VelvetFreak's Investing Adventures

Cherryfudge

VelvetFreak said:

Hi @Cherryfudge - re. job security question - there's not much difference either way. The other office are an unstable bunch with never-ending drama and I'd rather stay out of it!

LOL, definitely better where you are!

VelvetFreak

Hello peeps! 

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and time with your families! I survived the big family Christmas party with my mum's BF and his extended family. It was fairly uneventful other than my sister was her usual obnoxious self and the addition of alcohol only made it worse 🙄. And at one point there were two very disgusting conversations happening on either side of me (both conversations involved slaughtering things, and one side was talking about animals and the other was discussing the same thing only applying it to humans 🤮). I won't delve any further lest you throw up at your computer. I was so grossed out I had to get up from the table as I couldn't stand to hear any more 😐. Luckily we were at the tail-end of dinner so I was able to escape by taking some plates to the sink. I don't know what the deal is with this family and their obsession with killing things but this happens every time I go there. I grew up on a farm and am no stranger to how we get meat to eat, but would rather not discuss the intricacies at the dinner table. 

It's been a nice few days and I got lots of great presents! I had a couple of visits from my best friend and her fiance which was really nice. I'm glad that the whole Christmas period is over and can get back to things as usual. 

I've had a slight change of plans for the abovementioned money from my previous employer (have emailed them to get the funds put in the correct account but have not actually received them as yet). I've been looking at the due dates for my subjects and assessments and have decided to do two subjects at once instead of doing them one at a time. I don't know how to explain this but when you do them in this order, the assessments don't overlap too badly at all. A former colleague did them this way and I really think she was onto something here. So that's what I'm going to do, and if everything goes smoothly I will have it all done by September 2022. I will need to keep the extra money aside to pay for each subject much earlier than I had initially planned. I'm not going to tell my boss for now, and I'll simply withdraw from one of them if it ends up being too much, but I think it will be fine 😇

I've logged into the website today and can see the subjects but can't see any of the assignments which are meant to be available from today and it is very annoying as I'm ready to get started. So for now I will just get started with the reading material. I can already feel my heart rate and stress levels rising and have only looked at it for five minutes! Must devise a plan to remain calm and remember that it's not that bad and if I pace myself and do a little bit every day it doesn't have to be stressful.

Once again I have pretty much run out of money in my regular accounts and am waiting for payday which is tomorrow! Luckily I've had some refunds come through from clothes and Christmas presents that I ended up returning so I've got some money to go grocery shopping today. I really need to be more careful with groceries and not buy too much rubbish as I just eat it and gain weight! I think I'm all shopped out for now thanks to Christmas so don't feel too much compulsion to shop for random things so hopefully the accounts will get the chance to build up again. 

Anyways, I'm off to blow dry my hair and haul self to the grocery store. Ciao for now!

Cherryfudge

Happy Christmas (there still some of left!)
The study plans seem well-thought-out and as you say if for some reason you can't keep up with both subjects, you could drop back to one at a time. Where will this take you career-wise?

VelvetFreak

Hey @Cherryfudge
I've never stated on here what my occupation is and I won't lest someone ever be able to identify me, but I'll give an example for a similar field. It would be like going from being a Paralegal to a Lawyer. I already do the work, I just need to have enough qualifications to be able to get my own license. I will then be able to work on my own, earn a lot more etc. instead of just being an assistant to my boss and working under his name/license. Hope that makes sense. 

Speaking of the study, I am not off to a very good start. I still can't see any of my assignments and have been chatting to someone else in a FB group who is having the same issue and apparently this does happen sometimes and is some kind of glitch. I am so frustrated as I am ready to get started and my time is wasting by the minute. I have emailed them but their offices are closed until the 4th!! (Where oh where is the EEK emoji when you need it?!) 

Anyway, I am trying not to panic and will keep working through the reading material. 

Can't decide whether I should go and buy a paper planner or find some kind of online calendar that I can use. I really need something to help me keep my dates straight and make sure I'm getting things done well before the due date so I don't end up in a last-minute panic. I'd like to go to the fancy stationery shop downtown but don't feel like hauling myself all the way into a shopping mall or spending money for that matter. 

Speaking of money, today is payday and I have transferred my usual amounts to the bills and spending accounts. I've decided that from now on I will store the money that will be used to pay for my subjects into the offset account so it's separate from everything else and won't accidentally be spent on other stuff. I won't budget for it in particular, I'll just take it out of the offset each time I need to pay for it and the rule is that the only money that gets taken out of the offset is to pay for a subject or dire emergencies only. And when I use money from it, I have to top it up again before I can use money for other stuff. 
After putting money aside for bills and spending, I have $1,000 "spare" per fortnight. $100 will go to superannuation(pension) contributions and the remaining $900 can go in the offset or share investing. For now, my goal is to get the offset to $20,000 for Emergency Savings. 

So I've just transferred $900 to the offset! Figured I'd do an end-of-year roundup of balances for the sake of record-keeping. I will wait until I've received the money from my previous workplace before paying and enrolling in the extra subject seeing as I can't access it properly at this stage anyway. 

Cash/Investments:
Offset balance: $16,174
Spending/bills accounts: ~$2,000
Superannuation (pension): $54,162
Money owing from previous employer (not yet rec'd): $3,300
Shares/stocks/ETFs (inc USD converted to AUD): $11,835
Crypto: $551
Total = $88,022

Loans:
Home mortgage: $140,570
Kitchen loan: $13,445
Total = $154,015

I am super happy with these balances and it's crazy to think that I have a really good offset balance plus over $10k in shares 😇. It doesn't seem like much when I log in and look at the balances every day but it's amazing when you add it all up.

These figures will take a hit once I pay for my subject and potentially the extra cabinetry to be installed (let's call it the "Kitchen Extension" haha). I do wonder if the kitchen people could potentially add it to the loan I've already got, but that's another chat for another day. 

I really need to contact the kitchen company and get things started and at least get a quote because I literally have no idea how much it will cost! I've looked online and it seems that they are open over the next few days, but for some reason I just keep wanting to procrastinate. I suppose it's because I'm waiting for that extra money to come through. 

VelvetFreak

Just wanted to pop in here and to say that I called the kitchen people and have got someone coming to measure up and design first thing tomorrow. I already feel so much relief just from having finally bit the bullet and called! And it's the same lady as last time which I'm happy about because I really liked her! YAY!

VelvetFreak

Hellooo diary!
The kitchen designer came over this morning and she drew up the plans for the kitchen extension/coffee bar. She was here for almost two hours and we had a good old chat discussing various options. All up it's going to cost around $6,000 (insert EEK emoji here) but the price does make sense considering that I chose to have as many drawers as possible rather than standard cabinets, and the type of countertop is also a more expensive option. Trust me to manage to pick the most expensive things 😐. It will be finished nicely to the ceiling with a bulkhead and cornice and whatnot.  I do feel a bit guilty about the whole thing and spending the money, but I'd rather have a proper permanent fixture and proper storage than fussing with buying bits of furniture or trying to DIY it. I was able to add it to my existing interest-free loan so that makes me feel a bit better, but also worse knowing that I have to pay it off. Nevertheless, I am excited to have a place to store my vacuum and won't have to keep tripping over it. 

I'm justifying the kitchen loan as being part of my mortgage, and not feeling bad about it as doing these types of renovations makes me feel so much better about living here and is cheaper than buying a new place, so oh well. And it adds value to the property 😇

I spent the rest of the day talking on the phone with my friend. We walked for over 4 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. We love to talk on the phone while we carry on doing random stuff around the house. The longest we've ever gone was 9 hours 😂. We made plans for me to visit her and the baby for NYE which I'm very happy about. I'm going a bit stir crazy being at home alone so much so it will be nice to get out and do something. 

My assignments are finally visible on the subject website but I haven't really looked at them all day so I suppose I will look at them now. I'm resisting the urge to go to the grocery store to buy chocolate because I have officially run out! If I really want something sweet, there's ice cream in the freezer. 

Cherryfudge

Happy new year! The kitchen sounds exciting. I think kitchen drawers are an undervalued treasure.

That was a looooong phone call. What ever did people do before phones? Talked over the garden fence I suppose, but that's probably less productive as you can't simultaneously do that and housework. The benefits of modern technology.

Hope you enjoyed your NYE.

sashybo

More drawers in the kitchen is definitely a good thing, there are only 3 drawers in my whole kitchen & 2 of them are the deep type for pots etc. I could do with a couple more normal sized ones!

I only ever had long phone calls as a teenager. I think after 4 hours my ears would be sore. 🤣

Hope you had a nice time on Hogmanay and Happy New Year for 2022.

VelvetFreak

Happy new year peeps! I went to visit my friend for the occasion and we spent the night watching cheesy 2000's movies which was really fun. I got pretty much zero sleep as went to bed super late and then her partner and his friend were up all night making noise. So I made up for it by sleeping 12 hours last night!!

I'm starting off 2022 worrying that I might have Covid as my friend had close contact with someone the day before I visited who has tested positive! I have a rapid test at home but won't take it yet as I don't think I'm feeling any symptoms and I don't want to test too early and get a false negative. Needless to say, I won't be going anywhere today! My friend has not had any symptoms yet and has not taken a test as she doesn't have any rapid tests at home. So I'll just wait for now. Last night I did feel a bit tired and achy but that's not unusual for me when I'm sleep-deprived, so I don't consider that to be a symptom at this stage. 

I have spent some time going writing all of my assessment dates and other stuff in my planner for the year. I have two weddings to attend in the first half of 2022 and thankfully neither dates conflict with any of my subject due dates, so that's nice. The deadlines are pretty tight as my next two subjects will overlap with the ones I have just started, but I think I can manage it. I think in a way it's better to have tight deadlines and force yourself to get things done well in advance rather than giving self time to procrastinate. 

I don't have any majorly complicated goals for 2022. I just want to focus on getting my graduate degree finished. I'd like to set some fitness goals but with my thyroid issues I think I'll just focus on surviving and if I have the energy I will exercise, but if not that's ok too. I'll be ambitious with money goals and say that I want to get the offset up to $20k (so only a few thousand $ to add) and then invest at least $20k in shares. 

I have one week left until I go back to work so I have made some goals for this week:

• Finish all 5 questions for my current assignment (smaller one), get it to final draft stage. 
• Do some tidying and decluttering in the house. 
• Tidy the garage and get rid of all the cardboard I've been hoarding in there. 
• Clean out my emails and pay any bills that have been missed.
• Possibly start on the next assignment. 
• Look over my budget and make adjustments if needed.

Cherryfudge

Happy New Year! Hope you get a negative test. Let us know.