Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on F.I.R.E. This week I talk about hate and how it can be motivational. Also, a lot of changes in my finances and a further update on the BTL as the start of the first tenancy draws closer. First, the Quote of the Week:
Quote of the Week
This time of year is difficult for me, for reasons I am not going to go into. There is a lot to unpack from my life in the first few weeks of the year and although anniversaries should not really have that much meaning, they can sometimes be powerful reminders of where you have been and where you come from.
The quote I have chosen this week relates to an idea I have discussed before, about how hate can be a positive thing. Hate can push you forward to achieve things and part of the reason it can be so powerful is that it is one of few emotions that can endure with just one person feeling it. The object of the emotion may not even be aware of it, but the person feeling that hate can be pushed onto bigger and better things by holding on to that hate. The opposite of hate would be love, but love is difficult to maintain in a single direction. Love needs both people to feel it in order for it to endure.
I am not saying that hate is always a good thing. Hate is like a fire; it is a tool that can be used for warmth but too much of it and you hurt yourself or burn your food. Just the right amount of hate can be a great thing. It is so important to make sure that it does not develop into an obsession though, because you can end up having the object of your hate setting up home inside your mind and living there rent free. That is not a good situation to be in.
If I was to talk to a therapist about this outlook I am convinced they would say it is not healthy, but I am becoming increasingly skeptical about the efficacy of talking therapy when it comes to severe mental health struggles. I will never forget my last therapist’s response when I talked about how my anger would boil over into rage, and I would be so angry that I felt like I would explode. In those situations I would take myself away from everyone until I calmed down. Her response was, “you need to calm down”. Great, here is your £50.
Weekly Update
Work is ramping up as I continue my phased return. It is like I have never been away. Working from home is great, but I do miss the day to day interaction with some people. I doubt many offices will see a return to pre-pandemic ways of working this calendar year. I think the world has changed and businesses have realised that it is possible to have a workforce primarily based from home. What impact this has on commercial property remains to be seen, but I am predicting a lot of empty office buildings around the world over the next few years. After all, why would a business rent a huge office space when they can have their workforce spread across multiple sites. The danger with fewer, centralised offices is that if one location is evacuated, for example, the whole business takes a hit. It is also better for the bottom line if the business is not paying the heating, air conditioning, lighting and power bills for the computers.
We have new(ish) neighbours and in the last few weeks I have had to go around and tell them to be quiet. One time they were making noise well past midnight. A couple of nights ago we were trying to sleep and we could hear them through the bedroom wall, as it is next to their living room. I get that there will be noise in an apartment block, but if you are making enough noise to be clearly heard late at night, you are being too loud. This time, my girlfriend and I both went over, instead of just me. My girlfriend wanted to do the talking this time, so I stood a little to the side, out of sight of the doorway. The neighbours answered and one of them started getting loud and a little aggressive. I stepped into view and he took a few steps back. I think this says everything I needed to know about the type of person he was. The other neighbour is the one who normally answers the door and he actually came around this morning to try and talk things through calmly. It was a cordial conversation and we have exchanged phone numbers so that if there are noise disturbances in the future we can just text each other.
2021 Goals – to be achieved by 31/12/2021
1 – Reduce weight to 92.8kg.
2 – Finish 104 new books.
3 – Complete RO3 for my DipFA.
4 – Complete RO4 for my DipFA.
5 – Complete RO5 for my DipFA.
6 – Complete RO6 for my DipFA.
Being back at work has disrupted my eating habits and I have had a bad week. So, on to the next week.
I have finished a fantastic book on mental health this past week, called My Sh*t Therapist by Michelle Thomas. Although it is written from a female perspective, and there are some things that are lost on me as a guy, it is the best book on mental health I have read and there was a lot I could identify with. When recounting her experience with a therapist, Michelle talks about a time she described a really severe anxiety attack she experienced. It was bad she could barely breathe or talk. The therapist said that should this happen again, she should have a mug of tea and calm down.
This week also saw me resume my studies towards my DipFA and I have booked my RO3 exam for the end of March. I have been doing a little bit of studying each day, gradually increasing the amount each time, to gently get myself back into the routine of work and study. I would love to say this module is interesting but so far I am just learning about the tax status of employee cars and childcare. It might actually be the most boring thing I have ever read.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £150.00 (down £3,900.00 from last update).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £19,815.74 (up £2,357.52 from last update).
Fuck It Fund: £200.00 (down £400.00 from last update).
Crypto: £60.64 (first entry).
Residential Property Value: £194,909.00 (no change from last update).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £125,775.00 (no change from last update).
Total Assets: £340,910.38 (down £1,881.84 from last update).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (down £1,853.86 from last update).
Residential Mortgage: £141,026.49 (no change from last update).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £93,199.07 (no change from last update).
Total Debts: £234,225.56 (down £1,853.86 from last update).
Total Wealth: £106,684.82 (down £27.98 from last update).
Investment Income in 2021: £4.14 (target £5,000).
A lot to discuss this week. The unexpected cost of rewiring our BTL property, and wanting to pay my credit card off, meant that I depleted my Premium Bonds and Fuck It Fund. I used some of the funds released, in addition to my salary, to increase my ISA. I have also dabbled a little in cryptocurrency. The site I have signed up with had offers on where you could earn free crypto, so I am going to see how this develops and allocate a little each month towards this. I might lose money, but it might very well end up being a great investment.
Although it is frustrating having to use my savings, I feel good having reduced my credit card back down to zero after several weeks of seeing the balance creep up. Moving forward I should be able to concentrate on building my wealth balance before purchasing the second BTL later this year.
BTL Update
In addition to the property needing a rewire, it now appears that the gas fire is unsafe for use. This means an additional expense to make it safe. We are waiting on quotes, but it will probably end in the fire being ripped out.
My girlfriend referred to this property as being a money pit so far, and she is right to an extent. However, as an investment for the next few decades we will still make money from this property. The other thing to remember is that this is a learning experience. In the last few weeks I have had something of a realisation. At first, I thought that this property was a good buy, in part, because the owners had lived there a long time and seemingly cared for the property. However, the fact it had not had a survey completed in over twenty years meant that some of the health and safety issues would not have been picked up or addressed. Had we bought the property from someone who had only lived there a few years it is likely that several of the issues we have had to contend with would have been picked up along the way.
Our tenant is still due to move in towards the end of the month, so hopefully it will not be much longer before I can start reporting rental income.
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Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 