Thanks. I do intend to do my best to finish. My target is August, which is extremely aggressive as I'm still doing experiments and have barely started writing.
If I do manage this. I'll have a couple of months of employment. I hope my supervisor does not expect the same level of effort as I'm putting in now. I'm working for me at the moment - that changes when the thesis is submitted.
skintstudent's journal
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skintstudent
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:52 am
Re: skintstudent's journal
It's been a long time since I posted here, although I've been lurking pretty much constantly. The idea of early retirement never left me, however the last year was a very painful part of the plan to complete and I have not felt like posting. It was a very bad year for me financially, physically and psychologically, due entirely to what I perceived to be the necessity of completing my PhD.
I'm delighted to say it's over now! That gives me so much pleasure to type that I'll do it again. IT'S OVER!!!
I have not made much progress towards FI since my last post. In fact, due to having no income for a very large part of the last year, I probably have gone slightly backwards in purely financial terms. This was partly due to my determination not to continue in academia. A position was created for me, which I declined to apply for. I wasn't consulted about it beforehand, so don't feel so bad about not applying for the job, but it did make my position in the department very difficult. Yet again I have to be thankful for my savings. I've seen so many fall into academia (some admittedly happily) who now find themselves pretty much trapped there. I was fortunate to be in a position to not have to apply for the job!
I did apply for a part-time job in another department, and was offered it. However, prior to accepting it, the new boss (mistakenly under the impression that I had accepted/would accept) asked to discuss my duties. All my concerns about what seemed a very unfair and vague contract were confirmed, so I turned the job down. I would have been working every morning and afternoon, teaching final year MEng students, for 60% of the lowest spline of the lowest grade academic. It was a lucky escape as one of the terms effectively limited me to only being able to hand in my notice during 4 days of the 10 month contract, effectively giving 6 months notice. In return, I would have only been entitled to one week of notice during the whole fixed term.
I learned the true value of a PhD in private industry during a rather disheartening job hunt – and that value was zero, or perhaps negative, even for an Engineering PhD. Eventually I did find a job and am now again gainfully employed. I enjoy the work and most of the people I work with are nice. The only downside is a long and expensive commute. Although I'm earning slightly less than I was 9 years ago, it is still more than 25% more than I would have been paid in academia. Overall I'm very relieved and happy to have found the job I did.
Now that I've been free for a couple of months, I'm starting to feel a bit more like my old self and regaining some lust for life. Things that I have let slip, like financial tracking, will re-commence. I'm also happy that the RSI to my wrist, incurred through using a terribly unergonomic microscope, is finally getting better. This has taken a year of not using the microscope. However, I'm finally able to (cautiously) fully use the injured hand.
So things are finally moving in the right direction again. I expect I'll be posting more frequently now that academia is finally being purged from my system!
I'm delighted to say it's over now! That gives me so much pleasure to type that I'll do it again. IT'S OVER!!!
I have not made much progress towards FI since my last post. In fact, due to having no income for a very large part of the last year, I probably have gone slightly backwards in purely financial terms. This was partly due to my determination not to continue in academia. A position was created for me, which I declined to apply for. I wasn't consulted about it beforehand, so don't feel so bad about not applying for the job, but it did make my position in the department very difficult. Yet again I have to be thankful for my savings. I've seen so many fall into academia (some admittedly happily) who now find themselves pretty much trapped there. I was fortunate to be in a position to not have to apply for the job!
I did apply for a part-time job in another department, and was offered it. However, prior to accepting it, the new boss (mistakenly under the impression that I had accepted/would accept) asked to discuss my duties. All my concerns about what seemed a very unfair and vague contract were confirmed, so I turned the job down. I would have been working every morning and afternoon, teaching final year MEng students, for 60% of the lowest spline of the lowest grade academic. It was a lucky escape as one of the terms effectively limited me to only being able to hand in my notice during 4 days of the 10 month contract, effectively giving 6 months notice. In return, I would have only been entitled to one week of notice during the whole fixed term.
I learned the true value of a PhD in private industry during a rather disheartening job hunt – and that value was zero, or perhaps negative, even for an Engineering PhD. Eventually I did find a job and am now again gainfully employed. I enjoy the work and most of the people I work with are nice. The only downside is a long and expensive commute. Although I'm earning slightly less than I was 9 years ago, it is still more than 25% more than I would have been paid in academia. Overall I'm very relieved and happy to have found the job I did.
Now that I've been free for a couple of months, I'm starting to feel a bit more like my old self and regaining some lust for life. Things that I have let slip, like financial tracking, will re-commence. I'm also happy that the RSI to my wrist, incurred through using a terribly unergonomic microscope, is finally getting better. This has taken a year of not using the microscope. However, I'm finally able to (cautiously) fully use the injured hand.
So things are finally moving in the right direction again. I expect I'll be posting more frequently now that academia is finally being purged from my system!
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skintstudent
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:52 am
Re: skintstudent's journal
Well so much for the good intentions. Nearly 6 months since my last update. My excuse is that work has been very demanding, with lots of international travel in addition to my extensive commute. I am starting to get my life back in order though and paid vacations are a lovely luxury I can now again experience.
Financial tracking has finally re-commenced, although only the last month has any categorisation. My savings rate last month was only 52% of my gross salary, however the reasons for that are clearly shown in the chart below. I cannot see any way to reduce the items prefixed with ** at my current employment. The items suffixed * are shared bills and the amounts here show my 50% share. Although 52% is down of my previous savings rates, it's 52% of a much higher income. Although I've had a bit of a splurge of late (which will show up in the next couple of months), I've not significantly increased my spending other than on areas I can't control.
On the upside, my net worth is back on an upwards trajectory after last year's very low income.
The final value is my current net worth (i.e. 100%) and the chart omits pensions. I have a small defined benefit pension from previous employment. My current employer's scheme starts next month, but it is pitiful at the absolute minimum they can legally do. I'll be putting in the minimum and using a separate SIPP to make some tax free investments. It's still better than nothing!
I'd hoped for more free time now that my PhD is done, but all the travelling is limiting that. When my commute is not being shared with a work colleague (and I manage to get a decent seat on the train) I've been learning more about the Linux command line. It's interesting and better than just reading fiction, but I doubt it'll ever reap financial rewards. I'm trying to think of something more profitable to do with this time.
On a very positive note, I've not had a cigarette in over 3 months. I have been using e-cigs but doubt they are as harmful as smoking. I'm reducing the nicotine level every time I buy liquid (down two levels already). Now at the 3 month point, my lungs are clearing out. I'm not as out of puff climbing stairs. Who knows - maybe I'll start exercising again! It's also a significant saving - around £20/month vs approx £200!
De-cluttering is continuing, albeit very slowly. Again though, it is progress and small steps are better than none.
I'm starting to catch up with other interests such as home brew and building things, but the current weather is severely hampering the latter. Much of the UK has seen record rainfall with severe flooding. I can't recall the last day it didn't rain. Today wasn't too bad, but our garden is a complete mud bath so I didn't get much done. Roll on spring time! One upside of the atrocious weather is that my partner is again now considering the emigration we often discuss, but never get around to.
Anyway, in case I don't manage another update this year, may 2017 bring good fortune and health to you all!
Financial tracking has finally re-commenced, although only the last month has any categorisation. My savings rate last month was only 52% of my gross salary, however the reasons for that are clearly shown in the chart below. I cannot see any way to reduce the items prefixed with ** at my current employment. The items suffixed * are shared bills and the amounts here show my 50% share. Although 52% is down of my previous savings rates, it's 52% of a much higher income. Although I've had a bit of a splurge of late (which will show up in the next couple of months), I've not significantly increased my spending other than on areas I can't control.
On the upside, my net worth is back on an upwards trajectory after last year's very low income.
The final value is my current net worth (i.e. 100%) and the chart omits pensions. I have a small defined benefit pension from previous employment. My current employer's scheme starts next month, but it is pitiful at the absolute minimum they can legally do. I'll be putting in the minimum and using a separate SIPP to make some tax free investments. It's still better than nothing!
I'd hoped for more free time now that my PhD is done, but all the travelling is limiting that. When my commute is not being shared with a work colleague (and I manage to get a decent seat on the train) I've been learning more about the Linux command line. It's interesting and better than just reading fiction, but I doubt it'll ever reap financial rewards. I'm trying to think of something more profitable to do with this time.
On a very positive note, I've not had a cigarette in over 3 months. I have been using e-cigs but doubt they are as harmful as smoking. I'm reducing the nicotine level every time I buy liquid (down two levels already). Now at the 3 month point, my lungs are clearing out. I'm not as out of puff climbing stairs. Who knows - maybe I'll start exercising again! It's also a significant saving - around £20/month vs approx £200!
De-cluttering is continuing, albeit very slowly. Again though, it is progress and small steps are better than none.
I'm starting to catch up with other interests such as home brew and building things, but the current weather is severely hampering the latter. Much of the UK has seen record rainfall with severe flooding. I can't recall the last day it didn't rain. Today wasn't too bad, but our garden is a complete mud bath so I didn't get much done. Roll on spring time! One upside of the atrocious weather is that my partner is again now considering the emigration we often discuss, but never get around to.
Anyway, in case I don't manage another update this year, may 2017 bring good fortune and health to you all!
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skintstudent
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:52 am
Re: skintstudent's journal
An expensive month, as December may be expected to be. On top of gifts there was the relatively expensive "compulsory" work night out and visits to family etc. On top of that, we've booked a week away (hopefully in the sun) in January. All of our spending for this holiday this should already be paid for. So saving 20% of my pre-tax income isn't too bad.
We also reviewed our home bills and changed internet, phone gas and electricity suppliers. Our larger than normal home bills this month were due to paying a year's phone line rental up front (10% discount over paying monthly). We should see a refund of gas and electricity payments next month as we have been overpaying and are in credit.
Taxes are still the biggest spend by a long way. I intend to do something about this.
My net worth has jumped by more than my savings, due to a partial recovery in the stock market.
To reduce platform fees, over the last few months I've switched from accumulator fund based investments to income based ETFs. Seeing the dividends coming in, because they are not hidden in valuation changes of the funds, is motivating. They are paid directly into my ISA, so stay tax protected and I manually re-invest them as part of my portfolio building and rebalancing.
I've been thinking about what I want to achieve in 2016. I'll break these down into psychological, personal, physical and financial goals.
Psychological
1) Be happy. I let things get to me. I shouldn't because most of them are beyond my control and I can only decide how I react to them.
2) One consequence of lettings things get to me is the development of negative feelings. I must try not to display these. Hopefully any coping mechanisms I develop will form a feedback loop (well that's a positive start).
Personal
1) Accelerate the decluttering. It sounds simple, but this is a rather overwhelming task. I often debate whether or not to sell something because I can't find accessories, etc, resulting in no action.
2) Spend more time on hobbies other than TV watching and reading. I'd like to advance my DIY skills (they're already pretty reasonable) and I'd also like to learn to play the keyboard.
3) Climb more hills. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't climb any >3000 foot hills this year and it is something I enjoy doing.
Physical
1) Develop strength. Although I am not inactive, my exercise levels have decreased in the last year. My upper body strength is poor. I'm noticing more back and neck aches. I want to do some exercise to develop strength to act as a preventative maintenance schedule.
2) Beat my nicotine addiction. At least I'm not smoking now, but nicotine still has control over me.
3) Eat better. Use more high protein vegetarian foods.
Financial
1) Try to save 60% of my pre-tax earned income. This is somewhat challenging due to the taxman spending more of my wage than I do. Recent pension rule changes and increased self-education on tax-efficient savings may facilitate this.
2) Try to establish what my post-retirement expenses are likely to be. My current lifestyle bears little resemblance to the life I'd chose to live if I wasn't swapping most of it for a regular wage. It's also breaking the "shockingly simple maths behind retirement". Many of my expenses wouldn't exist without work, so saving 60% is saving far more than 1.5 year's living expenses.
3) Find a new job more in alignment with my principles and desires for how to live. I do not see much future for the company I currently work for. I am not getting the opportunity to work in the areas I was told I would when I took on the role. I'd rather take a pay cut to work on technologies that interest me. There is little other demand for the skills that are developing in this role while other more transferable skills are being neglected.
4) Even when they become disheartening continue tracking my expenses.
Good luck to everyone in 2016.
We also reviewed our home bills and changed internet, phone gas and electricity suppliers. Our larger than normal home bills this month were due to paying a year's phone line rental up front (10% discount over paying monthly). We should see a refund of gas and electricity payments next month as we have been overpaying and are in credit.
Taxes are still the biggest spend by a long way. I intend to do something about this.
My net worth has jumped by more than my savings, due to a partial recovery in the stock market.
To reduce platform fees, over the last few months I've switched from accumulator fund based investments to income based ETFs. Seeing the dividends coming in, because they are not hidden in valuation changes of the funds, is motivating. They are paid directly into my ISA, so stay tax protected and I manually re-invest them as part of my portfolio building and rebalancing.
I've been thinking about what I want to achieve in 2016. I'll break these down into psychological, personal, physical and financial goals.
Psychological
1) Be happy. I let things get to me. I shouldn't because most of them are beyond my control and I can only decide how I react to them.
2) One consequence of lettings things get to me is the development of negative feelings. I must try not to display these. Hopefully any coping mechanisms I develop will form a feedback loop (well that's a positive start).
Personal
1) Accelerate the decluttering. It sounds simple, but this is a rather overwhelming task. I often debate whether or not to sell something because I can't find accessories, etc, resulting in no action.
2) Spend more time on hobbies other than TV watching and reading. I'd like to advance my DIY skills (they're already pretty reasonable) and I'd also like to learn to play the keyboard.
3) Climb more hills. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't climb any >3000 foot hills this year and it is something I enjoy doing.
Physical
1) Develop strength. Although I am not inactive, my exercise levels have decreased in the last year. My upper body strength is poor. I'm noticing more back and neck aches. I want to do some exercise to develop strength to act as a preventative maintenance schedule.
2) Beat my nicotine addiction. At least I'm not smoking now, but nicotine still has control over me.
3) Eat better. Use more high protein vegetarian foods.
Financial
1) Try to save 60% of my pre-tax earned income. This is somewhat challenging due to the taxman spending more of my wage than I do. Recent pension rule changes and increased self-education on tax-efficient savings may facilitate this.
2) Try to establish what my post-retirement expenses are likely to be. My current lifestyle bears little resemblance to the life I'd chose to live if I wasn't swapping most of it for a regular wage. It's also breaking the "shockingly simple maths behind retirement". Many of my expenses wouldn't exist without work, so saving 60% is saving far more than 1.5 year's living expenses.
3) Find a new job more in alignment with my principles and desires for how to live. I do not see much future for the company I currently work for. I am not getting the opportunity to work in the areas I was told I would when I took on the role. I'd rather take a pay cut to work on technologies that interest me. There is little other demand for the skills that are developing in this role while other more transferable skills are being neglected.
4) Even when they become disheartening continue tracking my expenses.
Good luck to everyone in 2016.
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skintstudent
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:52 am
Re: skintstudent's journal
I thought I'd post an update prior to running the my finances for this month. I'll focus on my goals for the year. I'm not off to a flying start but have made some progress.
Pyschological
Be happy. I'm a fair bit happier. A week in the sun, a short working month and the most annoying colleague being on extended leave all help with that. I did run into the the colleague during the week and felt some tension. Everything stayed courteous though and I was really making an effort to be pleasant. We'll see how things go when this person returns to work, but I'm pleased it didn't turn nasty as it has at times in the workplace.
Personal
Decluttering. No real progress. I did tidy my sock drawer although I only threw out 1 mismatched pair!
I still watch too much TV and it's still raining. I still want to do something about the former and, when the latter is no longer true, I'll get outside a bit more.
I've also realised that I should go to bed earlier and rise earlier. Early morning is the best time for me to get time to do things without distraction – as long as they are quiet. When my partner is working, she is already out, or not back yet (shift work). On her days off she enjoys well deserved lie-ins.
Physical
Develop Strength . I was shocked to discover I can no longer do a single good form press up (push up). I've never been good at them, but when I was skinnier I could manage a few. I've been getting up a bit earlier most mornings and doing knee press ups to build strength. When I can do 20 of these in good form in one set I'll try full press ups again. I looked at various 100 press ups programmes, but all the ones I saw are fundamentally flawed. If your initial test shows that you cannot do consecutive press ups, there is no way that you can complete the program for the first day, i.e. 5 sets, each comprising more than your best attempt for a single set! I'll try a program again when I can enter at about the week 2 level. My own efforts do seem to be yielding results as the number of consecutive press ups I'm doing is increasing.
Nicotine Still on the e-cigs. Liquid is going to run out in a couple of weeks. Will see how I feel about going cold turkey. At the moment I think it's doubtful. I'll definitely drop another nicotine level though.
Eat better For the first fortnight of January our diet was terrible. Our main sustenance was bread and cheese. We both realised this was not good and vowed to do something about it. This week nearly every meal has been home cooked and we have not had much bread and/or cheese (work meal out for a leaving do was the only exception). Quorn, eggs and veggies have played a large part in our diet. We both want to lose a bit of weight. Hopefully improved diet and the fact we've both almost completely cut out adding sugar to hot drinks will help.
Financial
I'll cover this in another update when I've run my figures. I'm pretty confident it will be my highest saving rate since re-joining the work force.
It's apparent to me that work and financial planning are taking up far too big a proportion of both my time and energy. Hopefully I'm on a path to redressing this to some degree, but 11.5 - 12 hours out of the house 5 days a week doesn't leave much other time.
Best case is that with my skills and experience I'll find a job that can cut this down to 9.5 hours a day out of the house, 5 days a week. It's significant, but not really a huge change. I think this will be a make or break year for our company. I've decided to stick with them for a few more months and then re-assess around April. In the meantime I'll try to focus on transferable skills that will look good on my CV. One part of my job at the moment is helping with a specific recruitment. Some of the CVs I've seen reminded me of a bad version of my own and looked quite dated. I've seen a couple that impressed me with their presentation - simple and clean while still having some style. I was also quite impressed with what Zalo came up with in his thread. I have been updating my CV to make it easier to read. It hurts pruning away significant achievements, but I really have to cherry pick. I've effectively created a super long CV (3.5 pages) with all my key skills and achievements in it and I'll prune it to fit 2 pages, dependent upon the job. I've also been looking at how best to present the 9 year career gap. During that period I did get a 1st class degree and a PhD in STEM subjects, but it is difficult to present this in mid-career with out it looking like either a long stint of unemployment or that I'm an inexperienced graduate (I was already a graduate in another subject prior to returning to university). I'm not a fan of dateless functional CVs. Although I can appreciate their function, I see them as a method to avoid telling the full story.
Without other activities throughout the week, the balance is always going to be biased towards work, regardless of how much work I actually do. I'll therefore concentrate on doing something else with the free time I have before reducing the work time. I've been making use of my commuting time as best as I can. Normally it's productive in some way, either for work or personal projects. It's a shame I can't do woodwork on the train, but I can sketch up ideas and plans.
Pyschological
Be happy. I'm a fair bit happier. A week in the sun, a short working month and the most annoying colleague being on extended leave all help with that. I did run into the the colleague during the week and felt some tension. Everything stayed courteous though and I was really making an effort to be pleasant. We'll see how things go when this person returns to work, but I'm pleased it didn't turn nasty as it has at times in the workplace.
Personal
Decluttering. No real progress. I did tidy my sock drawer although I only threw out 1 mismatched pair!
I still watch too much TV and it's still raining. I still want to do something about the former and, when the latter is no longer true, I'll get outside a bit more.
I've also realised that I should go to bed earlier and rise earlier. Early morning is the best time for me to get time to do things without distraction – as long as they are quiet. When my partner is working, she is already out, or not back yet (shift work). On her days off she enjoys well deserved lie-ins.
Physical
Develop Strength . I was shocked to discover I can no longer do a single good form press up (push up). I've never been good at them, but when I was skinnier I could manage a few. I've been getting up a bit earlier most mornings and doing knee press ups to build strength. When I can do 20 of these in good form in one set I'll try full press ups again. I looked at various 100 press ups programmes, but all the ones I saw are fundamentally flawed. If your initial test shows that you cannot do consecutive press ups, there is no way that you can complete the program for the first day, i.e. 5 sets, each comprising more than your best attempt for a single set! I'll try a program again when I can enter at about the week 2 level. My own efforts do seem to be yielding results as the number of consecutive press ups I'm doing is increasing.
Nicotine Still on the e-cigs. Liquid is going to run out in a couple of weeks. Will see how I feel about going cold turkey. At the moment I think it's doubtful. I'll definitely drop another nicotine level though.
Eat better For the first fortnight of January our diet was terrible. Our main sustenance was bread and cheese. We both realised this was not good and vowed to do something about it. This week nearly every meal has been home cooked and we have not had much bread and/or cheese (work meal out for a leaving do was the only exception). Quorn, eggs and veggies have played a large part in our diet. We both want to lose a bit of weight. Hopefully improved diet and the fact we've both almost completely cut out adding sugar to hot drinks will help.
Financial
I'll cover this in another update when I've run my figures. I'm pretty confident it will be my highest saving rate since re-joining the work force.
It's apparent to me that work and financial planning are taking up far too big a proportion of both my time and energy. Hopefully I'm on a path to redressing this to some degree, but 11.5 - 12 hours out of the house 5 days a week doesn't leave much other time.
Best case is that with my skills and experience I'll find a job that can cut this down to 9.5 hours a day out of the house, 5 days a week. It's significant, but not really a huge change. I think this will be a make or break year for our company. I've decided to stick with them for a few more months and then re-assess around April. In the meantime I'll try to focus on transferable skills that will look good on my CV. One part of my job at the moment is helping with a specific recruitment. Some of the CVs I've seen reminded me of a bad version of my own and looked quite dated. I've seen a couple that impressed me with their presentation - simple and clean while still having some style. I was also quite impressed with what Zalo came up with in his thread. I have been updating my CV to make it easier to read. It hurts pruning away significant achievements, but I really have to cherry pick. I've effectively created a super long CV (3.5 pages) with all my key skills and achievements in it and I'll prune it to fit 2 pages, dependent upon the job. I've also been looking at how best to present the 9 year career gap. During that period I did get a 1st class degree and a PhD in STEM subjects, but it is difficult to present this in mid-career with out it looking like either a long stint of unemployment or that I'm an inexperienced graduate (I was already a graduate in another subject prior to returning to university). I'm not a fan of dateless functional CVs. Although I can appreciate their function, I see them as a method to avoid telling the full story.
Without other activities throughout the week, the balance is always going to be biased towards work, regardless of how much work I actually do. I'll therefore concentrate on doing something else with the free time I have before reducing the work time. I've been making use of my commuting time as best as I can. Normally it's productive in some way, either for work or personal projects. It's a shame I can't do woodwork on the train, but I can sketch up ideas and plans.
-
skintstudent
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:52 am
Re: skintstudent's journal
A quick financial update today, comprising mostly of good news.
I've been working on updating my spreadsheet for tracking my financial state. It's a far more complex picture now that I'm paying income tax again, finally have a totally rubbish work pension (2% employer contribution - the legal minimum) and also repaying a student loan (which I may never have to fully repay). I've also reduced the number of categories as most were too small to show on charts. As a result, my charts look a little different, but they should stay consistent for a good while from now.
I've decided to report with reference to my pre-tax income. It's clear that legally avoiding tax is going to be one of the biggest potential areas for improving my savings rate. One way to do this is to defer tax by paying into a self invested personal pension (SIPP). I can probably expect to access these savings from age 57. That's only 12 years away. Current legislation says I can access pensions from 55, but I don't trust politicians not to change this. As I hold several years' savings in liquid funds, it's time to re-think my aversion to formal pensions (caused by the government controlling when I can withdraw). My newly implemented workplace pension is effectively a pre-tax 2% pay rise effective from this month.
The repayments for the student loan are compulsory and I repay the minimum due to expecting a higher return from investments than I have to pay in interest. I do however hold enough in cash savings accounts to repay this at any time should circumstances change (again at a higher interest rate than the loan).
My unexpected spending was approximately 1% of my salary. I bought a new waterproof jacket (my 5 year old one is no longer waterproof and will now be worn while gardening). I also made a small donation towards a leaving gift for a work colleague. We did spend a bit on holiday, but all from cash. We brought back a large chunk of the foreign currency purchased (and already accounted for) in December. Our grocery spend was lower than normal and I've changed providers for our phone, internet, gas and electric to lower tariffs. My 50% share of our home running costs came in at 7.3% of my salary. This resulted in my savings figure for Jan being 57.1% of my new pre-tax salary. Commuting costs, tax and student loan repayments came to 34.4%.
However, things are better than this. I expect significant refunds on our overpaid utilities from the old provider. I also opened a SIPP and expect a tax rebate of >£500 on my initial deposit. I won't be able to maintain this rate of contribution out of earnings, but do expect to receive somewhere around £200 per month average tax rebate in the future.
Now for the not so good news - my overall net worth dropped due to stock market falls. Thankfully only around 14% of my NW is in stocks and 7% in bonds. I'm still learning about investing basics so am reluctant to commit too much, even to trackers, at this point. The two new lines on the NW chart show my monthly cash savings (green - inflation adjusted) and the effect of inflation on my savings (orange). The Jan 2016 inflation figures are not out yet. These inflation adjustments will always be a month behind. I've also changed the reference (i.e. the 100% value) from my current NW to my NW when I started tracking. During most of this period my main income was a PhD stipend. My NW is roughly 7x annual spend and does include my student loan.
So overall I'm quite happy with my spending. The only scope I can see for significant improvements, if I continue at my current workplace, would require relocation. This would transfer costs to my partner unless she changed her job. I'm not willing to do this.
I've been working on updating my spreadsheet for tracking my financial state. It's a far more complex picture now that I'm paying income tax again, finally have a totally rubbish work pension (2% employer contribution - the legal minimum) and also repaying a student loan (which I may never have to fully repay). I've also reduced the number of categories as most were too small to show on charts. As a result, my charts look a little different, but they should stay consistent for a good while from now.
I've decided to report with reference to my pre-tax income. It's clear that legally avoiding tax is going to be one of the biggest potential areas for improving my savings rate. One way to do this is to defer tax by paying into a self invested personal pension (SIPP). I can probably expect to access these savings from age 57. That's only 12 years away. Current legislation says I can access pensions from 55, but I don't trust politicians not to change this. As I hold several years' savings in liquid funds, it's time to re-think my aversion to formal pensions (caused by the government controlling when I can withdraw). My newly implemented workplace pension is effectively a pre-tax 2% pay rise effective from this month.
The repayments for the student loan are compulsory and I repay the minimum due to expecting a higher return from investments than I have to pay in interest. I do however hold enough in cash savings accounts to repay this at any time should circumstances change (again at a higher interest rate than the loan).
My unexpected spending was approximately 1% of my salary. I bought a new waterproof jacket (my 5 year old one is no longer waterproof and will now be worn while gardening). I also made a small donation towards a leaving gift for a work colleague. We did spend a bit on holiday, but all from cash. We brought back a large chunk of the foreign currency purchased (and already accounted for) in December. Our grocery spend was lower than normal and I've changed providers for our phone, internet, gas and electric to lower tariffs. My 50% share of our home running costs came in at 7.3% of my salary. This resulted in my savings figure for Jan being 57.1% of my new pre-tax salary. Commuting costs, tax and student loan repayments came to 34.4%.
However, things are better than this. I expect significant refunds on our overpaid utilities from the old provider. I also opened a SIPP and expect a tax rebate of >£500 on my initial deposit. I won't be able to maintain this rate of contribution out of earnings, but do expect to receive somewhere around £200 per month average tax rebate in the future.
Now for the not so good news - my overall net worth dropped due to stock market falls. Thankfully only around 14% of my NW is in stocks and 7% in bonds. I'm still learning about investing basics so am reluctant to commit too much, even to trackers, at this point. The two new lines on the NW chart show my monthly cash savings (green - inflation adjusted) and the effect of inflation on my savings (orange). The Jan 2016 inflation figures are not out yet. These inflation adjustments will always be a month behind. I've also changed the reference (i.e. the 100% value) from my current NW to my NW when I started tracking. During most of this period my main income was a PhD stipend. My NW is roughly 7x annual spend and does include my student loan.
So overall I'm quite happy with my spending. The only scope I can see for significant improvements, if I continue at my current workplace, would require relocation. This would transfer costs to my partner unless she changed her job. I'm not willing to do this.