Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. Some thoughts on stoozing, nuclear power, and Netflix clamping down on password sharing. Also, a slight financial reset.
Weekly Update
I had my follow-up with the consultant to discuss the results of the three recent breath tests and the accompanying blood tests. Much like the previous times I’ve gone down this route, the tests are mostly negative. There was some suggestion of abnormalities in my liver and/or pancreas, and I’m having more tests to clarify what’s going on. At least I’m not gluten intolerant; I really like bread, pasta, pizza, tortillas, donuts, biscuits, and so on.
I’ve been struggling with spells of dizziness and lightheadedness as I continue to taper off Mirtazapine. I’m still losing weight, which I think is related to the reduction in my Mirtazapine dose, so I can live with the withdrawal symptoms. I’m in the middle of my two-week block of taking 15mg, and assuming the withdrawal effects are not too severe I’ll drop down to 7.5mg the week after next.
We have just about finished shopping for what we need for our holiday. We will soon be setting off for a two-week cruise around Norway and we can’t wait. Norway is where this blog was first conceived, and I’ve told the story several times. The short version is that in 2019, whilst on a cruise around the fjords, I was reading books on finance and investing and wondering how I could escape the rat race. I discovered the FIRE movement and my blog at the time was stale and sat dormant, and the name “Mortgage Advisor on FIRE” just popped into my head. Who knows what lightbulb moments will take place on this cruise?
A Moment of Remembrance
It’s been a while since I’ve done a section on The Tory Shambles and this week saw me lose major blog material with Nadine Dorries and Boris Johnson both standing down as MPs. I suspect that the country has lost absolutely nothing with these resignations, and I hope that the future brings absolutely nothing but misery for the bumbling dipshit Johnson in particular. He should hang his head in absolute shame at the way his government handled the pandemic. So, why the call for a Moment of Remembrance? Well, it’s to make sure that no one tries to romanticise the time Johnson was in power, or tries to rewrite history. It should be recorded for all time just how awful his time in office was.
Netflix
Netflix shot itself in the foot recently. We were paying £15.99 per month for UHD and up to six screens. We were sharing our password with one other person (just as many other people are doing) who lives next door(ish). They were just outside the range of our wifi by maybe a meter or two. Anyway, because they’re on a separate network they kept getting a message asking for their TV to be authorised. Then, when we loaded up Netflix we would get the same message. After a fair bit of back and forth, the person we were sharing with has gone for their own account at £4.99 whilst they finish a show they are halfway through, and then they are cancelling their subscription. Meanwhile, we have downgraded our account to the £6.99 version.
So, in summary, Netflix will have gone from receiving £15.99 for an account which is designed to be used by multiple people, to receiving £6.99. Having read through the pinned thread on the Netflix subreddit it seems we are far from alone in this. There’s far too much competition in the streaming world for companies to be this militant. If you’re going to offer a subscription for up to six screens, and you can see that it’s been used on two wifi networks, then surely it makes better business sense to honour the package at £15.99. Netflix seems to be operating on the basis that they’re an essential service that people won’t give up. I think they’re in for a rude awakening. They’re competing with Amazon, Disney, Hulu, YouTube, Apple TV, Paramount+, HBO Max, and a range of other services. I could personally manage without Netflix but I know Oana loves her Spanish and South American TV. For me, it’s all about audiobooks and podcasts.
Nuclear Power
We’ve been watching The Days, a dramatisation of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and it’s got us talking about nuclear power, green/renewable energy, and the climate crisis. Nuclear power is often demonised as being dangerous but the data just don’t back that claim up:
Nuclear power is, with the exception of solar, the safest form of power generation, and it’s not even close when compared to fossil fuels. If we want to avoid a major climate disaster then nuclear power is going to be absolutely vital in securing that future. As has been argued many times on Sceptics Guide to the Universe podcast, the choice before us is not between renewable energy and nuclear power; it’s between fossil fuels and nuclear power. Renewable sources like solar and wind are great, but they’re not the answer to sustainable, reliable, and consistent demands for energy.
On a recent episode of the SGU podcast they explained why it’s difficult for renewable sources of energy to make a real impact, and I’ll do my best to summarise those points. Imagine you have a series of solar farms scattered around a large area. Each of those farms has to be connected to the national grid. Each connection is a complex engineering work that takes a lot of time, money, and other resources. The current wait time to be connected to the grid in the US (and I think the UK IIRC) for these projects is measured not in months or years, but decades. If you have a hundred different projects each producing a little bit of energy, then you have a hundred different projects waiting decades to be hooked up to the grid so their generated power can be used.
Compare this to a nuclear power plant. According to Energy.Gov a standard nuclear power plant generates the same power as over 3 million PV panels, or 431 utility-scale wind turbines. Nuclear power works whether it’s sunny, cloudy, day or night, windy or calm. Nuclear power does the heavy lifting, and renewables are there to supplement nuclear.
The other limiting factor with things like wind or solar is that there is not enough effective storage for the energy generated if it’s not required at that specific point in time. We just don’t have the infrastructure in place to store vast amounts of electricity for times when there’s a surge in demand. This is why we are using more fossil fuel now than at any other time in history. Yes, we are using more renewable energy but because energy use is increasing every year, we are still burning more fossil fuels, and this is why we absolutely need more nuclear power.
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2023 Goals
Click here to see my 2023 progress (opens a new tab).
What Am I Doing?
TV: The Days (Netflix).
Audiobook: Too Big to Jail by Chris Blackhurst.
As I mentioned earlier we are watching The Days on Netflix. I’ve just finished Too Big to Jail and I thought it lost its way a bit in the final third. Those interested in banking corruption may find it interesting. To quote the blurb; “Inside HSBC, the Mexican Drug Cartels and the Greatest Banking Scandal of the Century.”
If anyone has any recommendations for books for my cruise, I’d love to hear your suggestions.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £10,000.00 (no change).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £82,675.48 (+£294.33).
Fuck It Fund: £642.64 (+£142.64).
Pensions: £59,420.92 (+£1,650.66).
Residential Property Value: £226,085.00 (no change).
BTL Property Value: £145,893.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £524,717.04 (+£2,087.63).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £9,400.00 (-£100.00).
Residential Mortgage: £177,258.04 (no change).
BTL Mortgage: £104,986.33 (no change).
Total Debts: £291,644.37 (-£100.00).
Total Wealth: £233,072.67 (+£2,187.63).
Investment Income in 2023: £3,677.76 (target £8,500).
I’ve sold some units in a stock I hold in my ISA. I’ve been going back and forth in my mind wondering if it’s better to cash in to pay off some debt, like my loan, and the cost of our upcoming cruise. I’d wanted to hold on to this stock for longer in the hope the price would increase but it’s been fairly fairly static for a while now.
Something else that has become clear in recent months is that our household food budget needs to change. It seems that every time we go to the supermarket the cost of everything is increasing. It’s so expensive to even just exist without any luxuries. So, we’ve had something of a reset in our finances with the sale of these units and adjusting our household budget. My ISA is going to take a hit of approximately £20,000 which is pretty disheartening but it should free up several hundred pounds each month.
Stoozing
I came across a new financial term this week; stoozing. It refers to the practice of taking out credit cards that offer 0% interest on purchases for years at a time, and then using those cards for your day-to-day spending. As the cards are interest-free, there’s no pressing need to pay the balance off in the usual timeframe to avoid interest. The key here is that you don’t spend money you don’t have. All the spending on the credit cards has to be backed up with cash you have in a bank account. You then transfer the money from your bank account into a savings account with a decent rate of interest.
For example; you spend £100 on groceries at the supermarket on your credit card. At the same time, you transfer £100 from your bank account to a savings account paying interest. The idea is that your savings account balance should match your credit card balance. At the end of the 0% period, you use the money in the savings account to pay the balance off. As the balance has been earning interest, you should receive a nice little boost at the end.
Although this looks fine in theory, it takes a lot of discipline. This approach is not suitable for anyone who has difficulty controlling their spending or working to a budget. It’s potentially very risky and could leave someone with a large credit card debt they are unable to pay. All that being said, this is another example of how knowing the rules can lead to better performance in the game of money. I can’t emphasise enough just how high risk this approach could be in the wrong, undisciplined, hands. The fact I’m talking about it here should not be seen as an endorsement of the approach or advice, it’s merely something I recently discovered that I found interesting.
Disclaimer
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I’m with you on nuclear power being the alternative but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of support, given that all the public is ever aware of are past disasters such as Fukushima and Chernobyl. The recent heatwave in the UK caused a surge in electricity use as people turned on fans and air conditioners, yet nobody batted an eyelid that the extra energy had to be powered by coal, as long as they weren’t sweating… It was so sunny, yet the solar panels couldn’t cope and in fact, when it’s too hot, there are apparently issues with solar panels in that their output is reduced.
Hope you enjoy your cruise holiday.