Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

TallGirl

Thanks Beanielou it is lovely and fab to drive we have not even had to charge it yet. It is quite wide so feel extra conscious when parking it and took the old crappy one to the gym this morning.

Was lovely having a my mum here for a few days she stayed until Sunday normally she wants to rush back so that was nice. I also had my sister here for lunch Friday and then Saturday we took my mum to the castle as we could bring someone on our annual card. She loved seeing the inside of the castle and the caravan and grocery store museums. We did buy a coffee and drink otherwise it was a free day out. DG also got to see the bits she missed when I went with the friends last week. Sunday it was the last golf game of the year with dinner but DG had some work issues so decided to stay home. I had to pay for her dinner 25 quid even though she did not come. Didnt even get a goody bag but she could have come the work issue was over but she was so wound up. She is in the I hate golf mode right now lets see how long that lasts it just irritates me but she is stressed due to some big cases coming up.

I have more or less worked out what the new car will cost us just waiting for the insurance bill. I paid the car tax and CO2 bill which is £50 every 6 months so not too bad for a large car. The petrol bill will definitely go down but it will cost more to have two cars but gives us more flexibility. Lets hope my dads old Mazda keeps going strong and stays cheap. We do also still pay for the Fiat 500 in the UK so need to have a think about that. Our friend uses it while we do not and she lets us stay in her flat for free when we are over so that saves on hotels for sure.

Anyway today I need to progress with the website and marketing I am trying to ramp up on Linked in to see if we can get some customers from there. We do really need some work to be honest but I am still learning so it is all good and the finances can take it as well so all is going to plan.

Lovely autumnal morning here lawn mower is doing his thing as so is the hoover robo.

TallGirl

Morning I have been working but not the the things I should be. I can now finally set our business up properly in Google so that is a great thing. Hopefully we become a bit more visible that would be nice.

I have also sorted the car insurance out for the new car it will cost us about £100 a month to have the new car and the old one is about £60 a month if the repairs stays low. I think for that sum it is worth having the 2 as we can then both do separate things. In particular I can visit my mum for longer periods of time and see my friends over there much easier.

I have worked out if DG pays me back and my tax bill is as expected i have 10 months worth of cash for me to pay the bills before I need to think about using investments or other savings. That will make it December 25 to July 27 without income as planned. Hopefully long enough to get that business income increased dramatically.

Anyway today I need to sort the final bit of our AI subscription and also work on DGs linked in profile I really want that to be an opportunity to get some landlords to come our way.

Anyway enough waffle lets get to it.

TallGirl

Call with UK financial adviser that can advice abroad was interesting and they can offer ongoing support. They charge 2% then 1% ongoing so I recon that will be at least £9K for the pension advice and then obviously ongoing. She is going to do me some cashflow predictions but what I really need is to understand the tax position in Denmark. More research to be done. We are seeing DGs accountant tomorrow that is all prepped now at least.

TallGirl

Visit with account went well we have done a prediction for DGs tax and estimate for her self-employed work.He does not know much about pensions and is adamant we do not need to pay tax on the increases in the pensions. We do still need to fill in the form to tell them about her pension so I can do that at some point.

I did also manage to set up the AI and business stuff so that is a great relief to be honest now I just have to move everything over. The joys!

Just been out shopping needed chicken but there was lots of good offers. DGs soft drink was literally 1/2 price and they have lots of stock so we can really stock up. There was also a fish lunch box which was reduced so all we had to buy was ryebread and we will have nearly full open sandwiches for about £6 that is a bargain.

We also got some pizza dough so we can make home made pizza.

I have progressed with my work but DG has been working since 5am so I think she will stop soon and not want to sign off on my work today so that can be tomorrrow.

TallGirl

I am so glad I went to the account as I re read the tax reply I got when I declared my pensions and they do not need to know how much they have increased only when I start drawing down from them. It will take them 1 year they recon to work out what scheme they sit in but if it is B I will not have to pay any tax on them until I withdraw which is actually fab. If they are A then I will pay tax when I take them out which I think will be a worse deal. Gemini found a good article so now I understand it better and I can fill in DGs form and also I have asked my pension provider for some historic data in case I need to prove things at some point.

I do not think it is worth moving these two pensions currently makes perfect sense to me to have them where they are. I could ask that woman I spoke to what she think but my guess is she will dump me very quickly now.

Anyway we made the home made pizza and put far too much topping on well DG certainly did and I did as well but not quite as much. I will defo buy the dough again not worth making your own when it is about £1.20 for fresh dough.

DG has read my posts for her linked in so we can press go on that and I can also get that information on the website.

OMG just had a call from the Danish Tax man which I ended up speaking to as DG struggled. The accountant did some stuff wrong but also some stuff right. The travel needs to be redone but that is fine I now know how to do this and then there is the self-employed stuff which I now understand but I did not before. She cannot claim for that many things but it is quite good in a way as it is much simpler and she does not need to do the accounts as such. The tax person also did my dividend so that is all done and I do not get hit with a big bill so that is a relief actually.

We have a lot of tax stuff to do now but it is also a spot off my old to do list.

So I best get on with this while I remember what I need to do but I do also need to sort out the linked in etc.

TallGirl

Lost my post from this morning so will start again. I learnt quite a lot at the accounts but he did get some things wrong which I realised when I had a call from the tax man which I ended up speaking to afterward. We got her paid income declared and I now understand how the other income needs to be set up. If we earn less than £5500 we can keep her as selfemployed but if it goes over we need a company here in Denmark. Luckily we do not need to worry about VAT but we can then deduct more stuff. I think we might scrape in under the £5500 for this year but we shall see. I have also understood how the travel deduction works as the accountant got that part wrong. She can claim for travel to the UK milage to the airport, flight and milage in the UK even if she takes the train. No parking and no food or hotel but the UK employer pays for this. Happy coincident is that we like in a county that is deemed outer Denmark so mileage is higher. It is only by 4 pence per km but the crucial bit is that if you travel more than 120 km your rate drops from 40p per KM to 17p however because we like in this outer area and they want to encourage people to move there you can claim the higher rate the whole way. That is a lot of km when you can count the UK rates too. Now her charity job does not look too shabby at all.

She can also claim for stays in the UK with her self employed side if she sees clients so that is handy for our holidays we can get hotel paid for and food. I do wonder if we drove the whole way to the UK could be claim mileage for that now that would be something lol.

I think it is a great rule to get people to move to those further away areas and avoid everyone living in big towns/cities.

Anyway I have also sorted all the linked in posts out and the marketing posts for Monday. Feels nice to have it all done.

I also spoke to the tax man about my own tax and he actually made a mistake which I have now corrected (I hope) so I will get a bill now and then when the bank reports my earnings I will get the final bill.

As for the pensions it is also good news. If they deem my pension posts are classed as 53B we will not pay tax on the increases only when we get them paid out (as per UK) but if they are 53A we will pay tax on the increases but not when we withdraw that makes me feel better to be honest. It takes them 12 months to make de decision so I have written to Royal London to get my figures for what I have paid in etc just to be prepared. My ex-employer one should be fine but that is the smaller one.

I need to dig out my old to do list and tax for DG has now progress.

TallGirl

Forgot to say £50 on the PB for DG and £150 for me happy days but could be more lol.

To Do

Print and deliver Halloween invitations DONE

Contact tax office declare part time wages - once met with account DONE

Fill in pension form for DG

Marketing course in progress

Move AI conversations over to new AI

Things for garden and house:

New plot:

Level edges for robo mower IN PROGRESS

Front garden:

Paint bin shed - buy wood stain

Neaten flower bed edges for robo

Back garden:

Treat weeds

Cut back flower bed edges for robo

TallGirl

So that was that weekend where did it go. I cannot even remember what happen back Friday lol. I do know we got some stuff done Saturday but the whole weekend has been taken up a lot by trying to get our stupid door handles off so it can be replaced. The little tab that actually hold the door closed is made of plastic and is broken on 2 doors. We have no idea what to buy as a replacement so logically you take the old one out. You have to take off the handles but this is where it is a stupid design which means they just do not come off as you have to press some kind of latch inside a tiny hole at the back of the handle. A new mechanism is £55 and the handle which is fine is the same so would rather save the handle. I also do not want to get a carpenter in that is crazy money. Even my BIL did not know that system but he might be able to do it so after two frustrating days of trying it is still broken.

Saturday we did get to the main town and the shop I bought the toaster in could find my receipt so we got a new one. That was really lucky so happy days we have a toaster. Not so happy we forgot to take two things back to the shops yesterday but that can still be done. We then went to a B&Q shop to get slabs for the pergola but they were 60cmx60cm and 8cm thick so just too heavy to get off and two of them would have been a lot for the new car to handle. We really only need 50cmx50cm and there is a builders merchant in this town that should have them.

We did price up the stuff we need to make a bigger path from the house to the pool bar. There are some tiny stepping stones but it makes such a mess on your shoes going across in winter. We found everything we need and we recon it would be less than £100 to do it and it will look in keeping with the rest of the patio.

Speaking of slabs someone posted locally they had free block paving 2 min from our house so I went and got 30 and I now have a bigger paved area in my wooden shed. I can fit the wheelbarrow and the lawn mover on there so that is nice. We also got the cube table and chairs in there so that does not have to live outside. It was in the carport last year but now we have 2 cars that will not work.

Sunday night we had cinema duty saw by Any Means really good film and free just paid for a chocolate bar lol.

Right best crack on I have so so much I need to do I am going to list it and try to get it all done.

Book winter tyre swap DONE

Tell international pension company about my tax in Denmark to see if they want to hold off.

Ask pergola fitter where to put the slabs down

Contact builders merchant to get big slabs

Flea treatment app for the cats DONE just pick up dont need app

Marketing - all prepped luckily DONE rest tomorrow

Boots order for friends to bring over DONE

Order UK stuff for friends to bring (need feet for table legs have a big box for the front legs but need bigger for the back. DONE

Fill in form for DG - actual paid work ONGOING

Pay my golf membership.

For the 3rd month sort the DDs out I actually have to cancel the old ones and set up new ones for it to work but AI did not tell me this. I am instead going to ask to move all of them it is driving me crazy otherwise. DONE but do main bulk 8-10

Make up guest bedroom DONE

Wash car

Move AI conversations over

I will add as I think of it.

TallGirl

So it is Tuesday and I have already done some work for DG and the marketing I needed to do. It really is not getting much impact and the cost is still there and I really wanted it to start getting better. DG is still busy so that is at least something. She is at her Danish lesson right now too she wants to learn Danish but just do not have the time to get into it.

I have done quite a bit off the list and I have done some research on the pergola attachments to the patio and I think we need someone to build it for us so I have emailed someone. I have also asked them to change our door handle we have tried all weekend and it is not shifting. Annoying money so spend but sometimes needs must and our time is valuable too.

Here is the updated list for today

Fill in Tax form for DG on her pension

Book train ride for 1/2 term visitors DONE

Book train to visit CPH with DG in November DONE check what time they want me to book

Tell international pension company about my tax in Denmark to see if they want to hold off. DONE

Ask pergola fitter where to put the slabs down

Await reply from carpenter

Order UK stuff for friends to bring (need feet for table legs have a big box for the front legs but need bigger for the back. DONE

Fill in form for DG - actual paid work ONGOING

Pay my golf membership.

For the 3rd month sort the DDs out I actually have to cancel the old ones and set up new ones for it to work but AI did not tell me this. I am instead going to ask to move all of them it is driving me crazy otherwise. DONE but do main bulk 8-10

Wash car DONE it looks so nice again

Move AI conversations over

TallGirl

Yesterday was a happy day in the TG household my sister rang and said they would pop over and look at the door handle on their way back from the car dealer (his Elroq needed looking at). He looked at it door handle got a screwdriver and literally 2min later the handle was off. I was so happy and he also took the whole lock out so I can get a new one today and a spare. It will be so good to have that fixed again.

We also had an enquiry via email from someone who I think saw us via our website. I think they have asked several people for a quote but it did feel good that things were finally moving along a bit. Nice if it turned into business.

Got a bit more work to do for DG and I also need some shopping and obviously the door handle. I have booked the train tickets for the half term trip with friends and started to look at the November trip. The plan is for us to do Copenhagen with our other friends and then Tivoli Christmas market in the evening. I was looking at doing it in a day we can get a train home at midnight but they are saying come and stay in the same hotel as us. They are my best friends form the UK and I have known them 25 years at least. It is £150 a night incl breakfast so not cheap but it would be nice. We would still need a return train ticket but we could travel back together so saves a 1 hour round trip to the station. I will do some thinking.

I think that is it best do some work. Here is a cute picture of big cat collapsed on the office floor this morning.