Moving on with things

alt80

@RelievedSheff I think it’s easy to get into a trap of trying to not spend and then just wind up binge spending tbf in my case my addiction made it worse. Now it’s important that I don’t get into a spiral of shame over it. I struggle with it as this year I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on my addiction, things I bought when using and on getting myself better. My dad said I wouldn’t be ashamed to have spent so much money on my health if it was a physical condition and I know I wouldn’t but it was let’s face it wholly preventable and tbh it got so bad, I had a chance to get better that wouldn’t have cost me all this money and more importantly another year of hurt for my family. I can’t punish my family anymore so it’s important to me that we have a life together.

IIRC debt free for you includes having your van paid for outright with just your mortgage outstanding? On a personal level I ‘just’ need to clear the card balances which rn is looking like it’s going to take 18 months to do. I don’t want to set hard targets tbh but I’d certainly like to think it’s gone in 18 months. Long term I’m working on sorting my personal liability attached to the property out which whilst it is business finance it has the most risk if there was ever a time I was not able to pay. I don’t want to be beholden to the banks forever though my opinion about using their money when it suits hasn’t changed.

RelievedSheff

Yes our debt free day will be when the final van payment has been made.

We hope to not have to use finance or credit to fund the next car purchase which we are hoping is a fair few years away yet.

alt80

@RelievedSheff I think you'll meet that goal re not using finance / credit for the next car purchase, it's a good goal to work towards. Is your plan to save what you used to put towards debt payments when you have cleared the personal debts? 

For the foreseeable I think we will just keep leasing our cars through my business. I still like to have a nice car, somewhere that is a nice place to be but I don't enjoy cars or driving anymore. Wonder if an interest will come back from time to time as I struggle to enjoy much really but my old interest in cars / driving I'm not sure ever will. 

alt80

Absolutely whacked today, run down and tired all day. Some difficult thoughts, been covering staff sickness but also today has been a no spend day. Whilst I don't really keep track of these, sometimes it's nice to acknowledge a little win.

alt80

Every morning the first thing I do is check the news. It just seems to get worse everyday at the moment tbh my dread for the immediate future is growing all the time. This morning we have Trump running for president again, inflation hitting 11.1%, missile hitting Poland, eggs being rationed etc. Commentary we are moving closer to WW3 and tomorrow will be the confirmation we're going to be !!!!!! even more by Hunt's plan. Lot of the reason I'm not making any hard targets re timescales because idk what the !!!!!! is around the corner. Just trying to keep my staff in work, tenants in their homes and provide my family with a decent standard of living, rn I am fortunate, things are ok but I wonder how long this will sustain given what seems to be ever increasing news of economic and political instability. No !!!!!! wonder I don't sleep well at night.

lucielle

Nobody knows what's around the corner!  All we can do is batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst and hope for a surprise! 
L

alt80

You are right, unfortunately knowing that doesn't really alleviate the stress. Trying to stay as positive as possible and not get into that downward spiral. I'm struggling with the sleep again which kills it for me and everything going on is getting me down at the moment. The times around birthdays and end of year I always find difficult times of reflection tbf so probably not helping either.

I am being careful with money within my business and personally with a view towards both shorter and longer term goals I should be able to meet so long as I keep my head clear. Still have a lot of commitments to meet and I still want to provide my family with a good standard of living whilst being aware I am walking into a quieter period in business. Investor and consumer confidence is down, units aren't being taken up at quite the same rate. Residential not faring any better. To pretend it's just wintertime or doesn't affect profitability is foolish. I know I have enough avenues of income revenue to survive most recessions fortunately but I suppose it's the feeling I'm doing my family a disservice not being able to give them more than I did in the years previous. 

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

@RelievedSheff I think you'll meet that goal re not using finance / credit for the next car purchase, it's a good goal to work towards. Is your plan to save what you used to put towards debt payments when you have cleared the personal debts? 

For the foreseeable I think we will just keep leasing our cars through my business. I still like to have a nice car, somewhere that is a nice place to be but I don't enjoy cars or driving anymore. Wonder if an interest will come back from time to time as I struggle to enjoy much really but my old interest in cars / driving I'm not sure ever will. 

Yes once the debts are paid off we will plough more money into savings accounts. The plan is for us to retire early so we need to save what we can to make that happen.

Next target though is overpaying on the mortgage to get that paid off ASAP. That is where the biggest chunk of our money goes each month now. We want to shave as many years off that as we possibly can.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Every morning the first thing I do is check the news. It just seems to get worse everyday at the moment tbh my dread for the immediate future is growing all the time. This morning we have Trump running for president again, inflation hitting 11.1%, missile hitting Poland, eggs being rationed etc. Commentary we are moving closer to WW3 and tomorrow will be the confirmation we're going to be !!!!!! even more by Hunt's plan. Lot of the reason I'm not making any hard targets re timescales because idk what the !!!!!! is around the corner. Just trying to keep my staff in work, tenants in their homes and provide my family with a decent standard of living, rn I am fortunate, things are ok but I wonder how long this will sustain given what seems to be ever increasing news of economic and political instability. No !!!!!! wonder I don't sleep well at night.

It does all seem to be bad news at the minute.

We all just have to hunker down and get on with it I suppose. Not an awful lot any of us can do about it right now.

We just have to make the most of what we have got and hope that happier and more stable times are on the horizon.

alt80

Had a really nice birthday, had a great night out that resulted in nothing other than a really nice evening. My wife bought me a watch she knew I've looked at on and off for a long time but never bought. Not loaded a credit card up, she didn't tell me she sold a couple of things of her's, wanted it to be a secret and to not land us in more debt. Under pressure to sort something for her birthday now though.

Christmas to deal with now. We aren't in the spirit at all. Have arranged staff night out which I don't go on for fear of it leading to me slipping up and arranged a lunch for my staff and I which is intentionally alcohol free. It was really nice last year and hope this year will be too. No other events. I have my business and my little family now usually it's fine and enough but coming up to Christmas thinking of pre-Covid times it's difficult. We usually have family over for Christmas Day but two of my wife's siblings refused to come here and her parents told her that it was probably best I didn't go to their place. Wife and son were invited and I told them to go but they are staying home with me. It'll be the first Christmas my wife hasn't spent with her parents. Idk looks like we won't spend a lot, seems the only upside.

Looking to be on track to pay the additional £3.5k off my cards this month and with things looking as they are December should be no different. Silver lining ha.

@RelievedSheff I think you said you aren't going to move again so getting that mortgage paid and money into investments will help you to facilitate the early retirement - I assume you are both also putting as much as you can into your workplace pensions too? They are still tax efficient. Tbf something I should take more advantage of, bit less money going to the government in tax if nothing else. Quite a few on here going for early retirement have a couple of staff my age for whom thinking about such matters has become more of a priority. It's an idea I struggle with, as time has passed, my business is less reliant on me being there all the time I know it's ultimately a measure of success for the business but I just feel like I'm on the scrapheap every time I'm reminded it doesn't need me like it used to. 

I have tried to stay away from looking at the news so much, it was really getting me down and as you say not an awful lot any of us can do. 

I am trying to make the most of what we do have which is a lot more than many. Also trying to not get so stressed, do quite a lot of mindfulness and meditation which I had been struggling with in the days leading to me writing that tbh had been just going down the path of reading all the doom and gloom. Things no better on the news front today but have managed to get my head into a bit better place.