julicorn's journey 3 - The House on the Hill

julicorn

trix-a-belle said:

Looks good! You are very dedicated to your book already! I never quite get the time to clear my mind and get stuck into mine, just snippets of scene ideas here & there.

I don't think it was covered previously, how did you come to your 'retirement' figure? outstanding mortgage + X number of years of outgoings?

Thank you. Last few days I haven't written many new bits, just edited what was already there - turns out that takes a while, too. I have the 'first act' finished now, about to dive into the middle which I've got a feeling may be a bit slower,  but we'll see how it goes

So for the retirement figure, I'm using the 4% rule as a guidance, and was aiming to cover £30k annual expenditure when we started (inflation has since turned that into a nice and specific £31,980), plus the remaining mortgage balance currently projected, which should be around £150k. 
The trickier part is actually what amount should be in ISAs / readily accessible, and I have to admit I've worked with a more aggressive 7% withdrawal for that part, because a) it'll only need to last a defined amount of time, and b) I'd like us to keep bringing in some money at least on a self-employed basis. Mr julicorn for example has done some video editing on the side in the past, and I've got a few bits going like the etsy shop and generally a bit of an ambition to create artwork. It would also be important so that we continue to pay NI contributions and work towards getting the full state pension. A lot of words to say that 'if our drawdown strategy doesn't work out in the early retirement years, I think we could bring in some money in other ways'. 

julicorn

@South_coast you've inspired me to find a new excel / Google sheets formula to calculate an expected retirement date! NPER is what I was looking for. 
The suggested date ranges from the very optimistic 01/10/2032 (92 months, or 7.7 years) to the more conservative 02/05/2035 (123 months), also all assuming I don't just suddenly quit my job and become a full time creative, but suffice to say, the countdown has STARTED  

South_coast

Ooh, very exciting! No idea what NPER is, but it sounds good 🤣!

julicorn

South_coast said:

Ooh, very exciting! No idea what NPER is, but it sounds good 🤣!

An excel formula is what it is. How exactly it works I have no idea, but it did the trick!  

julicorn

Just a quick check in to say I'm off to hide away in a cabin with no phone, internet or even all that much electricity for a few days from tomorrow - we'll see what that's like Hoping for half decent weather so that we can go on some nice walks (I think even the nearest pub is about 40 minutes' walk away), but if not then we'll just play some board games. I hope you're all having a nice weekend and I'll report when I'm back!

northwalesd

Have a great time.

beanielou

Enjoy.  😉 

julicorn

Thank you!  

LadyWithAPlan

hope you having a lovely break

julicorn

Hi all! The cabin break was lovely, we cabin we stayed in was absolutely delightful and we only saw pheasants and squirrels during our stay there, no other humans whatsoever. 
It was quite muddy which made hikes a bit of a challenge, but we battled on through adversity Went to a stately home and had a lovely pub lunch as well. 
On Friday we went to Wakehurst for the day, we were able to visit for free because we'd gone to their Glow Wild light trail in the winter. That was really lovely, a nice thing to do on Valentine's Day  

Unfortunately I've been having some anxiety dreams and have been feeling quite down last few days. I'm hoping that an hour or so on the allotment will help this afternoon, we shall see. Dreading starting work again tomorrow, but maybe it'll be less bad than I think. 

The book stands at 25,000 words now, and I've got everything mapped out for the first half already - another 10,000 words or so and I'll get to the mid point

Hope you're all having a good Sunday!