funds at the end of each month and split them further. I've now opened an S&S ISA with Vanguard after eyeballing their index options and comparing to HL and will invest £100 a month into my chosen index fund. This monthly investment shall stay the same for the next 18 months whilst I continue to renovate my home and then I plan on significantly increasing this investment pending payday eve funds in the bank. I'm thinking potentially a 50%/50% split on investing and overpaying the mortgage so I get the best of both worlds. Doing the above for the next 30 years (hope to retire at 61ish), will provide me with a lump sum of £315k! This would easily cover me until state pension age where my standard funds would also be released. I am already big on investing into my pension and currently place 15% of my salary into it each month. My new job matches me up to 10% so this will also help massively!

I should also probably consider eventually increasing my EF to 6 months worth but for now I think the goal is to get the house sorted so I can finally enjoy it all by next summer No doubt I will listen to more of the podcast over the coming days and become inspired to do something else financially so I expect to end up pouring all my thoughts here... nobody else seems to appreciate them!   

Gemma x

Keedie

Glad to see you with another diary @Squirrelz92, and that things are going well for you job wise and you're in a stronger financial position. I'm still plugging away at my debt, and within the next 2-3 years, if things go in a healthier direction, I may get a small mortgage just outside of London. But there's a lot of factors standing between me and that decision, so just going to get debt free first and take it from there. Good luck with your new job. x