VelvetFreak's Investing Adventures

VelvetFreak

Hello everyone

So I've decided to start a brand new diary because I neglected my old one to the point it became haunted. Just kidding, it's just that I wanted a fresh start but I do feel like the old one is cursed with some negativity so here we are. 

A bit about me 

I'm 27 and live in Australia so you'll hear me talking in dollars. I work in an industry that shall not be named but let's just say I have a job where I sit at the computer and type a lot of things. I live with my boyfriend who is also 27 and I won't name his job either but he makes a lot more than I do. We live in his house that he owned before he met me. I have an apartment which I own that I used to live in and is soon to be rented out. That process has been quite the ordeal but we don't talk about that anymore  

I've just started a postgraduate course which is unfortunate but necessary for my career progression. My boss and I are a team of two so things are pretty quiet in my office which suits me fine and luckily he has agreed to pay half of my study costs which is nice. The degree takes about 2 years to finish. 

About the money 

I won't go into too much detail as my numbers won't make much sense to you guys but i'll tell you the most important things. The mortgage on the BF's house is ~$300,000 with an interest rate of 3.something but we won't be talking about that much as he takes care of it. The mortgage on my apartment is $142,889 as of today with a rate of 2.39% and I have another small loan of $15,209 that was used for renovations at the apartment. The small loan is interest free so I won't worry about trying to pay it off early.

After finishing everything that needs to be done in the apartment, I'm down to my last $700 in my bills account  and I still have a couple of things to pay for, so I am hanging out for payday so I can top the accounts up. I have around $12,500 in my mortgage offset savings and I think the BF has about the same amount in his. I also have ~$5,000 in stocks/shares. Other than the mortgages and my interest free loan, we don't have any other debts 

Goals

I can't believe I'm admitting this but we have turned into those people who have more money than sense. I used to be really frugal and organised but life has been crazy the last year and whilst we are financially ok, we've really lost track of things. 

Our goal is to eventually purchase a different house because this one is pretty small and only has two bedrooms. I'd like to have something a bit bigger with a proper backyard. We want to get our savings a little bit higher and then start going hardcore with investing and adding to our retirement funds. We aren't too fussed on overpaying the mortgages because we want to keep our money freed-up for the next house, but we do use our offset accounts so that helps a lot with saving interest.

We also need to really start watching our spending. We eat a lot of takeaway because we are so lazy busy and I'd like to stop doing that so much and cook at home more. I also want to be better with buying in bulk so we actually have food in the house because we both hate grocery shopping. We both have bad online shopping habits because we both spent a long time paying off debt and having minimal spending money, so now that we're a bit more comfortable we've needed to buy all those things that we'd been putting off for a long time but I think we've got it out of our system now. 

My personal goal for myself is to stress less and spend more time doing things that are fun. I want to prioritise my hobbies and catching up with friends on the weekends. I'd like to say that I'll try and be healthier but I no longer put that type of pressure on myself

Anyway, I think that's all for now. I will post some more detailed numbers once I have met with the real estate people and know how much the apartment will rent at.

Ciao for now.

Cherryfudge

Happy new diary!

Subscribed.

VelvetFreak

Good morning everyone  
It's Saturday morning here and I have woken up at 5am for no reason at all and couldn't fall back to sleep so I decided to just get up. I've put a load of washing on and have been enjoying my coffee while sitting at my computer in the dark. I have a fancy new desktop computer which I've really been loving. Sitting at a desk somehow doesn't feel as lazy as laying on the couch with the laptop even though it's pretty much the same thing. 

I have a hair appointment today and I'm going to start getting my hair done a different way (all-over colour instead of highlights) which I am excited for because it usually costs less and in my opinion it looks better. I will probably have to get it done more often but I don't mind that so much. I'd rather go more often even if it doesn't result in saving much because at least I'll have fresh hair all the time instead of half grown out highlights.

I'm not sure what we will do for the rest of the weekend. It's cold and rainy so we will probably just stay at home. 

Anywho, I'm off to get ready for the day. Hope you're all enjoying your Friday night
 

sashybo

Hi Velvet, just popping into your new diary to say hello. 👋🏻 

VelvetFreak

Hi Sashy! Glad to see you over here
 
We had a nice Saturday despite the cold rainy weather. My hair appointment went well and I like the new colour. It wasn't much cheaper but my hairdresser insists that it will be less next time as we will only be dealing with the regrowth so I'm happy with that. I popped to the grocery store afterwards and spent $50 on seemingly nothing . Then when I got home the BF and I decided to take a trip to Costco. Our closest one is about 1hr away and we'd never been before so it was a bit of a novelty. We purchased a membership and had a browse around the store. I didn't think any of the prices were particularly amazing but we did buy bulk cat litter, tissues, TP and a few frozen and snacky things which came to a total of around $160 (the BF paid). I think it's worth it for certain things purely for the fact you can buy huge quantities but I really don't care to go there regularly. We will probably go every couple of months. Between the two shops we have a lot of lunch type foods and I plan to do some cooking tomorrow and make some lunches to freeze for me to take to work. The BF really doesn't care for cooking so unfortunately I have to take on that responsibility if I want to eat . He does other chores to make up for it but it really does annoy me to death. 

My personal spending account is empty (I actually had to transfer $10 over from the bills account to pay for the groceries!). Payday cannot come soon enough (Tuesday) and I should be able to make it until then without spending anything. It's been a long time since my accounts have looked this sad but the apartment is to blame (and never ending attacks from the online shopping demon . I'm pleased that since I refinanced my mortgage a few months ago I have never touched the offset savings. I will need to be more careful with money for the next few weeks to allow the accounts to recover. Of course at this point in time that I really need to rein in the spending I seem to have so many things that I want to buy! But I will just need to wait until closer to summer. I don't "need" anything right now, I have plenty of winter clothes and I need to use up the things I already have.

On an investing note, I've received some stock dividends of around $20 into my account so I've deposited it to my Spaceship account (investing app) before it inevitably gets lost in the abyss.

VelvetFreak

Happy Sunday! We have spent our Sunday morning over at the apartment cleaning out my junk. We have hauled a car load of stuff back to the house including my all of my plants and we took some rubbish to the dump. It was cold and my nose kept running and the whole activity put us in a bad mood. The BF was rather unhelpful as he dislikes any type of manual labour that doesn't involve computers but I keep telling him that he has to deal with it if he wants me to live with him. Anyway it's done now and that's what matters as the cleaners come tomorrow. I did get a bit sad because seeing it all empty and getting the last of my stuff out gave me that real "moving out" feeling and I will miss my little home. I will not miss the nosey neighbours though and I won't be surprised if they go through my bin to see what kind of goodies we've thrown out 😂. We have piled all the junk into the garage so I will need to go through it at some point and put it all away. It's mostly cleaning items and other useful things. We have so much cleaning stuff that we shouldn't need to buy any for a very long time. 

I've just done a little bit of gardening and sorting out the plants that I had, they are mostly succulents and not doing very well as they weren't getting enough sun. I used some spare pots and planted some herbs with seeds that I already had so that's made me feel quite accomplished. It's lunch time now but I'm not really hungry but I'll probably end up having a snack attack later as is my habit. The BF has taken to his sick bed. I think this mornings' shenanigans were a bit much for him and he did only get one day off work last week. Poor thing.

We need to give the house a good tidy as we have a house cleaner and gardener coming on Tuesday and they are going to come every fortnight for 2 hours. This is such a huge relief as we really struggle to manage much cleaning other than the basics. It costs $80 per visit which i think is reasonable and we really do need it so I am happy to spend on that. It's an older couple and the husband does some outside work while the wife cleans inside. 

I'm feeling a bit tired so I won't be doing much for the afternoon. I'll probably just put on a load of washing and then go and sit in the sun to warm up. I really do despise winter. This house has an absurd amount of windows yet are somehow placed in such a way that we get minimal direct light coming in and it can be a bit depressing. 

VelvetFreak

It's Monday morning and I feel unimpressed and wish my weekend had been longer

The BF has foiled our money saving efforts by purchasing a food saver vacuum sealer whatsy and a sous vide?? machine (weird water heating thing for cooking stuff in vacuum sealed bags). A bit rich for someone who never cooks but whatever. I ordered myself uber eats as I could not stomach the meat-cooked-in-bag situation and didn't want to wait hours to finally be able to eat it. I used the BF's money for my uber eats and felt good about it 😂

It'll be a quiet week at work with the boss away so I will try and make a good start on my first assignment and do some readings for my subject. 

Goals for today: 

• Finish reading task 2, maybe start reading task 3 and try to finish it? (done!)
• Make some kind of start on the Analysis Task assignment (made a very small start)
• Cook dinner which will also make enough for 3 lunches (done!)
• Put all the washing away that is currently drying (not dry yet)
• Contact a real estate agent re. the apartment (texted someone but haven't had a reply yet)
• Try not to scroll on my phone too much as I'm sure it gives me ADD (not great but a little better than usual)

I have a pizza bagel from the freezer and some cut up veggies to take for my lunch 😇. Thanks to my past self for being organised. 

Have a great day/night everyone!

penny*pincher_2

Hi @VelvetFreak - I will be following your diary with interest for ideas and inspiration!!

I like the idea of setting goals for the day... I may well give that a go too  

VelvetFreak

Hi @penny*pincher_2 thanks for stopping by.

Just popping in to update my list above. I had a decent day at work and got a fair bit of work done. Went to check on the cleaning at the apartment after work but saw the horrid neighbours loitering out the front so kept on driving 😂. I'll have to check it tomorrow in my lunch break. The cleaning company didn't remember to leave the key inside so now I have to drive across town and collect it from their office 🙄. 

The BF and I got in an argument because he now has an obsession with cooking meat in that stupid contraption yet he cannot just cook a normal dinner. He says he's "trying to help me" by "cooking like I asked him to" but at no point did I ask him to cook food in a bucket of water that takes two hours. I was mostly mad that he was going to get in my way while I was trying to make our actual dinner. 

Anyway, I am tired tonight and cold so I think I will go and get into bed. I'd like to say that I'd read a book but I seem to have "readers block" lately and can't concentrate on a book. 

VelvetFreak

Hello diary 

I have spent my workday doing an online training module which hasn’t been too bad. I’ve learned a lot from it and was really glad to do it as there’s no one else around here to teach me this stuff.  

 Today was payday and I’m pleased that my account is looking a bit healthier. I have decided at this stage not to transfer anything to the offset account as I haven’t received the electrician or garage door bill for the apartment yet and by the time I pay those I probably won’t have much left. I’ve transferred myself my usual $400 of spending money and will leave it at that. 

In Australia, the end of the financial year is on the 30th of June so I’ve been calculating how much I can expect for my tax refund and I think I’ll get at least $3,000 back, that is counting a lot of expenses that I know I can claim for the apartment but have left out the ones that I’m unsure of and I’ll need to see an accountant this year to get it done properly. My study costs are claimable which is nice. I can also claim my voluntary contributions to my superannuation (retirement fund) so I have a lot that I can claim this year, which is a nice change from the usual. 

I think I will use a small amount of the refund to buy something nice for myself and then put the rest into some investments. In Australia we have these things called ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) that are a type of managed investment that you can buy on the stock exchange. I think I will invest in a few of those as they are a bit more passive and less volatile than individual stocks. I will do more individual stocks once I have some more money to mess around with. 

I must say that I’m really excited to no longer be renovating the apartment and finally have some money that I can put into investments  

I need to talk to the BF about what our goals are around possibly buying another house. The market is crazy here at the moment and it all feels a bit unattainable even though we both have good jobs and we could realistically save up a lot. We are not sure what we want in a house and it’s really hard to think about it. The nicer/older houses here tend to get poorly flipped/renovated and then sold for top dollar and we have no interest in them as they tend to look really shoddy and badly done in my opinion. I’d love to buy an older unrenovated home but you still have to pay so much and it’s really competitive because everyone wants them  

We would really like to build a new house but the location is a bit of an issue. The inner suburbs of our city are really beautiful but the outer areas with the new builds are very McMansion-y with minimal tress and we don’t like that. I suppose we will just have to stay positive and cross our fingers that it will all work out. 

I probably sound too fussy but I can’t stomach paying so much money and having a giant mortgage for a house that I don’t even really like. Of course the BF is indifferent and wouldn’t care if we stayed in this house because he was the one who chose it 😂

Anyway, I will stop whingeing now. I’m headed to my friend’s place for dinner which I’m excited for. I see her every week and it still never gets old. We always have so much to talk about. 

VelvetFreak

So I met with a real estate agent at the apartment today after work and she was very professional and I really liked her. She estimated that I'd get $260 per week in rent but I want to try and get $270 which I think is realistic considering I will allow an indoor cat or other small pet which I think will help it fetch a little more as pet friendly apartments are very hard to come by here. I just need to do some final tidying up over there on the weekend and take all of my paint cans and spare boxes of tiles away and then I'll be handing it over to the rental agent. I can't believe it's finally going to be off my hands, I could actually cry with joy and I probably will when I hand the keys over. Then I will really begin my reign of terror in the BF's house and start painting walls pink and putting wallpaper everywhere 😂

The BF and I haven't been doing very well with the goal of reducing our takeaway consumption but it's hard for me to care when he's the one who pays 🤷🏼‍♀️I keep telling myself that I will do better once I don't have to deal with the apartment and don't have that constant underlying stress anymore. 

The cleaner and gardener came for the first time and they did such a good job and it was so worth they money. Now I can't wait until spring so I can put some proper gardens in 😊. I am so excited. I really want to plant some hydrangeas, roses and a dwarf lemon tree. Don't ask me why, I just like those plants.

Now a question for you all. For those of you with variable incomes, how do you do your budget when your income is different each month? The income I get from the apartment mostly won't be the same each time as they take out certain fees and repair costs and things like that and then give you what's left. I was thinking of just topping the bills account up to a set amount each payday and then transferring the rest to the offset/investments/etc. I'm pretty good at planning my budget and being responsible with money but I'm so over being obsessive with it and trying to overanalyse it down to the last cent.