Prosperous & Creative Soul Year 4

mark55man

That's a great point about having friends outside of work, as although the friendship may last the work might not and you are then deprived of the opportunity to see each other.  Local is great but not essential!!

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil and Mark.

Towards the back end of the week had another conversation about the compressed hours with my boss. We agreed to set it up as a trial initially.

Had hair done at the weekend. Didn't see DD in the end but did meet up with a friend and go to an NT property so that was good. Didn't really do much on my business. Did a bit of tidying and cleaning.

I went to the new art group last night and had met all but one before. It was a lovely venue - very open and bright with a paid car park practically on its doorstep. I drew 6 x 15 min portraits and learned some more names so that was good on both counts. It's only monthly but I'd go again. For a drink and the car park it was about £8. The event itself was free.

I've not been as good as I was at the spending diary in Jan during Feb - so need to finish adding in details. The stock market going down though is not nice on my tracking. Will keep buying 'the dip' and hopefully when it recovers it will give my portfolio a boost! I'll report back when I've finished inputting my numbers. I sent an extra £100 to my S&S ISA - to top it back up - but it went down further after that.

The mortgage has gone out so I should owe around £660 less than I did. 2 CC payments also went out for around £600 but I'm still spending on them so the net effect is nowhere close to that. I have been moving regular payments away from the CC - but had an unplanned splurge on Saturday at Sainsbugs - because I'd planned to eat out with DD and it didn't happen so I bought a load of treat food and went overboard. 

Hope all is well in your world. Will catch up on diaries again soon.

edinburgher

Chiming in as a 10-year veteran of compressed working. It's fantastic if you're actually getting to use the non-working day for rest/you, but a grinding slog if you need it for childcare/caring responsibilities/household chores. A little over 2 years and I'll get to use my non-working day for rest again

savingholmes

Thanks Edinburgher

I start my compressed hours trial in a couple of weeks. Agreed to review mid May.

I went into the office today but still not home. There was a bad accident on the main route to my home and my sat nav sent me rounds in circles for 2 hours or so including the dreaded single track roads. After crying I took a break at a pub for a meal. Hoping it will have cleared.

It was sobering seeing the cars. It's a fast road and it looked like a high speed smash... Grateful 🙏 it wasn't me and hoping the people survived.

Tomorrow I have art group in the evening. Looking forward to that. Should be a restful weekend....

Hope all is well with you.

KajiKita

Oh I hate it when things like that happen on your commute home, just when you are already tired … Good call to step out of it and have a meal. Hope you get home soon / are home now. 

Enjoy the art group tomorrow and a nice weekend when you get there 😊

KK

lucielle

Glad you made it home safe. Sobering to see the aftermath of an accident. 

L

jwil

Hope you managed to get home without too much more trouble.

Enjoy art group and your relaxing weekend.

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil, KK and Lucielle

I made it home safely about an hour later. 

Art group was lovely. Know the names of over half the group now I think. There are some really talented people in the group and it is amazing to see how different people tackle the same task.

I committed to using Saturdays as my recovery day. Yesterday I didn't even get dressed - I just spent the day making art. Towards the end of the day I videoed about an hour of art making - I can decide whether to use it later. In the evening I also listened to a book about chilling and prospering based on a YT channel. I really enjoyed it. Carried on listening to that today. I may also record myself reading my own poetry at some point... 

I didn't get a food delivery Friday - so I need to sort that out - as otherwise I could end up spending more if I go in a shop. I baked a cake yesterday using a BC cake mix and some Mr A lemon frosting. Super tasty!

Money news

I got £51 in cashback that I can use at TK's which is nice. I've ordered myself some perfume from a different site. At £50 it's the most I've ever spent on perfume - but I love the scent and the teddy bottle shape. I got a £40 annual membership I didn't know I had refunded.

savingholmes

Net worth tracking update - it's currently below what I started the year on!! Despite £2K of AVC input and £1.3K into my mortgage principal etc and some savings.

I'm trying to 'grow' a pot of £ outside just my work pension / work AVCs - as the earlier I access my work pension - the bigger the reduction I have for early withdrawal. Plus I could be limited on how much I'm allowed to put into pensions once I start withdrawing from one. It is a difficult balance to get right. For those of you who are new to my diary - I'm hoping long term to use this £ to become mortgage neutral and leave my day job/retire early to pursue my art and writing passions.

Unfortunately my S&S isa and pension funds are dropping due to Humpty Dumpty... I trust they will recover - but... Their recent falls have eroded my previous gains by close to a third!! While I've theoretically lost some of my principal on my recent S&S ISA (about £370 on £10K) - in my pensions because I have had them longer and therefore had more growth - my original investment is still okay. I need to make myself go back to perhaps checking them once or twice a month rather than almost daily - as it is stressful seeing the fluctuations - and I don't yet have the experience to know what's normal.

Some of the issue is currency fluctuations - a lot of my £ is invested in $ based stocks and shares. I'm reminding myself I've only lost £ if I take the £ out and long term it should balance out. If the lower stock market price persists - then I will gain as my ongoing AVC pension investment will enable me to buy more at a lower price - as long as it then goes back up in time for when I need it. I've kept a significant chunk of EF £ in a cash isa to balance out this risk. What this is has demonstrated however - is that I'm better off making stocks and shares investments within a pension wrapper e.g. my work one or the SIPP as that way I get an extra 20-25% tax relief (or more) to play with before I've 'lost' anything.

I still need to make myself shower, get dressed and preferably go out - which despite it being light and bright outside I am resisting. 

Have a good weekend all.

jwil

I hope the financials recover soon.  I don't have anything other than the pension and AVCs, as I know I'd hate the fluctuations.  I'm sure they'll bounce back eventually though.