3 Years!

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This month marks THREE years since I started blogging about my journey to financial independence/Retiring Early!

Happy 3rd birthday to Quietly Saving! 🙂

Back Then

Although my first post on this blog was in April 2014, I had made a note of my finances in March – my starting or pre-FI plan numbers!

Here’s the comparison between my starting numbers and my most recent update:

  • March 2014 – Future Fund: £30,075
    March 2017 – Future Fund: £100,442
  • March 2014 – Net Worth: £74,595
    March 2017 – Net Worth: £171,208

The increases are largely due to new capital being chucked in every month, although I have also been lucky with investment gains from the favourable stock markets these past three years. My property has also seen a surprising 26% increase in value (I know…outside London!), which has helped bump up my net worth.

I’ve aimed to save/invest as much of my net salary as possible (averaging around 40-45%), and also put away income generated from extra curricular activities, such as cashback, gambling winnings, matched betting and other online activities.

As I’m currently unemployed, the income from these extra curricular activities or side hustles will play a vital part in keeping the investment ‘snowball‘ rolling as it were. I’ll also continue to reinvest any dividends/interest I receive.

Courtesy of http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes

Thank You

A big thanks to all who take the time to read this humble little blog – it’s a great incentive to me to know that people have a passing interest in what I have to say about my little journey and I love to read your comments and private emails. Thank you very much for helping me remain accountable, giving me encouragement and ideas, and helping me stick to my plan and aim for my goals!

Next Chapter

The last three years documented what I was able to achieve on an average salary, working for a company I’d been with for over 20 years. Anything I write now will be part of the next chapter of my life, including how I’ll get on whilst not employed and what happens with my next job.

I can say that my plan for FIRE is still very much on, just suffering from a slight hiccup but certainly not dead and buried!  🙂

And on that note, I hope you all have a great Easter!

40 thoughts on “3 Years!”

  1. Happy Birthday QuietlySaving! 🙂

    That is a huge amount of progress over just three short years – 70k on the future fund and the best part of 100k on networth! Just shows what the regular savings with a good savings rate can achieve – miracles!

    Keep up the good work, and here’s to the next 3 (and more hopefully!) years, looking forward to seeing how the next chapter pans out!
    FiL

    • Thanks FiL and yes, great progress on both fronts! It’s hard to see actual progress made month on month but certainly when you compare it by years, I can see I’ve come quite a way already! Thanks for your continued support, much appreciated.

      • Hi Weenie,
        As you say – tracking month to month doesn’t feel like you are making that much progress when you think of an extra £1,000 or so here and there when you are needing hundreds of those thousands, so it is important to take a step back and see the progress.

        That snowball is only going to get bigger, the dividends keep growing and the fund accelerates away!

        Just remember it is the journey as much that matters, so don’t spend too long in front of the computer crunching numbers and worrying, enjoy life as it is as well (but cost effectively :))

        Keep up the great work!
        FiL

  3. Many congratulations on the 3 year blog’o’versary weenie. Long may it continue as I look forward to seeing you pass the FIRE line.

    This post has made me realise that I’ve now been blogging about my FIRE journey for over 7 years. While it’s certainly kept me accountable it’s also enabled me to learn an incredible amount from the awesome FIRE community. Pleasingly that now includes plenty of UK based bloggers like your good self. I’d recommend it to anyone.

    • Thank RIT. Like you, I have learned a hug amount from the awesome FIRE community and I include your blog in there as it was your investment numbers which I saw back in 2014 that set me crunching my own! Thanks for the inspiration, especially as you are pretty much crossing your finish line!

  4. Congratulations Weenie! These kind of comparisons provide motivation for us to keep going, because the small incremental changes every month make me feel like nothing is happening.

    Happy 3 year blog-o-versary.

    • Thanks Mrs ETT. Agree, it’s hard to see what’s going on month on month but when you can start comparing year on year, that’s where you can see progress. Keep at it with your goals, I’m cheering from the other side of the world for you! 🙂

    • Thanks Felice. Whilst I don’t mind getting some extra cash from side hustles (mostly matched betting in my case), I’ve no desire to earn my main wage/salary by being my own boss. Throughout my entire career, I have not minded working for ‘The Man’ or ‘The Woman’ – when it did bother me, I moved onto another role to work for some other Man or Woman. That said, I have no idea if setting up my own business will be something to consider when I go into early or semi-retirement. Never say never anyway!

  6. What an amazing progress in the last three years! 🙂 I enjoyed reading the blog ever since I stumbled across it from other FIRE blogs. 🙂

    Looking forward to what you will be saying for next few years. 🙂 It is never boring.

    • Thanks JoeCrystal – I hope I’ll be able to keep readers interested in my journey over the coming years, thanks for stopping by!

  7. Hi Weenie

    Congratulations on three years of blogging, I admire how you keep growing your Future Fund, and keep on posting. It’s also great that you are positive about your current job position.

    I hope you can continue to invest from your “side hustles”, and show people how someone who is on an average salary can save a great chunk of their income, contrary to the popular belief that you have to be on a great salary to build up a retirement pot.

    I look forward to following your progress, and wish you much luck in finding a rewarding job that can allow you to continue for the next three years and more in the same vein as the last three

    Best Wishes
    FIUK

    • Thanks FIUK. Updating my Future Fund means I continue to be focused on my goal – I know I would have less incentive to track my finances if I didn’t blog.

      I hope to continue to invest during my current job predicament – the side hustles will be playing an important part during this accumulation phase.

      Thanks to your blog and others, I continue to be inspired, especially as you have now ‘pulled the FIRE trigger’ yourself – your ‘number’ is also one which I consider to be within reach of us ‘average’ wage earners.

      Thanks for your continued support.

  8. Congratulations, not many blogs make it to the three year mark of the millions that set off every year. 🙂

    Good progress on the funds, too. Hopefully your job situation will firm up soon.

    Was just thinking, you’re going to have to redo your logo soon for the new £1 coin!

    • Thanks TI. My main investment strategy (ie the trackers) is based on portfolio 9 from TA’s ‘Lazy Portfolios for UK Passive Investors, ie the “Tim Hale Home Bias – Global Style Tilts 4 Portfolio” – I just tweaked the percentages to have less in bonds but anyway, thanks to Monevator for contributing to the good progress of my portfolio! 🙂

      And thanks for reminding me about the logo – will get it sorted asap!

  10. Congratulations on the first three years! Amazing progress 🙂 I am three months in, so I am excited to see how things will look in three years.

    Onwards,
    Carl

  11. Wow really inspiring seeing how much your wealth has propelled over 3 years !

    Looking forward to following the next 3, Hope you had a great Easter !

    TwentytoWealthy

    • Thanks TwentytoWealthy – yes, as mentioned earlier, month on month, it’s not easy to see the progress I’ve made but compare it year on year and I can see how far I’ve come. Good luck with your journey and hope you’re having a great Easter too!

  13. 3 year anniversary, congrats! Very impressed seeing the increased sums you have saved, also your average savings rate. Also thanks for your encouraging words along the way, it’s really a great help to the rest of us also working towards similar goals. Looking forward to the next installment!

    • Thanks Sarah – it’s hard to see the progress month on month but year, I can see how far I’ve come and that’s the motivation to keep at it. Good luck with your journey, I will continue to try to encourage and support from the sidelines!

  14. Happy birthday to Quietly saving!
    You’ve made great progress in 3 years, you really are a great example of how much can be acheived with moderate frugality and investments, which should in theory be a life path available to most people if they chose it.

    Cheers to the next 3 years and beyond!

  15. Congratulations on the 3 year mark – this post is a huge inspiration to me, having just started out on my own journey to pay off debt / save more. I look forwarding reading about your next adventure. Good luck with the job hunt!

  16. Congrats on achieving this milestone. As you already know many blogs start but often times they slow or totally stop posting updates. Keep it going.

    • Thanks DivHut. Yes, I’ve seen blogs come and go – the ones which stop updating, I just hope that they’re too busy earning money/getting to FI to blog!

  17. Congrats Weenie!

    Great growth there. It’s good to look back and see where you started as the small updates never really capture what big steps you have made and how the journey is really progressing.

    Good Luck with the job hunting..walking the FIRE path enables you to cope with unemployed periods much easier than someone who had debt mountains and makes you feel pleased with yourself when you know you have the capacity to keep going.

    The right job will appear!

  18. Congratulations on reaching three years!

    I’m reading everything on your blog about matched betting at the moment, hoping to increase my income a little more so I can get our own snowball rolling. Inspiring stuff, so thanks for blogging about it. Always good to see how these things work in real life.

    Good luck with the job hunt.

    • Thanks Steel Kitten – yes, 3 years is a nice little achievement but not a patch on your 10 years!

      As long as I’m still matched betting, I’ll continue to document it so I’m glad you’re finding the posts useful. All the best with building up your own snowball.

  19. Hi Weenie!

    I know I’m late to the party, but a huge congratulations on hitting your 3 year milestone. Keep up the good work.

    OR

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