I am in dire need of a holiday.
I’ve not been able to book my annual leave as been trying to sort out the best time to see my family and seems like that won’t be til later in the year.
As it is, I am currently covering for my colleague’s annual leave and shortly after, my boss will be on her holidays. The August bank holiday weekend can’t come soon enough.
I know I have always said to myself that I shan’t sacrifice my social life in the pursuit of FIRE but I think I might need to start cutting back. Not just from a finance point of view (although it is bloody expensive going out!) but from a sanity perspective.
Last week, I attended the following:
- Weds – Works leaving do, drinks after work
- Thurs – Met up with ex-colleagues, food and drinks after work
- Fri – Met up (again) with fellow FIRE blogger LateStarterFIRE, who was over from Australia, food after work
- Sat – family meal
- Sun – Walk in park with WI ladies
All were very pleasant and yes, I’m glad I went, and while none of them were late or drunken nights, I felt mentally exhausted after it all. Perhaps I just need to ensure I spread these dates out a bit if I am able.
Monevator’s latest post talks about introverts and I think I have become more introverted over time (with lockdown helping things along). As I mentioned in my reply to that article, a very quiet weekend might have me just talking to no one but Alexa and I’m fine with that!
I have been so glad that the Olympics have been on so that I have been able to disengage my brain and just lose myself watching supreme athletes do what they do best.
Anyway, how did my numbers look for July?
I saved 22% of my net salary. The above includes £67.94 from doing Prolific surveys.
Shares and Investment Trusts
I offloaded ADIG (abrdn Diversified Income and Growth plc) for a loss and spread the funds across other investment trusts.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future Fund
The rocket continues to blast upwards, but with the bottom dropping out of the market these past few days, the picture will look rather different when I do my August update! At the end of July, my Future Fund was up, at £280,398.75.
Dividends and Other Income
An average month for dividend income:
I received £374.93, of which £271.64 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs. All dividends were reinvested.
Here’s what my ISA dividend income graph looks like:
I’ve added the annual target of £4.3k and seven months in, I think I’m on track.
Goals Update
What about the other goals?
Live sport on tv continues to impact my reading goal but that’s ok.
What’s Brewing?
During one of the recent work’s outings, so enthusiastic was I when the discussion turned to home brewing beer that I’ve managed to persuade myself to come out of homebrewing “retirement” – I can’t believe the last time I brewed a batch was in 2018!
I think I stopped as my sister and nephew moved in with me but there was no real reason for me to not take it up again when they moved out…except now, I don’t have as much space as I did in the other house!
The homebrewing market has changed so much since then, there’s a lot more to choose from. No longer a cheap hobby though, the price of the old starter kit and accessories I bought in 2014 has doubled in price, so a good job I kept it all!
Wasn’t sure I’d be up for brewing 40 pints/22 litres after so long in the wilderness, so I’m aiming for a small batch of around 5 litres (still had to splash out on some bits of kit for smaller volume) and will see how that goes. I shall no doubt post about the (hopefully good) results when the time comes and hope I haven’t lost my brewing mojo!
Hope you all had a great flaming July!
Hi Weenie,
I think its a “change of scenery” thing. I am feeling it too at the moment. Watching the Olympics has been my saviour, watching their enthusiasm and positivity – I am hoping it will rub off onto me. I have lost my mojo a bit this month.
There is a bit of doom and gloom hanging over the country and the market turmoil does not help but the stock market is guaranteed to go down as much as it is up. Its another buying opportunity, stocks on sale. Your future fund is growing and the rocket is heading upwards which is a good thing.
I have not had a summer holiday this year. The idea was to do one over night every month in new places – but with the weather being so bad it just has not happened every month. I do have something booked this month and next so need to just try and keep myself motivated. Just having a day away from my day-to-day environment seems to perk me up.
.
Next year I will book a summer holiday as I have missed that 2 week break somewhere different. A complete change of environment is part of the joy.
I am struggling to keep myself active and finding it hard to get my fitness back after a break from exercise (due to illness and bad weather). I will get there, I am expecting too much, too soon.
I am sure you will feel positive when you get your family holiday booked and you have your first home brew ready!
Have a good August and hope you find your mojo by the end of the month.
Hi Sparklebee
Fortunately, I’m largely unaffected by the doom and gloom hanging over the country, or rather I’m not letting it affect me. What I appear to be lacking in is surplus energy (mostly of the mental kind) so I have enjoyed the Olympics, showcasing people with boundless energy!
The stock market going down hasn’t cancelled out all the gains I got in July so still making steps forwards overall.
I have now got my holidays booked in November and it’s some weight off my shoulders that I have something look forward to. What I’m not looking forward to is stressing over work before I leave!
Thanks for the support and hope you get your mojo back too!
Hi Weenie 🙂
I hear you re going out and the expense on all fronts. Also being the same age and at the same “lady life stages” I totally get the utter exhaustion after a full week of work. I have very little mental capacity for anything outside of it, which seems to have accelerated over the last 3 years. I stopped the majority of “paid socials” some time ago a) it’s expensive b) I want to get to FIRE quicker (thanks Menopause) and c) I don’t need to go out in the same way anymore when there is a better way to organise my life. Like you, exercise is really important to me and another thing to “fit in”, so I pretty much conduct all my social catchups either on my mountain bike or hiking/walking. I caught up with a girl-friend on Saturday and we did a 10 miles walk and took sandwiches. Kills a lot of birds (I love birds!) with one stone. Zero expense, exercise and totally clears my mind which is frankly destroyed after work! I go out for dinner or a gig etc maybe once a month on average and stopped drinking quite some time ago (I used to be a lot of fun at parties honest!) so I’m not interested in pub culture anymore. But… I don’t feel I’m missing out at all and love the Great Outdoors, it’s so cathartic.
In another money saving exercise I managed to blag my way onto Glastonbury crew this year and got into that free too!
Hey Starla
Had put down my recent exhaustion to just me needing a break and a holiday but of course, can’t discount the peri-menopause doing it’s thing! You are so right about not having the mental capacity – my work seems to feel a lot harder these days, I don’t feel like I’m as good coping with stress as I used to. I am still engaged with my work and the company but things are starting to fray a little round the edges.
I think I will have to make myself say no to the work things, harder to turn down the social events with my friends but yes, maybe need to consider some cheaper alternatives!
Well done on that Glasto blag – brilliant!
“talking to no one but Alexa”
Buy some Meta Raybans and you can talk to Meta too. You are instructed to address the goddess with “Hey Meta”, as in “Hey Meta, play me some Beethoven sonatas”. Judging by my experience with Alexa it may drag out the worst Beethoven recordings in history.
So this time I asked for a specific recording (Fats Waller’s Keeping Out of Mischief Now). And jolly good it was too. Next time, though, I’ll start with “Heil Meta” which seems more in the spirit of the thing.
I don’t ask my Alexa anything more complicated than, ‘what’s the weather?’, turning the lights or tv on/off and to remind me to do things.
I hope you manage to sort and arrange your holiday soon weenie. That will be something nice to look forward to. Looking at my expenses over the past few months, my going out category has been rising that’s for sure. I need to pull mine back a little and have a few nights drinking in instead of going out drinking. My partner just wants to go out and dance! Going out is certainly where I have noticed the inflation increases myself personally. I need to stay in a little more too!
It’s great to see the markets doing well and you hitting above £280,000. That’s superb .
TFJ
Hi TFJ
I have something booked now, so something to look forward to/stress about!
Going out is expensive (average decent pint is around £7), yet when I go out in Manchester, all the bars and restaurants are full and busy, which seems to be in contradiction to the bleak picture shown in the press about everyone in cost of living crisis. Surely those people out having a good time are not all spending on credit cards?
Sadly, I didn’t stay at £280k but hope to be back there and above soon!