VelvetFreak's Investing Adventures

VelvetFreak

Hi all. Thanks for the kind words

I have been feeling so rubbish the last few days and haven't been to work since I left on Wednesday. I have lost 3kgs in one week which is really crazy for me as I'd been the same exact weight for months. Am feeling a little bit better this evening (Saturday) and I think the medication must be finally working. I tried to work on my assignment this morning but could not concentrate at all so gave up. I will try again tomorrow and if I can't do it I will have to apply for an extension, which is a total pain as the doctor needs to fill out some kind of special form for it, and they only give you 7 days which means I'll just be stuck doing it next weekend 😩. I'm about halfway done so if I just had a day of concentration I'd be able to finish it!

Anyway, my friend ended up coming over and sat with me for most of the day. We had a really good talk and when she left I bawled my eyes out because she is moving soon and I don't know what I will do without her. They've been planning to move for a while but the time is getting closer and it finally hit me. She is the only good friend I have in this town aside from a couple of girls I've met through work and I'm really going to miss our weekly dinners. We will visit each other as much as we can but it won't be the same. She was there for me at a time when I really needed someone and we both broke up with our horrid exes at the same time and I cry every time I think about her leaving 😭

What a rubbish week. I hope I feel better tomorrow and don't keep throwing up in the middle of the night. I've taken an anti nausea tablet so fingers crossed!

sashybo

Hi Velvet, sorry to hear you’ve been feeling so rubbish but glad you have found the reason.

That’s a shame about your friend moving, I hope you feel a bit better about it soon. 

Also fingers crossed for you to get your assignment finished, nothing worse than having something hanging over you. 

Cherryfudge

So sorry your friend is moving. There are some advantages to living in the age of Zoom... but not as good as actually being with someone.

Hope the meds kick in soon.

VelvetFreak

Hello diary! 

Am feeling a bit better today but still not great. Have given up on the assignment for now and I will call on Monday and apply for an extension or deferral. My concentration is so bad it’s just pointless. 

My mum is coming over some time today so that will be nice. I’m starting to get very bored and it’s annoying to not be able to do anything. Really hoping I’ll be well enough to go to work tomorrow even if I can only stay for a couple of hours and just get some of the really essential stuff done so the boss can function for a few more days. Am starting to feel stressed about the amount of work that’s piling up and there’s no one there to take over so I’ll have to end up doing all of it at some point! 

badmemory

Good for you going to the doctor when you did.  I'm hypo but my father was hyper like you.  Your anxiety will be made worse by your high heart rate, causing fight or flight feelings.  His resting heart rate when we finally managed to make him go to the doctors was 120.  They seem to know more about it now than when my father was diagnosed.  Back then most men were diagnosed because they had been involved in a fight (not my father thankfully).  It is no surprise you can't concentrate.  Is your doctor checking that all your mineral levels are okay too.

Did you know there is a Sherlock Holmes story about hypothyroidism?

VelvetFreak

Hello diary. Yes, it's me, back again. No, I did not die as a result of my Hyperthyroidism 😂 I'm feeling a lot better now, almost 100%.

A lot has happened over the last couple of months. The number one thing being that two weeks ago I hauled myself out of (now exbf's) house and back to the apartment. There's not much to tell about that situation. The relationship just didn't feel right, was slowly declining and he could not have been more unsupportive when I was sick. I decided that I'd had enough, and just like magic, the universe decided to work in my favour and my tenant asked to break her lease on the apartment. So of course I said yes, and with the help of my mother, we moved all my stuff back to the apartment while the BF was at work. I didn't tell him beforehand as I was scared he might have a bad reaction and try and hold up the process in one way or another 😐. I waited in the car with my mum for him to get home that afternoon, and when he got back I caught him at the front door and told him that I'd moved out that day. He was absolutely shocked and dumbfounded, which I felt a little bad about, as I was sure he'd have seen it coming as things weren't going very well and at one point he'd actually told me "you know you can move out whenever you want, right?". Of course, he asked for another chance and I had to say no multiple times which was very awkward. He started to get visibly agitated and shakey so I left and heard him slam the door behind me. He texted that night about a couple of logistical things but I haven't heard from him since then. 

It feels a bit weird to have ended it without having that "break up" talk, but I'd already had those conversations over and over with him and it wasn't worth wasting my breath anymore. The universe further worked in my favour and my accountant found some old tax returns from the ~mid-late 2000's and she lodged them for me and I ended up getting about $4,000 back. Which coincidentally was the exact amount I needed to buy furniture and appliances for the apartment. I've been here two weeks and am absolutely loving living on my own again. My health has improved greatly. In addition to getting on top of my thyroid issue, my doctor put me on antibiotics to try and get rid of my never-ending sinus infection and it worked. So I can finally breathe through both nostrils and what a privilege that is! I also got some really good allergy meds that make me drowsy so I've been taking one of those every night and my sleep has really improved as a result. 

My study has been going surprisingly well despite all of these shenanigans. I got 85% on my second assignment which I'm very happy with considering I was quite sick when I did it. I was able to submit a special consideration form for my health issues, which gets me an extra two points for the subject. Not much but certainly better than nothing. I have an exam tomorrow morning and then I'm done with this subject. Yay! From my assignment grades, I have already passed the subject so don't have to stress too much about the exam which is a relief. 

Work has been going well, and I feel like my boss and I have finally bonded and have a bit of a friendship now. He's told me that he wants to retire in 3ish years and he wants to help me be in a position to at least take over some clients fully. So I've been sitting on in a lot of client meetings and doing some higher level work that I never thought I'd be able to do (and that I honestly thought I would hate) but turns out I'm actually quite good at it and I really like doing it. It's a bit uncertain as to what will happen when he decides to fully retire. I daresay he will have to sell the business to someone else (I won't be in a position to buy it myself) and the buyer may or may not want me as part of the package (and I may not want to agree to their terms haha). I am not under any delusions that he will go out of his way to do things in my favour, but I'm not worried about job security as my industry is very under-staffed and has few new entrants due to the increased study requirements and rules and regulations, so all good there. I got a nice pay rise and bonus a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember what I did with that money but probably invested it or used it towards stuff for the apartment. 

My new budget now that I'm living on my own again has to be a little stricter, but thanks to payrises over the years I actually have a decent amount of spare money to put towards savings. I've been putting $100 per fortnight into my retirement savings and $800 into shares/stocks. And have even put a little bit into Cryptocurrency (where is the EEK emoji? lol). I think Back In The Day I used to only be able to save around $400 a fortnight, so it's nice to know I've made some good progress there. I was also able to switch my mortgage over to owner-occupied so my new interest rate is 1.99% as opposed to 2.15%. 

Currently I've got $15,000 in the mortgage offset and have invested $7,650 in stocks/crypto (not including growth - that's just what I've put in). I think I've got enough in cash for now so will keep putting any spare cash into investments.

So..I think that's it for tonight. I'll be back posting more often now (had a bit of a mental block for a while due to the relationship situation). Needless to say, I am staying well away from men for the foreseeable future. Please no "advice" - I've learned my lesson, believe me 😐. Am grateful for the life lesson nonetheless, and it's given me so much appreciation for having my own apartment and getting to do whatever I want without someone else ruining things or having to clean up messes that aren't mine!

Ciao for now.

VelvetFreak

It's my diary and I'll double post if I want to! 
Just wanted to pop back in here and say that I've had the nicest weekend ever. On Saturday morning I went shopping with my mum. Found some nice tops for work so bought them all and will try them on and return anything I don't like. We had lunch at a Thai place and it was so good! Then in the afternoon I met with a friend for coffee (an old work colleague) and it was just really nice to talk to her and she was really encouraging and just lovely. I went to bed early and slept for 10 hours! Today (Sunday) I treated self to a McD's breakfast and did a bit of study for my exam and spent the rest of the day on the couch reading a book and spoke to my friend on the phone for a while. It was the first time in a long time that I actually felt relaxed, happy and just..normal. I've got tomorrow off for my exam in the morning and will spend the rest of the day doing some cleaning and grocery shopping. 

I've been slowly getting the apartment organised. I was lucky that the tenant got a full clean done so it's nice and fresh to start off with. I've got pretty much everything put away. The only thing that's still out is my suitcase and it's full of random stuff. Since the renovations I now have so much more storage, but I would like to put a couple of built-in cabinets. I need something in the entry near the garage to store the vacuum, mop, etc. and some kind of unit for under the TV. I will order the cabinets and doors from the hardware store and can probably install them myself 😇 and try and match the cabinet doors as close as I can to the ones in the kitchen so that it all looks cohesive. 

I'm still waiting on my fridge and bed frame to get delivered. There has been no word on either and it will probably be quite a few weeks (a lot of supply issues here due to Covid). Luckily I was able to borrow a bar fridge off someone so I'm not completely fridge-less. Must admit it's a pain not having a freezer but I'm managing just fine. Thankful that I was able to obtain a washing machine and dryer without much trouble!

Flick85

Hi Velvet, was just popping by to say “hi” and have read your whole diary - wow, you’ve had a bit of a ride, hey? Sorry about the breakup, but it sounds for the best, and that the universe was smiling on you with the timing of your apartment being available again. 

I’m glad you’ve had a good weekend, and best of luck for your exam!

VelvetFreak

Well, things took a turn today and the universe has decided once again that it doesn't like me! My exam didn't go very well. Logging in online for the first time and having someone stare at me through the camera was a little unsettling. And at the end the supervisor went MIA from the chat box and I thought I'd lost connection and I'd have to do it all over again or get disqualified or something but luckily after 10 mins they came back 🤨 There were a lot of questions that I didn't know the answer to (and kind of obscure that I would have never have thought to study!) so I had to guess a lot for the multiple choice. I think I did ok with 2/4 of the written response questions. Not looking forward to getting my results for this one but thankfully I've already passed so don't really have to stress. 

Then the day got even worse when I arrived home from grocery shopping and found that locked self out of the house! I had somehow managed to pull the internal garage door shut (while it was locked) and because I wasn't carrying my big handbag I didn't have the key for it (and thanks to only just moving back and collecting keys from the real estate I didn't have my spare keys in the car or anything like that). So I rifled through the garage to find the drill and associated attachments and readers, I had to drill a huge hole in the door to let myself in. To add insult to injury, I had to charge the drill battery before I could do it. It was hot in the garage too 😩 There was no point calling a locksmith as was a Sunday and would have cost too much and just been more annoying. I think I managed to drill a hole that's the same size as a door knob fitting so can "fix" it by adding an extra door knob lol. I then had to remove the fluffy part from a paint roller and shove the metal end through the hole and use it to move the switch thingy and unlock it. I nearly had a complete nervous breakdown but I survived. What's really strange is that it's a really..sticky door, so I don't usually pull it all the way shut until I'm ready to fully lock up for the night, so no idea why it was even closed in the first place never mind locked! 

Anyway, after the door fiasco was over I managed to redeem the day by cooking myself a nice green curry for lunch and have plenty left for lunch and dinner tomorrow. And then I cleaned out my electric mop and the robot vacuum and pulled an ungodly amount of cat hair out of both 🤮. I scrubbed out the cat litter box and refilled it with fresh litter. Then I vacuumed and mopped the floor like my life depended on it. I'm trying my hardest to keep this apartment clean and not let it get out of control. I think because it's such a small place, there's nowhere for the dirt to spread out so it turns into a dirt-concentrated mess. Am considering getting a house cleaner again but I want to wait until I've got a proper fridge and bed situation as it feels a bit odd getting a cleaner for a half-unfurnished apartment. 

Anywho, that was my day. I plan to relax for the rest of the day because my nerves are shot! The groceries cost $100 😫 which is a lot but I had to buy cat litter, vitamins and other expensive accoutrements. Hopefully I can get that under control as the amount I have been spending lately is not sustainable!

VelvetFreak

Also just realised that today is in fact not Sunday. Send help haha. 
So glad to be finished with my study until next year. Too stressed!