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Category: Personal

Matched betting review and tips

Matched betting review and tips

It’s been just over 2 weeks now since I went back to my old university town and got chatting to an ex-housemate who talked me into starting up matched betting. In the time since then I’ve been busy most evenings setting up accounts, laying bets and watching mind-numbing automated bingo games. So the big question is clearly; how much have I made so far? The financials I started this side hustle with a separate bank account containing £1000. It’s extremely…

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Times not to discuss Finances and Early Retirement

Times not to discuss Finances and Early Retirement

I had an awesome Saturday this weekend at Huw’s FIRE Escape meetup in Devizes. While being a great opportunity to finally meet some of the many faces behind blogs I regularly follow and hear some of their stories first hand, it also provided a rare opportunity to discuss personal finances and early retirement in an open way I’ve found impossible to do elsewhere. If the British are infamous for being reluctant to discuss money, even basic personal finance areas.. it’s…

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EarlyRetirementGuy Takes A Break

EarlyRetirementGuy Takes A Break

With the stock markets all over the place and the British weather firmly miserable, the time has come for ERG to take a much needed holiday. We’re flying off to France tomorrow to stay with my parents, enjoy alot of (cheap yet excellent) wine and hopefully some sun shine! This will mean though that there will be no new posts or Income/Expenses report until we’re back 2nd week of September. Hope everyone has a fantastic bank holiday weekend and enjoys…

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Things I’m not frugal on

Things I’m not frugal on

I’m sure by now all of us reading this will know that the true key to saving money and expanding your investments is to become frugal with your spending habits. There was an excellent program on BBC1 last night; Britain’s Spending Secrets which examined the spending habits of families right across the wealth spectrum and tried to give an insight into how they prioritised their spending. As you might expect, it began with the single mother on benefits who refused…

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The EarlyRetirementGuy 1st annual accounts

The EarlyRetirementGuy 1st annual accounts

It’s been just over a year since I started tracking my journey to early retirement and with it a comprehensive log of all income/expenses and networth gains. Because of this, I am for the first time calculate with some accuracy how much we currently spend each year and what sort of networth pattern has emerged. I’m sure you’re all sick of reading through the bombardment of annual expenses posts people put up in January so perhaps this nicely spreads things…

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One year closer to Financial Independence

One year closer to Financial Independence

This month sees the first anniversary of www.EarlyRetirementGuy.com and with it.. 1 year closer to financial independence! I can’t believe it’s been a year since beginning my online journey to detail the financial ups and downs of a 20-something trying to retire early in the UK. Since then so much has happened, so much has changed and I’m now so much closer to the dream of financial independence. Now very much in my late 20s, I’ve been extremely fortunate this…

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Reasons to retire #2 – There’s a whole other world out there

Reasons to retire #2 – There’s a whole other world out there

Following on from last time’s Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets and the excellent discussion it generated, I thought we could continue with producing a list full of reasons to retire. Many of us take for granted our belief that early retirement is something good to work towards, indeed most of the personal finance information and blogs I come across go into great lengths about how to save money and retire earlier.. without giving too much consideration into…

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Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets

Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets

Back when I was at university studying Business Management I wrote a lengthy research based article on the motivational aspects of workplace target setting. Ever since we first enter the schooling system we’ve been continually exposed to targets against which our achievement has been measured. Infact almost all jobs I’ve worked in have attempted to use targets as a method of assessing and motivating employees (with the exception of when I was a lifeguard; the only target then was to…

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Saving money with a Staycation

Saving money with a Staycation

I’ve never been a big fan of holidays. I mean; I’ve spent a tonne of money on purchasing a lovely house.. filling it with all my worldly possessions and have picked a location that has everything I need/want nearby. Why then would I want to endure the time, effort and cost of going away on some extravagant foreign holiday? I don’t know what it is about the stressing to ensure everything is packed, stressing about missing the plane, stressing about…

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May 2015 Income/Expenses

May 2015 Income/Expenses

It was payday yesterday which means time for this month’s Income/Expenses! I think it’s important to keep track of your income/expenses every month as it allows you to spot trends and areas for improvement. I find it really useful to track the spending changes each month, and really motivating to see the networth improvements. Sometimes it can seem like financial independence is so far away, but by watching your networth steadily increasing you’ll know you will reach that point eventually….

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