Seven-Year Itch

Posted on 12th April 2021 by weenie

[From Wikipedia] “The seven-year itch is a popular belief, sometimes quoted as having psychological backing, that happiness in a marriage or long-term romantic relationship declines after around seven years.”

I’m not married, nor currently in a long-term romantic relationship so the itch in my case must refer to my relationship with my blog, which last month unbelievably turned seven years old!

Happy 7th birthday to Quietly Saving! 🙂

So has my happiness (and enthusiasm) declined after 7 years of writing and sharing mutterings about my FIRE journey?

I would say no, not yet anyway!

Seven Year Slog

Let me just start by saying that whilst it hasn’t been particularly difficult, it hasn’t been a breeze aiming for FIRE all these years because it still takes me effort to stay focused, to stay on this path I have chosen.

There are occasions when I feel like I can’t be bothered any more, although perhaps lockdown/the pandemic has probably put these thoughts in my head – my life seemed so much easier when I was just merrily drifting aimlessly with no set goals. But that way points to regret and I would rather not have any regrets.

Whilst I’m no longer the younger me who used to just spend money like there was no tomorrow, if I don’t maintain focus, laziness and apathy will make a reappearance in my life and costs will spiral until I’m no longer saving and investing as much as I am able to towards my future.

Anyway, aiming for FIRE is a long-term slog and the only thing that really keeps me from straying off the path is this blog and the words of support from the readers who take the time to stop by and who inadvertently make me accountable for my actions with their comments and emails.

What have I been doing these past 7 years? Continue reading →

March 2021 Savings, plus other updates

Posted on 2nd April 2021 by weenie

Another month has flown by, our humdrum lives just go on.

I’ve had a more positive outlook this month, with the better weather, brighter days and the prospect of lockdown restrictions being lifted.

Work eased off a little, allowing me to tackle my mountain of boring admin and although I’m still trying to catch up on my blog reading, it’s better than it was before.

A few ‘highlights’ this month:

Had my COVID jab (AstraZeneca) – felt crap for a few days (shivers and aches) but not so bad that I couldn’t work. Thanks go to the volunteers and the nurses at the local medical centre for making the whole process so smooth and easy.
Attended the latest Zoom ‘Manchester’ FIRE meet up. This one had a good presentation by an independent financial adviser on ISAs vs SIPPs, so there were some good discussions.
Started a daily stretching routine – the creaking, popping and cracking sounds emanating from my joints show me that this is long overdue and that I seriously need to keep this up.
Followed this guy on Twitter and got some lighthearted updates on the (now resolved) ‘traffic jam’ on the Suez Canal :

Some Bad News

My boss revealed that she has handed in her notice at work because she has ‘had enough‘ (her words).

No, she hasn’t reached FIRE in her 30s but she has saved enough during the pandemic (built up her FU fund!) to allow her to take a long break from work.

I can’t say that I’m really surprised as there’s been an unreasonable amount of pressure put on her this past year (her boss left and wasn’t replaced) but I’m pretty devastated all the same at the news, as I have a great relationship (work and non-work) with her and we work well together as a team.

My job will become very tough without her having my back and there’s potential here for it to go from something I like doing, to something I don’t like, way before I’m ready to pull the FIRE plug…

Some Good News

The day after my boss announced her impending departure, I was notified that I was to receive a 6% pay rise.

This came as a surprise because 1) I didn’t ask for it and 2) we’d all been told that there was a cap on salary increases this year. Unlike many in the public sector, I don’t get an automatic annual increase in pay (not even 1%), any increase is subject to the whims of the powers that be and partially based on performance (as discussed in my annual work appraisal). Since the former carries more weight, it’s usually a zero increase.

I guess my performance has been good (I did win Employee of the month in August) but perhaps this is just the company not wanting me upping and leaving too. The extra will come in handy with the bills, with my sister moving out next week.

Anyway, how did I get on money-wise in March?

I saved 50.5% of my net salary – continuing with my decent start to the year.

The above savings includes a top up of £55.05 from affiliate income from OddsMonkey* (thank you to all who signed up via my links!).

Shares and Investment Trusts

No new investments, I just topped up existing holdings.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund

Who knows what’s going on with the markets, down one week, up the next.

At the end of the month, my Future Fund jumped up to £227,628, so the rocket is back!

What a difference a year makes

Dividends and Other Income

Another bumper month of dividends:

Continue reading →

Changes and The Psychology of Money

Posted on 28th March 2021 by weenie

Back in August 2019, my blissful bachelorette living situation was turned upside down when my sister and nephew moved in with me following their relocation back to the UK.

I’d been happily living on my own for around 12 years so it was a big change to my life and lifestyle.

Actually, it was a big change for everyone, since the last time us siblings had lived under the same roof, we had been squabbling teenagers.

Anyway, all will be quiet again for me as by the beginning of next month, they will have moved out as my sis has bought a house and I will be all on my own again.

I have mixed feelings about this.

All Change Again

It’s all very well me thinking that I would have been alright during lockdown had I been on my own but the reality is that I’ve been extremely grateful that I had some family around me during the worst of the pandemic, particularly as I’ve been unable to travel to see other members of the family (I last saw my parents and my Gran in summer 2018…).

I believe the COVID situation was made a lot more bearable having others in the house – a couple of my friends who are on their own have really struggled with coping with isolation and are a lot more desperate for things to return to normal.

Anyway, in the same way that I had to prepare myself mentally to live with other people again back in 2019, I will need to prepare myself for living on my own again.

Yes, of course I will miss them and their company, but in a way, I’m also looking forward to being back on my own again, with my own quiet space, doing my own thing.

My sister’s new home is less than 15 mins away in the car so not so far that I can’t just pop round to see them (or vice versa).

I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with, to get to know and to see my nephew mutate from a little boy into a gruff-voiced (though still very chatty) teenager.

I’ll miss my sister’s cooking (I’ll be going round to theirs for the odd Sunday roast!) but also relish going back to cooking for myself again – I have a few more recipes in my personal cookbook now compared to before!

I think the first few nights after they have moved out will feel rather weird.

The Psychology of Money

On an unrelated topic to the above (I’m squashing two draft posts into one), one of my goals this year is to read four non-fiction books – easy for some but not for me as I far prefer to spend my spare time getting lost in fiction.

Anyway, 1 book down, 3 more to go, as I recently read ‘The Psychology of Money‘ by Morgan Hounsel (it was on my Christmas wishlist and a member of my family kindly obliged!).

I thought this book was easy to read and digest, full of interesting stories, anecdotes, wisdom and great advice.

It’s not often that I enjoy reading educational/informative books but I did enjoy this one.

Not all of the stuff was new to me but it was nice to be reminded of it and to re-learn.

I won’t give any spoilers as I’d recommend that people pick it up to read but the chapters intriguingly include:

Luck & Risk: nothing is as good or as bad as it seems
Never Enough: when rich people do crazy things
Confounding Compounding: $81.5 billion of Warren Buffett’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday

The book reminded me that all this FIRE stuff goes far beyond just numbers on my spreadsheets, because us humans are such complex creatures with complicated relationships with money.

Despite these lessons however, I’ll probably continue to make some mistakes with my money – the key is just to not so many mistakes!

A book to keep and re-read.

February 2021 Savings, plus other updates

Posted on 2nd March 2021 by weenie

Monthly update time again – how time flies, even when you’re not really having fun.

No, I’m not sad, depressed or feeling fed up – I think I’m just suffering from a bit of mental fatigue.

Long busy days at work have left me pretty brain-dead and brain-tired, I’ve gotten behind on my blog reading/commenting and for the first time in a long while, I didn’t get round to sorting out a post in between my monthly numbers updates.

I’m still exercising regularly, eating well, not drinking too much, getting enough sleep and avoiding too much social media or news.

The brighter days and better weather might help drag me out of this listless phase, back to my normal self.

Not many ‘highlights’ this month:

- Attended (and also did a presentation in) the latest ‘Manchester’ FIRE meet up. Always good to see familar faces, some new faces and to be able to chat about FIRE, pensions and such-like without people thinking you are a bore or a weirdo. Also attended a ‘Leeds’ Invest Meet up.

- My nephew finally returned home from staying at his dad’s since before Christmas. Bless him, he’s grown an inch, his voice has changed but sadly, he’s picked up some very bad teenaged boy habits (less said about those, the better!).

- Losing myself completely reading The Way of Kings, a 1000+ page fantasy tome recommended by SavingNinja. It’s been a while since I stayed up reading past 2am because I got caught up in the ‘just one more chapter’ cycle! Just started book 2, so I can lose myself again!

So, how did I get on money-wise in February?

I saved 47.7% of my net salary – continuing with my decent start to the year.

The above savings includes a top up of a £25 premium bond win, £27.96 from TopCashback* and £20 from Matched Betting profits (from last month).

Shares and Investment Trusts

No new investments, I just topped up existing holdings.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund

Another wobble in the stock markets apparently, something to do with bond yields going up but whatever, I carried on investing.

At the end of the month, my Future Fund stood slightly up at £221,108, but the increase was from the addition of capital.