Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

TallGirl

Been awake since 5am as that was the time DG decided to start work. Have spent some time watching the Solheim Cup which is going to be very exciting to watch. 

Saw DGs aunt last night that cost £24 on take away but she is housebound so it was a nice things to do. Food was great and we can freeze enough for another 2 meals which is great. Then we headed to Lidl and ASDA. Got everything we needed and I recon we saved a good £30 on a £150 shop by going to Lidl first instead of ASDA. We could not get everything so had to go to ASDA but we got there in the end. A lot of the cost was alcohol and food for all the people coming over the weekend so now ready. 

Done my expenses for June and they have been approved so £52 on its way at some point. Done the ones for September but cannot send them off yet. Only £15 and it was easy to sort out the tube tickets where I messed up and did not use my Oyster card but all sorted. 

Booked myself for a webinar on how to make the most of your money if you wish to retire abroad. It will be a plug to get me to sign up to some expensive FA company but I can at least listen as it might point me in the right direction. 

Right best get some work done before I sign off at lunch time. Hope its lovely and sunny where you are long may it last. 

LadyWithAPlan

Just caught up with your diary - denmark and that house looks like a fun plan 
I also love a camper van - a friend takes her car with her in hers 

The golf sounds annoying I would also probably be getting annoyed with the wind, the ground .. it’s tricksy sport 

love a bargain M&S - the full prices though are really high though 

earthgirl2

Tall girl I've just started golf lessons (free with work) and I'm finding it difficult! I've been given all of the equipment I need from friends and family members, so hopefully it will keep costs down!

TallGirl

Earthgirl fab re free lessons and kit. It is so hard a sport but can also give you such a buzz and fab social time too. Hope you enjoy it. 

Spent all weekend with two friends watching the Solheim Cup so tense can’t believe we retain the Cup. Two other friends came over today which was also fun. 

Tired but good social time we people we’ve met purely from golf. 

TallGirl

Went to hit some golf balls last night and played two holes just before it got too dark. Nice end to the day which started with going to the gym. 

I had planned to eat sensibly but DG bought me a chocolate bar and then we got a good to go bag with lots of junk. Not ideal  .

Today is really busy with work but already got a load of washing out and I am reasonably on top of work for now. Tomorrow I shall be working away from home in one of my projects offices which should be fun even if it is for most of the day which wasn't planned but I need to travel over there. Still I can sneak in a some free food and coffee on expenses. 

Managed to pay off some of my credit card but will leave the rest to earn interest as it is not due until next month. Feels wrong but with interest rates as they are it makes sense to take advantage of the higher rates. I do need to start planning for my ISA from April. I have £5K in a Moneybox General investment account which I would like to swap to an ISA. Then I could top it up with funds from True Potential which is about £7K and then try to make the full £20K which would be a stretch but a nice thing to be able to do over next year that is 12 months to find £8K which would mean less into Premium Bonds but by that time they would be at £42.2K obviously any winnings in the next 6 months would add to that. I think that would be a good plan to take advantage of the tax free savings I do need to look at Capital Gains tax as I would be moving money out of True Potential but it has made a huge loss so hopefully be ok. 

Well you know what I always say best get on with some work I have to move out of this office so need to set up somewhere else. They joys!!

savingholmes

Good luck with the shifting offices issue.

The S&S ISA - definitely look into index trackers. There's lots of books on investing. I liked The Simple Path to Wealth... 

TallGirl

Thank you Savingsholmes I do have an index tracker but I will take a look at that Simple Path. 

I am settled in the clients office very nice and I have plugged everything straight in so I have a second screen etc very fancy and better than I thought it would be. I am here until late so had a coffee and also bought a meal deal for later.

DG is so much calmer especially with her golf so that is good well worth having the lessons. Also the captain of our club team called her to offer her a game but we are somewhere else at the time. It will do her good to play with other people she is playing with me though so a bit of security I just hope it does not affect my game. 

We started looking at the varies things we need to sort before moving to Denmark and made a spreadsheet with tabs for each topic e.g property, finance, legal etc. There is a lot and the family reunification is so tricky I really do not understand the requirements and if we meet them or not. It is about having sufficient Danish and English to start with but still so complicated. You have to be self sufficient but I can only see the requirement for collateral which is only about £13K so actually not that bad. DG says she would carry on doing her small pieces of work from there so that would give her an income which would be great. 

I think I shall join the Danish association as you get free initial advice which I think would speed things up in terms of what to look at first. I think I would like us to move there on a trial basis so max 3 months as that is all DGs passport can do. If we go in Winter we could rent a Summerhouse cheaply or at worst stay in my dads house which is empty as he lives with her girlfriend full time. We could basically load up the car with essentials plus the cats with passports and then set off. DG can definitely work over there I am not so sure as we have some restrictions but we shall see. I quite like that idea as we can then at least get to know the county together and see where we might like to live. It would also not be that expensive and we could even get housesitters here and not take the cats. 

We also talked about Civic Partnership if we did do it it would be in "secret" and we would ask our friends to be witnesses and that would be it. We could then get married in Denmark properly when we have a property and invite everyone over from this county. That could be really fun and a lot more affordable as we could have a huge marque in the garden. We have also checked we would just need to get our wills signed again and they are still valid even if we got married over here. 

Right best prep for this meeting before I dream too much about FIRE. 

savingholmes

Good luck with your plans. There's a lot of fun in figuring all the things out and investigating options.

QueenJess

Gosh, such a lot to think about.  Denmark is one of those places I'd love to visit, but I've never been yet.  Maybe when the kids are older!

savingholmes

QueenJess said:

Gosh, such a lot to think about.  Denmark is one of those places I'd love to visit, but I've never been yet.  Maybe when the kids are older!

It always looks beautiful on things I've seen.