All change for 2025

jwil

I thought I'd start a new diary to have a fresh start.  

After almost 21 years in my job, I've recently been placed at risk of redundancy. I'll find out for sure in the new year.  If I manage to successfully challenge the redundancy, things will be very different at that employer next year, and if I do go, there will be a scary world of job hunting and hopefully new opportunities to discover.

I had my path to early retirement all planned out, with the hope of going at 55 (just over 8 years time) with enough savings to cover me until I could take my pension at 57.  These plans will all be up in the air now until I know what I will be doing instead.  The reality was always that it was more likely I'd need to work part time rather than fully retire, but it's nice to have the ambition.

To achieve that aim, I need to tackle the following goals

• Be mortgage and debt free
• Have a cushion of savings 
• Completed all work on the house
• Ensure I have enough set aside to support the children (currently 8 and 11) through uni or whatever they choose to do after school.

That's an incredibly ambitious target for me, even if I do manage to keep the job so it will take a lot of work to get there.  I like a challenge!

I also have smaller aims as well, which I want to work on at the same time:

• Decluttering the house (I live with people who are reluctant to get rid of anything)
• Losing weight and getting fitter (I want to be healthy enough to enjoy early retirement).
• Moving towards a slower pace of life, simpler living, consuming less and living sustainably.

dawnybabes

Happy new diary ! 

Cherryfudge

Subscribed. I'll be following with interest.  

in_need_of_direction

One of your stalkers has arrived and bookmarked.  Can I respectfully request that the decluttering and pad updates continue?

jwil

Out of all the decisions I've made in my life, one of the best must have been a couple of years ago when I decided to remortgage and fix the mortgage at 2.07% for 10 years.  When it ends, we'll have roughly 3 years left on the mortgage and I'm aiming to try and clear it early at the point the fix ends.  We overpay by a small amount each month, just rounding the payment up to the nearest hundred so that will help, but we'll still need a lump sum by the end of the fix.

I have a couple of historical DMP debts, which I'm paying off gradually, and I just leave these ticking over in the hope that they will eventually send me an offer to clear them. 

I have the boiler replacement from last year and a couple of larger purchases on a 0% credit card.  I have the savings to clear it, but will try and clear it before the 0% ends in the summer without touching savings if I can.

Our house needs complete renovation, and we've been doing the work gradually as we can afford to rather than take out more debt (other than what went on the 0% above).  We've fully rewired around 2/3rds of the house, completed the children's bedrooms (just need to carpet one), replaced the bathroom recently (still painting and need flooring), installed new heating system, and replaced some of the windows/doors.  There's still more to do and we'll carry on as and when we can.  Everything is functional even if it's very old (60s/70s) and not to our taste!

After being so incredibly skint for so many years, it's nice to finally have the ability to do the work on the house and also maintain a small amount of savings. The levels fluctuate as we build up and then withdraw to do some work, but I am trying to maintain and build up an emergency fund in Premium Bonds which are accessible but not too easily (plus I like to dream about a big win!).

jwil

dawnybabes said:

Happy new diary ! 

Cherryfudge said:

Subscribed. I'll be following with interest.  

in_need_of_direction said:

One of your stalkers has arrived and bookmarked.  Can I respectfully request that the decluttering and pad updates continue?

Ooh lovely to have visitors already! Thank you all   INOD - not to worry, I am off to hunt those down and transfer them over  

jwil

For anyone not familiar, I make a payment a day (PAD) towards my goals.  Originally, I was padding to the mortgage, then realised, I should really be padding towards savings as I could earn more interest, but now I have decided I am going to split my pad between the savings and the 0% credit card now.  I don't feel the same satisfaction with it going to savings as I do with seeing a debt total reduce, and as that deadline is creeping up, it would be nice to see how much I can clear.

I pad from my bank account, and also send over any extras I get from either doing surveys or selling items during The Great Declutter.   It's amazing how the small amounts add up, and I don't notice the slow trickle from my account.  I do keep a running total each month:

Today's PAD - £2

Jan - £319
Feb - £135
Mar - £129
Apr - £114
May - £118
June - £93
July - £123
Aug - £118
Sep - £60
Oct - £113
Nov - £50

jwil

I like to keep track of what we declutter so when I have my regular moan about all the 'stuff' I can see that we have actually got rid of a lot.  Whilst we still have a long way to go, the house is immeasurably better than it was a few years ago. I've mostly decluttered my stuff, though I always seem to find more that can go.  The kids aren't that keen on getting rid of things, and DH has endless collections, so I have to nag 'gently encourage' and help with his listing stuff.  The kids get the money from anything they agree to get rid of (into their savings) and DH and I each keep whatever we sell of our own.

Declutter update:

1089. Jeans
1090. Train
1091. Car
1092. Soft toy
1093. Train and carriage
1094. Underwear
1095. Playmobil figure
1096. Pen
1097-1102. Toy cars
1103. Lego set
1104. Power bank
1105. Underwear
1106-1107. Tractors
1108-1111. Cars
1112. Lorry
1113. De icer
1114. Trousers.

Declutter totals: 

Magazines/papers: 103
Other: 1114

Total: 1217

Ebay listings: 123
Ebay parcels: 151

Survey/other earnings:
Amazon: £30
Paypal/cash: £373.75
Other vouchers:£0

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary my friend 🤗🤗

ladyholly

Ooh a happy new diary. 

Sarahwithlove

Oooo happy new diary! Fingers crossed for you on the redundancy front. Hopefully you get a resolution soon