Thought I’d get this interim post off before the festive shenanigans are in full swing and I don’t find the time to post.
The full December update will include my progress over 2024, how I did versus my goals and if Santa continues to be mean and not generously turn up for a rally before the end of the year! I’ll then be setting some new goals for 2025.
So in brief:
Work Stuff
The work’s Christmas party was a good one and a big one – lots of people from our various offices around Europe attended.
Spent some quality time getting to know my boss (only the 3rd time we’ve in person) so that was nice. She thought I was only a few years older than her (she’s 39) so she’s my favourite boss already, haha!
I had planned to have my dancing shoes on that night, but in the end, was barely on the dancefloor as spent the evening just chatting to different people! Actually not chatting, but shouting as the music was so loud!
I had to be physically in the office the following day as boss wanted face to face catch up on work – somehow I managed to drag myself in and was minus my voice! Took the rest of the weekend to recover from those efforts, haha!
Mortgage
Received another letter from my lender advising that my mortgage interest rate will be dropping in the new year, down to 4.8%.
I’ll stick the extra in my overpayments for now.
Mortgage interest rates are never going to be as low as they were a few years ago so am happy for any small reduction I can get.
It will be interesting to see what rates will be at in a year’s time, when my current deal runs out.
Other Stuff
It’s the 23rd as I write this and I’ve already had four ‘Christmas’ lunches – I’ve tried to vary the meat so it’s not turkey every time (not my favourite meat).
Planning a gym session tonight and then back on it again at the weekend after the two big days of eating and drinking.
My wrist is pretty much healed up after the sprain, although having to still use a wrist support for certain weight training exercises; I do plan to wean myself off that though as don’t want to be reliant on the support.
However, I now don’t know if the aches I occasionally feel are from the injury, or if they’ve always been there (old age…) and I’ve just not really noticed before?
I don’t want to rush back to my old weights for fear of injury, but feel like it will be a slog getting back to where I was before. That’s if I can go back to those weights, I feel like part of my weight loss may have been due to muscle loss. Looking at my diet these past couple of weeks, I’m mostly vegetarian during the week, so I probably need to up my protein to build/ preserve muscle mass. I will make my kefir smoothies more protein-packed.
Outdoors stuff
I’ve barely ventured out into my garden since my return from my hols so am looking forward to doing a bit of winter gardening, pruning, tidying up etc. Everything just looks really sad right now.
This will get me out of the house, otherwise I will just vegetate on the sofa watching tv!
Also need to resume my local litter picking – not been able to do that in a while, as the rubbish bag would have been too heavy for my recovering wrist to handle.
Young Uns
I was round at my sister’s a few weeks ago and after our evening meal, talk turned to retirement.
Did I mention that my sister is on countdown to early retirement? Just 6-7 more months of working and she’s already told work – I’m not jealous….much!
Anyway, Sis mentioned that by the time my nephew came to retire, the state pension age would probably be at least 75 and I laughed and said he’d probably do really well for himself and retire early.
“What, you mean FIRE?” he piped up. “Financial Independence…”
“…Retire Early,” I finished for him, trying to hide a wide range of emotions from my face.
I asked him how he had heard of it and what he thought of it. He said he’d come across it while he was looking into investing (he’s 17) and that he thought it was good idea.
He’s already read ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ (picked it off my shelf when he and Sis were living with me).
I don’t think there’s any need to worry about the personal financial future of the lad, he appears to have his head screwed on right!
And on that note…
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year – eat, drink and be merry!
Congrats on your fund increase, Weenie. Let’s hope Trump and his shenanigans don’t affect our FFs too much…
The countdown to FIREing starts for me in January. The door will open in June. Decision time por moi! :||
Thanks for your posts and insights over the past year; and years. As usual, easy to read and understand – and enjoyable! Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thanks Chromebaby and hope you had a great Christmas and NY!
Thanks for reading and all the best with your countdown to FIRE! How exciting!
Hi Weenie,
Tough one with the weights. Once you stop, it takes a while to get back to where you were, but at the same time you don’t want to potentially mess up your wrist. I’d start at super low barely worth doing weight and build up providing it doesn’t hurt. When I started running (at 54!) something new would hurt each week, so I stopped, even if frustratingly it was for months, until completely healed before stating again.
I need to take a leaf out of your book and get on the exercise again, this refurb totally knocked my routine.
Younger generations have a lot of advantages we don’t with FIRE. I lost decades by being clueless as the info wasn’t as easily accessible, known or even a popular concept as it is now. Go for it Weenies Nephew.
Thanks for all the chat, musings and inspiration in 2024 and here comes 2025, another year closer to FIRE. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year
Hey Starla
Gym on NYE had me lifting slightly heavier weights so am happy I made a little progress there! Will go again tomorrow to get the ball rolling on 2025 fitness.
Well done you on starting running, it’s not something I enjoy doing, although a friend of mine has just run her first marathon at age 55.
Hope you had a great Christmas and all the best for 2025!
Hey weenie. Thanks for the update. That’s very interesting about the young lad mentioning FIRE. I have yet to hear anyone else I know speak about it personally apart from the very few I have told about it.
Good you got to see your boss and yeah that’s a good compliment indeed. Hope you have a great Christmas, be merry and have fun! Happy new year too.
TFJ
Cheers TFJ and hope you had a great Christmas and NY!
Merry Christmas, Weenie.
About turkey; I recommend goose.
Cheers dearieme, hope you had a good one and a happy NY.
Goose is nice, been a while since we had that! Will try to remember next time, cheers!
Merry Christmas, your sis is a lucky one early retirement, am jealous
Cheers Sean, hope you had a great Christmas and NY! Yes, at some point, her smugness is going to get to me, haha!