Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I look at a new all-time high for my Total Wealth, and I discuss Christmas as an autistic person.
Weekly Update
Thankfully my cold seems to have subsided without ever really being that severe. For me, the worst thing about a cold is the constant runny nose, blurred vision, and sneezing, but this time it seemed to primarily just affect my throat, with headache and earache.
As I’m typing this it is the afternoon of the 23rd December, or Christmas Eve Eve. I’m not generally that bothered about Christmas, and in previous years I’ve been almost militant in not doing anything special. I don’t like the commercial aspect of it, and I find a lot of traditions unnecessary and annoying. I now realise that much of that is due to my neurodivergent nature; loud noises, busy environments, lots of socialising, changes to routine, and all the other associated stuff just stresses me out. One of the worst years I can remember involved going to a family member’s house for the day. These were family members I only saw rarely. I had nothing in common with them. It was painful. The best years I remember tended to be pretty low-key affairs, involving just a few people, some good food, and some good TV, music, games, and books.
If you know someone who is autistic please understand that they may not find the typical Christmas experience fun or relaxing. Please don’t force any autistic person, be they adult or child, to socialise, eat/drink things they don’t want to, or take part in other games or activities that put them under stress. Autistic people have enough to contend with in daily life, so just let them enjoy this time of year in the way they prefer. What a neurotypical person enjoys and an autistic person enjoys may have very little if any, overlap. And now, for those who like funny Venn diagrams…
This year is going to follow our preferred format, although Oana and I have been stressing about getting the apartment ready for guests. We are probably stressing about it a little too much, but we tend to set high standards for ourselves with this sort of thing. I think we are both agreed that this will be the last time for a while that we host Christmas though. It’s not just about hosting on the day, but planning the menu, getting all the ingredients, making sure guests are ok with the food being planned, getting the apartment in order, and so on, and so on. It’s going to be worth it, and we’re looking forward to a great day, but the work ahead of time can be stressful. Next year, we’re just going to make a curry!
Looking back at Christmas over the years, Oana and I have had some memorable ones. One year we stayed up mega late on Christmas Eve and ended up not waking up on Christmas Day until about 6pm. Another year we slept in, not quite as late, and then watched a whole season of True Blood in one go. Then there was a year when I had an awful migraine and Oana had to do all the cooking. Going back to when I was about 17 or 18, I had a break-up with my then-girlfriend on Christmas Eve and hardly slept. I got out of bed at around 7am Christmas Day and started drinking bottles of Budweiser (don’t judge me, I was young) whilst watching Babylon 5. Take away the bud, and spending the whole day watching B5 sounds pretty appealing, now I think about it.
The more I think about it, the more I realise that the biggest gripe I have with this time of year is the societal expectation. People are told that they have to have a good time because it’s Christmas, and because it’s Christmas you should have a good time. It’s circular reasoning. I also hate excessive spending and consumption, and so much money is wasted on cards that are often binned, and gifts that are often packed away and eventually sent to a landfill. Christmas for me is about spending time with the people I love, with good food and no demands on my time.
I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas that you can spend in your preferred way.
Christmas Presents
What’s the cheapest gift you’ve received as an adult, that’s not been a joke? Well, one year Oana and I received a mug each that came with a spoon for eating soup. Fair enough, a strange gift but whatever. A few days later we were in Poundland for some reason or another, and we saw these mugs for sale. £1. The people who bought the gifts were not short of money, and it was definitely intended as an insult, but Oana and I just found it funny.
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What Am I Doing?
TV: Looking for a new show…
Audiobook: The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality by Prof. Don Lincoln.
I am fascinated by physics, astronomy, and all that stuff. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know or understand, which just makes me want to learn more. I think it was Richard Feynman who said, “if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” How true that is…
Anyway, the book I’m listening to at the moment is from The Great Courses, who offer compilations of lectures on a given topic as an audiobook. Prof. Lincoln worked on the team that discovered the Higgs-Boson, and the lectures have ranged from interesting, to confusing, to completely mindblowing. Let me try to explain one of the concepts that just made my brain hurt. All matter is made up of atoms, which are in turn made up of smaller particles. Matter has mass. Atoms have mass. However, the quarks that make up the particles that makeup atoms only have mass that accounts for a tiny fraction of the overall mass of the object.
So where does the mass come from? If I’ve understood correctly the overwhelming majority of mass is energy. Within an atom, the quarks are moving around so quickly, that the energy resembles mass. Part of our understanding of physics is that mass and energy are two sides of the same coin, sort of. Mass contains an incredible amount of energy, which is evidenced by the explosive impact of atomic weapons. To better explain, I’ll quote Prof. Lincoln;
“The mass of ordinary matter is a consequence of QCD [quantum chromodynamics]. Most of the mass of humans isn’t “stuff” in the sense we ordinarily think of it. Our mass is really just caused by the total energy stored inside the subatomic tempests inside of us called protons and neutrons. Our mass—indeed, all of the mass that we’re familiar with—is just energy, governed by the laws of QCD.”
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £12,000.00.
Stocks and Shares ISA: £62,801.98.
Fuck It Fund: £10,680.68.
Pensions: £67,765.27.
Residential Property Value: £227,512.00.
BTL Property Value: £146,814.00.
Total Assets: £527,573.93.
Debts
Residential Mortgage: £174,247.55.
BTL Mortgage: £104,924.60.
Total Debts: £279,172.15.
Total Wealth: £248,401.78.
Investment Income in 2023: £8,275.42 (target £8,500).
I’ve hit a new all-time high in my total wealth figure. The previous high was back in Week 173 when my TWF stood at £248,356.99. It’s a nice little boost to have surpassed that figure as we approach the end of 2023. It feels as though this year has been all negative financially with little growth, high inflation, and interest rates increasing. However, I think we are starting to see some signs for optimism. Hopefully, the next couple of years will see steady gains in the stock market, with rates returning to some sort of stability.
Except for one small payment, I’ve received all my expected investment income for 2023. I’m now expecting the final figure to be approximately £8,310. Again, for what feels like a bad financial year, this is good progress on the year before when I received £5,685.20.
Looking ahead to 2024’s projected income raises some questions because I don’t know when we will sell the BTL or for how much. We have a figure in mind that will allow us to walk away with some profit after paying all the fees and taxes. My share of the profit will be reinvested, but the amount I have to reinvest will impact the amount of income that is generated for the rest of the year. Based on the current situation, I’d be happy to simply match the 2023 figure.
Service Charges
You may remember that I discussed my apartment’s service charges and how they’ve increased over the last couple of years. Well, we are now under a new management company and we’ve received our latest demand for service charges. The good news is that they’ve reduced to something more reasonable. This is a little bit of respite when everything else seems to be going up in price.
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a great Christmas and please check back next week for my review of 2023.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer, nor should they be considered advice.
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Great to see some spoons back.
Love your blog.
Thanks, Jim. Hope you’ve had a good Christmas. Thank you for reading.