julicorn's journey 3 - The House on the Hill

Sistergold · 2 November 2024 at 5:44PM

“Bum not made for theatre seats” oh you have made me laugh!

badmemory · 2 November 2024 at 6:14PM

I don't think anyones is.

julicorn · 7 November 2024 at 10:20AM

We're having friends over this week and it's hitting the budget hard! We will never financially recover from this

(just joking of course, it's lovely to have them here but not great for the purse or for my liver!).

Went to London again on Monday because they had never been which was nice, I hadn't done all the touristy things in absolute ages. On Tuesday we went to the Bonfire Night in Lewes, which was such good fun! Public transport there and back is also really good now (although they don't like to talk about it because the council is understandably worried about overcrowding and wants to keep visitor numbers down). Yesterday was spent being confused and a little angry at the American election outcome and then going for some vegan fish & chips with a mini pub crawl after. Our visitors are off to London again today so I'll have a more quiet one probably, gonna go to choir for the first time in months which is lovely, but I'll have to do some practicing today to catch up with what I've missed.

We've just hit the £190k milestone as well because the markets like seeing an orange clown in power I guess. Let's see what the future brings.

julicorn · 7 November 2024 at 10:34AM

In the spirit of this board, maybe I should add some updates on the part of this journey that's the 'being mortgage neutral' step as well... i.e. having enough money in our ISAs to pay off the mortgage.

Current figures:
Investment ISAs: £69,769.76
Mortgage: £213,005.57
% of being mortgage neutral: 32.8%
Total pot: £190,929.73
% of early retirement savings: 20.5%

julicorn · 15 November 2024 at 10:19AM

Our guests left on Sunday, we really had such a lovely time with them! It felt like I had more than a week off work with everything we did and how much fun we had, and how much I was able to relax.

Starting work again on Monday was really hard, I woke up in a bit of a panic. I have been feeling quite anxious around work for a while now, and have finally bit the bullet and booked some therapy. Never done that before, but I probably really should have years ago! I have my first session in around an hour, am looking forward to it but also a little nervous. I get quite anxious and teary in medical settings / situations anyway, so am not really sure what to expect here.

There are lots of positives though. I started choir again which is really fun, and am looking forward to a nice weekend with a bit of allotmenting as well, gotta still move that compost up the hill and plant garlic, broad beans and some cover crops for the winter.

I hope you've all had a good week, and that you'll have a nice weekend too when you get to it!

trix-a-belle · 15 November 2024 at 10:14PM

I hope the first session went ok

LadyWithAPlan · 15 November 2024 at 10:19PM

Glad you had fun with your friends and London town, your Savings % Mortgage neutral pot is looking good.
i have done MB for 5 plus years and made loads

its harder now but worth keeping on going with it calmly.

Hopefully therapist works well for you

julicorn · 18 November 2024 at 7:54PM

Thanks so much @trix-a-belle and @LadyWithAPlan! The first session was good, but not as good as spending 3 hours on the allotment yesterday, shovelling compost and planting broad beans

My work day today was actually pretty ok. I've been thinking about how stressed I've been getting about work, and actually, thinking about it, if I quit my job, I could theoretically do absolutely nothing for around 8 years before we would run out of money (assuming Mr julicorn kept his job). Not saying I intend to do that, but it somehow takes some of the pressure off knowing that theoretically I could just call it a day without having the stress of needing to find something imminently.