Onwards to freedom!

Another crazy month in the markets! Net worth up nearly 4.5k :eek:

Our figures as of 1st April 2019:

• £300,079.64 net worth (+£14,686.47 quarter / +£31,481.90 year)
• 35.3% financially independent (state pension not factored in)

Back in June 2015 I set a goal of hitting 300k net worth by the end of 2020. Turns out we've hit that level at the end of the first quarter 2019 Of course, the volatile market means it will almost certainly drop below 300k again, but I'm happy to have hit that high tide mark for now

I'll be posting my first MFiT5 update today... 1/12th of the way in and nearly 20% of the way to target. Insanity. Will keep reminding myself not to get too carried away, what goes up must come down!

I've been busy simplifying financial affairs this past couple of months. Paid off a couple of stooze cards, and in a few days time I'll withdraw 5k from PBs to pay off another. Once that's done, my depleted stooze pot balance will drop down to approx 12.5k (25% utilisation). Hoping to BT that 12.5k fee free to keep a little stooze going, but if that fails I'll just pay the whole lot off before the 0% periods end.

The every little helps current account is in my crosshairs, as is the Spanish bank current account, and maybe even the Scottish bank current account (though closing this one would require the opening of a 1.5% easy access savings account, so not much of a simplification). I am determined that my master spreadsheet will be incredibly lean and mean by the time summer arrives!

:rotfl: I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're so right Ed

I see you've been paying off balances and closing accounts too - must be something in the air, financial spring cleans all round

Hi VDOT47 That doesn't sound like such a bad couple of months... Car expenses, sure, but you should derive pleasure from the holidays and home improvements, so that will hopefully have been money well spent!

We've been making some home improvements of our own recently, but of the free to nearly free variety. We'll have to pay out for some bigger (not massive) ones soon, but right now I'm enjoying making a noticeable difference without taking much of a financial hit

On to my reason for posting today... I've always thought of our financial independence journey as a couple/family endeavour, and calculated the figures accordingly, but the other day it struck me that I'm a bit more into the FI thing than OH. I'm aiming for financial independence at a relatively young age, OH is happy bobbing along in the right direction and following the "normal" path to retirement. If we had the option to "retire" tomorrow, I probably would, but she wouldn't (I think it's as much a social thing as it is a money earning thing for OH). So it would seem as though aiming to cover all of our household expenses from savings and investments isn't strictly necessary. With that in mind I decided to do some fiddling with spreadsheets...

Our total household annual expenditure is estimated at 18k. If we assume OH covers half of that from her income, and shoves the remainder into pensions and savings for eventual retirement, I'd need to withdraw 9k a year to cover my share of the living expenses. Right now my pension+s&s+cash total is £141,127. Using a 4% withdrawal rate that's equivalent to £5645 per year, so on my figures alone I'm 63% of the way there... Adding on my monthly s&s and pension investments, and ignoring all other variables, I should hit 100% in four years time

Of course this relies on a 4% withdrawal rate being realistic. Also I wouldn't just stop working before 40 - I'm guessing OH wouldn't be too happy with that arrangement, and I'd need 11 more qualifying years for eventual full state pension anyway (interestingly enough, the full SP of £8767 each would very nearly be enough to cover our normal spending, any remaining personal provision on top would be a bonus!) Plus there's the fact that about half my savings would be locked away in an inaccessible pension - a problem if the ISAs were to run dry. No, retiring at 40 isn't the plan. Being in that comfortable situation of pretty much being able to live a simple life off my investments would open the door to some possibilities though

I'd love to be in a situation 15 years from now where I could take on a job just to help cover the children's university expenses for example, not need any of the income to cover our normal spending. Outside of that, maybe I could work half of every year in a seasonal role, any earnings being available to spend on holidays during the other half... I could take on a lower paying more personally rewarding role, work might feel less like "work" then... I'd have the freedom to start a little work from home business and have the flexibility to ramp it up at the cost of employment if all was going well, without fear of the "what if" that it could all fall flat... Or I could carry on as I am for a while and grow the stash further, or have a few more holidays...

I quite like the idea of there being a pretty huge milestone on the not too distant horizon. The thought of being financially set for a quiet life by age 40 is very appealing to me. Even if I didn't end up doing anything drastic at that point, I think I'd be happy enough just knowing that I could if I wanted to!

I'll continue to calculate our figures as a household as a rule, but I think checking in on the "selfish number" every now and then could give me a little boost along the way

Excellent credit score update this month - 882, that's just 9 points lower than when I kicked off the stooze.

I had a total stooze balance of £23,250, and total utilisation of 53% at the time of generating the score. I've since dropped that down to £12,600 and 29%, so I'm hoping for another bump next month.

Then it'll be a case of trying to BT what's left. At 1.5% that will be worth around £180 a year - not megabucks, but nice to have regardless. If it doesn't work out that way, I'll just pay off the balance and slim down my beach body spreadsheet even further. I'd rather have the money, but simplifying finances has become something of a game recently, so striking that extra column off the spreadsheet would be a small silver lining at least