Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I discuss some major updates with our BTL. Also, an eventful week for our household.
Weekly Update
Life is starting to return back to the normal routine post-Christmas and New Year. I still have the same bullshit of typing 2023, only to have to change it to 2024, to contend with but that should stop sometime around Easter.
The start of the week did not go to plan. We were prepping some food and Oana sliced through the tip of her finger. A fraction further and she could have taken the tip off completely. It was bleeding pretty heavily with a constant stream of blood coming out. We got it cleaned and bandaged up as best we could and got an Uber to the Minor Injuries Unit only to find it was closed due to the strike action (that we had completely forgotten about).
On the way to MIU the following conversation took place:
Me: can I point out something really unhelpful?
Oana: do you have to?
Me: …
Oana: …
Me: we bought a safety glove to use when chopping for this reason.
Oana: … *angry stare*
Me: …
Oana: *anger intensifies*
Me: why didn’t you use it?
There was a notice up stating that the A&E department was still open, but that department is at the other NHS hospital at the other side of the city. So, we booked another Uber and waited as drivers accepted our booking and then cancelled.
By the time we got in an Uber and were en route to the hospital, it appeared that the bleeding has subsided. Oana really didn’t want to go to hospital, so we asked the driver to drop us back at home instead. We had to change the dressing a few times but the finger appears to be healing, although it will probably leave a scar.
It’s not all been bad news though as Oana has been offered a job working alongside me as a Mortgage Advisor. Our household now has twice the number of mortgage advisors, and if we can somehow get Poppy CeMAP qualified we will be the Three Mortgageateers. After all, you can’t spell homeowner without “meow”.
Long time readers will know of my fascination with astronomy, physics, sci-fi, and all that stuff. One of the items on my bucket list is to study astronomy formally, and I spent a bit of time researching possible degrees. In a way, I’m itching to do something different but I know that I just don’t have the mental capacity to deal with that, and work, and writing this blog, and all the day-to-day adulting that is required to simply exist.
Diving back into education may just have to wait until I’ve built a stronger financial foundation.
On Saturday evening Oana and I went for a meal with my Dad, and we all enjoyed the food and the company. The restaurant was very busy though with several large groups seated around us. It drained our collective social battery a little, but it was still a great night.
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What Am I Doing?
TV: The Monsterverse
Audiobook: A Brief History of Black Holes by Dr Becky Smethurst.
We have now finished the Apple TV series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting a huge amount going in, but it does pack a bit of an emotional punch. The common issue with any story involving giant monsters, or Transformers, is that the people end up being really annoying when all you want to see is action and destruction. I think this show managed, for the most part, to tell a compelling story that involved a trio of people against a backdrop of monsters. Also, for a small screen production, the effects were great; better than some of the recent MCU offerings on the big screen.
I have just finished another astronomy book, A Brief History of Black Holes, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Dr Smethurst has a fun, engaging, style and her book taught me a few new things about black holes, including the fact that black holes were named after the infamous prison in India; The Black Hole of Calcutta. Black holes are fascinating to think about though, and the scale of them is difficult to comprehend. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in space, physics, or even science in general.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £12,150.00.
Stocks and Shares ISA: £60,843.11.
Fuck It Fund: £11,040.00.
Pensions: £69,099.50.
Residential Property Value: £228,116.00.
BTL Property Value: £147,203.00.
Total Assets: £528,451.61.
Debts
Residential Mortgage: £173,839.73.
BTL Mortgage: £104,918.52.
Total Debts: £278,758.25.
Total Wealth: £249,693.36.
Investment Income in 2023: £100.00 (target £10,000).
Some banking stocks took a bit of a beating this week, probably due to the news that the FCA is investigating whether consumers have been charged too much interest on car loans. Financial communicator Martin Lewis released a statement suggesting millions of pounds could be paid out in compensation. It will be interesting to see how this story develops.
BTL Update
Earlier this week I spoke with our managing agent to see if they thought our tenants would be interested in buying the property. She went away to discuss with the tenants, and they’ve decided to serve notice that they will leave the property in a month. This is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for if they were not going to buy the property from us. It’s not a nice feeling having to sell the property when there are people living there, but it’s all part of the business. We didn’t just decide to sell on a whim. It’s the culmination of our previous tenants causing thousands of pounds of damage, and interest rates sky rocketing due to the incompetent management of the economy by the Tory government. Our interest rate is coming to an end next year, and we’re looking at an increase from 2.3% to more than double that. After management fees, tax, insurance, and mortgage payments, we would be losing money on this property. As much as it sucks to have to tell tenants we’re looking to sell, it’s also not right to expect a private landlord to subsidise a stranger’s home.
As soon as they move out we will complete an inspection, and arrange for any cosmetic work to be carried out before putting the house on the market. It will be a relief to have this property sold. Accounting for CGT, fees, early repayment charges on the mortgage, and the other associated costs, we should make a small profit on the sale assuming it goes for roughly the average recent sale values in that area.
On the subject of property valuations, it’s that time of the year when the valuation our lender holds for our properties updates. This latest change has seen an increase of approximately a quarter of a percent. I can’t really say anything about that other than it’s a tiny increase and doesn’t impact anything for us in any significant way.
If we can secure a sale on the property before the end of this financial year, I’ll be delighted. The lender’s valuation seems low compared to sale prices in the area, and according to what our agent thinks.
It’s strange how my opinion on BTL property has changed over the years. I still think it can work, and it could have worked for us, but the key with property is that you need to scale it up. Having one property carries too much risk; if something happens to it, or you have bad tenants, then it’s the entirety of your portfolio that’s impacted. If you have four properties, then they act as a safety net for each other. We wanted to scale it up, but the combined impacts of Covid and the surge in interest rates made it too difficult.
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a great week ahead, and 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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Hi David,
I’m in the middle of MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS.
Is there an astronomy club near you?
Well, I loved learning this factoid about black holes.
Thank you for the recommendation of A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK HOLES.
Wow.
Hey, thank you for your comment and for reading the blog. How are you enjoying M: LOM? I’m not sure about an astronomy club, but it’s a good question.
Congrats on Oana getting a job at your place, hope it works out for you both. Also hope her finger has healed!
Thank you! It has mostly healed, but will probably scar slightly.
I have enjoyed the reading of your blog. I thought Legacy of Monsters was great, the cast was good and casting of Kurt Russell and his son was brilliant too. I’ve unsubscribed from AppleTV for now as I’ve just got a Disney+ subscription via the bank – with adverts though but not so bad. The one thing on there I want to rewatch is Serenity.
I also find it annoying when large noisy groups appear in restaurants, normal conversation becomes impossible!
I hope the finger recovers from her I’m sure it will. My partner is always slicing fingers with knives or when gardening.
Hey, thank you for your comments 🙂 Disney+ does have some decent stuff. I had it recently for a month to catch up on some Star Wars content, like the new Ahsoka series. Serenity was great. I actually watched it before Firefly, then went back and watched Firefly before going back to Serenity lol. We have a safety glove now – can’t be too careful!
Ah I just realised I got mixed up – it was Firefly I found on Disney+, the Serenity film was great too. It also has a load of stuff we were watching on Amazon Prime that they took away before we finished the last season. I just watched something call Class of ’09 on Disney – an FBI / AI theme thriller with a 3 way split timeline and a flavour of Minority Report about it – I quite enjoyed it and it was food for thought.
We’ve been watching a show on Apple TV called Extrapolations. It’s an anthology-style show dealing with the impacts of climate change. A massive cast and high production values, which started well and got weaker as it went on. Still worth a watch though.