Part 275: The Mortgage, The Chatbot, and The Coffee

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss technology and AI.  Also, some thoughts on repaying our mortgage, and a look ahead to my first week of a new job.    

Weekly Update

Have you ever heard the term PICNIC to describe issues with technology?  Well, it’s shorthand for Problem in Chair, Not in Computer.  Why am I talking about this?  It’s a long story…

A few months ago Oana and I bought a new smart TV.  Our old LG one was no longer as sharp or crisp in picture quality, so we decided to upgrade.  The new one is great and the picture quality compared to our old one is like comparing night and day.  The sound is excellent, and we’ve been able to download all the apps we want to watch such as Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix, and so on.  

Despite all this, we’ve not been able to add the apps we’ve downloaded to the television’s home screen, meaning we have to search for them each time.  Yes, I know it’s a first-world problem.

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I did what I always do and turned to Google and YouTube.  However, the instructions for adding apps to your LG TV home screen made no sense with what I was seeing on our own screen.  I was left scratching my head wondering what the hell was going on.  

We let it go for a while until Friday afternoon when I decided to have another try.  I fired up the home screen, and on my Mac, I loaded up Google and searched “adding apps to LG TV home screen.”  I was determined to solve this issue once and for all.  

So, I picked up the remote for the TV and thought, “It’s a bit weird that this TV is LG and the remote says Samsung.”

Yes, dear reader, my new TV is a Samsung device which explains why the search for instructions for an LG did not help.  Sometimes the problem is not the technology but the idiot in the chair.  

New Job

I’m starting my new job this coming week.  On the first day, I have to travel to Milton Keynes to meet a few people in person and to pick up some IT equipment.  From that point on the job is based from home with just an occasional visit to head office required.

When I left Lloyds I had wanted an extended break before returning to work but circumstances mean that the break has to be shorter.  On the plus side, this job is a fantastic opportunity and ticks pretty much every box I wanted.  The hours and pay are better, and the nuts and bolts of the job appear much more in line with how I’d rather work.

Lloyds were a great employer and they treated me very well.  However, the way my specific role was changing was not for me.  More and more was expected with less and less ability to use your initiative and judgement.

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One thing that appeals to me about this new role is the ability to be judged on my performance and judgement, and I’m feeling fired up for the challenge in a way I’ve not felt for some time.  

DeepSeek, ChatGPT, and AI

A new contender has entered the chat, as the DeepSeek app is set to rival ChatGPT.  This new app has reportedly been developed at a fraction of the cost of similar models in the West.  This has been termed by some as a “Sputnik Moment” demonstrating that some of the sanctions against China have been ineffective. 

Like with most things in our society, once the genie is out of the bottle there is no putting it back.  We will almost certainly see an arms race of sorts, as different companies and nations compete to create ever more sophisticated AI models.  Some people are nervous of a Skynet or Cylon-type apocalypse where AI takes over the world, but I think this is extremely unlikely.  I’m not saying that AI tech is not without danger, but we’re not likely to see the type of disaster depicted in Terminator or the new Battlestar Galactica.  The reason for this is simple; I don’t think we’ll crack sapient AI anytime soon.  

When you talk to ChatGPT you can be forgiven for sometimes forgetting you are chatting with software.  It’s sophisticated software, but it’s still just code.  It’s not made that leap from being alive, to sentience, to sapience.  

Human sapience (wisdom, self-awareness, and the ability to deeply reason and reflect) comes from several key factors that differentiate us from LLMs like ChatGPT.  There are six key areas to consider:  

1. Consciousness & Self-Awareness  

Humans have subjective experiences (qualia) and a sense of “self.”  You “know” who “you” are, and where you end.  LLMs process information but have no self-awareness, emotions, or internal experience.    

2. Generalized Understanding & Intentionality

Humans understand the world holistically, with personal goals, desires, and intentions.  LLMs generate responses based on statistical patterns without true understanding or intent.  

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3. Abstract & Intuitive Reasoning 

Humans can make intuitive leaps, recognise patterns outside of strict data inputs and engage in creative problem-solving.  LLMs lack true intuition; they operate on explicit input-output relationships, i.e. garbage in, garbage out.

4. Emotion & Morality 

Human reasoning is shaped by emotions, ethics, and social context.  LLMs simulate moral reasoning based on training data but don’t feel right or wrong.  They can describe an emotion, but they can’t experience it.    

5. Long-Term Autonomy & Decision-Making  

Humans set personal goals, learn from mistakes, and plan across decades.  LLMs react in the moment without independent long-term planning.  LLMs do not have goals or desires.

6. Embodiment & Experience  

Humans interact with the physical world through their senses and bodies.  LLMs lack direct experiences and rely entirely on text-based training data.  

In short, humans are sapient because they are conscious, self-directed beings with emotions, intuition, and moral reasoning. LLMs, while impressive, are just sophisticated pattern-matching tools without true understanding or awareness.

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If an AI was responsible for the destruction of humankind, it would be because of how we trained it and the lack of controls placed on it, rather than being the AI’s own choice.

To drive the point home I want to explain with a couple of examples.  The first was a thought experiment I heard at university.  It’s been called a few things, and the exact details vary, but the version I’m most familiar with goes like this…

The Chinese Box

You are placed inside a room with no way of seeing or observing the outside world, except for a drawer.  You are given an instruction book that has many different scenarios detailed in the following format; if *x* then *y*; in other words, you reply with a specific symbol if a specific symbol is given to you.  

And so the experiment begins…

From the outside, a card with a symbol depicted is dropped in the drawer.  You examine the symbol and find the relevant scenario in your book, and then reply with the appropriate symbol.  You place your reply in the drawer and wait.  Sometime later another card appears in the drawer, and again you look it up in your book and reply as instructed.  

This goes on for some time.  Little do you know you are actually conversing in Hanzi, the Chinese script.  The person outside your box believes you understand the language because you are making all the right replies, but you are simply following a set of instructions without understanding what you are doing on a deeper level.

This is, in a very basic way, how LLMs work.  There are other types of AI being researched and developed, but we don’t have to worry about a rampaging Microsoft Clippy in our lifetime.

Dimensions

I was chatting about all this with my Dad the other day, as we love discussing all things science.  I came up with another way of explaining why I don’t think we will develop conscious AI anytime soon.  

We can perceive three spatial dimensions; length, width, and depth.  No matter how well we understand those three dimensions, we can’t perceive four spatial dimensions.  In the same vein we can create ever more sophisticated AI, we are still working within a closed system.  At present, we only know of one way to create sapient life, and it doesn’t involve AI.

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More Fun with DPD

I’m very much at the point where I expect things to go wrong when dealing with almost any business. My next example comes from trying to order Nespresso capsules for delivery. 

Now that Nespresso has closed the only physical store in Sheffield, I can either travel to Leeds or order online.  Faced with that choice, it’s not really a choice.  Nespresso use DPD for their deliveries and I’ve had enough things delivered from DPD to understand how they work.  I receive a text message giving me my one-hour delivery window, as well as access to a live tracker telling me where in the delivery schedule I am, i.e. the driver is making delivery 55 and I’m number 92.

Anyway, on Saturday last week (25th January) they were supposed to deliver my capsules between 14:00 and 15:00.  I kept an eye on the delivery tracker, but a little before they arrived at my location I received a message stating:

“Your parcel will be delivered Sun 26 Jan to your nearest shop as no one was in today.”

We were both home.  Our intercom did not ring, nor did anyone call.  Further, the shop they delivered to was 45 minutes walk away.  We don’t have a car, hence why we chose delivery.  

Anyway, I called Nespresso and explained the situation and they agreed to send out a duplicate package.  

Attempt Two

On Wednesday I got a message saying DPD would arrive between 10:57 and 11:57.  As before I kept an eye on the tracking data, and I went as far as to go downstairs to the street a little before the driver arrived.  I saw the DPD van at the building across the square from us (a student hall).  The driver walked from that building to his van and then drove off.  A moment later my phone pinged:

“Your parcel will be delivered Thu 30 Jan to your nearest shop as no one was in today.”

I was, to put it bluntly, absolutely fucking raging.

So, I took a few minutes to calm down and then called DPD who informed me of several things;

  1. I was lying.
  2. The driver has photographic evidence that I was lying.
  3. The parcel was already at the pick-up point.
  4. There was nothing they could do.

I asked what photo they had that could possibly prove I was lying.  I explained I stood and watched the events unfold myself.  No attempt was made to deliver to my address.  The address for this building and the student hall are not even remotely similar.  

Anyway, Nespresso is sending a third package which, as I type this on Saturday afternoon, is on its way to me.  I’m delivery 78 and the driver is on 61.  Will I receive my coffee today?  I don’t know, but I’m nervous and excited.  

Note: the coffee arrived.  The box was left in our post room with no attempt made to ring our buzzer.

Three

I’m not going to bitch about their recent outage that left many people without a phone signal.  No, I’m going to bitch about their absolute incompetence in dealing with a simple request and subsequent complaint.

Oana changed her name last year and had to go through the process of sending her deed poll to many different places for things like council tax, mortgages, GP practice, utilities, and so on.  Apart from a few issues getting her name updated on the mortgage, it was fairly straightforward.  Except for Three.  

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The long and short of it is over several months they kept changing their mind about what proof they needed.  They then asked for things they’d already got and made several mistakes in their attempt to update Oana’s details.  When she logged a complaint, they closed it without action.  They also stated they tried to call her, but there was no evidence of that on our side.

Eventually, after a lot of work, they updated Oana’s name.  After months of back and forth, and more phone calls, live chats, and email exchanges than I can count, Three offered Oana £7 compensation.  £7.  Whole.  Pounds.  

They haggled for a while, offering £10, then £15.  Oana asked for a deadlock letter, and we’ll be going to the Ombudsman.  In total, she has spent over five hours either on the phone with Three or dealing with them on live chat.  This sort of thing shouldn’t be difficult.  

Customer Service

I know it’s not just me, but sometimes it feels that way.  Everyone I discuss this with agrees that customer service seems to be getting worse across the board.  When did it start?

I think the fall in standards accelerated during Covid.  It was such an easy excuse for businesses to use when handling complaints regarding their service.  The thing is, we’re years on from Covid.  It’s no longer a valid excuse.  

When I deal with a retailer, I try to remember how stressful dealing with customers can be.  It’s also important to remember that many retailers treat their staff badly.  So, it’s not surprising that many staff are not motivated.

I don’t know what the answer is because most sectors are dominated by just a few big players, and they’re all as shit as each other.  For mobile phones in the UK, you have O2, Three, Vodafone, and EE as the main networks.  Years ago I had major issues with Vodafone as they gave me a phone number that belonged to someone else.  I couldn’t set my phone up, and when I tried to call the new number I was given from my landline, some random guy picked up.  Vodafone tried to refuse me a refund or a new number.  I was not impressed.

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I’ve heard equally bad stories about O2 and EE.  So, whilst I could move to another provider, I have no guarantee that it will actually be a better experience.  When the big companies have no incentive to drastically improve, we can’t expect them to improve.  Three know they can just snap up customers who leave O2 because of crap service, whilst O2 aren’t worried because they can just sign up those leaving EE for being rubbish.  

What I’m Doing

Listening: Apostles of Mercy by Lindsay Ellis.

Watching: Rings of Power (Amazon).

Rings of Power is awful.  It’s badly written and has way too many annoying characters.  The whole Harfoot plot is painful to watch, and for someone who is over 3,000 years old at this point in the story, Galadriel comes across as immature and hot-headed.  It’s also a show that manages to look incredibly cheap despite having a huge amount of money thrown at it.  The one thing that irritates me the most with any film or show is when the plot moves along because of the stupidity of an annoying child.  

You may be wondering why I’m still watching it if it’s that bad.  My parents didn’t raise a quitter.  Also, it’s sort of amusing seeing just how bad it can get.

I’m thoroughly enjoying Apostles of Mercy, the third book in the Noumena series.  The level of thought and detail put into the alien civilisation is refreshing, as is the approach the book takes to mental health and trauma.  I’m not sure if this is the final book in the series or if more are planned, and I don’t want to look in case I spoil the ending for myself.  

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £92,264.89.

Fuck It Fund: £13,052.13.

Pensions: £93,959.59.

Residential Property Value: £237,228.00. 

Total Assets: £466,504.61.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,492.19. 

Total Debts: £184,492.19.

Total Wealth: £282,012.42.

Mortgage

Over the last few months, I’ve found myself increasingly thinking about paying our mortgage off as a priority.  My mental calculations suggest this could be possible by the end of the 2020s, but I’ve not done a full set of calculations with the help of a computer, so here goes…

So the mortgage stands at roughly £184,500.  On a typical month we pay approx £300 off the debt, and because of how daily interest works an increasing amount of each payment will come off the debt as we progress through the mortgage term.  For this scenario, I’m going to assume that a simple £300 monthly reduction on the balance is what happens.

So, there are 59 payments left in the 2020s, as we’ve already paid January’s payment but February’s is not yet showing.  59 x £300 = £17,700, which subtracted from £184,500 leaves us with £166,800.

My plan to repay that balance is simple; use my ISA.

ISA Calculations

At present my ISA has a balance of approximately £92,250.  I will make five further deposits into the ISA in April of 2025/26/27/28/29.  If I assume a 6% growth rate alongside £20k being invested each year, I would finish with; £237,500.

This would mean using up a significant chunk of my savings but it would also mean a drastic reduction in our cost of living.  

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I’m not massively comfortable with that set of numbers though, and would like to come out with more left in savings.  So the question is, how much extra do we need to find to pay a greater balance off the mortgage each month?  Ideally, I think the mortgage needs to be less than £120,000 by the end of the 2020s so I’m only using up around half the projected ISA balance.  That means a £65,000(ish) reduction.

Each £100 extra I clear off the balance each month brings the total down by £5,900 (not accounting for the impact on daily interest and how this reduction compounds over time). 

So, roughly, the mortgage needs to be reduced by a total of £1,100 each month; to go from £184,500 to £119,600 in 59 months.  An extra £800 on top of the current £300 monthly reduction.  

It’s a big jump, but once Oana and I are both back earning it is doable.  These calculations also don’t account for possible rate changes.  When our current deal expires we may be able to secure a lower rate, which would speed things up a little.  

Other Considerations

Although I’ve approached this scenario from the point of view of paying the mortgage off in full, it might not be the wisest choice.  When you have a mortgage account open, you can often secure additional borrowing fairly quickly and easily.  However, if you pay your mortgage off in full and subsequently need to raise funds against your property, it’s a whole new mortgage application with solicitors and whatnot involved.  As such, bringing the mortgage down to a small level and then maintaining the payments for the foreseeable can be a safe way to keep the mortgage door open in case you need to go through it again.  

ISA Transfer and Pension Thoughts

My ISA transfer has finally been completed, and it will save me approximately £35 every month.  I’m now looking for somewhere cheaper to place my SIPP.  My pension is in two parts at the moment; the bulk of it is with my employer’s scheme and the smaller portion is with the same company I had my ISA with.  I’ve tried looking up who my new employer’s pension scheme is with, but I can’t find any up-to-date information.  

It might seem like a pointless task to switch from one provider to another, but even small differences in fees can have massive impacts on growth over years and decades.  Also, different providers may have different funds available to invest in.  It’s worth taking the time to research these things as it can potentially result in thousands of pounds of extra, or missed, growth.

That’s all for this week.  Thank you 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 former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 274: Signing the Contract

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss huge news from the Scothern household.  Also, thoughts on a recent article about average pension values across the UK.

Weekly Update

I have been offered, and accepted, a job.  Since my redundancy from Lloyds was confirmed in September last year, I’ve received a few job offers but this is the first one that I feel good about.  So, what is the job and how did it come about?

A few months ago I interviewed for a role within mortgages and I had great feedback.  Unfortunately for me, there was another applicant with more experience.  A few weeks ago I was contacted out of the blue by a recruiter who had an opening with the same business.  This was a mortgage and protection advisor position, something I know a little bit about.  

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I had the initial chat with the recruiter and gave my consent for my details to be passed to a director at the business, who then reached out to arrange a call with me.  This was a first-stage chat; not an interview, but it’s basically an interview.  We had a really good conversation and seemed to share some of the same values and beliefs about the industry.  So, I was then put forward to stage two.

Stage two…

Stage two was a series of timed tests for things like logic, maths, language, and personality.  I find these sorts of things fairly simple and smashed through them with time to spare.  After a few days I was informed I’d passed the first two stages and was now up for a second interview via video with the initial director I spoke with, and a colleague of his.  It was scheduled for ninety minutes.

The call took place this past week and lasted almost two hours as we got talking about all sorts of things relating to mortgages.  It was a positive conversation, and I was able to be brutally honest about my attitudes towards business, mortgages, work, and customer service.  They liked what I had to say and I left the call feeling 99% confident that an offer would be forthcoming.  The following morning, I was offered the role.

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It’s a step up from Lloyds in many ways.  It’s fully remote with the odd day every couple of months requiring attendance in the office for meetings and/or training.  There’s no weekend work and only occasional evening work.  It’s all appointment-based, so no waiting for calls to just randomly come through.  Also, the salary is an almost 20% increase from my time at Lloyds, and that salary was already very decent for what we did.  

All in all, this is a fantastic opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.  Ideally, I would have liked to have more time off before starting but they are taking on a few people at the same time and want us all to go through induction together.  As such, I’m starting a week on Monday.  

Oana’s Job Search

Oana is not having a lot of luck finding a job, and I just don’t get it.  She has experience and qualifications and would be a great fit for many companies.  However, she is not even getting many interviews.  We’ve checked and rechecked her CV over and over, and tried a few different formats but it doesn’t seem to be working.  Is the job market that hard to crack at the moment?

I think I found it easier because I’ve had one employer since 2011.  Oana has worked in a few places, but it’s not like a new employer every month.  She’s still plugging away and hopefully, something will come about soon.

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Getting Fit

To get fit, and because my elbow is still painful AF, I’ve bought a treadmill for home.  It’s very good so far; quiet, with a digital display, and it folds up against the wall.  I can even bring down the bar across the front to use it whilst standing at a desk.  I don’t think I’ll be doing that as I don’t have a sit/stand desk at home.  Still, if I can just jump on it for half an hour here or there it should help get the steps in each day.

I need to sort something out with my elbow as it’s getting worse by the week.  It feels like someone is shoving a hot poker through the back of the elbow at the bottom of the tricep.  The pain also radiates all through, and around, the elbow joint.  Carrying or lifting a heavy mug, kettle, or bag is painful.  I’ve been dealing with this for over two years now and I’m sick of it.  I refuse to believe that this pain has no cause and there has to be some way of identifying it.  So far, I’ve been met with a collective shrug by three different consultants.  

What I’m Doing

Listening: Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis.

Watching: The Killing Vote (Netflix).

I’m enjoying my current audiobook, Truth of the Divine, but I’m finding it hard to make time to listen to books lately.  A lot of thought has been put into the history and structure of the alien civilisation, and I find that refreshing.  Their way of life feels alien, rather than just a mirror of human society.

We’ve started and abandoned a new show on Netflix called The Killing Vote.  It’s just not grabbed our attention despite an interesting premise.  Someone hacks the national phone system and sends out a vote asking whether a criminal should be killed or not.  Everyone has the chance to vote yes or no.  We normally enjoy Korean shows but this one just hasn’t done it for us.

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In the past week or so we’ve also watched a few good movies; Civil War and Sputnik were enjoyable, and Carry On started well but quickly became ridiculous.  

Civil War tells the story of a group of journalists travelling through war-torn America in a dystopian near future in which there’s a civil war ongoing.  The war is not the focus of the film; it’s about the experiences of the characters.  It doesn’t spoon-feed you the answers and leaves a few questions open.  I enjoyed it, even if it sometimes felt like it didn’t know what it wanted to be.  

Sputnik is a Russian film about cosmonauts who bring back an alien life form in the early 1980s.  It’s a sci-fi horror film and is pretty gross in parts.  I enjoyed it, as it was a refreshing change from the Western way of telling this story.

Cats and Catteries

Sweep

Regular readers will know that Oana and I have had cats for many years.  We adopt old cats who are looking for a forever home, as they tend to be overlooked.  Our first cat, Sweep, was my best friend in the whole world.  He was so affectionate and we just bonded.  I had a routine with him when I’d finish work, where I’d go and crash on the bed and he would run over and jump on me, resting on my chest and rubbing his head against mine.  He’d settle down and start purring and we’d stay like that for a while.  It would help me decompress after stressful days at work.  When he passed, it was like a part of me was ripped away.  His health was failing and after several visits to the vet, it was decided to let him go in peace.  We held him, stroked him, and spoke to him as his eyes closed.   

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Bobby

A few months later, we adopted Bobby who was very nervous.  It took him months to fully settle.  We suspect he had been mistreated in the past but slowly he came out of his shell.  He was a really sweet little guy, who had a lot of love to give.  He had finally found a home where he felt safe, and he would come and spend time with us.  One of our last memories with him was just before Christmas watching a documentary about cats.  He sat with us and was fascinated; he didn’t look away once during the whole show.  On Boxing Day in 2021, he was sat on the sofa with Oana, and I was in another room.  He had a seizure of some sort.  I came running through and saw him take his final breath.  

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Both these losses within a year were heartbreaking.  We took some time before adopting Poppy, and we’ve had her since March 2022.  We’ve loved all our cats in different ways, and one of the most difficult things to do is to leave them in a cattery.  It’s unavoidable that the need arises from time to time, although we do try to minimise how often it happens.  We’ve always used a specific cattery that my Mom used for her cat for almost twenty years.  However, the owner is slowly winding up the business. 

Finding a new cattery…

Trying to find a new cattery that we feel comfortable with has been causing a lot of stress.  One time, when our regular one was fully booked, we had to use a different one and although it was in a lovely setting, the owner didn’t seem to give a shit.  I don’t think he mistreated the cats in his care, but I don’t think he had the same level of affection that many other people who work in catteries tend to have.

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As we have a holiday coming up later this year we had to do some research on a new place.  We found one out on the outskirts of Sheffield and made an appointment to go and view it.  The owner was great and she loves cats.  We were able to meet some of the guests staying in her establishment including a couple of massive Maine Coons.  We felt really good about the place and we’ve got Pops booked in for later this year.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £92,159.23.

Fuck It Fund: £13,052.13.

Pensions: £94,077.16.

Residential Property Value: £237,228.00. 

Total Assets: £466,516.52.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,492.19. 

Total Debts: £184,492.19.

Total Wealth: £282,024.33.

New Milestones

I hit two new milestones this week with my pension and total wealth values achieving new all-time highs.  The next milestones are to hit £100k in pension and ISA accounts, and to get my total wealth over £300,000.  It’s all psychological, in that there’s not some huge boost when your wealth ticks over from £299,999 to £300,000.  It’s just always nice when that first digit goes up.  

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Average Pensions

A good friend shared an article with me this week that I found very interesting.  It was about the average size of pension pots across the UK and provided data from several sources.

According to the ONS, the average pension pot in the age bracket myself and Oana fall into (35-44) is £30,600.  I’m fortunate enough to have over three times that much, and Oana is almost £10k over that value as well.  

The report also details findings from a study by Fidelity, but their age brackets were much broader.  Interestingly, Fidelity breaks down the data by age and gender which highlights a significant imbalance between what men and women have saved.  In the 35-54 age bracket men have an average of £80,300, and women £46,800.

It’s wrong that there’s such a discrepancy and I was trying to think of why it could be.  First of all, there’s the gender pay gap.  I think a huge factor is when women take maternity leave.  If a woman takes a year off and has say, six months at full pay and then six months at half pay, and for those last six months they may only be paying in half of what they normally would to their pension.  If they subsequently return to work on reduced hours due to childcare commitments, their pension contributions will drop proportionally.  These might seem like small differences on a month-to-month basis, but compounding can be brutal over the long term.  

What is the answer?

Well, I’m not interested in having kids and neither is Oana.  That doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of the need for our species to have children, not only for the continuation of our species but also to keep society running.  Children are an investment in our future, and I think that should be reflected in pension contributions.  Perhaps a benefit of sorts, whereby mothers are paid a bonus into their pension when they are off work due to maternity leave.  This would be a set amount as a one-off sum, and would not be means-tested.

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I’ve not given this idea a huge amount of thought, but that initial outlay could save much more in the long run as women retiring would have a greater level of income than if the bonus had not been paid.  

Pensions don’t seem interesting…

It was the same when I was younger, but those starting in employment don’t tend to see the point in paying into a pension.  The earlier you start taking control of your financial future, the better it will be.  So many people waste a good decade of their working life before really paying attention to it.  

If you are working for a company that offers a generous pension matching benefit and you don’t take advantage, you are throwing money away.  For example, assuming you are with an employer for 10 years, and for the sake of simplicity I’ll assume you earn a standard £30,000p/a.  If you pay 3% into a pension, and your employer pays 5% (the minimum required amount) you will have a total of £200pm going into your pension.  After ten years with an assumed growth rate of 7%, you will have a pot of £34,616.

However, if your employer matches an increase in your contributions so that if you put in 5%, they put in 7% for a total of 12%, you would be paying £300pm.  This means after ten years with that 7% rate of growth you would have £51,925.

It’s important to understand that in these examples I’m not talking about your salary being reduced by £200 or £300pm.  Those amounts include what the employer pays on your behalf.  You are only paying part of it.  However, if you increase your contributions, these amounts are taken from your salary before it’s taxed.  So, paying an extra £100pm towards your workplace pension will not reduce your wage by £100pm; it will drop by less than that because of the associated reduction in tax you pay.

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ISA Transfer

My ISA transfer is finally going somewhere.  Part of my balance has been transferred over but a part of it is still with the old company.  I’m not sure what the difficulty is moving the funds across but I’m hoping it will be completed by next week.  

It’s going to be a nice change not paying over £30pm in fees for my account, and the £5 fee for making a trade with the new provider is nothing to worry about seeing as though I’ll only be making 1-2 trades per year. 

Student Loan

I have two student loans which just sit in the background and I don’t include them in any working out for assets and debts because they’re almost like a tax.  I always account for them when working out what my net income will be, but for this FI project, it seems irrelevant most of the time.

For the last few years, I’ve been chipping away at my two loans steadily.  I’ve got a Plan 1 loan from my time as an undergraduate, and a post-graduate loan (PGL) from when I studied my MSc.  I owe approximately £3,700 on the latter, but on my new salary (assuming I start this new role as I’m trying hard not to count my chickens) it will take a hefty chunk of my monthly pay.  The interest rate on the PGL is 7.2%.  

On my new salary, it would be repaid in a couple of years, but I’m thinking I might use some of my cash savings to just clear it early, so I’ve got the extra income. My cash savings are not earning 7.2% in interest – it’s more like half that.  So it seems like an obvious decision, but all this assumes that none of the variables change significantly in the next few years.

Overall, it’s a relatively minor issue and not worth stressing over, but it’s still an interesting problem to work out.

That’s all for this week.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great week ahead.

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DISCLAIMER

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 273: Jobs, Birthdays, Cats, and Pensions

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss possible changes to pensions and ISAs.  Also, possible progress on the job front, and more pictures of cats.

Weekly Update

It’s more of the same this week as I’ve continued my job search and spent much of my free time chilling with Oana.  We’re still playing a lot of Monopoly, and we’ve finished our rewatch of Deep Space Nine.

I bought a Lego set with some gift vouchers I received a while back, and we finished building it earlier this week.  It’s the new Tudor Corner set and it’s amazing.  

In respect of the job search, I’ve passed the first interview for one role, and I’ve since completed some tests they asked me to sit.  I’m waiting on those results and the next step is another interview.  After that, if they like me, I’ll have the job which starts in early February which means this could all happen very quickly.  By the time of Part 274 of this blog I should know one way or another.  

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Some of the calls and messages from recruiters have been hilarious, and it’s clear that they’re just using templates in their messaging.  You can spot them a mile off because the part where they type your name is in a different font, or because of strange spacing before and after your name.  

I’ve also had a few conversations like this:

Recruiter: What are you looking for?

Me: My priority is a remote, employed position.

Recruiter: I’ve got a hybrid role available.

Me: What do you mean by hybrid?

Recruiter: Four days a week in the office.

Me: …

Recruiter: The office is just down the road from you.  In Doncaster.

Me: I’m in Sheffield.

Recruiter: So is it something you’d be interested in?

The whole issue around WFH/hybrid/in-person attendance is just baffling.  There are so many admin/office-type roles that can be done remotely.  Many of them result in more productivity by having people work from home.  Yet, many employers want people in the office and forget about all the claims that it’s about “culture”, “values”, and “collaboration”.  It’s a power play – nothing more, nothing less.

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Cats

Our nearest decent-sized supermarket is a Tesco, and on the way, there’s a cat I’ve seen for the past few years.  She’s always friendly and as soon as she sees me, or me and Oana, she will come running over for attention.  For many months we wondered who the cat belonged to, and what her name was. She’s not a stray as she is clean and healthy.  

One time I happened to see the cat run into a nearby house, so that was one piece of the puzzle in place.  Some months later Oana and I were making a fuss over this cat we had named Squirrel and two young boys came over saying she was their gran’s cat and was called Rosie.  Since then we have tried knocking on the owner’s door a couple of times to say “hi” and ask about Rosie but there’s been no answer.  Anyway, we finally got talking to Rosie’s owner this week!

We had been to Tesco and Rosie was in her usual spot and we saw a woman at the window of the house.  So, we knocked on the door and she came out.  We introduced ourselves and had a nice chat with this lovely woman.  She loves cats and is aware that Rosie is a bit of a celebrity.  I always see other people stopping and petting Rosie, or saying hello, or taking photos.  

Here is Rosie:

And because I don’t want to leave Poppy out of this conversation, here are a couple of recent pics of Poppy:

Oana’s Birthday

It was Oana’s birthday during the week and we had a very chilled day.  We watched some TV and played a few games, and I made one of her favourite meals, a mushroom and chive risotto.  She wanted a lowkey day and I hope that’s what I helped bring about.  

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My Dad paid for us to go for lunch with him last weekend as a birthday treat, and on Saturday my Mom and her husband paid for Oana and me to go with them for dinner at an Indian restaurant we’ve wanted to try for a while.  

The meal was a mixed bag.  The poppadoms and pickle tray were nice.  For our starters, we got a sharing dish which was a selection of dishes, like onion bhaji, lamb kebab, chicken tikka, and so on.  It was ok.  The lamb was decent, but the bhaji had no taste.  My Mom’s main wasn’t good as the chicken was very tough.  The other curries were ok but not at all memorable.  The drinks were gross though.  We all had coke (the drink, not the other kind) and they brought opened glass bottles to us that were all flat.  A cynical person might think these were old bottles refilled from a generic brand of cola.

On the whole, a disappointing experience.  In total, I would estimate about half the food served was left.  The staff did not seem to care, and when cleaning our table the waiter wiped a load of crumbs into my Mom’s lap.  It was one of those moments where I was too stunned to do anything and the waiter just walked off.  

Nan

It was around this time of year, in 2015, that my Nan passed away after experiencing a series of strokes.  She was the kindest, warmest, gentlest person you could meet.  Her generosity was without end, and it’s a sad fact some people took advantage of that throughout her life.  She was a rock though, and a source of strength for my Dad and me at various times in our lives.

I spent a decent amount of my childhood at her house as my parents were working and I’ve got many happy memories of that place and time.  Now and then I get a brief smell that takes me back there.  

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In June this year, she would have been 100.  For the longest time, it seemed as though she’d live forever.  I miss her, and Oana and I talk about her often.  Oana was like the granddaughter that she’d never had, and the two of them would spend hours talking.  My Nan also loved science fiction, with a particular love of Star Trek and Stargate.  She would be fascinated by the world today, with the advancement of smartphones and artificial intelligence.  

Don’t take your loved ones for granted because you never know when they’ll be taken from you. 

Torsten Bell

There’s been some discussion around the new Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, and the changes he may try to make to pensions in the UK.  Some of the suggested changes I agree with and some of them are a little concerning.

Triple Lock

The UK State Pension is protected by the triple lock, which guarantees that the pension will increase by the highest of inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5%.  This is a great level of social protection and helps pensioners who have to budget week to week.  

Bell has argued for the pension to increase using an average of wage growth which would smooth out increases in the state pension.  In theory, it could work, but I’d want to see much more detail on it before supporting such a change.  

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ISA Lifetime Limits

I’ve also read the Resolution Foundation, which Bell was the Chief Exec of, has argued for a lifetime limit on ISAs of £100,000.  Although this would only impact a small portion of the UK population, I’m guessing it would affect a large proportion of my readers and fellow FI followers.  To be blunt, I’d be pissed if such a change was made.  

Private Pension Changes

Other changes that have been mentioned by this new minister involve a cap on the tax-free lump sum that one can draw down from a private pension.  Currently, it sits at just over £268,000, but Bell once suggested it could be capped at £40,000. 

Another suggestion is to increase the age at which people can access their private pensions.  Again, I don’t have any major opposition to this in theory but I’d need to know more detail.  If people were facing a cap on their ISAs and were unable to access private pensions until they could access the state pension, then it just strikes me as massively unfair.  

Fighting the wrong war…

Rather than changing the law to stop people retiring early, we need to ask why people want to retire early and then seek to address those issues.  The fact is, the world of work for many people is miserable, and for others, it can be traumatic.  

There’s no real reason why the “working day” lasts between 8am and 6pm.  It’s just tradition.  We could decide to change the working day so that it lasted only from 10am to 4pm, and there’d hardly be any impact.  What’s more, people would adapt.  Just look at how we adapted during Covid.  

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A lot of work is just busy work that adds little value and makes absolutely no difference.  I bet that everyone reading this can think of at least one task or responsibility they have at work, that if it stopped, would have zero impact.

People want to feel like they’re making a difference.  They want to feel valued.  Asking people to complete pointless tasks runs counter to that.  If people felt valued, inspired, and challenged by their jobs, they would be more likely to want to keep working rather than seek the first opportunity to retire.  

Unfortunately, it all comes down to power and is linked to why some employers don’t want people to work from home.  

I’m not saying we should have a utopian world where no one works; that’s not realistic.  If the government wants to encourage people to work longer, make work more attractive instead of making retirement more difficult.  

Oana’s Job Search

Oana is also looking for work and not having a huge amount of success despite lots of experience and qualifications.  She did receive an invite to interview with G4S and it happened this week.  It was… different.

When Oana mentioned G4S my mental alarm bells started ringing.  They are not a company that has covered itself in glory.  I’d struggle to think of many businesses with a worse reputation in the UK.  There’s nothing to lose with an interview though, and it can be good practice so she went through with it.  

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The interview was thirty minutes with no preparatory information sent ahead of time.  The interviewer read questions out in a monotone voice, which Oana answered as best she could.  They then asked if Oana had any questions, which she did, but before she could ask any the interviewer placed her on hold for a few minutes and then came back and offered her the job.  However, they could not tell Oana the following info:

  • Start date
  • Probationary period
  • Training period and content
  • Working pattern after training
  • How performance is monitored
  • Day-to-day responsibilities
  • Salary

Following the interview, Oana received an email stating that the role was subject to “medical procedures.”  

I have no words…

Although she desperately wants to work, she’s not that desperate.

Oh, and one other thing they said; “you’re not allowed to stand up except when on break.”

What I’m Doing

Listening: Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis.

Watching: La Palma (Netflix).

I finished Axiom’s End, and the story continues in Truth of the Divine.  It’s not like any other sci-fi I’ve read, and I mean that in a good way.  I’m looking forward to seeing how the plot develops.  The author has put a lot of thought into developing the ETI in the story, and it shows.  

We watched La Palma on Netflix and, for the most part, enjoyed it.  The last episode was frustrating though.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand in fiction it’s when tension is manufactured by people behaving in a completely unrealistic way.  Until the last half an hour of the last episode, I would have given the show 8/10.  This dropped to 5/10 by the end.  

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £91,485.52.

Fuck It Fund: £13,052.13.

Pensions: £92,542.08.

Residential Property Value: £237,228.00. 

Total Assets: £464,307.73.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,492.19. 

Total Debts: £184,492.19.

Total Wealth: £279,815.54.

Some decent growth this week puts me within touching distance of a new all-time high for my wealth figure.  I’m anticipating breaking the previous figure in the next month or so.  I’ll probably have to use some funds to help subsidise our cost of living until we receive earned income again.  

My ISA transfer is finally in progress despite poor service from the new provider.  On their website, under the section for transferring an ISA from another company, it said you needed to complete a form on the website which you could then print and post back, or you could ask them to post the form to you.  As we don’t have a printer, I asked them to send me the form.  Days passed and they sent me the wrong forms.

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I went back online for a webchat with them and got disconnected.  So, I figured I’d just fill it out online and then save it as a PDF and ask someone to print it for me.  As I was completing the request the site popped up stating I could actually do the transfer online.  However, at no point further on did it state the request had been submitted electronically and I just saw the instruction to print the form that had been generated.  

I downloaded the form intending to print it at the library the next day.  When I woke up the next day I had a message from the new provider stating the transfer was underway.  I went back on live chat to check this, but they cut me off again.  So I called up and after waiting a while I finally spoke with someone who confirmed it was in progress.  

Things should not be this difficult.

That’s all for this week. Thank you, as always, for reading. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this week’s post.

Disclaimer

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 272: Does The FI Mentality Make Work Harder?

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss how the pursuit of FI can impact your ability to stay motivated in work.  Also, a minor change in our property value.  There’s all the usual financial updates, and more fun with Monopoly.

Weekly Update

It’s the first full week of 2025 and not much has changed.  I’m still looking for work and spending much of my time looking at job adverts, speaking with recruiters and hiring managers, and then watching Deep Space Nine and playing Monopoly in my spare time.  

I’ve had a couple of good conversations this week about different jobs and I’m waiting to hear back if I’ve been successful in moving to the next stage.  My priority is still to find something that is home-based where I can put my initiative to good use.  

I would have liked to go for more walks this week but the snow and ice have made this difficult.  I did venture out on Wednesday but there was one part of the walk through Weston Park, where I had to go up a small ramp, and it was just pure ice.  Each time I tried stepping up I just slid back down.  It was like trying to go up an escalator that was running the opposite way.  At least I didn’t completely lose my balance, I guess.

More Appliance Frustration

A few months ago we bought a new washer-dryer as our previous machine was rubbish.  It worked fine until the other day when it got halfway through a cycle and then stopped.  I tried a few things and worked out it was probably an issue with the filter at the bottom of the machine.  I don’t understand why this filter is always so low down that it’s impossible to position a container to catch the excess water, but it is what it is.  Once I’d managed to drain the excess water I was able to remove the filter and it was packed with lint and fluff.  I suspect much of it was cat hair that ended up on our clothes and sheets.  We have now set a reminder to clean that filter every few weeks.  

Things like this stress me out because I always assume the worst, and that we’ll need to have it repaired or replaced.  One of the things that is a trigger for major stress is when we have strangers in our home, like repair or delivery people.  I get stressed about it for days ahead of time, and it takes time to come down from that stress after it’s finished.  

Lego and DPD

For my birthday last year, I received several Lego gift cards which I finally used.  I went for the Tudor Corner set which was due to be delivered this week. On the day of delivery, I got the notification from DPD that it was due to be delivered between 09:26 and 10:26.  I checked the tracking info and saw the driver was just a few deliveries from our apartment and I started putting my shoes on to go down when I got another message stating they’d missed me and would deliver to a pick-up point.  Our buzzer never went off.  It’s infuriating when this happens.  If I wanted to pick it up, I would just go to the shop and buy it over the counter.

DPD are normally the better courier in this area but this is just the first of two poor experiences this week.  We had a Hello Fresh delivery due but with the New Year we were told the delivery day would be different, and I normally receive a notification from DPD detailing when it will be delivered.  I got no such notice this time and our buzzer did not ring.  As I was expecting a letter, I went down to the postroom to check our postbox and saw our Hello Fresh delivery sitting in the foyer.  I don’t know how long it had been there, but when we opened it the icepacks had melted and most of the veg was inedible with some of the greens having turned white and fuzzy.  Fortunately, we were able to get our money back.  

Reality Sinking In

Since I left my position with Lloyds Banking Group a month ago, I don’t feel like I’ve had time to process the impact of leaving.  I wasn’t forced out and I wasn’t bitter about leaving; rather I welcomed it.  After being with one company for over 13 years I was ready for a change.  The thing is, 13 years of my adult life is a huge amount of time and to have that suddenly disappear is a massive disruption to my life, and my identity I suppose.

Whether you like your profession or not, when you’ve been in a role for that long it will inevitably become part of your identity; and for an autistic person part of the mask you wear.  There are people I would interact with daily who, now that I’ve left, are missing from my social group.  Everyone knows that there are friendships you have at work that don’t survive in the real world.  As a good friend of mine said, you have to have mutual interests or hobbies outside of work that allow your friendship to survive that transition.  For those friendships that haven’t survived my exit, I have no ill-will and I hope they move forward with happiness, health, and success.

Oana’s Birthday

It’s Oana’s birthday this coming week and my parents are taking us out for a meal each.  This Saturday my Dad took us for fried chicken and it was so good.  We had a chicken sandwich each, which came with pickles, aioli, cheese, and bacon jam.  In addition to this, we shared some fries and some chicken tenders on Texas toast which is essentially garlic bread with pickles.  However, the chicken tenders are served on the bread and their spicy coating soaks into the bread and it’s amazing.

Next Saturday my Mom, and her husband, are taking us for an Indian meal at a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try for a little while.  I’ll report back on our experience next weekend.  

Monopoly

We are thoroughly enjoying our games of Monopoly lately, whether it’s Oana and I, or with my Dad popping up for a game as well.  We are thinking of taking it on the cruise later this year which will be for my Dad’s birthday.  However, the language we come out with is probably not suitable for a public setting with f-bombs being dropped with abandon.  

I’m also the target for most of the colourful language for two reasons.  The first reason is that I’m a naturally superior player and people are generally envious of their betters.  The second reason is that I’m not afraid to voice my superiority as I make various observations about the state of the board and the game.  

The thing is, Monopoly David and real-life David are two different people, and one cannot be held accountable for the words and actions of the other.  

Climate Change – Again

The fires in Los Angeles are horrific.  People have died, and many more have lost their homes.  Fires do happen, and in some parts of the world, fires are necessary for the health of woodland and forests, with some trees only spreading their seeds because of fire.  Climate change is going to hit parts of the world hard with fires becoming more common due to longer dry spells. 

The other side of the equation is that parts of the world may become colder due to climate change, with the UK being one of them.  If the warm air that comes our way over the Atlantic stops because of ice melting in the north, much of the UK would no longer be suitable for farming.  Our food security would be heavily impacted.  

It’s weird when I talk to people about climate change because most people seem to understand that it’s real, and most people know what needs to be done to combat it, but hardly anyone seems willing to do or change anything.  

In some respects, it may be a failure on the part of science communicators for not explaining things well enough.  People hear things like 1.5-degree increases in temperature but don’t understand that many of the systems of life on our planet are in delicate balance where small temperature changes can destroy those systems.  We’re all connected in a closed system.  Granted, the Earth is big, but it’s still a closed system and if parts of it fail we will all feel the impact. 

Bonus Post

If you missed it, you can have a look at my midweek post here. I discussed the concept of a retirement age and explained why retirement is in your hands.

What I’m Doing

Listening: Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis.

Watching: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The book I’m listening to has been a bit up and down.  It had a fairly strong start and then had a bit of a lull, but as I’m nearing the end it’s picked up again.  There’s a sequel but I don’t want to check if there are more than two books in the series as I know I’ll end up spoiling it for myself.

We only have a few more episodes of DS9 left to watch, and despite it being my hundredth rewatch I’ve still enjoyed it.  Oana has also thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s so cool we have another show we both love.  We were talking the other day and she mentioned that I’ve got her hooked on a few different sci-fi shows over the years, like The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica, For All Mankind, and now Deep Space Nine.

The great thing about DS9 is that, for the most part, it’s timeless.  Much of Star Trek: TNG has not aged well, and Voyager just isn’t very good.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £90,007.23.

Fuck It Fund: £13,052.13.

Pensions: £91,880.60.

Residential Property Value: £237,228.00. 

Total Assets: £462,167.96.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,492.19. 

Total Debts: £184,492.19.

Total Wealth: £277,675.77.

ISA Fees

I wanted to get the New Year out of the way before pulling the trigger on my ISA transfer.  I’m happy with my current provider in terms of service, their app, and their website.  However, their account fees are pretty high; 0.45% on balances up to £250,000, with the percentage dropping in stages on higher balances.  There is another provider who offers an account fee of 0%.  Now, sometimes in the morning when I’m a bit groggy, I can struggle with complex maths, but even as I’m writing this it seems clear to me that 0% < 0.45%. 

I spoke with my current provider to check if they could reduce the fees, as I’d be happy to pay something as I like their service.  They refused.  Fair enough, instead of getting something they will receive nothing.  

It’s annoying as I’d rather not go through the hassle of transferring the account but I can’t carry on paying £35ish each month when another company will do the same thing for nothing.  The other company has fees for transacting, but as I’ll hardly be transacting it’s still much less overall. 

There are always new things to learn…

I’m just grateful that a friend, and one of my readers, pointed out this other company that offers no account fees.  As the saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

“Knowledge equals profit.”

~ Rule of Acquisition #74

There was a small change to the index valuation on our apartment this week.  Our valuation dropped from £237,447.00 to £237,228.00; a drop of £219.  This may put my FI plans back by one or two seconds.  

For the mid-term future, the valuation of our property doesn’t mean much.  However, there will come a time when we need to change to a new interest rate and if our loan-to-value is under 75% we will get better rates than with our current LTV of 77.7%.  On the current valuation, we would need to reduce our balance to £177,921 which is a drop of roughly £6,500.  As we only pay around £350 per month off the debt it will take a long time to reduce the balance by that much.  

Our best bet for reducing the LTV is to hope that our property value increases in the next 10 months or so before we have to switch deals.  My rough, mental, calculation is that we need an approximate £9k increase in the valuation to bring our current balance under 75%.  It gets more complex because both the balance and value will change over the next few months.  If I’m able to secure employment soon, we should be able to pay a little more off the debt each month.  

The FI Mentality and Work

The pursuit of Financial Independence is a transformative journey. It reshapes how we think about money, time, and work. But here’s the paradox: while FI is about creating freedom, it can make showing up to work, especially in a job you don’t particularly enjoy, feel more difficult than ever.  

The Mental Shift

Before discovering FI, most of us work with the assumption that we’d keep grinding until our late 60s. It’s “just the way things are.” But once the FI mentality takes hold, you realise life doesn’t have to be that way. You start viewing your job not as a lifelong necessity, but as a stepping stone.  

This shift can be both empowering and frustrating. Empowering because you have a clear goal and a way out. Frustrating because the daily grind starts to feel like an obstacle rather than a purpose.  You find yourself calculating timescales and FI numbers over and over.  It can become, in some ways, a form of mental torture.  You know there’s another way to live, but the light is at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel.  

Why Working Feels Harder with FI 

Hyper-Awareness of Time

FI makes you acutely aware of how precious your time is. Sitting in meetings that feel pointless or working on projects that don’t align with your personal values becomes almost intolerable. Every minute spent on “non-essential” work feels like a minute taken away from your FI journey.  There are so many tasks in work that feel like “busy work” and once you are aware of the utter futility of it, it’s hard not to respond emotionally to it.  Whether it’s filling out pointless trackers, or completing repetitive and redundant tasks, it starts to chip away at your very being.

Increased Frustration with the System 

When you’re focused on escaping the traditional work system, its inefficiencies and politics stand out more. That colleague who loves pointless debates? The senior managers who have no understanding of what the job actually entails? These things might have been mildly annoying before, but now they feel like roadblocks to your freedom.  Fortunately for me in my time at Lloyds, I was lucky to have some fantastic managers who were great people as well as great colleagues.  My last manager in particular was a source of support during some of my darkest moments with mental health.    

The Challenge of Staying Motivated 

The closer you get to FI, the harder it can be to stay engaged. Once you’ve built a solid financial cushion, the urgency of needing to work dissipates, but you still have to show up. This can lead to a “limbo phase” where you’re mentally checked out but still need the paycheck.  I talk about FI with a fair few people now, and they all say pretty much the same thing; motivation in the short-term is very difficult.

Longeing

Many years ago I read a rough draft of a story of which I can’t recall many of the details but there was one scene where a character is looking at a horse being led in a circle over and over.  The character makes some comparisons to their life; just going round and round in a circle.  

When you consider how most jobs operate, it’s easy to see the similarities with longeing.  You are tied to a desk and you just do the same stuff over and over.  This is why my next job must have a little more room for personal autonomy.  I don’t want to feel like that horse tied to a post and being led in a circle over and over.

The Pressure to Optimise  

FI enthusiasts often become obsessed with efficiency such as maximising savings, investments, and time. This can spill over into your work life, creating frustration when tasks or systems don’t meet your standards for productivity.  It can become very easy to see everything through the lens of FI.

How do you learn to cope with this? You have to reframe your perspective.  Instead of viewing your job as a burden, see it as the fuel that powers your FI journey. Every paycheck is another step closer to your goal.  Every investment you make is another brick in the building of your FI house.

Find Meaning in the Moment

Focus on the aspects of your work that you enjoy or find fulfilling. Whether it’s mentoring a colleague, solving a complex problem, or simply connecting with people, look for small wins.  Try to squeeze as much out of your job as possible in terms of transferable skills, networking (something I’m awful at), and experience.  

Set Micro-Goals

Break your FI timeline into smaller milestones. Celebrate each one to stay motivated and remind yourself of your progress.  Whether it’s getting to the next thousand, hundred thousand, or million.

Experiment with Mini-Retirements

If possible, consider taking breaks or reducing hours. Mini-retirements can help you recharge and remind you of what you’re working toward.  This is something I want to experiment with but circumstances mean I may need to return to work sooner than anticipated.  

Use Work as a Testing Ground

View your current job as an opportunity to build skills and habits you’ll need post-FI, like managing your time or pursuing side projects.  All jobs are transactional; you get something and the employer gets something.  As long as you are doing the job to the required standard, see what you can do to spread your wings and learn new things.  

The Takeaway

The FI mentality transforms your relationship with work, often making it harder to tolerate the grind. But with the right mindset and strategies, you can navigate these challenges while staying focused on the ultimate prize: freedom.  Money is not the end goal here.  Money is just the currency to get what you want: freedom.  

Have you experienced the FI paradox at work? I’d love to hear your thoughts and strategies in the comments below.  

DISCLAIMER

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

The Myth of Retirement at 65: Why It’s Really in Your Hands

The Myth of Retirement at 65: Why It’s Really in Your Hands

For decades, society has ingrained in us the idea that retirement happens at 65 or, for some, 70. It’s a milestone we’re told to look forward to: the golden years of relaxation after decades of hard work. But let’s pause for a moment and ask – why 65? Why do so many people just accept this as their fate? The truth is, your retirement age isn’t set in stone. It’s entirely within your control, determined by how you plan, save, and invest.  

In this post, I will explore the origins of the concept of a set “retirement age”.  I’ll explain some of the actions required to take control of your investments, and I’ll provide a guide to help you critically evaluate advice.

The Origins of a “Retirement Age”

In the 1880s Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor at the time, introduced the first national state pension system.  Initially, the age at which you could collect your pension was 70, although this was later reduced to 65.  The thinking was that not many people would live beyond that age, and so it would not be a major drain on the finances of the nation.

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At the time, the average life expectancy was, depending on who you ask, anywhere from 35-50.  Just a few decades later, following the two world wars, the typical life expectancy was almost 60 years old.  In short, when the system was created it was never designed to serve society in the late 1900s, never mind in the early 2000s.  However, the age of 65 was adopted by other nations such as the UK and the US when they created their pension policies.  The age of 65 was very much an arbitrary number and I doubt when OvB was creating this system he had people typically living to their 80s in mind.    

Fast forward to 2024…

As of 2024, the life expectancy of UK adults is somewhere in the region of 78-84 depending on whether we’re talking about those born as men or women, and also how the figure is calculated.  In the times before modern medicine child mortality was high, and if you included all those children in the calculation of average (mean) life expectancy then it would bring the average down.  If you remove from the calculations all deaths before the age of 10, then you would have a more accurate idea of adult life expectancy.  

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Anyway, before I go down a statistical rabbit hole I want to come back to pensions and retirement age.  The point I’m making is that we are relying on systems built for a world that no longer exists.  

Why People Accept 65 or 70 as Their Retirement Age

Social Conditioning

We grow up hearing that retirement happens at 65, 68, or 70. Pensions, state benefits, and workplace retirement plans often reinforce this number, giving it an air of inevitability.  There’s also a lot of talk in the media about the government changing the “retirement age”, as though you can only retire with the blessing of the government.  This is not the case.  There’s a massive difference between the age at which you can access specific benefits (i.e. the state pension) or certain investments (i.e. SIPPs or workplace pensions), and the age at which you can declare yourself retired.  

As an aside, when I was working as a mortgage advisor one question that would almost always lead me to have my head in my hands concerned retirement age. The conversation would typically go something like this:

Me: At what age do you plan, or think, you’ll stop working completely?

Them: Tomorrow if I win the lottery haha.

Me: *Another check in the weekly tally for how many times I’ve heard this so far*

Them: Erm… what is it now?

Me: What is what now?

Them: Retirement age? it’s 65, isn’t it?

Me: So there’s no such thing as a retirement age. There’s the age at which you would be eligible to receive the state pension. Someone with your date of birth would be eligible to receive it at 65/66/67/68 (depending on the person I’m talking to). However, you can retire at whatever age you choose.

Them: So what age should I put down?

Me: That depends on your circumstances and when you think you can retire.

Them: Oh, just put down the normal retirement age.

Me: Do you mean the state pension age?

Them: That’s what I said.

Lack of Financial Literacy

Most people don’t realise that the age they retire isn’t dictated by some external authority; it’s dictated by their financial readiness.  You can retire whenever you have the funds to do so.  Retirement isn’t an age – it’s a different number altogether.  It’s whether you have the money to support yourself for the remainder of your life. 

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In simple terms, most FI followers use the 4% rule, in that once you have 25x your estimated annual cost of living accumulated you can draw down 4% of that fund per year.  In 95% of cases, it’s expected that the pot of money would last for at least 30 years without running dry.  The reality is a bit more nuanced than I’ve outlined and I’d recommend reading up on it in more detail before basing investment decisions on that single premise.  

Fear and Procrastination

The idea of planning for retirement can feel overwhelming. Many delay serious saving or investing until it’s too late to retire earlier.  The earlier you start, the earlier you can potentially retire.  Waiting until you’re older, or until you’ve done this or that is putting the cart before the horse.  There will always be something that you can use as an excuse not to invest in your future.  

Dependence on State Pensions

State pensions can create a false sense of security, leading people to believe they’ll have to work until the state “allows” them to stop.  The state pension is a great benefit in the UK, but it’s not enough to live comfortably without other sources of income.  It’s a solid foundation, but to have an enjoyable retirement you will almost certainly need to supplement it with your own investments.

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Why Your Retirement Age Is in Your Hands

Retiring earlier isn’t a matter of luck or a big inheritance. It’s about making intentional choices with your money. Here’s how:  

Invest Early and Consistently

Compound interest is your best friend when it comes to building wealth. The earlier you start, the less you need to contribute each month to reach your goals. Even modest amounts can grow significantly over time if invested wisely.  If you are in your late teens or early twenties and reading this, you have no idea how much I envy you.  If I’d started at that age, I’d almost be at my FI number by now.  

Understand Your Retirement/FI Number

Forget age and focus on your *number*. How much do you need to live comfortably without working? Once you have a clear target, you can create a roadmap to reach it.  If you are aiming to utilise the 4% rule, work out your estimated annual cost of living and then multiply it by 25.  If your cost of living was £24,000 (i.e. £2k per month), then your FI number would be £600,000.  You can then work backwards using an investment goal calculator to see what you would need to invest each month to reach that figure.  For example, if you wanted to get to £600,000 in 20 years and you believed that the market would return 6% per year, you would need to invest approximately £1,360 every month.  25 years at 8% would require approximately £685pm.

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These figures are not guaranteed.  Lots can happen for better or worse.  You could have years of double-digit returns, and then years where the market experiences losses.  These figures are guides; nothing more, nothing less.  

Live Below Your Means

The key to financial freedom isn’t just how much you earn – it’s how much you keep. Reducing lifestyle inflation and saving aggressively can fast-track your retirement plans.  The sooner you start, the more time those savings have to compound.  Lifestyle inflation is the death blow to many FI plans.  You don’t need to upgrade your car/phone/computer every year or two.  Don’t mistake luxuries for necessities, and try to avoid unnecessary lifestyle inflation as much as possible.

Take Control of Your Investments

Relying solely on a state pension or workplace scheme isn’t enough. Educate yourself and stay consistent.  If you don’t understand the investment, don’t do it.  Ask questions and seek expert advice.  Once you are investing, take time to regularly check in with your investments and make sure you are on the right path.  If you need to change course, so be it.    

How to Assess Advice You Are Given

Whether it’s about finances, health, or life decisions, we’re constantly surrounded by advice. Some of it can be life-changing, while other bits might lead you astray. So, how do you separate the gold from the garbage? 

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Consider the Source

No, I’m not talking about whether to put HP or ketchup on your bacon sandwich (it has to be brown sauce, but I digress).  

The credibility of advice often hinges on who is giving it.  

Are they qualified?

Do they have expertise or experience in the area they’re advising on?  

What’s their track record? 

Have they successfully applied their advice in their own life or helped others with it?  

Perhaps most importantly, do they have an agenda? 

Be wary of advice from those who might stand to gain financially or otherwise if you follow it, for example, a financial advisor earning commissions on certain products may not always act in your best interest.  

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Fact-Check the Claims

Don’t take advice at face value; verify it.  

Cross-reference reputable sources.

Look for consistency in advice from credible books, articles, or research studies.  

Seek evidence.  Good advice is often backed by data, logic, or proven methods, not vague anecdotes or opinions.  

Avoid logical fallacies.  Watch out for overly simplistic reasoning, such as “This worked for me, so it’ll work for you.”  

Understand the Context

What works for one person might not work for another.  

Does the advice apply to your situation?  Consider your unique circumstances, goals, and challenges.  Advice for a 50-year-old man will probably be very different to that for a young woman just about to start her first proper job.

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What are the risks?  Ensure the advice considers both the upside and potential downsides.  

Is it current?  Some advice can become outdated quickly, especially when there have been changes to tax law.  

Check for Biases

Advice can sometimes be skewed by personal or cultural biases.  

Is it overly optimistic or pessimistic?  Balanced advice will typically account for both the best-case and worst-case scenarios.

Assumptions

Is the advice based on assumptions?  Question whether the advice is grounded in evidence or just common myths and clichés.  Not all assumptions are bad though.  Just because someone uses assumptions in their working out, it doesn’t mean the working out is not valid.  It just means you have to consider the advice in the context of that assumption.  

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For example, someone investing in a global index tracker using an assumed growth rate of 3% over 30 years is probably being conservative, whereas someone using an assumed growth rate of 12% is probably being unrealistic.  

Test It on a Small Scale

If the advice involves action, start small before committing fully.  

Can you experiment?  Try a pilot or scaled-down version to see if it works for you.  

Evaluate results.  Did the advice achieve the expected outcome, or were there unintended consequences?  

Seek Multiple Perspectives

Rarely does one person have all the answers.  

Ask others you trust.  Seek input from a diverse group of people with varying expertise.  

Consider counterarguments.  Challenge the advice by seeking out opposing views to ensure you’re not missing important nuances.  

When seeking advice, do not simply try to find someone who agrees with you to help you feel better about the choice you want to make.  Try to see the issue from all perspectives.  We will never know everything.

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Trust but Verify

Your instincts can be valuable but don’t rely on them alone.  

Does it feel right?  If advice feels off or overly complicated, it might not be the best fit.  

Is it actionable?  Good advice should be clear, realistic, and actionable for your situation.  

Evaluate Long-Term Implications

Some advice might seem appealing now but could have negative consequences later.  

Will it benefit you in the long run?  Consider how following the advice aligns with your broader goals and values.

Will following the advice let you pass the “sleep well at night test”?  I would never be able to invest in a gambling company, for example, as it does not align with my own values.    

What are the opportunity costs?  By following one piece of advice, are you forgoing a potentially better option?  For example, will you be tying up money that could be used for something else?

Don’t Be Afraid to Ignore It 

Not all advice deserves to be followed.  

If advice doesn’t fit your vision or values, it’s okay to pass on it.  

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Beware of anyone telling you there’s only “one way” to do something.  Rarely in life, at least in my experience, is there a single right answer, and a single wrong answer.  

The best advice empowers you, not controls you. It should help you make informed decisions rather than dictate your actions. By staying critical, curious, and cautious, you can filter out the noise and focus on advice that truly serves you.  

Or, as Professor David Kipping says,

“Stay thoughtful, and stay curious.”

The Real Question: What Do You Want Your Future to Look Like?

The idea that retirement is out of our hands is a myth. By taking control of your finances and making intentional choices today, you can decide when and how you retire.  

Don’t let outdated societal norms dictate your future. It’s your life, your money, and ultimately, your decision. The real question isn’t “when” you’ll retire, but “how” you’ll make it happen.  

What steps are you taking today to bring your retirement dreams closer? Let me know in the comments as I’d love to hear your thoughts!  

Part 271: New Year, New… something?

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss the new year and provide some positive financial updates.  

Weekly Update

The world is finally returning to normal, at least in some ways.  Now that the new year has started we can get used to a normal weekly routine again.  Something incredible happened this week which has not happened to me in many years.  I had to sign and date a document, and I wrote the correct year at the first time of asking.  There was none of the usual nonsense when you write the old year and have to scribble it out or try and amend it.  First time, I tell you.  First time. 

Our New Year’s Eve was fairly standard for us.  We chilled out with some food and a movie and mooched around until the fireworks started going off.  Then, we stayed with Poppy to make sure she was ok, as sometimes the fireworks scare her.

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Oppenheimer

We watched Oppenheimer with a free code we had from Amazon and shared a massive platter of cheeses, crackers, nuts, crisps, chocolate, sweets, and more.  The film itself was great, with the typical high production values I’ve come to expect from Christopher Nolan.  I’ve read a little about the development of the atomic bomb and the Manhattan Project and from what I remember the film was quite faithful with just a few minor(ish) historical inaccuracies.  Some of these inaccuracies were probably present to help the narrative flow better.  Although, I’m not sure what purpose was served by having the wrong number of stars on the US flag.  Some have argued that it was to represent our memories which are never completely accurate.  I suspect it was a simple mistake that wasn’t picked up during editing.  

Next week and beyond…

From next week I will need to crack on with a few things I’ve been putting off.  I need to speak with my GP about picking up the issue with my right elbow.  I had an injection into the joint a few weeks ago but it’s still not right.  It’s been ongoing for over two years now and there has to be an explanation.  

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Another job on my to-do list is to look at completing the transfer of my ISA, and working out if it’s best to leave my old work pension in place or move to another provider.  I also need to sell off my remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group.  I sold the remaining ones from my ISA but I’ve got a few thousand shares left over from my employment.  Now, I have the option of keeping them, but I’d rather just get them sold and have the money.  Based on the current share price, it should provide enough income for a couple of months’ cost of living.  

Job Search

I’ve not had much more luck on the job front.  I’m having a call with a recruiter on Monday which I hope leads to something.  There don’t seem to be a lot of jobs available that meet my preferences.  I’m not in any massive rush and will wait for the right opportunity to come along.  I’ve already turned down a few offers which had some positives but the negatives were just too many or too major.

Within reason, I’m not that bothered about the salary; it’s not my main concern.  I want decent hours of work, and to be able to work remotely.  I don’t want to deal with office politics or a commute.  The world has changed and any job requiring full-time office work is just taking the piss.  The occasional day here and there is fine, but there’s no reasonable justification for full-time office work, and it feels like a power play from those demanding it.  

A Man of Wisdom

There are times when I think I’m perceptive, wise, and analytical.  Then, there were times like the other day when I wandered around the apartment trying to track down a dripping sound.  When I would stand still it would stop, but when I started walking I could hear the noise again.  It took me longer than I care to admit to realise that the sound was coming from the zipper on the side pocket of the trousers I was wearing.  When I moved, it would rattle against the metal zip.  

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Monopoly

One thing Oana and I have been doing lately is playing lots of Monopoly.  It’s good fun and we get pretty competitive.  The most fun part, for me, is the trash-talking.  I can annoy anyone while playing this game.  It’s a real talent.  

Some people criticise the mechanics of the game, and to an extent, they have a point.  There’s not a huge amount of skill in the game with a large part of it being down to luck.  There are also many points in the game where you don’t do anything other than roll dice and move.  Much of the board is inactive when you think about it.  

There are 36 tiles on the board of which nothing happens on two; free parking and jail.  On the “go” square nothing happens other than the £200 salary.  If you’re playing a two-player game and the properties are split equally you will have 14 each.  This means that of the 36 squares nothing really happens to you on 17 of them; the three corner squares I mentioned above, and your own properties. 

Another, somewhat valid in my opinion, criticism of Monopoly is that it can be very difficult to recover from a poor start.  If your opponent races into an early lead there’s not much you can do to leverage skill or strategy; you just have to keep rolling the dice and hope for favourable results.  

All this being said, it’s still fun to play especially in a group.   

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Bonus Post

In case you missed it, here is a link to my bonus midweek post where I discuss the importance of starting early when investing.

I’m hoping to have more content published during this period when I’m not employed, so please keep checking for updates.  Also, if you have any requests for specific topics to be discussed please leave a comment or get in touch.

What I’m Doing

Listening: Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis.

Watching: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I’ve started a new series of books by Lindsay Ellis with the first one being Axiom’s End.  I’m about halfway through and it’s ok so far, but not exactly revolutionising the genre of alien contact.  I’ve read/listened to so many books about this and I’m desperate for something that approaches the idea from a new perspective.  Any recommendations would be welcomed.

We have almost finished season six of Deep Space Nine, and after several rewatches over the years I think season six is the strongest one.  Like many TNG-era shows, DS9’s first season is a bit rough and it takes time to find its feet.  There’s a very strong ending to the first season and I think from that point on each season improves on the previous one.  Season six is where the show peaks though, with season seven dropping in quality a little.  I’m not going to mention those reasons here as I know a few people who read this blog are watching DS9 for the first time.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £90,217.15

Fuck It Fund: £13,052.13.

Pensions: £91,080.16.

Residential Property Value: £237,447.00. 

Total Assets: £461,796.44.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,492.19. 

Total Debts: £184,492.19.

Total Wealth: £277,304.25.

My pension has hit a new record high, and my ISA is back above £90,000.  Unfortunately, I did not start the year with a Premium Bonds win but there’s always next month.  

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I spoke with my mortgage lender this week to see if there are any other deals we can switch to.  As part of the terms of my redundancy, I can keep my current rates for a year before I have to switch to something else.  I can choose to switch before the deadline if something else comes up.  I need to wait for rates to drop below 4.25% for it to make sense, and when that happens I’ll jump on it.  As things stand, I can’t predict the market with any major confidence but I think rates will generally reduce over the next few months.  

If there’s one thing the last decade has shown us it’s that anything can happen.  Now, I’m not saying that David Bowie was holding together the space-time continuum but following his death in January 2016 the following things have happened, listed by year:

2016

Brexit Referendum  

The UK voted to leave the European Union, triggering years of negotiations.  If ever there was an example of it not being a good idea to give people a say over everything, this is it.  Sometimes people just don’t know enough about a subject to have a qualified opinion, and as a society, I think we need to learn to be comfortable admitting when we don’t know enough about something to have an opinion.  

“I am a Brexit negotiator, like my father before me.”

~ Luke Skywalker, possibly.

U.S. Presidential Election

Donald Trump was elected President, defeating Hillary Clinton.

“The future is bright.  The President is orange.”

~ David Scothern, and probably others.

Syrian Civil War Escalation

Aleppo faced intense bombings, becoming a symbol of the Syrian crisis.  

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2017

Trump’s Inauguration 

Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States.  Tens, maybe even dozens, of people thought this was a good thing.

Catalan Independence Referendum  

Catalonia held a controversial referendum for independence from Spain.  Spain said no.

MeToo Movement

The movement against sexual harassment and assault gained global momentum.  I’m a supporter of the movement but it’s a sad reality that such a movement was necessary. It seems that when some men achieve some form of power they can’t help but abuse it.

2018

North Korea–U.S. Summit

Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump met in Singapore.  Honestly, this is not the opening line to a joke.  If this was a film, the tagline would be; 

“Two Men.  One Brain.  No Hope.”

Global Climate Strikes 

Initiated by Greta Thunberg, youth-led climate strikes gained global attention.  Some people seem to have an irrational level of hate towards her, and I don’t get why.  Maybe it’s because she’s trying to do something and people don’t want to be reminded that the world is dying.

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2019

Notre Dame Fire

The iconic cathedral in Paris was severely damaged by fire.  Although I’m not religious, these impressive buildings are part of our history and it would be a shame to see them lost.  

Hong Kong Protests

Massive pro-democracy protests erupted over proposed extradition laws.  If I remember right, a friend of mine was caught up in these protests whilst visiting family.  

COVID-19 Emergence

The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December.

2020

COVID-19 Pandemic

A global pandemic resulted in widespread lockdowns, economic disruption, and millions of deaths around the world.  There aren’t many positives to draw from the pandemic but I do think it has helped advance some science and technology.

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George Floyd Protests

The killing of George Floyd sparked global protests against police brutality and systemic racism.  Even as millions of people came together to campaign against racism, some people just couldn’t grasp the concept and importance of Black Lives Matter and came out with arguments like “What about White Lives” and other bullshit.  Look at this way, I’m not likely to be pulled over by police and shot dead because I’m white.  That’s the point.  Never once have I been stopped by the police and thought “This is how I die.”

U.S. Presidential Election

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a contentious election.

2021

Capitol Insurrection 

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan 

The Taliban regained control following the U.S. withdrawal, in a move that absolutely no one could see coming.  It’s not as though anyone was aware that the Taliban could just melt back into the general population and bide its time until the U.S. decided to declare victory and go home.  All that death and destruction for very little, it seems.

COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

Mass vaccination campaigns were launched worldwide.  The UK, through the efforts of the NHS, was able to implement an impressive vaccination plan despite the Tory government continually trying to shoot its own foot.

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2022

Russia-Ukraine War 

Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to significant global political and economic impacts.

Liz Truss Government

Do I need to elaborate?

2023

Artificial Intelligence Boom

Generative AI technologies like ChatGPT gained widespread attention.  AI is starting to become part of everyday life as we enter 2025.

Global Inflation Crisis

Many countries faced rising costs of living due to lingering pandemic effects and the war in Ukraine.

2024

Israel-Hamas Conflict Escalation 

Renewed violence between Israel and Hamas caused widespread humanitarian crises.

Global Wildfires 

Record-breaking wildfires affected Canada, Europe, and Australia due to climate change.  The air quality in some parts of Canada and the US was so dangerous people were instructed to remain indoors.  

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Anyway, following on from that little tangent, I was saying that it’s difficult to predict anything in life.  Your life can be cruising along completely fine until someone on the other side of the world does something that turns everything upside down.  Your job, home, family, or friends can be lost in an instant.  This uncertainty is at the heart of what FI is.  FI is not simply about money; money is just a tool.  The real objectives of FI are freedom and security so that when major events occur you are insulated from them as much as possible. 

That’s all for this week.  Thank you for reading, and I hope you’re having a great start to 2025.  

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post, and other posts, whether you agree, disagree, or have your own unique perspective to share. Drop a comment below or connect with me on social media. Let’s keep the conversation going! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to stay updated with the latest insights on investing, mental health, and more. 

DISCLAIMER

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Starting Early

The Power of Starting Early: Why Time is Your Best Friend in Investing

**This post should not be taken as advice. Before you invest, seek impartial and expert advice.**

Three main factors impact the return you get from investments; time in the market, the rate of growth, and the amount you regularly invest.  Many people, at least in my experience, seem to think that the amount you invest each month is the most important determiner of when you can retire.  In order of importance, time in the market and the rate of growth are much more important than the amount you invest.  For example, for time;

If you invest £100pm for 40 years at 8% growth, you will end up with approximately £349,000.  

However, if you invest £1,000pm for 10 years at 8% growth will result in a pot of approximately £183,000. 

Investing a tenth of the amount for just four times longer, gets you almost double the amount.  Starting early, even with a relatively small amount of money, can be life-changing. 

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With this example, you can see why many investors believe in one universal truth: when it comes to investing, the earlier you start, the better. Whether you’re saving for retirement, a home, or financial independence, time is your greatest ally.

For the rate of growth;

If you invest £100pm for 20 years at 8% growth, you finish up with approximately £59,000.

However, if you invest £100pm for 20 years at 4% growth you would only end up with around £36,500.  

On the other hand, with the same numbers except for 12% growth you would be sitting on almost £100,000. 

You still need to be mindful of the percentage rate of growth, but it’s still not as important as the total time you are invested.  To invest for longer, you need to start early.

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The Magic of Compound Interest

Compound interest is often called the “eighth wonder of the world” for a reason. It’s the process of earning returns on both your initial investment and the gains that accumulate over time. The longer your money has to grow, the more exponential the growth becomes.  Let’s look at another example from a different perspective.

Example of Compound Growth:

Imagine two investors:

Investor A starts investing £200 per month at age 25 and stops at age 35, contributing for just 10 years (£24,000 total).

Investor B starts investing £200 per month at age 35 and continues until age 65, contributing for 30 years (£72,000 total).

Assuming a 7% annual return:

By age 65, Investor A will have approximately £280,000.

By age 65, Investor B will have approximately £244,000.

Despite contributing far less, Investor A ends up with more money because they started earlier, allowing compound interest to work its magic.

Time Reduces Risk

Investing early provides you with a longer time horizon, which helps mitigate risks associated with market volatility. Over decades, the stock market has consistently trended upward despite short-term dips. Starting early allows you to ride out market volatility because short-term downturns are less impactful when you have decades to recover.  An early start also allows you to invest more aggressively as younger investors can afford to take on more risk (e.g., higher equity exposure), which often leads to higher returns over time.

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Small Amounts Add Up Over Time

Starting early doesn’t require massive contributions. Even small, consistent investments can grow significantly over time thanks to compounding.

Starting Early vs. Playing Catch-Up:

Investing £100pm starting at age 20 can grow to £380,000 by age 65 (assuming 7% returns).

Waiting until age 35 to start requires £300pm to reach the same approximate amount by age 65.

Starting early reduces the pressure to save large amounts later in life, making the process less stressful.

Building Financial Habits

Starting early helps you develop disciplined financial habits that will serve you for a lifetime:

Consistency: Regular investing becomes second nature.

Budgeting Skills: Allocating money for investments encourages better money management.

Emotional Resilience: Early exposure to market ups and downs teaches patience and long-term thinking.

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Time Creates Opportunities

When you start early, you have extra flexibility.  You can take breaks if needed, such as when there are unexpected expenses.  You can also explore different strategies with decades in front of you rather than years.

How to Start Investing Early

Educate Yourself: Learn the basics of investing, including asset classes, risk tolerance, and diversification.

Start Small: Even a few dollars a month can make a difference. Platforms like robo-advisors and micro-investing apps make it easy to begin.

Take Advantage of Tax-Advantaged Accounts: Contribute to accounts like ISAs, and other accounts that offer tax savings.  Pensions offer some tax relief, but this can vary depending on personal circumstances.  You should seek expert advice on your own circumstances to see what the best approach is.

Automate Contributions: Set up automatic transfers to your investment accounts to ensure consistency.

Invest for the Long Term: Focus on low-cost index funds or ETFs that offer diversification and long-term growth potential.

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Final Thoughts

Starting early in investing is one of the most powerful decisions you can make for your financial future. The combination of compound interest, reduced risk, and good habits sets the foundation for long-term success. Remember, it’s not about timing the market; it’s about time in the market. So, take that first step today and your future self will thank you.

However, before you invest you should take the time to make sure you understand what you are doing.  Seek expert advice if you are unsure about investments, or your general financial and tax circumstances.  Do not invest until you have researched your options and unique circumstances.  If you invest without understanding, you are gambling.  When you gamble, the house always wins.

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2024 Review

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE’s 2024 review.

The first thing to discuss would be my 2024 goals and whether I met them.  In Part 218, which served as my 2023 review, I laid out several goals or targets for the upcoming year.  These were:

1 – Increase Fuck It Fund to £15,000.

2 – Increase Premium Bonds to £15,000.

3 – Max out my ISA allowance.

4 – Sell my BTL.

5 – Reduce mortgage on our apartment to £165,000.

6 – £10,000 investment income for 2024.

I had a 50% success rate, hitting goals 2, 3, and 4.  For goal 1 I came close, with my Fuck It Fund sitting at a little over £13k.  My mortgage balance increased, which left number 5 unmet, and I fell a little short of the final goal which I’m no longer actively tracking.  

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Looking ahead to 2025 I have come up with a few goals relating to health, employment, and my finances.

2025 Goals

#1 – Reduce weight to 100kg by the time I go on my cruise.

#2 – Hit £300,000 wealth.

#3 – Complete 120 books.

#4 – Secure new employment.

#5 – Complete Duo Spanish course.

#6 – Finish Secret Project 1.

#7 – Finish Secret Project 2.

The obvious questions you have will be what the secret projects are, but for now, I feel more comfortable keeping those quiet.  Once I’ve made more progress on them, I will let you all know.  I just don’t want to put myself under too much public pressure.

The first goal is self-explanatory.  The holiday season has added an extra kilo to my weight and I want to turn the tide on that front as quickly as possible.  It’s not just about how I look, but about how I feel.  When I adopt a healthier diet, everything else follows.  Some of my health problems improve, and a good diet does wonders for mood, sleep, and concentration.

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The second goal is also simple to understand and it’s more of a milestone than anything; a way to maintain focus on the finish line.

Bad year for reading and listening…

For some reason, 2024 has been a poor year for books, at least by my standards.  I think much of this is due to me listening to more music than before.  I still love books though, and I want to crack on and discover great new stories.  120 for the year is 10 per month; a challenging but achievable goal.

Securing new employment is also simple, but not easy.  It needs to be the right job.  I don’t want to stumble into something only to have to leave a few weeks or months into it.

I also want to step up my efforts in learning Spanish.  I’ve been using Duolingo for three years now and have made decent enough progress with my Spanish, but I need to dedicate more time and energy to it if I want to become semi-fluent.

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Habits and Processes

The key to many of these goals is to form good habits.  I need to set aside time to work towards each goal, and to that end, I’m going to track my efforts each day.  This isn’t going to be in minute detail because that would be counterproductive.  Instead, it will be a simple daily check-in; did I work towards each goal each day?  If I did, then it gets a green mark next to it.  If not, I’ll leave a red mark next to it.  The idea is that on my spreadsheet (of course there’s a spreadsheet) I should have more green than red.  

Financial Review

Week 218 & (Now)

Assets

Premium Bonds: £12,050.00 (£30,000.00)

Stocks and Shares ISA: £62,723.40 (£89,694.40)

Fuck It Fund: £10,780.68 (£13,036.79)

Pensions: £69,308.09 (£90,662.71) 

Residential Property Value: £227,512.00 (£237,447.00)

BTL Property Value: £146,814.00 (£0.00)

Total Assets: £529,188.17 (£460,840.90)

Debts

Credit Card: £0.00 (£0.00) 

Loan: £0.00 (£0.00)

Residential Mortgage: £174,247.55 (£184,783.09)

BTL Mortgage: £104,924.60 (£0.00)

Total Debts: £279,172.15 (£184,783.09)

Total Wealth: £250,016.02 (£276,057.81)

The slow, steady growth every week can sometimes fly under the radar, but when you look back over a full year that growth can be astonishing.  2024 saw my BTL sale go through which took away the equity that both myself and my Dad had in the property.  However, despite this £40k reduction in my wealth calculation, over the year my wealth increased by over £25k.  When accounting for the £40k reduction this is more like a £65k increase.  

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What do we want?

When the market goes up, our investments go up which brings FI forward.  However, when the market drops we can buy more units with our money which should also bring FI forward.  It’s impossible to time the market consistently, and attempting to do so will probably lead to losses.  But choosing when to FI involves some element of predicting what will happen with the market.  I doubt many people would choose to FI on the eve of a major market crash.  

So the question remains, what do we want?

I would love the market to stay fairly flat for a couple of years so that I can try and snap up as many units as possible, before leading into a sustained period of growth to boost my overall investment pot value.  The chances of this happening are very slim, so it’s all about sticking to the process; invest as much as possible, as often as possible, whilst minimising debt.

2025 will be an important year for debt as I’m hoping that our household debt, i.e. the mortgage debt, has peaked.  If we can have a sustained period where that debt reduces and our assets increase then it’s just a matter of time until FI.

Highlights of 2024

Normally my highlight reel for each year would include some foreign travel, but we did not go abroad once this year.  2023 was an expensive year for travel, and in 2025 we will be embarking on another cruise.  All this is not to say that there were no highlights in 2024 though.  Here is a list of some of the things I enjoyed this year.

Walking Challenge

This year, I took on the Million Step Challenge to raise funds for Diabetes UK, and I’m so happy to say I completed it. Walking a million steps over a few months was no small feat (or feet), but it was a rewarding experience. Not only did I improve my fitness and mental well-being, but I also contributed to a cause close to my heart. The sense of achievement when I hit that final step count was incredible, and I’ll always remember it.  Alongside my biking challenge from 2017, I will always look back on it with pride.

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Lego Adventures

2024 was the year my Lego collection expanded massively.  Among the most exciting additions were the Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser, Barad-dúr, Rivendell, and the Titanic.  Lego is an escape for me, and many other autistic people it seems.  There’s something therapeutic about putting the bricks together and seeing something grow.  

Although I love all these sets in their own way, I think the Titanic and the Venator look the best.  In terms of the most fun building, I think Oana and I enjoyed Barad-dúr the most.  The Venator and Titanic were solo projects for me, and I also had a lot of fun with them.  Lego is amazing, but when you have four sets that come to about £4k total you’d be annoyed if they weren’t enjoyable to build. 

Memorable Walks

Oana and I enjoyed many long walks around the city this year, discovering new trails like the route into Rotherham past the Looping Boat sculpture, and revisiting old favourites like the Botanical Gardens, Norfolk Park, and Parkwood Springs. 

These walks became an essential part of our routine, allowing us to get some sun and fresh air.  We were able to engage with nature a bit more as we watched the birds, river life, squirrels, and more.  Just being in nature is so calming and relaxing.  We can’t wait for spring to come around.

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Culinary Experiments

Having more free time and energy, we have thrown ourselves into learning new recipes and techniques in the kitchen.  Some of the main things I’ve learned are that stock, salt, and butter all add so much flavour to food.  The extra calories are sometimes worth it!

Oana’s Name Change

Oana took a massive step this year and changed both her names.  She’s always preferred “Oana” instead of Ioana, and she wanted to change her last name to further distance herself from her biological parents and siblings.  This was not a knee-jerk decision by Oana, but rather the culmination of years of behaviour on their part.  I’m not going to go into all the details, but I’m sure you can read between the lines as to why a young woman from a wealthy family would take such a drastic step as cutting them out of her life completely and adding the cherry on top by changing her name to that of her partner.

Five Years Gamble-Free

This year saw me hit five years since I last gambled.  When I was in the depths of my addiction, it felt as though climbing out of it would be impossible.  Overcoming this gambling addiction wasn’t easy; it required immense self-discipline, support from loved ones, and a willingness to confront difficult truths about myself. In the early days, I leaned heavily on the content of Jamie Salsburg; host of the After Gambling podcast.  Each year since has brought its own challenges, but with every passing day, I’ve grown more confident in my ability to maintain this positive path.

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Staying gamble-free has had a major impact on my life. Financially, it allowed me to rebuild and work towards goals like achieving financial independence. Emotionally, it has lifted the weight of guilt and stress that gambling once brought into my life. Most importantly, it has given me the freedom to focus on what truly matters: my relationships, my health, and my future. To anyone struggling with similar issues, I want to emphasise that recovery is possible. Take it one day at a time, celebrate every small victory, and know that the journey is worth it.  

As 2025 approaches, I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who has followed Mortgage Advisor on FIRE this past year. Your support, comments, and messages mean the world to me.  

Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just discovered the blog, I’m grateful for the time you’ve taken to join me on this journey. Whether you are a silent reader or one of the many people who message me publicly or privately, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

See you in 2025!

Part 270: Christmas 2024 and Updated FI Number

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  A look back at Christmas, and some discussion on my updated FI number.  

Weekly Update

The days between Christmas and New Year are always strange and often lead me to think of airports.  If there is one place on Earth where anything goes, it’s the airport.  If you want to have tacos at 4am and wash them down with a beer, no one bats an eyelid in the airport.  Or, if you want to have a burger for breakfast, you can have a tasty burger with a vanilla milkshake and you don’t have to answer to anyone.  The week between Christmas and the end of the year is the temporal equivalent of the airport.  If you want to have a bowl of Lindt chocolates as if it were cereal, go for it.  If you want a meal to see you through from dinner to supper, have at it, my friend. 

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Christmas

Our Christmas was nice and chill and involved a lot of Monopoly playing.  On the 24th we had my Dad over for some food and a couple of games, with the same schedule for the 25th.  However, we also had to fit in our traditional watch of the film Four Lions.  I don’t quite know how this tradition started, but not a Christmas Day passes without us watching it and quoting almost every single line of dialogue as it happens.

We eschewed the traditional roast dinner for Christmas Day in favour of a homemade curry.  We normally make good curries with a blend of our own spices and a little cheat in the way of a shop-bought paste.  The curry I made this year was a little underwhelming.  It wasn’t unpleasant and everyone else enjoyed it and had seconds.  I felt a little down about it though as it didn’t hit the heights I wanted.  I just couldn’t get the right flavour profile going on.  

Oana did make a fantastic raita, which we took a slight shortcut for the first time and it actually turned out better.  Rather than using fresh mint, we used a little mint sauce mixed with Greek yoghurt, cucumber, salt, and lemon.  I could just sit and eat that with a massive naan.  

Boxing Day

On Boxing Day we had my Mom and Dad over, and Oana and I made a traditional, if somewhat restrained, Christmas Dinner.  We had a turkey crown with stuffing, all wrapped in bacon.  I made some roast potatoes in the air fryer and some mash.  Also, a vegetable mix that Oana and I have enjoyed over the last few months.

The roast potatoes were easy enough.  I peeled and rinsed a few potatoes and quartered them.  Then, I steamed them for 5-6 minutes and transferred them to a bowl where I added salt, pepper, and some olive oil.  Then, into the air fryer at 190 for 30 minutes.  Every 6-7 minutes I checked on them and gave the tray a little shake.  I added some extra salt at the end and then left them in the air fryer (turned off) to stay warm.  

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What I’ve discovered in recent years is that the key to great turkey, and most meat in general, is in the resting.  Once the turkey was cooked we covered it in foil and let it rest for a good 10-15 minutes.  It was delicious.  

Lemon and Basil Chicken

As I write this we have some more food in the fridge that Oana prepared the previous night.  It’s lemon and basil chicken which we will serve with mash and greens.  The lemon chicken is one of our favourite meals and is fairly simple to make.  You dice some chicken breast or thigh and leave it in an oven dish with freshly squeezed lemon juice, a little olive oil, salt, and chopped fresh basil.  After marinating for a few hours, cook it in the oven (covered).  Once it’s cooked through, the chicken and sauce are served over mash and it’s incredible.  

What did you have for food over Christmas? I’d love to hear about your dishes, snacks, and so on.  

What I’m Doing

Listening: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

Watching: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions).

We’ve almost finished season five of DS9 and despite it being my millionth rewatch I’m still picking up new details.  It’s also interesting watching it with Oana as it’s her first time properly watching it from start to finish, so I’m almost seeing it through fresh eyes again.  

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £89,694.40

Fuck It Fund: £13,036.79.

Pensions: £90,662.71.

Residential Property Value: £237,447.00.

Total Assets: £460,840.90.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,783.09. 

Total Debts: £184,783.09.

Total Wealth: £276,057.81.

There haven’t been many trading days since the last blog post but my figures have all improved since last week.  My pension is back above £90k, and my ISA had a little upward movement.  I also put some more of my severance into my Fuck It Fund which will be used, in part, to subsidise our cost of living between now and gaining new employment.  

I mentioned recently that I was going to switch my ISA to a different provider, and I’ve started that process.  It’s not an instant thing and may take a couple of months.  It will save me approximately £40 per month in charges which is not to be sniffed at.  There isn’t much more we can do to cut the cloth with our household spending.  The only thing we can try to cut down on is food shopping.  The bulk of our spending is on regular direct debits, like the mortgage, council tax, electricity, internet, and water.  

Although I’ve left my job, I am still expecting two more payments from my former employer, with each payment totalling roughly a month’s cost of living.  Again, it’s nothing to be sniffed at.

Peak Wealth

In Week 247 my total wealth was £281,315.04 and this week I took another step towards surpassing that figure.  This week, my wealth stands at £276,057.81.  A 2% jump will provide me with another record high figure.  I’m trying not to get too excited because the reality is until I get a job, my wealth will probably only decrease as we dip into savings to fund our daily cost of living.  

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My wealth will grow independently of what I hope for, but I still have little milestones I like to meet.  This year it was all about getting my ISA and pensions to £80,000 which I managed, and then some.  In 2025 I’d like to see them both pass £100,000.  Following that, the next milestone is a combined value of over £250,000.

FI Progress

In addition to changing my ISA provider, I’m making a slight change to my investment strategy.  I’m moving away from investment income and focusing purely on accumulation.  Part of this means that I may look to use my ISA to repay my mortgage in future.  Although it might not be the optimal course purely by the numbers, it has a major benefit as it passes the “sleep well at night” test.

If I follow through on this I will not want to use up the whole ISA.  Instead, I’ll want to be left with a decent chunk to act as a bridge to my pension.  So, here’s how the numbers stack up…

Mortgage

Interest on a mortgage is often calculated daily and applied monthly.  This means that each month you will almost certainly end up paying a different amount of interest in cash terms.  On a repayment mortgage, the general trend is that you pay an increasing amount of capital off as you progress through the mortgage term.  For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use some round figures.

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Our current mortgage payments see us clear roughly £320 per month off the debt.  That’s £3,840 per year.  I’m going to use a figure of £4,000 because this will include some of the movement towards paying more capital over time, i.e. although it works out that we clear £320ish per month now, in a couple of years that could be £350, and in another couple of years it could be £420, and so on.

My ISA is approximately £90,000.  If it grows at 6%, and I invest £10,000 per year, I should end up in the region of £270,000.  If I wanted to use no more than half my ISA to repay the mortgage I would need to debt to be reduced to £135,000.  However, 9 years of paying £4,000 per year would only see it reduced to approximately £148,000.

Still, being mortgage-free and still having £122,000 in the bank is not a bad position to be in as I hit the age of 50.  

A word of caution…

It’s also important to note these figures are all projections.  If I find another job fairly quickly, I should be able to invest more and possibly increase the payments on the mortgage slightly.  Also, if interest rates drop I can switch our mortgage to a lower rate.  I have 12 months to switch from my current deal before I’m put on the standard variable rate as I’m no longer eligible for my current product (it was an employee benefit).

Updated FI Number

If we don’t have any mortgage or rental costs then our FI number reduces in line with that.  Between the two of us, we’ll be able to live a decent life on £2k per month, which is £24,000 per annum, and using the 4% rule to guide us, we would need a FI number of £600,000.

Again, these calculations are not an exact science but let’s take the £600,000 and add it to approximately £150,000 (rough guestimate of the outstanding mortgage balance in a few years), to arrive at £750,000.

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If we take our starting position as £250,000 (a mix of our ISAs, pensions, and other investments), and using a growth rate of 6% we only need to invest a further £550 each month to get to £750,000 in 15 years.  That’s better than I expected.  

The potential problem with all this lies in the detail.  I’ve lumped together ISA and pension balances which have limits on investing and drawing down.  I’ll need to wait until I’m at least 58 to draw down my pension and it may end up being pushed back if the government decides to tweak the laws around pensions.  

In the coming weeks, I may break this down and look at it in much more detail, but that’s a job for next year.

New Year

In the next couple of days I’ll be publishing a bonus post looking back at 2024, and ahead to my 2025 goals.  If you have any goals or resolutions, share them in the comments and we can support each other.  

Disclaimer

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 269: Priorities, Incentives, and Cutting Costs

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.  This week I discuss incentives and priorities at work.  Also, a look back at lifetime contributions to my ISA and pensions.  There are some frustrating updates on the job front for our household and a few thoughts on Christmas.

Weekly Update

A Very Covid Christmas

I think I’ve had Covid this week, which has sucked.  I’ve been coughing through the day and then waking myself up coughing.  As a result of feeling rough, I’ve not done much over the past week but I do have a few things I want to get off my chest.

Our broadband package is due to expire in January.  We are with Hyperoptic who specialise in full fibre broadband in apartment complexes.  Their speeds are great and we typically get 700mbs on wi-fi with upload and download speeds the same.  It’s a good service.  We have been paying £30 per month on a 24-month deal.  The renewal option was to either pay £63 per month on a rolling contract, or £40 per month.  I don’t think a 35% increase is justifiable.  

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The thing about data is that it’s not a finite resource.  We can’t run out of internet.  Once the infrastructure is in place, it’s a case of maintenance, repair, and supervision.  Every time the contract is up for renewal we go through the same song and dance, and it’s bullshit.  After several calls and emails, I got them to agree to a lower price.  I just find this whole performance unnecessary.  If the business offered people their “best price” at the outset, they wouldn’t have to spend as much money hiring staff to haggle with frustrated customers.

Anyway, I got a slightly lower price and it’s sorted for the next two years.  Except for their renewal process, I find Hyperoptic pretty good.  Their service is stable, and their tech support is generally helpful as well.  I could just do without the nonsense that comes with renewing my deal.

On the subject of bullshit, I have something to discuss which infuriated me this week.

More Job Nonsense

I have mentioned previously that Oana is due to start a new job in January with Aviva.  I used to work for Aviva, almost twenty years ago, and I had a great experience.  Oana has not.  I think it’s necessary to give a little context here.  Oana’s full name is Oana Scothern.  We are not married, but a  few months ago she changed her first and last name.  Before this, it was Ioana Sache.  All of her previous employments have been under Ioana Sache.

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Oana has been going through the vetting and referencing process for the Aviva job, and they have been using a third party, Reed, to complete this task.  Here is, in bullet point form, the utter ridiculousness of what has transpired.

This is how it went down…

Oana: *completes the referencing questionnaire, providing details of previous employment and her name change history.  Also provided, an address history covering the last five years (we have lived in our apartment for over 12 years now).*

Reed: Have you changed your address in the last five years?

Oana: As per the information provided, no.  I’ve been living here for over 12 years.

Reed: We need your employment history.

Oana: I’ve provided it already.

Reed: We need your HMRC employment record.

Oana: *provides record*

Reed: There’s an employment here you didn’t disclose.

Oana: *panics then realises* Oh, sorry that was a genuine error on my part.  That was fifteen hours of work across three days for a business around the corner.  I’d honestly forgotten about it.

Reed: We need reference details for that job.

Oana: Ok, here you go.

Reed: They don’t have any record of Oana Scothern working for them.

Oana: *exasperated as she’s already told them about her change of name earlier in the process*

Reed: We need your HMRC employment record.

Oana: You already have it.  That record is what highlighted this job we’re now discussing. 

After a few days of radio silence, Oana receives a phone call from Aviva withdrawing their job offer because of a “third party reference” but they would not provide any further detail.

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It gets worse…

Whilst all this was happening, the Aviva HR team was not covering themselves in glory either.  They sent a contract to Oana with incorrect information on it, and when it came to talking about DSE requirements the whole thing went from frustrating to absurd.  

Oana was due to have a call to discuss any DSE requirements but this was put back and ended up being scheduled for the day after Aviva withdrew their offer.  Oana and I joked that Aviva would probably still end up calling, and we were correct.  A day after withdrawing their offer, they called her to discuss her DSE requirements.  

We understand that the missing job was an issue, but it was three partial days of work to help a local business with some admin.  They offered Oana a permanent job but she turned it down.  It’s not like she had withheld information about a long-term job.  It was a genuine mistake.  On the other hand, the vetting process was ridiculous, with them asking for the same information over and over again.  I think this is a bullet dodged, but it’s back to the drawing board for Oana.

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My job search…

I formally turned down the job I was offered.  It all boils down to the training.  It would be several days in which I’ll be away from home for at least 14 hours each day, and that’s just not possible right now.  I’m very reluctant to spread myself too thin.  

With Christmas and the New Year approaching I don’t think anything of note will happen with our job search until 2025.  This is my first time seriously looking for a new job in over a decade and I’m astounded by the incompetence on display and it all seems to stem from a lack of continuity and work ownership. 

The company that I just turned down was the opposite, with one person acting as a point of contact with me. This meant the process was consistent and I did not have to repeat myself.

Cutting Costs

I’ve never understood the constant drive to cut costs from businesses with no regard to context.  It’s like many of the big department stores that cut staff numbers to reduce costs. It reduced the wage bill, but then there was no one to take money from customers.  I lost count of how many times I went to John Lewis, or Debenhams, and walked out because there were no staff to assist.  If you want to sell to people, you have to have the means to sell.  

Contracting off-shore…

I’ve seen this with many previous employers that have contracted out their back office work to countries with lower wages.  Generally, because of language barriers and cultural differences, mistakes are made or explanations have to be provided for things that would normally be obvious.  For example…

Most people above a certain age in the UK would understand what the entry “profit share” on a payslip means.  However, having to explain this to someone halfway around the world who is not working in their first language is always going to be difficult and time-consuming, in the same way that I would struggle to understand some terms translated from Thai, or Japanese, for example.  The business might be paying less money out on wages, but is the saving a saving when you factor in duplicated work, mistakes, and the impact on the customer of delays and poor service in general?  It’s damaging to the brand.  

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I don’t think I’m asking for much when I expect people, and businesses, to get simple things right most of the time.  Yes, mistakes are made from time to time, but it seems to be the rule rather than the exception now.

Christmas

As this is the last post before Christmas I figured it was the right time to share my opinion on it.  Christmas is annoying.  There are things I like about this time of year, such as good food, good company, spending time with loved ones, and so on.  None of these things are exclusive to Christmas though; they can be done at any time.  What’s annoying is the commercialisation of Christmas and the societal pressure to experience Christmas in a certain way.  Although it’s not as bad as it was when I was younger, it still seems to confuse some people that we don’t drink alcohol, or enjoy things like mince pies or Christmas pudding.  

Another part of Christmas that I find insufferable is the music.  Many of the “traditional” songs are, in my opinion, utter trash. Yet people seem doggedly determined to perform the usual Christmas rituals, and in that spirit, I’ll list the twelve points that frustrate me the most.

Excessive Drinking

Christmas parties and family gatherings often turn into an excuse for excessive drinking. Festive cheer can quickly spiral into awkward confrontations or regrettable moments.  I’m not generally a fan of alcohol.  I’ve had it before and enjoyed it, but all too often people get carried away and don’t know when to stop.  It feels as though Christmas is just an excuse for people to get wasted, which leads to arguments and bad decision-making.

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Overspending

People feel pressured to buy extravagant gifts, often racking up debt just to meet societal or familial expectations. January’s credit card bill brings more stress than joy, and these financial pressures can last until the following Christmas when the cycle repeats itself.  

Forced Family Gatherings

Obligatory get-togethers with relatives you see once a year can feel more like a chore than a celebration. These gatherings often lead to tension and arguments.  Just because someone shares a family name or other relation, it doesn’t obligate them to anything.  Family is about relationships and how people value and respect each other.  It’s not simply genetics.  

Overeating

Christmas indulgence frequently turns into an outright binge, leaving people feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and guilty about their health choices.  I’m not talking about people who eat a little more or treat themselves to a few luxuries.  I’m talking about over-the-top binges which go beyond enjoyment. The mental toll of excessive consumption, and the physical effects it has on weight, blood sugar, and digestion are not good.

Awkward Secret Santa Exchanges

Participating in Secret Santa at work or with distant family often results in either cheap, pointless gifts or stressful guesswork about what someone might like.  I remember witnessing a particularly awkward Secret Santa when one guy got the wrong idea and bought a female colleague an inappropriate gift.  The forced participation aspect can feel, well, forced as well.  I’ve been lucky enough to work in some great teams in the last few years with colleagues I’ve liked and respected.  Buying a gift for them is fine, and I’m happy to take part.  When you find yourself in a team that is not so positive, it’s hard to say no without making yourself seem like an asshole.

Tacky Decorations

From overly bright inflatable lawn Santas to garish flashing lights, some decorations feel more like a contest for attention than a celebration of the season.  Creative and amusing decorations can be fun, but spending money on cheap plastic rubbish is harmful to the environment, and a waste of resources.

Office Party Faux Pas

The annual Christmas office party is fertile ground for embarrassing moments, like bad karaoke, awkward flirting, or saying something you regret to your boss.  I could tell a few stories from my past but as this is not an anonymous blog I think I’ll keep those secrets.  Much like the warning police give when arresting someone, anything you say at these parties can, and will, be used against you in the court of public opinion. 

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Rushed, Obligatory Charity

Christmas sparks a wave of “guilt giving,” where people donate or volunteer for the season but fail to engage with causes consistently throughout the year.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for charitable giving but not all charities are as altruistic as you’d think.

Overhyped Commercials

Every year, companies spend millions on emotional Christmas adverts designed to guilt consumers into spending even more. These ads often feel more manipulative than normal.  Some adverts, like the John Lewis Christmas one, have become events in their own right.  It’s all bullshit, and I’d be more likely to shop with them if they released an ad on a simple background stating they’ve donated a few million to a good charity instead of spending on a flashy ad.  They could even do some sort of donation matching thing, where each £1 spent on certain ranges results in a donation to a specific charity.  

Unwanted Gifts

The exchange of gifts often leads to receiving items you don’t need or like, creating unnecessary waste or the hassle of returns.  I’ve not done a deep dive on this, but a quick search suggests over £40m of Christmas gifts end up in landfills shortly after the holiday season.

Rigid Traditions

Some families insist on sticking to old traditions, even when they no longer bring joy, simply because “it’s what we’ve always done.”  Just because it’s been done a certain way since Jesus played full-back for Jerusalem F.C. it doesn’t mean it’s still the right, or appropriate, thing to do. 

Last-Minute Frenzy

The last-minute rush to buy gifts, prepare meals, or finish work before the holidays creates unnecessary stress and detracts from the festive spirit.  A typical retail worker will probably work one of, if not both, Christmas Eve and Boxing Day; two of the busiest shopping days of the year.  They then have to put on a brave face of enjoying the day sandwiched in between.  

Our Christmas

Our Christmas is going to be very laid back.  We’re having a curry on Christmas Day for which we can do most of the prep the day before.  We’ll leave some chicken marinating, and make a fresh salad with a lime dressing on the day.  The meal will be served with some rice, and Indian spiced roasted cauliflower.  A nice, simple, tasty meal.  

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We will be joined by my Dad on the 25th, and again on the 26th with my Mom also popping over.  

Oana and I have developed our own Christmas traditions which include watching the movie Four Lions, which we can probably quote every single line from memory, and watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions, obviously).

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a great time.

Christmas for Autistic People

Christmas can be very challenging for autistic people to navigate as it involves many things that are difficult for us to deal with, such as;

Disruption to routine.

Socialising with unfamiliar people.

Different food and drink.

Loud music and conversation.

Invasion of personal space through hugs, kisses, etc.

An expectation to take part in group activities.

Sensory overload with flashing lights, bangs from balloons and crackers, competing noises and smells, and different tasting food and drink.

The chances are that everyone reading this post has someone in their social circle who is neurodivergent.  Christmas is supposed to be a time for everyone to relax and enjoy themselves, but what this looks like can be very different from one person to another.  Think about the people in your life, and try to remember they will all have different tolerances, preferences, and limits for what they can handle.  Just try to accept that if someone doesn’t want to eat a specific food, or take part in a specific activity, that’s their choice.  Making a big deal out of it does not benefit anyone.

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Letters to Oana

Part 2 of the series Letters to Oana is now live, and Part 3 is in progress.  

Looking Back

Parts 18, 19, 20, and 21 of the Looking Back series are also live.

What I’m Doing

Listening: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

Watching: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Support Mortgage Advisor on FIRE

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £30,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £89,017.51.

Fuck It Fund: £9,036.79.

Pensions: £89,516.80.

Residential Property Value: £237,447.00. 

Total Assets: £455,018.10.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £184,783.09. 

Total Debts: £184,783.09.

Total Wealth: £270,235.01.

I had my final pay from my old employer, including the package to end my employment.  Some of that money was put to use in our apartment and to pay towards upcoming holidays.  I also lent someone a couple of grand, but I know where they live and I know they’ll pay me back.  I’ve put some in my pension, yet the market seems to have dropped which has wiped away that value.  I’ve also topped up my Premium Bonds and Fuck It Fund.  When the new tax year starts I’ll be able to invest in my ISA again.  All in all, I’m left with a few thousand that I’ve not spent or invested yet.  I’m in no immediate rush, and with Oana and I not working, it’s probably wise to keep some funds in reserve.

Peak Wealth

In Week 247 my Total Wealth figure stood at £281,315.04, which is the highest it’s been since I started this whole thing.  From that point, I had to cash in some investments, and I also sold the BTL property.  In recent weeks my wealth has been increasing again and I’m not that far away from hitting a new high.  It’s exciting times and I’m just willing the figure to break through £300,000.  It’s all psychological, I know.  However, there’s a nice buzz that comes from going up a digit.  

Lifetime investment contributions

I was chatting to a friend who is also following a FI plan, and they had worked out how much they’d invested into their ISA and pensions to see what growth they’d had over the lifetime of their investments.   So, I did the same.  It was interesting to discover that I’ve invested a total of £57,998.38 into my pension, and with the current value of £89,516.80, I’ve experienced growth of over 50%.  

For my ISA I’ve invested a total of £98,300 and the current value is £89,017.51.  It’s important to note these figures do not include the amounts I’ve withdrawn from the ISA along the way, which total: £28,186.32.  So, the true growth is from £98,300 to £117,203.83; an increase of 19.2%.  

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The ISA figures are disappointing but not surprising.  For the first couple of years of investing, before I got serious and started this blog, my approach was unfocused and ill-advised.  I’m confident the rate of growth will look much better over the next few years.  The growth of my ISA has also made me reflect on whether I should stick with my current provider, or switch one with lower fees.  I like the interface and app with my account now, but I need to decide if it’s worth the difference in fees.

Incentives and Priorities

If you make everything a priority, then nothing is a priority.  This is something I’ve come up against in several jobs, as so many employers are reactive rather than proactive.  Focus changes from one thing to another at the drop of a hat, meaning that employees are left none the wiser as to what the actual priority should be.  It’s worse when different areas of the same business argue for priorities that contradict each other.  

Both Sam Altman and Steve Jobs have cautioned that employers need to be very careful with the incentives they offer.  If you promote a target, priority, or expectation, you might not get the behaviour you were hoping for.  Let me give an example…

You are working in a call centre and you are told that the priority is to minimise the time you are not on a call or available to take a call.  Essentially, you need to minimise your “wrap time”.  The behaviour that the company would like to encourage is the quick, efficient, wrapping up of the after-call work, such as notes, emails, and so on.  This is not what happens.  

Behaviours and expectations…

When a call centre sets this kind of target, call times get longer because staff learn to do their after-call work with the customer on the phone, meaning that their wrap time becomes shorter.  It’s utter nonsense and it’s easy to see why.

Assume you were on a call for twenty minutes, and it would normally result in ten minutes of work following the call.  That’s thirty minutes total in which you are not available to take another call as you can only speak to one person at a time.  If you prioritise reducing after-call work times, then the employee will keep the customer on the call for longer while they complete their notes, emails, and so on.  The result; a thirty-minute call, followed by a few minutes of wrap time.  In the second instance, the wrap time is lower but the expected impact is not produced.  Rather than that colleague being tied up for just thirty minutes, they may be tied up for forty minutes; thirty on the call and ten minutes after, for which they pat themselves on the back for halving their wrap time.

Employees are not generally stupid people.  They are often treated badly, demotivated, and sick of dealing with crap from higher management, like targets that make no sense.

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Another example…

Let’s take another example, this time selling insurance.  There are three phases to this; discussion, quote, and sale, and it’s easier to think of these three phases as filters. 

In the first instance, you would expect to discuss it with 100% of your customers.  It’s unrealistic to expect 100% of your customers to need insurance, and it’s not appropriate to sell something to a person who doesn’t need it.  After all, you would not sell building insurance to someone who had a block policy for an apartment.  So, this is your first filter.  If you accept the fact that not everyone needs insurance, then it stands to reason that some people will drop off at this first filter once you’ve discussed it with them.

Moving on to the second filter, you will have some people that are interested in getting a quote, and some people who will refuse for whatever reason. Forcing people to get a quote for insurance on a product they are purchasing is pointless, and wrong.  If they aren’t interested then no one is benefiting from the discussion.  The customer isn’t, and you are reducing your credibility in their eyes.  It’s damaging to the brand. 

Texas Sharpshooter

But say you force them to have a quote to bump up the figures so that you can proudly proclaim you quoted 80% of the customers you spoke with; so what? Has that; generated any business? Improved the image of the company? Or improved the reputation of the employee?  Has it improved the feelings of the colleague to their employer?  It’s just the Texas Sharpshooter all over again.  You shoot a load of holes in a wall, then draw your bullseye around each one.  Your accuracy figures will look fantastic.  

If you are trying to avoid a sales target by incentivising the prior step, it’s not going to work.  Workers always find a way.

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

– Bill Gates

Sales

This brings us to sales.  If a business has set an expectation that their staff should quote as many people as possible, but also sell as much as possible, then the two are at odds.  If you insist on quoting a customer who isn’t interested in the product, that is time wasted that could have been spent quoting an interested customer who might actually buy.   

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10 sales from 15 quotes is the same money generated as the same 10 sales from 30 quotes.  Which is more efficient though?  Which generates more income per unit of time worked?

Busy work is the worst kind of work.  No one benefits.  

That’s me done for this post, and thank you, as always, for reading.  I hope you have a great Christmas.  Check back next week for my year in review and look ahead to 2025.

Disclaimer

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

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

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.