Right now Hi All! So, since I last wrote, my request to go part-time (0.5fte) was granted and I’ve dipped my toes into the water of part-timeness! Three weeks, to be precise, though part of the first week was on holiday (in London and Brighton) and work’s been weird and work-busy this week as it’s Fresher’s Week (I work at a uni) and I’ve been in in-person for the first time since March 2020! It’s been an exciting transition, though truthfully yet to reach the heights that I felt on the precipice of putting in the application for real! That was just freeing. Which in itself says a lot. The com ..read more

I don’t really know how it got through January then so far into 2021 without me posting. Not much actually changed for me, and I certainly MEANT to post a few times. I recall having a 1.5 year reflection planned for January but I can’t find it for the life of me. Anyway, I guess I was just busy living through the pandemic (oxymoron?) and doing a few financial tweaks here and there. Anyway, here are a few highlights over the last half year or so: Finance/FIRE based highlights In Jan 2021 (end), I reached £130,739 (£105,739 if excluding one-off SIPP contribution of £25k, which I’d started in J ..read more

Christmas eve brunch – Early outing of the sprouts, my fave veg! I really do hope you all had a lovely Christmas as I have. It’s been different, but really nice nonetheless. Gone were my work papers off the dining table. I downed tools and used it as a dining table (oh, the audacity!) for the first time since lockdown began. And how pleasant it’s been to share meals in this way, and to have more time for each other, as well as (in our case) to delight in Junior’s revelrous delight in the magic of Christmas. I’ll keep this one short as I did promise another post that was not just the monthly up ..read more

Wanting financial freedom amidst a time of low freedom I’m starting to think that one day I’ll look back at this humble finance/navel-gazing blog as the best documentation of my life through Covid times. Not because it’s particularly insightful, but in the midst of it, it’s quite easy to forget that we are living in strange times. But we adjust, we cope and plod on. For we must. Everyone is going through similar struggles at best, and tragic ones at worst. But deep down, I know I’m not thriving right now. I’m dong okay. Work is too busy – I did probably 50+ hours this week, plus all the energy ..read more

Working on that pumpkin harvest As we’re in the first weekend of Lockdown II, I already look back at October with ghoulish nostalgia. I’m sure I’m not the only one. We were so close to going abroad as the Canaries came off the quarantine list as we hit half-term. Now I’m realising that life won’t be ‘normal’ for a long time – there will almost certainly be a third wave etc. At least this time around, the playgrounds, schools and childcare are open, so my adrenaline reserves are somewhat saved! But this time we have winter. Some I’ve spoken to say their life won’t be that different (lucky them ..read more

Well, I was wrong. Turns out we did manage to get Junior tested for Covid and, with a negative result, resumed school life after a week at home. Phew! It’s not a week I’ll forget soon though. Me trying to create online learning materials (which takes bloody ages), and Mr Firelite, with a Major Project Deadline, constantly being on the phone. After 2 days of Poor Junior coughing, he was bouncing off the walls of Not Being Poorly Anymore, which doesn’t tend to mix well with trying to video myself teaching / constant work calls to hit a deadline. The result was working late into the night (even ..read more

This is where I got up to with my month-end update before work got busy pre-start of the academic year, Firelite Junior started school (shorter day than at nursery) and just as we were thinking that we might even have found a childminder, Junior came down with a bad cough! While said cough has improved massively 2 days later, we are now juggling work and childcare, we’ve not been able to get a test, so looks like we’re isolating for 14 days. For the second time during lockdown. So that’s where we are mid-September! Without further ado, here’s what happened in August – the idea of a beach filli ..read more

At the end of July last year fresh from off the first index funds boat I decided to start a blog charting my financial journey into territories unknown to me. So one year on, how’s it going? Well, the blog itself has its peaks and troughs (yes, we’re at a trough), but it’s great seeing my wealth slowly but surely grow in a way I’ve never documented in the past. Thanks to all those who have read any of my ramblings, liked, followed or/and commented – Sharing this ‘secret’ life is almost as gratifying too! I’ve worked on most of the content for this post over the last month or so, but didn’t ge ..read more

This photo is our first journey outside of our region taken a couple of weekends ago. It marks our move onto the terra firma of ‘the new normal’. This month I also reach this blog’s One Year Milestone! Whoo-hoo. I’ll reflect on the bigger picture stuff in the year reflection to follow soon, but hope you don’t mind me indulging also in a fairly brief month-end update… So, the ‘new normal’ partly explains my noticeably reduced savings rate this month, but at 71%, still surpassing my aims this year. So, I’m happy with that. We went on a brief impromptu overnight hotel break and the change was SO ..read more

A breath of fresh air as lockdown lifts… The beautiful but burning sun of late, interspersed with shower after shower, is probably a fair analogy for something – maybe my mixed feelings over my work situation. But that aside, I’ve retained my high (82%) savings rate. Or if you like, 87% of take-home pay (this being higher as I have a chunk destined for childcare deducted at source). Since moving to lockdown-lite, I did wonder if my spending might make a dramatic rise but I seem to have managed to avoid it so far. I’ve not joined the long queues outside coffee shops in the weekend… So still not ..read more