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Category: Lifestyle

What is the biggest threat to your wealth? You!

What is the biggest threat to your wealth? You!

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I work in IT, and anyone who has worked in IT or a similar field will tell you that if you ever want something to be done reliably, predictively and repeatedly.. you write a script to automate the action. Computers are fantastic devices; You program in what you want it to do and it (more or less) does as it’s told. A computer never gets bored, won’t be distracted and most importantly; won’t give in to irrational self entitlement. Humans however are not machines. And its…

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Family finances and property

Family finances and property

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Apologies for the delay between posts, I got hit by a cold and have been pretty groggy for the past week. Last weekend I received a call from my younger sister, She’s a couple of years younger than me and in almost the exact same position of life as I was at her age.. Living in rented accommodation with her partner and desperately trying to save a house deposit whilst seeing the money disappear in rent. She was calling to…

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The 4 Foundations of Retirement

The 4 Foundations of Retirement

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I was initially going to title this article “The 4 Segments of Retirement” as the maths behind it is more easily demonstrated in pie charts.. however while thinking about it further it becomes obvious that each of these 4 areas are indeed the foundations on which your retirement is built and supported. For many people retirement is a distant thing which slowly and predictably edges closer while being built up automatically through small pension deductions and government support. However those…

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Micromanaging your goals

Micromanaging your goals

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My very first memory of budgeting and saving for anything was back as a child when I had to save for my first television set. This was in the early 90s when the cheapest colour set cost about £120 and my pocket money consisted of about £1 a week. Throw in a few birthday and christmas cash gifts and the savings time required came in at around 2 years. A lifetime for someone at that age! While my siblings would…

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The cumulative effect of positive changes

The cumulative effect of positive changes

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The positive effects of financial compound interest have been well documented for centuries. In fact almost all strategies for achieving financial independence and early retirement rely on this mathematical boost to drastically reduce the time and funds required. What is less well documented and yet still just as important are the cumulative effects of making changes in your lifestyle and habits. Mr Money Mustache has recently blogged about his own very minor lifestyle changes which he hopes to compound into…

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Working towards Early Retirement in 2014

Working towards Early Retirement in 2014

Comments 19 comments

Before we dive head first into 2015 and a wave of inevitable soon-to-be-broken new year resolutions, I think it’s important to reflect upon what we’ve worked towards in the past year and to identify the major achievements. 2014 was a real life changing year for me. It marked the point of 5 years full time employment and utilising some of the accumulated funds to stabilise for the future. We bought a house Like many young people out there in the…

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Calculating investment returns on everyday items

Calculating investment returns on everyday items

Comments 6 comments

While recently discussing the costs and benefits of a company car scheme, Vawt from Early Retirement Ahead made an excellent point about having cruise control on the vehicle to help minimise the chance of receiving a speeding ticket. This effectively valued the addition of cruise control on the vehicle in the form of reducing future financial liability. While not a typical asset class; there are plenty of examples of businesses valuing investments which seek to limit or reduce future financial…

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Why is it easier to spend money we don’t have?

Why is it easier to spend money we don’t have?

Comments 15 comments

It’s been an interesting week in the world of ERG. For the first time in my life I’ve been calculating how to spend money I don’t actually have. Typically when we think of people spending money they don’t have, we imagine those taking on debt or diverting funds away from other expenses in order to fund luxury and non-essential purchases. However in my situation it has been spending money which will potentially be owed to me in the future.. and…

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We make our own luck

We make our own luck

Comments 16 comments

Last week I had an old school friend who I hadn’t seen for the past year over for dinner. This was one of the friends I had had a house share with when I moved back to the UK and started working full time. We havn’t really seen each-other since I moved in with my girlfriend and bought a house together at the start of this year.  While it was good to see him again and catch up about how…

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No wonder the kids are screwed

No wonder the kids are screwed

Comments 11 comments

Sitting on the train for the past few days commuting to a client site in Central London has given me plenty of time to browse the daily news articles for a healthy dose of doom n gloom. My current favorite is the Daily Mail, not for it’s journalistic ability.. but for the pure entertainment factor generated by the comments section. One mention of the EU and quickly thousands of comments appear shouting the praises of UKIP and how we’re about…

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