Bristol ERE journal.

Where are you and where are you going?
bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

September:

Spending went down a little but not as far as it should have. Plenty of excuses could be made but wont.
OUT: £2,022.00

Still plenty coming in as I head towards the higher rate tax bracket. I'll likely reach that in the next two months and then need to decide what amount to put into a SIPP and what to do with the remainder.
IN: £7,979.00
Tax: £2,384.75 Personal tax for the financial year that ended in April, I could have held onto this until January but as it's not going to any productive use I've paid it off to clear the brain space.

Up to 1.5 years expenses saved.

I put £500 into bitcoin on a whim when I saw its value drop mid September, it dropped further but rallied and I'm ahead again.

Started dealing with some health issues that have been ignored and building up. One of which being borderline obesity. Paying attention to diet and alcohol and hoping to see some progress.

I need to consider options for investing going forward, as I am almost entirely in cash at the moment, having sold the index's in last years ISA when I thought there was chance of a house purchase.

Planning for a very cheap October and will see how that goes.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by fingeek »

Wow, £8k in - great!

FWIW, I'm also not convinced about SIPP investment at an early age. Are you filling your ISA allowance each year? If not, that's worth looking at - Even if you fill a cash ISA, that gives you an option to move it into an S&S ISA when you choose to.

ducknalddon
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 5:55 am

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by ducknalddon »

bristoldude wrote:
Tue Sep 05, 2017 2:52 pm

although leaving enough in the company to pay out for a couple of years after I'm done seems like a good plan.
If you continue to draw a salary after you finish working I'm pretty sure that could be considered a loss and you can claim it back against previous corporation tax payments up to 3 years. However I'm not an accountant so not absolutely sure on this.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

@fingeek the ISA will be full for the year, yes.

The question is what to do with the rest, especially the section that would be in the higher rate tax band. As my income is from my own LTD company I'm able to choose exactly.

Given the basic rate of £45,000 fills the ISA, pays for the years expenses with hopefully a fair bit left over.

Anything else I take this year above that (and I expect there to be a fair bit above) would be taxed 32.5% personally on top of corporation tax. This is the point I'm thinking about switching into a SIPP.
I guess I'll see where I am at the end of the tax year. I don't feel any urgency about it at the moment.

Taking a salary for a few years and offsetting against tax is very interesting.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

I think I've settled on putting £10k into a SIPP this year and leaving the rest of the Profit that's over the higher rate of tax to take out at the start of the next tax year.
Essentially this will mean shifting my years income to the beginning of the financial year, allowing me to take the money out about a year earlier.. I'll then save up to do the same the following year and consider anything above that for next year's SIPP.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

October update before I forget.

Better than last month, but still quite ridiculous. November will be very expensive as I've just started learning to drive.

OUT: £1830

IN: £6823
Current gig has been extended until January with the possibility of April, though there have been the beginnings of rumblings about ramping up the search for a full timer to replace me. No particular worries on my part about this. April and beyond would be nice, but I've already made such good progress this year and net-worth increases from this gig I wouldn't be too worried. It would be nice to be able to stay in the current house for a whole year, it feels like a while since I've done that..
Should have two more months around this level of income before I get to my limit and then only ~£600 a month until the next tax year. That's already in the (company) bank and the rest of the work this year is already going towards next year.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

This is spending is getting embarrassing on the Extreme forums.
Out: £2,962
including: £560 on alcohol and eating out.
£900 on hopefully all the driving lessons I'll ever need.
£200 on food

Driving lessons should be a one off but the alcohol / eating out is the thing that stands out as stupid so I'll make an effort to attack that first.

everything else apart from the food seem relativity tight, so I'll try and give my attention to those for a few months and see if I can get some improvements in without becoming a hermit.

In: £7695.00
Good news here again.. One more month of this before I get up to the higher rate tax band for the year. Noises about expensive contractors continue in the office but nothing too worrying yet.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

Late end of financial year update.
Outgoings remained high for the rest of last year, I struggled to pay attention to how it was all going.

December out: £2,072.00 in £7,556.00
January out: £2,061.00 in: £758.00
Febuary out: £2,194.00 in: £691.00
March out: £2,610.00 in: £831.00

So that brings the year to:
£47,802.73 in (probably ~£45,500 once I've paid all remaining tax)
£26,605.16 out
and a savings rate of ~50%

My incoming has gone up almost £20k over last year, but my outgoings have also gone up £10k

This is all somewhat complicated by the fact that some (~£30k) of my companies profit for the last year has been left in the company, and will be taken out in the new tax year. This was to avoid going into the higher personal tax bracket, I'm essentially taking that as a lump this month and moving the issue of figuring out what to do with surplus to the end of next tax year.

A year spent mostly trying to increase earnings, and being very lazy and luxurious with spending. I hope to tighten up the spending over the next year while keeping the earnings the same.

I pushed the limit of cash into last years ISA but have yet to invest it.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

April out: £2,229 in: £24,483
May out: £1,516 in: £17,660
Income wise, this is me taking the majority of this years first tax bracket out of my company. I figured it's better in my bank accounts (and hopefully invested) sooner than sat in the company coming out monthly. there will be a £700 monthly "salary" the rest of the year for ease of accounting.

As I go forward I'm planning to get a similar lump ready for the start of next year before worrying about taking more out this year, then will have to think about pensions and similar. later.


Outgoing, April was much the same as it's been for a while. Lazy and high spending.
In May I paid some limited attention to my spending and was rewarded with the lowest number in over 12 months, though it's still high!

I'm aiming to continue this attention and beat it again in June, and also move the non essential spending I do away from alcohol and eating out to more interesting / fullfilling experiences.


I've not done a breakdown for a while but will try to going forward, so here's May:

Rent: £450.00
Internet: £16.50
Mobile: £10.00
Business software (refunded in income): £66.00
Clothes: £37.00
Uber: £87.55
Public Transport: £12.70
DIY: £13.40
Groceries: £315.43
Holidays: £46.10
Bike maintenance: £16.00
Mobile dating app £208.78
Eating out, alcahol: £193.50
the rest is untracked cash spend.


Some obvious slack to be removed:
£90 on Ubers! Clearly I've been lazier than I remember. I'll try for 0 ubers in June and more cycling and public transport.
£315 on Groceries is really ridiculous, and caused again by laziness and the proximity of very expensive food shops. Batch cooking currently in progress should significantly drop this and also be healthier.
Mobile dating app £208.78. Probable Tinder addiction, hopefully being dealt with. a lot of this is a years premium subscription so at least it's mostly one off.
Eating out, alcohol: £193.50 This is far better than previous months but I'll still try and drop it.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

Failure to go lower with expenses in June:
Having decided there was space in my expenses for a holiday, my housemate announced a load of bills he'd paid over the last 12 months and not mentioned. I guess I knew they were coming at some point but the amount was a surprise. Better household data sharing going forwards.

Anyway, June in: £736.00. This will be roughly the same until April next year unless I decide to take more money this year or (leaning towards) putting surplus from the year into a pension as I don't have one at all currently. Could probably put 30 or 40k in early next year if the work keeps coming.

On that note, further extensions to the current gig mean I look set through February next year. I might be able to ride this government contract most of the way to a bare-bones FI.


Spending was big, but (I'm horrified to report) still lower than half of the last 12 months.
Here's the split:
Rent: £450
Bills: £525 (council tax now paid until September)
Internet: £16.50
Mobile: £10.00
Driving test (next month!) £62.00
Public Transport: £18.80
uers: £31.84
Groceries £343.05
Holiday: £400
takeaway & eating out (mostly dates): £100
alcohol £260.0

So, Compared to last month, I did better on ubers (uninstalled)
worse on Groceries (there is a 4 month supply of olive oil in here but it's still ridiculous)
and far far worse on alcohol, mostly in one weekend at a music festival.

In July I will take the holiday I paid for in June, some nice hiking in an eastern European country. I imagine the day to day expenditure will be less than in the UK so hopefully it should still be a cheap month.
I've also been progressing to cheaper / free dates a bit better, so hopefully that cost should come down.
groceries and alcohol I clearly still need to get a grip.

bristoldude
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 1:01 pm

Re: Bristol ERE journal.

Post by bristoldude »

£100k.

Post Reply