Part 296: Coming Home

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  I’m back home following my fifteen days at sea.

Weekly Update

Our Norwegian adventure is now over.  We arrived back in Southampton at 7am on Saturday, and our cab was scheduled to pick us up at 10:30.  We woke early and went for breakfast on the ship, before finishing up our packing and preparing to disembark.  

For the most part, this has been a great holiday.  When you’re away for fifteen days it’s not realistic to expect it to be 100% perfect, but it was a pretty damn good holiday.  It was awesome being able to bring my Dad along on his first cruise and to get to show him Norway, as we’ve been raving about it for years.

The biggest negative of the trip came during our last hour on board.  I mentioned earlier in the trip that we had a bad experience at the steak restaurant.  We managed to speak with one of the senior restaurant managers, who promised us a full refund of the dining costs ($55 per person, plus service charge), and a meal on the house at the Italian premium restaurant on board.  We were very happy with this resolution.

We had the meal at the Italian and enjoyed it, but the refund did not show up on my credit card or on-board account.  As we went to disembark, I approached the Guest Services desk to ask about the refund.  They didn’t know anything about it.  There was no record of the refund, or that we had been promised one.  Also, they could not authorise a refund to a credit card as it had to come from someone senior, and there was no one around.  Altogether, we were talking about $219.30; 3 x $55, and 3 x $8.10.

The service at this help desk was poor, and by this time, the driver, who had contacted us to see if he could pick us up at 9:45 instead of 10:30, was almost here.  The representative at Guest Services ended up clearing our whole on-board account, which between the three of us came to maybe $800-$900.  

On one hand, great – saves us a lot of cash.  On the other hand, I feel bad for the staff who lost out on their “crew appreciation” payment; $17 per day, per person; $765.  All things considered, Princess Cruises lost out on so much money just because they couldn’t authorise a refund they’d already promised for a single meal.  Crazy stuff.  

What’s frustrating is that the final hour of a fifteen-day cruise left a bitter taste. I can’t repeat enough, though, that the rest of the trip was amazing.

Last week of the cruise…

Following on from my previous updates on the cruise, we left Tromso on June 22nd and had two days at sea before arriving in Aalesund on the 25th.  Oana and I had visited this port back in 2023 and had a good time.  The only bit that bummed us out was that the cafe we enjoyed last time has since closed, as has the toy shop which stocked some retired Lego sets. 

We opted against taking the train up the mountain and instead walked up.  There are just over four hundred steps in a spiralling staircase up the side of the mountain, and from the top, there are some incredible views of the city.  I swear, if I don’t see another staircase for a month, it will still be too soon.  

It’s amazing when you get groups of people together because it seems like each extra person you add brings the overall intelligence of the group down.  The number of people who, when walking up the steps in Aalesund, have seemingly never seen stairs before is quite something.  Yes, you put one foot on the next step and bring your trailing foot up after.  It’s like when people get on a plane and try to find their seats.  Traditionally, aircraft seats are a number and a letter, which follow a predictable pattern with the first row followed by the second row, and so on.  Yet, the sheer number of people who will stop at a row and look at the sign, then their ticket, then back to the sign, and back down at their ticket, makes me want to cross myself.  

Anyway,  Aalesund does not feel like a Norwegian city.  It has more of a Dutch, or possibly German feel to it.  This isn’t that surprising, as back in 1904, there was a huge fire that destroyed much of the city.  One of the main benefactors who funded the rebuild was Kaiser Wilhelm II, and it explains why the main road in the city is named after him.  The rebuild effort is an interesting story as it was headed up by a small group of architects who had the opportunity to rebuild from the ground up.  The city is colourful and chilled, at least once you get away from the docks.  

The steps to the lookout point start just after a statue of Rollo.  After we made the summit, we had an explore before making our way back down via a different path – none of us were in the mood to deal with people using steps for the first time.  

We had a restaurant in mind for lunch, which Oana and I tried in 2023.  The same people served us, and we ordered the same food as before, and it was still up to standard.  My Dad wasn’t too impressed with the burger, but this was a personal taste issue rather than there being anything wrong with the dish.

During our time in Aalesund, our ship, the Sky Princess, was joined by another massive cruise ship, the Aida Nova. We were due to depart at 5pm, with the Nova leaving at 4pm. It didn’t exactly work out this way.

When I got back on board the ship, I went to shower. The curtains from our cabin on deck 17, to our private balcony were closed. I came out of the shower like a Norse God with water dripping off me, and my wet hair falling across my shoulders. I strode through the curtains into the light, and the sight of thousands of people on the Aida Nova staring at me from a much shorter distance than I expected.

I quickly worked out that the Nova was reversing out of port alongside us, and seemingly everyone on board had come to that side of the ship to wave and stare at us, and there I was standing with a towel wrapped around my waist. I did the only thing I could in that situation, and started to dance. Sadly, I couldn’t get the sound loud enough to really blast out HBKs theme song (IYKYK).

To the passengers and crew of the Nova, I regret nothing.

Haugesund

There are many interesting and beautiful places in Norway.  Haugesund is not one of them.  

Oana and I visited in 2019 but spent the whole day on an incredible excursion at a waterfall, and a family farm where we were fed a great meal of locally sourced food.  This time, we thought we’d explore the port. 

We allocated six hours for this and a walk around a nearby lake.  Once we finished exploring the city centre, we still had five hours and forty-five minutes left.  We all felt a bit disappointed with the city and abandoned our plans for the walk as we weren’t feeling on top form.  We made our way back to the ship and saw hundreds of other passengers doing the same thing.  We were back on board in time for second breakfast.

Of all the places I’ve travelled to, Haugesund was one of them. 

Best Moment of the Cruise

It really was a fantastic trip overall. One of the things we talked about near the end of the cruise was our favourite moments, and we all agreed on the number one spot: climbing the mountain in Honningsvåg. It was challenging and would have been very easy to give up, but we stuck at it and felt a real sense of achievement. It might not be that hard for experienced hikers, but for three relatively unfit people, it was hard work.

Journey Home

Boarding a cruise ship is so much more chill than going through an airport.  The stress is at the end when you are in a lengthy queue to disembark, and then waiting at the pick-up point, which is just chaos.  At one point, we were ushered three meters down the side of the road as it was “unsafe”, but none of us could figure out why the new position was “safe”.  Seconds after we were moved, more people came and stood where we were moved from.  When our driver arrived, we were almost blocked from crossing the road by staff who said it was not safe.  I just looked around and shook my head before carrying on.  The whole experience was crazy.

The car journey home was decent enough, but far too warm.  At one point, the internal thermometer read 29.5.  We had the aircon on before, but it was too cold, so we just did the British thing and politely pretended everything was fine.

I can’t complain about the driver, though.  Oana lost a ring in the car, and the driver came back that evening to drop it off.  We gave him £30 for his trouble, and Oana was relieved to get the ring back.  

Mid-Year Review

It’s not been the year I was hoping for as I’ve ended up back in work sooner than planned.  With Oana losing her job and not having much luck finding another, I had to bring some money in to keep us ticking by.  Now that the cruise is in the rear-view mirror, Oana can resume her job search.

The silver lining to this situation is that I’ve ended up in a great job with excellent pay and benefits.  I want to make that count towards our FI plan, though, rather than just using the funds to tread water.  Oana understands this as well, in that I’ve had over a decade of working more or less full on, whilst she has had several lengthy breaks during that time.  

My first task is to complete this year’s diabetes step challenge.  Last year, I initially set out to complete the 1,700,000 target before dropping it to 1,000,000 instead.  This time, I want to complete the bigger goal of 1.7 million steps through July, August, and September. 

I’m looking forward to this challenge even though it will be tough.  I enjoy walking and listening to podcasts or audiobooks, and this should also help me lose a bit of weight and stabilise my blood sugar.  

My calculations suggest I need to average 18,479 steps a day to hit the 1.7 million step target by the end of September.  For those who would like to donate, you can do so here:

https://step.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/davids-fundraising-page1055

By the end of the year, I am hoping to have lost 20kg, and I’m hoping that we are once more a DINK couple: Double Income, No Kids.  It will help speed things up massively.  

It’s not all bad so far in 2025.  My total wealth has gone from approximately £276k to just over £290k.  That’s a great increase in just six months or so.  Getting over £300k by the end of the year will feel like a huge milestone, as at 6% growth, that’s an extra £18k per year.

In short, the two main goals for the remainder of 2025 of losing weight and hitting the accelerator on our FI journey.  

What I’m Doing

Listening: The Relentless Moon: Lady Astronaut Book 3 by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Watching: Trainwreck: Poop Cruise.

The fourth book in the Lady Astronaut series was released recently, so I’ve gone back to the start whilst on the cruise.  I love sci-fi, and I love alt-history, and this series blends both incredibly well.  

The premise is that in the 1950s, a meteorite hits the Atlantic just off the east coast of the US.  The result of this is, obviously, widespread and in the long term will make the Earth unsuitable for human life.  So, the race is on to try and find a way to get humankind off the planet.  I enjoyed the series the first time I listened to it, and I think I’m actually enjoying it more the second time around.  

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £19,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £113,329.38.

Fuck It Fund: £100.02.

Pensions: £96,363.44.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00. 

Total Assets: £468,160.84.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £177,949.31. 

Total Debts: £177,949.31.

Total Wealth: £290,211.53.

Whilst I was on the cruise, a friend sent me a FI calculator to have a play with.  The results from it are very positive, suggesting I could potentially FI at 45.  That would be amazing, but like with all calculators, they can’t account for the stupidity of world leaders.  So, while it is nice to look at the output of the calculator, it’s more of an estimate than a guarantee.  

If FI is actually that close, then there’s the oft-asked question in personal finance circles: Is it worth working an extra year for a better quality of living in retirement?

I don’t think there’s a universal right answer here.  I think a lot depends on your mental and physical health, your feelings towards your job, and also how your plans fit into your wider family life.  

Another thing to consider if you’re retiring early and hoping to get the full UK State Pension is whether you have enough NI contributions.  You need 35 years of contributions to get the full state pension.  Anyone looking to retire before their early 50s may run the risk of not getting the full pension.  There are ways and means to legally get more qualifying years, but that’s a question for a pension expert.  

Norway FI

I can’t emphasise enough just how much I want to live in Norway.  To be surrounded by the fjords, mountains, fresh air, and clean cities.  It’s the dream, but what about the reality?

According to some Google-fu and help from Numbeo.com, it looks like it would cost the equivalent of £4,000 per month for Oana and me to get by at a level of comfort we would like in Norway.  So, we’re looking at £48k per year, or based on a 5% withdrawal rate, a pot of £960,000.

We need to get our heads down and focus on building that FI pot if we want to live there.

That’s all for this week.  Thank you for reading and for your understanding over the last couple of weeks with the disruption to my posting schedule.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

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bio.link/davidscothern.