Mrs Arthur Crown- great post, sounds like we can learn a lot from you!


Kay- sorry to hear of your impending divorce and sending positive thoughts


Hi to everyone else and happy New Year! I have unfortunately started it with a 4-figure car repair bill!!! Ah well, onwards and upwards...

just stopping by. I'm feeling a bit deflated, I've applied for quite a number of jobs over the past few months & haven't even got an interview for one of them. I'm trying to settle at my current job as it's not awful (every job has it's moments) it's more the lack of progression opportunities available that's bothering me (ie none) so therefore aside from inflation, no opportunity of a pay increase .... which makes it harder to reach my millionaire status.

This thread was on the third page, so needed a bump!


I have now opened my S&S LISA and invested the full £4000 for this tax year, now to wait for the bonus. I have also opened a regular saver and instant access account as well as upping my month contribution into my S&S ISA. This is in light of cancelling my works sharesave.


My remortgage will take place on the 1st March and I will be due £500 cashback, this may well be spent on some work to the front garden that I want to do though.

At this time of year I usually do my tax self-assessment just before deadline, then while in "financial" mode, pledge to do something with an S&S ISA in the next month or two. Then, at the very end of March, I hurriedly stick some from a savings account into a cash ISA just to use my allocation, because I've left it too long to do anything about the S&S version.


I wonder if this year will be any different?

I'm glad that I'm not the only one . I'm probably a bit worse actually - I do have about 5K in a S&S ISA, but with all the Brexit hassles I decided it would be better to hold as cash until April, and the interest is minimal!

Thanks for the reminder.

I just know that I didn't use the allocation as much as I could have done some years ago, so I'm trying not to miss a year. I can't catch up, of course, but I can make sure I don't compound the error.

If you don't want to lose your allowance put the money in a S+S ISA but leave it in as cash, ie uninvested in shares or funds until after the Brexit hassles.

Well just wanted to update a little.

He moved out a little which has been strange as I hate being on my own but love having my own space - but I haven't missed him himself at all so I know I'm doing the right thing!

Money wise is pretty dire but I have made a list of all my business ideas (there is a fair few actually I keep adding to the bloody list but never actually implementing anything) and I'm going to have a lot more spare time so hopefully look into doing one.

Currently starting to focus on my degree a bit more and get organised with it - it's a strange feeling as even though we hardly ever did anything together it's like time is going a lot slower, and I have all this spare time that I don't know what to do with.

My Dad is sitting on some money right now and is pushing the B2L thing, I have suggested buying a house with my sister which he is over the moon about (she's not financially savvy like me so I'd be doing all the running around but I trust her 100% and she would leave me to it so essentially it's a name on the mortgage and obv a spilt of the profits but better keeping the money in the family and she is married, but in event of a divorce anyway, because the money will have been loaned from my Dad it will protect a good chunk of the property meaning) - but being as I am temporarily on universal credits and the whole being married / financial side I'm not in the position to do this right now - annoyingly - however better to get this divorce sorted now and get myself together then have bought the B2L THEN got divorced I guess!!!

I also have the house on the market, I just want a straight spilt. It should leave me with around 17.5k to bank (however, if I don't get what I want for it I may stay here at this point) which I've done some working out and if I move to full-time on a semi-decent wage I can buy again up to around the 130k mark on paper. I know things are changing atm with Brexit and mortgages but it's a goal.

I do believe with a few months of cracking my head down I can move into a developers role at work, just need to stay focused.

Good to hear from you, Kay. I often wonder how you are getting on. Divorce is always difficult and painful, even if it is amicable, but you seem to be navigating the choppy waters ok.

I divorced my first husband, it was mutual (we married too young and were simply not on the same wavelength). There were no children to complicate matters but it was still a difficult time.

I never thought I would marry again until 5 years later No 2 came hurtling into my life like a whirlwind ......Resistance was futile!!!

My darling has been dead now for 5 years this year (August) and it is only now that I can begin to even think about the possibility of meeting someone else.

Perhaps history will repeat itself and the 5 year cycle will come into play.

Anyway it sounds like you are picking up the pieces and making good steady progress at rebuilding your life. I have no doubt in my mind that you will go on to achieve great things. You have the right attitude and the commitment and dedication it takes to succeed.

Well I have not done much to increase my wealth recently, just jogging along. I have been concentrating on reclaiming my health which took such a nosedive after my husbands death. I have managed to lose a stone so far and I'm feeling so much better. I am exercising gently, walking and doing yoga. I can feel my energy levels getting back to normal, I am getting fitter and stronger. I have finally cleared some space and have set up a temporary home gym in one of my spare bedrooms. I will convert the shed into a more permanent gym over the summer.

The bathroom is finished and looks beautiful.....5 star boutique hotel
Chic.. Ive just started on the kitchen, that will have to be a makeover rather than a refit. Got to keep a tight rein on the budget.

I have been clearing out cupboards, wardrobes etc and now have a pile of stuff ready for the auction house and antique dealers.

It won't take me to millionaire status but it will make a few extra pennies.

Re investments......I now have cashed in most of my stock market holdings for now. Maybe I'm being a bit over cautious but I feel safer "keeping my powder dry" until post Brexit.

I still have some gold and jewellery which I shall hang on to. They are part of my "contingency plan" should I ever become desperate. . Unlike antiques etc they don't take up much space so even if I decide to downsize again when I'm old and decrepit they can still go with me.

Just one, marry Martin Lewis.

I have to admit I've been secretly taking part in this challenge. For this challenge, I now have £11,000 (from extra work building websites for clients) and I have been developing a website and phone app to release ASAP that reflects in a way but does not compete at all with Vivino. Website tech is Wordpress (not the anybody can install a template kind of website, but with real functionality and customisation using PHP), the app has been written using Ionic and taps into the Wordpress REST API.

Here's tips that I've gathered from some very successful friends of mine.

- You must believe in yourself and in your project. clich!

- Time is what you need more of, without time, you're dead. You cannot buy extra time directly, but you can buy it indirectly. The more you hire others to work for you, the more you're in a position to have enough time to think and innovate. Don't mow your lawn yourself, (Get anybody else to do it, then you have a gardener), don't decorate yourself (then you have a decorator), eat out (you have a personal chef), have somebody else clean your windows (you have a window cleaner), don't clean your oven, let somebody else do it, etc. So don't spread yourself thin just to save a couple of quid, but instead focus on your own particular hobby/skill and perfect that. If it doesn't work, at least you will have enough contacts to phone up and invite to join your new domestic cleaning services company.

- Live life to the full at all times. If you're living your life at 50% of your full potential, then you're torturing yourself. If you were to torture somebody else, you wouldn't take their whole life away, you would restrict what they can do and cannot do. So why would you do this to yourself, if you wouldn't do it to somebody else? Just go for it, whatever it is you feel you want to do.

- There are only typically three ways to become rich: inheritance, criminal activities and/or hard work.

- Don't waste time with people that don't listen or understand you. Like caught crabs in a bucket, negative people will not let you flourish and will pull you down with them. (When one crab tries to get out of a bucket, the other crabs will pull it back in)... "if I can't have it, neither can you" mentality.

- Tight people always pay twice. Better to buy the best first time round, otherwise you'll end up paying over and over again for cheaper and less efficient versions.

- Limit as much as possible the amount of money spent on things that instantly devalue. Never buy an new IKEA coffee table for example...

- For when you're very rich: [48th Rule of Acquisition] The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.

And something I discovered myself:

I lived in a horrible city for a long time, and it was a total waste of my life. There were no opportunities there and it might never become a prosperous place for hundreds of years to come. So do whatever it takes to move somewhere more provincial, and you'll instantly be liberated and you'll meet lots of wonderful intelligent and supportive human beings that have quite possibly been where you were.

Hi.....itstherightthingtodo. Well done on the £11k, great stuff.

Interesting post, lots of ideas there. I definitely agree about not letting naysayers get to you. I have zero tolerance for Negative Nellies and Debbie Downers.

I am also careful not to waste money on liabilities. I am trying to focus on building up assets again. Although I do think we need to allow for a little frivolous spending now and again.

Life would be very dull without a few fripperies.

Well February has been and gone, the nights are getting lighter and although we're in the middle of another cold snap, spring is just round the corner. I really enjoyed the warmer weather the other week.

Kitchen is now plastered, just awaiting the handyman to sort out the flooring and then I can get busy with the paint pots. I could employ a decorator but I enjoy sloshing Paint around, I don't really regard it as work. I find it therapeutic and I actually enjoy rolling my sleeves up and getting physical ........it's good exercise. For me diy is a hobby which also saves money and keeps me fit. Triple win. Same with gardening.

I appreciate others might feel differently and prefer to contract out that kind of work but it works for me......but then it's probably easier for me. I am retired with enough passive income so dont have the time constraints of a day job.

Have made a start on the tree planting (well my son did it, I just supervised and kept him fed and watered). It's all coming together now. Budget is holding up quite well, and I am managing to claw back the overspend on the bathroom.

I am also doing well on the getting back to full fitness/losing weight campaign......turning back the years.....

Hello everyone! This is my first post on MSE and in this thread. I've followed MSE for years and just found this thread and I love it! It has given me so much inspiration to keep going. I want to be a millionaire by the time I'm 33.


So a little about me... I'm 26, left school without a degree and worked in admin and ended up in marketing. I've always wanted my own business and a year ago I started trying to make money online. I've tried importing from China, eBay, Etsy, Instagram marketing, web design agency, online ad board, online radio...all with varying degrees of success but nothing to live on!!


I want to find a great idea in the next few months and really focus on making it work. The biggest hurdle I face is the constant negativity from my parents who believe I'm wasting my time (they have no interest in business whatsoever and I think they're just waiting for grandkids!). None of my friends are interested in business and it's so difficult sometimes - just wish I could talk to someone/bounce ideas off similarly minded people! Hopefully you all can help.


I'm starting at 10k net worth!

I advise you to do what you do best. In the future, it will help you turn it into a business.

Hi everyone!
I'd like to be a milionaire by the time I'm 50, I'm 42 now. I don't know, how to do it, though. I've been running my cleaning business for 8 years now, I was growing it, but my son came along and I focused on him. But he's at school now and I can focus on my career now. I'm doing accounting qualifications now and getting licence for providing payroll services. I like cleaning industry and there's always will be demmand for it, but I can do only so much myslef and employing good staff is a challenge. My dream is to develop-sell limescale cleaning product, which actually works.

Good morning everyone.

How are we all doing. What have you all been up to.

I thought that as it's almost the start of the new financial year I would check in and have a catch up.

I have been soft pedalling for a while as you know, concentrating on a couple of minor health issues and endeavouring to take myself in hand, lose weight and get fitter. Well I've lost 1 stone and a half so far so that's going well.

I have been having a clear out, decluttering and getting organised. The bathroom is complete and am now working on the kitchen. The garden is taking shape, the jungle cleared and new planting is going well. I have shopped wisely and well and only used contractors for the work that is too heavy for me to manage by myself

All of this has taken most of my time but as I am retired and financially independent time is my friend. I can save shedloads of money by being hands on, and anyway I enjoy getting physical, much more fun than slogging it out in a boring old gym.

The antique dealing has taken something of a back seat but I now have a build up of stock so time to start selling again. I am thinking of branching out a bit and adding vintage clothing into the mix. Of course antique dealing is never going to get me to that magic £1m, it's just a nice little sideline hustle. That's fine, I just think of it as a hobby which makes me a few shekels.

Lovely to see some new faces on the thread. Wishing you all lots of success.

Well. Seems like you have 8 years of experience in cleaning. If you haven't found a limescale cleaning product that works in that space, you might never find one by making it yourself. May I suggest that you discover an OEM that produces cleaning products (perhaps from China) and then become a "Manufacturer" of a product of your choosing? You'll discuss the usage of your own "private label". I think you'll find this is how a lot of companies operate if you're inclined to research your favourite brands deeply enough. The process is simple, basically, you keep sending orders for your product to the OEM and they'll ship it out with your branding. If you're generating sales using eCommerce then you'll give the OEM live access to your sales records (via API), and they'll use that data to produce and ship products either directly to customers or to your business. I've had to produce some custom APIs for UK corporations in my time, so that Chinese manufacturers could manufacture products for them.

So an OEM would be start, unless you're really very inventive and creative and can actually come up with something that'll work. It's better, because you're plugging the development gap with a product that can actually sell, rather than having an empty window with no product available. Additionally, you have your previous experience as an advantage which makes you ready to market your products with your expert knowlege.

Re employing 'good staff' being a challenge, that's always the case. All you can do is keep advertising your vacancies and keep accepting the work, and pay whatever staff you have at the end of the month. If they leave, you replace them. If they don't work, you replace them.

Hi guys,

Realised I'd not updated here in 2 months it has been very quiet on here in general however!!

I've actually not been single for about 12 years - basically all of my adult life so the last few months have been an emotional cartwheel for sure. I never really got to do the whole dating thing so I was really excited to go on a few dates and get myself out there...and well...I very quickly got bored lol. I met a really nice guy fit all the boxes, we got on well etc no problem but I found myself sitting there thinking I'd rather be at home doing XYZ right now.

I've realised actually I am very much happy on my own, and I really do enjoy the freedom and having control of my own life and I just really have no interest in dating right now. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but right now I can't remember the last time I was this happy and content.

Financially, I've managed to make things easier. I've cut bills down, focused on lowering food costs and asked for a pay rise at work (which they have actually given me more then what I asked for, they really do love me haha) and come end of April pay things should finally balance themselves out because I had a few loose ends with him moving out that I had to pay out for, and I'll be paying less tax just because of how it works out...and month to month anyway for now I will be fine.

Long term I have been more focused on my degree and coding then ever, I am really pushing myself through the works so I can get a full-time job ASAP. Once this is done, hopefully this year, I will be straight knocking down my Dad's door to see if we can get this B2L on the go (pending the housing market with Brexit)

The house hasn't had much interest in fairness, maybe slightly over priced but I will just stay here if it doesn't sell. I'm making a few improvements atm painting and sorting garden, I figured even if it doesn't help it sell...I'll still be in a nicer house because of it.

Also well aware come June, I will literally have June July August Sept free before my next round of my degree, and I'm only doing my Business side next year so it won't be as intense as this year. So who know's what this free time will bring...I've never been able to do nothing. I'm excited to see what I do next!

Hi. That's very interesting suggestion, I have to look at it. Don't now where to start, when I'm searching OEM it shows product suppliers, not manufacturers.