Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A short post this week where I look back at the new year. Also, the first set of financial figures for 2024 starting with a Premium Bonds win.
Weekly Update
A short week of work following the new year, and now we are pretty much back to normal. I hope you had a good New Year’s Eve, and that the coming year is happy and successful for you. We spent NYE in a fairly low-key way. Oana, my Dad, and I went for some lunch, and then watched a movie in the early evening. It was then just a quiet night at home with Poppy. We don’t generally do much for the new year, and the fireworks scare Pops, so we like to stay with her and make sure she’s ok.
I don’t understand the appeal of fireworks. Huge displays can look cool, and I remember seeing a great display over Niagara Falls in 2017, but it’s the light that is spectacular – not the sound. Silent fireworks are available, and it would be so much better for the wildlife if we just had these as standard. The fireworks that the average person can buy from a shop are, for the most part, rubbish anyway. If it was up to me, I’d ban the public sale of fireworks, and for large displays only silent ones would be allowed.
Oana had an interview for a job this week, which we are hopeful she will be offered the position. If she gets the job it will put us in a strong financial position moving forward, which may accelerate our FIRE plans. If she doesn’t get the job, I’m sure something else will come along.
On Saturday Oana and I went out for lunch before braving Ikea and some other shops at the retail park near Meadowhall. Even with the shops being busy, it was a nice afternoon. Once we got home we spent plenty of time fussing Poppy and playing with her. Since we adopted Pops we’ve bought her so many toys, beds, scratching posts, and a cat tree, none of which she has used. A cushion on the sofa though? Or a cushion on a desk? She’s all over that. As for playing, it’s all about long pieces of string that she can chase after. She is such a goofy cat, and she’s started stealing my seat whenever I stand up.
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What Am I Doing?
TV: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple)
Audiobook: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology.
I love kaiju stories and the Monsterverse that was created a few years ago has been great fun. The latest installment is the Apple TV show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which takes place across different time periods. The show isn’t perfect and there are more than a couple of instances in the plot where I’ve thought “that’s convenient”. For something on TV the monster effects are great, but there are a few scenes where the CGI background is obvious. One thing I do like in the show is that they’ve cast Kurt Russell and his son, Wyatt, to play the same character at different ages. It adds a little something extra when you feel like you’re actually seeing the same person at different points in their life.
All of this raised an interesting question; would you want to live in a world where kaiju, like Godzilla, exist? On one hand it would be incredible to see creatures like that, but it would also be absolutely terrifying at the same time. Would the discovery, and threat, of these creatures lead to scientific discoveries? Would those discoveries be enough to offset the occasional widespread death and destruction? It would need to be something pretty special to counteract periodic kaiju attacks.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £12,100.00.
Stocks and Shares ISA: £62,295.66.
Fuck It Fund: £11,000.00.
Pensions: £68,474.20.
Residential Property Value: £227,512.00.
BTL Property Value: £146,814.00.
Total Assets: £528,195.86.
Debts
Residential Mortgage: £173,839.73.
BTL Mortgage: £104,918.52.
Total Debts: £278,758.25.
Total Wealth: £249,437.61.
Investment Income in 2023: £100.00 (target £10,000).
The new year started with a £100 win on the Premium Bonds, which brings my winnings to approximately £1,300 since the start of 2019. It’s not an amazing return, but for a long time it was much better than leaving the money in a savings account paying 0.5% interest.
By the time of the next update I would expect to have updated figures for the estimated value of my apartment and BTL. Once we have a figure for what the BTL may be worth, we are going to speak with our letting agent and see what they think we could sell for. Then, we’ll have a decision to make.
This month also sees the reduction in national insurance take effect, which should add a little extra to my take home pay. It’s not life changing amounts but it’s still better off in my bank account.
It’s felt for a while that my ability to save regularly has been impacted by the cost of everything else increasing. I think we’re starting to see that pressure easing though. Oana and I have adapted some of our routines to reduce our expenditure, and it’s starting to make a difference. We are much more mindful about water and electricity use, and with how we plan our meals in advance. All that being said, it’s still harder to save than it used to be. Earlier in this FIRE journey I was able to invest over 50% of my net salary. The figure now is closer to 15%. There’s only so much that can be cut out though, and we still want to enjoy life as much as possible in the here and now.
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a great week ahead – thank you for reading.
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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