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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January 2015 Income/Expenses

January 2015 Income/Expenses

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It’s payday tomorrow which means time for the first Income/Expenses report of 2015! Expenses are running high this month as I bought a new bike (finally) and got the last of the required house furniture to allow us to finally finish unboxing things a year after we moved in. I’ve had a really productive month; managing to keep both of my January challenges of no alcohol and maintaining a low carb diet. From the peak at the start of the…

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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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How to block referral spam to your blog

How to block referral spam to your blog

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I don’t know about my other fellow bloggers out there but over the past month or so I’ve seen a huge increase in referral spams hits on the site. If you’re experiencing a similar problem there are steps you can (and should) take to limit the impact on your site.   What is referral spam? Quite simply; these are website hits you’re recieving coming from various referral sites. Typically referrals are a good thing as it means someone else has…

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Binary Options Trading: Is It Worth The Risk?

Binary Options Trading: Is It Worth The Risk?

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While a self proclaimed expert in living frugally and saving money..I make no claims to be an investment guru. Currently most of my investments are passivly invested in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 Acc ‘fund of funds’ however there are many other alternatives avaliable. I’ve asked a friend of mine to contribute a few articals focused on more indepth alternative investment analysis. Enjoy:  Binary Options Trading: Is It Worth The Risk?   These days almost everyone has a desire to get…

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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

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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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December 2014 Income/Expenses

December 2014 Income/Expenses

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It’s the end of the month which means time for this month’s Income/Expenses! My company has a policy of paying salary before christmas so I have tried to do the calculations ignoring this early payment. This month has seen me neglect my online commitments slightly as I’ve been busy seeing family etc over the holiday season. Tomorrow is a new year and a new challenge to work towards that early retirement! Google Analytics tells me we had just over 3000…

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Calculating investment returns on everyday items

Calculating investment returns on everyday items

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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?

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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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