Part 237: A Little Bit of Everything…

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  It’s a bit of a mixed bag this week as I touch on a range of subjects; everything from losing my voice to getting annoyed with poor storytelling, to pointless questions and One More Year syndrome.  

Weekly Update

Having a cold sucks, but that’s how my week started.  In addition to the usual symptoms, I lost my voice completely for several days.  It was only later in the week that I regained my voice.  This turn of events made it impossible to work and so I was limited to emails.  Another impact of having a cold is feeling tired all the time because getting quality sleep is impossible.

I’m in the middle of a fairly long stretch of work due to the bank holiday.  Normally I would have a bank holiday off as part of my holiday allowance, but this time it was scheduled as my normal non-working day, meaning I save a holiday day.  However, this means that I had to work Tuesday to Saturday, with Sunday off, and then work from Monday to Friday; it’s a long run of working days.

The Bank of England kept interest rates at the current level with the base rate sitting at 5.25%.  It looks as though seven members of the MPC voted to keep rates as they are, whereas two members voted for a reduction to 5%.  Now that I’m locked in on my residential mortgage for the next few years, it doesn’t matter if rates drop; it would cost thousands of pounds to exit my deal early and select something else.

For now, purely from a personal perspective, higher rates aren’t necessarily a bad thing because it means I’m getting a better return on some savings and investments.  However, some non-financial stocks would be negatively impacted.  There are pros and cons to high and low-interest environments, but for a long-term investor the advice is generally unchanged; invest regularly in low-cost global index funds, and don’t panic.

We missed the Northern Lights on Friday evening but we’re going to try again on Saturday.  Hopefully, we will see something.  

After I finished work on Saturday Oana and I went for a long walk through a park in Sheffield which took us over a hill and down towards Hillsborough Stadium, and then we made our way home.  It was such a nice walk with hardly anyone else around.  We stopped for a quick drink and a bite to eat before returning home to see our Poppy.

Retrospective Ruination

Remember when Game of Thrones was the biggest pop culture phenomenon on the planet?  Remember how bad the last two seasons were?  This show is a prime example of something so bad at the end that it impacted the quality of what had already happened.  

This sort of thing happens from time to time with successful films or TV series, where the quality drops over time, but you can still enjoy the earlier works.  It’s rare for something to maintain high quality through its entire run, but Breaking Bad is the first example that comes to mind.  

Back in the day, I loved Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and the spin-off show, Angel.  I would go to football training after school and then come home and chill whilst watching these shows.  It was great fun and also had some important messages about mental health, death, friendship, and many other things. 

It helped that I was roughly the same age as the characters as I was watching it; I was ageing at the same time they were. In recent years it has been alleged by multiple sources that the creator of the Buffyverse, Joss Whedon, is a bit of an asshole.  Multiple former cast and crew that have worked with Whedon have claimed he is racist, sexist, and a bully in general.

Is it possible to separate the artist from the art?

Sometimes, to some extent, maybe.  It’s difficult to appreciate or enjoy art when you know the artist was evil, like Hitler for example.  You might be able to view their art with a sort of morbid curiosity, but I would imagine no sane person would want to hang Hitler’s art in their living room.  

What about art with multiple creators?

TV and film are a bit different because of their collaborative nature.  Between the writers, directors, producers, camera operators, editors, performers, visual effects team, and many others, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people involved.  

It’s these sorts of questions that individuals need to ask themselves, to determine whether they can still appreciate and enjoy the art.

What about when the quality simply drops off over time?

I recently downloaded the audiobook, Slayers, which is put forward as a sequel, of sorts, to Buffy and Angel.  I had high hopes for this but, I’m sorry to say, it was complete rubbish.  It was like listening to extremely bad fanfiction.  I gave up after an hour, despite the book being approximately 10 hours long.  I’m normally something of a completionist; if I start a book, film, or show, I want to finish it.  It takes something pretty bad to make me go, “nope” and just give up.  

The creative decisions made were baffling for something that is purely audio.  It had been written and acted out as though it was a television show but without the visual component.  Fight scenes were lots of crashing, grunting, and things being smashed.  No description, just audio chaos.  What the actual shit were they thinking?

The voice acting wasn’t fantastic either, but that’s excusable when the plot is good.  This was just dumb and it was so bad that it feels as though it’s impacting on what came before.  I think I would still enjoy rewatching Buffy and Angel, but the issues surrounding Joss Whedon, the poor comic book follow-ups, and then this audio just leave a bad taste.  

As we are on the topic of shows ending poorly, I need to give a shout-out to Ragnarok, the Norwegian show that ran for three seasons on Netflix.  The first two seasons were fantastic.  The end of the third season was insulting to the fans who had followed the show from the start.

Pointless Questions

There is a riddle involving two coins which you may be familiar with.  The exact wording varies, but it’s generally something like this;

“I have two coins in my pocket that total 30p.  One of them is not a 20p.  What are the two coins?”

I’ll come back to this a little later with the answer.

Imagine you have three items in front of you; a book, a mug, and a glasses case.  You are told that the combined value of these items is £25.  The book has a sticker showing a price of £10.  The mug has a tag with a price of £8.  The glasses case has no price.  Assuming all the information above is accurate, do you need to ask what the price of the glasses case is?

Obviously, you don’t.  It’s a simple enough matter to subtract the price of the book and the mug from the combined total and work out what the price of the case is.  It’s a basic calculation.  You don’t need to ask the question because you can work out the answer without much effort.  

I’ve mentioned before that one of my biggest frustrations is when I’m asked a question, I answer, and then I’m asked the same question again.  For example, a few years ago I was in the US.  I had only just landed in New York after a series of flights over two days that took me from Doncaster to Bucharest, then Bucharest to Istanbul, and then Istanbul to New York.  It was a long journey and I was exhausted.

Anyway, we’re sitting down for some food and one of the people present was trying to wind me up.  

Them: “Do you want soup?”

Me: “No, thank you.”

Them: “You don’t want soup?”

Me: “I’m ok, thank you.”

Them: “Are you sure you don’t want soup?”

And so on, and so on.

A related frustration is when questions are asked when the answer is irrelevant.  I know someone who applied for a job, and the initial interview was completed via a multiple-choice exam online.  The first thing to be completed was all the usual personal information like name, address, qualifications, and employment history.  Following this it was a series of competency-based questions, and other basic questions to check language and numeracy skills.  

After a lengthy process the system returned a message that the person was not being considered further because they lacked a specific qualification; you know, one of the very first things checked.  If this qualification was a deal breaker, it would be better to just have a pop-up message at the time ending the process. 

A rule I try to live by is to only ask questions when the answer will impact something.  Take the following scenario…

You have two friends called Ben.  You have a mutual friend called Jane.  One day, after spending the entirety of that day alone, you are asked by Jane if you’ve seen Ben.  You could ask which one, but it doesn’t matter because you’ve not seen either.  You might want to ask which Ben purely out of curiosity, but ultimately the answer to which one Jane wishes to know about has absolutely zero impact on your response.  It’s a pointless question.

Craig Ferguson suggested three questions that you should ask yourself before saying something;

1. Does this need to be said?
2. Does this need to be said by me?
3. Does this need to be said by me now?

We can modify this slightly;

1. Does this need to be asked?
2. Does this need to be asked by me?
3. Does this need to be asked by me now?

If the answer to the question is going to have no impact on what you are doing, then it’s fairly safe to assume the question does not need to be asked.

Remember the riddle I stated earlier? “I have two coins in my pocket that total 30p.  One of them is not a 20p.  What are the two coins?”

The answer; a 20p coin and a 10p coin.  One of them isn’t a 20p, but one of them is.

This Week’s Tory Clusterfuck

This one is a little different, but it was too crazy to not share.  I had a dream that I was in London and there were a series of incidents where Tory politicians were being killed by out-of-control carts being controlled by horses.  These politicians were stepping out into the road and out of nowhere these horses would push heavy carts onto the individual, crushing them to death.  

It was a national news story and for some reason, I got incredibly upset that the horses killed Iain Duncan Smith, and I was lamenting the fact the horses had escalated matters by killing two people with one cart.

Looking Back

Part 10 of the Looking Back series is now live, and you can find it here.

What I’m Doing

TV: MasterChef (BBC).

Audiobook: Point Nemo by Jeremy Robinson (audible).

After giving up on Slayers I decided to try the latest Jeremy Robinson book, Point Nemo, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The premise is that the International Space Station suffers a major fault and it falls to Earth at Point Nemo; the most isolated point on the planet.  A rescue team is sent to recover any survivors, and things get crazy. 

I mentioned before that Jeremy is one of my favourite authors and I’ve had a few interactions with him over the years.  I’m part of his Facebook group and one thing he likes to do is use the names of his fans for characters in his stories.  I was pleasantly surprised when my name popped up in Point Nemo.  

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £13,325.00. 

Stocks and Shares ISA: £74,128.72. 

Fuck It Fund: £15.60.

Pensions: £78,250.68. 

Residential Property Value: £229,818.00. 

BTL Property Value: £148,301.00.

Total Assets: £543,839.00.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £172,359.25. 

BTL Mortgage: £104,871.60.

Total Debts: £277,230.85. 

Total Wealth: £266,608.15.

Investment Income in 2023: £2,386.69 (target £10,000).

It’s looking like 2024 could be a great year for gains.  Since the start of the year, my total wealth figure has increased by just over £16,000.  Half of that is just from the last few weeks.  When I first started this journey in 2019, the idea that I could see gains like this felt a long way off.  Back then I would get nervous when investments dropped by a few hundred pounds, but now swings of several thousand are not just normal, they are expected.

So many people bury their heads in the sand when it comes to finance.  Some people don’t understand it, and some people don’t want to understand, and then there’s the worst of the worst; the ones who revel in the fact they don’t know and don’t want to know.  I have an example from a recent Bored Panda article of someone who is the poster child for financial dipshittery.

Rylie, a 20-year-old in the US did not understand the difference between the credit limit on a credit card, and the balance outstanding.  Seemingly, they did not understand that money spent on a credit card had to be paid back.  Their level of ignorance was mind-blowing.  I acknowledge the fact that financial education needs to improve but at the age of 20 you should know that if something seems too good to be true, you have probably not understood something.  

In the interview, Rylie was asked how much she earns ($1,600) and how much her rent is ($1,400).  The interviewer was incredulous and tried to explain that this was not sustainable.  When asked why she thinks it is ok, Rylie replied, “Girl math”.  

This might just be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.  It’s not just ignorant; it’s someone celebrating their ignorance.  

BTL Update

The sale seems to be progressing.  The buyers have completed another viewing with some family members and are still proceeding.  We just need to let the agent know who our solicitors are.  

I had planned on using the same firm that did the conveyancing when we bought the property, but they’ve been a bit rubbish this time around.  I’ve filled their form out online for a quote and had an email asking if I want to go ahead.  I clicked on the link, but it didn’t work.  I’ve called them asking for an update and they said they would call back, which they haven’t.  It’s frustrating when you find a company that seems decent, and then they just stop caring about good service.

One More Year

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had similar conversations with different people about the concept of OMY.  It’s when someone has achieved their initial FI goal but is anxious about pulling the trigger, so they decide to work one more year just to make sure their plans will be successful.  This can lead to a spiral of one more year, followed by another, and another.  

These discussions have been based on the question of what improved standard of living would you work one more year for, or what would you sacrifice for one year less.  When you approach the target you set yourself most of your investment gains will be coming from compound growth on the balance you have accumulated.  Adding more money to the pot from work is only going to have a minor impact.  It’s like candles in a dark room; one lit candle provides a huge amount of illumination.  A second candle provides more light, but not quite double. When you get to eight candles, a ninth is not going to add much more light.  It’s diminishing returns.  

Those who have achieved FI often say that the change from a habit of saving and investing, to then having to spend those investments, is a difficult transition to make.  There is a fear that the money might not last, and so the little voice in your mind will suggest working that little bit longer to make sure there is enough money to fund a full retirement.  

The thing is, these plans don’t fail overnight.  If you retire and find that your funds are being depleted too quickly, there’s nothing to stop you from returning to work for a spell or revising your spending habits.  I suspect when I am closer to FI, I’ll be asking myself the same questions and battling the same worries.  If you see me falling for OMY syndrome, please remember to call me out.  

That’s all for this week.  Thank you for reading, and please remember to like, comment, share, and subscribe.  

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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