Kipling's Journal
Re: Kipling's Journal
@Alice_AU - the higher-quality wine that I buy usually has quite a long lifespan not least because quite a lot of it is fortified. Unfortfied white wines, and 'natural' (low added sulphur) wines, last much less time but they are mainly in-and-out in a relatively small number of years. Anything bottled under cork is potentially suspect, due to the risk of TCA, but absent that cork problems are rare. Even basic corks normally last a couple of decades if you have the wine lying down somewhere without significant temperature variation. High quality corks can last much longer, I have some wines bottled in the 1950s still under original cork that look fine.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 01/02/21
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £24,000
Pension 2 - £573,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £96,000
ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £3,000
Gross - £1,258,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £1,000
Net - £1,257,000
A better month for me, overall, than December, because slightly less busy at work; although very difficult in parts. I suffer quite badly from SAD and London has been very, very, grey this month. I have had some nice meals and lovely wine with the two people I am allowed to meet but it has otherwise been hard with lots of insomnia.
I spent £3,613 which is the lowest January in many years; there wasn't much to do! Annual subscriptions were £1,517. I spent £771 on wine (and also ended the month with 10 fewer bottles than I started). £567 on food. £372 on flat expenses, £254 on clothes, £116 on taxis, £16 on miscellaneous and personal care. I had 11 no-spend days.
I feel quite good about this albeit February I already know is going to be quite expensive since a couple of things connected to one of my hobbies - items that I have been tracking for a couple of decades - have come up for sale.
I did 26 exercise sessions and 10 yoga sessions but I only averaged 10,941 steps a day, again the lowest in years. Only by keeping a strict eye on the carbs did I end the month where I started it at 202 pounds.
I worked many, many hours. Quite a lot of the time (60 hours) was spent dealing with a series of complicated and interlocking management issues which I am reasonably good at but which I find emotionally exhausting. Everyone seems to have reached the end of their tether and they are now being very frank about the extent to which they are not coping with lockdown. I have a week off booked next week, and I need it, I'm just exhausted.
No progress on listing the property for sale, there's one last domestic task to be dealt with before that can happen but I've pushed that forward today and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that February will see the place on the market.
Net worth up slightly, having been up fairly dramatically (£25k+) before the stock market wobble of the last few days. Got to keep stashing the cash. Pension contributions for the year will be maxed out this month, next up is the ISA.
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £24,000
Pension 2 - £573,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £96,000
ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £3,000
Gross - £1,258,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £1,000
Net - £1,257,000
A better month for me, overall, than December, because slightly less busy at work; although very difficult in parts. I suffer quite badly from SAD and London has been very, very, grey this month. I have had some nice meals and lovely wine with the two people I am allowed to meet but it has otherwise been hard with lots of insomnia.
I spent £3,613 which is the lowest January in many years; there wasn't much to do! Annual subscriptions were £1,517. I spent £771 on wine (and also ended the month with 10 fewer bottles than I started). £567 on food. £372 on flat expenses, £254 on clothes, £116 on taxis, £16 on miscellaneous and personal care. I had 11 no-spend days.
I feel quite good about this albeit February I already know is going to be quite expensive since a couple of things connected to one of my hobbies - items that I have been tracking for a couple of decades - have come up for sale.
I did 26 exercise sessions and 10 yoga sessions but I only averaged 10,941 steps a day, again the lowest in years. Only by keeping a strict eye on the carbs did I end the month where I started it at 202 pounds.
I worked many, many hours. Quite a lot of the time (60 hours) was spent dealing with a series of complicated and interlocking management issues which I am reasonably good at but which I find emotionally exhausting. Everyone seems to have reached the end of their tether and they are now being very frank about the extent to which they are not coping with lockdown. I have a week off booked next week, and I need it, I'm just exhausted.
No progress on listing the property for sale, there's one last domestic task to be dealt with before that can happen but I've pushed that forward today and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that February will see the place on the market.
Net worth up slightly, having been up fairly dramatically (£25k+) before the stock market wobble of the last few days. Got to keep stashing the cash. Pension contributions for the year will be maxed out this month, next up is the ISA.
Last edited by Kipling on Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 02/03/21
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £619,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £48,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £6,000
Loans out - £14,000
Tax refund due - £3,000
Gross - £1,288,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £6,000
Net - £1,282,000
How can a month where you're £25k better off at the end be a bad month? That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. Pension contributions maxed out, £8k into the ISA, stock market did the rest.
February was very expensive indeed. I am embarrassed to set out what I spent. £9,983.
£4,177 on wine. I ended the month with a net increase of 29 bottles, some of them really big-money stuff, and that after a fair amount of wine was consumed (not all by me). Quite a lot of this wine spending was, in retrospect, a result of trying to distract myself while in a great deal of pain - did my back in early in the month (an hour before starting what was supposed to be a week's holiday, of course) and spent the next fortnight canted over at an angle of about 15 degrees and unable to turn over in bed without yelping like a dog that's been trodden on. Took that long to get the right prescription from my doc - there's some kind of medical flap on that is affecting normal service levels... so I've only really been back to normal the past three or four days.
£2,500 on items connected to my other major hobby, long-contemplated purchases I am happy with. £2,285 on miscellaneous - a lot of miscellaneous parent-related expenses - my father has been effectively in care this month so there has been a certain amount of sorting-things-out-at-home to be done; he hadn't dealt with some heath problems two of the family cats had developed over the past few months so sorting those out cost me £2,055 of that £2,285 which money I am guessing he won't reimburse me; and, as a gift, I got a specialist jeweller to fix his favourite cufflinks, £178. The cats are on the mend; unlike my father I am afraid. £552 on food. Travel was £140 - all of it related to cat-wrangling. £100 on an expensive and interesting but not-necessary-to-repeat 'dine at home' experience.
I did just 14 exercise sessions total and just 1 yoga session before the pain hit. I am contemplating googling 'yoga for sciatica' in the morning so I must be feeling better, right? I only averaged 9,220 steps a day, again the lowest in years. No idea what I weigh right now.
No progress on listing the property for sale. I am in grim survival mode.
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £619,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £48,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £6,000
Loans out - £14,000
Tax refund due - £3,000
Gross - £1,288,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £6,000
Net - £1,282,000
How can a month where you're £25k better off at the end be a bad month? That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. Pension contributions maxed out, £8k into the ISA, stock market did the rest.
February was very expensive indeed. I am embarrassed to set out what I spent. £9,983.
£4,177 on wine. I ended the month with a net increase of 29 bottles, some of them really big-money stuff, and that after a fair amount of wine was consumed (not all by me). Quite a lot of this wine spending was, in retrospect, a result of trying to distract myself while in a great deal of pain - did my back in early in the month (an hour before starting what was supposed to be a week's holiday, of course) and spent the next fortnight canted over at an angle of about 15 degrees and unable to turn over in bed without yelping like a dog that's been trodden on. Took that long to get the right prescription from my doc - there's some kind of medical flap on that is affecting normal service levels... so I've only really been back to normal the past three or four days.
£2,500 on items connected to my other major hobby, long-contemplated purchases I am happy with. £2,285 on miscellaneous - a lot of miscellaneous parent-related expenses - my father has been effectively in care this month so there has been a certain amount of sorting-things-out-at-home to be done; he hadn't dealt with some heath problems two of the family cats had developed over the past few months so sorting those out cost me £2,055 of that £2,285 which money I am guessing he won't reimburse me; and, as a gift, I got a specialist jeweller to fix his favourite cufflinks, £178. The cats are on the mend; unlike my father I am afraid. £552 on food. Travel was £140 - all of it related to cat-wrangling. £100 on an expensive and interesting but not-necessary-to-repeat 'dine at home' experience.
I did just 14 exercise sessions total and just 1 yoga session before the pain hit. I am contemplating googling 'yoga for sciatica' in the morning so I must be feeling better, right? I only averaged 9,220 steps a day, again the lowest in years. No idea what I weigh right now.
No progress on listing the property for sale. I am in grim survival mode.
Re: Kipling's Journal
You increased your NW by £200k in under 2 years since starting this journal - very impressive! I was reminded of LTA while watching today's budget announcement; with £800k already in pensions, would you not be better off saving in ISA and taxable accounts going forward, maybe except employer's match? If you want to retire early you need access before pension age anyway and currently 90% of your NW is locked in pensions/property.
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ bankai - thanks! But it's more easy for me to do than most because I am a fairly high earner now. In fact, save for 2018, my NW has increased by an average of about £100k a year since 2012 - in the early days it was a soaring stock market and rising property prices that did it, more recently it's been mainly cold hard saving. The two year gap between May 2017 and June 2019 was very disheartening - it felt like I was just shovelling money into the void. One of the reasons I eventually started this journal, actually.
September 2012 - 500k
October 2013 - 600k
Feb 2014 - 700k
March 2015 - 800k
July 2016 - 900k
May 2017 - 1000k
June 2019 - 1100k
Sept 2020 - 1200k
You are right that 90% of my NW is locked in pensions and property and that that is indeed a problem from an ER perspective. I am self employed so no employer match; so why do I keep putting money into a pension fund? The short answer is tax relief. If I didn't put £40k into a pension fund I would only see £22k of it. I can't bring myself to give that £18k up. Broadly I get upfront tax relief of 25% of the gross. So I put £30k into my pension fund, £10k match from govt., the rest comes out in the wash on my tax return. Given I need to save £20k into an ISA as well, that's £50k out of my post-tax income hypothecated before I start on 'discretionary' saving. This 'discretionary' saving is where spending significantly less money every month really does make a difference. Were I to get £120k a year net, with £50k going on non-discretionary saving that leaves £70k. If I spent £35k I could save a year's expenses every year and retirement could be (with what I already have) about 4 years away. But if I spend £50k I can only save a year's expenses every 2.5 years... and retirement is suddenly 8 years away. The stunningly simple math of early retirement, as MMM put it in a classic early post...
September 2012 - 500k
October 2013 - 600k
Feb 2014 - 700k
March 2015 - 800k
July 2016 - 900k
May 2017 - 1000k
June 2019 - 1100k
Sept 2020 - 1200k
You are right that 90% of my NW is locked in pensions and property and that that is indeed a problem from an ER perspective. I am self employed so no employer match; so why do I keep putting money into a pension fund? The short answer is tax relief. If I didn't put £40k into a pension fund I would only see £22k of it. I can't bring myself to give that £18k up. Broadly I get upfront tax relief of 25% of the gross. So I put £30k into my pension fund, £10k match from govt., the rest comes out in the wash on my tax return. Given I need to save £20k into an ISA as well, that's £50k out of my post-tax income hypothecated before I start on 'discretionary' saving. This 'discretionary' saving is where spending significantly less money every month really does make a difference. Were I to get £120k a year net, with £50k going on non-discretionary saving that leaves £70k. If I spent £35k I could save a year's expenses every year and retirement could be (with what I already have) about 4 years away. But if I spend £50k I can only save a year's expenses every 2.5 years... and retirement is suddenly 8 years away. The stunningly simple math of early retirement, as MMM put it in a classic early post...
Re: Kipling's Journal
Will the taxes not be higher (eventually) if you factor in the additional 25% charge on withdrawals for exceeding LTA?
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ Bankai - in theory I would be liable for more tax - but I am expecting the cap will go up a fair bit by 2031, and I am still almost 400k from the current cap, so it doesn't make sense to stop now.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 02/04/21
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £634,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £55,000
NS&I - £43,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £16,000
Gross - £1,304,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £4,000
Net - £1,300,000
March was a better month for me, in pretty much every way.
I had several days of holiday. Even if I spent many of them polishing my flat up there is pleasure in the fact that not working all the time frees up a whole load of time to get life admin done. Who'd-a-thunk-it?
When I was working this month, I managed to get back to doing more Socratic-method critical thinking to collaboratively solve problems, which is the bit I really enjoy.
Plus, better weather at last.
So I'm feeling more positive about things.
Absurd but not ridiculous total spend of £4,230.
£2,643 on wine, up 24 bottles net. A whopping £805 on food - eating well at home alone, with girlfriend and, this week, outside with other friends. £383 on the flat, including some more charges relating to its impending sale. £295 miscellaneous spending, mainly contributions to leaving or pat/mat leave presents for work. £61 on personal care. £33 on a new keyboard and mouse. £10 on a taxi. Nothing on hobbies, holidays, clothes, or meals out.
I did 18 exercise sessions total and 8 mainly rehabilitative yoga sessions. Movement (literally) in the right direction. I averaged 10,245 steps a day, much better than last month on that too so well done me. I finished the month at 205 pounds and need to have an active summer to enable me to hit my I'm-fully-comfortable-with-myself weight. Have booked in a boot camp for early October.
Estate agents and lawyers have been instructed; property has been assessed and photographed; pretty much all documentation prepared; it is going to be listed for sale next week.
And, another financial milestone reached, just.
September 2012 - 500k
October 2013 - 600k
Feb 2014 - 700k
March 2015 - 800k
July 2016 - 900k
May 2017 - 1000k
June 2019 - 1100k
Sept 2020 - 1200k
April 2021 - 1300k
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £634,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £55,000
NS&I - £43,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £16,000
Gross - £1,304,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £4,000
Net - £1,300,000
March was a better month for me, in pretty much every way.
I had several days of holiday. Even if I spent many of them polishing my flat up there is pleasure in the fact that not working all the time frees up a whole load of time to get life admin done. Who'd-a-thunk-it?
When I was working this month, I managed to get back to doing more Socratic-method critical thinking to collaboratively solve problems, which is the bit I really enjoy.
Plus, better weather at last.
So I'm feeling more positive about things.
Absurd but not ridiculous total spend of £4,230.
£2,643 on wine, up 24 bottles net. A whopping £805 on food - eating well at home alone, with girlfriend and, this week, outside with other friends. £383 on the flat, including some more charges relating to its impending sale. £295 miscellaneous spending, mainly contributions to leaving or pat/mat leave presents for work. £61 on personal care. £33 on a new keyboard and mouse. £10 on a taxi. Nothing on hobbies, holidays, clothes, or meals out.
I did 18 exercise sessions total and 8 mainly rehabilitative yoga sessions. Movement (literally) in the right direction. I averaged 10,245 steps a day, much better than last month on that too so well done me. I finished the month at 205 pounds and need to have an active summer to enable me to hit my I'm-fully-comfortable-with-myself weight. Have booked in a boot camp for early October.
Estate agents and lawyers have been instructed; property has been assessed and photographed; pretty much all documentation prepared; it is going to be listed for sale next week.
And, another financial milestone reached, just.
September 2012 - 500k
October 2013 - 600k
Feb 2014 - 700k
March 2015 - 800k
July 2016 - 900k
May 2017 - 1000k
June 2019 - 1100k
Sept 2020 - 1200k
April 2021 - 1300k
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 03/05/21
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £656,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £54,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £16,000
Gross - £1,332,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £4,000
Net - £1,328,000
Life continues.
Spent the month mainly working very hard. Some of it effectively. 'Solved' i.e. identified and delivered to the client an advisory way forward on a couple of very complex projects. Some new projects arrived. Thankfully a new team member is arriving as well.
Flat on the market for three weeks now. 12 viewings, no offers yet. I'm prepared to wait a bit. Have been looking at country cottages. The ones with relatively easy access (15 minutes drive) to a main line rail station an hour from London are (literally) megabucks. But, that access is key if I expect my girlfriend to come with me; realistically we both are going to need to spend a couple of days a week in London for as long as we choose to work.
Lowest for a while, and MMM-level total spend, of £2,543.
£1,382 on wine, down 18 bottles net. £691 on food. £174 on trains and taxis. £150 on personal care. £114 on the flat. £32 of miscellaneous spending. Nothing on hobbies, holidays, clothes, tech, or meals out.
There is some upcoming spending in each of those last five categories though, so May will be expensive. I have had my eye on a hobby item for a few weeks now. I am going to try to book a learn-a-new-skill holiday for August. I ned to get some new work shirts – formal shirt, no jacket is now the accepted garb for professional videoconference calls (except for court hearings, where suit and tie is still necessary), and my current work shirts are three years old now and wearing through in non-darnable ways. I still need to buy a new personal laptop, and scanner to digitise my personal archives. I have had some nice long relaxed weekend lunches outside with friends this month. I am not sure I will ever go back to eating out as often as I used to but there will be three such meals this month, all long-planned.
20 exercise sessions, 10 yoga sessions. I averaged 12,303 steps a day, helped by the very dry weather we've been having in London. I finished the month at 204 pounds.
Pension fund had a great month, and I earned another month's nugget, so net worth up by a remarkable £28k. I have to remind myself that these sorts of 'escalator' months are the other side of watching the pot stay flat or diminish slightly for months and sometimes years at a time when you are piling the money in.
Assets
Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £17,000
Pension 1 - £656,000
Pension 2 - £85,000
Pension 3 - £96,000
ISAs - £54,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £8,000
Loans out - £16,000
Gross - £1,332,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £4,000
Net - £1,328,000
Life continues.
Spent the month mainly working very hard. Some of it effectively. 'Solved' i.e. identified and delivered to the client an advisory way forward on a couple of very complex projects. Some new projects arrived. Thankfully a new team member is arriving as well.
Flat on the market for three weeks now. 12 viewings, no offers yet. I'm prepared to wait a bit. Have been looking at country cottages. The ones with relatively easy access (15 minutes drive) to a main line rail station an hour from London are (literally) megabucks. But, that access is key if I expect my girlfriend to come with me; realistically we both are going to need to spend a couple of days a week in London for as long as we choose to work.
Lowest for a while, and MMM-level total spend, of £2,543.
£1,382 on wine, down 18 bottles net. £691 on food. £174 on trains and taxis. £150 on personal care. £114 on the flat. £32 of miscellaneous spending. Nothing on hobbies, holidays, clothes, tech, or meals out.
There is some upcoming spending in each of those last five categories though, so May will be expensive. I have had my eye on a hobby item for a few weeks now. I am going to try to book a learn-a-new-skill holiday for August. I ned to get some new work shirts – formal shirt, no jacket is now the accepted garb for professional videoconference calls (except for court hearings, where suit and tie is still necessary), and my current work shirts are three years old now and wearing through in non-darnable ways. I still need to buy a new personal laptop, and scanner to digitise my personal archives. I have had some nice long relaxed weekend lunches outside with friends this month. I am not sure I will ever go back to eating out as often as I used to but there will be three such meals this month, all long-planned.
20 exercise sessions, 10 yoga sessions. I averaged 12,303 steps a day, helped by the very dry weather we've been having in London. I finished the month at 204 pounds.
Pension fund had a great month, and I earned another month's nugget, so net worth up by a remarkable £28k. I have to remind myself that these sorts of 'escalator' months are the other side of watching the pot stay flat or diminish slightly for months and sometimes years at a time when you are piling the money in.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 01/02/23
Assets
Property - £987,000
Saleable collections - £41,000
Car - £8,000
Pension 1 - £793,000
Pension 2 - £88,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £200,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £9,000
Loans out - £10,000
Gross assets- £2,246,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Personal loans - £16,000
Mortgage - £624,000
Professional loans - £200,000
Gross liabilities- £847,000
Net - £1,399,000
Well things have changed quite a lot in the last 20 months.
I now have a wife, a house, a cat and a car. Each one of them is the result of a conscious choice to take a risk, to be vulnerable to being hurt, and each one gives me daily pleasure. I feel as though I have been surfing a wave quite a bit beyond my skill level but it all seems to have gone okay and I am optimistic about the future.
Proposed to my girlfriend end of 2021, married autumn 2022. It's been very happy-making.
Sold my flat autumn 2021 after 19 years. Price I got for it amounted to what I paid for it + all the mortgage interest I had paid + all the council tax I had paid + all the refurbishment costs I had spent + all the service charges I had paid. So basically I had residence there for free for 19 years. We bought a house together in London spring 2022 - we were looking at properties outside town but reading the runes it looked like we were both going to need to be in the office three plus days a week going forward (and so it has proved - to get promoted you need to be meeting face to face to build relationships) so it just didn't make sense to add 6-9 hours a week to our commutes.
The cat was uplifted from my family home - he was getting on a bit in years and was losing the fight for the communal food bowl. He's put on a couple of pounds since retiring to London and with people around more of the time has also become much more talkative (did you know cats don't meow at each other but only at humans?).
My wife and I both still have both of our parents but they are on the verge of or into their 80s and in varying shades of not great health. So, we need to travel to see them rather than the other way round. They live in areas remote from public transport links so we now have an absurdly luxurious car that can get two of us plus luggage from A to B where A and B are three-four-five hours apart and in which we can arrive still fresh and ready to listen to a litany of age-related woes.
My area of practice is counter cyclical and so we have lots of good work coming in as we head towards recession here in the UK. I now have sole charge of the team and have been working long hours to build it and have doubled it in size over the past two years. I got a promotion as a result and a big profit share bump, which profit share is paid a long way in arrears but will start to feed through in a few months.
So lots of very good stuff. But in the meantime I have spent all my money. The costs of buying a house were staggering principally the impact of stamp duty which meant my effective tax rate for 2022 was more than 100%; and so I was living off savings for all of my 2022 spending; and it was a very expensive year.
The wedding was a close family affair at a registry office followed by a spectacular lunch. Including venue and all the various forms and so on one has to obtain the day cost about £6k. Both my wife and I bought new clothes for the wedding in addition but they are things we wear for work in any case (I badly needed a new suit). A few days later we had a wedding party at our new house with a large group of friends and wider family. Effectively that was two parties rolled into one as we had a daytime group and an evening group. We had lovely food from all our favourite suppliers and fantastic wine and a team of people to serve and so on. Including everything that cost abut £18k.
It's a lovely house with a garden and is (just) within walking distance of our places of work. It's in good structural condition but needs lots of the 'boring' end of building work - rewiring the whole place is the first step and that starts end of this month, then replacing some stonework in the spring, then lots of carpentry over the course of the rest of the autumn and winter, then re-jigging the layout of the the lower ground floor next year - before we get to decorating. So that's going to suck up a bunch of money over the next two years.
Cat was free apart from dealing with the undone care and maintenance (sorting his teeth out, jabs and so on - about £1k all in) and ongoing cat food.
Car was £24k between us. Ongoing annual costs are about £8k between us for insurance, parking fees, fuel, and servicing.
January 2023 spending I am simply too embarrassed to specify even in this anonymous forum but it did include paying for our honeymoon in April.
Pension fund has had a great 20 months, up £137k. I kept stashing money in it (from savings) to avoid paying even more tax to the Chancellor but, even so, half of that £137k is growth. My tilt away from the UK has paid off.
I have not been doing enough exercise this past year, as working 12 hours a day - 9 exercise sessions and 1 yoga session in January 2023 though I did manage 11000 steps a day - and I have been eating way too much carb. I ended January 2023 at 214 pounds which is 15-18 pounds more than I am comfortable with. Am refocussing on that, and on really getting back to controlling discretionary spending, for February - April.
Assets
Property - £987,000
Saleable collections - £41,000
Car - £8,000
Pension 1 - £793,000
Pension 2 - £88,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £200,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £9,000
Loans out - £10,000
Gross assets- £2,246,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Personal loans - £16,000
Mortgage - £624,000
Professional loans - £200,000
Gross liabilities- £847,000
Net - £1,399,000
Well things have changed quite a lot in the last 20 months.
I now have a wife, a house, a cat and a car. Each one of them is the result of a conscious choice to take a risk, to be vulnerable to being hurt, and each one gives me daily pleasure. I feel as though I have been surfing a wave quite a bit beyond my skill level but it all seems to have gone okay and I am optimistic about the future.
Proposed to my girlfriend end of 2021, married autumn 2022. It's been very happy-making.
Sold my flat autumn 2021 after 19 years. Price I got for it amounted to what I paid for it + all the mortgage interest I had paid + all the council tax I had paid + all the refurbishment costs I had spent + all the service charges I had paid. So basically I had residence there for free for 19 years. We bought a house together in London spring 2022 - we were looking at properties outside town but reading the runes it looked like we were both going to need to be in the office three plus days a week going forward (and so it has proved - to get promoted you need to be meeting face to face to build relationships) so it just didn't make sense to add 6-9 hours a week to our commutes.
The cat was uplifted from my family home - he was getting on a bit in years and was losing the fight for the communal food bowl. He's put on a couple of pounds since retiring to London and with people around more of the time has also become much more talkative (did you know cats don't meow at each other but only at humans?).
My wife and I both still have both of our parents but they are on the verge of or into their 80s and in varying shades of not great health. So, we need to travel to see them rather than the other way round. They live in areas remote from public transport links so we now have an absurdly luxurious car that can get two of us plus luggage from A to B where A and B are three-four-five hours apart and in which we can arrive still fresh and ready to listen to a litany of age-related woes.
My area of practice is counter cyclical and so we have lots of good work coming in as we head towards recession here in the UK. I now have sole charge of the team and have been working long hours to build it and have doubled it in size over the past two years. I got a promotion as a result and a big profit share bump, which profit share is paid a long way in arrears but will start to feed through in a few months.
So lots of very good stuff. But in the meantime I have spent all my money. The costs of buying a house were staggering principally the impact of stamp duty which meant my effective tax rate for 2022 was more than 100%; and so I was living off savings for all of my 2022 spending; and it was a very expensive year.
The wedding was a close family affair at a registry office followed by a spectacular lunch. Including venue and all the various forms and so on one has to obtain the day cost about £6k. Both my wife and I bought new clothes for the wedding in addition but they are things we wear for work in any case (I badly needed a new suit). A few days later we had a wedding party at our new house with a large group of friends and wider family. Effectively that was two parties rolled into one as we had a daytime group and an evening group. We had lovely food from all our favourite suppliers and fantastic wine and a team of people to serve and so on. Including everything that cost abut £18k.
It's a lovely house with a garden and is (just) within walking distance of our places of work. It's in good structural condition but needs lots of the 'boring' end of building work - rewiring the whole place is the first step and that starts end of this month, then replacing some stonework in the spring, then lots of carpentry over the course of the rest of the autumn and winter, then re-jigging the layout of the the lower ground floor next year - before we get to decorating. So that's going to suck up a bunch of money over the next two years.
Cat was free apart from dealing with the undone care and maintenance (sorting his teeth out, jabs and so on - about £1k all in) and ongoing cat food.
Car was £24k between us. Ongoing annual costs are about £8k between us for insurance, parking fees, fuel, and servicing.
January 2023 spending I am simply too embarrassed to specify even in this anonymous forum but it did include paying for our honeymoon in April.
Pension fund has had a great 20 months, up £137k. I kept stashing money in it (from savings) to avoid paying even more tax to the Chancellor but, even so, half of that £137k is growth. My tilt away from the UK has paid off.
I have not been doing enough exercise this past year, as working 12 hours a day - 9 exercise sessions and 1 yoga session in January 2023 though I did manage 11000 steps a day - and I have been eating way too much carb. I ended January 2023 at 214 pounds which is 15-18 pounds more than I am comfortable with. Am refocussing on that, and on really getting back to controlling discretionary spending, for February - April.
Last edited by Kipling on Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Kipling's Journal
I remain grateful to all of the thoughtful people who post on the ERE forums about their hopes, fears, and inspiring adventures. I lurk and I read, even when not contributing. What you do, and talk about doing, individually, and collectively, really helps those of us who mainly lurk.
Assets and liabilities check 01/10/23
Assets
Property - £996,000
Saleable collections - £41,000
Car - £8,000
Pension 1 - £838,000
Pension 2 - £88,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £10,000
Loans out - £11,000
Gross assets- £2,332,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £27,000
Mortgage - £601,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £866,000
Net - £1,466,000.
I had a bad bout of covid a month ago; I am still coughing; I was completely unable to exercise, and so a bit depressed, until mid-month; this update post was started a couple of weeks ago as one way of reassuring myself that things are okay on a meta level. Then sadly the circle of life intervened and everything became even more complicated. But the first step to doing better is to recognise the situation you are in so here goes.
Assets are up.
Property is worth, net, a bit more than we paid for it; the market is flattish but a survey of the similar properties suggests that what we have spent on it in terms of major works would be reflected in the sale price.
Have added a few small things to the collections but nothing to shift the financial dial.
Car value is holding up. Or was until someone sideswiped it with a school bus last week while it was parked. The repairs, which thankfully will be covered by their insurers, will be expensive as they managed to swipe both the front wing and bumper assemblies.
Pension fund 1 has had a good 8 months; despite the fact that I've had nothing to put in it, it's up £45,000. My tilt away from the UK continues to pay off.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent) .
Professional assets (my capital in the firm) is up 30k to 230k but that's all back to back loans so matched to liabilities.
Nothing in ISAs
Nothing in NS&I.
Some cash at bank.
Loans out are going to be repaid over the next year or so as family finances are restructured.
Liabilities are up. I've used personal loans and credit cards to fund expenses in excess of income over the past 17 months. I even have an overdraft facility, for the first time since 2008, to deal with when I have too much month at the end of my money.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month (just after the end of the month, so it is always about 50 days spending on 1st of month).
Loans are to support the works we have been having done on the house.
I have chipped about £23k off the mortgage since the last update.
Net wealth up £67k despite all the spending; mainly the increase in the value of Pension fund 1.
After 17 months of living on basic drawings plus debt, the profit share from being in the senior equity at my firm has just started to feed through. I will (eventually) get paid, for the last financial year, about 50% more than I earned in the financial year before that. For the current financial year, I will get a further bump of 20% on that already higher figure (so I will be earning 80% more than what I was 2 years ago). Even in corrected-for-declining-buying-power of the pound, I am now earning about twice what my father earned at his peak (when he was about 55).
I will, however, pay 47% of my whole income away in income tax and national insurance contributions this year... the UK's progressive taxation system means earning less income and spending less money is a lot more tax efficient than earning more income and spending more money…
At least I am starting to be able to pay off some of the debts I have accumulated in the orgy of spending in the past couple of years. Funding my pension fund (because that's the most tax efficient thing to do), paying off debt, and finishing the house renovations are my focus between now and 2026. Then I need to build up a stash to pay off the mortgage. My mortgage is fixed at an-in-hindsight-barely-plausible 1.51% until February 2027. I started with 660k in February 2022 and it's a 15 year term. At 1.51% interest the repayment curve is basically flat. In February 2027 I will, in an ideal world, have a chunk of cash to knock a hole in the then-remaining c450k of debt - to enable me to compress the remaining term.
My area of practice is counter-cyclical and we have lots of high quality work coming in. I am continuing to hire, with another team member starting last month and two more hires in the pipeline. I am spending half my time on management now for which I get paid nothing – so in a sense, I get penalised for focussing on management - but I have in the past few months managed to made peace with that reality - after almost half a decade of trying so to do. I am being paid, what is by any reasonable societal metric, loads of money anyway. The real reward, I have come to realise, is not financial but in managing a happy team of clever individuals, who are truly a pleasure to work with, and who surprise me positively almost every day. And, if I look at the market for what I do in a UK-wide sense, I am 'winning the game' precisely because I choose to do that unremunerated work – because I have created a good place for people to work, I am growing turnover, profit, market share and profile.
House has been rewired. That was a painful process. We had to pack everything up and move out completely for three weeks for the electricians to tear everything out and rewire the place from top to bottom. Then we had to move back in again and unpack everything. All in all this cost about £30,000. But it's done now and won’t need to be done again in my lifetime. It's a fair price to pay for being able to turn the washing machine, the tumble drier, and the iron on at the same time without tripping the fuses and half the house going dark.
Then we had our honeymoon (exotic, foreign, super-expensive, truly fascinating, glad I've been there, planning on never doing anything remotely like it again).
Then we had builders in for three weeks to do the finishing work left by the electricians for them to do. This cost another £10,000. There is still some actual (ceiling) plastering to do which is a specific skilled job; getting one's hands on a skilled plasterer in London is quite hard at the moment. But at least we are past the stage of having to clean everything down again and again and again for this year.
Long- (pandemic-) delayed trip to the US for some wine events also finally came good this year. Was jolly interesting. I learned a lot about Oregon Pinot Noir including that, in Oregon, once you are above the generic AVA juice level (so beyond about $40 a bottle) there is uncertain correlation between increased quality and increased price.
Stonework renovation and replacement for house has just received planning permission and listed building consent after six months. UK local government planning departments are odd places. Example – (non-statutory) insistence on scale drawings which have a (less accurate) visual scale on them even though the drawings previously submitted both are to scale and also have the exact measurements in millimetres on them...
I have been coping some difficult family issues the past six months. My father's physical and mental health has been declining steadily for some years and he needed (very expensive) inpatient nursing care from April onwards when his erstwhile carers finally threw in the towel (they had been awesome – I had been advocating for them to do so for the last year). When I first starting drafting this update, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote 'his life is gently drawing to a close'; he died a week ago. I had been to see him the week before and he was very much fading. We are all sad at the end of an era; but he was 87, had lived a good life, and was ready to go. My mother needs ongoing emotional and logistical support which I have had to step up to provide. I helped her sell some assets to fund my father's care and to help sort out his very substantial debts but that's going to be an ongoing project where I am going to have to provide bridging finance. Dealing with it all has basically taken all my spare time for many months. Hence, inter alia, no updates here.
February: 10,897 steps average, 6 exercise session, 4 yoga sessions, £6,570 spent, £3,019 of that on household expenses (mainly light fittings for rewiring), £941 on wine, £919 on travel expenses (mostly driving lessons).
March: 11,857 steps average, 3 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £20,283 spent, £15,682 of that on household expenses (mainly £13,893 relating to the rewiring)), £1,600 on wine, £855 on a new will, £711 on holiday expenses.
April: 9,863 steps average, 6 exercise sessions, 4 yoga sessions, £7,050 spent, £3,281 of that on holidaying, £1,569 of household expenses, £771 on wine.
May: 9,685 steps average, 8 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £5,038 spent, analysis not yet done
June: 8,936 steps average, 4 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,898 spent, analysis not yet done
July: 10,291 steps average, 12 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,322 spent, analysis not yet done
August: 10,846 steps average, 10 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,361 spent, analysis not yet done
September: 11,933 steps average, 8 exercise sessions, 1 yoga session, £8,938 spent, analysis not yet done
As this sorry tale suggests I have not being doing even vaguely enough exercise and have been spending terrifying amounts. Having been around 212 pounds +/- 2 pounds for the past year I hit a high of 217 pounds when I came back from the US and I have only now fought back down to 214. I have signed up for a half marathon end of November. I had got back up to running for an hour at a time before my bout of covid hit and have just, now, got back to that with something of a struggle and some aching muscles.
Assets and liabilities check 01/10/23
Assets
Property - £996,000
Saleable collections - £41,000
Car - £8,000
Pension 1 - £838,000
Pension 2 - £88,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £10,000
Loans out - £11,000
Gross assets- £2,332,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £27,000
Mortgage - £601,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £866,000
Net - £1,466,000.
I had a bad bout of covid a month ago; I am still coughing; I was completely unable to exercise, and so a bit depressed, until mid-month; this update post was started a couple of weeks ago as one way of reassuring myself that things are okay on a meta level. Then sadly the circle of life intervened and everything became even more complicated. But the first step to doing better is to recognise the situation you are in so here goes.
Assets are up.
Property is worth, net, a bit more than we paid for it; the market is flattish but a survey of the similar properties suggests that what we have spent on it in terms of major works would be reflected in the sale price.
Have added a few small things to the collections but nothing to shift the financial dial.
Car value is holding up. Or was until someone sideswiped it with a school bus last week while it was parked. The repairs, which thankfully will be covered by their insurers, will be expensive as they managed to swipe both the front wing and bumper assemblies.
Pension fund 1 has had a good 8 months; despite the fact that I've had nothing to put in it, it's up £45,000. My tilt away from the UK continues to pay off.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent) .
Professional assets (my capital in the firm) is up 30k to 230k but that's all back to back loans so matched to liabilities.
Nothing in ISAs
Nothing in NS&I.
Some cash at bank.
Loans out are going to be repaid over the next year or so as family finances are restructured.
Liabilities are up. I've used personal loans and credit cards to fund expenses in excess of income over the past 17 months. I even have an overdraft facility, for the first time since 2008, to deal with when I have too much month at the end of my money.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month (just after the end of the month, so it is always about 50 days spending on 1st of month).
Loans are to support the works we have been having done on the house.
I have chipped about £23k off the mortgage since the last update.
Net wealth up £67k despite all the spending; mainly the increase in the value of Pension fund 1.
After 17 months of living on basic drawings plus debt, the profit share from being in the senior equity at my firm has just started to feed through. I will (eventually) get paid, for the last financial year, about 50% more than I earned in the financial year before that. For the current financial year, I will get a further bump of 20% on that already higher figure (so I will be earning 80% more than what I was 2 years ago). Even in corrected-for-declining-buying-power of the pound, I am now earning about twice what my father earned at his peak (when he was about 55).
I will, however, pay 47% of my whole income away in income tax and national insurance contributions this year... the UK's progressive taxation system means earning less income and spending less money is a lot more tax efficient than earning more income and spending more money…
At least I am starting to be able to pay off some of the debts I have accumulated in the orgy of spending in the past couple of years. Funding my pension fund (because that's the most tax efficient thing to do), paying off debt, and finishing the house renovations are my focus between now and 2026. Then I need to build up a stash to pay off the mortgage. My mortgage is fixed at an-in-hindsight-barely-plausible 1.51% until February 2027. I started with 660k in February 2022 and it's a 15 year term. At 1.51% interest the repayment curve is basically flat. In February 2027 I will, in an ideal world, have a chunk of cash to knock a hole in the then-remaining c450k of debt - to enable me to compress the remaining term.
My area of practice is counter-cyclical and we have lots of high quality work coming in. I am continuing to hire, with another team member starting last month and two more hires in the pipeline. I am spending half my time on management now for which I get paid nothing – so in a sense, I get penalised for focussing on management - but I have in the past few months managed to made peace with that reality - after almost half a decade of trying so to do. I am being paid, what is by any reasonable societal metric, loads of money anyway. The real reward, I have come to realise, is not financial but in managing a happy team of clever individuals, who are truly a pleasure to work with, and who surprise me positively almost every day. And, if I look at the market for what I do in a UK-wide sense, I am 'winning the game' precisely because I choose to do that unremunerated work – because I have created a good place for people to work, I am growing turnover, profit, market share and profile.
House has been rewired. That was a painful process. We had to pack everything up and move out completely for three weeks for the electricians to tear everything out and rewire the place from top to bottom. Then we had to move back in again and unpack everything. All in all this cost about £30,000. But it's done now and won’t need to be done again in my lifetime. It's a fair price to pay for being able to turn the washing machine, the tumble drier, and the iron on at the same time without tripping the fuses and half the house going dark.
Then we had our honeymoon (exotic, foreign, super-expensive, truly fascinating, glad I've been there, planning on never doing anything remotely like it again).
Then we had builders in for three weeks to do the finishing work left by the electricians for them to do. This cost another £10,000. There is still some actual (ceiling) plastering to do which is a specific skilled job; getting one's hands on a skilled plasterer in London is quite hard at the moment. But at least we are past the stage of having to clean everything down again and again and again for this year.
Long- (pandemic-) delayed trip to the US for some wine events also finally came good this year. Was jolly interesting. I learned a lot about Oregon Pinot Noir including that, in Oregon, once you are above the generic AVA juice level (so beyond about $40 a bottle) there is uncertain correlation between increased quality and increased price.
Stonework renovation and replacement for house has just received planning permission and listed building consent after six months. UK local government planning departments are odd places. Example – (non-statutory) insistence on scale drawings which have a (less accurate) visual scale on them even though the drawings previously submitted both are to scale and also have the exact measurements in millimetres on them...
I have been coping some difficult family issues the past six months. My father's physical and mental health has been declining steadily for some years and he needed (very expensive) inpatient nursing care from April onwards when his erstwhile carers finally threw in the towel (they had been awesome – I had been advocating for them to do so for the last year). When I first starting drafting this update, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote 'his life is gently drawing to a close'; he died a week ago. I had been to see him the week before and he was very much fading. We are all sad at the end of an era; but he was 87, had lived a good life, and was ready to go. My mother needs ongoing emotional and logistical support which I have had to step up to provide. I helped her sell some assets to fund my father's care and to help sort out his very substantial debts but that's going to be an ongoing project where I am going to have to provide bridging finance. Dealing with it all has basically taken all my spare time for many months. Hence, inter alia, no updates here.
February: 10,897 steps average, 6 exercise session, 4 yoga sessions, £6,570 spent, £3,019 of that on household expenses (mainly light fittings for rewiring), £941 on wine, £919 on travel expenses (mostly driving lessons).
March: 11,857 steps average, 3 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £20,283 spent, £15,682 of that on household expenses (mainly £13,893 relating to the rewiring)), £1,600 on wine, £855 on a new will, £711 on holiday expenses.
April: 9,863 steps average, 6 exercise sessions, 4 yoga sessions, £7,050 spent, £3,281 of that on holidaying, £1,569 of household expenses, £771 on wine.
May: 9,685 steps average, 8 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £5,038 spent, analysis not yet done
June: 8,936 steps average, 4 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,898 spent, analysis not yet done
July: 10,291 steps average, 12 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,322 spent, analysis not yet done
August: 10,846 steps average, 10 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,361 spent, analysis not yet done
September: 11,933 steps average, 8 exercise sessions, 1 yoga session, £8,938 spent, analysis not yet done
As this sorry tale suggests I have not being doing even vaguely enough exercise and have been spending terrifying amounts. Having been around 212 pounds +/- 2 pounds for the past year I hit a high of 217 pounds when I came back from the US and I have only now fought back down to 214. I have signed up for a half marathon end of November. I had got back up to running for an hour at a time before my bout of covid hit and have just, now, got back to that with something of a struggle and some aching muscles.
Re: Kipling's Journal
I continue to remain grateful to all of the thoughtful people who post on the ERE forums about their hopes, fears, and inspiring adventures. I lurk and I read, even when not contributing. What you do, and talk about doing, individually, and collectively, really helps those of us who mainly lurk.
Assets and liabilities check 02/02/24
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £889,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £0
Gross assets- £2,368,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £6,000
Mortgage - £587,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £831,000
Net - £1,537,000.
Assets are up, especially pensions.
Had to buy another car - the previous one was written off after being sideswiped by a bus while parked. Inevitably that involved putting my hand in my pocket for another big chunk of cash.
Pension fund 1 has had a fantastic few months; despite the fact that I've had nothing to put in it, it's up £51,000. My tilt away from the UK continues to pay off.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent) .
Professional assets (my capital in the firm) is up 30k to 230k but that's all back to back loans so matched to liabilities.
Nothing in ISAs
Nothing in NS&I.
No cash at bank.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
Net wealth up £71k despite all the spending; mainly the increase in the value of Pension fund 1. My tilt towards the US continues to pay off.
October: 13,062 steps average, 12 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £7,589 spent, analysis not yet done
November: 12,979 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £18,401 spent, analysis not yet done (but mainly new car)
December: 11,540 steps average, 5 exercise sessions, 1 yoga session, £8,343 spent, analysis not yet done
Total expenditure for 2023 was £142,850. The majority of that was on three big expenses in honeymoon, car, and rewiring the house. I am hoping I don't have to pay out again for any of those this year!
January: 13,326 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £8,379 spent, analysis not yet done (but largest chunk was a much needed holiday and quite a bit of the rest expenses relating to moving the services supplied to the house in advance of the stonemasons starting).
Much of the winter has been spent mainlining sugar while trying to deal with my late father's estate which was in the most fantastic mess - I have spent two hours on it every evening after work, and most weekends too. I have sorted and thrown away conservatively 100,000 pages of documents, thrown away about 10,000 useless or broken items (creating 50 cubic yards of rubbish in skips), classified for sale and dispatched to auction another 5,000 items, negotiated and settled with dozens of creditors, done my father's tax returns, got my father's surviving sources of income corralled and transferred to my mother, had the house registered in her name, arranged equity release to allow said house to be repaired as she doesn't want to sell it, got basic services and heating properly restored to it etc. etc.
My father did much for me over the first 25 years of my life and for that I am and remain grateful. Then once i had a good job we operated in partnership running the financial affairs of the family between us, as the two major wage earners, for the next 15 years, and I think we both took pleasure in that. And then he went off on a tangent and ended up leaving unfinished business, disappointed women, and debts from here to Singapore. If you have kids, don't leave a mess for them to sort out, folks. It will cloud their memory of you. Because, while I am also grateful that I have the professional and technical chops to do all the necessary work, I do find that I am angry about having to spend so much time on it, because almost all of the mess was completely avoidable, with even a modicum of foresight and planning on his part, and the merest hint of self-control.
I have been too busy, and have got out of the habit of reviewing my situation wile standing outside it, and counting my blessings. I have a good life, I really do. Great life partner, good friends, excellent cat, lovely house, career more successful that I could ever reasonably have hoped when I was younger. But I do not raise my head above the computer screen often enough and say 'wow, this is pretty good, mate'.
I really enjoyed the half marathon I did in November and got a much better time than I had hoped at 2'36". It was a beautiful day, about freezing point and sunny, and I enjoyed every kilometre even if the steep uphills were pretty challenging. And I went to Madeira for a break in January and went trail running with a guide which was great but which very much emphasised that I really do need to lose some weight. So that is my primary health focus for this year - 199 pounds by Christmas. I was at 209 in November, when I did the half marathon, so sub-200 is realistic and achievable with focus, but I was 215 this morning after a weekend away where I simply ate too much. I am doing another half marathon in March to keep me motivated, and my wife and I have booked a walking holiday for our summer break.
I've noted before that my area of legal practice is counter-cyclical and business is booming; I hired another lawyer in November and have two more hires lined up for 2025. I have just done the legal directory submissions for my team and looking back over the last year at the great results we have achieved for clients was incredible - I am so proud of my team and it's a joy to watch them grow and develop.
Stonework renovation and replacement for house has finally started, 16 months in the planning. Step by step things are being reduced to order.
Assets and liabilities check 02/02/24
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £889,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £110,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £0
Gross assets- £2,368,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £6,000
Mortgage - £587,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £831,000
Net - £1,537,000.
Assets are up, especially pensions.
Had to buy another car - the previous one was written off after being sideswiped by a bus while parked. Inevitably that involved putting my hand in my pocket for another big chunk of cash.
Pension fund 1 has had a fantastic few months; despite the fact that I've had nothing to put in it, it's up £51,000. My tilt away from the UK continues to pay off.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent) .
Professional assets (my capital in the firm) is up 30k to 230k but that's all back to back loans so matched to liabilities.
Nothing in ISAs
Nothing in NS&I.
No cash at bank.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
Net wealth up £71k despite all the spending; mainly the increase in the value of Pension fund 1. My tilt towards the US continues to pay off.
October: 13,062 steps average, 12 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £7,589 spent, analysis not yet done
November: 12,979 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £18,401 spent, analysis not yet done (but mainly new car)
December: 11,540 steps average, 5 exercise sessions, 1 yoga session, £8,343 spent, analysis not yet done
Total expenditure for 2023 was £142,850. The majority of that was on three big expenses in honeymoon, car, and rewiring the house. I am hoping I don't have to pay out again for any of those this year!
January: 13,326 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 2 yoga sessions, £8,379 spent, analysis not yet done (but largest chunk was a much needed holiday and quite a bit of the rest expenses relating to moving the services supplied to the house in advance of the stonemasons starting).
Much of the winter has been spent mainlining sugar while trying to deal with my late father's estate which was in the most fantastic mess - I have spent two hours on it every evening after work, and most weekends too. I have sorted and thrown away conservatively 100,000 pages of documents, thrown away about 10,000 useless or broken items (creating 50 cubic yards of rubbish in skips), classified for sale and dispatched to auction another 5,000 items, negotiated and settled with dozens of creditors, done my father's tax returns, got my father's surviving sources of income corralled and transferred to my mother, had the house registered in her name, arranged equity release to allow said house to be repaired as she doesn't want to sell it, got basic services and heating properly restored to it etc. etc.
My father did much for me over the first 25 years of my life and for that I am and remain grateful. Then once i had a good job we operated in partnership running the financial affairs of the family between us, as the two major wage earners, for the next 15 years, and I think we both took pleasure in that. And then he went off on a tangent and ended up leaving unfinished business, disappointed women, and debts from here to Singapore. If you have kids, don't leave a mess for them to sort out, folks. It will cloud their memory of you. Because, while I am also grateful that I have the professional and technical chops to do all the necessary work, I do find that I am angry about having to spend so much time on it, because almost all of the mess was completely avoidable, with even a modicum of foresight and planning on his part, and the merest hint of self-control.
I have been too busy, and have got out of the habit of reviewing my situation wile standing outside it, and counting my blessings. I have a good life, I really do. Great life partner, good friends, excellent cat, lovely house, career more successful that I could ever reasonably have hoped when I was younger. But I do not raise my head above the computer screen often enough and say 'wow, this is pretty good, mate'.
I really enjoyed the half marathon I did in November and got a much better time than I had hoped at 2'36". It was a beautiful day, about freezing point and sunny, and I enjoyed every kilometre even if the steep uphills were pretty challenging. And I went to Madeira for a break in January and went trail running with a guide which was great but which very much emphasised that I really do need to lose some weight. So that is my primary health focus for this year - 199 pounds by Christmas. I was at 209 in November, when I did the half marathon, so sub-200 is realistic and achievable with focus, but I was 215 this morning after a weekend away where I simply ate too much. I am doing another half marathon in March to keep me motivated, and my wife and I have booked a walking holiday for our summer break.
I've noted before that my area of legal practice is counter-cyclical and business is booming; I hired another lawyer in November and have two more hires lined up for 2025. I have just done the legal directory submissions for my team and looking back over the last year at the great results we have achieved for clients was incredible - I am so proud of my team and it's a joy to watch them grow and develop.
Stonework renovation and replacement for house has finally started, 16 months in the planning. Step by step things are being reduced to order.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Thanks for sharing. Especially what you had to do to clear your late father’s estate! So different and worse compared to “swedish death”, as the elder person takes care to simplify his estate before dying.
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ J_ - I have long been a fan of döstädning. I lived for 20 years in a 30 sq.m. apartment and when I was there really had to live mindfully in terms of bringing things into it. Every year or two I would decide to go round and find 100 things to throw away every day for as long as I could. One year I managed a whole month, although by then it was down to throwing away excess drawing pins.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 04/03/24
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £922,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £148,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £4,000
Gross assets- £2,443,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £7,000
Mortgage - £584,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £829,000
Net - £1,614,000.
Pension funds have seen spectacular increases the past few months.
Pension fund 1 has had a great month, up another £33k.
In September 2012 I set myself a target of £900k in personal pension funds (reflecting the then limits on pensions saving). At that time I had £99k. I've maxed out my pension contributions every year since. Now I've hit it and that's quite the milestone. However, the abolition of the pension fund limits (for now) mean I can keep putting money in, so I will. I am cash poor at this moment, so will likely borrow money to do this this tax year - the tax benefit makes paying some interest worthwhile.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent). A couple more years contributions finally clicked through the government's sclerotic system and the triple lock uprating on those years means that it's a much more valuable asset than I had calculated, up £38k.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
So, net worth up £77k in a month, I think my biggest ever increase.
February: 12,498 steps average, 6 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £9,529 spent, mostly on wine (now on a 6 month wine buying moratorium – got out of hand so that's a habit to break).
Father's estate now pretty much sorted and it's about dealing with the living, principally helping my mother establish her new ways of living.
Been training for a half marathon which is in 3 weeks. Did 11 miles on Sunday morning at a steady trot. 213 pounds on 29/2.
Really busy at work. Put out an offer to another really good lawyer. We'll see if he takes it.
Stonework renovations on house are complete. They look fabulous. The bill hasn’t arrived yet!
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £922,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £148,000
Professional assets - £230,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £4,000
Gross assets- £2,443,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £8,000
Personal loans - £7,000
Mortgage - £584,000
Professional loans - £230,000
Gross liabilities- £829,000
Net - £1,614,000.
Pension funds have seen spectacular increases the past few months.
Pension fund 1 has had a great month, up another £33k.
In September 2012 I set myself a target of £900k in personal pension funds (reflecting the then limits on pensions saving). At that time I had £99k. I've maxed out my pension contributions every year since. Now I've hit it and that's quite the milestone. However, the abolition of the pension fund limits (for now) mean I can keep putting money in, so I will. I am cash poor at this moment, so will likely borrow money to do this this tax year - the tax benefit makes paying some interest worthwhile.
Pension fund 2 is net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent). A couple more years contributions finally clicked through the government's sclerotic system and the triple lock uprating on those years means that it's a much more valuable asset than I had calculated, up £38k.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
So, net worth up £77k in a month, I think my biggest ever increase.
February: 12,498 steps average, 6 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £9,529 spent, mostly on wine (now on a 6 month wine buying moratorium – got out of hand so that's a habit to break).
Father's estate now pretty much sorted and it's about dealing with the living, principally helping my mother establish her new ways of living.
Been training for a half marathon which is in 3 weeks. Did 11 miles on Sunday morning at a steady trot. 213 pounds on 29/2.
Really busy at work. Put out an offer to another really good lawyer. We'll see if he takes it.
Stonework renovations on house are complete. They look fabulous. The bill hasn’t arrived yet!
Re: Kipling's Journal
The space between the last two sentences is the happiest you’ll ever be with the work
Glad to hear things are going well. I’m curious that you see the interest expense outweighing the tax break? I suspect the loan available to you must be quite cheap?
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ take2 - you are not wrong...
Loan will be about £15,000 gross; my marginal tax rate is 47% so tax break is worth about £7,000; interest will be less than £1,000 over 18 months...
Loan will be about £15,000 gross; my marginal tax rate is 47% so tax break is worth about £7,000; interest will be less than £1,000 over 18 months...
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 02/04/24
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £970,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £148,000
Professional assets - £260,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £7,000
Gross assets- £2,524,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Loans - £33,000
Mortgage - £581,000
Professional loans - £260,000
Gross liabilities- £881,000
Net - £1,643,000.
Pension funds still going great.
Pension fund 1 has had another great month, up another £33k net and I made £15k of contributions before the end of the UK tax year so up £48k total. These are huge numbers for me, £48k is almost 50% of the value of the whole pension fund as at September 2012, when I started counting. I borrowed the money to make those £15k contributions as the 47% tax benefit makes the interest cost worthwhile.
Pension fund 2 is unchanged, net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is unchanged, net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent).
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
Loans are up 26k to pay for stone work and for the pension fund contributions.
I continue to chip away at the mortgage.
Net worth up another £28k in a month.
March: 12,577 steps average, 7 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £14,014 spent, mostly on stonework repairs. Didn’t buy any wine in the month - for probably the first time in twenty years. [I have lots of wine, so it's not as though I didn’t drink anything.]
Helping my mother adjust to widowhood in terms of socialising and budgeting.
Half marathon was cancelled as the (trail) course was under water. Continued to run decent distances though, four 10ks and one 18k during the month, plus a few weights sessions. M wife has been running with me which is great, since she can now handle a 10k it changes the routes we can do quite a lot, much more variety.
Other than that have been absolutely flat out at work and just coming home exhausted and sitting eating in the evenings. So, 217 pounds on 02/04/24.
Focus for the year: healthier eating, healthier work/life balance, more balanced exercise regime, reduce debt (ideally eliminate, or at least have saving to match, non-mortgage debt).
Reflect, reset, go again… journaling remains useful.
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £970,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £148,000
Professional assets - £260,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £7,000
Gross assets- £2,524,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Loans - £33,000
Mortgage - £581,000
Professional loans - £260,000
Gross liabilities- £881,000
Net - £1,643,000.
Pension funds still going great.
Pension fund 1 has had another great month, up another £33k net and I made £15k of contributions before the end of the UK tax year so up £48k total. These are huge numbers for me, £48k is almost 50% of the value of the whole pension fund as at September 2012, when I started counting. I borrowed the money to make those £15k contributions as the 47% tax benefit makes the interest cost worthwhile.
Pension fund 2 is unchanged, net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 is unchanged, net present value of my state pension (bond equivalent).
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
Loans are up 26k to pay for stone work and for the pension fund contributions.
I continue to chip away at the mortgage.
Net worth up another £28k in a month.
March: 12,577 steps average, 7 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £14,014 spent, mostly on stonework repairs. Didn’t buy any wine in the month - for probably the first time in twenty years. [I have lots of wine, so it's not as though I didn’t drink anything.]
Helping my mother adjust to widowhood in terms of socialising and budgeting.
Half marathon was cancelled as the (trail) course was under water. Continued to run decent distances though, four 10ks and one 18k during the month, plus a few weights sessions. M wife has been running with me which is great, since she can now handle a 10k it changes the routes we can do quite a lot, much more variety.
Other than that have been absolutely flat out at work and just coming home exhausted and sitting eating in the evenings. So, 217 pounds on 02/04/24.
Focus for the year: healthier eating, healthier work/life balance, more balanced exercise regime, reduce debt (ideally eliminate, or at least have saving to match, non-mortgage debt).
Reflect, reset, go again… journaling remains useful.