Kipling's Journal

[horsewoman]

I just wondered where do you store all this wine?

[Kipling]

@horsewoman - wine storage is indeed an issue for most collectors. I am lucky in that my parents' home in the country has a cellar that is very temperature-stable, cool, and damp. So, 85% of my wine is there, 5% is en primeur that hasn't landed in the UK yet, 5% is in bonded storage in UK, and 5% in a wine fridge in my flat in town.

[jacob]

In Chicago (and presumably elsewhere) there are several commercial wine storage companies. Similar to a storage units but temperature/humidity controlled. Cost is $2-4/bottle/year. Some companies will even take delivery and send out bottles so you don't have to show up in person.

[Kipling]

@ jacob - yes, specialist wine storage facilities are increasingly common since the early 1980s i.e. when people who accumulated wine no longer automatically lived in houses that had cellars. In the UK the best storage facilites are (some way) underground to avoid failure of electronic or mechanical temperature and humidity control units. There are quite a few repurposed nuclear bunkers, air raid shelters, ammunition storage facilities etc. that are now used this way. Cost is less in the UK than it sounds to be the US, normally below $2 a bottle (including insurance against loss and theft- it's quite hard to break into a nuclear bunker). Collection and delivery is typically at cost. But even at $2 a bottle, an 850 bottle wine collection would be 0.2 JAFIs. Having stuff is expensive.

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 02/08/20

Assets

Property - £377,000
Saleable collections - £15,000

Pension 1 - £23,000
Pension 2 - £491,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £36,000
Cash at bank - £14,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £4,000
Holiday refunds due - £3,000

Gross - £1,193,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £5,000
Committed spend on flat - £3,000
Committed spend on holidays - £1,000

Net - £1,184,000

I spent £6,251 in July. Flat expenses were £2,541, about £1,500 of which was parts, paint and so on for tidying up my flat, and the remainder a pre-payment on the building works which start on Tuesday. I spent £1,405 on holidays - mainly a trip to Paris this last week but also some pre-payments for a further trip in October. Wine purchases were £725, of which £560 was spend already committed several months ago. £165 of new spending, just five bottles of wine, is probably the least I have spent on wine in a month in ten years, so I am going to treat that as a win... I spent £581 on food which included all the food for a long wekend with my parents. £510 on meals out- a couple of long glorious blowouts with dear old friends who I hadn't seen for many months. I spent £227 on hobbies, £165 on personal care, £56 on clothes (like for like replacements of things that had worn out) and £33 on miscellaneous items. Yet again I spent nothing on tubes, trains (other than Eurostar) or taxis. I had 7 'no-spend' days.

No investments were made in July but I have a high cash balance now to fund the maintenance project on my flat and the remainder will allow me to put some more away. I am considering putting my flat on the market, but so it seems are several others in the block I live in. Let's see if the superior interior of mine allows me to achieve a premium price but I've trimmed the value a bit. I have some refunds due from my holiday to the US being cancelled - the refunds are coming but the companies concerned are always slow to part with the cash.

I have enjoyed July. I was completely burnt out at work the first two weeks but I have been on holiday the past two weeks and have had almost no contact with the office. I barely remember what work feels like, it is like a distant bad dream. I have spent most of the last week staying at a friend's flat in Saint-Germain. A morning run, a croissant and some coffee, a trip to an art gallery, a very good long lunch, an afternoon snooze, shopping for a light supper, an after-dinner stroll, and so to sleep. Wonderful. Now back in the UK and reality (and work) returns tomorrrow...

I did 24 exercise sessions plus 14 yoga sessions, moving on from 'absolute beginners' yoga videos to 'beginners'. In June I got in a car as a passenger six times, and on Eurostar twice, but otherwise travelled entirely on foot. I averaged 15,726 steps a day. I don't know if I have gained any weight although the looseness of clothes would suggest not. [My cleaner broke my scales so I can't weigh myself. A 'first world problem'...]

[ThriftyRob]

I found your journal from a forum search for 'wine making' – in your July post you mentioned wine (not surprisingly) and you wrote about 'making people' stick to agreements, hence the hit. I found your journal interesting and whilst you're clear about where you are now, I would be interested to know where you're headed in terms of ERE goals. Have you set a limit for how many bottles of wine you intend to own?

Superior interior decor usually speeds up property sales and also strengthens your hand in negotiation (no work/spending required for the new owners). Generally agents value properties with reference to comparables, adjusted for floor area, overall condition and 'delights' (e.g. river view). But every flat is unique and can only be sold to one buyer.

[fiby41]

Thrifty (and Histro if he is reading) viewtopic.php?p=95640#p95640 Jacob tells how to retrofit for wine 4 replies down.
For the honouring contracts perhaps a trip to the London Mithraeum musuem viewtopic.php?p=202040#p202040

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 01/09/20

Assets

Property - £377,000
Saleable collections - £15,000

Pension 1 - £23,000
Pension 2 - £504,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £45,000
Cash at bank - £12,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £4,000

Gross - £1,210,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £2,000

Net - £1,208,000

I have not enjoyed August. Actually, I was mainly pretty miserable.

I spent £8,274 in August. Flat expenses were £3,447, almost all related to the building works which were completed last week. I spent £2,982 on wine, basically a bunch of special offers from merchants and cheeky bids at auction all coming in together. I'm not unhappy about getting these wines which will fulfill mainly short-term drinking requirements. The cellar is now full; one-in-one-out. I spent £592 on eating out and £539 on food for eating at home and at my girlfriend's. I spent £480 on hobbies, £119 on trains and taxis, £100 on personal care, and £15 on miscellaneous items. Nothing on clothes. Again I had 7 'no-spend' days.

Lots of money came in this month - refunds on my not-happening US holiday, plus an unexpected small bonus from work. I put £9,000 into premium bonds this last month and will put another £5,000 in this week which completes that project (£50,000 limit). Still wondering whether to put my flat on the market. Stock market went up a bit - so I clicked over the £1,200,000 mark which has been a long time coming - 17 months of saving since the last milestone.

Not knowing quite how to solve the living equation for my current circumstances is causing me a great deal of anxiety. I need some basic certainties to push off to enable me to get things done and when I don't have those basic certainties nailed down I go into a sort of existential funk and ordinary life becomes difficult.

I'd like to move in with my girlfriend. Neither of our homes is big enough to enable that to happen. She wants a garden (she has one at the moment). I want a cat (which I don't have at the moment) and to preserve walkability to work and the centre of town (which I do have at the moment). Longstop retire-and-move-to-the-country date for both of us is maybe eight years. If we both sell our homes and buy another place together, and then move again eight years from now, the wasted transaction costs (estate agent's fees, legal fees, and, especially, stamp duty) resultant on our moving in together are therefore several hundred thousand quid. It's (literally) the equivalent of us each burning a £50 note every time we have breakfast together. I have not yet moved the conversation on to renting somewhere. Difficult to do that with a cat anyway. But that may be a solution, albeit one I've only thought about while drafting this self-pitying update.

Anyway, the uncertainty has all sorts of knock-on effects. I become sluggish both physically and mentally. Doing things, anything, becomes much harder.

In my limited spare time I have been moving possessions and so on backwards and forth to enable the building works. Now mine are complete the updates on my girlfriend's house are starting.

At work it has been difficult to get things done because everyone's away (including the opposition). I ended up advising on something urgent and transactional last Friday just because I was the last man standing in my area of law - seventeen of the other eighteen people in my wider team were on holiday or off sick - and it involved doing a very deep dive into some very technical legislation and guidance very quickly. There is always a reaction from doing that and I needed an easy weekend...

... which I didn't get since I spent it with my warring parents - they are both ill, and bad-tempered with each other as a result, and acting as referee, mediator, and counsellor mean that I am just beat.

I did just 15 exercise sessions plus 19 yoga sessions. I averaged just 11,828 steps a day. I ate and drank too much. I bought some new scales. I have gained 5 pounds since I last weighed myself.

Objectively, my life really isn't that bad. But, the weight of everything just feels crushing at the moment.

[ertyu]

1. sell your flat. ask for a ridiculous price if that would make you feel better. if it doesn't sell, selling wasn't meant to be. 2. rent an unfurnished house with a garden. hide the cat from the landlord. what does the landlord care anyway if there's none of the landlord's furniture to shred? 3. move out to the country.

but it seems to me there's a psychological hold-up here. around selling your flat. you sound like you don't want to sell your flat. is this about not wanting to let go of the property (in which case you could rent it out for the time being), or is this about not wanting to give up the chance to return to your flat if you want to?

[Kipling]

@ ertyu - thank you. I can't rent my flat out as there is a covenant against doing so in the lease, it's basically a mandatory owner-occupied block. So, it's got to go. A combination of your 1 and 2 (but with disclosed cat) is looking the most likely current option. May be going to see a possible rental tomorrow.

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 01/10/20

Assets

Property - £377,000
Saleable collections - £15,000

Pension 1 - £23,000
Pension 2 - £514,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £4,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £4,000

Gross - £1,217,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £5,000

Net - £1,212,000

September was slightly more enjoyable than August. I spent much too much time working in front of a computer but some of it in more congenial surroundings than my little flat.

I spent £5,909 in September. This included £3,348 on wine. I ended the month with only three more bottles than I started which in volume terms I will call a win in volume if not in cost terms. I bought a number of 'bucket list' wines at auction which will hold over the next decade or so and which cost (a lot) more than the value of what I and my friends drank from my cellar this month. Flat expenses were £777, again higher than normal as I continue to prepare it for potential sale- purchase of transport boxes for decluttering and the like. I spent £538 on food and an additional £433 on eating out; not all of the latter quite as enjoyable as it should have been, so one to watch there. Miscellaneous spending was £210. £169 on clothes - more running kit - I have worn out the trainers I bought in January - quite pleased about that actually. £100 deposit on next spring's trip to boot camp. I had 5 'no-spend' days.

I put £5,000 into my SIPP and £5,000 into premium bonds which completes that latter project (£50,000 limit). Flat probably going on the market in a couple of weeks. Stock market more or less flat. I consolidated above the £1,200,000 mark overall.

One of the weeks this month I spent trialling working from my parents' house in the country; they weren't there for most of that time. It went very well. I took sufficient tech up with me to enable me to more or less replicate a work desk setup. I was particularly reminded that life can be lived very efficiently in time terms day to day by having a separate room for every major purpose. One to sleep in, one to cook and eat in, one to work in, one to exercise in, one to bathe in. Each can simply be left set up for the purpose for which you use it, so if e.g. you have 45 minutes between conference calls you can just walk into the exercise room and do a yoga session, you don't have to dismantle your 'office' and then put it back together again afterwards. Plus there is the green world outside in which to go for a run, apples and plums from the orchard to pick and eat, and cats to spend a few minutes stroking. I think that if London locks down again I may simply move up there for a bit. I can't do another six months working out of this flat.

I did 23 exercise sessions plus 13 yoga sessions. I averaged 13,118 steps a day. Not enough of the long walks that I like to do to de-stress. Weight stable at 206 pounds but that's still 12-14 pounds above where I want to be - so I have booked a trip back to boot camp for next April both to 'finish off' that project and to motivate myself to keep moving in the meantime.

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 02/11/20

Assets

Property - £355,000
Saleable collections - £15,000

Pension 1 - £22,000
Pension 2 - £504,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £7,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £4,000

Gross - £1,187,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £6,000

Net - £1,181,000

October has had its challenges, but overall I think I made progress on life.

I spent £4,774 in October. Flat expenses were £1,546, again much higher than normal as I continue to prepare it for sale. Almost done there, and the virus permitting November should see it on the market. The virus is alas depressing demand for properties like mine so I have cut the value in the figures above. Wine spending was £1,210 which is a win, as is the fact that I ended the month with five fewer bottles than I started. I spent £560 on food and an additional £378 on eating out; all of it enjoyed, so I am pleased about that. I spent £373 on personal care – mainly new spectacles and an antibody test (negative). £234 on computer equipment, mainly relating to outfitting a home office. I spent £221 on travel, mainly trips to see my parents. Miscellaneous spending was £217, mainly a new fridge for my parents' kitchen. £15 on clothes. Nothing on hobbies or holidays. I had 5 'no-spend' days.

I put £2,000 into my SIPP. UK stock market sharply down but I am fairly well hedged against that so losses limited. Net worth dropped overall by about £30,000.

I spent just over two weeks working from my parents' house in the country. My father was there throughout that time. He's frail and intermittently confused and is spending anything up to 18 hours a day in bed. He needs ongoing care and support to an extent which he is reluctant to admit even when he can comprehend it. It is distressing on an individual level but I tell myself it is not unusual on a mathematical level – there are probably half a million people in the UK alone working through the same slow-moving tragedy with an elderly parent. My mother's looking after him as best she can while I'm in London. As London is locking down again I am going back there tomorrow and she can then ship out.

But, it's not all doom and gloom. When in London I've been able to enjoy time with friends which has been very pleasurable. The weather was good most of the time I was in the country and I made sure I got outside for a decent portion of time every day. And it was nice to work some of the time with a cat on my knee, although sometimes surprising for colleagues on videoconferences when a little bewhiskered face suddenly appears in shot.

Really made an effort to keep fit and active. Not being in London helped with that. I did 25 exercise sessions plus 10 yoga sessions. I averaged 13,989 steps a day including managing three of my beloved long walks. Weight at 202 pounds.

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 04/12/20

Assets

Property - £355,000
Saleable collections - £15,000

Pension 1 - £25,000
Pension 2 - £563,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £3,000
Loans out - £12,000
Expenses claims - £3,000
Tax refund due - £4,000

Gross - £1,248,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £5,000

Net - £1,243,000

November was quite challenging. Difficult work situation, difficult situation with the aged relatives, other things suffered a bit as a result. Quite a bit of spending to solve problems due to lack of time. But, the stock market recovery means financially I'm dramatically better off.

I spent £4,783 in November. Again I spent just under three weeks working from my parents' house in the country. My father continues to be... not well; there's a standard downward path for men in their eighties who have had falls and broken a hip and he is following that path. Wine spending was £2,221. I also ended up with 16 more bottles than I started the month despite a fairly heavy month of stock consumption (I was providing wine for my girlfriend, who came up for weekends, and also the small but regular amounts my father drinks, most of the month). That said; not going to beat myself up. I am pleased with the wines I bought, in that I paid very fair prices (mainly in Black Friday sales); and the wines that I drank I have shared and were all fun drinking and some of them were wonderful. I spent £1,041 on food, effectively subsidising the household food budget. When I'm at my parents' place and doing the cooking I optimise for quality (health) and time because I work 60 hours a week; I choose and cook what we eat and my father pays me his usual expenditure. Flat expenses were £658, more or less back to normal, the big spending is done. Haven’t got it on the market yet, that's for next week, if work schedule (terrifying!) allows. £328 on miscellaneous items, mainly replacing worn -out stuff at my parents' house that they have not the inclination to change but which I need to allow me to get through my chores fast enough (examples: a really good iron and ironing board). £315 on holiday/work trip flights for January. Other travel was £168. £55 on eating out, one meal. Nothing on clothes, societies or personal care. I had 4 'no-spend' days.

I put £5,000 into my SIPP. Net worth up by a record amount, over £60,000 in a month. Something to reflect on: due to my low income/high expenditure lifestyle up until that point, at the age of 30 that figure would probably have represented my entire net worth. I have worked hard and done well in the years since and I should be pleased with that.

Failed to keep quite as fit and active as I wanted, but I did fairly well. I did 24 exercise sessions (including three of my beloved long walks) plus 9 yoga sessions, not as many of the latter as I would have liked but I have been very time-poor this month. I averaged 15,088 steps a day. Finished the month at 202 pounds again.

Really looking forward to my working holiday in the warm in January. Will be interesting to see if it is cost-effective.

[Kipling]

Assets and liabilities check 31/12/20

Assets

Property - £350,000
Saleable collections - £16,000

Pension 1 - £25,000
Pension 2 - £572,000
Pension 3 - £85,000
Pension 4 - £93,000

ISAs - £40,000
NS&I - £50,000
Cash at bank - £6,000
Loans out - £12,000
Tax refund due - £3,000

Gross - £1,252,000

Liabilities

Credit cards - £1,000

Net - £1,251,000

December has been hard. I have been desperately busy at work, working until midnight quite a lot of the time: Court deadlines. Today, alas, looks like it is going to be the same: Brexit-related deadlines before we leave the EU. So, happy new year to me.

Being extremely time poor means lots of spending to solve purely for time pressure; which ends up being really, really poor from a web-of-goals point of view. Example 1 - taxi to work and back (as it saves half an hour each way) is expensive, means I get less exercise, and means I get no break from the constant communication stream and that's bad for my mental health. Example 2 - ordering in food to eat at the office in the evenings (as it saves half an hour each time) is expensive, means I eat poorly as it's hard to get delivered stuff that is really good for you, and I don't get the break that consciously preparing good food gives me from the constant communication steam and that's bad for my mental health too...

So: I ate and drank the wrong things. I didn't get enough exercise. The UK went to rat-sh*t again while I had my head down. And, I spent a fortune, £7,367 in December.

Miscellaneous spending was £3,022, mainly legal fees relating to a new will, and then birthday and Christmas presents. Wine spending was £1,669. I spent £657 on food. I bought something connected to one of my hobbies for £628. Flat expenses were £529. It's not on the market yet. I'm just too busy. Meals out £439. Other travel was £276. Personal care was £150. Nothing on holidays, alas. I had 7 'no-spend' days.

I did 18 exercise sessions and 10 yoga sessions. I averaged 13,658 steps a day. But too much bad food meant I gained 4 pounds ending the month at 206.

Working holiday in the warm in January was cancelled due to the resurgence in UK virus cases, with everywhere closing its borders to the UK. At least I got refunds easily and didn't have to deal with the logistics of claiming on the travel insurance; because no time.

I'll end with three positives I have dug out of what was otherwise an extremely difficult month. Three straight days without working 25/26/27 December- slept 10 hours a day, did yoga and exercised lots. Some lovely happy dinners with an old friend. Net worth up again, clicked over £1.25m.

[Kipling]

2020 in review, and plans for 2021

Net worth - salted another chunk of money away (against previous year)

Assets

Property - £350,000 (£387,000)
Saleable collections - £16,000 (£15,000)
Pension 1 - £25,000 (£27,000)
Pension 2 - £572,000 (£513,000)
Pension 3 - £85,000 (£83,000)
Pension 4 - £93,000 (£91,000)
ISAs - £40,000 (£37,000)
NS&I - £50,000 (£27,000)
Cash at bank - £6,000 (£4,000)
Loans out- £12,000 (12,000)
Tax refund due - £3,000 (£4,000)

Gross - £1,251,000 (£1,200,000)

Liabilities

Credit card - £1,000 (£5,000)

Net - £1,251,000 (£1,195,000)

Overall +56,000. A good year on the stock market was offset by a bad year for property prices.

Spending - a bad but not terrible year. Budget 53k, spent 66k.

• Wine 25k (8k) - fail - need to just say no to tempting offers more
• Holidays 4k (10k) - pass - not that I am that very happy about it
• Food 7.5k (6k) - pass – could have been a bit better but I have been pushed for time when working
• Flat 12.5k (7k) - fail – the summer tidying up of the flat was more expensive than hoped
• Clothes 1.5 k (6k) - pass - the world moved on and I didn’t need to buy more formal clothes
• Club, societies, collections 3k (4k) - pass
• Tubes, trains, taxis 1.5k (2.5k) - pass
• Personal care 3k (3k) - pass
• Meals and drinks out 3k (3k) - pass
• New computer etc. 0 (2k) - fail – not buying this was not a good thing
• Misc. 4k (1.5k) - pass – the excess was almost all a new will which I'm not going to beat myself up about

8/11 isn't awful. But one of those fails is quite a big fail. I ended up the year with 156 more bottles of wine than I started.

Comparison with previous years

2013 £45,979 - lowest month's expenditure was £1,891 (October)
2014 £37,044 - lowest month's expenditure was £1,092 (February)
2015 £39,954 - lowest month's expenditure was £1,810 (February)
2016 £101,286 - lowest month's expenditure was £2,005 (February)
2017 £53,677 - lowest month's expenditure was £2,625 (September)
2018 £50,637 - lowest month's expenditure was £2,813 (December)
2019 £72,898 - lowest month's expenditure was £3,865 (October)
2020 £65,667 - lowest month's expenditure was £3,193 (May)

A pass in the sense that I spent 10% less than in 2019. But in truth budgeting, in the sense of setting spending allowances, just isn't working for me. My mind seems to interpret it as permission to spend that much and then springboard from there. I am going to zero-base my budget for 2021. Otherwise when am I ever going to ever be able to stop work?

Health and happiness and environment - pass

I ended the year 5 pounds lighter than I started it, having been 10 pounds lighter for much of the year, before December happened; and I have much better aerobic fitness than a year ago. I'm giving myself a pat on the back here.

My parents are in their eighties. My father's health is declining rapidly. My mother's health seems on a reasonably even keel. But it's been a rocky year for family relationships generally as my father holds the purse strings for the rest of the family (not me, thankfully, I have made my own way) and he is, sadly, becoming increasingly irrational. It is what it is and I am prepared for what is going to happen.

I was throughout the past year in a stable personal relationship, from which I have derived much pleasure, and which continues. My previous girlfriend, who I still spend time socially, is very happy too. The several small groups of friends with whom I enjoy spending time centred around my hobbies but I have sadly been unable to meet them in person for much of the year. So not bad here. Aim for 2021- more time with friends.

I am conflicted about my work. The actual work is fulfilling and upholding the rule of law has societal value as well as value to my clients. And I have had a few good wins and no significant losses. But I loathe the politics, particularly as that is mainly a game being played by the people who aren't good enough or aren’t busy enough. My immediate line management is changing; may be for the better if I get the step-up I want, or for the worse if I don't. 2021 will tell.

Summary

I can only echo what I said to myself last year. "I asked myself the other day what it was I did want. In truth all I want to do is go and live in a cottage in the country with cats and books and good food and wine and occasional social visits from friends. I must remember that the purpose of work is to allow me to achieve that. Spending to alleviate my professional unhappiness retards progress towards the goal." Need to double down on efforts this year to reach that goal...

[theanimal]

Wow that is quite a bit of wine! The good news is that I imagine you no longer have any good reason to buy any for 2021 (if not 2022, 2023...) so that budgeted 8k can drop down to 0. What triggers you? Are these impulse buys?

[Kipling]

@theanimal - I started 2020 with 880 bottles, so it's even worse than you think... I have wide vinous interests so I just buy whatever seems like keen value right now - then it goes in the cellar and comes out when it's ready and I fancy some of that particular style of wine. I think the approach for 2021 is going to be, if it isn't an absolutely killer deal, I won't buy it. No matter what it is.

[Quadalupe]

I can only echo what I said to myself last year. "I asked myself the other day what it was I did want. In truth all I want to do is go and live in a cottage in the country with cats and books and good food and wine and occasional social visits from friends. I must remember that the purpose of work is to allow me to achieve that. Spending to alleviate my professional unhappiness retards progress towards the goal." Need to double down on efforts this year to reach that goal...

What do you need to achieve your country cottage with cats goal? It sounds like the wine part is covered at least!

[Alice_AU]

Wow, (880+156)/2/52 = 10 years if consuming 2 bottles per week. Does wine normally last this long? Have you ever opened a bottle and discovered it has gone off?

[Kipling]

After writing the review of the year above I was so depressed I agreed with my clients that I wouldn't deliver any more work product that day and took myself off for a very long walk. The morning of 1 January I had lost four pounds from the day before. I figure I may need some new scales... but I am declaring a win on the weight target for the year.

I bought three bottles of wine yesterday, but they were a bargain and only cost £27 total so I am not unhappy about that.

Am looking at cottages in the country with renewed impetus.