Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

TallGirl

Thanks Savingholmes yes it could work out just fine the swap of managers. Nothing was said on Friday so I did not mentioned it either. 


Morning alarm went off at 6am, DG been at work since I have just joined her at 7.20. Gym at 9.10 so want to get some hours done so I can do both classes. We need to step gym back up down to 1 class last week but then I was ill. Speaking of ill DG has started with the sore throat. Horrible I hope she does not get it as bad as me.  

Got the gardener coming today I am hoping it will just be for a 2 to 3 hour stint. I would like to work with her and learn but might be awkward with work I will wait and see. I can always work late that is not a problem. It will just be good to get things spaced out the way that should be and also get some repetitive patterns going on. I have too many things in pots so it will be good to get them out for sure. I do need to winter prep my Dahlia's and move some pots into a more sheltered position for the winter. It will be nice when I know what I have any I am sure I will not need much for next year. 

Lovely weather here today really hope we can get out and do some golf during the week and also on Sunday when we are booked in for a game. We are seeing a friend from London with her new puppy on Saturday but meeting her in a town 20 min by train from here. We do need to book the tickets so I think I shall get that done before I start work. 

Hope you all have a lovely Monday. 

TallGirl

Alarm went off at 6am for DG to work she has just spent 1 hour doing one piece of work for £300 however out of that she has to pay 40% commision (should be 50%) but she got a special deal for 2 months. Then printing costs, paper plus obviously tax. Not enough really so she might have to give that side of it up and just do the bigger pieces that takes years to get paid. She does enjoy it but just wish it paid a lot better as it is such an innovative start up. 

I did start my course yesterday it looks good there is 1400 people on it in total so not much 1 to 1 but there are ways to meet people and also videos etc to watch plus social media to follow. I will give it a go looks good for women empowering women which I am all for.

Lovely and sunny here today. The garden looks really good after yesterday she is coming back to do a few hours next Monday and then it will be ready for me to look after it again. 

My cold is still annoying and it looks like DG is getting it too. 

Good news well I think good news is that I am getting a partial refund for the lights I returned. They were £20 a pack and I bought 3. Already had a replacement for 1 set but they broke so sent the other 2 back again as the 3rd set was a gift which also broke. Total rubbish and I shall be leave a bad review unless I get a full refund but at least they have answered back after having had the lights since 17th Oct. I did have to chase.

No gym tonight and hopefully it is not raining so we can actually get out and use the hottub it is very good for sore muscles and general wellbeing. 

earthgirl2

Sorry you are both ill, glad you have a lovely garden to look at and be in!

TallGirl

Thanks earthgirl2 yes I do love my garden that’s why I was so happy to move out of London. Managed four years there more than enough but still lovely to visit now and again. 

A bit of spending last night trying to cheer dg up. She’s had some promises from the start up that should make things easier and they should happen very soon so she’s hanging in there. The spend was for a cocktail night at home. The offers from Mastercard usually sell out immediately but I got this one so £30 for three cocktails each with a festive zoom call and full instructions. Dg loves using the pool bar so this is perfect for December date night. 

Saturday we’re seeing friend and new puppy then golf Sunday if it’s not too wet. Then we have our night in Brighton end of November and now the December cocktail night. Also hoping to add drinks with friends mid December and maybe visit to others so full on until Christmas. Diet does need to improve or I’ll need new wardrobe soon. 

Also got tgtg back last night. It was the burgundy coffee chain three rolls which is fine for £3.50 will do us for dinner. I am hoping to make gym but I’ve still got my cold. 

Need to get up and do some work. Dg has been at her desk since 6.30am. 

Raining horribly here so no gardening today. 

daisy_1571

Morning,  I keep coming back to your comment about the £300 1 hour job.  Even with the commission,  the tax (which she would pay on any hourly rate), the printing etc it surely ends up with at least £120 in her hand?  Even for a job I hated id bite someone's hand off to get that amount of money for a day's work let alone an hour lol.  When you add in all the positive things you say about the work its surely going to be a satisfying piece of work for her self esteem,  mh etc?  I'm not sure why she'd think of not taking future work from them.  I know you seem to suggest its either this job or others where the money won't come in for a long time but is it really ?  Could she not do both to keep some money trickling in while working on the longer term stuff? 

I don't know the whole set up obviously so you don't have to explain anything but I just think it sounds (written here, not necessarily in real life) like a pleasant, well paid job,  done quickly and paid quickly. 

Hope your rain stops soon, we are very dark and raining here too.  Hope it goes off soon, the fields around here have huge puddles as it is.

Take care 

Daisy xxxx

TallGirl

Thanks Daisy it is quite complicated and I did not explain it well. The 1 hour was just the mainly admin part of the job there are 15 to 20 emails on top as well as several phone calls all within the £300. This is for legal work and my DG is qualified so it works out quite low rates in particular as the admin side really stresses her out. They are now looking to bring in admin which she can pay a set fee for a month and also use for her other work so she is staying with it.

I think she is just really tired and worried that being self-employed isn't really getting her where she wants to be. Retired with enough money to live on. She changed careers late in life, never had enough money to pay into a pension at any good rate (she does have a small DB pension) so her real money earning job was in London before the pandemic. She was on £50K with benefits and bonus on top however they wanted her back in the office and her supervisor was really difficult to work for. The long term cases are quite stressful as it is dealing with vulnerable clients living in horrible conditions but when they settle she gets paid for all the work. Not all cases continues so sometimes she pays for disbursements etc and she has to cover all of that. She has been doing it now for 2 years and made very little but as I keep saying she does have quite a few getting closer to settling. So you are right she is going to do both but maybe she needs a little time out and just chill. I have also given her my horrible cold so that does not help either. 

Still haven't done the big piece of work I need to do for Friday but I am confident I have move slightly on how I am going to do it. I am also going to have a chat with my line manager about our team meeting today it was not great. Too rushed and not everyone gets a chance to speak as one person talks all the time. I have done a bit on my new course it is good but I must keep on top of it. 

I did also find a £26 expenses claim that had been sent back 

Quick edit one she is close settling has been going on for 18 months but obviously she has not worked on it day in and day out. After paying 30% commision (this is for case management and also insurance etc) she should get about £9K so that is the difference on the long and the short cases. The long cases just are not really regular enough to actually live on day to day. 

daisy_1571

I see, yes I knew there would be more to it.  Self employment can be hard but there are plenty benefits- more control over the day to day stuff, not having one boss (I know you can look on each customer as a boss), very different to having to sit in an office with all the little rules that are so annoying plus people.   Some want the lights on, some off,  somebody wants a window open, somebody else wearing hardly any clothes is cold and wants it shut.  Ugh, endless.   Hopefully she sticks at it and gets a bit more settled 

Daisy xxxx

savingholmes

Hope you managed to spend some time in the garden 

LadyWithAPlan

Hope you are both feeling more human. 
I prefer being SE but for some a PT or FT job with set work and wages seems to suit their working style better.. 

TallGirl

Thanks LWAP we are getting there having a McD breakfast did help lol.

Got my H*BC account sorted took 5 min, ordered the card for the global account which I will actually find useful for euro's and kroner plus sent over the £1500 that was required. I am tempted with the 5% saver but my 1Direct pays 7% and it would be a stretch to have both set up. 

Also booked a slot at the tip for this afternoon to get rid of the garden waste before Monday where I will get more. It is actually really nice right now so might pack the car up rather than do it in the rain later. 

Finally I have packaged up the tape and tape dispenser I ordered off Amazon it was the worst dispenser I have ever had it could not cut the tape. I should get a full refund and I found we do have some tape so do not actually need it. 

Right back to work.