Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A strange one this week as I’d put together a whole blog post which, on reflection, may have caused me some problems. So, I ended up deleting a thousand or so words and tweaking what was left. No, I will not comment on what was deleted.
Weekly Update
I had an interesting meeting about my apartment’s service charges this week. You may remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how the charges have increased by almost 50% in just a couple of years. Well, one of the people with some units in the development reached out to me to see if we could meet up to discuss some of what is happening behind the scenes. It was fascinating and worrying in equal measure. I can’t go into too much detail until some of these issues are resolved, but if you are paying service charges and are concerned about how your money is being used I would suggest you get involved with your local management company.
I returned to work this week following my enforced absence as I recover from surgery. It’s frustrating because it now looks as though I’m going to wait until mid-February for the next operation. This means I’m going to struggle to get my teeth stuck into anything significant before I am in the hospital again.
On Saturday I went for lunch with Oana at Lucky Fox, a fried chicken place. I had the “chick ‘n’ waffles” and Oana had “chick ‘n’ fries”. We probably ordered a bit too much, but it was goooood. My waffles came with cinnamon butter and maple syrup. Now, there’s no Earthly reason why waffles, fried chicken, cinnamon butter, and chicken gravy should work, but they do and it was an almost spiritual experience.
Following lunch we went to the Millenium Gallery and looked around the From Sky to Sea exhibit. There were some great pieces on display. I love the sea, and those close to me know that, in my mind, nothing compares to the feeling I get from being by the coast. Some of the paintings helped bring that feeling of peace. I can’t wait for our cruise later this year…
I’ve decided that I’m going to resume my DipFA studies. I’ve been debating whether or not to pick it up again for a while, but after speaking with Oana and talking through our plans for the coming months and years, it feels like a sensible decision.
My Home Office
It’s starting to come together at last and is feeling like a chilled-out space for work. I’ve got lots of stuff dotted around the walls and shelves but it no longer feels cramped and claustrophobic. This week I’ve finished three new Lego sets; my Optimus Prime, Lunar Lander, and a fun birdhouse model.
Oana has done a great job organising everything and making it a nice space to not just work, but for us to chill out in when we want to listen to some music and work on various bits and pieces.
Health
My recovery from surgery is going well. I’m just impatient to get the final procedure completed. My elbow, which has been a source of intense pain for months now, finally feels like it’s getting better. To help with exercise whilst I wait for my elbow to heal, we’ve bought an exercise bike. Hopefully, it will fulfil its primary purpose and not end up as a laundry hanger.
A friend of mine and Oana’s was talking to us the other day and he said it was a shame I’ve not been able to do much exercise recently. In his words, I seemed so much more content, and alive, when I was in my groove at the gym. It’s true, weight training always does wonders for my mental health.
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Audiobook: 9/11 The Conspiracy Theories by David Gardner.
We’ve started The Last Kingdom again as we’ve only seen the first few seasons. I still need to read the last few books in the series as well. I’d forgotten how strong the show was almost from the start.
I’ve found 9/11 The Conspiracy Theories interesting, although some of the more fanciful theories are more than a little batshit. There are some who believe that the planes hitting the towers were nothing more than holograms. Some of the more plausible theories relating to 7 World Trade Centre are not easily explained away, such as how it came down so uniformly. One theory suggests that explosives were planted throughout the building during a refit of the building’s elevators. With any conspiracy theory, there are two main questions I always ask; why? and who?
The first question, why, is often fairly easy to answer. The answer is almost always related to money. The second question is where most conspiracy theories fall down, in my opinion. Take the moon landings as an example, or the idea that the Earth is flat. So many thousands of people would have to be in on the secret for it to collapse under its own weight. Do I believe we know the full story behind 9/11? Not a chance. Do I believe it was a false flag operation? Almost certainly not as too many people would have to be in the know. Was it a major failure of intelligence? Probably. Generally, the more extravagant and far-reaching the conspiracy theory, the more people have to be involved, and every extra person involved makes it that much more likely that the conspiracy will implode.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £19,800.00 (+£450.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £67,215.74 (-£501.27).
Fuck It Fund: £50.00 (+£50.00).
Pensions: £56,370.03 (-£786.83).
Residential Property Value: £228,006.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £147,133.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £518,574.77 (-£788.10).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £9,900.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £179,595.11 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,015.74 (no change).
Total Debts: £294,510.85 (no change).
Total Wealth: £224,063.92 (-£788.10).
Investment Income in 2023: £220.46 (target £8,500).
Not much to talk about financially this week. There always seems to be a lull between the New Year and the new financial year. This lull, coupled with the imminent transfer of my share in the BTL, means I’m in something of a holding pattern for now. Once the money comes through for the BTL, I’ll be able to start planning the next phase of my FIRE project.
When I first started planning for FIRE, I believed I could hit my targets by the end of 2023. Had it not been for *deep breath* Brexit, Covid, The War in Ukraine, Truss-Kwarteng, then I believe I’d be much further along. I joked to Oana at lunch on Saturday that I’ve had enough once-in-a-lifetime events to last, well, a lifetime. Assuming no other major events, I’m probably still 2-3 years away from being able to FIRE.
It’s interesting to look back at how my plans have evolved. Initially, the plan was for us to retire to Romania, where we had Oana’s family, and many mutual friends. Unfortunately, the complete breakdown of our relationship with her family killed any chance of that. I mean, we could still do it, but one of the major reasons for choosing Romania was so Oana could be close to her family. Now, we are dreaming of Spain. We love the language, the culture, and the weather. It will be more complicated than Romania as we will not have the same in-built support network, but it’s our current dream. Maybe it will not be possible, but the FIRE plan is not wholly dependent on the destination. Maybe we will end up in Spain. Maybe in Canada. Maybe in Malta. It just needs to be somewhere else.
Like I always say, my FIRE plan is flexible. The process is more important than the end result. I can control the process of investing, and if I stick with it the result will take care of itself.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week.
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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I discuss the drop in property values, and the probable recession we may find ourselves in. Also, the usual financial updates, a bit of Lego, and some good food this weekend.
Weekly Update
I’ve spent most of the week still recovering from my op the week before. On Monday I was not feeling in a great way and I called the helpline number I was given if I had questions about my recovery. I was asked to come up to the hospital immediately for some scans. It appears that the stent I have between my kidney and bladder is causing irritation, but I can’t have the stent removed until I have the next operation. I was originally told that it would take place 2-3 weeks after the first one, but it looks like that timetable has been pushed back a week or so. The sooner it’s done, the better.
I’ve tried to get out and about for some light walks but I have no energy, and the pain and discomfort are, well, uncomfortable when I walk. I’m itching to get back to some sort of normal routine. Once I’ve got this kidney problem sorted I’ll be on the countdown to the summer, where I have a Coldplay concert and a two-week cruise around Norway to look forward to. It sometimes feels as though life is just waiting for the next thing to start, as we wait for the next holiday, the next event, the next birthday, and so on.
Speaking of birthdays, it’s Oana’s birthday this weekend. Although she’s not feeling hugely excited about getting older, I’m incredibly proud of her. She came to this country when she was just 18 years old, and having grown up in a fairly affluent household she had never had to work for anything herself. Armed with no experience, she carved out her own life, and all her successes are her own. She’s earned an undergraduate degree, postgraduate qualifications, professional qualifications such as CeMAP, and a whole list of other certificates and awards. She’s financially comfortable and independent in her own right. Everything she has done, she’s earned herself through hard work, an iron will, and a determination to stand on her own two feet. Everything she has achieved is in spite of those who’ve tried to hold her back, and despite having a lot of shit thrown her way over the years, she keeps picking herself up and moving forward. She’s my best friend, my partner, and I know she’ll continue to go from strength to strength.
We’re having a low-key weekend. We’re making some food and just going to relax as much as possible. As I write this on Saturday afternoon, we’ve had some great food. I made a butterbean, chickpea, and pearl barley soup. Oana made some French potatoes, and we made a dessert that was so good it was almost a spiritual experience. We made baked nectarines, with syrup made from orange, star anise, and cinnamon. We made an orange, honey, and mascarpone cream, and served with a pistachio crumb. See the pic below:
On Sunday my Dad is coming over and we are making enchiladas. We’ve already made a couple of desserts including lemon and raspberry pots, and chocolate tiffin. All in all, it’s been a good day for food.
Lego
I’ve had a few more Lego sets delivered this week, including the Lunar Lander, and Optimus Prime. I’ve also been assembling some of my older sets, some of which date back to the 1980s. I’m still disappointed that my Lego Rocinante could not be completed. Once I’ve organised some more of my older sets, I’ll dismantle the Rocinante and use the parts for other models. I’d like to find a design for the Donnager-class battleships from The Expanse, but the only ones I can find have mixed reviews.
Another model I’d love to build is Hillsborough stadium; home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. A google search led me to Chris Smith, and his website, brickstand.com. He’s aiming to build The 92; the stadia of the 92 football league clubs. I’ve exchanged a few messages with Chris and he’s given me some hints and tips for building Hillsborough, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a full set of instructions. If anyone out there has a full design for Hillsborough including a parts list, let me know as I’ll pay good money for a good design.
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Audiobook: Infinite Timeline by Jeremy Robinson, & How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.
If Only (Spanish title: Si lo hubiera sabido) was good fun. It’s an eight-part series based in Seville and tells the story of Emma, a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. One night, when there’s a Blood Moon, she travels ten years back in time into her younger body. For the most part, it’s a light hearted Rom-Com which occasionally delves into darker territory. Although I really enjoyed it, I hope it’s not renewed for a second season as it’s a complete story as is. Sometimes, shows only need a single season, and if there’s no more story to tell then there’s no point dragging it out for the sake of it.
We’ve also resumed watching Taco Chronicles on Netflix. It is literally a documentary series about the different types of taco served across the different regions of Mexico. It’s really interesting, and the things that these people can do with combinations of meats, salsas and tortillas are just mindblowing. The show doesn’t just describe the different types of tacos. It also delves into the history and culture of each region, showing how and why the people devised different ways of cooking. If you like tacos, watch this show. If you don’t like tacos, watch this show and you’ll soon learn to love tacos.
I also really enjoyed How To Kill Your Family, which tells the story of another young woman, Grace, who is tracking down and murdering her estranged family. The story kept me guessing, and I found myself not wanting it to end. I think HTKYF will end up being high on my list of 2023’s favourite books.
In between books that count towards my 2023 book challenge I’ve been revisiting the Infinite Timeline by Jeremy Robinson. For those who don’t know, the Infinite Timeline is a series of a dozen or so standalone books that all come together for a big crossover event. The stories that make up the timeline are a mix of sci-fi and horror. The combination of Jeremy’s writing, and R.C. Bray’s fantastic narration is fantastic. If you like sci-fi, horror, and a good amount of humour, you should check it out.
Investment Income in 2023: £137.11 (target £8,500).
For the first time since I started this project, the housing market has dropped. Both my apartment and BTL have decreased in value. It’s important to remember that these drops are only realised if, and when, it comes time to sell. I’ve already agreed on a price for selling my share of my BTL, and there are no immediate plans to sell my apartment, so these reductions only matter on paper. The market will bounce back in time.
This week has seen reports coming from the ONS about GDP in November 2022 which suggest that the UK might not technically be in a recession. This news does feel very much like a technicality and unless there are surprising figures for December, I think it’s a matter of when, not if, we enter a recession.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters where GDP falls. The Bank of England is concerned we could enter a recession that lasts for roughly two years, or for those using the new calendar, we are looking at a recession lasting three more Tory Chancellors.
With the global economy being more interconnected than ever I don’t think recessions in the 2020s are going to be like recessions of previous decades. Money moves around the world at the speed of light, and what used to take days or weeks to ripple through the global economy can now take just minutes or seconds. The most important thing to remember with investing is that time in the market is much more important than timing the market. Having a system in place for investing and sticking to it through the good times and the bad is, generally, much better than trying to react to market conditions. As I said, money moves at the speed of light and by the time you are thinking of reacting, it’s already too late. Have a system in place and stick to it.
BTL Update
We’ll probably get another month’s rent from the property before the tenants move out and the transfer of ownership is complete. What should be a simple transfer is not being helped by a legal firm that lacks even the most basic level of competence. So far they’ve had the wrong names on documents and repeatedly sent contradictory instructions for what to do with the different forms they’ve sent out. Both myself and my investment partner have years of mortgage experience, and we’re finding this a challenging process. I dread to think how those with limited mortgage experience handle this process. Hopefully, the next thing we hear will be that the transaction is ready to complete.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week ahead.
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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I discuss my surgery at the start of the year. Also, some frustrating developments with our service charges.
Weekly Update:
There’s only one major talking point this week: the surgery I had on Tuesday 3rd January. For over a year I’ve had a large kidney stone which is too big to pass naturally. I’ve been waiting on surgery that’s had to be cancelled twice due to Covid. I got a call between Christmas and the New Year saying I could come in on the 3rd, so I thought I should get it out of the way. It didn’t really go according to plan though.
When I arrived at the hospital I was taken for a CT scan to ensure the stone was still where they thought it was. Then, I was taken to Theatre Admissions Unit (TAU). Over the course of a few hours, I had a few tests and talks with the urologist and the anaesthetist. The first issue that cropped up related to the anaesthetic. The consultants did not feel it was safe for me to have general anaesthetic, so I was encouraged to have a spinal injection.
The spinal injection was not as fun as it sounds, and it didn’t sound like fun to begin with. I’ve had a spinal tap before, and I remembered well the feeling of the needle pinching into my back. When I was taken to theatre there were three nurses chatting with me to try and take my mind off what was to come. It mostly worked. The lead nurse was explaining, whilst walking behind where I was sitting on the bed, that I was about to have a cold spray on my back. As she was explaining, the other two nurses stood in front of me. Just as the nurse was saying, “I’m going to count to three and…” but before she finished she sprayed me anyway. Now, I know you may not believe me, but I honestly didn’t swear. I might have invoked the name of Jesus but I definitely did not swear.
The nurse apologised but explained when people expect it, they tense, and they’ve had people injure themselves because they flinch when the spray hits them on the count of three. Anyway, I know her game now and I’m wise to it. In all seriousness though, the nurses and doctors were great. Absolutely no complaint from me.
Anyway, the spinal injection took hold and I couldn’t feel anything from my sternum to my feet. Some time went by in theatre before the urologist popped his head over the curtain they’d erected under my chin to explain they couldn’t get to the stone because the channel running between my bladder and kidney was too narrow. So, they’ve had to fit a stent to widen it, and I’ll need to go back in for further surgery in a “couple of weeks” potentially with a third, minor procedure if they need to leave a stent during the second one. So, all in all, not a great outcome.
The aftercare by the staff in recovery, and back in TAU, was great. Considering all the bad press NHS workers, especially nurses, get it’s fine work they do, really fine work (bonus points to whoever gets the reference here from a recent-ish BBC show).
I left the hospital around 19:30, I think, and by 21:30 I was home, showered, and exhausted. I stayed in bed until 17:30 the following day, only leaving to go to the toilet or throw up (gross, sorry).
I’m typing this on Saturday afternoon and I’m still not close to 100%. I’m hoping the next appointment comes through quickly so I can get this issue resolved. Next time though, I’m going to see if there’s anything we can do about having a general anaesthetic because this spinal injection really didn’t react well with me. A general might not be optimal from their perspective but surely the short/medium-term side effects on the patient are relevant. Obviously, I will abide by their expertise but I think I need to have a clearer idea of what the issues are. The anaesthetist seemed a cool guy though, and he gave me drugs, so yeah he can go on my Christmas card list.
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Audiobook: The Others by Jeremy Robinson. Blink by K. L. Slater.
We really enjoyed The Tourist on iPlayer. It’s a six-episode show that starts with Jamie Dornan driving through the Australian outback. He’s involved in a car accident and loses his memory. What follows are his attempts to work out just what the hell is going on. With a style similar to Coen Brothers’ work, and maybe a little Tarantino mixed in, it’s a very entertaining ride. It takes a lot to grab me on TV now, but this show definitely did. Highly recommended.
We’re three episodes into Killing Eve’s fourth season and it’s not very good. It was never a particularly believable show and was something of a guilty pleasure. Also, I could watch Jodie Comer in anything and still be entertained to some degree. But yeah, this season sucks so far. I might not even finish it.
As part of my 2023 book challenge, I wanted to read/listen to more work by female authors I’ve not experienced before. I fired up Audible, browsed the Plus Catalogue, and the first one that popped out was Blink by K. L. Slater. The story is told from two points in time; three years ago, and the present day, and relates to the abduction of a young girl. I would say the book is probably best experienced without much advanced knowledge. One issue I have with a lot of stories involving children is that I find the kids absolutely insufferable. In Blink, K. L. Slater created a compelling character in the little girl, and I was really rooting for her. Rather than the girl being a device to cause tension and anxiety for the mother, she felt like her own character, with her own agency. The story twists and turns, and although I had some of the broad strokes figured out ahead of time, I still enjoyed the journey. I can’t remember the exact quote, but the best plot twists are ones that, with the benefit of hindsight, were inevitable yet unexpected.
There were a couple of points that knocked the star rating down from a 4*/5* to a 3*. I didn’t find the mother to be someone I could relate to, or empathise with. Also, I found the way the school operated to be somewhat convenient for the plot, but that’s just a minor issue. On the whole, I enjoyed the book and it get me gripped. I would read more from the author.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £19,350.00 (no change).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £65,928.40 (+£2,337.30).
Fuck It Fund: £0.00 (no change).
Pensions: £55,995.45 (+£891.43).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £526,255.85 (+£3,228.73).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £10,000.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £179,595.11 (-£432.97).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,015.74 (-£85.72).
Total Debts: £294,610.85 (-£518.69).
Total Wealth: £231,645.00 (£3,747.42).
Investment Income in 2023: £25.11 (target £8,500).
The stock market seems to have had a good start to the year, and my mortgage payments have landed. The increase in my assets, and decrease in debts, have pushed my total wealth to the second-highest figure since I started this project.
It feels as though we’re on the final straight to the start of the new tax year, at which point I’ll be able to start investing in my ISA again. The transfer of my equity in the BTL to my investment partner means that I need to build new income streams as soon as possible to improve on 2022’s investment income.
The first investment income of the year comes from my trusty Premium Bonds and a little residual interest. Although our tenants are still paying rent in January, it will be used up by the costs of instructing the agent to complete the moving-out checks, as well as a couple of “just because” fees.
Service Charges
Regular readers will know that Oana and I live in a city centre apartment, in a great part of Sheffield, that just last year was regarded as one of the top fifty coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Time Out magazine. This came just a couple of years after being awarded Best Place to Live in the UK by a national newspaper. In short, there are a lot of great things about living in Kelham Island. The service charges are not one of them.
Our current management company have been looking after the development for a couple of years now, and during that time our service charges have increased from approximately £1,100p/a (paid half-yearly) to approximately £1,700p/a. See graph below:
We’re waiting on an explanation for the continued increase, the latest of which is 6% (other residents have noted increases between 6%-20%) despite us all receiving an email a few days ago warning of “average increases” of roughly “1%-2%”.
I’m giving the management company time to explain as my interactions with them have been overwhelmingly positive. However, I’m very concerned about this increase and the general trend. We were told that they had to increase last year due to a one-off expense. Also, our insurance coverage has been reduced as we can (apparently) no longer obtain flood cover. From the start of 2015 to now, we are looking at an almost 50% increase. That’s unsustainable, and some owners will struggle to pay it.
I also don’t understand why there’s such variability in the increases. Why are some owners looking at 6% increases and others 20%? Someone, somewhere, at some point, got something wrong. Either the old management company was not charging the correct amounts, or the new company has got something wrong. It just doesn’t seem right. Hopefully, as more information comes to light, it will all make sense. As I said, I’m giving our current management company time to respond due to our previous interactions. As things stand, service charges and ground rent will be almost £2,000p/a, or to put another way, more than I pay for electricity or council tax.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. Please remember to like, and share, this post.
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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A short post to see out 2022, where I look at my goals for 2023.
Weekly Update
The story that has dominated the week for me has been the fall and fall of Andrew Tate. I find it hilarious that this supposed “alpha male” targeted a young woman, and got absolutely wrecked by her. For those that missed the story, this is a brief overview…
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer turned social media personality, who has made his name promoting misogynist bullshit. Out of the blue, he decided to take aim at Greta Thunberg by boasting about his car collection. Greta completely owned him with her reply. See the images below:
Despite fucking around and finding out, Tate wasn’t finished. His reply amounted to, “no I’m not, you are.”
In his rebuttal, Tate made the fatal mistake of asking for some pizza, which was brought to him in a box which inadvertently gave away his location allowing the police in Bucharest to track and arrest him on suspicion of people trafficking and numerous other offences.
So, in summary, he was burned so badly that he ended up in prison.
Greta’s final comment on the issue was brutal:
The time between Christmas and New Year is similar to being in an airport; time means nothing. Is it Sunday or Thursday? Who knows… Chocolate for breakfast? Why not…
It looks as though my return to a normal routine will be somewhat delayed as the hospital called me on Friday to see if I was free for surgery on January 3rd. You may remember I was supposed to have an op to remove a large kidney stone a few weeks ago but I had to cancel when I had Covid. As I’ll be under general anaesthetic I’ll probably not be right for work for a little while after the op, but hopefully, I’m not on the sidelines for long.
On New Year’s Eve, we (Oana and I) went for lunch with my Dad. We went to a Chinese restaurant, called Oisoi, in Sheffield and had a great time. I had crab and sweetcorn soup, with some steamed pork dumplings, followed by Kung Po chicken. Oana had a hot and sour soup followed by beef in black bean sauce. My Dad had ribs to start, followed by a chicken curry. After eating we went to Lykke and had a coffee before calling it a day. It was nice to enjoy our New Year’s Eve how we wanted, in a chilled-out way.
My Kung Po chicken.
In other news, our cat Poppy has taken to sitting beneath the Christmas Tree:
2023 Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions are a bit weird when you think about them as a concept. It’s not like we are only allowed to make positive changes to our lives when the calendar ticks over from 31/12 to 01/01. In some ways, waiting for the new year to start can be damaging as throughout the latter part of the year people think, “fuck it, sounds like a problem for next year” and continue eating too much, spending too much, drinking too much, and so on.
As strange as I find the concept, it doesn’t stop me from making my own resolutions or setting my own targets and goals.
Lose weight
I’m starting off with a classic, and one of the most common resolutions. This isn’t just for appearance; I really need to lose weight for my health. The problem is, every time I start something my body decides to spring a new injury. For the last few weeks, I’ve been dealing with an injured elbow, which means I can’t even pick up a drink without being in pain. The weight loss will have to come from a combination of diet and low-impact cardio. Hopefully this time I can make a sustained go of it. I’ve done it before, and I can do it again.
Goal: Lose 15kg by the end of June’23, with starting weight to be confirmed by next week.
Distance Challenge
Linked to the above goal, I find that having a distance goal in mind helps me with cardio. My first goal is to complete the length of the Valles Marineris on Mars, a canyon that runs for approximately 4,000km. The Mariner Valley is the location of multiple human settlements in The Expanse book series, and I’m a huge fan of sci-fi, so it just felt like a more appropriate challenge for me.
Goal: 4,000km to be completed by the end of March’23, through walking and cycling.
Use all my ISA allowance
This is more of a financial year, rather than a calendar year, goal. I’ve used up my ISA allowance for the previous two years, and the new allowance opens up at the start of the financial year. I’m undecided about whether to use up the whole allowance as soon as the new financial year starts, or drip-feed money into my ISA through the year. At the moment, I’m thinking I’ll do a bit of both, where I invest a lump sum as soon as I can and then follow that up with smaller sums each month.
Goal: Invest £20,000 in my ISA by the end of the 2023/2024 financial year.
2023 Book Challenge
Although I hit my target of new authors for 2022, I didn’t get close to my target when it came to The Classics. I did finish some classic works, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Don Quixote, and Dracula, which I thoroughly enjoyed, there were some I just couldn’t get into, such as Moby Dick, and War and Peace. In 2023 I’m looking forward to revisiting some of my favourite books, but I’m also going to set a few other goals;
1: Finish ten books by female authors I’ve not read before.
2: Finish ten books by foreign authors I’ve not read before.
3: Finish ten classics I’ve not read before.
If you have any recommendations for books, please let me know.
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Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £523,027.12 (-£352.63).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £10,000.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,028.08 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,101.46 (no change).
Total Debts: £295,129.54 (no change).
Total Wealth: £227,897.58 (-£352.63).
Investment Income in 2023: £0.00 (target £8,500).
A somewhat shorter post than normal this week. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads this blog, and to everyone who messages me on social media and through the comments section. If you have any questions or feedback, please do get in touch. I hope you have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A look at our plans for Christmas, and a list of my most-read posts of 2022. Also, the usual financial updates, and some BTL developments.
Weekly Update
I always find this time of year a bit strange. I used to be quite anti-Christmas, but now I just don’t give much of a fuck about it. I enjoy some time off work and spending time with those I care about, but the whole Christmas Thing I find a bit pointless. There’s also something a bit bleak and depressing about a lot of the classic Christmas songs. I used to think it was just me, but I’ve noticed a few people voicing the same opinion this year.
As much as I’m indifferent to this time of year, my girlfriend, Oana, loves the music and always works hard to thaw my cold, dead heart when it comes to Christmas. I will admit that I love our Christmas tree because it’s batshit crazy and tells the story of our time together.
I’m writing this a little earlier in the week, so I don’t have to work on it too much over the weekend. Our plan for the 24th to the 26th is lots of food and television. This is different to the rest of the year in exactly zero ways. My Dad is coming over on the 25th so the three of us will be chilling out and hoping we don’t have a repeat of last year.
Last Christmas was a bit of a clusterfuck. On the 24th Oana and I were supposed to have dinner with my Mom and her husband. We had to cancel as Oana tested positive for Covid. As my Dad works in the NHS he didn’t want to risk catching Covid, so he didn’t come over on Christmas Day as we originally planned. On Boxing Day our cat, Bobby, passed away suddenly on our sofa. He was cleaning himself, and then had some sort of seizure. Oana was with him at the time and shouted for me to come through. As I knelt next to Bobby, he give out a final breath.
I rushed to the emergency vet but Bobby wasn’t moving and had already gone cold in the short time it took me to get there. I remember as I passed him to the nurse I just broke down. Bobby was the sweetest little guy. We had only adopted him a few months prior. It took him time to settle in and, although we can’t prove anything, we believe he was mistreated or neglected as he was jumpy and a bit of a scaredy-cat. Once he settled though, he was sweet, gentle, and loving. I miss him and I hope he realises how much he was loved and how much he is missed.
We’ve been so lucky with the cats we’ve adopted. We had Sweep for two and a half years, and he crossed rainbow bridge at the old age of nineteen. Bobby was a little younger, but should still have been with us for years. Now, we have Poppy, a crazy, beautiful, lady. We’ll never be without a cat for long now. Adopting older cats is so rewarding, and the affection they give is incredible. If you look after them, they’ll look after you.
Here’s a couple of pics of Sweep, and Poppy. Also, the paintings we commissioned from artist Laura Slade of Sweep and Bobby:
Back to Christmas though, and this is our tree:
And this is the card Oana made me:
The two animal drawings are based on her two favourite childhood toys who have pride of place on our sofa.
On Saturday we spent several hours cooking and baking so that on Sunday we don’t have to work too hard and can chill as much as possible.
Customer service, again…
I received an email from Nespresso regarding an offer where I could buy a new machine for half price, and get 50% off my coffee for a year. Great, I love coffee. I ordered the machine and coffee, and delivery was scheduled for Monday. I kept an eye on the tracking info from Yodel and when it was almost time for my delivery I went downstairs to the entrance to our apartment building. I opened the door for the courier, but he obviously didn’t realise it was my parcel as he stepped inside and basically body-slammed my parcel onto the floor. I was not impressed. Fortunately, the machine seems to be working fine, but I did raise the issue with Nespresso just in case the machine develops a fault.
Although there are many small hills I will happily die upon, there is one that really frustrates me, and it’s to do with delivery companies (including Royal Mail) in general. How is it acceptable for a delivery company to just hand your possessions off to a stranger? You buy something to be delivered and you aim to be at home when the delivery takes place, however companies will sometimes deliver on the wrong date, or you might be in the bathroom or something when they arrive. So why can they pass your stuff to some random person who happens to be nearby? I just don’t get it.
This situation came to light on Friday as I had arranged the delivery of a bouquet of flowers for an older relative. She didn’t get to the door, so the driver left the package outside, and by the time my relative checked the package had been stolen. The delivery company has the option to leave the package in a “safe place” if there is no answer. I didn’t select that option, so the package should have gone to a collection point. Instead, I received a call from the driver stating he’d left the package outside.
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Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: Nothing at the moment – having a break from TV.
The burning question is will I ever finish Fake History? Yes. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know.
I’m halfway through Leviathan Falls, the final novel of The Expanse series. There is a novella set after which I’ve not read before, but I’ll have the whole series wrapped up by Boxing Day evening, I think.
There are a few things we want to watch on Christmas Day, but the one film we absolutely have to watch is Four Lions. Oana and I love this movie and not a day goes by without us quoting scenes to each other. The last time we watched it we were on a late-night flight to Bucharest and we had it playing on my Macbook with a headphone splitter plugged in. We laughed our asses off. Part of the appeal is that much of the film was shot in Sheffield, and even the scenes set in London are streets we know well. There’s also a scene featuring Benedict Cumberbatch before he hit the big time.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £19,350.00 (+£90.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £64,090.82 (+£1,110.53).
Fuck It Fund: £0.00 (no change).
Pensions: £54,956.93 (+£193.35).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £523,379.75 (+£1,393.88).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £10,000.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,028.08 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,101.46 (no change).
Total Debts: £295,129.54 (no change).
Total Wealth: £228,250.21 (+£1,393.88).
Investment Income in 2022: £5,685.20 (target £6,000).
I’ll go through the progress made in 2022 in the next blog post, which will go live on 01/01/2023, but this year has seen some great progress. My investment income target was ambitious and the fact I came so close to hitting it gives me hope for the future.
BTL Update
Our BTL’s EPC is coming up for renewal and this prompted us to look at the current rating, and where we stand in the context of the new legislation on BTL EPCs coming into force in 2025. The long and short of it is it will take a lot of work to bring it back up to a “C” from the “D” rating it will almost certainly have now. As it happens my investment partner is looking for somewhere new to live, and he has offered to buy my share of the property so he can convert it to a residential basis. All the finance is in place, and it’s just a case of waiting for the tenants to move out so he can move in.
This might seem like a step backwards in my plans for FIRE, and in some ways it probably is. However, looking at the numbers I’ve made money on this deal, where many first-time landlords do not. Also, I’ve learned a lot of lessons from this investment which I can take forward to future property investments.
Most Read Posts of 2022
As promised, these are my most read posts of this year (top five):
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I briefly discuss the NHS and RMT strikes. Also, a great year for investment income. I discuss some frustrating changes in my personal life, and a look ahead to the final blog posts of 2022.
Quote of the Week
“Richard, you’re just talking to yourself, you’re ranting. Richard you’re ranting”
~ Mick Lynch
Assuming you’ve not been hibernating you must have noticed that *checks notes* pretty much everyone seems to be going on strike. I want to focus on two strikes; the nursing strike and the railway strikes. If you want an example of how the mainstream media is treating these strikes, look no further than Mick Lynch being “interviewed” by Richard Madeley.
Nurses, the NHS, and the 17% pay rise…
At first glance a 17% pay increase demand seems unreasonable, however there are a few things to consider. Striking is very much a last resort. I believe that the overwhelming majority of those going on strike would rather be working and helping the public. This strike action is not something that has come about suddenly. The NHS has been treated badly for years. The work gets harder whilst in real terms the staff are being paid less and less. With worsening working conditions, more pressure, and less pay, and coming off the back of a global pandemic, that 17% starts to look less unreasonable. If you’ve been getting pay increases at a rate less than inflation for several years, then you’ve been getting paid less in real terms year on year. That 17% is to not only reset the clock, but also to account for how badly the NHS as a whole has been treated by central government. Giving them the pay increase would be a start, but it doesn’t solve the fundamental problems the NHS faces regarding job satisfaction and pressure.
The NHS needs heavy investment in people and infrastructure, but training new doctors and nurses is a long term project. It takes 10-14 years to train as a doctor. So if you want to make the job more attractive, you have to account for the fact that you are appealing to 18 year olds looking at what degree they will study. You then have to realise you will not see any benefit from your investment for a further 14 years. Depending on the election cycle, that’s 3-4 elections until you start to notice a difference. Will any government throw hundreds of millions, maybe billions, at the NHS when there’s a chance they’ll be out of office when the benefits are reaped? Party politics is not condusive to projects that take more than five years to produce benefits.
In the short term, just give the nurses the money.
Railway strikes
The nursing and railway strikes both suffer from the same problem; a lack of quality PR management. Already I’ve seen signs of people losing sympathy for the striking workers because of the media campaign that is at best neutral to the strikes, and at worst is highly critical. The optics of the railway workers striking for four days over Christmas doesn’t look good, even though the rationale is that the railways are closed for most of that time. As much as some people love Mick Lynch, there needs to be better management of the PR side of these strikes because public opinion seems to be shifting.
Again, I have a lot of sympathy for those striking and I agree with many of the demands from the workers. I can’t see the strikes ending well. At best, the can will simply be kicked down the road for the next government to deal with. At worst, the country grinds to a standstill in 2023 as more industries strike.
Weekly Update
I’ve not had the best week due to some changes in my circumstances, which I can’t talk in much detail about so I’ll try to discuss it in more general terms. As an autistic person a large part of my mental well being comes from routine, and having a sense of control over what I do, and when I do it. The rug was pulled out from under me this week and I had the one-two punch combo of dealing with a negative change in my circumstances but also finding out about it in less than ideal circumstances.
Moving forward this will negatively impact my mental health but there’s not much that can be done about that. I want to come back to spoons for a moment to explain why. For those unfamiliar with the concept of spoons and mental health, it goes a little like this…
Each day you have an amount of spoons. The amount can vary daily depending on your general mood, physical health, and so on. For the sake of argument let’s assume that I have anywhere from 8 to 12 spoons each day.
Waking up, showering, breakfast, and the general morning routine might take 2 spoons. Household chores a further 4 spoons. Spending time with loved ones a further 3 spoons. So, 9 spoons so far. If you had 8 spoons to start with, you are in a deficit already.
There are certain things we all need to do each day, and those tasks come with a cost to your spoon balance. If the base cost of those necessities goes up, then you are having to budget for a greater number of spoons each day. Whilst I might be able to meet that cost, because the task is essential, it will leave a reduced number of spoons for other things for an indefinite length of time. This type of change might seem manageable to the outside observer, but it comes with a medium to long term cost on mental health.
If spoons don’t do it for you, think about it in terms of hit points or health points, like in a computer game. You have a set amount, and when you take damage, you health reduces. Over time you can build up your balance but it generally takes longer to recover these points than it does to spend them. A particularly stressful interaction with someone can wipe out a hit point balance in minutes that can take days, or even weeks, to recover. This also fails to account for the fact that a person’s maximum spoon, health, or hit point balance can be irrevocably reduced. You might have been able to store twenty spoons at one time, but a single, high-level stress event or a constant level of stress can permanently reduce your maximum capacity to store these spoons.
So what’s the answer? Well, we are all playing this game called life, and the rules of life cross over to a huge extent with the rules of money, which are in turn dictated by capitalism. For someone like me, the aim is to learn the rules and then apply them in such a way so as to facilitate an exit from the game. The only way to win over the long term is not to play, and that’s why FIRE is so important. If your financial health and independence is not determined by other, external factors, then you can simply tip the table over and refuse to play, much like how many games of Monopoly end. Until you reach that point, you have to smile as much as possible and keep focused on the exit strategy.
BTL Viewing
On Saturday morning we viewed a possible BTL. When we arrived at the property we did the usual and had a good look at the brickwork and roof. We spotted a possible gap in the tiles. When we looked inside, there were corresponding areas which suggested the early signs of damp. Despite the rest of the property being great, a hole in the roof which lets in moisture is only going to get worse. It’s also one of those repair jobs which can uncover other problems. The numbers didn’t stack up if we account for that level of repair, and unfortunately meant it would not work as an investment.
Following the viewing, I went out with my girlfriend for lunch and some shopping. It didn’t exactly go to plan. We had originally booked for a Chinese restaurant but they called to explain they had to close as several staff were sick. We booked another restaurant that advertised Viking Tapas, which sounded interesting. When we arrived, the restaurant was quiet and several staff were milling around. No one greeted us. We approached one member of staff but as we started to speak, she walked off. We tried again with another member of staff and were eventually shown to a table. The menu was different to what was displayed online, and not in a good way. We missed the brunch options by four minutes and were left with a choice of pizza or salad. We were already a bit miffed with the service and decided to go elsewhere.
We tried a Japanese restaurant next but were put off by the cleanliness, which was further concerning when the staff dropped our menus on the floor and then simply picked them up and placed them on our table. We ended up going with what we knew and went to Lucky Fox (a place that does excellent fried chicken) and really enjoyed our meal.
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1 – Reduce weight to 90kg. (Current weight 126.4kg).
2 – Complete 10 “classic” books (4/10)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) ✅
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ✅
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) ✅
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) ✅
3 – Read 10 authors I’ve not read before (24/10)
John Birmingham ✅
Nicole Perlroth ✅
Sabine Durrant ✅
Luke Smitherd ✅
Max Skittle ✅
Harlan Coben ✅
Jo Spain ✅
Kate Elizabeth Russell ✅
Kiersten White ✅
Rob Hart ✅
Edward Aubry ✅
Marina J. Lostetter ✅
S. J. Morden ✅
C. J. Tudor ✅
Greer Hendricks ✅
Clare Mackintosh ✅
Stephen Baxter ✅
Pete Wharmby ✅
Devon Price ✅
Nick Jones ✅
Nathan Hystad ✅
J. P. Pomare ✅
Max Hastings ✅
Brian Lumley ✅
Steve Richards ✅
What Am I Doing?
Reading: Fake History by Otto English.
Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: Nothing at the moment – having a break from TV.
I’m down to just a handful of pages of Fake History. What started well has devolved to a real slog to get through. I probably would have enjoyed it more as an audiobook.
I’m halfway through Persepolis Rising (book 7 of The Expanse). This is my second run through the books and I’m enjoying them just as much, if not more, than the first time through. The jump from book 6 to 7 is a little jarring at first (not going to say why as don’t want to spoil it, but if you know, you know) but once it gets going it’s highly entertaining.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £19,260.00 (+£760.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £62,980.29 (-£1,205.48).
Fuck It Fund: £0.00 (no change).
Pensions: £54,763.58 (+£16.62).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £521,985.87 (-£428.86).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £10,000.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,028.08 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,101.46 (no change).
Total Debts: £295,129.54 (no change).
Total Wealth: £226,856.33 (-£428.86).
Investment Income in 2022: £5,536.85 (target £6,000).
It’s the last payday before Christmas and the New Year and my finances are looking healthy. I’ve missed my investment income target, but not by much. In the coming week, a dividend payment will land in my account which will take my income to just over £5,600, so I will have hit roughly 93% of my target. It’s still a huge increase from the previous year where I brought in £3,771.93.
2022 marks the third full year of my FIRE plan. My plan runs counter to a lot of other people’s, as I’m more focused on income whereas other FIRE followers are concerned with their total investment pot. My income is definitely moving in the right direction. The average monthly income from investments for each of the last three years is as follows:
2020: £15.83
2021: £314.33
2022: £467.00 (a few pence over/under depending on dividend payment on 19/12).
2023 is projected to average out at £708pcm. The finish line is getting closer, albeit slower than I’d like.
Next Sunday is Christmas Day and the following Sunday is New Year’s Day. As such, the next couple of blog posts will be a little different. The Christmas Day post will be a look back at the most popular posts of the year. New Year’s Day will be something of a soft reboot as I tweak a couple of things with the format of each post. I’ll also look at my reading goals for 2023.
If there’s anything you want to see included going forward, leave a comment and I’ll see what I think. Thanks for reading, and have a great time over the Christmas holiday period.
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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I discuss working for free, and how it creates more problems for employees. Also, TV shows that were consistently good, and those that fell from grace. There are the usual financial updates, and some more thoughts on 2023’s financial goals.
Quote of the Week
I was chatting with a friend about their employer and some of the stuff that goes on there is just wild. There’s so much work to be completed that people still log on to work when they’ve called in sick, which makes you wonder what the point of calling in sick is. Also, people there will work until late at night, take calls from clients at unsocial hours, and even work whilst on holiday. It’s crazy, and got me thinking about a quote I heard a while back, which goes something like, “if you work at your best all the time, then it’s no longer your best.” The point is that people can only work for so long before needing a break. The additional point, which is rarely discussed, is that if you always bust a gut to do your absolute best then it creates the expectation that you can do that all the time. It might not be something that many people openly admit but the vast majority of jobs don’t need to be done to the absolute best standard; they just need to be done to a good enough, or acceptable, standard.
Expectations, from an employer, rarely drop. It’s the nature of capitalism to expect more for less. If you can complete X number of tasks in an hour when working flat out for a short period, then the expectation will be that you can do that as a matter of routine. As an employee, you may feel under pressure to just take an extra hour a week to complete a task, despite knowing you will not be paid. You might spend time on your week off work catching up on admin. You might feel stressed whilst off work with the flu to complete some tasks. The thing is, each time you do this you are raising expectations and making life more difficult for everyone moving forward. Labour should not be free, but the increase in remote working seems to be creating a new normal where the workday doesn’t finish when you stop being on the clock. Reports vary, but the consensus appears to be that the average salaried worker completes an extra 7-10 hours of unpaid work each week. That is a lot of free labour.
There are times when it makes sense to be flexible, in cases where favours are exchanged, for example. I’m not militant enough to say that no one should ever work extra. Sometimes a bit of extra work here or there just makes good sense but it should never become the norm, or be expected. Employers shouldn’t have to rely on free labour. If a business only works because people work for free, then the business model doesn’t work. People will literally work themselves into ill health and exhaustion for a job that will replace them like without a second thought. There’s more to life than work, and not a single person will look back at their life from their deathbed and feel good about all the free work they completed. Anyone who regularly works for free is betraying themselves and, by degrees, increasing the pressure on their peers to also work for free.
Weekly Update
I’ve just finished my first week back at work after a prolonged absence. It’s always a bit of a shock to the system when you have an extended absence but I have a supportive manager and team, which has helped me transition back into a routine. I have a lot of catching up to do before I start speaking with customers again but it will take as long as it takes.
I’ve done more socialising this week than normal. Being autistic means I sometimes find socialising exhausting, but this week was different. I had enough spoons to pay for everything I needed to do and when you’ve had long periods of time with a spoon shortage you learn to appreciate the times when you can end the day, or the week, with a small surplus.
As regular readers will know, there have been more than a few times lately when I’ve had abysmal customer service. This week I had a genuinely great customer experience. So, I’ve been sorting through my Lego collection trying to bag up old sets that I’ve had for over thirty years. Over time I have lost some odd pieces here and there, so I’ve been buying random pieces that Lego no longer sell directly from eBay. A little while ago I found someone selling two pieces for a reasonable price. I only needed one, but everyone else was charging big bucks for them. So, I ordered these two. They didn’t turn up. The seller was quick to respond and offered a refund. I waited a few more days but nothing appeared. So, I got my money back and thought no more of it. A bit of time passed and then the seller contacted me again to say he’s found some more of the pieces and wanted to give me first refusal. I explained I technically only needed one of them, and a bit later he replied saying he’d popped them in the post at no charge. I received them today.
Things like this restore my faith in people. The guy had no reason to get back in touch, but he did. Small gestures can snowball; one kind act leads to another, and another, and before you know it lots of positive vibes are flowing all because of one person completing a small random act of kindness.
Support Mortgage Advisor on FIRE
I love writing this blog but maintaining a website costs money. If you want to say thanks for the content I publish, consider donating to my virtual tip jar on the link below:
1 – Reduce weight to 90kg. (Current weight 126.4kg).
2 – Complete 10 “classic” books (4/10)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) ✅
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ✅
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) ✅
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) ✅
3 – Read 10 authors I’ve not read before (24/10)
John Birmingham ✅
Nicole Perlroth ✅
Sabine Durrant ✅
Luke Smitherd ✅
Max Skittle ✅
Harlan Coben ✅
Jo Spain ✅
Kate Elizabeth Russell ✅
Kiersten White ✅
Rob Hart ✅
Edward Aubry ✅
Marina J. Lostetter ✅
S. J. Morden ✅
C. J. Tudor ✅
Greer Hendricks ✅
Clare Mackintosh ✅
Stephen Baxter ✅
Pete Wharmby ✅
Devon Price ✅
Nick Jones ✅
Nathan Hystad ✅
J. P. Pomare ✅
Max Hastings ✅
Brian Lumley ✅
Steve Richards ✅
What Am I Doing?
Reading: Fake History by Otto English.
Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: Dark on Netflix.
As I write this, I have just one more episode of Dark to watch. For the first two seasons, Dark was fantastic and up there with some of the best TV of all time. Then, along came the third season, which seemed to fall into a cycle of the same scene being played out time and time again. It goes like this, Character A is going to do something, but Character B appears and says a load of vague stuff and claims that Character C is lying. Instead of doing what Character C asks, Character A should do what Character B says instead. All season three is just this scene being done over and over with a rotating cast of characters. Any show that has a mystery at the core of the story has to give answers eventually. As good as the first two seasons of Dark are, the third season is poor.
Talking about Dark with my girlfriend got us thinking about shows that have maintained a high level of quality over the entire run of the show. The first one that came to mind was Breaking Bad. Over five seasons it was never less than excellent television. At its best, it’s without equal. Another show that I think kept up a high standard of quality was Mad Men. There are other shows that, in general, maintained a high level of quality but had some dips along the way. Buffy ran for seven seasons, with season one not ageing well, and seasons four and five being divisive, but even within those seasons, there are episodes which feature on lists of greatest episodes across all television; such as Hush from season four which took place with hardly any dialogue. Although there were low points, Buffy generally had a high level of quality and for the most part, stuck the landing.
What about shows that fell from grace? Lost was, arguably, the first TV show of the internet era to become a talking point for almost everyone. However, it soon faded when people realised that the initial mystery was not going to have a satisfying answer. As far as Lost fell, it couldn’t hold a candle to Game of Thrones. For a few years, probably seasons three through six, Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon. For those years the hype was justified as the show told a layered, nuanced story of political intrigue, with complex characters, with multiple plot threads that were gradually developing and coming together. It’s actually kind of amazing that the last two seasons were so bad that not only did they anger people, but they actually made the previous seasons worse retrospectively. What was a cultural phenomenon is now little more than a curiosity and a case of what could have been.
On the subject of television, one of my all-time favourite series of books is being adapted for TV. The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell tells the story of Arthur and the Saxon invasion of Britain. Of the many versions of the story that have been published to date, this is the definitive version. Having read the cast list though, I am worried it’s going to be a disappointment. With any show that has a large cast, it’s important that you get at least the core cast right. You can get away with a couple of duds here and there, so long as there’s at least one or two that hit the nail on the head. There’s only one of the cast that I think they got right, and that is Simon Merrells as the Silurian king Gundleus. You may recognise Merrells from a supporting role in the recent Amazon show Rings of Power, but I first saw him years ago as the manager of Harchester United in the Sky show Dream Team. In addition to these roles, he played Crassus in Spartacus. I think he’s got what it takes to play the part well, but Gundleus was only a small player in the books which makes me think that the show will make him a hybrid of other characters. I’ll give the show a chance but I just can’t see it working.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £18,500.00 (+£8,705.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £64,185.77 (-£392.94).
Fuck It Fund: £0.00 (-£1,675.00).
Pensions: £54,746.96 (-£1,026.80).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £522,414.73 (+£5,610.26).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Loans: £10,000.00 (+£10,000).
Residential Mortgage: £180,028.08 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,101.46 (no change).
Total Debts: £295,129.54 (+£10,000.00).
Total Wealth: £227,285.19 (-£4,389.74)
Investment Income in 2022: £5,239.85 (target £6,000).
A few changes to go over this week. As I’ve mentioned recently we have some final bits of work we want to complete in our apartment. We’ve taken a loan to cover those costs and some of those funds have already been put to use. I’ve also taken all the money from my Fuck It Fund and consolidated it in Premium Bonds. There’s an element of clearing the decks to what I’ve done, as I prepare for 2023. Having an emergency fund is important, but it doesn’t need to be instant access. As long as the funds are accessible fairly quickly and you have a decent-sized credit card limit it takes something pretty drastic to put you under immediate financial pressure.
2023 Financial Goals
Last week I highlighted my first two financial goals for 2023. A little reminder;
1 – Acquire BTL 2.
2 – £8,500 investment income.
I’ve had some thoughts about other goals for the year. I want to maximise my ISA allowance again, but I also want to start chipping away at our residential mortgage. In 2023 we have two products on our mortgage ending, with the rate on the remaining mortgage ending in early 2024. Although there are signs that mortgage rates may be coming down slightly, I don’t want to count on that. The sub-account we have with the earliest rate to finish comes in July, with a current balance of just over £10,000. Ideally, I’d like to be able to pay that sub-account off in full when the rate is up for renewal. It’s not a priority, but it would be nice to have the option if rates are insanely high. If at the point of renewal rates are low I might lock in again. It’s a case of wait-and-see, I think.
Something else that is bugging me is my postgraduate student loan. I owe a little over £5,000 on it and the balance is reducing each month. It’s looking like I’ll clear the loan before I FIRE, so I’m wondering if it makes sense to hammer the loan and clear it ASAP so that the money taken directly from my salary is free to invest elsewhere. It’s something to think about.
That’s all for this week. Thanks 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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I look ahead to my 2023 financial goals. Also, thoughts on the “where are you really from?” incident. There are yet more frustrating customer service examples, but a nice end to the week with some street food and a Christmas market.
Weekly Update
Would you believe me if I said I’d had another week with poor customer service? I’d ordered some stuff online and it was being delivered by DPD. Somehow, despite the retailer having the correct address on the order, DPD printed the wrong label for the package. So, I waited at home for the delivery and tracked it via their app. Just before the driver got to me, it came up with a message stating that because I wasn’t home the package was being sent to a supermarket a few miles away.
The thing about companies like DPD is that they are organisationally shit. As soon as something goes wrong, you know you’re in for a bad time. I called the depot a few times but no one knew what had happened. It wasn’t until my fifth call to them (as their promised callbacks never happened) that someone worked out that they had messed up.
Fortunately, the driver came back later that night and delivered the package at almost 9pm. Considering that it should have arrived by 10am, and my day had been planned around that, I wasn’t best pleased. I didn’t blame the driver because he could only deliver to the address he was given.
A little later in the week, we were due to have a new fridge freezer delivered via John Lewis; another company that is organisationally shit. We only ordered from them because every other retailer had sold out of the design we wanted.
We live in an apartment complex in a part of Sheffield that has undergone massive regeneration in recent years. It used to be the industrial heart of the city but has developed so much that in the last few years it was voted the best place to live in the UK in a national newspaper, and also recently featured in the top fifty places to live in the world on a travel website. Where we live is awesome, but it does have some drawbacks, with an obvious one being a lack of parking.
The road that comes into our development has double yellow lines meaning parking is not allowed. No one, not even the people handing out tickets, applies this to vehicles making deliveries because it would be dumb. Every single day, without fail, you see supermarket vans, couriers, and other vehicles parked for a few minutes at a time whilst they make deliveries. John Lewis also comes here to make deliveries regularly, yet every time it’s the same song and dance where they claim they’re not allowed to park, and we explain they can, they say they need to check, and so on. Eventually, they agree they can park.
The guys who came to take the item were not the best people I’ve dealt with. They stated they didn’t know if they could fit the new fridge in the lift to bring it up (it was fine as I checked before ordering). So they wanted to take the old fridge down to the van, and then measure the lift to see if the new fridge would fit. I had to ask a few times if it would not be better to measure first to put their minds at ease. It was not until I was ready to start drawing pictures with crayons to explain why it was better to do it that way that they understood.
To round off another week of bad service I had to make a complaint to my bank for the first time since joining them over three years ago. There was a problem where my debit card was being declined by multiple retailers despite having sufficient funds. I logged into the app and loaded up the live chat function. I wrote a simple, clear breakdown of what was happening, in that I was getting to the stage where I had to approve the transaction in the bank’s app but when I did, and then returned to the retailer’s page it would decline.
One of my biggest frustrations in life is being asked to repeat myself or being asked the same question over and over again. Please don’t misunderstand me here, as I appreciate there are times when people don’t hear properly or something. I’m not on about those times. I’m talking about times when people don’t like your answer so they just bombard you with the same question until it becomes easier to just change your answer than keep declining. I don’t do this anymore though. Some might think I’m an asshole for it, but if I keep getting asked the same thing over and over I just let my answers get increasingly blunt each time I reply.
Anyway, back to the issue with the bank. I’d typed out the problem I was facing into just a few sentences; “My card is being declined by multiple retailers. I get to the stage where I’m asked to approve the transaction in the app, but when I approve it, the retailer declines the transaction.”
The bank’s agent said they needed to read the information I’d provided so far, and then proceeded to ask the following;
“Have you tried with multiple retailers?”
“Are you approving the transaction in the app?”
“What happens then?”
The bank upheld my complaint but I had to laugh when I read through the email, which stated that agents have to ask questions to find out more information about the issue. Looking at what I initially wrote, and what was asked, I still can’t work out what extra information they were able to obtain.
Lady Susan Hussey
On the subject of people being asked to repeat themselves, I want to say a little about the incident involving Susan Hussey and charity boss Ngozi Fulani a few days ago.
According to reports, Lady Hussey asked Ms Fulani where she was from. Would this question have been asked if Ms Fulani was white? Somehow, I doubt it.
Ms Fulani apparently took the question in stride and replied that she was British. What followed was, reportedly, a series of questions about where Ms Fulani was “really from” and where her “people were from”.
This isn’t political correctness gone mad, or some other such rubbish. It’s basic human decency. What does “really from” actually mean? How far back are we talking? If you trace my family line back more than a few generations I’m really from Scandinavia, despite my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all having been born in the UK.
This isn’t even about not asking about people’s heritage or background, it’s just that there are ways of doing that which are respectful. Granted, the transcript below is from Ms Fulani’s point of view but seeing as though I have no reason to doubt it and it’s not been disputed (as far as I know), but it still makes shocking reading.
Back to the Weekly Update…
We ended the week by attending the Kelham Island Victorian Christmas Market. The last few years it has been a bit underwhelming, as it seems to get smaller each time. There’s still a good vibe, and the live music, people in costume, and street food combine for a festive atmosphere.
One interesting thing happened when we were looking at an artist’s stall and saw the name on the work; A Scothern. My surname is not that common, so I struck up a conversation with the woman and we shared our frustration at how people often mispronounce our name or just assume we are actually called Scotland or Southern. Yes, it’s annoying.
On Saturday evening we went to Peddler Market, which takes place at the start of each month. There’s live music, lots of pop-up restaurants, and arts and crafts. One of our favourite vendors was there (Kebab Cartel) and we also had some food from another vendor we’ve liked in the past (Mor Mor) but their food was a little disappointing this time.
A Sick Person with Documents
Regular readers will be aware of the mental health struggles I’ve had, particularly since 2020. This week someone referred to me as “a sick person with documents”, which is the English translation as the comment was made in another language. My reaction to this comment was, first of all, confusion. Was this an insult? Was it just a statement?
After finding out it was intended as an insult I found it hilarious, and to paraphrase a favourite quote of mine, “ignorance and stupidity all in the same package, how efficient…”
When people use such vulgar and ignorant terms it betrays their own values, beliefs, and prejudices. This isn’t any major loss to me as I’d never been a fan of this particular person, as they are a walking, talking, personification of Dunning-Kruger. I have no problem with people who don’t know or understand a subject but are open and willing to learn. Willful ignorance, when you don’t understand something and aggressively refuse to learn, says more about the person firing the insult than the person on the receiving end.
Anyway, here is a picture of me with my documents.
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1 – Reduce weight to 90kg. (Current weight 126.4kg).
2 – Complete 10 “classic” books (4/10)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) ✅
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ✅
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) ✅
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) ✅
3 – Read 10 authors I’ve not read before (24/10)
John Birmingham ✅
Nicole Perlroth ✅
Sabine Durrant ✅
Luke Smitherd ✅
Max Skittle ✅
Harlan Coben ✅
Jo Spain ✅
Kate Elizabeth Russell ✅
Kiersten White ✅
Rob Hart ✅
Edward Aubry ✅
Marina J. Lostetter ✅
S. J. Morden ✅
C. J. Tudor ✅
Greer Hendricks ✅
Clare Mackintosh ✅
Stephen Baxter ✅
Pete Wharmby ✅
Devon Price ✅
Nick Jones ✅
Nathan Hystad ✅
J. P. Pomare ✅
Max Hastings ✅
Brian Lumley ✅
Steve Richards ✅
What Am I Doing?
Reading: Fake History by Otto English.
Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: Dark on Netflix.
I’m still working through Fake History a few pages at a time. I’m almost done, but it’s starting to get a bit repetitive. Overall, still an interesting book but for me, I think it would have worked better as an audiobook.
I’m on the fourth book of The Expanse series, Cibola Burn, which is often seen as the weakest in the series. I would tend to agree simply because every other book is excellent, so just by being very good, it finds itself as the weakest entry. I’m looking forward to book five, Nemesis Games, as it takes the whole story in a new direction. The way this series was written is so clever, as the nine core books can be split into three trilogies, but Nemesis Games is right at the middle of the story and it’s fitting that it’s what moves the story on.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £9,795.00 (+£200.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £64,578.71 (+£338.60).
Fuck It Fund: £1,675.00 (no change).
Pensions: £55,773.76 (+£772.88).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £516,804.47 (+£1,311.48).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,028.08 (-£438.44).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,101.46 (-£92.44).
Total Debts: £285,129.54 (-£530.88).
Total Wealth: £231,674.93 (+£1,842.36)
Investment Income in 2022: £5,102.27 (target £6,000).
I was really hoping for a big Premium Bonds win this month but sadly, I’ve not won anything. There are just three more scheduled posts in 2022 so I really need to start thinking about my goals for 2023.
2023 Financial Goals
The most important goal for 2023 is to acquire more property. Recent reports suggest that house prices have fallen for the third month in a row, with the most recent month showing a £4,000 (average) drop. Once the new year is out of the way, I hope to step up the search for a second BTL and secure something in the first half of the year.
My projections for investment income in 2023 look positive. Assuming that there are no major issues with our first BTL, my investment income should look something like this:
Rental income: £3,564 p/a
Parking space income: £780 p/a
Dividends: £3,800 p/a (based on projected yields).
Total investment income for 2023: £8,144.
The above projections do not account for any Premium Bond wins, nor do they account for reinvesting income. Could I reach £10,000 investment income for 2023? It would be incredible if I could…
Goal 1: Acquire BTL 2.
Goal 2: £8,500 investment income (accounting for reinvesting income).
I can’t think of any other specific goals for now. I do have a general desire to reduce my levels of debt moving into the new year now that interest rates are higher. Rather than a goal, that’s just more of a generalised aim.
Do you have any financial goals for 2023? Leave a comment and let me know.
Thanks 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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week’s post looks at culture, human rights, more misleading property listings, and a positive week of financial updates.
Respecting Culture
I’m not going to spend too much time on this because the whole tournament is farcical, but I saw a story in the news about one, possibly two, English fans who were turned away from a match in Qatar because they were dressed as crusader knights. Once I picked up my jaw off the floor after marvelling at the mind-numbing stupidity of dressing as a crusader knight in a Muslim country, I started thinking about the concept of respecting culture.
Apologists of this World Cup have used this argument, respecting culture, to explain why the tournament should not be boycotted. I agree that culture should be respected but only so far as it extends without impacting basic human rights. Culture should be respected but not at the expense of fundamental, basic, human rights. That’s a hill I’ll die on.
So, whilst I might not personally find Qatari culture all that appealing, I understand why dressing up as crusader knights would be offensive. The crusades were absolutely fucking brutal, with estimates of those killed ranging from a conservative figure of one million, to three million or more. Both sides in the conflict committed horrific acts of violence and it really shouldn’t be joked about in this way. No doubt some people will say, “it’s only a bit of fun”, but where does that fun stop? Would you object to someone dressing as a suicide bomber whilst attending a baseball game at Fenway Park? What about a Saudi fan dressing as bin Laden at a football match at Wembley?
Weekly Update
I’m afraid I don’t have much to report this week. Oana, my girlfriend, has been struggling with covid and I’ve been doing my best to look after her. It’s knocked her sideways, but I’m still testing negative so far.
We’re now at a point where covid is just part of the new normal. As a society, we failed to deal with the first waves, and containment has been impossible for a while now. Although it may be part of the new normal it is still important to follow basic safety measures if you are infected. If you have covid-type symptoms, try and avoid direct contact with others, and wear a mask around others. Simple measures like this can help stop the spread of the virus. We might not be able to eradicate it, but it’s no excuse for making no effort to reduce the spread.
Late Friday I received a message about a possible property investment. A house was going up for sale on a road I used to live on. I arranged a viewing for Saturday morning but the property was no good. The photos were months, possibly years, old and were used for the rental listing. The house was being sold because the tenant who had just moved out had trashed the property. It needed a lot of work. The agent tried to put a positive spin on it, but it would have needed a full refurb to be up to the standard I would want. Had the pictures been accurate, I wouldn’t have bothered. The pictures were not accurate though, so all that happened is I wasted my time, the agent wasted their time, and no one gained anything from the exercise. Why do agents do this? I’m not asking a rhetorical question, I’m genuinely interested to know why agents list properties with misleading information.
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1 – Reduce weight to 90kg. (Current weight 126.4kg).
2 – Complete 10 “classic” books (4/10)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) ✅
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ✅
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) ✅
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) ✅
3 – Read 10 authors I’ve not read before (24/10)
John Birmingham ✅
Nicole Perlroth ✅
Sabine Durrant ✅
Luke Smitherd ✅
Max Skittle ✅
Harlan Coben ✅
Jo Spain ✅
Kate Elizabeth Russell ✅
Kiersten White ✅
Rob Hart ✅
Edward Aubry ✅
Marina J. Lostetter ✅
S. J. Morden ✅
C. J. Tudor ✅
Greer Hendricks ✅
Clare Mackintosh ✅
Stephen Baxter ✅
Pete Wharmby ✅
Devon Price ✅
Nick Jones ✅
Nathan Hystad ✅
J. P. Pomare ✅
Max Hastings ✅
Brian Lumley ✅
Steve Richards ✅
What Am I Doing?
Reading: Fake History by Otto English.
Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: Dark on Netflix.
Having recently enjoyed 1899 on Netflix, we’ve started Dark which is made by the same people. It also shares the same ominous atmosphere, and the directing and choice of music are excellent. I’m not going to say too much about what’s happening in the show because I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. However, if you enjoy slow-burning science fiction, you’ll probably enjoy Dark.
I’ve finished the first two books of The Expanse series and I’m on the novella set between the end of Caliban’s War and the start of Abaddon’s Gate. Although I’ve read these books already, I’m still thoroughly enjoying them.
I need to start thinking about a new reading challenge for 2023. I’m open to suggestions, so if you have ideas please leave a comment.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £9,595.00 (+£235.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £64,240.11 (+£995.31).
Fuck It Fund: £1,675.00 (no change).
Pensions: £55,000.88 (+£347.07).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £515,492.99 (+£1,342.38).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,466.52 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,193.90 (no change).
Total Debts: £285,660.42 (no change).
Total Wealth: £229,832.57 (+£1,342.38)
Investment Income in 2022: £5,102.27 (target £6,000).
A solid week where I received my delayed dividend payment. With the stock market making some positive moves my overall wealth figure is looking healthy. I think this is the highest my total wealth figure has been, so the year seems to be drawing to a positive end.
Looking ahead to 2023 I really need to get a second investment property on the books if I want my FIRE plan to start coming together. Assuming that I don’t get another property early in the year, I should still be on track for approximately £7,500 of investment income in 2023 but another property could boost that to over £10,000. With those sorts of figures compounding gains really start to make a difference.
I’ve mentioned a few times in recent weeks that we might have to take a slight financial hit to improve our kitchen. Well, we’re having another think about how we can do the work without it being such a major undertaking. Rather than getting the whole thing ripped out and a new kitchen fitted, we’re going to work at it in stages. This means less disruption and the cost should be spread out. What changed our minds was the probable need for a skip to take away all the rubbish. We live in a city-centre apartment where there is a real lack of parking space. There isn’t anywhere a skip could be placed, so rubbish would have to be taken away each day. After the issues we had over the summer with the rest of the refurb, neither Oana nor I can face that again just now.
That’s all for this week. Thanks 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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I talk about tax codes, tax bandings, and how the autumn statement impacts on the tax you pay. Also, updates from my Lego Rocinante project, and a frustrating learning experience.
Quote of the Week:
“I only built it on a computer.”
Those following me on social media will have seen my posts about my Lego build of the Rocinante; the main ship of The Expanse series. The model has over 5,000 pieces and has cost over £600 to obtain the parts needed. When complete, the model is almost a meter long and is built at a scale of roughly 1:60. It’s an amazing-looking model. The only problem is the design doesn’t work in the real world.
For those who don’t know there is a community of Lego enthusiasts who design their own models for things not officially licenced by Lego such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, and so on. There is software out there that allows you to build models and publish designs for other people to build. The designs have to work within the rules of Lego; pieces that don’t fit together can’t be forced together, is what I mean. What the software does not simulate is gravity. If you put a model together in the software, no matter how flimsy the connections, it will stay connected.
Anyway, the design for the Roci has 1,010 steps. All was going well until around step 800. Then, some of the components would simply not stay connected because of, well, gravity. I ended up making some modifications to the design for it to work. I then got to the final stage of the build, which was the drive cone at the rear of the ship. I picked up the model to change its position to allow me to build that part, and several components fell off and smashed apart.
I went back to the person who designed the model and it turns out they’ve never actually built the physical model; they’ve just played about with it on a computer. It’s such a shame because if it could be completed it would be absolutely stunning. I’ve left the partially completed model on display, but each time I look at it I just get angry again.
Weekly Update
I’ve felt extremely stressed for much of this week. It’s not been because of anything that serious, in the bigger picture, but rather little things here and there that have accumulated to the point where I’ve felt like I needed some time out. Here’s one example of something that happened this week;
I went to Boots to pick up several prescriptions for myself and one for Oana, my girlfriend. I am medically exempt from paying for prescriptions and Oana has an annual prepayment certificate. So, I go up to the counter and this is how the conversation goes.
Me: Hi, I have some items to collect *I hand my exemption card over so they can find my details”. Also, I have an item to collect for my partner.
*I notice that the person didn’t seem to hear me, so I repeat myself. However, they’re still engrossed in something on their screen so I let them finish.”
Boots: It’ll be around ten minutes.
Me: Thanks, but I also have an item to collect for my girlfriend and this is her prepayment certificate *I show my iPhone screen that has the info on it*.
Boots: Ok, thanks, it’ll be ten-fifteen minutes.
*I check the time and it’s 11:15.*
At 11:35 the pharmacist calls my name and hands me a bag with my name on it.
Me: What about my partner’s meds?
Pharmacist: Did you tell them when you came here?
Me: Yes, three times and I showed your colleague my partner’s payment info.
Pharmacist: Ok, well I’ve got something else to do now so you’ll just have to wait.
Me: Excuse me? First, this isn’t my mistake. Second, it’s one item which I can see on the shelf behind you. How long does it take to grab that item and get a colleague to check it?
Pharmacist: You’ll have to wait as I’m busy now.
*Twenty more minutes pass by*
Pharmacist: *calls out Oana’s name*
Me: *takes bag* is that all?
Pharmacist: what do you mean?
Me: An apology? Some basic politeness or acknowledgement of the mistake you’ve made?
Pharmacist: An apology for what?
At this point, I kind of lost my shit a bit. It was now almost an hour since I entered the pharmacy. Mistakes happen, I get that, and if there’d just been a simple apology and acknowledgement they’d got it wrong, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. The attitude of the pharmacist was awful though.
This pharmacy is used by a few people I know because of its convenient location. Everyone says the same thing though; the attitude of the staff is awful.
Over the last couple of years, it’s seemed as though I’ve had one bad experience after another when it comes to customer service. When I speak with other people, I hear the same horror stories. Is customer service generally getting worse, or are people becoming less tolerant of poor service? Is it a bit of both?
The week has come to a positive end though. On Friday my Dad came over to see us, Oana and myself. We had some good food and my Dad got a chance to see the place now that much of the work is complete.
Understanding Autism
This might seem like a sudden change of subject but there is a loose connection to customer service. Since receiving confirmation that I’m autistic I’ve stepped up my research into autism. I already had a foot in the door, so to speak, as my Dad had been identified as autistic a few years ago. My Dad writes a popular blog about his autistic journey, and through him, I’ve been able to network with other autistics. The point is, I am fortunate enough to not be dealing with being autistic alone. I have a good support network around me, so I’ve been able to filter out the harmful myths around autism whilst learning what it is to be Actually Autistic (the #ActuallyAutistic tag is one of the best to search for on social media if you want to know more about the genuine autistic experience).
Anyway, I was made aware of a course on Understanding Autism via The Skills Network. The course was free, but if you failed to complete it there was a £100 fee to pay. The other day I loaded up the course and I had my head in my hands within just a few minutes muttering FFS. The material was not just awful, it was out of touch, offensive, and potentially harmful.
Some examples include;
Using the term “high-functioning autism”.
Using the puzzle/jigsaw piece as a symbol of autism.
Referring to the autism spectrum as a linear line with “low” at one end and “severe” at the other.
Screenshot from the learning material.
There is no such thing as high-functioning autism, just like there is no such thing as low functioning autism. Autistic people, like all people, have areas in which they can perform better or worse, and times at which they perform better or worse. In short, we are all high, medium, and low functioning at different things, at different times, and in different situations. As a term, it adds nothing, means nothing, and is harmful and misleading.
You may see the puzzle piece used as a symbol of autism in promotional material, books, and other media. However, to the vast majority of autistic people, the puzzle piece is a symbol of hate. This symbol is used by the group Autism Speaks which views autism as an illness that needs eradicating, and they share views that are dangerously close to eugenics. Talking about Autism Speaks and all their dangerous bullshit could take up a book on its own. The point is, autistic people, in the main, do not like this symbol. Another reason the symbol is hated is because of the way the puzzle piece is used, in which it suggests that autistic people have something missing or are somehow deficient. It’s insulting.
As for the autism spectrum…. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I remember when I was doing A-Level psychology back in 2001, the spectrum was described as a linear model ranging from low to severe. However, this was not how the spectrum was conceived and it’s not how the spectrum actually works. The best way to describe the autistic spectrum is to look at an image like this one:
Within this spectrum each autistic person has their own pattern which is unique to them, almost like a fingerprint or retinal scan. We are not “all a little bit autistic”.
I contacted the course provider with my concerns and they replied quickly to confirm I could withdraw with no penalty. However, no comment was made regarding the content of the course, and this is where I get frustrated. Let’s use an imaginary scenario…
Imagine you are learning about autism having almost no prior knowledge. You’ve seen some examples in fiction and think you have a rough idea of what autism is. You are instructed to take a course titled Understanding Autism. You read through the slides which have a high production value and watch the videos that explain that the autism spectrum is a straight line from low to severe. You come out of the course thinking you have a good, basic, understanding of autism.
A few days later you are talking with a colleague and you mention the course. The colleague states that they’re autistic and they ask a few questions. You are confused because the course seemed to suggest that autistic people would struggle to pass as “normal”. You ask your colleague where on the spectrum they are, and they sigh gently and start explaining what the spectrum actually is. Just think about this for a second because this sort of situation happens a lot in life, not necessarily about autism, but about lots of things. You are told something and you believe it because you have no reason not to. Then, someone tries to correct you, but you don’t believe them because your (incorrect) information came from an official course with slick production values. Sometime later, be it days, weeks or even years, you look up the subject and realise that you were wrong and your colleague was right. In general, people have a tendency to believe what they are told first, and a tendency to believe what they are told from positions of authority. The thing is, authority does not always correlate with accuracy.
There will be people out there that take this course and walk away with, what they think, is an accurate understanding of autism. It’s wrong, it’s harmful, and it perpetuates many myths about autism that make it much more difficult for autistic people in a world designed for neurotypical people.
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1 – Reduce weight to 90kg. (Current weight 126.4kg).
2 – Complete 10 “classic” books (4/10)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) ✅
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ✅
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) ✅
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) ✅
3 – Read 10 authors I’ve not read before (24/10)
John Birmingham ✅
Nicole Perlroth ✅
Sabine Durrant ✅
Luke Smitherd ✅
Max Skittle ✅
Harlan Coben ✅
Jo Spain ✅
Kate Elizabeth Russell ✅
Kiersten White ✅
Rob Hart ✅
Edward Aubry ✅
Marina J. Lostetter ✅
S. J. Morden ✅
C. J. Tudor ✅
Greer Hendricks ✅
Clare Mackintosh ✅
Stephen Baxter ✅
Pete Wharmby ✅
Devon Price ✅
Nick Jones ✅
Nathan Hystad ✅
J. P. Pomare ✅
Max Hastings ✅
Brian Lumley ✅
Steve Richards ✅
What Am I Doing?
Reading: Fake History by Otto English.
Listening: The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey
Watching: nothing at the moment.
I’ve decided to go back and listen to The Expanse series again, this time in complete chronological order including the novellas. The series has nine main novels that are loosely split into three trilogies. Between the main books, some novellas were published that add a bit more context to some of the major events and characters.
The Expanse is the finest science-fiction series out there, and that’s a hill I’ll die on. The TV show was also excellent but sadly not able to hit the heights of the original book series. If you feel like you want to read this series, or even listen to the amazing audiobook versions, just do it. Whilst it helps to have a basic understanding of physics it’s hardly essential to enjoy the story.
I started watching Elite season six but gave up partway through the first episode. The early seasons of Elite, which focused on the original students, were fantastic television. However, it quickly suffered from the same problem as the Fast and Furious series in which each new instalment had to be bigger, louder and more absurd.
Financial Update
Assets
Premium Bonds: £9,595.00 (+£235.00).
Stocks and Shares ISA: £63,244.80 (+£1,743.77).
Fuck It Fund: £1,675.00 (+£50.00).
Pensions: £54,653.81 (+£622.87).
Residential Property Value: £233,989.00 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Property Value: £150,993.00 (no change).
Total Assets: £514,150.61 (+£2,651.64).
Debts
Credit Card: £0.00 (no change).
Residential Mortgage: £180,466.52 (no change).
Buy-to-Let Mortgage: £105,193.90 (no change).
Total Debts: £285,660.42 (no change).
Total Wealth: £228,490.19 (+£2,651.64)
Investment Income in 2022: £5,102.27 (target £6,000).
The stock market seemed to respond well to the Autumn statement from the new Chancellor. My investment income climbed a little as I received rent from my BTL. However, the dividend payment I was expecting on Friday seems to have been paid late, so it will only be counted from next week’s blog.
The Autumn Statement
There was a lot of stuff in the autumn statement which may not even come to pass. Several measures are not due to be implemented for some time and, with the current clusterfuck of a government, things can change from one day to the next. However, I want to touch on one point which a few people have asked me about; the freeze on personal tax-free allowances.
Before we get into the changes announced we need to look at how employed people pay income tax. In the UK each person has a personal tax-free allowance which is denoted by their tax code. The standard code is 1257L, which means the first £12,570 you earn is not subject to any tax. However, what you earn between £12,571 and £50,270 is taxed at 20%. There are two additional tax bands for those earning £50,271 or more, and those earning £150,000 or more.
One common misconception is that if you are earning £50,000, and you get a pay increase to £51,000, you will somehow take home less money. This comes from a misunderstanding of how the tax brackets work. If your earned income is £51,000 then you pay 20% tax on the amount that falls between £12,571 and £50,270, and you pay 40% tax on the amount that falls between £50,271 and £150,000. Let’s break it down…
Examples
Steve earns £12,000 p/a and his tax code is 1257L. He pays no income tax.
Naomi earns £27,500 p/a, and her tax code is 1257L. She pays no tax on the first £12,570 of her income. This leaves £14,930 subject to tax. This is taxed at 20%, because her total taxable income (£27,500) falls in the 20% band of between £12,571 and £50,270. So, 20% of £14,930 is £2,986.
James earns £59,400, and his tax code is 1257L. His tax liability can be calculated simply, using the following bandings:
Up to £12,570 – no tax.
Between £12,571 and £50,270 he pays 20% tax.
Between £50,271 and £150,000 he pays 40% tax.
The calculation for James looks like this;
£7,540 tax due from the 20% band.
£3,652 tax due from the 40% band.
Note; James only pays 40% tax on the amount that falls into that tax bracket, i.e. (£59,400-£50,270)*0.4 = £3,652.
I have known some people who think that if you fall into the higher tax brackets, then the higher rate of tax is applied to all your income.
So, coming back to the autumn statement… The Chancellor announced that the tax-free allowances are going to be frozen for the next few years. Whilst technically not a tax increase, it does mean that more people will pay more tax. The tax bandings have been amended meaning that more people will fall into the 45% banding, but if you earn less than £125,000 this will not impact you. The impact comes from the tax-free allowance being frozen. Like many financial concepts, it is best explained with an example.
Jim earns £20,000 p/a and has the standard 1257L tax code.
Year 1: Jim pays £1,486 tax.
Year 2: Jim has had a 5% salary increase. He now earns £21,000. He now pays £1,686 tax.
Year 3: Another 5% salary increase; salary £22,050, and tax paid is now £1,896.
As your salary increases, but your tax-free allowance remains the same, you pay more tax.
The people who are really going to get hit hard with this are those earning £40,000+. It is entirely plausible that someone earning over £40,000 could soon find themselves creeping into the higher tax bracket, as well as paying more in the 20% bracket as their tax-free allowance does not increase in line with inflation and wage increases. Take the following example;
Kate earns £47,000 p/a with a standard tax code and receives a 5% increase in pay each year. Her tax liability looks like this:
Year 1: £6,886
Year 2: £7,356
Year 3: £8,159
Year 4: £9,195
Year 5: £10,283
So after five years of 5% wage increases, Kate’s new salary is approx £57,129 p/a; and her tax liability has increased by almost 50%.
I’m not anti-tax, and I appreciate money to pay for public services has to come from somewhere, but this is a catastrophe that the Tory party had a huge role in creating, and I predict these measures will see the Tory party weakened as a serious political force at the next election for a long, long time.
That’s all for now. Thanks 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.
If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:
Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 