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Month: July 2014

July 2014 Income/Expenses

July 2014 Income/Expenses

It’s payday tomorrow which means time for the monthly report! This is the first time I’ve ever kept a record of my income against expenses and so we can use this month as the benchmark to measure all future calculations. What a month this has been! The biggest thing has obviously been the start of this blog! Google Analytics tells me we’ve had over 1,500 pageviews from almost 300 different users. This is awesome and way more then I had…

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This weekend I saved over $200

This weekend I saved over $200

Last week was gearing up towards an expensive weekend. I’d been invited out for drinks on Friday, had 2 seperate birthday parties to attend and the motorbike exhausts badly needed repairing. Inspired by the What small things did you do TODAY to save money thread over at MMM forums. I decided to look at each part individually and calculate where small savings could be made to add up to a large overall saving.  Friday Several friends were heading out to…

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My early taste of Financial Independence

My early taste of Financial Independence

A few years ago, after graduating from university and returning from my travels across the world I landed my dream job working at an outdoor activity center on the South English coast. Ever since I was a child and had attended these camps in the school holidays I had known someday I wanted to become an instructor and help other kids experience the joy of activities which didn’t involve a TV or Xbox. What I didn’t realise at the time…

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Stop Complaining and Start Doing

Stop Complaining and Start Doing

House prices have gone up in this country, there’s no denying that.. however the hysteria that has accompanied the raise seems to have grown exponentially in comparison. On a forum I visit aimed towards students and young adults, A thread was created asking the question: How many of you realistically think that you will become a homeowner before 30? What followed was the inevitable stream of despair and complaints ranging from lack of parental support to the state of the…

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Why I hate budgets

Why I hate budgets

I have a secret, a confession, an opinion so unconventional that it would rock the pillars of normal financial advice and seek to go against the grain of many main stream websites; I hate budgets. It’s not that I’m bad at creating budgets, or that I struggle to stick to and maintain one since implementing. More that I dislike the concept of them and question the real value they can add to someone’s personal finances.   The problem with budgets…

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Understanding the retirement calculators

Understanding the retirement calculators

# This post was inspired by the Fun With Numbers post over at BigGuyMoney.com There’s a big problem in the UK, the US and most other developed countries around the world; People are not saving enough for their retirements. Speaking to friends and colleagues on the subject, it’s clear most of them can be split into two different camps: Vastly underestimating their required savings These are the people who believe that putting in their minimum workplace scheme contributions for 40…

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Should I overpay my mortgage?

Should I overpay my mortgage?

It’s a question floating around the online personal finance forums for a couple of years now: “Should I overpay my mortgage?” and the answer seems to be more complicated than it appears. Historically, the answer has always been a resounding Yes. Mortgage interest rates were over 5% and even a small monthly contribution would knock years off of the mortgage length which saves thousands in interest. Take a £200k mortgage at 7.5% with a 25 year term. Repayments would be…

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From mouldy shed to luxury rabbit apartment

From mouldy shed to luxury rabbit apartment

Last month I finally got round to converting the overgrown mouldy shed in our back garden into a luxury apartment for our 2 rabbits. Originally when we bought the house earlier this year we had intended on just removing the whole shed however then decided it might make a nice enlarged hutch with a bit of work and some cheap DIY. First stage was to cut back all the overgrown thorns and vines that had creeped over from our neighbour’s…

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My story so far

My story so far

Childhood I’ve always been good with money. Every since I was a child I knew you had to save up before you could purchase things and that debt should be avoided. I remember saving my pocket and birthday money for years to buy my first TV. I drew out a huge thermometer and divided it into 120 lines to represent the £120 needed to be saved. Every time a pound went into the piggy bank, another line got coloured in…

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Attack your debt from both sides

Attack your debt from both sides

Before you can begin to Compound Your Life, you need to destroy your debt by attacking it from both sides. On one side you can cripple your debt by increasing your income. From the other side you hammer it down by lowering your expenses.  Combine the two and you exponentially increase your debt destroying power!   Increasing Your Income This can be done in several ways and it always helps to diversify yourself so you’re not too reliant on any…

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