My Mortgage Free Mountain - A 7 year expedition to climb to the top

daisy_1571

The one advantage of not having particular kids work in cafe is it doesn't muddy the waters.  An employee is an employee and you are the boss who can tell them what you require and if they want to keep the job they will generally do it.  An employee whos also a somewhat surly family member is probably not going to be like that so, for now, I'd definitely not be offering that child work 😆.  Its likely to give you more stress than help.  Meantime yes, all thoughts of business aside, concentrate on xmas

Dxx

Paspatur

Please look into Employers Allowance increase. Despite the level at which Employers NI is payable reducing to £5,000 from £9,100 and the rate increasing from 13.8% to 15% my company will pay slightly less NI due to the increase in Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This is on a payroll of £150k which I am guessing is higher than your payroll so you will probably pay no Employer NI after the allowance is deducted

craftingmad

Morning everyone and Happy Christmas Eve.

No posts from me for the next few days as I want to spend Christmas with my family and have a lot of last minute things to get done so I shall wish you all a Very Christmas and hoping 2025 is a Happy Year for you all.

Thank you all so much for your support and comments - it really means so much to me and helps me to stay motivated and keep dreaming about reaching our goal

Baileys_Babe

Wishing you a very merry Christmas @craftingmad 🎄

I hope you manage to rest and relax.

Jessy103

Merry Christmas, crafting! Hope you have a lovely time with the family x 🎄

craftingmad

Thank you for the Christmas wishes and Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2025 is as special as each of you are  

I'm determined that this year is my year to be mindful. I want to really think carefully about what I spend money on and only buy things that we either need, will help us to be more organised and clutter free (one of my big resolutions) or will bring us joy. I went to hobbycraft with my son today as needed fabric for a college project (sadly I didn't have any fabric pieces he liked big enough) and I'm really proud of myself because I came out of there and B&M and did not buy anything apart from the said required fabric. I saw quite a few things I liked but asked myself those three questions and left empty handed as I could not answer yes to any of them Hopefully this new way of thinking will help us advance to our mortgage free goal as quickly as we can.

The really big news is that we have decided not to buy the cafe. Hubby and I sat down together, went through the figures again and discussed what we both wanted in the future, and realised that it just does not fit into our plans. We would get the same amount of money from me just working for somebody else and the interest on the money we would have to invest as owning the cafe but without any risk or stress. In order to get our investment back, we would need to keep the cafe for at least 12 years and honestly, the whole point of us wanting to pay off our mortgages is so that we can retire early and have some fun. Also having my parents stay with us over the festive period I have realised just how frail they now are (bless them they are doing well for 80) and I know that I now need to put more effort into looking after them and visiting them more and I just would not be able to do that working 60 plus hour weeks. We also had a bit of a wake up call about hubby's health as well in that his blood tests kept coming back with high pottassium levels which means his kidneys may be starting to struggle again. It's made us realise that life is for living and that neither of us want to work ourselves into an early grave so we need this to be the year we get the work/life balance right I'm dreading telling the owners but I know I need to do it and that we have to do what is right for us and our family at this moment in time. 

I am going to try and focus on not wasting as much this year - meal planning our food to avoid throwing out leftovers or food which was not used which sort of went out the window towards the end of last year, turning off electrical appliances and only charging when needed etc and only using car when we need to to try and save petrol. The heating will not be turned on anywhere near as much either (although it is on tonight as its flippin freezing )

I've been tidying up my craft room and have found the scan and shop booklet and scanner again so I am planning on starting this again to try and earn a few ore vouchers ready to spend for Christmas. If it turns out that it takes up too much time versus the reward I receive then I can always stop right  

We are entering 2025 in a really good position I think - Our own home is mortgage free, we have enough money in the bank to clear BTL1 mortgage when the fixed rate expires in July and we also have managed to save 50% of BTL2 mortgage. Our little investment which we started when we took out our interest only BTL mortgages is also doing well and is around £60k so hopefully we should only need go find £52K to achieve our mortgage free dream. Let the 2025 mountain hike begin   

As it's late today, I'll start my diary again properly tomorrow with my now infamous list  

Have a good evening everyone and stay warm x  

Jessy103

Happy new year and all the best for 2025!

Shame about the cafe but it certainly makes sense and you have to do what's best for you and your family. Please don't go back to the chippy though 🤣 x

Baileys_Babe

Happy New Year!

It must feel such a relief having made a decision about the cafe. When you say it as 12 years of working 60+ hours a week compared to working for someone else and interest on your investments I know which I would choose. You will also be in a better place to support your hubby and parents without the stress in having to manage owning the cafe at the same time.

It sounds like you are putting some MSE activities back in place, which will help.

You have made huge progress on becoming mortgage free, have you worked out when it might be?

~FlowerPot~

HNY crafting. 
I'm glad you've made a decision about the cafe and it does sound like the right one. I was very worried about just how much work it would be for you for the amount of return and stress of owning a business. 

craftingmad

Jessy103 said:

Happy new year and all the best for 2025!

Shame about the cafe but it certainly makes sense and you have to do what's best for you and your family. Please don't go back to the chippy though 🤣 x

Thanks Jessy. The chip shop is never going to happen again - promise. I have now learnt my worth x