Journal of vraxxos

Where are you and where are you going?
vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

Discovered this place a few weeks ago, have read through everything on the site at least two times and have went through a lot of the journals. Just completely in awe of what is going on here. So much so I want to start my own journal and start on a path towards financial freedom.

Some personal details about me.

Sex: Male
Personality Type: INTP
Status: Married
Children: Two (a newborn and a 2 year old)
Location: Northern England
Favourite journals: bigato, akratic, C40

My personal circumstances.

Salary: Don't want to reveal the number, but mine is decent (with slight monthly variation) for the area I live in, my wife's is low as she only worked part-time
Housing: Own a house that is worth £60k, mortgage outstanding is £42k
Other debt: Student loan of £4.2k
Savings: £5k in a savings account
Pension: Current value is about £32k

On paper, I suppose that things look alright, no major debt and net assets worth about £50k. However, I still feel poor and basically live from month to month (that £5k of savings has practically went nowhere in the last 2 years). I am not quite sure how I spend so much money - I think my biggest problem is my food shopping bill (maybe £100 a week), eating out (£20-£50 a week), buying gadgets (for Christmas I spent about £1k on a home cinema). That last one makes me cringe just writing about it.

Aims.
  • Become financially independent. I tolerate my current job, but would jump at the chance to be able to take a more personally rewarding job even at a lower salary. This goal is obviously very hard.
  • Become mortgage free. I am not sure if the house I am currently in is the one I wish to remain in for life, but one big aim for me is to pay the mortgage off. This goal could maybe be achived in 5 years.
  • Learn some skills or develop interests that lie outside of my job. Outside of accounting, I am generally ignorant (although I do read a lot of fiction)
More to come.

User avatar
fiby41
Posts: 1611
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:09 am
Location: India
Contact:

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by fiby41 »

Welcome!

How does one go about finding one's Personality Type? Is there a questionnaire, quiz or test I'd have to take?

User avatar
Egg
Posts: 250
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 10:59 am

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by Egg »

I surmise you're an accountant living up North? If so, have you ever thought about moving down South to make the big bucks and using geo-arbitrage to ease/speed your move to a paid-off mortage back home?

@fiby41 - There's an official version which you can take through the Myers-Briggs Foundation, but if you put into your search engine "Myers-Briggs personality test" you'll find dozens of free ones online which will likely give you the same result (or at least I did the official one through work and got the same result - if you don't it's an indicator you don't have a strong preference in those areas).

Noedig
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 10:15 pm

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by Noedig »

Egg (or is the alter ego, Vraxxos?)

Welcome. You are getting clued in at a younger age than I managed, good on you. I managed twenty years in banking without recognizing money is a consensual hallucination.

There's a lot of thought on these forums. Some of it may seem uberfrugal, or from the "If I stay at home and stare at the wall using hoover dust for toothpaste and fertilizing my allotment with tumbledrier lint and human feces, I will save money" angle. But that's not really it, it's not about self denial, or being cheap in all things or even as a principle, more about anticonsumerism and paring your life down to what you need.

As for developing wider interests, well you are living in an era of bounty: I read one of Cimorene's journal posts today and as a result have watched an hour of Amanda Palmer, and am utterly gobsmacked at how I completely missed such a talent. Of course you may have meant hill walking, in which case you live in a better part of the world than myself, stuck in the Smoke.

User avatar
fiby41
Posts: 1611
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:09 am
Location: India
Contact:

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by fiby41 »

@Egg: I was originally searching for official free test because I didn't know how reliable the free ones were. Didn't find any. Anyway INTJ it is.

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

March/April update

Overall savings rate was 29%, but boosted by the fact that I reduced some clutter and was able to see off a few things I no longer need. Had a major expense this month (my council tax for the year, property tax to Americans) which took up a big chunk of my wages. Had two expenses that were out of the norm as well. My baby was christened, and we had to hold a party for family/friends. The venue we managed to get for free, and we were able to do our own catering. Total cost £90, which wasn't bad considering we had to provide for 50-60 people. Also needed to replace our microwave (£60), something you absolutely have to have when you have a small baby and need to heat bottles quickly. There's no major expenses for May, so the savings rate should be more like 50%.

When I got paid in April, I decided to use the bulk of my savings to pay off my student loan. Thought it was best to pay if off and get it out of the way, especially since the interest I pay on it is greater than what I get from my savings. Over all, my net worth since I started has increased by £3k or so, boosted by an extra pension contribution I pay last month (I was doing some overtime and for tax purposes, it paid sense to top the pension up). Going forward, a more realistic increase in net worth will be £2-£2.5K going forward.

Image

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

Anyone ever fall off the ERE wagon? I managed to do so for the best part of a year :D Going back through the abandoned journal's to find my old one, I don't feel so bad, as many others have fallen. I tell you what, it'd be interesting to do a case study to find the success ratio of ERE. I suspect it's not good, ERE is something that only suits a few people of a certain temperament, in certain circumstances.

Anyway, I am back as of two months ago. The previous year before that hasn't been a total whitewash - I did manage to contribute extra to my mortgage and pension. I also managed to build up a small investment pot.

Image

Looking at the numbers more closely, I don't feel too bad about things. I should have increased by net worth by £26K-£30k, I only came in a bit less than that at ~£20k. I am going to just try and play this month by month for now.

User avatar
fiby41
Posts: 1611
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:09 am
Location: India
Contact:

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by fiby41 »

Welcome back.

I have 'Subscribe topic'ed your journal so I get an email and notification whenever you post an update.

I like your images.

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

Thanks :) I have a few neat charts created, I will start putting them up as they get more interesting.

Some more statistics. As of now, I have 5.5 years of living expenses saved. I am saving just under 2 months of living expenses for each month that I work. Assuming I live to 90, from here I need to work another 19 years to retire. That assumes compounding at the rate of inflation and no more. Depressing!

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by jacob »

0% real returns is pretty pessimistic though.

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

July 2016

Bit of a crazy month, my net worth went up by £6k!

Image

I put some money to work in British financial stocks, these have been on a tear in the last month and contributed significantly to performance. My pension which is invested in various global indexes also performed well, if a little less spectacularly. Finally, the weakness of Sterling was also a significant contributor to the uplift. It feels great to be making money on investments, but at the same time the market as a whole looks expensive.

Image

One of these days I must do some analysis on how long it will take for me to be able to retire.

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by thrifty++ »

vraxxos wrote:Anyone ever fall off the ERE wagon? I managed to do so for the best part of a year :D Going back through the abandoned journal's to find my old one, I don't feel so bad, as many others have fallen. I tell you what, it'd be interesting to do a case study to find the success ratio of ERE. I suspect it's not good, ERE is something that only suits a few people of a certain temperament, in certain circumstances.
Well I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but it appears that there are an overwhelming majority of INTJ personalities on here, especially the ones who have been the most steadfast, and then a large number who are close to that type, such as you. I have temporarily fallen off the wagon the last few months with my core costs going out of whack and made me lose motivation. But those are now back under control so I am back on again.

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

Thanks for the reply, glad to see I am not the only one struggling to stay motivated! I read so many journals where folks are smashing it out of the park, then I look at my own less successful effort and am disappointed. That is one of the reasons why I have tweaked by strategy to include home equity and my pension. As I am married and have 2 children (another on the way), living in a mobile home is not an option. Luckily, housing is cheap where I live (relatively), so it makes sense to buy as accommodation is my single biggest monthly expense. By owning my own house, that sizeable monthly expense won't need to be considered in retirement. Secondly, as I am already 32 and financially burdened, my realistic retirement date is going to be about 10 years into the future when I'm at an age of 42. As it would only be 13 years until I can access my pension, a two pot retirement solution makes sense. One pot that will keep me going until 55, the other to keep me going until I die. As my company pension scheme is generous, and here in the UK pension contributions are tax deductible, investing in my pension allows me to save faster.

I have actually graphed and modelled my approach, I will post about it later.

heyhey
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:17 pm
Location: Herts UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by heyhey »

Having kids must make it slower, but not impossible. Is your wife/partner on board with your aims?

I fail to live up to my own optimistic hopes a lot of the time. Mostly I cave and waste money on food and drink - easy feel-good options! But I just make myself track everything anyway, and I will still do better than if I wasn't tracking expenditure at all.

I'm doing a similar two-pot thing. I'm older than you so closer to the 55 when I can cash in one of my former employment pensions, but it won't be enough to live on. At 67 (if they don't change it again) when I get the state pension, plus another two small former employment pensions payable from age 65, I will be able to live on those. So theoretically I only need enough to cover my expenses to age 67, and I'm counting the first cashable pension as part of that, i.e. part of my net worth now. I have a sheet of paper where I have set out those years and the different amounts I need to cover the gap. With my current net worth I'm covered from age 62 to death, not counting equity in my house. If I released £100,000 from the house by moving to a cheaper part of the country, I would be covered from age 52. I just need to keep bringing that age down until at some point it will meet my actual age. Seeing it that way is very encouraging to me and makes it possible on a low income!

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

I actually haven't even discussed it with my wife. Financially speaking, our lives are separate. She earns a little of her own money, keeps the child benefit and I would supplement her with a small amount of money. That's enough to pay for the children, food shop, her car and her only expenses (she is pretty frugal). I generally cover everything else (council tax, mortgage, water, electric, insurance). We are both happy with the arrangement, and everyone gets what they want. My wife isn't really interested in money. As long as the family have everything they want, I can do as I please with the rest of the money. Writing it out like that, I guess it sounds a little strange!

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

I did some projections the other day. At the current rate I am building my net worth, I estimate I can retire in about 10 years. It's great to have a goal to move towards to, at the same time, it's a little frustrating that the goal is so far away!
Image

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by thrifty++ »

I think its totally reasonable for you to include home equity in your net worth. Its something which will reduce your living costs and/or can be used to generate income through both capital gain and rental income.
Im slightly older than you at 34 and only have 102k net worth, but that feels so much better than 1k net worth or negative net worth. With focus mine has been increasing far quicker in the last 14 months than ever before

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

August 2016

Disappointing month. A lot of personal expenses crammed into a short space of time meant a smaller than expected increase in my net worth. Investments performed great, but I am getting a little nervous at the exuberance of the market.

Image

Naturally, the big falls in SWR that we have seen in the last few months have slowed.

Image

I am confident next month will be much better though. For a start, I am expecting my first ever dividends to come through, I will probably start tracking dividend income with its own chart from then on.

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

September 2016

Month went as expected, broke the £80k barrier for net-worth, likely to finish the year at £90k at least.

Image

Image

Also, no journal is complete without an investment income chart, right? I got my first ever dividends last month, so have made a chart to track this. Current income for the the year is under £200, not much, but it's a start. Hopefully at some point, we start seeing some growth!

Image

vraxxos
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:36 am
Location: UK

Re: Journal of vraxxos

Post by vraxxos »

October 2016

Another great month, investing has really paid off for me with my portfolio up by nearly 15% in just 6 months (buying British bank stocks after they collapsed after Brexit has driven most of this gain).

Image

Image

6 months ago I had a target of having a net worth of £88k by year end. Last month I thought I could increase that to £90k. Well this month, I think it could be a little higher than that again, perhaps £92k?

Didn't some sportsperson once say "the harder I work, the luckier I become"? No idea who it was, but right about now I am feeling that way.

Post Reply