Life Update

Howdy folks! Another day, another month zooms on by.

It’s been absolute madness moving into 2022, just so much is currently going on at the moment I’m finding hard to get the time to dedicate towards the FIRE blog.

In January we’ve had 69 meeting requests from potential buyers to buy the business. It has absolutely exploded recently with interest and we’re doing back to back meetings.

On a personal level, we’re getting lots of housey bits done from wiring up the shed with electricity, to new electric car charging point installed and a new driveway (coming end of February), I also have a large tax bill looming over me (to be paid in February).

Financial Update | January 2022

So how have those financials been looking for the month of September?

Income | £6,951

Income has continued to relatively stable and averaging around £8,000 per month.

Expenses | £2,998

My expenses are really starting to level out now with home working / getting into a routine. From food deliveries to meal planning, to regular tax bill savings, it feels like I’m starting to see a much more stable level of expenses over the last few months.

Savings | £4,025

Equalling a savings rate of 58% – Ooof – just a little below the ‘60%’ mark that I’m focusing on achieving. We all have our savings goals and rates that we are all comfortable with and we are all in different positions with income / work wise – I’m dedicated in trying to achieve 60%+ for myself. Still, I’m super chuffed given the tax bill and various home improvement costs that I’m pushed ahead with.

Investment Growth | –£9,093

Yikes, the markets have been a bit all over the place recently. To be quite frank, I have very little understanding of why – I hear of ‘inflation woes’ and ‘Ukraine’ worries, but ultimately I’ll continue to stick by my original thought process and that is to keep calm and carry on. Saving £4,000 and returning -£9,000 seems when broken down in that way really does seem like it’s a completely daft investment! But given the index fund I’m in is spread out over 8,000+ stocks proportionately weighted by industries and countries, I’m sticking to my guns and keeping calm and carrying on.

Investment Graph

Ending

February is quite an exciting month for me because it’s the start of growing some vegetables in the greenhouse and the up and coming mad months where I’m sowing seeds most days! Always looking forward to the growing season and especially when Spring is just around the corner (favourite season of the year).

I’m continuing to stick to a low carb / keto based lifestyle. It works so well for me and I’m continuing to hold / maintain a weight loss of almost 30kg compared to this time last year. I’m eating solely organic now, I meal plan on a Sunday and write down all of the various meals I’m having. Asda now have a good range of organic produce (not everything you can buy is organic, but majority of veg I consume definitely is).

This year will most likely be a ‘family planning’ year for me and my partner so we’ve got a few housey bits to get sorted. We’re looking to install a garden office so we can separate work from one of the spare bedrooms into the garden. Something along the lines of this is what we’re thinking – fully insulated, secure but instead of timber cladding we’ll be going for a ‘stone’ type clad (half brick).

We’ve been quoted roughly anywhere from £20,000 – £25,000. It’ll be worth it (we believe) as we can separate work from the house, I can also have a bit of an excuse for a ‘man cave’ type setup in there, and it frees up a bedroom. The cost is a little daunting, but think it’s going to be worth it in the end.

That’s all folks! Hope you’re all keeping well / FIRE savings are going well your end.