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2024 Financial Goals

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

I don’t like to be rushed 😀 Which is why I’m sharing my financial goals now, three weeks into January. I’ve also been having fun over on my Insta – come join me there for daily tips on finance, saving money, food, mindfulness and more.

In all seriousness – showing up whenever you are ready is fine. There is a lot to be said for just doing it now, and evidence suggests that a lot of people don’t reach their financial (and other goals) because they are procrastinating. But getting to it when you are ready and in the right mindset, rather than on an arbitrary deadline, also puts you in charge.

So let’s focus on getting this done now. I set my financial goals on a call with my accountability partner a couple of weeks ago, and have been fine-tuning them since then. Before I dig in I wanted to share some reflections on discussions with this community and things I have noticed about previous years – these three things are totally linked, and can become a vicious cycle so it’s worth digging into them if you feel stuck:

Don’t procrastinate. Yeah, yeah – getting to things in your own time is different from just not getting there. You know in yourself when you’re getting into the right mindset or moment, and when you’re lying to yourself. This is wher an accountability partner can be great – someone to call you out, lovingly, when you are still ‘waiting for the right time’. With financial issues, procrastination can cost you big time. Compound interest means that the earlier you make a move to save and invest, the more the money will grow to. Inflation means that the money in your hand will likely never be worth more than it is today. Not paying off debt increases the amount you spend on interest (and likely the stress in your mind). Are any of those costs worth it?

If there is anything holding you back, I strongly advise you to find out why you haven’t done it yet – think about your money mindset. People don’t procrastinate because they are lazy or stupid – we all have things which hold us back from making moves, even if they are so embedded in our subconscious that we don’t really understand them. You may be held back by fear or shame (what if I find out I spend all my money on nonesense and I’m embarrassed about what I have wasted up to now?) or by limiting beliefs (What’s the point in budgeting for my food shop – I’m never going to make enough for my big dreams anway). Or by the sense that you’ve tried this before and nothing has stuck. All of these are totally understandable, but they will all just hold you back. So dig into how you feel and spend some time getting your mind right.

Dreaming big is amazing, but make sure it feels meaningful, rather than feeling overwhelming. Setting huge goals is a big driver for many people, and I definitely don’t advocate playing small when setting out your ambitions. Part of the work is to come down a level or two from the big goal and set out smaller approaches on a timeline. I always try and set goals which are realistic with stretch – they aren’t so easy that they will happen even without me getting behind them, but they aren’t so insane that it’s less ‘doing the work’ and more ‘wishful thinking’.

For me, 2024 is a strange year financially as I have to move jobs. My company has mandatory rotation (i.e. you can’t stay in one place for more than five years – it’s more complex than this but this is what it means for me right now) and I haven’t been with them long enough for them to have to find me a job. So by 1st January 2025, I could very easily be out of work. There are many reasons why I don’t believe this will happen, but I do have to find another position, and it will 90% certain mean moving countries. This isn’t unusual for the kids and I, but it’s not very relaxing and also means making other choices with money which prepare for a time when I might not be earning. In addition, my son starts Year 11, or his GCSE exam year in the summer of 2024, meaning if I don’t have a job yet I might have to stay without work until the summer of 2025 when he is done, and move then.

So many moving parts! But my aim is to set financial goals and be ok with trying to get a strong foundation in case the worst happens, whilst preparing for the best.

These might all seem somewhat woolly, but for me this is the first step. Looking at how to save more, be accountable, and stay focused, comes next in terms of building out detailed approaches. But for now I am happy that I have enough focus, and optimism, to make 2024 work for me.

How are your financial goals looking?

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2023 Savings Review

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

Last week I wrote about how I spent my budget in 2023 and this week I want to dive into my savings and investments.

I wanted to start off (because I know you love a relaxing subject) by reflecting on shame around money. There is a lot about this in terms of getting over feeling shame or guilt about having a low income, or having money troubles and that’s a really important conversation. My own family story with money is a mishmash of being low income with middle class aspirations, meaning that between my family and the people I grew up with had very different incomes, aspirations and feelings about money. I also work in a ‘helping’ industry where there are expectations that we shouldn’t earn as much as e.g. bankers because we are working for a higher purpose and should do it for the feels and not for the remuneration.

So there is a lot mixed up in how I feel about money. On one hand, I am working in a job which helps people, and which I got after working almost 20 years in jobs which paid around the median wage whilst studying on the side as a single mum to achieve, and pay for, a Masters and PhD. On the other, I recognise that I significantly outearn pretty much everyone I know. I guess this would be different if I was in the USA, where every single caller on the financial independence podcasts I listen to seems earn a similar amount to me.

This is a topic I will likely come back to, but I have been uncertain about posting both my spends and savings for 2023, because I am not sure how I feel about being public on an area which has so much judgement. But to make this blog useable and useful, it strikes me that real numebrs are better than theory. So with your kindness, here we go.

Total savings 2023
SIPP personal pension (invested) £                3,600
ISA savings (invested) £              15,000
Work Pension (pre-tax – invested by company) £              15,552
One year living expenses (cash) £              48,029
Total Saved 2023 £              82,181
Children’s savings
Childrens’ ISA (invested) £                2,800
Childrens’ Junior Pensions (invested) £                1,200
Total Saved 2023 £                4,000
Average monthly savings £                6,848

I have to say that I am pretty happy with that. Compared to my spending of £88,344, savings of £82,181 means I saved almost 50% of my income. This is significantly better than other years, and definintely something to aim for moving forward. This has also been the first year I had zero debt other than my primary mortgage – in 2021-2022 I was paying off a bridging loan I had needed to buy this house, and in previous years was significantly overpaying on the mortgage for my rental. So there was definitely more available to save this year, though all those actions contributed to my net worth.

There need to be some tweaks to how I manage things, based on changes and additional risks in 2024, so I will use this information to guide my planning and goals for 2024.

But I am both proud and slightly guilty at the same time. So something else to work on too!

How was your savings rate in 2023, and how do you feel about it?

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What I learnt about money in 2023

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

Ah, here we are again! The most wonderful time of the year, or a bit of a damp squib where we are all too knackered to really enjoy the festivities and starting to panic for the new year. In our house it’s somewhere in the middle, so some brilliant quality family time, nice walks in the woods and suppers by the fire, as well as lots of early nights and the occasional argument. So far, so normal (whatever the advertisements try and make you believe), but I have definitely enjoyed the lack of pressure and a chance to just unwind with the kids.

Firstly, I learnt that I want to make some changes to this blog and how I show up in the personal finance space and beyond, so watch this space for some exciting announcements!

Overall though, this year has been an interesting one financially. Here are some key things I learnt:

I spent big on things which I felt were worth it, without giving it another thought. Whilst I remain relatively frugal (well – ‘fake frugal‘ is more like it, still have issues with the version of how I spend money as it exists in my mind, and how it exists in my bank account), mindful spending doesn’t really concern me. In 2023 this was mostly holidays and travel, including a trip to see the Northern Lights with the kids in January; a major birthday party joint with my best friend in August; and a family holiday with them and my mum by train across four countries in October. I paid for all of these, with the elements not for my children being gifts for birthdays/ Christmas etc, but they were all fabulous.

There are different kinds of privilege and cultural expectations, and that these impact our financial lives. This absolutely isn’t news – even my reflections above noted how much of that holiday money was spent to ensure that the people I love could come with me. I am white, and do not claim experiences like the Black Tax in which the responsibility of taking people with you on an upwardly mobile journey can make that journey much slower. But my own background means that, as a friend told me, I am ‘the success story, the one that got out‘. And that comes with responsibilities to extend a hand, repeatedly, to family and friends who are struggling. 2023 saw a lot more people struggling than before, and it feels like there is more pressure to support people around me, and less opportunity for others to extend that same support to me. I am happy to be here for people, but it’s also getting kind of exhausting.

The emergency fund is real. I had what felt like endless emergencies this year – broken pipes, a flooded basement, a broken school laptop for my son, a missed car MOT and on and on. All of these things mattered, but the head space was taken up by trying to find workmen in Denmark who are available and will actually come through, rather than freaking out about being able to pay for things. Since both my dishwasher and Quooker (boiling water tap thing) both stopped working during Christmas, I don’t expect that there will be fewer outgoings in 2024, but the money is there. And having that peace of mind is what I saved it for!

Being savvy with your money matters – as does understanding just enough about economic policy and trends. A lot of 2023 was watching interest rates and inflation rise. Whilst this sort of felt like more economic blah and uncertainty, the average impact on UK mortgage holders was a rise of about £300 a month, or £3,400 per year, on the same mortgage. If you are struggling financially that is a massive, unexpected increase in your outgoings, and isn’t based on anything you have control over. So whilst this post isn’t about what 2023 looked like globally on finance (TLDR, not great) being aware of what the risks are and keeping a weather eye on what might be coming your way, really does matter.

What did you learn in 2023?

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2023 Inspiration Round Up

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

So the FIRE community is real, and for me this is especially online. Keeping going with budgets, big dreams, downturns, frugality and more can be exhausting, and getting energy from the community helps keep me going. So here’s a quick round up of where I found inspiration and great content in 2023. Of course, you can always go to my IG if you need the same!

#1 for 2023

One person who I loved this year is the Budgetnista, Tiffany Aliche who has books out, a blog, and appears on podcast. I love her no-nonsense practical approach to financial wellbeing, and the way she targets the middle section of people (i.e. most of us) who are neither flat broke nor financial genuises. She has a great community on Facebook and elsewhere, and serves up inspiration to be brave and keep going in search of your best life.

Tiffany was also in Get Smart With Money which was a Netflix film about FIRE and financial guidance, along with Paula Pant, Mr Money Mustache and Ro$$ Mac. I rarely watch TV but I loved this – and my kids thought it was hilarious that something I talk so much about *finally* became interesting enough to make it onto Netflix. The different approaches of the financial experts, and the needs and solutions for the different participants, really showed that there are many ways to get this right, but help is out there.

Podcasts

I remained very much a creature of habit this year and will include those here for anyone new to this journey, but there was a definite shift in podcasts for me in 2023. I started to have a sense from a few – Choose FI, Bigger Pockets – that I have missed the boat. I am always cheering on people who have reached FIRE and for sure they don’t want to talk about budgeting forever after they don’t need to think about it any more, but 2023 had a lot of content about ‘how to spend’ and get out of frugal habits (and a whole lot about pickleball) which felt alien to me. So I’ve been skating around more and listening to particular episodes instead of just pressing play. Old faithfuls have been:

Afford Anything: the inimitable Paula Pant continued to bring weekly wisdom this year, talking through the choices that we have to make with our money, focus and energy in order to make a life which suits us and where we really move.

Journey to Launch: I listened to this more in 2023 as she is many steps ahead of me but is still in the ‘courageous decision making’ rather than the ‘done and dusted’ phase. Getting into thinking about side hustles, passive income streams and the ‘what next’ of a financial independence journey is where I’m at, and her passion, personal story and diverse range of speakers is really inspiring.

Choose FI: this was another staple during 2023, though a lot of it starts to feel like conversations we’ve had before and as noted, has definitely moved into the ‘how to do life when you are FIRE’ territory which is to be expected from such a long term project. It remains a really good basic resource and a great community for when you need dusting off and putting back on the path.

Books

I read a lot this year, making the most of the local library which has an excellent selection of books in English. We went pretty much every two weeks, and got a cookbook out each time so there are lots of new recipes in the household menu bank.

I’m not going to list all the books here – and I put them up on my IG – but I read a lot of non-fiction about finance to get more into the nuts and bolts of how the financial systems work. And I read a lot of 1920s detective fiction, because honestly how else do you get to sleep?

#1 2023: Raynor Winn: The Salt Path, The Wild Silence, Landlines

I read all of Ray Winn’s books this year after a friend recommended the Salt Path. These are all written as memoirs, charting the moment Ray and her husband become homeless when their house and land are reposessed as the result of being scammed by a friend. They take to walking, going hundreds of miles across the UK and learning a lot about what matters, money, nature and society as they go.

So I hope there is something in there for you, whether you are getting started, having a think about your finances at the end of the year, or need to get back into our community ready for 2024. Enjoy!

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Does the 1% rule apply in the UK?

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

I’ve been writing about my mini-real estate journey throughout this blog: the decision to sell what had been our family home after renting it out: the thought process of buying my new rental: and the associated costs and process of getting to rented. Come and join me on Insta for more of the same, plus money saving tips, recipes, and frugal inspiration!

This week I wanted to look at the 1% rule, and whether it’s really relevant to those of us in the UK (and presumably a lot of the rest of Europe). As the majority of FIRE media creators seem to be from the USA, there is a lot of talk about how fabulous real estate is as a wealth building tool, and lots of great advice about how to calculate options and, essentially, when things are a good idea.

But does the 1% rule work outside of the States?

The 1% rule is a way of thinking about whether the rental property will make is going to pay off the value of the home in a reasonable timeline. As a property investor, this is an indication of a plan which is likely to make you money in the long term rather than being something that just breaks even.

So – if you buy a house for $200,000, it should rent out for $2,000 – or a $300,000 house for $3,000 etc. The purchase price should include everything it takes for you to get the house tenanted. So any renovations, upgrades, essential additions such as smoke or carbon monoxide alarms; along with legal costs of purchase, and of setting up as a rental.

Once you have tenants in place, you will also need to pay a bunch of costs from the income, including maintenance and repairs, taxes, landlord insurance etc. You can think about this as the 50% rule whereby you assume you’ll spend 50% of your income as oprating costs over the long term. You might not – and you might spend very little for a few years then have to repair a roof – but preparing for that spend is part of being a landlord.

So I had a look at some average house and rental prices in the UK to see how it might work. I’ve gone with the median house price rather than the mean since every area of the UK has super expensive enclaves and properties which are not reflected further down the chain. This is true everywhere, but in Cheshire where my rental property is, average prices are around £260,078 also includes the Golden Triangle where homes are more like £2,600,000. So the median is a more useful figure for back-of-the-envelope thinking.

 Rent 23Median house price Rental return
North West £                  958 £         185,000 0.52%
Greater London £              1,804 £         533,687 0.34%
North East £                  594 £         140,000 0.42%
South East £              1,164 £         388,900 0.30%
     
UK minus London £              1,113 £         272,000 0.41%
     
My previous rental £              1,225 £         450,000 0.27%
Current rental £                  895 £         235,000 0.38%

Looking at a few different areas (which are roughly the more expensive and less expensive parts of England and Wales) it looks like the average likely return in the UK is about 0.38% – significantly less than the 1% used in US calculations.

This makes sense to me in terms of the house prices here, and what renters could actually afford. The chances of the average person being able to pay rents otherwise are basically zero. In the South East for example, the average income is £40,300 and take home monthly pay £3,358. The 1% rule would expect that an average rent here would be £3,889 – or significantly more than the average take home pay.

So there are multiple factors at play, which make sense. But it’s also helpful to know what’s likely. It doesn’t make investing in property in the UK a bad idea (more of the pros and cons another time) but hopefully this information is useful in your own planning and calculations.

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So I bought a new rental 2

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

This should really be entitled “so I finally rented out my new rental” but hurray! It is done. I have been talking about moving on my rental journey since I started this blog, and my last post which was almost three months ago (sorry dear readers, long story which I might come back to) set out the decision making and purchase of that property.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the financial side of it here. I paid £230,000 for the property. In my home town, that amount would barely even buy you a garage, but further north in the UK it really does buy you more. I’ve written extensively about choosing to sell my rental in my home town but maintain a rental in the UK so I won’t go back over it here, but it was a decision that took a long time – and realistically I still have doubts about. But it’s done, so on we go!

I also bought the property free and clear, so it has no mortgage on it. I saved this money essentially in equity from my previous house, which I had laser-focused paying off over the last five years. Whilst I hadn’t fully paid it off, issues with rising mortgage rates and my challenges of spending so much time overseas meant that the mortgage cost of it was starting to really increase. There were costs associated with the purchase and legal elements but because it was such a relatively cheap property, these were significantly (and disproportionately) lower than my last house. A big element is that the stamp duty threshold in the UK – basically a tax on a house purchase – doesn’t kick in until a property is worth more than £250,000, meaning I didn’t have to fork out the £7,000 additional amount that I did last time. The house is a new build and is on a company managed estate. This means there is a monthly fee (of about £60, payable by the tenant) but there was additional set of costs for the purchase based on legal assessment and sign up to the management company. In total this all came to £2,636.

Legal and purchase costs
Standard legal and purchase fees £       1,968
Legal and purchase fees relating to estate management £           668
  £ 2,636

In addition to the standard costs, it took three months to rent out, following about six months of the purchase process since I struggled to find what I wanted, and it took some time for the process to go through. This period has a financial implication as well. In addition there are a few costs needed to get the house tenant-ready, and between these I paid out an additional £1,233.

Pre-tenant and compliance costs
Compliance maintenance (electrical check, smoke alarms etc) £           300
Payment of 3 months estate management fees £           178
Payment of council tax £           354
Landlord insurance (one year) £           401
Total £       1,233

So at this point in time, I have £230,000 of my capital tied up in real estate. In addition, buying and preparing the property for rental required an outlay of £3,869 or about an additional 1.7% on top of the purchase price. As noted, this is unique to a low cost house, as these costs disproportionately increase with homes in higher price brackets.

And now it’s rented out! The rent is set at £850 per month, which is quite a bit less than the UK average of £1000 (excluding Greater London) but that’s based on the location. Minus the letting agent fee which I need as a) I don’t live near the property and b) I am utterly useless at household maintenance, of 10%, I will make an initial net of £765, from which I will need to pay any additional maintenance or upkeep, as well as continued landlord insurance for which I will keep back 10% of the net, or about £1,000 per year. So with a projected profit of about £8,000 per year, I will not be retiring fully on my rental empire. But it works – to stay invested in the real estate market; have some money which isn’t at the whim of the stock market; to have a second option for my family in case the s**t hits the fan; and to have a regular stream of income. And I am glad it’s set up so I can leave it to tick along whilst I focus on other things!

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So I bought a new rental part 1

Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 2 Comments

Happy end of July! It is almost the end of the summer holidays here in Denmark so I am working on de-cluttering the house, planning for the second half of the year, and sneaking in an more relax time I can get before it’s full steam ahead. Do keep up with the small things over on this blog’s Insta – other people’s Barbie obsessions are louder than mine these days but we still hang out!

One of the things which has been finalised over the summer is the purchase of my new rental.

I wrote in January about having sold my rental – both the decision making and process, and my own history of house ownership. I’m not working on a real estate empire. I am not even sure that it’s possible to do this in the UK for small investors, or if it is the challenges around accessible credit, robust tax measures and the general insanity of housing prices mean it certainly isn’t the walk in the park it seems to be in the US.

There are other difficulties for those like me who don’t live in the UK but plan to return. Once my fixed mortgage term ended, I couldn’t remortgage my UK home which was rented out, and I couldn’t get a mortgage for a rental home without owning a primary residence. And all this in a time of rising if hyper uncertain house prices and massive rises in interest rates and hence mortgage payments.

If landlording was my aim perhaps I would have really worked through these issues – with tenacity everything is possible. But since I also have ethical cautions around owning property for profit in a time when renters’ struggles are being ignored (and noting that this is a nuanced conversation and one I will come back to), I have continued with my previous plan.

From a FIRE perspective, and based on my own risk profile, my plan is:

    1. To own one rental in the UK, partly to maintain connection to the country.
    2. To have it near family/friends who could support me if I couldn’t work and was forced to go back to the UK. Since I am a single parent, not being able to earn money or adequately look after the kids would be an utter disaster, so having a plan B matters. This recognises the need to give tenants six months notice, but it still needs to be an option.
    3. To own it outright: see point 2 about risk mitigation.
    4. To own it for approx. ten years which would give tenants a good stretch of stability, and would bring in additional income for me whilst my kids are finishing up their education.

    With all that in mind, I looked for a property near my brother up around Manchester. This part of the decision making took really a long time, tipping back into the decision to sell my last rental. Who, realistically, could support me in the way I would need if the sh*t hits the fan? Where should I buy a property then? Since I can’t get a mortgage, how much of my nest egg do I want to invest in a property? Was I mad to sell from a high cost of living area where the property might have just carried on making money?

    And I am still not settled on some of the answers, but the housing market waits for no vascillating woman! I started looking for a property in December as I was heading to complete on my own house sale, though I needed to wait on capital gains tax and other fun deductions to work out exactly what I had to play with. My brother and his wife were amazing. I would look at properties online (which is both easy and fun, let’s be honest) and they would then talk me through the location, and go to view if it seemed like a serious option. Paula Pant, a FIRE fairy Godmother, talks a lot about out of state rentals and how to organise such a portfolio. Maybe I don’t put enough time into my rentals, or I’m too limited in my thinking, but without family around I would have found it impossible to sort this out unless I had travelled a couple of times to be hands on.

    So I completed on a house last weekend, and it goes onto the market for rent next week once all the paperwork is sorted out. It’s not my dream house but it will make a lovely easy-to-maintain rental for a family, hopefully long term, and would work for us if it had to.

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    How to save for your kids

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland

    Last week I was writing about how to pay for kids’ college, and the realisation that a) I am off track compared to my previous budget and investment planning and that b) there are a lot of ways to financially plan for your children’s future. As ever, this is complicated if you are a single parent and trying to balance the prorities around just keeping it together versus building foundations for the future you want for your family. And it’s complicated if you aren’t living/working/planning for college in one country.

    But I wanted to come back and talk a bit more about saving for kids and some of the options and thought processes.

    Before all of these processes, ensure that your kids are financially literate. Having them engage with the household spend and planning, understand that paying for one things rather than another is a choice, and managing their own pocket money, really builds them into adults who can make good decisions. Ideally we also raise them to be kind, smart, caring individuals who don’t get sucked into corporate BS and are mindfully contributing to the world, but I’ll have to let you know how I get on with that one.

    Another post on this coming soon.

    1. Just start saving something, as soon as you can

    Even a piggy bank works. Getting into the habit of saving small means that the reflex grows as your child gets older. There are better ways to invest the money, but an early focus on the saving part will help as you work out additional options.

    2. Think about whether there are others who might save for your children

    For me, my parents paid £10 per month into a savings account for each of my children between birth and five years old. It’s not a lot, but it’s what they can afford and it still represents £600 per child. They are also of the generation / mindset that doesn’t believe in generational wealth in the way that meant they would look at their grandchildren and focus on this kind of thing, but lots of people feel differently. So it might be worth exploring, especially if you have family who are in the habit of giving generous birthday or holiday gifts which might be better split into savings.

    My kids have never been gifted money, so whilst there is lots of advice about putting this into savings, it really depends if it’s coming your way in the first place.

    3. Think about risk, and decide whose name you are going to save in

    This step comes before investing. There are great children’s accounts which can act as investment vehicles but your child will be able to access these usually at 18. So you need to work out what the risk is of them getting that money at a time in life when – let’s face it – lots of people will make poor decisions. Taking the example of saving for college: if I put the savings element into an account which reverts to them at 18 and they choose to spend that money on a sound system / gap year / bitcoin or whatever, and take huge student loans, I can’t stop them. I can refuse to put in place additional support (and can sit around with my head in my hands wondering what I did wrong as a parent) but I can’t solve for it.

    In the USA, saving into a 529 account fixes this problem by offering savings specifically in a child’s name, but which can only be spent on college. American FIRE folk have a lot more to say on these, but as far as I know they only exist in the States.

    The flip side of risk is if you save in your own name, but either you make poor decisions (listen, at 43 I am totally aware of my own fallabilities) or you have the kind of emergency situation that means you use the money. Ideally you can mitigate against such risks with other elements of your portfolio, but the point of risk-based thinking is to look at all the possibilities before they happen.

    3. Harness the power of compound interest by investing

    So the great thing about investing for children is the long time frame means that compound interest is real. If you put £25 a month into a savings account paying 2.45% from a child’s birth until they turned 18, they would have £6,775 by the time they could access the account. However, investing that same amount in an index fund and it grew at 4% per year they would have £8,000 when they reached adulthood after charges. And it’s possible to be more hopeful – with the 20-year average of the S&P500 coming in at 9%, the possibility could be a lot more. And comparing to the atrocious 1% savings rates we’ve seen in the past few years (recognising this is changing) investment seems to be the best option.

    4. Be tax efficient, and don’t get caught up with high fees

    Almost all countries have a way of saving for children which has tax breaks. In the UK, Junior ISAs (Indivdial Savings Accounts) are the best option, since you can choose savings or stocks and shares accounts both of which have a tax wrapper which protects any gains. You can also split the annual maximum contribution to a JISA of £20,000 across the two types if you want to split your risk, and any adult can contribute.

    There are different fees and options for investments which change, so it’s worth shopping aorund for the best. In the UK, moneysavingexpert has an up to date list with easy to understand comparisons.

    5. Think about long term futures

    I’ve written about my own pension issues many, many times, and with this in mind I also opened pensions for my children. In the UK there is a Junior version of the Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP) in order to give them some minimal comfort so they don’t end up making career choices out of paranoia that they’ll be broke old people.

    There are incredible benefits of compound interest for a J-SIPP, given that the money basically has 65 years to compound, and remains tax free regardless of growth depending on how you withdraw it. You can only pay in £3,600 per year, which attracts 20% tax relief. For me, I only started doing this when I have the other bases covered adequately and it remains a tiny portion of savings and spend in our household.

    But paying in £25 per month from birth through til 18 means you contribute £5,400 in total but with 5% growth, this will be worth about £30,000. So it’s not All The Money In The World, but it makes me feel more confident in how I can support their whole lives. At 18, the SIPP rolls over to them as an adult, and they can continue to contribute, but not withdraw money until retirement.

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    Paying for kids’ college: surprise choices

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland

    With all the busyness going on in the world, my blog posts here are a bit less frequent – but I am stlil around, and still thinking all the time about personal finance, and how to make this as useful as possible. Thanks for sticking with me! Come keep me company as well over on the related Insta page, which has a lot more about daily FIRE life choices (mostly food, let’s be honest) and more.

    The last few months I have been thinking about the next season of my life, and some of the related choices. My job has a mandatory rotation – basically I have to leave every five years or so and go to a new position in a new country. Aside from this being knackering for me, it has major impacts on my kids’ education. And their educational needs and choices has massive impacts on my options.

    When you have kids, this particularly sucks. Trying to move at ‘the right age’, not move during a school year, manage what each childs’ needs are and who to prioritise – and that’s alongside trying to balance what location and role is available at the point where I have to move.

    I have been focused up to now on their basic education and making choices around the kind of school and curriculum I want them to go through, funding this since our expat life style and having to move often usually means public schools aren’t an option, and just keeping them happy. For higher education, I have assumed that I will work and cash flow this.

    Two major issues have come up which surprised me. Firstly, British children need to live in the UK for three years before univsersity in order to be eligible to pay ‘home fees’. This means I either need to go back to the UK summer 2024 in order for my son to be there long enough – taking a massive hit on income since I’d have to change jobs etc – or be prepared to pay international fees. The difference is significant, with the University of London charging £9,250 for one year undergraduate, compared to £21,500 for an international student. Thankfully accessing student loans seems to be based on citizenship.

    But this has thrown out my calculations quite significantly. The average cost of living as a student in the UK is between £900-1400 per month (London hikes up the prices). So to attend university now as a home student requires around £71,000 for the three years for a home student, or £107,000 for an international. With inflation and assuming we aren’t eligible for home fees, this would be around £120,000 for my son and £130,000 for my daughter. And an additional £250,000 that I need to either save for or be able to cash flow. Ouch.

    This week I also found an update from Financial Samurai, who retired at 34. He is returning to work in order to ensure he can pay for college for his two children. There’s a very detailed post here, which also sets out the pros and cons of returning to work. His post also sets out an assumption that he will need to cash flow $1.5m for this purpose: assuming $700,000 for his son in 2036 and $800,000 in 2039 for his daughter. The assumption is based off the current $320,000 price tag of a four-year private university that grows in cost by 5% a year.

    Obviously the cost of higher education in the USA is significantly more than in the UK or most of Europe. But there are scholarships and a number of financial aid intruments that the UK doesn’t have in place, since we only introduced tuition fees in 1998, and the support around higher education hasn’t grown with the increasing fees.

    But this is all quite depressing. The FIRE community, unspurprisingly, also contains a number of different approaches to college education and the extent to which we should plan to pay for this for our children. Mr Money Mustache doesn’t save for his son’s college, and doesn’t anticipate he will want to enrol.

    Others suggest that a solid approach – and one which splits the risk with the children themselves – would be to plan to save one-third, cash-flow one third, and have the student take on loans etc for the remainder. In our case that means saving an additional £80,000 and cash-flowing £13-4,000 per year over six years, and assuming each child comes out with about £40,000 in debt. Luckily my kids’ ages mean they should be in college at different times. And whilst £40,000 seems to me like a massive debt to have at 21, I am not sure that other options we are going to have.

    So let’s see. For now it seems that the financial hit I would take on returning to the UK significantly outweighs the increased costs for university education. And I recognise that there are lots of different pathways coming up for training and education, as well as new employment pathways which don’t require a degree. University is unlikely to become obsolete – especially for things like medical degrees – but I expect other, major questions will be coming up as well as we continue this discussion.

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    The List: managing family life and finances

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

    Once again, life took over and the blog (and my Insta) took a back seat. Spending time supporting family; travelling with work; and generally taking a bit of time to Think About Stuff means that I have been focused elsewhere. Photos throughout this post from a trip to South Africa 🙂

    One of the things which I spend a lot of time thinking about is The List. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that every woman has The List, following us around like a puppy widdling on the carpets. If you ignore it, it only gets worse. And you’ll end up having to replace the carpets as well.

    I am sure other people have The List. But I suspect you also have your own corners of the Internet to chat about it, so you’re welcome here but my focus is on women, and single mums in particular.

    It’s a significant focus of the book/film I Don’t Know How She Does It where it’s used as a literary device to show how busy the main character, Kate’s, head is. She’s constantly shown to be in the middle of her List that includes everything from preparing packed lunches or a leading a high level business meeting to remembering to have sex with her husband (“It’s been three weeks! Move up the list to Urgent!”). Actually I loathe this film because at the end she realises she can’t have it all and quits her corporate role to have better work-life balance. I mean, I love a work-life balance as much as the next person, but it would be amazing if we could have some media which actually says – go ahead and do your thing, whatever it might be. And by the way, it might be the high-status, high-stakes power moves. If you’re there, it’s not a mistake until YOU decide it is.

    Anyway, The List represents the cognitive and emotional load that (mostly) women hold in terms of day to day responsibilities to make it all work. Any single parent regardless of gender will have this, because it is literally just you keeping food on the table and the wolves as far away as possible.

    Research found that this silent labour is divided into three categories, which overlap, making it harder to measure the time spent and the impact. Cognitive labour means thinking about keeping the wheels on: the practical elements of household management including shopping, cooking, household maintenance etc. Emotional labour is managing family reactions and sentiments: not just organising the playdate for your kids, but making sure they are confident and happy, the other parent knows what the pitfalls might be, ensuring they are well rested to they are calm enough to enjoy it etc etc. The third area is where these two overlap, and all of the anticipation and planning needed to make both the practicalities and the emotional responses to them run smoothly enough to keep things moving.

    There is a lot of research about how this burden falls largely on women – and extends past kids to taking on responsibilities for extended family, remembering and navigating family and cultural celebrations etc – compared to men. And on the impact this has on women’s ability to make career choices, work over time, get promoted and achieve higher salaries and more successful careers in the long term.

    To be clear, this isn’t just women whinging about doing the washing up. It has an impact globally. The UN estimates that unpaid and domestic labour equates to 10-39% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a figure which can contribute more to the economy than transport or manufacturing in some countries. The fact that the labour contribution is unpaid also makes it silent, and therefore much harder to combat.

    Anyway, all that to say that we all have The List. There are short, medium and long term things on it, and also Zombie Apocalpyse things which we should probably plan for, just in case. This latter is usually what comes up in the middle of the night.

    In April I really took time to try and work on some of the medium and longer term things, even taking days of work to get to them. I involved the kids in some of them to share the responsibility, and we had joint rewards when things got done. Items included:

    • Painted the front door
    • Tried to fix the doorbell: couldn’t do so, bought and fitted a new one
    • Cut back all the roses, random other plants I don’t know etc in the garden
    • De-cluttered all the random piles of books, donated those we don’t want and organised the keepers
    • Ruthless de-clutter of surfaces where things gather
    • Discussed, planned, wrote my updated Will, had it witnessed and sent it in. This also took a lot in terms of planning Guardianship of the kids if the worst happens, discussing it (in an age appropriate way) with them, and with the potenital Guardians. Pretty heavy going
    • Moved an old JISA into my daughter’s current ISA plan
    • Put an offer in on a rental property
    • Got the boiler serviced
    • Got the Quooker (hot tap thing) fixed – this has taken MONTHS to find someone to do it
    • Organised daughter’s birthday party and presents for later in May
    • Son’s hospital / doctor / dentist and what not appointments all lined up including a half day of really working through plans and options with him
    • 50 work things which needed to get done including performance reviews, tidying up my CV, and applying for new jobs

    And to be honest I do have a sense of feeling lighter. I know that The List is self-regenerating and many of the things on it will not biodegrade but will continue, widdling all over the carpet. But for now, it’s less of an albatross and more of a homing pigeon, and I can live with that.

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    Net Worth Update – April 2023

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland

    Come and join me over on Instagram, for regular tips on money saving (ok, very often about meal planning and grocery budgets), simple pleasures, mindful money and of course, weekly hang outs with the Barbies who are also here to inspire you!

    Since we are about to end the 2022-23 tax year in the UK, it’s the time of year I always calculate my net worth. I also did this in December, but since I had just sold my rental property and was calculating expenses, taxes and so on I kept some back for those purposes. Now the dust has settled, I have a much clearer picture.

    This time last year I was writing about how it feels to be at almost $1 million net worth. Interestingly, and largely thanks to changes in FOREX rates and that I have my investments in sterling, my dollar net worth hasn’t changed much and now stands at $980,000. But the true amount has increased: from £ 717,677 to £793,000 or an overall growth of £75,324 over one year.

    That equates to an increase of more than £6,250 per month which I can feel pretty proud of! It has also been a shocker of a year in terms of the markets, soaring cost of living and a whole bunch of other apocolyptic doom feelings.

    And it’s a reminder that time in the market rather than timing the market, and keeping consistent, is more important than looking for tricks.

    So what is my portfolio made of?

    With the sale of my rental, this is now much less heavy on house equity. I have split my savings into two here – one is the investments I have, and the other is a chunk of money which I intend to use to buy a rental property, and about £100,000 set aside for other investments and savings opportunities.

    Pensions £            288,826
    Savings £              68,711
    House Equity £              90,464
    Money to invest £            345,000
    TOTAL £            793,001

    The main growth has been in ‘money to invest’ – largely because I worked out all the house sale costs and this is the final figure – and also in pensions. I pay a significant chunk to my employer pension which is also matched, and I also added to my SIPP when I sold my rental.

    I always find it interesting how people calculate their FIRE number and what they need to live on. In theory I need £30,000 per year in retirement. Using the 25 x income calculation, would mean aiming for a net worth of £750,000 which I am already above.

    But there are a couple of issues with this. One is that my pensions can’t be accessed until 67 (or if all the pensions changes proposed come to pass, 100 years old by the time I get there). The other is that retiring on that money assumes that my kids are financially independent. I spend a lot more than £30,000 at the moment (I would say largely on them though I am sure they would disagree), and it’s an interesting moment of reflection about the choices I am making for me and the kids, and what our options are. My net worth also doesn’t include a paid for house any more, and my calculation of income required on retirement assumes that I have one and therefore don’t have a mortgage or rent.

    So that’s it. There are other very small pots in there like crypto and angel investments, but these are the real pillars of my financial plan. But the pot is growing, and I am staying on the path. Kudos to all of you following your dreams of independence!

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    End of tax year ‘to do’ list

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

    The clocks changed last night: this is how British people refer to daylight savings. I realised it is not universal, but since this is a post focusing on the UK tax year we can just start there.

    So, the clocks changed, the snowdrops are out, and its raining rather than snowing. That can only mean one thing: the end of the tax year. I’ve been talking about this – like all of it, the flowers, the weather and the financial planning – over on my IG page. Do come and join me, a lot of this is more fun with pictures.

    Since 1753, for various nefarious reasons, the UK tax year runs from 6th April-5th April the next year. That means there is a week until the 5th April deadline for the 2022-23 year ends, and since the 6-10th April are also public holidays (quaintly referred to as Bank Holidays, honestly I didn’t appreciate how idiomatic British English is until I moved away) there are just eight working days to put in play any transactions relating to this tax year.

    There are a couple of big things to be aware of in terms of the tax year:

    • If you self assess for tax, you will need to get ready for the end of the year and for doing your tax return;
    • There may be changes announced which will impact you from 6th April which you should be aware of; and
    • Each tax year you get tax-free allowances which mean you get to keep more of your money through savings, pensions and other approaches. It’s all very simple but if you don’t use the allowances you lose them.

    Of these, I will come back to planning your tax return (clue – I *love* doing mine). As more of a global blog I won’t go into the details on the second point but key things to look into are a raise in minimum wages for 21-22 year olds, but also a raise in national insurance in order to pay for social care. For this post I want to talk through some of the allowances, just in time for you to put them into play.

    1. You can max out tax free savings vehicles. The main one for most people is an Individual Savings Account, or ISA. There are multiple different types in the UK, but your money grows tax free. You can invest up to £20,000 per year. There are tons of benefits here – you don’t pay tax on any of the growth, ever, and since you can place it in a stocks and shares ISA you have a decent chance of it growing a lot. There are other options including Lifetime ISAs (though these are open only to people below 40, and are closing out). ISAs need to be opened or rolled over each year and money needs to be paid in before 5th April. If you don’t reach the £20,000 contribution allowance you just get it again next year – and it’s totally worth setting one up however much or little you can put in.
    2. This is also true for savings vehicles for your children. Junior ISAs (JISA) have an allowance of £9,000 per child per year and with stocks and shares JISAs and the power of compound interest, this can make a huge difference in financial planning for your children.
    3. Also thinking of savings for kids, there is the option to open a Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP) just as there is for adults. The allowance is £3,600 per child per year and whilst the account moves into their name at 18, they cannot access the money until age 57. Again, the power here is from compound interest so even a tiny amount can be worth it with the tax benefits thrown in as well.
    4. For adults, the SIPP allowance is also worth investigating, especially if there are limits to your workplace pension or other options. This year you can pay in up to 100% of your gross annual earnings up to a maximum of £40,000 which will increase in 2023-24 to £60,000.
    5. If you are married then there are tax free allowances you can take advantage of. It’s possible to ‘share’ a tax allowance with a spouse depending on your different earning levels. Doesn’t apply to me so have not looked into it deeply, but it’s worth noting.
    6. Finally, check your tax code. It is your responsibility to do this – whilst there is a tax free allowance for income tax each year, the wrong tax code can mean that you’re paying too little or too much, and that can come back around when you least need an extra bill.

    I hope that has been useful! Remeber – with the time left, you could open a new account and max out the allowances before the end of the year.

    Reminder on the disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial planner or advisor and none of this blog or post constitutes ‘advice’. Treat is as seriously as if you were chatting to someone super interested in a subject at a bar. So you might find out something intersesting but you definitely wouldn’t act on it until you took other advice. Cool? Cool.

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    Changes future you will be grateful for

    Featured / Gracie Sunderland

    I was inspired this week by a Twitter post by Dan Go on ‘things I’m doing at 43 to avoid regret when I am 73‘. I am 43: I don’t like regrets. The guy writing is a fairly traditional motivational coach of the kind where I doubt we would have much in common, so I thought I would come up with my own.

    And whilst this account isn’t on Twitter we are definitely on Insta: come and join us, the water’s lovely!

    So these are the ten things that came to me, most of which are not a surprise. All of them have simple things that can be done today, or this month, and all of them will help you not just in 30 years time but right now in terms of living in your peace.

    Work out what matters to you. Everything else comes from this. You are old enough now to know what matters to you, and to go out and live it. Where there are perceived tensions, this can be awkward, but really they are rarely so dire as to make things impossible. And think about it in terms of your top three since as Brené Brown says, more than three priorities is the same as admitting that we can’t actually choose. For me the three priorities are my kids, my community, and social justice. But it can be anything: your faith, your family in a larger sense, or something granular like running or gardening which gives you the kind of mental and physical strength and peace to deal with everything else. It really doesn’t matter. But it means you have a kind of north star to come back to if you are feeling off-course.

    Make commitments. Look, you get to decide what you want and what you don’t (and if you are a guy, I might have just lost you with this one). But the older I get, the less respect I have for the emotionally immature reluctance to commit. It’s not just about intimate relationships, but with everything. Being half-assed means getting half-assed results. That will be true whether it means you are hoping a relationship with a partner will grow positively whilst you also try and enjoy keeping your options open: or whether fear is making you self sabotage with how you do your work. Instead of seeing commitment as a threat to your freedom, see it as a way to aim for depth instead of breadth. You might be amazed.

      Learn to deal with hard things. In Dan’s post he talked about learning to deal with grief, which is a critical on especially at this time in our lives. But we all have our stumbling blocks. Knowing yourself better is a great first step: understanding that you struggle with conflict, or shame, or whatever means you can look it in the eye and try to learn new mechanisms. It’s not enough to stop there though, and just get into an anxiety spiral when hard things are coming up. Work through them, knowing that crappy things will just be crappy, but they will no longer be impossible.

      Get financially secure. So my whole blog is pretty much about this, but to me it’s not a priority because it’s a mechanism which allows me to focus on the critical issues. But paying off debt, organising your finances and mindfully allocating your money toward your priorities really does set you free to focus on other things. If you don’t know where to start, check out my three introductory posts: getting started, auditing your fixed costs, and paying yourself first.

      Take time with people who might not be around for long. This might well be your parents – and with the total uncertainty of life and how hard this year has already been – it could be anyone that matters to you. Spend time to really understand them, ask the questions you might want answers to in the future, and make your peace with any lingering anger or resentment.

      Take care of your body. At 43 I can see that the careless disregard I have always had for my body – I mean it’s just there, it looks ok, what’s the issue? – will in years that might be coming very soon, result in challenges. There is endless advice out there about how to exercise, what to eat, staying healthy blah blah and none of it turns me on at all. So this one is a simplified version: to treat my body like a precious and rare commodity, since that is what it is. That means making those regular appointments at the dentist or GP; taking some basic care over what I eat, how much and when; and getting some exercise in. Some of that is easier than others, but none of this requires me becoming a world class weightlifter, just having one less slice of cake. And recognising that life is guaranteed to nobody (see point above…) might help focus on this.

      Make a plan, and go for it. So thirty years seems like a long time. I mean, I was 13 thirty years ago: and now I have a 13 year old. But being clear where you want to go matters, and more at this age maybe than any other. I don’t want to work for another 25 years (which is what the UK State pension age qould require) but that means really working toward an alternative. I don’t want to be a burden on my kids in terms of my money or my health – I mean I will totally rely on them but that’s part of our cultural norms, I don’t want to have to – so making sure that I work on these now is critical.

      Protect your energy. This might mean cutting off toxic people, or it might mean dealing with a sticky issue which has been nagging away at you. For me it means trying to be less negative and speaking out rather than resenting things. But it also means saying no to certain situations where I feel obliged to be spending time with people that I don’t really get any value from. Being able to prioritise protecting my energy over fulfilling social obligations feels like a gift.

      Do what you love. OK so you might not be able to do this instead of your day job (or not yet) but doing what you love really does matter. Doing activities you love is part of dementia prevention: hobbies help us keep mentally stimulated without pressure, generates a sense of achievement and goal setting, relieves stress and builds confidence. So whether it relates to exercise and keeping healthy, or you do jigsaw puzzles, write a blog, paint in your attic, or whatever, do it because you love it. Note: partying doesn’t count: dancing totally does.

      Work out what needs to be in place if you pass away. Yes make a will, but also prepare your executors. If you have kids, work out the details of guardianship for them and if they are old enough, prepare them for what would happen if you passed. Organising your money into a Trust, along with simplifying and preparing a guide to all the paperwork will make things so much easier for everyone at a time when they will already be devestated by losing you. Which, God willing, will be much after you turn 73!

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      So I sold my rental: part 1

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 4 Comments

      Welcome to this blog post – if you’re new, do have a poke about the other posts, and if you’re an old friend, thanks for sticking with me. Also do come join us over on Instagram for frugal food and adventure ideas, reflections from the Barbies (those girls don’t play), and some inspiration.

      So, I was banging on mysteriously in my financial review of 2022 about some major changes in my portfolio, and the biggest one is that I have sold my rental property in the UK. This was something under consideration for a long time – indeed, it’s a year ago that I made the first call to an estate agent to get a valuation. During my portfolio valuation in March 2022, I realised that 60% of my net worth is in property. Since around 30% was in pensions, it meant that there was very little liquidity.

      Whilst I don’t need a ton of liquid cash, I am at a point where I need more flexibility. That might mean having more accessible money for investing in a side hustle, or a smaller property in Kenya as I plan my transition there. So it doesn’t mean putting it all under the bed in a cardboard box but it also doesn’t mean hosting so much of my net worth in one property.

      I write about housing and home ownership a lot, especially recognising the tensions where structural inequalities impact people’s ability to own a home and how this affects generational wealth. I also recognise that the UK rental market is an absolute catastrophe, with rising rents and rising uncertainties holding back a huge number of people from fulfilling their potential. It isn’t just about whether people can buy a home of their own: spending huge amounts on rent means that it’s harder to save for a future, and lack of stability in the market is impacting the sense of living in ‘permacrisis‘ which is impacting mental health for so many.

      All of which are critical conversations. But this post is just about the decision to sell my rental property, and how it is working out so far.

      One of the main challenges with having such a heavy lean towards net worth invested in property, is the level of risk. Whilst owning a house to live comes with a certain amount of risk, it is very different to owning property as an investment. If my house that I live in goes down in value, all the other houses locally will likely go down in value too meaning that I haven’t lost out substantively: the market has changed for all. Plus if I want to live in that house, as long as I can pay the mortgage (hello rising inflation), it balances out.

      With the uncertainties in the housing market in the UK, I felt that the risk was too great and that I would be stuck with the house forever. I had bought the house planning to live in it with my kids, but then I got a job overseas and now I really don’t see us moving back any time soon. Whilst it was a good house for us when my children were smaller, I had planned for it to be a ‘five year home’ and we are past that point – even if we wanted to move back, the size and layout of the house, and proximity to a decent secondary school, means it doesn’t work for this season in our lives.

      Whilst the rental income was covering costs, it wasn’t enough to make the locking up of all other assets worth it. In fact, choosing to rent out a house that I had bought as a family home only made sense when I was thinking we might move back to it. Many FIRE podcasts talk about this – basically, what you look for in a rental property and a home for yourself are different. Which is not rocket science, but good to remember.

      Paula Pant has some useful guides to working out whether a rental property is worth it. You can have a read for yourself to get into the complexities of it, but my property fails at the first hurdle. Paula’s ‘one percent rule’ recommends that you only consider a property where the rent equals one percent of the purchase price. So if you have a house like mine where the acquisition price was £360,000 it should rent for £3,600 per month. Whilst the rental markets in the UK and US are totally different, by the time of the sale (noting that the value had increased, and I had frozen rents at the same amount since 2016), rent for my property equaled less than 0.25% of the market value.

      So I decided to sell. I wanted to treat my tenants well, and gave them six months notice that I would not be renewing their tenancy in September. I agreed a price and put the house on the market. Since things are so strange at the moment, I had no offers for some time, then an over asking price offer which I accepted immediately. There was a lot of negotiation trying to get things done as quickly as possible on their side so they could be in for Christmas, and my recognising that just after my dad passed away, I was really not capable of dealing with very much. So, with help from the estate agents, we muddled through and completed on the sale 10 days before Christmas.

      And that’s it! It feels like a long post but it was a decision which took so much thought, and one where a lot of the thinking was basically crystal-balling in terms of what would happen with housing market, mortgage rates and so on. And in the end, I had to make a decision based on the information that I had at the time, and what season of life I am in right now. I am finalising the financial assessment of how it went and will share in a future post (including all the joy of Capital Gains Tax woohoo) but for now, I am excited about what’s next for that money, and hoping the new owners had a great Christmas in their new home.

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      2022: Financial year in review

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      I like to start the new year with a stocktake of how my finances are doing and whether my savings and investments went according to plan, then using this as a prelude to setting some plans and goals for the coming year. This isn’t the only focus for the year, so check out future posts to find out more about setting intentions, vision boards and the like. But it is a good way of gathering some baseline data to see where I am starting from.

      To say 2022 was a tricky year financially is a massive understatement. Whilst the economy globally seemed to be strengthening post-COVID at the start of the year, the invasion of Ukraine in February turned a lot of the world’s certainties on their head. Prices started to go up for petrol, food, energy, leading to massive cost increases in the basics for most households.

      This trend has continued throughout the year, with supply chain issues as well as scarcity in some areas leading to a crisis with the soaring cost of living. I feel like I’ve been writing about this all year: 92% of adults in the UK have reported an increase in the cost of living, with 60% saying they are ‘very concerned’ about their ability to cope with additional rises. Food banks in the UK had to distribute more than 1.3 million food parcels in 2022, an increase of 50% since pre-COVID figures. I recognise that whilst financial freedom remains a critical goal in my life, so many people are getting closer to the financial precipice that they really need to get support, and get it now.

      Inflation also grew at a significant and rapid rate, hitting almost 11% in the UK by the end of December. For many people, including me, this had an immediate impact on mortgage interest rates, biting even deeper into the daily costs of getting by. Whilst the expectation is that inflation has now hit its highest point and will start to reduce in 2023, the impact (and uncertainty) of these shifts are real.

      It has also been a shaky year for the markets. Again an understatement, with the Financial Times headline for the end of the year reading Stock and bond markets shed more than $30tn in ‘brutal’ 2022. Markets in the US had their worst year since 2008 (and we all remember what a brilliant year that was). Whilst I love FIRE and the focus on both balancing for risks, and keeping your head in the event of a downturn – and I have definitely moved on from panic selling in 2020 – it has felt like another rollercoaster ride which just hasn’t been that fun.

      This has also been the worst year in terms of growth for my own portfolio. I made some major changes this year (more about this in future posts) to rebalance away from being over-invested in property, but continued to invest throughout the year in mutual funds and my pensions. I added in kids’ savings here which I don’t normally do, but as they are starting to get older I need to come back to my financial planning for them, and make sure I am adjusting as needed depending on their age and stage.

      My investments this year came to almost £80,000, though some of this came from my property sale meaning that my investment from salary alone came to £50,000. I am extremely proud of this figure and what it represents in terms of prioritisation and tenacity. Since I have been working on myself over the last few years, I can feel that pride at the same time as recognising that my salary and privileges mean that I am in a very unusual and blessed position.

      2022 Contributions
      Personal pension (SIPP) £                   8,600
      Savings (stocks and shares ISA, emergency savings) £                 31,000
      Work Pension (pre-tax) £                 18,444
      Mortgage capital overpaid £                   5,000
      Kids’ savings (JISA, J-SIPP) £                 16,000
      Contributions £                 79,044

      Next steps for me are to do a review of my net worth (and realistically to not compare it to a US$ amount as I traditionally have – with the recent forex issues, this is a pathway to sadness) and set out some plans and goals for 2023. Whilst I do that, I will just continue to save and invest as usual, and get ready for what is hopefully an easier year for us all.

      Look forward to hearing about your 2022 and how able you were to follow your financial plans given that major challenges during the year.

      Featured

      2022 FIRE Podcast Roundup

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      Firstly thank you for being here with me in 2022, and for joining me over on Instagram. In spite of a very challenging year, it’s been a privilege and a blast!

      I’m so happy to be back with you after a much needed break, and writing this gentle post with some recommendations has been a nice way to return. But I am looking forward to much more on family, mindfulnesss, FIRE and much more in 2023.

      I’ve been consuming a lot of content recently, and since it’s such a hit and miss process, thought it was time to share some links and ideas as to where to find more FIRE and mindful money advice. And with the end of 2022 just round the corner, it might also be the time when people look for something to get them in the zone for making New Year’s Resolutions.

      FIRE is about so many things to so many people that it can take a while to find something that speaks to you – prioritising what matters in your life, living mindfully, rejecting bullshit corporate culture, or just being really, really rich – that you might need to dig to find what you need.

      FIRE has definitely become part of more regular conversation over the past few years, but 2022 didn’t feel like there were many new contenders in terms of content creation.

      I will focus on podcasts here, all of which work for people who are FIRE-curious, newly on this path, or much further along. Most of the books I read this year have been about mindset (and start ups – more of which soon) so I won’t include them in this post. I have stayed true to my three favourite podcasts which I listen to regularly, and whilst I have tried a range of new things, none have really compared.

      Journey to Launch

      Hosted by the fabulous Jamila Souffrant, Journey to Launch remains a staple for me.

      She talks to her own experience of working toward FIRE goals as a mum, bringing on guests to talk about money, making consicous choices, building generational wealth especially in Black communities, and a whole lot more.

      Journey to Launch is also active on Instagram (and she even replied to me once #fangirlscream) with real advice as well as motivational thinking.

      Afford Anything

      Paula Pant is such an OG in the FIRE space that she was one of the advisors on this year’s Netflix hit Get Smart With Money.

      I love her mantra ‘you can afford anything, but not everything‘. Coming from a determined and mindful standpoint with your money and your life is more importnat to me in FIRE thinking than the end goals. Paula and her guests talk about this a lot, providing guidance and inspiration on mindset, decision making and prioritisation, and optimising what you have.

      She is a property guru and whilst a lot of the advice there is for listeners in the US, the overall thought process is still inspiring. You can also find her over on Instagram.

      Choose FI

      The third go-to is Choose FI. This year, one of the two hosts left to focus on other priorities so it’s now fronted by Brad Barrett (who is always doing ‘quite well’ – an in joke you will need to listen out for from earlier episodes) along with guests.

      Choose FI started as a community, aiming to provide crowd-sourced advice, and the community feeling is evident. I love the personal journey stories, especially when people come back on after months or years to update the audience on how things are going. The bumpy ride and unexpected turns that people go through are inspiring and comforting when your own journey takes some new twists. Find them on Instagram as well.

      I hope you enoy them! What have you enjoyed or been inspired by this year? What am I missing? I love sharing ideas and content recommendations with the community so do flag whatever has been part of your 2022 journey.

      Enjoy your New Year’s Day and I hope you are feeling inspired for the new year!

      Featured

      My father’s gift

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 3 Comments

      Having written just a month ago about grief, I am devestated to say that my father passed away this week.

      He has been ill for many months so it wasn’t a surprise. He went quietly as he would have wanted to: fell asleep holding my mum’s hand and slipped silently from this world during the night. We had a lot of time during his illness to share our love and our feelings with him, so he went having ensured that we weren’t left with ‘things unsaid’ – those things which can become toxic after someone’s passing.

      A rainbow, picture taken by my daughter the day my father passed away. “Look,” she said “a little gift from pa.”

      But it is still unimaginable to me that this world continnues to exist without him in it. I believe that he is with God, and that his spirit will live on – those that we have loved never truly leave us. So I thought I would use this post to celebrate that spirit and his life, and share some of the lessons he has given me over the years which I will take with me and keep sharing with my children.

      • There are some areas where you shouldn’t try to save money. Namely: books, wine, cheese. Books are something I try not to keep buying, partly so my home doesn’t end up with teetering stacks of books in every corner and partly so I can give up on a book I’m not enjoying rather than feeling the need to see it through ‘since I paid for it’. But I am prepared to rethink this one to pay respects to my dad.
      • Making people feel loved means seeing who they are and what they need. He came into my life at 14, becoming my step-dad. I call him my dad out of love and respect – and because that is who he really was for me. From the day we first met, he was someone who created a feeling of love and respect with such a simple grace, largely by really trying to understand who I was, how I felt and what I needed. And that effort and level of care was always the bedrock of our relationship, and meant that I could talk to him and rely on him for anything.
      • Then you show them that love. As a man born in 1939, my dad was maybe not an obvious candidate for showing emotions. But my kids and I have always felt supported on a kind of cloud of love and affection. When we were living overseas he sent a weekly package of cuttings from the newspaper (often with speech bubbles or other commentary so it was clear where he stood), letters, and little notes he had taken about things we’d be interested in. I find little cuttings, notes and letters, throughout my house: tucked into recipe books, or mixed in with the kids’ stuff. And I love to see them.
      • Poetry is not a luxury. He really loved poetry and is one person who consistently gave me books of poetry as gifts. It’s not something I do for myself, but every few weeks I pick up one of these books, let it fall open, and just enjoy the small, beautifully written treat within. I added this activity – poetry i-Ching if you will – into a list of ‘5 minute treats’ recently and I love it.
      • Love hard. It’s worth it. My parents got married after messy divorces on both sides. They learned to trust each other, and built a successful life and family. That’s a lesson worth learning.
      • Unconditional love is rarer than you think. My dad was the only person who cried with joy when I finished my PhD (apart from me but I cried with relief) and I gave them a bound version which referenced them in the acknowledgements. For my mum, it was too tied up in needing to compare my achievements with my siblings. But for my dad, it was much more simple: “You did a great thing. And I couldn’t be prouder.”
      • Cycling drunkenly into a hedge is a family thing. Don’t sweat it. (Just gonna leave that one there without an explanation!)

      Grief is hard. Loss is hard. Relationships with our parents and family can be hard. Parenting and trying to get it right can be hard. But it’s not all hard, or not always. It’s a beautiful, tight hug from someone who really knows and loves you, whatever your flaws. A hug that you can still feel long after they have gone.

      Thanks for being here with me at this difficult time. This blog is about all the things that make up a life, and grief and love are part of that. Now go and give someone a hug, or a call, and tell them you love them.

      Featured

      Pension planning

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      So I think a lot about pensions. Pensions are by far the biggest topic when I talk to women in the same sector as I am. Or single parents. Or anyone who has moved between jobs, or between traditional jobs and entrepreneurship. So, everyone really.

      There are a few different schools of thought. Many younger people I speak to have such little faith in the pensions industry that they are not convinced of the need to invest in retirement vehicles. In fact one-third of savers don’t have faith in the industry – and this survey was done with savers, so imagine the additional people who don’t have faith to the point where they just don’t save. Almost 60% of people believe they will not have enough to retire on, with women being significantly less confident about their ability to retire at all, or comfortably.

      Not totally relevant but much more interesting than pictures of currency notes and clocks. Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

      I’ve written a couple of times about calculating what you need to retire on, and on working out across your own financial journeys, especially if you want to retire early, where you might have gaps in your income prior to being able to access pension funds.

      One tricky area to work through is the difference between defined benefit and defined contribution pensions. Sometimes I imagine myself on the Dave Ramsey show explaining at length why I don’t have $1million in retirement, and why that doesn’t matter because I am largely in defined benefit pensions. I realise that we have now plumbed the depths of my boring internal monologue, but putting that aside, let’s continue.

      The first point is that defined benefit pensions are largely in the public sector, and they are increasingly rare. The second is that you will very rarely be able to choose which one you get. You may, if you are joining public service, be offered this option. And – whislt I don’t normally give unequivocal advice – you should always choose defined benefits for the reasons outlined below:

      Some of the differences across pension type

      Defined benefit pensions are usually linked to the length of service in the company, so it can feel pretty small or silly, but it all adds up. The greatest benefit to defined contribution is that a) you can choose where to invest the funds yourself and b) you can usually roll pension contributions into a single fund as you move jobs.

      I have three defined benefit pensions, and one SIPP which I invest into regardless of how good my company pension looks. The figures below assume I stay in my current job for another two years: many defined benefit pensions require a minimum stay with the organisation. So how do my pensions look?

        Transfer valueAnnual guaranteed
      income retirement
      Defined benefit pension 1 £          62,304 £            6,250
      Defined benefit pension 2 £          39,462 £            1,400
      Defined benefit pension 3 £        104,864 £          15,266
        £        206,630 £          22,916
      Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) £          44,075 £               400
      TOTAL ACROSS ALL £        250,705 £          23,316

      Even a quick glance suggests that the benefit from the defined pension is better than the defined contribution on the SIPP. However – and it’s a significant caveat – the SIPP will grow with the market. Or hopefully grow, in these days, who knows.

      This is where it gets interesting. Using the more traditional FIRE rule of 4% withdrawal, to achieve the  £30,000 per year in retirement I would need to save £750,000 overall. Side bar – Mustachian Calcs are great calculators for working this sort of thing out. As you can see, I am not far off from that £30,000, and indeed would reach it if I could add in the UK State Pension (caveats galore!) but my portfolio ‘value’ is only around one-third of that net worth calculation.

      Definitely more on this in blogs to come. It’s both a tangled old web, and a cornerstone of what we’re trying to do here. So do come back and join me on Instagram for more.

      Featured

      The Fear

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      Things seem pretty scary at the moment. Climate disasters, war in Ukraine, Ebola in Uganda, right wing shifts in Italy, significant remilitarisation in Europe, a soaring cost of living – I could go on. Having always been a political animal I now refuse to have the news on in the morning because it makes me want to go back to bed and just stay there.

      Writing a blog about personal finance (and I mean that in the loosest sense) means that recognising the impact political and socio-economic changes have on people’s lives and opportunities is critical. There is a big difference between painting a falsely aspirational picture versus giving people hope and courage to try a different path and see how they can succeed in their context.

      So I just wanted to take today to talk about The Fear and why it’s not unfounded.

      100% faith over fear. But it takes a lot to say faithful in an unstable world when you keep getting kicked down. Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

      Personal finance is largely built on evidence-based faith. We look at the options open to us; historical shifts, values and movements; and our own future plans and needs. Then use all that information to triangulate the best options. I mean – this is what happens ideally. Sometimes we get hopeful, or greedy, and it’s more like a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Sometimes we freak out, and it’s more like flipping over a table full of delicious food in order to hide underneath it. But in essence, making decisions means assessing what we think will happen, in our lives and in the markets, and trying to match them up with available options.

      Take deciding to invest in the stock market. This is traditionally somewhere where it’s easy to be fearful, and decide not to get involved (caveat – there are other excellent political reasons not to do so, but that’s for another time). It is also a place where people are likely not to realise that not investing creates other risks around having their savings eroded by inflation. But intentional action always feels more scary than unintentional inaction, even where the impact might be the same.

      Over a long period of time, the stock market has consistently gone up. As the financial planners say, it is time in the market, not timing the market that delivers results. Taking the graph below which models the sorry history of a fictional investor who puts money in just at the worst possible time, we see that he still benefits from compound interest and ended up with a 7.98% annualised return.

      In other words, however disastrous certain moments were, the net result of investing in the stock market has been positive.

      Modelling of a single, ill-timed (and imaginary) investor. Credit

      The massive caveat here is that if the market crashes at a point where you need your money, you are screwed. And that’s where The Fear comes in. In the example above, if that investor had lost their job and been forced to pull out their savings to live off, or reached pensionable age and had to cash out an invested pension, they would not have won.

      This is all aside from people freaking out and pulling their own money at the wrong time, like I did in 2020. If you are in a position where you must – either for reasons of perception or fact – have to take money out of the market at a time when it is down, you will lose.

      This week I have been reading Nomadland (also a film). This amazing book charts what has happened to the “invisible casualties of the Great Recession”, largely older people who unexpectedly found that, in spite of investing in it for years, the American Dream would be forever out of their reach. There is more I want to reflect on about the changing nature of work – most of the people featured in the book will never be able to retire but are forced to work seasonal, temporary jobs – but that’s for another time.

      Having a global financial shitstorm happen at a time in your own life where for whatever reason – divorce, illness, getting to an age where you are considered disposable – on top of all the other institutionalised inequalities that impact on people’s ability to make ends meet, can push you permantly to the bottom of the heap. Whils the stock market recovered from the 2008 mega crash, and people who were able to stay in the market have done very well indeed, 10 million Americans lost their homes. For those who lost their homes but were upside down on the mortgage or on other debt, they could spend many years paying for something they no longer own. Having to make money to service a debt for a dream they suddenly couldn’t afford.

      So The Fear is real. It’s not to stop any of us from dreaming, or investing, or anything else. I still wanted to recognise how quickly things can go left: there are long term impacts that we can still see, and blithely ignoring the possibilities is just foolishness. I want to leave with these two photos from Detroit of a residential street 9 years apart, in 2009 and 2018. Detroit was one of the hardest hit areas during the recession, meaning there are a lot of streets like this.

      It’s ok to be afraid and still look for ways to keep moving in faith: in fact, that’s maybe all we have. But remember that there are people and places which have been erased by these historical financial moments. And they won’t be coming back.

      From a community to an overgrown pathway in less than ten years. Read the full story and see other examples here.

      Featured

      Grief, and strength

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Damn it’s been a bit of a year. After ‘the COVID years’ it seemed things might get easier, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

      I’ve been offline for a week as I had to go back to the UK to support a family member whose wife passed away suddenly at 46, leaving him with two children. Suffice to say, it’s been a brutal week and I only hope I can support him during the long dark night of grieving and dealing with the practical and emotional challenges of becoming a widowed dad.

      There are lots of relevant things I could write about (and might come back to): estate planning; making a will; or accessing benefits when your circumstances change. 1 in 20 children in the UK have experienced the loss of a parent before the age of 16 so whilst this is something none of us as parents want to think about, it’s common enough that we should be preparing for it, just in case. But all this stuff will have to wait whilst I ride out the sadness and be there for the family.

      In addition to the loss of the individual, and the sadness around the loss her children in particular have suffered and what it means for their lives, I have a real sense of losing a shared history. Of course it’s not the most important thing, but when there are people whose lives have intertwined with yours since childhood, losing them is like a mini ending of an era. And for whatever reason, it feels like we have lost a lot of people so there is a sense of standing on a glacier which is slowly melting into the sea (awkward climate change image).

      All our dreams and plans have foundations in where we come from and which families and communities we are part of. What I have learnt, as someone who moves and travels (phsyically and emotionally) a lot is that this is true whether we realise it or not. The comfort of being with people with whom you have not just a shared history but a shorthand or venacular is immense, and it matters so much to be able to just rest in that. No wonder losing it is hard.

      Featured

      The cost of having kids

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      This started off as two totally different posts but for whatever reason, I ended up wanting to talk about the cost of having kids. Clearly feeling grumpy about it!

      Having kids is a huge fianancial commitment whether you are single or not: even a married mama will earn one-third less than male counterparts by the time her eldest is 12. Very often people focus on the cost of having kids in terms of the things we need to buy for them, which is honestly by far the smallest part of the equation. Lots of places list out the things you’ll need and how much they might cost but it’s not rocket science, and with the rise in great second hand equipement, doesn’t need to break the bank. I bought everything second hand (other than a car seat because you can’t guarantee it hasn’t been in an accident which migth render it useless, and cot or Moses basket mattresses since you there is a small chance that using a second hand mattress from outside the family increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS).

      Clue: you need very little of this stuff. Photo by elliot verhaeren on Unsplash

      I got many things for free, and did without a whole load of others which seemed unimportant. Then I made sure I passed on all my used stuff, from books and maternity wear to kids clothes, toys and books, to make sure someone else benefitted. Kids use things for such a short amount of time – though honestly they can also properly trash some things which are just unusable after a few months – that most things are good for another few years. So much of the things we purchase for our children end up as waste, with more than 2.2 billion pounds of clothing for children aged 0-11 ending up in American landfill each year: the equivalent of 45 pounds per child. 90% of toys are made at least partly of plastic, and 80% end up in landfill including things in good working order that kids have just grown out of.

      Which is kind of ironic given that this wastefulness is bringing about the kind of climate change that means the lovely babies we are so proud to show off in a new outfit, or make smile with a new toy, are more likely than ever to end up living their adult lives at the sharp end of a fiery apocolyptic disaster. And even if you don’t believe in climate change (you probably shouldn’t be on this blog to be fair) or don’t care, the sheer wastefulness in terms of money and resources makes doing things differently surprisingly easy.

      Not my child but what a cutie: Photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash

      But these costs are nothing compared with the cost of childcare, and the impact on your career. And we haven’t even started talking about if you want to prepare them for college, or save up so they can have a deposit for a house. In 2020, 49% of first time buyers under 35 got help with their deposit from their parents, with the majority of them saying they wouldn’t have been able to buy a house without this support. So if you can’t help out your kids, they are going to get left further behind. Just in case you didn’t feel bad enough already.

      Research (though I always think these things are a bit vague given the many different approaches you can take to parenting) suggests that the cost of raising a child in the UK is £193,801 for a single parent. Using that and the lack of financial support since their birth, I will have lost almost £400,000 by having children. According to some back-of the-envelope calculators, investing that in a low cost ETF or stocks and shares ISA would grow to around £700,000 in the 18 years. Add to that the reduced earning power, and having two kids has probably cost me £1 million.

      Obviously, I didn’t have children to make money (child labour is illegal after all…) And this calculation doesn’t include the fact that they will look after me in my old age (which, thanks to our cultural background, they really really will). Having kids is awesome, and my two are both pretty much the best fun I ever have, as well as potentially being part of the solution to the problems my and my parents’ generation have created in this world.

      Also not my kid, but a child quietly reading a book is something I fully support. Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

      But the cost of having children is real, and shouldering the burden alone can feel like a huge strain. Being part of the FIRE movement, where it feels like it’s predominantly white married couples who have nothing to do with my life (this was the other post I started writing) can make things feel even lonelier. But FIRE as an approach means that I feel in control or the spending and financial decisions I make, and more confident that I am creating the kind of future my kids, and I, deserve.

      Featured

      Frugal School Holidays #2

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      Carrying on from last week’s posts about the cost of school holidays and what I ended up spending, I wanted to share a bit more on what we actually did. I also shared activities and ideas throughout the holidays on this blog’s Instagram account: come and join us!

      There was a big shift in my thinking this year for a couple of reasons. One of these is just the age of kids – a lot of my suggestions don’t work if you have younger kids who need a lot more supervision. I would say though that ages about 4-8 are the best for frugal holidays as long as you can take time off work to hang out with them (and that’s a big, big if). Now mine are 9 and 13, they have different needs and opportunities.

      The other thing that changed for me was taking an active decision to let my kids get bored.

      I have always been clear with them that their boredom is not my responsibility. But there is also tremendous pressure to fill our kids’ time with endless opportunity and stimulation. So much of the insistence that we have our children do so much outside of school is a concern that they will get left behind: without all the extra tutoring, music, sports blahdy blah they will somehow be less rounded, less competitive and overall less successful. If you are in a country where yours it not the majority culture, there might also be language or religious classes or community events which are important in making sure your kids feel their roots. That’s a lot of expectations we’re putting on our kids, and they are exhausted. And so are we.

      An article in Psychology Today is clear that parental expectations, and a zombie apocolypse view of the world where missing out on the right college means Your Life Is Over is pushing parents to put too much pressure on their kids. As the article notes, whilst extra-curricular pursuits were a hobby or a chance to try new things,“each activity is now one more area for social comparison and thus one more possible source of stress and anxiety“. Another article sounded the alarm for the impact of this on children in terms of squeezing out valuable family time. A survey in the UK found that 90% of children went to after school activities 4-5 times per week often getting home as late as 8 or 9pm, meaning chances of meaningful family conversation, or a relaxed dinner where you chat through the day, are slim.

      Internet suggestion for a photo of borderom 😀 Photo by Tony Tran on Unsplash

      Aside from the existentialist question as to the future of Higher Education (which is a whoooole other conversation), cramming in so much to our kids’ days is putting huge pressure on them, but also onto us as parents emotionally, financially and in terms logistics and organisational skills. Especially when there is only one parent and no family around. I don’t want to spend all my weekends watching football or basketball matches (as a side note – don’t attend U11 basketball matches with a hangover. The noise will make you wish you were dead) or schlepping children across town for various activities. Often both of my kids will need me to take them somewhere, attend or support them or whatever, at the same time. And I just can’t.

      So with all this in mind, I decided that we all needed a break over the summer. And this meant cancelling a long held plan to go to Kenya for four weeks (there were other reasons for this but actually it was something of a relief in terms of money and having to organise All The Things) and then sitting down with the kids to talk about what a more relaxed and frugal summer meant. I also had to work all but two weeks of the holiday, and travelled for work for parts of three weeks.

      So this is what we did:

      Getting the most of what we already own

      Use holiday clubs when you have to. In previous years I used clubs to keep the kids entertained and busy. This year I only used them for when I was travelling, since they will have a nanny around to keep them safe and fed, but they need more in terms of things to do. My daughter did three clubs which were actually great – explorers, where they went out every day on the train and poked about Copenhagen; analogue photography where they learned to use cameras and to take and develop their own pictures and had an exhibition; and, more randomly, badminton and origami. She loved them, made some friends who then came to play at the weekend, and got out of the house. But the three weeks were definitely enough.

      Take a chance to use what you already have. I feel like in spite of general frugality, we have a LOT of stuff. We got out a bunch of things which have been sitting around since we moved, putting up gymnastics rings and a ladder into a convenient tree, and finding badminton and tennis racquets for games in the garden. I threw all our ‘sand toys’ into the back of the car so they would always be on hand. We also spent a few days of my holidays going through all the stuff in my daughter’s room to get rid of clothes, books and toys which she has grown out of. This all went on Freecycle so other families will get to enjoy them, whislt she has a clearer view of things she actually likes. I also encouraged her to get out things she hasn’t used for a while or made time to play with: sticker and activity books, craft kits and so on, many of which were good fun over the holidays.

      And doing the garden means saving money buying flowers!

      Help them think of projects. We also sat down and came up with ideas of things they can work on when I am not there, using what’s around. We thought about things they can do when bored (reading, drawing, small craft things), and projects where I did buy some additional bits and pieces. My son worked his way through some focused phsyics and maths work (yeah, no idea where he gets it from), worked out how to set up a telescope he had for Christmas and spent evenings star gazing and looking up astronomy facts, and practiced his clarinet. My daughter learnt how to use our sewing machine and made clothes for her Barbies, looked after the vegetable patch in the garden, and researched and made bee and insect houses.

      Think of stuff to do as a family. We did a lot this summer, but most of it free and none of it ‘thrilling’. We went to the beach many many times. Whilst we used to go for an hour or so we got in the habit of packing a picnic, rugs and books and making a whole morning of it. We walked in forests, around lakes, and all through the centre of Copenhagen which is a great place to explore. I have a couple of memberships we buy annually (to the Danish Architecture Museum which is super cheap and gives you free coffee and to an amusement park which is super expensive but definitely exciting) and we made use of them. We researched and cooked recipes which we hadn’t made before – I recommend doing this with one kid at a time if they are like mine – played boardgames, watched all the Marvel films we hadn’t seen before, and got into a podcast about political systems. It’s all individual, but my point here is that fun doesn’t have to be novel, or fresh or expensive. Treats and time together can be pretty simple.

      But sometimes spending on a treat is totally worth it

      Spend on things that do make a difference. Brunch or dinner out; a book or a two-month subscription; decent coffee – whatever it is that you will appreciate, do it. The flipside of recognising that throwing money at problems doesn’t solve them is realising that when you do spend mindfully, on things that make a difference to you, it feels that much sweeter.

      That was our summer! We had a lot of fun, and saw a lot more of our city. The kids got bored, and got creative. I think we read about 20 books each (either from the local library where we visited weekly, or things which had sat on shelves unread for a while. We cooked, baked, gardened, sewed and played games. And saved a ton of money.

      Featured

      Frugal school holidays #1

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 2 Comments

      Kids have gone back to school this week! Woo and quite literally Hoo! They really needed these 8.5 weeks (8.5! Seriously??) off as last year was crazy, including some health issues, all of us getting COVID, I was doing two jobs and permanently either out or stressed… So we all needed a bit of down time.

      In 2020 I wrote a series of posts about the crazy expense of school holidays as well as sharing a ton of frugal ideas to enjoy them without breaking the bank. 2020 was admittedly different since lockdown had meant that the kids and I had basically spent months together trapped at home trying to work and homeschool, and I was pretty much out of good ideas for nice things to do together. Denmark had also just opened up, and we were desperate to get out of the house and into the big wide world in case it shut down again.

      Spending a LOT of time on Denmark’s fabulous beaches (though wishing they were a bit warmer…)

      But it meant that I spent £4,065 in addition to our regular spending during the 2020 summer holidays which feels ridiculous. Managing long school holidays is a challenge for all working families, but for single parents where household income is lower, and there isn’t an option to tag team between parents using their annual leave it is a huge problem. My father has long term worsening health issues which meant he had to shelter in place and now needs 24 hour care, and whilst in previous years I would usually either take my kids to stay with their grandparents for 2-3 weeks, or have my mum come and stay with us, this hasn’t been an option since COVID.

      In the UK this year, thanks to the number of companies which went out of business during the pandemic, summer childcare has risen by as much as 25% in some places and with fewer spots available options are likely to be further away and cost more in petrol or travel. Overall research suggests that parents will pay an average additional £900 per child for the summer holidays if they cannot take time off work. Given that single parents already earn significantly less than others, and that 75% report that childcare costs are greater than their basic living costs and one-third of working mothers say that their childcare costs are the same as or higher than their salary

      Easier to find things to do when the weather is like this!

      From a personal point of view – and recognising that being on a relatively high income and with basic childcare options that continue in the summer – I knew that this year I really had to do things differently. Last week I wrote about commitment to paying off a bridging loan, and since I was horribly aware of the financial vortex of the summer holidays, I made a clear decision and plan to have a frugal holiday and put that money against the loan. (If you havn’t read the post, I paid off £25,000 plus interest in 19 months, and the final £5,000 came from summer holiday choices).

      I tracked additional spend during the 2022 holidays. I didn’t count our regular childcare budget of £800 monthly – since I employ a nanny due to my work hours and travel needs, I need her all year round. I also didn’t count usual supermarket or travel spend on our train cards though I did include two supermarket shops which were clearly for treats. So I included holidays clubs, days out, money spent on books, subscriptions etc specifically for the holidays, the cost of a ‘self care day’ which I had as a day’s leave, and eating out since it’s something we don’t usually do. In total I spent an additional £1,377 over the school holiday period – or one-third of the cost of the 2020 holidays.

      Books, website subscriptions etc £    100.00
      Holiday club x 3 weeks £    886.50
      Day out expenses £    192.10
      Eating out expenses £    113.00
      Self care day £      85.32
      TOTAL £ 1,376.92
      Additional costs for the holiday period
      SO MUCH BEACH!

      Next week I will share more on what we actually did – and on how I learnt to embrace boredom and unmanaged time as something critical for my kids’ ability to navigate this world.

      I also tracked some of the frugal ideas for the holidays over on this blog’s Instagram page, come join me if you want a sneak peek!

      Featured

      Commitment #2

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Last week I posted on my Insta about paying off £27,000 in 19 months and I wanted to talk about it in a bit more detail here and how it relates to my thinking on commitment.

      Generally I don’t carry debt. I appreciate there are a number of schools of thought on this one, especially about ‘good debt‘, credit card benefits and so on but for me it always comes back to the kinds of risk I am willing to take (TL:DR – not many, usually based on complex zombie apolocalypse scenarios where I can’t look after my kids).

      But when I was buying a house last year it turned out that I couldn’t bridge the gap between my deposit and the mortgage. I had 10% as a down payment but needed more to be able to access the financing. I had already scrimped hard to get the downpayment together and, with fees and costs associated with moving, just couldn’t make the rest in the right time frame without leaving myself with no emergency fund at all. So I took a bridging loan, just as a personal loan from my regular bank.

      I figured that adding it as a risk to the overall house buying approach should work. Photo by Ingrid Martinussen on Unsplash

      But in taking out that loan I made a commitment to pay it off as quickly as possible. The total to repay including interest over the original 60 months was £29,349 for a £25,000 loan. This felt like more interest than I was willing to pay, and was definitely a spur to get it out of the way. My original monthly payments were £500 per month, and with this rate I paid back £1,400 on average every month.

      And now, aside from mortgages, I am debt free again. And it feels like a huge weight off my shoulders.

      One dictionary definition of commitment is an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action. For me, having this loan restricted my actions in other areas, which was interesting since I already thought I was quite frugal:

      • This is the big one – no holidays. I value travel and connection with my kids and our worldwide family but I cut it out for this period other than going to visit my sick father. Everything else felt like it could wait. So one month in Kenya long planned for this summer got cancelled and that money paid off the last £5,000. Interestingly planning this trip also raised issues of commitment about how others were showing up (or not) for me, which made the decision to cancel a lot easier.
      • A ‘squeeze tax’ on most of my other spending. Basically this meant reducing groceries and other discretionary spend by about 10%. It also showed me what the space is in my budget, though I am aware I don’t live that close to the knife edge anyway. I added in two additional meals a week to be prepared on a Sunday meaning I could use up odds and ends, use the slow cooker, and generally remove the temptation to nip out and spend more money on food as the week headed to Friday. Ditto with packing lunches for the office. And clothes – I spent around £120 on clothes in this total period for all three of us.
      • Cancelled all subscriptions. All but one. I used to regularly check I wasn’t being charged for things I didn’t want, but here I cut out everything I didn’t actively value.
      • Got energy from freaking out. I have been writing about the cost of living crisis which we are all freaking out about, whether a little or a lot. I made the decision to take the loan when I could easily manage the monthly payment, and looking down the barrel of rising prices everywhere, made me really conscious that I needed to tighten down my commitments.

      The take away for me was that through commitment all things are possible. This isn’t going to be true if you are already living close to the breadline, but for many of us on the FIRE journey, our ability to squeeze more out of our budgets depends on where we are trying to go. I have never quite managed to find the same drive for investing and saving as I found for paying off this debt which is showing me some interesting tactics and opportunities to get better (or clearer) at getting inspired in those other areas.

      So I feel pretty proud of this. Being able to commit to something, and see it through with very minimal support, really keeps me confident of my ability to chart this path, however much it changes along the way. So stay committed. Stay focused. Sometimes restricting freedom of action can feel limiting, but remember that you have a bigger goal in mind.

      Featured

      Commitment #1

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      I just missed a week. A whole week over on my Insta and a week of posting here.

      I thought about both, over and over. But I was too busy, too tired, too focused on a whole load of other issues in my life and in my head.

      It was disappointing because I had a made a commitment to post – to write out my feelings and my journey, give myself time and space to think, and be there to support others. I made a commitment to just show up, and keep showing up.

      These past few weeks and months have made me think a lot about commitment. As it’s such a critical part of our life journeys – financially, spiritually, at work, and in relationships – I want to write a few posts about it. They might feel a bit different to how I ususally post so I am grateful for your being with me whilst I think this stuff through.

      Or should you? Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

      My first question is – when do I need to choose between commitment and self care?

      There is real value in committing to something, and even more in being consistent. But are there times when it is better to waver, and to just look after myself? Is it better to honour my word, or to give that time inwards to rest and recover? Does it matter how I approach that in terms of messaging, or preparation? I know plenty of people who just change their mind and their plans at the last minute, sometimes for good reasons. Am I ok to be one of them?

      This is a forked stick I come to often. This post is absolutely not about this blog, but it’s a good personal example of things that I am committed to but I don’t have to do it. I tend to write my blog on Sunday mornings, when I could be doing a myriad of other meaningful things, many of which fall under the heading of ‘self care’. I mean, often it’s getting some extra sleep after a beer or two over the odds the night before (which raises entirely different questions about how I view self care issues against areas of life which are a challenge vs over the easy, but equally impactful, decisions on going out for a drink…). But it might be getting ready for the week, taking it easy, or going for a walk with the kids. So there are a whole load of ways I can talk myself out of sitting down to write, and can validate those feelings.

      So – here comes a stinger, for me anyway – a blog is such a strange creature. I know it gets read, but not so much whether anyone cares if I show up week after week. I believe and hope it adds some value, but if I stopped writing, the waves of the internet would soon wash over any castle built on this sand. Nothing would really happen if I don’t show up.

      The waves will wash it all away. But what remains? Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash

      Which means that the most important thing about the commitment I made to writing this blog, is the commitment I made to myself.

      And keeping these promises, without external accountability, are the hardest ones.

      Whether I tell you I will meet you for lunch, water your plants, call you on Wednesday, or love you forever – unless something completedly unexpected happens, which it rarely does – I will do it. There are many people not like this (again, a whole other post) but for me, if I say it, I mean it. If I have said the words, you can expect the action.

      But I don’t give myself the same kind of respect. If I tell myself I will wake up at 5, stop smoking, get fitter, or love myself forever – these are all totally negotiable.

      Which leads me back to the question on how to make decisions between commitment and self care. And over the past few weeks I have concluded this: making and keeping commitments to myself are an act of radical self care.

      I am not sure why this feels like news. I mean – this is the basis of a financial independence journey, right? Committing to a vision for a future and regular acts which will create that, are exactly in this space. Nobody else cares if I do it or not. Nobody is impressed if I succeed. Nobody goes hungry (sorry, kids, you will have to get yourselves through college though) if I don’t. But I have such devotion to the belief that God made me to live and contribute through my best life on this earth, and faith in that plan, that I do it anyway.

      What is confusing for me is why I struggle with this message in other parts of my life when the core remains absolutely the same. When I have made an agreement as well as a commitment – whether that is to go to work and do my best, or how I try and act as a mum – I can stay in the zone. When it comes to things which feel more optional, especially good habits and high expectations around health and relationships, I find it much harder to be so consistent. I don’t know if it’s a need for results, or a need for reciprocation (or, frankly, whether I need therapy) but everything else feels more fuzzy. More optional. Perhaps I have less faith in how things will turn out. And that is defining how, and if, I show up.

      Foundation stones, and building up. Or give up and throw them in the waves? Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash
      Featured

      Walk with integrity: but where you going?

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      This week I have been thinking about a bunch of things: how we know who to trust, and what happens when we’re wrong; how much trust we put into people we follow online and the extent to which they are actually selling us something; and the impact all of this has on being able to follow our own journey with integrity.

      I fear these internal conversations are also turning me into a bit of an asshole. I especially hate being sold to. One of my reasons for getting involved in the FIRE movement is because taking control of your money is an act of radical subversion and radical self care. Deciding what you want out of life; what you will spend and how that will impact your community / planet / sense of joy; what role you will play outside of being a Worker Bee: all these are closely linked to your finances, and are absolutely the liberation pathway to living your life on your own damn terms.

      There seems to have been a lot of slippage in the FIRE movement toward focusing back on personal finance in a more standard way. This is necessary to a certain extent: getting all existential is not the only thing you need if you are waking up in a cold sweat about your inability to service your debts. But sharing tools isn’t the only thing we are here for. Realistically, and I can say this as someone who consumes a fair amount of media on personal finance, social or otherwise, the tools and tips on personal finance are not complicated. It is the job of assessing them, working out what is right for you, and putting them into play which is hard. And for me, I could only put them into play once the existentialist piece was clear in my heart.

      Remeber than not choosing your own path means you are implicit in whatever is swirling around you. Photo by Corey Young on Unsplash

      A net result of this move back into the more standard world of personal finance is that I feel increasingly like I am being sold to by my peers. This isn’t to say that FIRE should exclusively be filled with people who have the time and resources to give away their advice for free, especially as this would mean only people who reach financial independence and then have that time – and who are disproportionately white, male and married, at least those who talk about it online – would share their stories. But I personally am not interested in buying an online course about real estate in the USA, or downloading a workbook which turns out to be ‘the world’s most basic questions ever.pdf’, or buying a product based on your ability to get commission on it.

      It is more than that though. We have always been sold dreams, but these are usually other people’s. Surrounding yourself with these dreams, whether they are in the name of financial independence or in the name of being the kind of rich, flashy person who can buy up the bar, risks that you will drown out what you really want. The advertising industry is based on creating desires that can never be fulfilled: this year’s new iPhone that you might be lusting after will be out of date in a few months. Lifestyle envy leads to excessive consumption and waste, which is also leading to envirionmental degredation. We are trashing the planet for shit that doesn’t matter at all: for shit we probably don’t even want or get satisfaction from.

      I am seeing a lot more of this combination in recent times. There is a Kenyan lifestyle and personal finance blogger who I have always liked (and is a friend of a friend, this Nairobi of ours has no chill). But I just can’t follow her anymore. There is the dual approach of selling through her personal brand, which is basically ‘you should strive to be pretty, well-dressed, and well made up, as I am – or you will not be interesting or taken seriously‘. The second approach is basically product placement, including MCing courses for other people, or pushing financial products. But there is literally no content. We are just invited to be voyeurs, buy what she recommends, and strive to be more like her. To be clear this is totally standard for an influencer so I am not singling her out, but it’s surprising to me (in ways it probably shouldn’t be) that so much of what was a vibrant and radical personal finance space is now full of this kind of approach.

      Realistically, I am 42. It might literally be that I am too old for this shit, and whatever I strive for I am not going to be a hot girl. Probably I don’t fully appreciate the IG generation and therefore have no business getting all up in my feelings. Either way, honestly I am not eye-rollingly negative about people forging their path and doing well through hard work and passion, especially when they are clearly meeting a need with their audience. But I am concerned that we will find all we have left is our ability to be sold to, whether by the big companies or by our friends. And what it means when all this white noise is so loud that it drowns out our own truths.

      Own your truth and say it out loud – even if it’s not the same as everyone else’s. Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

      What this means for me is being more thoughtful about who I surround myself with, in real life and in terms of what I consume media-wise. It’s ok to not want what you are told to want, and to give those things no time in your head. It’s ok to be aware of the impact your life and choices have on others and have that be part of how you live with integrity. It’s ok to want more: and for that wanting not to be about the kind of consumer crap that might impress the table at the bar but about forging a real life, for the long term.

      And it’s ok to recognise where you are different to others, and to recognise that this doesn’t make you better or make them bad: it just makes you both individual, beautiful humans doing what you can to follow your own star.

      What might you need to change to get a clearer vision? Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash
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      Cost of living crisis 2: Groceries

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      Food means a lot to me. At a basic level, it’s a key part of our every day life but it is also somewhere memories are made and locked in. From the soft comfort of my granny’s potato pie (literally mashed potato, onions and cheese baked in a pie dish with cheese on top aka best comfort food ever) to the smokey, social delights of nyama choma and the perfect mukimo accompanied by a cold beer, food is so evocative. A lot of the discussion on my Brilliant Ladies’ Insta are about frugal food and keeping costs low whilst keeping quality and enjoyment high.

      Food is central to good times and bad in my culture – no difficult family conversation, lengthy future planning session, or celebration – of either life or death – would be possible without a central table of food to act as referee and peace keeper between the participants. In my own house, food is linked in my mind to love, to taking care of my children and creating a cosy, secure home with our own small traditions.

      Oh yes please! Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

      These days though there are also two less comforting sides to feeding the family. Firstly, and the focus of this post, is the soaring cost of groceries and how to manage your budget. The second is the ethical aspects of food – industrial farming methods and animal welfare issues, exploitative employment practices, and reliance on cheap imports which have a heavy environmental footprint, are all real concerns when making choices in the supermarket.

      Food prices in the UK have traditionally been quite low compared to the rest of Europe, but this ‘golden era‘ came to an end during 2022. Rises in inflation and fuel prices, as well as global shortages and issues with supply chains means that food is getting more expensive. In January, poverty campaigner Jack Monroe highlighted how the way tracking rising prices are calculated glosses over the impact on lower income families. By last month, 92% of Britons claimed they were cutting back on grocery and food costs in order to reduce their outgoings: both in relation to the cost of food but also to save they money needed to respond to increases in fuel and household energy. Food price rises in the UK are shortly expected to have reached 15% within one year. Kenya has seen a similar rise, and is seeing the impact of rising fuel costs on transporting food into and around the country. So it looks like either granny’s potato pie, or that plate of nyama choma, is going to cost a lot more this year.

      The modern day equivalent of heading into Tiffany. Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

      So – what can you do to keep an eye on your grocery budget?

      We already shop at discount supermarkets: in Denmark that means LIDL (and my mum and I talk on the phone about whether they have the same things on offer in the UK as here. Rock and roll): and Rema 1000. These are so much cheaper than the fancy supermarket, and I am also not tempted by the delicious bouji foods which are on offer there.

      The building blocks of cutting food spending seem pretty easy, but, like any diet habit, it’s about how much you stick to them and whether you have emotional splurges:

      1. Meal plan. This is the most important thing, because the shopping and preparation all stems from here. Who is eating at home and when? (in 2021 this became a trick question since the answer is ‘all of you’ and ‘all the time’). What are the things you like to eat? How are you going to get your five-a-day? From then, the questions are around how you can stretch out both the food and the preparation – things like roasting a chicken then using the cold leftover meat the next day or two; or cooking a basic batch tomato sauce which can then be turned into spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, or the base for a chilli. I have been meal planning for a while, but I am still terrible for thinking ‘ooh I don’t feel like that any more, let’s have something else’. It helps me to remember that this contributes to reducing food waste: UK households throw out the equivalent to a whole month’s worth of grocery budget every year whilst the amount of food wasted across the country could feed half the 7m Britons who are struggling to afford to eat. That’s something worth making our own small changes for in my view.
      2. Stock-take and write a shopping list: When you have meal planned, break it down into the ingredients you need for the week. Then check your cupboards/fridge/freezer and check you have what you need. Are there things you’ve not included but need to check, like coffee? I have a page up on the pinboard in the kitchen where I write staples like this, or flour, oil and so on. Write them all down in a list which is easy to use, organised by the shops if you’ll visit more than one, then by aisle if you can remember such things. The real trick though is a) remembering to take the damn list with you (which is why lots of people keep it on a phone app instead) and b) following it when confronted with other options.
      3. Batch cook, or batch prepare: Batch cooking is now so well known that there are whole books about it but it’s basically making things in big enough quantities to freeze additional portions and basically create your own ready meals. It’s just as much hassle and time to prepare five portions of something as it is one, and it usually works out much cheaper. Every week I make a basic roasted aubergine and tomato sauce every weekend (don’t tell my daughter it has aubergine in, fur would fly) and use this as a tomato sauce base. My top tip on batch cooking is to label everything properly, otherwise Freezer Surprise will be a regular on the menu: and freeze it in portion sizes so you don’t have to defrost and potentially waste a whole load of goodness.
      4. Batch prepare: In an effort to increase my vegetable intake, I make a dry coleslaw mix (basically just the vegetables) using the food processor, every week. This week I grated up carrot, beetroot, celeriac and spring cabbage and have used it in a standard salad, in a salmon poke bowl, and with mayo as an accompaniment to a sandwich. I also do things like prepare roasted chicken for use in lunches.
      5. Enjoy yourself. Yes we’re budgeting (and trying to save the world) but food should also be a pleasure. Make things you like to eat. Find a time when the planning and shopping works, involve the kids in talking about meals they look forward to, and involve them in prep. My son and I make a cake every week as our treat for the week, usually one for home and one with the same mixture made into cake bars for school. Then I batch cook/prep in a two-hour window at the weekend when the kids are playing or with friends, and I listen to an audio book. It genuinely feels like a pleasant time, much more so than trying to slam a meal together at 17.30 on a work night. Some people prefer an evening’s cooking with a glass of wine – it’s all about what works for you.
      Last week’s food prep in our house – Sunday evening and all is ready…

      How is the rising cost of food impacting you? I’d love to hear your tips!

      Featured

      Cost of living crisis 1: Energy

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Quick reminder to come and get your flowers (or a random selection of inspiration, poor jokes from me and photos taken my by daughter) on my Insta.

      The soaring cost of living crisis is real. You don’t need to understand inflation, changes in base interest rates or why the stock market is having a wobble to know that your supermarket shop is costing more. Indeed, there are so many cause-and-or-effect conversations about the macro-economics of it all that at the moment I don’t care. But I do know that I just got a water bill for the equivalent of £4,000. And that’s just one of my skyrocketing utility bills which are stacking up like an angry little bomb waiting to go off.

      I wanted to write a few posts looking at different aspects of what is going on and why, and how we can navigate it and stay sane and solvent. Starting this week with energy as it’s top of mind, and one area where increases are making a terrifying dent in people’s pockets.

      Even the moths have flown. Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

      So what can you do about your energy bills?

      My focus here is for the UK though a lot of the household tips are universal. Whilst I live in Denmark, the utility market remains a total mystery. We don’t have many companies, especially since in urban areas a lot of energy is from the Kommune or local council. This means there are no switching or price comparison services. So whilst prices are going through the roof the options are a) turning everything off or b) saving money elsewhere.

      In the UK, energy costs have already doubled for many households and will likely rise by October to almost £3,000. With the median income in the UK being £31,400, this means that energy only (not even all utilities) is costing households 10% of their income. Unfortunately switching deals is not likely to make any difference and is not even available to most unless you get an ‘existing customer’ deal. And watch out if you do switch since exit fees have gone up 10 times in the last year.

      The idea of creating competition in the energy sector in order to benefit customers has only created a monster market where providers can do what they like. Issues in Ukraine are exacerbating fears around supply, but these price rises have been coming for a while and are only possible on the back of the ‘competitive’ set up.

      Pulling money from your bank account all the way into the horizon. Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

      The main things you can do to save energy are things we should all be doing anyway for environmental purposes. Unfotunately some of them require an outlay at the start which might not be possible in these belt tightening days but some are pretty simple.

      Big outlay changes

      • Look at your heating system. Is your boiler efficient? There are simple ways to check. Generally putting in a new boiler unless you absolutely have to isn’t going to save you anything, but when you do, shop around for the most efficient kind going.
      • Think about insulating your house more efficiently. When I was growing up my best friend had cling film across all the windows to reduce heating bills, so it doesn’t all mean huge outlays on triple glazing. There are some great tips on insulation from the Energy Trust – such as fitting a hot water tank with an insulating jacket at a cost of about £25 which will save you £35 a year in heating costs and 115kg of carbon dioxide emissions.
      • Consider generating your own electricity. This can be very expensive, and most of the government grants have ended. But with the energy crisis likely to be long term, it’s worth exploring if you have any spare cash to invest here. Solar is the obvious one for homes, with a lot to think about before you take the leap.
      • Check if your appliances are energy efficient and consider replacing them, once they are dead, with a focus on efficiency. White goods especially – fridge, freezer, washing machine, oven – are massive energy leakers.
      Turn off that tumble dryer! Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash

      Day to day changes

      • Use your timer and thermostat. This is the easiest way to save money and help the environment, just having the heating on when and where you actually need it. Go through the house and turn down radiators where you don’t need them on.
      • Turn down the thermostat already. Most money saving and environmental groups recommend 68 degrees (20 celsius) in the winter. Remember how cold your grandparents’ house was? You’re aiming for a bit warmer than that. Don’t expect to be walking around in a t-shirt, instead invest in a fluffy dressing gown and socks, and pretend it’s intentional hygge.
      • Decide what you will use less. Tumble driers are particularly energy heavy: dry outside in the summer, or get a couple of clothes racks and dry inside. When I lived in a badly ventilated flat, drying clothes inside contributed to mould and meant that I had to have the heating on and the window open so I used to go to the laundrette which takes time and money in a different way. So one to think about how best to manage depending on your circumstances.
      • Turn off all standby appliances, including turning off plugs which aren’t in use. My grandparents always turned everything off at the plug at night in case of lightening – this isn’t a bad idea just in order to stop energy leakage.
      • Make sure you have a full load every time you turn on the washing machine or dish washer. Wash your clothes at 30 degrees – it really does work. Use the eco setting if you have one. The one on my dishwasher lasts 3 hours and is really noisy so I load the dishwasher during the day then put it on after breakfast when I leave for work.
      • Check out your fridge and freezer. Fridges should be set between 3-5 degrees, and freezers need defrosting regularly (this is a job on my list. Note to self – do not do this with a knife or you will regret it). Fridges actually work more efficiently when they are nearly full so add that extra milk or whatever and you will save on the energy bill.
      • If you are really struggling, there might be help: Citizens’ Advice can help out.
      Protest signs in London 2022. Flickr/Gary Knight

      Finally, consider the politics. My blog is about personal finance, but this is so closely linked to politics that it’s hard to keep out. There might not be simple answers, but the people who are already the most vulnerable are going to be the hardest hit and the most hurt. And that’s something we can all care about.

      Featured

      Happy Father’s Day

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Caveat: bit of a controversial post. Consider yourself warned.

      Happy Father’s Day to all the great dads out there. To all those who miss their dads; all those who never knew them; all those for whom ill health, distance, or social norms have made relationships difficult. Basically all the same things I say on Mothering Sunday. All parents matter.

      Today I have been thinking about the ‘bitter single mums’ trope which is particularly active on social media on Father’s Day (seriously – why do you have the time? Shouldn’t you actually be hanging out with your kids?) and about a series of conversations I’ve had on toxic masculinity and how men are so undervalued by society that their only possible reaction is violence and disrespect. I am not a psychologist or a social scientist so I am perhaps even less qualified than usual to write this blog, but these are things on my mind so I share them with you, with these caveats in place.

      Add your own definition. Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

      The FIRE movement has a lot of great parenting role models. On a personal level I find the amount of people who reach FIRE based on spending one partner’s income tedious and irrelevant, but I get that for many folk it’s a new way of thinking about family spending. Lots of FIRE people got on this path in order to spend more time with their kids, and to be better parents, and that is something to celebrate. Mr Money Mustache has a lot to say on parenting his son, including since he and his wife divorced. Brad and Jonathan in Choose FI are always talking about their kids and how their FIRE pathway has focused on being with their children, and on leaving a legacy.

      In fact there are lots of brilliant dads out there, of course there are. My own father, and the father of my children, don’t fall into this category but I don’t hate them for it – my children have never heard a bad word from my mouth about their father. The issue is that I have to make up for it, financially, emotionally, in terms of time spent and choices made and so on. And that’s not ideal but it’s ok. I am very lucky though in that I have an amazing step-father, fathers of friends (two of whom I have been really close to and sadly passed away this year), uncles and all. And I have friends, family and colleagues where I have so much respect for the way the father shows up, that it really inspires me on a daily basis. So I salute all those fabulous men: we see you. You’re doing great.

      A Palestinian father bathing his daughter and neice, giving them as much of a normal happy childhood as he can in spite of the chaos all around. Credit: Wissam Nasser

      There is, though, an increase in the number of women having to parent alone. There is plenty of blame around this, and there are multiple sides to every story, but the truth is that men are now allowed to absent themselves in a way that society permits. In my personal experience, this lack of involvement doesn’t stop them loudly complaining about how their ex will not facilitate the kind of contact they want with their children. The kind of people who complain in this way are, again in my experience, the same who want contact on a whim, when it’s convenient for them, and will change those times at the drop of a bar bill.

      In Kenya, the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta has even made the issue of single parents as one of his key concerns. Globally Kenya is one of the countries where women are most likely to become a single parent, with almost 60% of women likely to be single by the time they are 45, whether or not they have children. Kenyatta’s concern was with the rise in the percentage of single parent households from 25% in 2009 to 38% today. I am not Kenyan but I lived there for a long time and intend to return for the RE aspect of FIRE (watch this space for posts on that thought process, white privilege and colonialist mindset – I’m here for self critique and growth as well, of course). It is one of the places where I find being a single parent the hardest, since even though there are so many of us, it is seen through a lens of shame and ‘burdenhood’ which basically makes me a social pariah. This kind of nonsense article, which paints women as insatiably greedy and self-centred, character developing then abandoning poor, defenceless Kenyan guys, just fills me with rage.

      It’s also ironic when – look, I’m just going to say this and take the flack – Kenyan men are seemingly happy to pay for a whole lot of whatever when it comes to relationships. And I mean prepared to pay rent/transport/salon for your side chick (girlfriend) for years, but you think that I, as someone who earns 10 times more than you, is going to be a financial burden? Kthxbye.

      There is also a growing narrative around the issues of toxic masulinity, and how men feeling undervalued, undermined and unable to navigate the changes in society mean that they are struggling to find ways to act as men, husbands and fathers in this brave new world. Masculinity itself isn’t toxic, that much should be obvious. So challenges men are facing are absolutely something which we need as a society to deal with in order to create a world that works for everyone. But at the same time this cannot be an excuse for gender-based violence or refusing to look after your own children. And it will bleed into the next generation. If you as a man are struggling with masculinity and shifts in social expectations, it should be obvious that if you have children – and not just sons – they will need you are a role model to work through those challenges with.

      The seed never falls far from the tree. Photo by Bibhash Banerjee on Unsplash

      In short, we could all do better. This world is not binary: most parents are both good and bad depending on the day. I might be doing it alone but it doesn’t mean I am any good at it, just that I don’t have the luxury of deciding to step out for years at a time.

      And I am all for putting in the work to create a world where men feel appreciated, valued and heard. Where they can grow into their power in a way which doesn’t involve crushing (either physically, emotionally or financially) the women and children in their lives. That’s something that we can all believe in. Happy Father’s Day.

      Featured

      A home of one’s own

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      With apologies in advance that this blog isn’t the jolliest place to be, I do want to tangle with some critical topics as well as being here for encouragement on these journeys. There is so much content out there about how easy financial independence is – just get out there and do it!! – but it doesn’t ring true for me. It is absolutely not impossible, but if the system is stacked against you, you will feel the burn a hell of a lot more. And for me, I am comfortable in both looking at my own journey and how it’s working, and what is going on out there which is impacting others – and what some of this means for equality.

      I’ve written a lot about specific elements of the system and how it works either for or against particular minorities (check out posts on how racialised the financial systems are plus the financial constraints and stacked barriers for single mothers. I also want to say up front that I recognise the privileges that I come with so I am not saying this to ‘own’ or appropriate these issues, but to talk openly about areas where and how I am tangling with them personally. In my view, refusing to acknowledge how systemic power structures work is part of institutionalising privilege in order to extend it’s power, so calling it out has to be part of how we can meaningfully respond. I also find it both essential to understand in terms of why things feel like they move so slowly for me.

      A room of one’s own? Not for you, soz. Photo by Devon Janse van Rensburg on Unsplash

      This week’s post was kicked off for me by reading an article about why single women in the UK cannot afford to buy a home based on an excellent 2019 report with the same title as this blog post. House prices in the UK are unaffordable for so many that those on median wages – which includes nurses and frontline health care workers – will not be able to access a mortgage in more than three-quarters of the country. This has greater implications for women, because women are more likely to be in low paid jobs and are also more likely to work part time due to caring responsibilities.

      The impact on being able to buy is significant. Women need over 12 times their annual salaries to buy a home in England: a whacking 50% more than men, who need eight times. In London and the South East, which are both the most expensive areas of the UK and the two where the gender pay gap is largest, women need 18 times their annual earnings. Given that the very most British mortgage companies are likely to lend a maximum of five times annual earnings – an amount which is anticipated to reduce as inflation bites – it means that these women will never be able to buy a home without external support.

      Or maybe this is more like it? Photo by Reba Spike on Unsplash

      There were two other statistics which felt like a slap in the face. Firstly, there is no region in England where private rented housing is affordable on a woman’s median earnings. This is not true for men, where this is only the case in London. Secondly, single mothers are two-thirds of all statutory homeless families with children (i.e. the groups of people for whom the State has to take some responsibility), a figure which is striking when they are only one-quarter of all families with dependent children.

      Basically there is zero chance to single women on median incomes and don’t have any additional financial support to either buy or rent in the majority of the UK. That feels pretty terrifying to me. I earn a (significantly) above average salary and managed to get on the housing ladder early. But under these socio-economic shifts my mum as a frontline worker and single parent would not have been able to buy a house, something which would have seriously impacted on our security growing up; how well she will manage in her old age; and what generational wealth looks like. And what does it mean for my daughter and how I should help her plan for her future?

      I’m obsessed by this house I can’t afford so sharing it just because why not

      So what is the point of this post? I am not on a median income, and I own both a home we live in and a rental. I haven’t been able to get to the point where I can leverage them into any kind of real estate empire though which seems to be some magic formula for at least those in the US working on FIRE but I am unbelievably blessed to even just have a foot on the ladder. Some days I need to both recognise the luck that I have had in the draw, and how things are looking for others. And why this should matter for all of us: we never journey alone.

      Quick reminder to come and join me (and the FIRE community) on Instagram @brilliantladiesmoney I am probably more fun there 😀

      Featured

      Protecting your joy

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      I’ve been thinking a lot about comparison recently, and it really is the thief of joy.

      This weekend it was Shavuot, the Jewish festival which celebrates the giving of the ten commandments. The tenth commandment is about not coveting what others have, be it their ass, or their wife’s ass (see what I did there??) Whilst this makes sense from the perspective of discouraging jealousy and conflict in a community, it also strikes me that there is something in there about not comparing yourself to others and finding yourself wanting.

      Celebrating! Image credit.

      Comparison is the thief of joy because it diminishes your own space, achievements and uniqueness. It also sets up a narrative in which whatever you have is not enough, and that leads to a lack of gratitude for the space you are living in.

      I absolutely loved Paula Pant’s recent podcast episode with Molly West Duffy talking about how to keep your feelings, and particularly your envy and covetousness, in check. Whilst it might seem obvious that these emotions are not a good place to live from, the podcast talked specifically about ways of ensuring that – even if you are feeling those things, as we all do at times – they are not driving your decision making.

      Their cup might be bigger, but maybe yours is just perfect for you? Photo by Vanesa Giaconi on Unsplash

      To me, part of what mindful living means is remembering that it’s ok to have moments where you feel covetous, or envious, and forgiving yourself for it. But it also means moving on from it quickly, and not letting it cloud my judgement. I sometimes compare my life now to what it could have been if I had done things earlier, and that’s not a very helpful line of thinking. Being grateful and present for how things are, and planning for the future, feels like a much better way to approach things and reminds me to stay focused rather than comparing myself with others.

      Featured

      Staying strong

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      I’ve had lots of topics in my head this week to write about – the possible impact of inflation in investments; how to get started with real estate; my tax return (I am SO MUCH FUN at parties). But sitting here this Sunday morning I just feel – crappy. It’s been a busy few weeks but it has felt sort of like a deflating balloon: handing off at the end of my temporary promotion (after almost nine months of working my ass off); hitting some financial walls that I wasn’t expecting; finding it hard to get the enthusiasm together to plan for the summer, which should be exciting but I. Just. Can’t.

      I mean, really. Consider how many people in your life ask this question becuase they care about the answer. Credit Finn /Unsplash

      I feel lonely. And that’s a difficult spot to be in and stay motivated. There is something about having to constantly be my own cheerleader, my own auditor, commentator, coach, tiger mom or whatever else is just exhausting. Right now, nothing is motivating me enough to play all these roles and keep myself on track. I want to just lie down in a dark room – and unless I can pull myself out of it and get back to a place of peace, that is exactly what I will end up doing.

      It is also hard to accept that when you start growing into your self, you leave people behind. The simplest antidote to loneliness feels like it’s company. So we go and hang out with those friends at the bar, take someone home for the night, get into social media scrolling. But all those things feel so empty that they can make the loneliness feel worse – make you feel like you are creating white noise instead of real connection, to distract yourself from doing the hard things.

      Somewhere between these two things is where I am spending a lot of my time at the moment. I’m struggling with my own judgement about what matters, who to trust, and how to voice my needs. Honestly, I am scared that the depth of my need for closeness means that I am prepared to overlook a lot of small things which are flags that there are people who aren’t really that bothered about me after all. And I just don’t know where to go with that at the moment.

      I wrote a post in January about loneliness, how it is more common than even, and the impact it has on our well-being. In that post I focused on three strategies for mitigating the feelings of loneliness and finding the kind of peace which acts as a foundation when things get rough. The first was building a stronger community, whether with family or friends, all the other Sunderland supporters you can find (good luck with that) or the girls you play Roller Derby with. My second strategy is around focusing on the calendar. Having rituals or activities which mark the passing of the seasons – from new year’s resolutions, spring cleaning, or The First BBQ of the Summer – makes me feel more like an active participant in something positive. Finally perhaps it’s about learning to listen, and to be heard. Building meaningful connections can take time and can be challenging – especially if you are feeling low – but it’s really worth it.

      The JFK quote above though is also a reminder that finding peace, which is the first step to pretty much everything else really, is a transformational process even at personal level. It means taking down walls, building up new boundaries, reframing pathways and just keeping on going with the constant shift. This article about the habits that people give up on the road to peace was insightful and is helping me think about my own reactions. It talks about moving away from toxic people, from comfort, from the pursuit of perfection or impressing others, or from holding grudges (this is my own personal favourite).

      But even though it sounds obvious, transformation is hard. Growth is painful. Moving away from people, and having that level of certainty in yourself and your pathway, can be lonely and exhausting. Thinking about where you will be in five years might be the right approach when you’re struggling to keep going, but if you’re doing that whilst watching people you have moved on from have The Best Party Ever on IG then it can feel like a fictitious bargain made only in your mind. I have days like today when I forget how these feelings and challenges show up, but I know that I always get through them, however crappy I feel for a little while. It’s ok. We got this.

      And if it gets on top, go somewhere that reminds you of the powerful certainties of this world, and get it back into perspective. Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
      Featured

      Don’t Panic!

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      TL:DR – don’t panic! Whilst I’m not the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, those two little words do have to give particular comfort. Especially without the exclamation mark, which suggests that panic of some kind is right around the corner. But it’s Sunday morning, and I am three coffees in and heading to a kids’ birthday party once I’ve written this, so perhaps I need the drama. But whatever you do, don’t let your panic define your actions.

      This week I have been thinking a lot about doom and gloom. More than usual, in any case. I wouldn’t say that I have Eeyore tendancies but the world is a busy, scary and sometime relentless old place these days, so a bit of doom is on the agenda. From the endless heartbreaking news from Ukraine, to the real debates about what the exceptionalism shown in that situation means for the reckoning coming for the colonialist staus quo, to the ridiculous news that the UK has a monkeypox outbreak (I mean – really?): it can feel like the only time I hear the word ‘positive’ is when a friend does a COVID test.

      Really don’t, even if you can’t hitchhike your way off the planet

      But what is going on in the world of FIRE, of savings and investments? There have been a few things that struck me recently and I try to keep coming back to these:

      This is even more true in the world of finances i.e. literally everybody’s day to day world. The soaring cost of living, shortages of fuel, eggs, potatoes or whatever is real. Every time I go to the supermarket there are empty shelves, and shelves full of things at a price that I am not willing to pay. In the UK, the price of cheese (CHEESE!) has gone up by almost one-quarter. Once the costs of Marmite and tea start to spiral out of control we will all be shafted, frankly. (Denmark is powered by licorice and pork products, neither of which we eat so I focus all my crazy-hoarder-lady issues elsewhere).

      Beautiful! But can you afford any of it?? Photo by ja ma on Unsplash
      1. Plan for the worst, then remember this is what you did. My Crypto portfolio has totally crashed. In the last two weeks, more than $300 billion has been wiped off the value of Crypto overall, so this is not really a surprise. There was real panic that Coinbase was going to go bust – and take people’s money with it. Whilst that didn’t happen, Luna, a popular Crypto token, did, taking $40bn with it. My reaction has been to do absolutely nothing. I refuse to look at my portfolio other than on the twice-monthly date I always look at it. And then I refuse to act or worry about it. This is based on the fact that when I invested in Crypto, recognising that it is high risk, I did so only with what I consider to be beach money. This is money where if I lose it, it means not taking the kids to the beach in the summer, rather than meaning I can’t pay the rent. So when I freak out about losing it all in Crypto, I try and thank my previous financial planning self, and then just not worry about it.
      2. Remeber you are not a mystic. Don’t make decisions based on crystal ball gazing. The thing weighing much more on my mind is house prices and whether they will crash. And this is also one where my attachment to my net worth is at odds with a moral sense that rapid house price increases really are shafting those less well off in a way which will impact on generational wealth for a long time to come. The reason I put this one under the heading of trying to predict the future, is because a) we really don’t know and b) none of the ‘experts’ can agree. Whilst there is a general sense that the market cannot keep rising, particularly in light of inflation and changes to mortgage interest rates, there is no evidence at this point that the housing market is actually slowing down. I’ve been thinking about selling my house in the UK to diversify my assets but I need to make this decision on a range of factors – none of which is whether I can guess the future.
      3. Use this time to deep dive into your risk tolerance and decision making, rather than wanting to act. In March 2020, I panicked, and sold out a significant chunk of my investments. This was based literally on being inexperienced, and freaking out. I wrote a lot about it at the time, both the why and the results. This has definitely impacted on my holdings now but I have to chalk it up to an experience that I needed to get better at investing. It also gave me space to think about what my risk tolerance really really looks like, and how I can build that in to my investing (and my life).
      Beautiful! But can you afford any of it? 😉 Photo by Travel-Cents on Unsplash

      More next week on overall approaches to investing, but I wanted to start with some thinking – and reassurance – that however doom laden the picture is, panicking is definitely not the answer. Trust yourself, your knowledge, and your planning. You’ll survive the storm.

      Don’t forget if you want more cakes/sunrises/Barbies and less doom, come and join me on Insta.

      Featured

      Baggage ≠ Peace

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      So I have been out for a while, trying to deal with being very close to burnout. Feeling better now, but taking that space was critical. I tend to keep pushing myself well beyond what is a good idea, then getting surprised when things start to fall apart. The last few weeks I have been thinking about this and about the sense of going through life with baggage – as a single parent but also in general, as we all do – with the results and scars of our past mistakes and misfortunes, fears and triggers.

      This is showing up in my life in a few ways at the moment. From the FIRE perspective, for many people the concept of baggage means coming into this journey deep in debt. And not just in debt, but with the habits, choice and often value systems which led to that debt in the first place. For me as with others, it’s more coming in and realising what I have wasted in getting here and what kind of different position I could be in. But the worst waste of time would be to get stuck in those feelings instead of getting up and at it. Your time is always now.

      ALL the baggage: photo credit Raquel Brepohl on Unsplash

      I was talking to a friend last night who has recently become an expat, a move which has given him a bird’s eye view of his home town. Realising that the years of making just enough money to go out and kick it with friends meant living life, which was all about ‘having fun’ actually kept him in stasis for decades. Now this could be a cause for regret. But equally, our journeys are what made us: looking backward and sneering at our younger selves is not going to change the past, though it might diminish the value that we did find. Being able to make peace with whatever our baggage is – the poor decisions, the risks that we miscalculated, that person we continued to trust in spite of there being more red flags than the bunting at the Communist Party conference – is to make it manageable and be able to take that past along on a brand new journey.

      I wrote a while ago about ‘loving what is‘ – that sense of accepting and loving the present just as it is, something which is a critical step on the pathway to peace. The ability to reflect on my own triggers and limiting beliefs means that I can at least recognise them when they come up. Something like shaking hands across the divide. This is what making baggage manageable means to me: it’s not denying it but recognising my part in it, and the positives that either came through the results or through the journey. Kind of like taking a luggage trolley full of giant suitcases, feeding them into a magic vortex machine, and coming out with a little badge that you wear to remember without being tripped over by it. Or, as per my experience last week, you can just give your bags to Kenya Airways and never see them again. Either way, it works.

      Making peace can be hard. It can also feel counter-intuitive in a world where – especially with FIRE, and at my stage of life – it’s all about striving. How is it possible to come from a place of tranquility and still have enough drive to get out there? The quote above from Eckhart Tolle speaks to this I think. So much of what we do is about rearranging circumstances, or the small things (or indeed the deckchairs on the Titanic) instead of rearranging how we look on the inside.

      Don’t get me wrong, this internal rearranging can be just as tough as making peace. Encouraging the tectonic plates to shift inside you requires tenacity and strength. Especially when it raises questions about whether you will continue to accept the systems you have been brought up with, to live inside the structures you have internalised and all the comfortable spots you’re used to seeking solace in, however damaging.

      As I start the long process of moving back to Nairobi, being able to focus on the inner work instead of the busy-work of administration, is critical. The organising bit is easy (actually it’s a massive pain in the ass, but meh) but the work on finding my peace is much harder. Who am I now, as opposed to when I last lived there? Who are my people, how do I feel about how I have moved compared to them and the spaces we find ourselves in? What are the values I have instilled in my myself and my own children and how will these blend or clash? How can I stay open to the great things coming whilst not being so attached to certain things working out that for them to go wrong would destroy me?

      If in doubt about peace, stare into the middle distance. Photo by Colton Duke on Unsplash

      All those questions are critical but they aren’t things I need answers to right now. Coming to them with an internal stillness and certainty gives a certain protection both from the intensity of negative results and from freaking the F out. That has to be worth it.

      Featured

      Happy New (tax) year!

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      Ah here we are again. In the inexplicable British system (is it to do with an old byelaw about swords? No?) the tax year runs from 6th April, so this time of year always feels like a time for a fresh start. It might feel more like this if it would stop snowing and really get on with the business of Turning On Spring but let’s see. Oh, and it also means a bunch of work, but we’re here for that too.

      So what are the things you need to be thinking about?

      As with all new year’s exercises it boils down to wrapping up last year and preparing for the next one. There will be some major changes to be aware of for the 2022-23 year, thanks to Rishi Sunak’s budget but if you want fuller details of what those are I suggest you have a look at this fuller list of upcoming tax changes and what they might mean for you. Basically – he has likely done you no favours. In a post in 2020 I actually used a picture of Rishi but this year I can’t do it, even ironically. It feels like we are all being pushed too close to the financial brink to find any of this funny any more.

      My main focus today is on the wrapping up at the end of the tax year. This means two things: preparing for my tax return and looking back on how I spent, saved or invested my money. This week I will focus on prepaing tax returns, in order to get the boring stuff out of the way first.

      Prepare for your tax return

      Caveat: Firstly, I am not a financial advisor (pretty obviously, I mean my personal finance Instagram is mostly pictures of Barbies or food). There are lots of people out there who can help you with all the details of your taxes, and I am not one of them. But I am sharing my own approach here because why not.

      Secondly, not everyone needs to do a tax return. However if you are the following then you do:

      • You are working for yourself – either as someone who is self-employed or someone who makes income from additional sources to their regular job which is not taxed elsewhere, e.g. from rental income;
      • You are a partner in a partnership business;
      • You are a minister of religion – any faith or denomination;
      • You are a trustee or the executor of an estate.

      If you are unclear, the best thing is to consult an Independent Financial Advisor since getting it wrong in either direction could cost you a lot of time and stress.

      Spring is in the air, though taking its own sweet time to arrive…. Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

      As with so many things in life, the best time to start preparing for your tax return is this time last year. No really. The easiest way to do your taxes is little by little, so if you can get cracking with a simple spreadsheet and way of monitoring income and expenses, your life will be so much easier next year.

      Of course the complexity of your tax directly relates to the complexity of your income. I have income from employment, from a rental property, from savings interest (but not dividends which have separate rules), and some overseas stuff plus I also pay into a personal pension which has its own tax benefits. So I need to complete four forms. HMRC really are the best place to start since their factsheets and whatnot are actually quite helpful. Another great thing about getting started early is you can call HMRC and ask them questions before they get closer to the 31st October deadline for filing paper forms and start to have a collective breakdown.

      HMRC – surprisingly helpful if you get in early. Photo credit.

      So the first things to do are to make sure you know if you need to file a self assessment; and if so, what forms do you need to complete. Once you have that, you can pull together all of your paperwork and start ploughing through it. You will need to know what expenses you can claim, and make sure you keep copies of all relevant documents.

      In terms of when and how you get organised, you can do what I do and have a personal date night once a month with all my financial paperwork and a beer and just get it done. I do feel a little bit squirmy and sad saying that, but I find it so much easier than getting in a panic once a year. I also have a friend who has a week long retreat with her tax return and uses it as a way of engaging with gratitude for the year that has past. Whilst I absolutely love that as an approach, it’s not for me. So – as with every element of personal finance – go ahead and find whatever works to make the process as simple and painless for you as possible.

      Even in your tax return.

      See – I managed to talk about tax returns without making a joke about Rishi Sunak’s family circumstances. So anything is possible!

      What are you going to do today to further your personal or financial journey? Whatever it is, I hope it will be full of joy.

      Featured

      Mind the (early retirement) gap

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Quick reminder to come and join me (and the FIRE community) on Instagram @brilliantladiesmoney. At least join once a week for the Friday Banger – music that inspires me on my journey – definitely my favourite moment of the week. From Sauti Sol to Sizzla (plus artists who don’t begin with S), it’s all the tunes that get me back on track.

      Following my posts on working out what you need to retire on and looking at where my current portfolio will take me I wanted to talk about the early retirement gap.

      Unsurprisingly, most non-FIRE retirement discussions focus on investing in pensions. Paying into pensions is a tax efficient way to save, and has the added benefit of hiding your money from yourself so you can’t change your mind about your future plans and spunk it all on a beach house. But the early retirement gap is the time between quitting traditional employment and being able to access your pensions.

      Mmmm beach house though. Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

      Looking at my portfolio really showed how critical this gap is. Since my assets are heavy on real estate and on pensions, there is a gaping hole in the middle where more flexible options should be. Add in the need to wait for pension income, and it might be time to rethink the plan a little.

      So I went back to basics in terms of what I will need and when, and mapped out income against it. This resulted in a long and complex spreadsheet which I won’t share here but started from the premise of living until I am 80. I already wrote about being at the ‘tail end’ or probably half way through my allotted time on this earth – and I would caution that you think about this stuff when you are in strong existential form as I found it quite depressing. Anyway – it’s infinitely less depressing than not thinking about it and ending up broke, so here we go.

      You will see I put in some assumptions and I wanted to unpack two of these a little. The net result though if I follow my plan to retire at 50 is three years where my expenses will still be super high, then 15 years of gap until pensions kick in.

      The impact of having kids and the choices we make. I don’t know where I would be financially if I hadn’t had children, but without them I could already retire on my current portfolio. I wouldn’t change them for the world of course – this is purely a financial observation. If you want rantings about how the system is stacked against single mothers, then pretty much the rest of the blog awaits you.

      One big question though for the next phase is about whether I support my children through higher education, assuming they want to go. I have already committed to putting them through private schools, most of which is based on the fact that we move country every three years and need some consistency. Part of me absolutely wants to make sure they get through university debt-free. Whilst debt levels in the UK is still nothing like the USA, it is heading in that direction. On the other hand, with the right money mentality and guidance, there is nothing to stop them getting scholarships, working and managing what debt they had to get through on their own. The FIRE community tends towards the latter, with Mr Money Mustache in particular being vocal about both reducing costs for college and letting your children use the tools you have given them and find their own way.

      I looked at the most basic costs for a UK college education and it would add around £20,000 per year per child to my expenses. Because of the age gap between my kids, I would need to cover this for six years, three of which are after my planned early retirement date. So that’s likely £120,000 in total that I would need to earn in that period in order to cash flow it.

      In some ways this is a conversation that will never end though – will I help my kids buy their first house, look after their kids for them, whatever else? Or just focus on not being a burden to them and help out when I can? It is one of the times I hate being the only parent giving financial support, because whilst I don’t want them to miss out, it’s a lot.

      Will an Oxford education even still be relevant in the future? Photo by Ben Seymour on Unsplash

      Pension dates and what the future looks like. This is another interesting question which I never really thought about until I hit 40 and my future as a creaking elder suddenly felt a whole lot closer. Most of the US podcasts on FIRE assume that pensions kick in from 59.5 but in the UK – at least with pensions in any way connected to the public sector – pension age is 67. This really does add a lot of years that have to be covered by investments or income. By the time I retire, this could easily be 70 years old. Public sector pensions may be great because they are defined benefit but they are also pegged to the national pensionable age so there is a chance these will all shift to be much later. And pensionable age continues to increase, as the overall population ages and there are more people drawing pensions than paying into them. Which I understand but it’s hard to plan when the goalposts keep moving.

      I have also bravely added in the UK State Pension which I struggle to believe will exist as anything other than a means-tested benefit by the time I retire. And whilst at £716 per month or £8,592 per year, it’s not enough to live off it would make a significant difference to how much I need in my overall portfolio. However I hold it very lightly as a possibility in spite of paying tax and NI for my whole career, even the overseas year. We already have ample evidence that the UK Government will not hesitate to shaft women (and by shaft I mean change the age at which they can access their pension with almost not notice, then underpay women £1 billion and not even bother to try and clear it up) if they think they can get away with it.

      Planning for the sunset years <cries in Young Person> Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash

      So that is how it looks. The gap is real but thankfully there are a number of ways to think about filling it without having to stay in full time employment – more on that in a future post. For now though, working out exactly what this looks like and what the options are makes me feel more confident about making movements.

      What does your early retirement planning look like and how are you thinking about future support to your kids?

      Featured

      Mothering Sunday: the financial impact version

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      Aw, happy Mothering Sunday! This week I am full of exhausted rage, and wanted just to focus a little on what it feels like to be a single mum, and why generalised negativity from society, the media and government policy is harming this generation of children.

      First though I want to recognise that Mothering Sunday is a day which can set off lots of different emotions depending on your own particular track and relationships, but either way, it’s getting warmer and hopefully you’ll have something nice on this weekend.

      Being a mother is a privilege and a joy, let me say that first off.

      But it is also bloody hard. It’s hard for everyone, even those who have a partner. As we have moved away from traditional societies (and in fairness all the rubbish things that they required), the safety nets of support have been removed.

      The invisible workload of mothering (yes, mothering rather than parenting, unless you are a single dad – recognising it and owning it as gendered is a feminist position) is exhausting. There is a great post from 2018 called ‘the invisible workload of motherhood is killing me‘ which, of course, I only just found time to read because I am too damn busy. Its is an accurate and helpful portrayal of what parenting looks like – and it’s just the day to day of parenting, not what it looks like to be trying to reach FIRE, or date, or anything else at the same time.

      Motherhood is in any case fraught with issues. There have been a host of articles about how fatherhood has changed during the pandemic and how dads are starting to appreciate the ‘whole’ of parenting. But this is against a background in which women are expected to take the domestic burden (unless someone chooses to step in), and in which those dads have been able to refuse to engage until they were locke at home as well. Women are expected to work as well, though by the time a woman’s oldest child is 12 she is likely to be paid one-third less than male counterparts. These days, with the cost of living crisis and lack of affordable childcare, so many low income families are struggling.

      Triple chocolate brownies, the Mothering Sunday gift my 12 year old son made me ❤

      The cost of living crisis disproportionately impacts women. Women consistently earn less than men across their career, which also impacts their pension and retirement years.

      On my FIRE journey, earning less, and being responsible for each and every cost in the home, has a significant impact on the timeline, and likelihood of becoming financially independent. It’s not like there aren’t exceptions of course. But the system is stacked against single mothers, and in my experience, also has no sympathy for us. The impact of these collective issues on generational wealth cannot be ignored and it’s likely that our children will also struggle, however hard we try.

      I was particularly triggered this month by an article about the failings of the Child Maintenance System which is a UK body aiming to ensure that children’s costs are fairly shared after divorce or seperation, and that any alimony is paid in a timely way. To quote the article – 90% of single parents are women… Half of single parents and their children are consigned to life below the poverty line, a penury that 60% of them would escape if fathers paid the maintenance due. The comments on the article went in to the predictable bun fight about access and custody arrangements, as well as not really understanding that maintenance is for the children, not the ex-spouse.

      So in addition to the structural arrangements in which I earn less and have more responsibility, I am also supposed to do it alone since the legal system really doesn’t give a shit about holding both parents to account for the financial side.

      I would be furious, if I wasn’t so tired.

      I have been hyper-aware this week of why I am overwhelmed. And it’s two things – first, the sheer magnitude of All The Things. Work (so, so much work), kids, feeding everyone, administration of the home, family and friends, and anything I need. Secondly, it’s the constant mental engagement – the ‘invisible workload’. Planning, organizing, working around, being in communication, trying to soothe, calm, engage, nourish and play. I have been dating someone who does not have children, and whilst he very loving and caring, he cannot even begin to fathom what responsibility and busyness looks like in my world. That makes me just try to hide it all so he isn’t bored or put off: and that becomes something else I have to be responsible for.

      But you know what – parenting absolutely remains a joy and a privelige. I would just enjoy it more if I wasn’t expected to run on empty all the time. Big up all my single mamas this Mothering Sunday. I see you.

      Featured

      My portfolio: what’s it made of?

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 2 Comments

      I’ve been writing a series of posts about what it feels like to reach a net worth goal and also what it has made me reflect on in terms of what you actually need to retire on. This post is an exploration of my portfolio and what it means to me, both now and around next steps on planning. Do come and join me on Insta where I also look at my day to day actions and thoughts on all these things (and some more random stuff as well, let’s be honest).

      So, what is my portfolio built up of?

      It’s made up of three different areas, each of which has its own story and function.

      Pensions £   234,973
      Savings £      39,207
      Property equity £    443,497
      TOTAL £     717,677
      Net worth as of February 2022
      A lot of my net worth is property equity which is not really accessible but means I can dream about living in a fabulous house like this on in Nairobi…

      Property

      So 60% of my net worth is property equity. This is across two homes. I rented out my main residence in the UK when I got a job overseas and it is still tenanted. This means that the interest rate isn’t great (abot 4%) but I have focused on paying off this mortgage as a matter of priority. That’s based largely on my risk appetite (AKA terror of losing my job and making my kids homeless) and whilst I realise it might not be the most rationale approach to wealth building, it gives me a sense of comfort. I had a huge deposit from the sale of my previous home, so the mortgage was only £156,000 to start with and I have paid off £111,000 in the past six years.

      This property is also my only passive income stream, bringing in £1,250 gross, or about £900 net of all costs since I have a letting agent manage it and of course have to ensure that everything is in good working order.

      My second property is the home that we live in in Denmark. I wrote a lot about the decision to buy, and then about freaking out about the cost of property here but on balance I still think it was the right decision. Aside from the ridiculous cost of rent, the housing market is crazy at the moment and I have friends who cannot find places to rent. So again – it’s not just a financial decision but one about stability.

      I don’t try and overpay the mortgage on this house. Partly because it’s so huge I just won’t make a dent, but also because we will sell this when we move country again. So since housing is a significant monthly cost, I just pay it and hope that I get a return on investment that is better than paying rent to someone else.

      I am interested in having more of a property porfolio but it’s so hard in the UK. I listen to a lot of great FIRE podcasts from the US and everything – from the financing, to the market – just seems miles away. There are also ethical issues, in both directions, about being a private landlord but that’s a post for another day.

      Savings

      The result of buying a second home though was that my savings and investments took a massive hit. I went from almost £100,000 in savings to around £20,000 which I have built back up. That amount includes my emergency fund of £10,000 and the rest is in a stocks and shares ISA.

      This is the area that I really want to focus on as there is so much room for growth. I also feel very property heavy in terms of the portfolio overall, and it’s money that just stays tied up.

      Whether you’re saving for a rainy day or a cloud forest holiday, this is the most flexible part of your portfolio. Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Unsplash

      Pensions

      So this is the confusing area I think. Most of the FIRE community talks about total pension pots, and for me that is around

      But the majority of my pensions are defined benefit which works totally differently. Have a look here for a simple explanation but basically, defined benefit means that the pot doesn’t really matter: what I will receive as a pension is guaranteed. This is a great place to be in lots of ways, though it is limited in terms of flexibility. I can’t, for example, decide where those pensions are invested. But in terms of security and planning they really work.

      So what is interesting is not so much the overall pot as how much each one will pay out in retirement. The figures below show both the current pot value calculated as the transfer value (what I would get if I cashed out or wanted to move it) and also what it’s scheduled to pay out. All of the defined benefit schemes pay out when I am 67, so I also need to focus on what could be quite a long period to bridge if I want to retire at 50.

      One thing to note is that the third pension pot will pay that out if I carry on contributing at this level for another two years – if I leave the job before then, they just pay me out the transfer value. So I need to stay here at least a bit longer!

      PensionsTransfer valuePension on retirement
      TOTALS £ 234,973£23,316
       SIPP £ 42,983£400
       Defined benefit pension 1 £ 39,462£1,400
       Defined benefit pension 2 £ 62,304£6,250
       Defined benefit pension 3 £ 90,224£15,266

      You can see from this that they aren’t all equal. Each one has a totally different rate of return.

      It does make me question the value of investing in the SIPP, as works out as a 1% rate of withdrawal which doesn’t seem that smart. Once I lock in my defined benefit pensions, I might stop this one and focus on saving and investing in other ways.

      So that’s it. There are other very small pots in there like crypto but these are the real pillars of my financial plan. I do need to think about rebalancing them but for now I will end on a picture of the kitchen from that same house – because dreaming big is what it’s all about.

      Kitchen goals
      Featured

      What do you actually need to retire on?

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Last week I wrote about how my net worth is now $950,000, and how I was feeling about it. Do come and join me on Insta where I tell the same stories but with a lot fewer words, and with photos of Barbies. What’s not to like?!

      This week I want to talk through what the limitations of my net worth are. Not because I’m ungrateful or want to scare off people who are much earlier on in the journey, but because there are impacts to how we organise a portfolio which means that net worth doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story in terms of what I need to retire on.

      So let’s go back to basics. The FIRE approach to early retirement takes as standard the 4% rule: basically, you need to save 25 times your annual financial requirements, then you will be able to withdraw 4% each year in a way which will keep you going for at least 30 years.

      Yes ma’am! Photo by Precondo CA on Unsplash

      There has been a huge amount of discussion on this in the FIRE community and outside. The 4% rule comes from the fairly standardised view of return on investment in the stock market. The S&P500 for example has an annualised return rate of 7.5% over the past decades. So if you assume inflation gobbles up 3%, you’re left with 4% that you can withdraw before impacting on the capital.

      Right now, there are commentators noting that the 4% rule might not work as well in future, as the stock market goes into a period of instability (or, you know, total global apocalyptic meltdown). Others point out that, on balance, the markets always right themselves eventually. At the point of drawdown though the issue is this – if you are retired and you need to spend out of your portfolio, you can’t wait for the market to resettle, and you can’t withdraw based on an average. So if you need to take money at a challenging time when the markets are down, you will either only be able to take out less, or it will diminish your capital.

      As an aside, if you are new to this journey you really don’t need to know everything about the stock market but you might want to explore a little – I love Paula Pant’s recent basics guide.

      Enjoy yourself! Either by talking about the stock market, or by planning your fantasy life when you retire. I know which I prefer… Photo by Jay-Pee Peña 🇵🇭 on Unsplash

      (Side bar – I do my financial planning in GBP£ but calculate my net worth in US$ because it looks better. I know, I know, the games we play with ourselves…)

      The reason this matters is because it has a significant impact on how much you need to save in the first place. I worked on the basis that I need £30,000 per year to live on – there are a lot of assumptions and years of budgeting behind this, but broadly, it works. Which? have a fascinating annual survey of how much retirees spend annually, and they calculate that £31,000 per year is enough for a single person to have a ‘luxury retirement’. But this assume the person is older, without the need to financially support children or their own elderly parents. It also says that spending on food and drink dramatically decrease and let’s face it – that’s not going to be me.

      To withdraw 4% and have this be £30,000 per year in retirement, I would need to save 25 times that amount. So 25 x 30,000 = £750,000 ($975,000), which is very close to where I am. Using a more conservative approach would suggest using the 3% rule instead, or saving 33 x 30,000 = £990,000 ($1.23m).

      There are lots of caveats to this in terms of how you do your planning and what it means, but it is also a stark reminder of where the mindful money aspect comes in to play. It sounds obvious, but the more you want to spend in the future, the more you have to save now. This also means looking at paying down debt, or paying off your home: basically balancing your expenditure with your planning.

      Gather up your courage and do your calculations. Big Shaq is with you!

      That means that the first and most important step is to know your numbers. Next week I will walk through my portfolio and some of the challenges in calculating an early retirement age, especially around accounting for defined benefit pensions, and deciding how to treat buying a house vs renting, as well as understanding what each of these options means in your planning.

      Until then, I hope you enjoy working through some of your numbers. I’d love to hear from you, here or on Insta, about how it’s going and whether there are any more hacks and ideas I can help with.

      Featured

      How reaching $1 million net worth (almost) feels

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 2 Comments

      Don’t forget to join me on Insta! Loving the conversation and energy over there.

      So I have missed writing this blog for two weeks. This seems like pretty poor form, especially so early in the year, but honestly it was an act of radical self-care. I was in Kenya for work and took some time to connect with friends and loved ones, and really think about where I’m going. It also made me look back on where I have come from, so this post explores some of the feels I’m experiencing about getting so close to another net worth goal and what it all means. TL:DR – it’s not what I expected.

      Lots of people are finding things hard at the moment. The world is (I was going to say ‘feels’ but let’s cut to the chase) unstable and scary; we’ve spent two years away from normal connections; the cost of the day to day is soaring – basically, it can feel like we’re all screwed.

      View from my window this morning. No matter how bad, the sun still rises.

      I’ve written a lot about gratitude but usually as more of a warm fuzzy rather than an actual practice. But gratitude is the antidote to stuckness, anxiety and fear, so when it feels like the world is screwed it’s the obvious place to go. Then someone on my Facebook asked – is there even any point starting a FIRE journey after 40? After taking a minute to feel sad about all the limiting beliefs society and ourselves live to, I had to answer HELL YES. And it also made me take time to be grateful for how far I have come, and how I now get to encourage others.

      There is always a point to taking control of the things in our lives within our grasp. Being mindful with money – or work or whatever – instantly converts those thoughts and activities to a meaningful engagement with the world. It sounds obvious but getting intentional about your decisions and actions really does make a difference. It is so easy to float about thinking you will get around to something, whilst all the time you are building up a life you don’t want. So – being intentional will positively impact your life, regardless of whether it equates to your FIRE goals.

      In preparing to reply to her, I checked my numbers – and realised I am at $950,000 – so almost $1 million net worth.

      mmmmmhhhhmmmm

      I mean, I pay close enough attention to know I was heading there but changes in the housing market in particular have really made a difference.

      Ironically, my first thought was – I thought it would feel better than this.

      Hear me out. I worked my backside off to get here, and I really am grateful. But perhaps there is something about having an iconic goal, and one which is actually a proxy indicator rather than the goal itself, which doesn’t feel that special? It might also be hedonic adaptation – if I went from zero to this, perhaps the feels would be different? Or perhaps I’m just an asshole.

      I will run through my numbers properly next week but I also note that this net worth is not enough to retire early on: or at least it isn’t in the portfolio I have which is very largely pensions and real estate. What it does give me though, is a sense of achievement and possibility. What I need to guard against now is the hedonic treadmill and striving for more and more. And also against being ungrateful to the point that I don’t even smell the roses.

      And I need to get back to what really matters. My two weeks away highlighted to me that I am less prepared to keep waiting and making compromises than I have been to date. Hoping to pile up some more money when it isn’t even making me happy – and I have enough to be financially secure to the point where I can think about taking risks – is starting to feel like the wrong bargain. But that feels like a success. I started this journey wanting to make FU money. Maybe I’m just a lot closer to saying FU.

      Featured

      Valentine’s Day Massacre: The financial inequality of single parenting

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      I originally posted this in February 2021, but it contains such critical reflections on financial inequalities that face single parents that I wanted to come back to it. Things are even worse one year on: the impact of repeat COVID lockdowns but without the financial cushioning; soaring utility costs; rising inflation – in short, a cost of living crisis which is exacerbated by stagnant wages and new challenges in juggling work and childcare. So I have made some updates but the message is broadly, unhappily, the same.

      Being a jolly sort of soul (and, obviously, single), Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect time. I considered doing a post on self-care and self-love and how this relates to FIRE, but whilst it’s great to work on being positive and hold yourself to account, sometimes it’s necessary to look at structural inequalities and burn. it. all. down.

      This isn’t a post about how hard it is to do all of this on one income, though that’s true. There are more single people in the world than ever, around 45% of the adult population in the global North, and there is evidence that they are happier than married counterparts. I am not an evangelist for the single state – indeed I would be happier in a commune than living alone – but I do sometimes imagine what I could achieve if I was part of a couple with the added energy, income, time and other resources and it makes me dizzy.

      There’s a lot of love out there, even if you’re single. Duh. Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

      So no, it’s not just jealousy or the basic ‘2 incomes is better than 1’ point. In the UK and many other countries, ‘couple privilege‘ is a real thing: outside of the obvious difference in having two incomes, there are tax privileges to having a spouse for example. There are a myriad of hidden costs to being single, from holidays to supermarket norms, not to mention the cost of housing and how single people are viewed as a greater risk in terms of accessing a mortgage.

      In addition to this, for single parents there are punitive financial measures specifically designed to impact on us. Don’t forget that our current Prime Minister called the children of single mothers “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate” (ironic given his contribution to the creation of single mothers). And don’t his policies show this belief. Changes and restrictions in benefits (most of which are not actually spent on ‘dole scroungers’) including family benefits are pushing single parent families even further into poverty. The British charity the Child Poverty Action Group have talked about the ‘war on lone parents’ and cited evidence that current policy really does try and make it harder for single parent families, presumably as a deterrent for the terrible mess we make of society.

      Research in the UK shows that this approach has been so successful that it is not possible for a single parent on median earnings to reach a decent minimum living standard. Indeed, the gap between earnings and costs are getting worse thanks for austerity and benefit cuts, and price rises. For lone parents working full time on median earnings, the shortfall has risen from 6% to 16% in the past ten years.

      In 2019, the overall cost of a child up to age 18 years (including rent and childcare) was £185,000 for lone parents (up 19% since 2012) and £151,000 for couples (up 5.5% since 2012). A greater cost, on half the possible income. It feels hard because it IS hard.

      Maybe we should be angry instead of ashamed. Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

      In a previous job where I was posted overseas for a British company there were significant benefits available for a spouse that I was unable to tap into for either of my children’s secondary parents – their father, or their grandmother. These benefits included the cost of flights to spend time with us, or if one of them had wanted to live with me, pension contributions. I lost out on around £20,000 per year because those benefits could only go to someone with whom I had a very particular intimate relationship. I felt totally judged by 1950s hetero normative rules: you can have the money if you still go to bed with the person with whom you had children, but if not, forget it.

      The attitudes here, both in the treatment of those on benefits and low wages, and those of us in a much higher tax bracket, are united by the same message. You have failed, and you should be ashamed.

      And we are ashamed. Parents who have to bring up their children on the bread line already feel like they are failing without being told. A New York Times article talks about how normal this all is. Whilst being frugal, getting a side hustle and so on are the building blocks of FIRE they are also par for the course when making ends meet. It’s the same shame that stops people asking for help; stops them checking to see if they have the benefits they are entitled to, or asking for adjustments to working hours. It’s the same shame that in my own petty way, stopped me from questioning why I was paying 50% of a bill where I was clearly not benefitting from 50% of the purchase.

      I am blessed to be able to bring up my children without stinting – on luxuries as well as the basics, where we are frugal it’s out of choice – but I am also constantly anxious about what happens if I can’t work. We don’t have a second income to lean back on. We don’t have a plan B.

      Lessening that anxiety is one of the reasons that financial independence is worth so much as a single parent. There are loads of brilliant exes out there who co-parent and equally share the financial burden but I can honestly say that I don’t know any of them myself. When you have sufficient issues with someone that you made the enormous decision to break up your family, relying on them financially can be challenging however easy it is. Sometimes the plan B just isn’t possible.

      But sometimes, we also need to think about how society – and communities like FIRE – can help us create new plans. Love is so much more than just romantic: for our kids, for our community, our planet and each other. Happy valentine’s day to us all.

      Love one another, wherever you are at. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

      Featured

      New Year 4: You need (some sort of) budget

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland

      Well yeah it’s February but there are still 11 months left of the year, so don’t worry if your New Year’s resolutions are taking a while to kick off. As with everything to do with changing habits and mindsets – or indeed with personal finance – takes time.

      In my previous posts, I promised to come back to the concept of budgeting. Lots of people start here but whilst I agree it is super important to know where your money is going and how to spend more mindfully, starting with the budget always makes me feel like it’s putting the least interesting bit first and there’s a risk you will get put off before you get to the thrill of setting yourself up for your dreams. That doesn’t work for everyone though, so do things in the other that you find the most inspiring.

      You need to get excited, and to put your foundations in place: do whichever most turns you on first. Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash

      There are equally a ton of different ways to create a budget and it depends on where you are with your finances.

      Zero-Based Budgets

      Best for: people with limited incomes, or challenges with spending habits

      The idea here is to give every single penny of your income a job – to allocate it an ensure that it doens’t wander off by itself. It’s a monthly budget based on an assessment of all your fixed costs, then where you allocate funds to discretionary spending and to savings. Once this is done, all you have to do is track your spending and basically stop if you are about to go over any of your planned limits.

      There is lots of information on estabishing a zero-based budget but all you really need to know is a detailed list of your income and usual expenses:

      • Fixed costs – the basics to keep the wheels on your life;
      • Discretionary costs – including groceries since how much we spend on this can vary so widely, along with things like clothes, cosmetics, entertainment etc;
      • Irregular costs – these could be either fixed, like a car service or discretionary, like an annual subscription, but you need to be able to plan for them (or choose to cut them out) or they will mess up your monthly plan.

      Once you have done an audit of all of these costs and listed them out, take a really good look. Are you being realistic? Over-ambitious in terms of cutting costs, or too lenient? If you are at the point of making a budget it’s because you want something more important so focus on that instead of on feeling like you’re cutting all the treats out of your life. Building your future is literally the best treat you could have.

      Budgeting is just organising what you have so it gets spent in the ways you intend. Photo by Andreas Näslund on Unsplash

      50/30/20 Budget

      Good for: people who want a framework then a bit more freedom, but are still getting started on a financial independence journey.

      This is pretty similar to what I do, thought with the cost of childcare it’s more like 65/15/20. It’s a pretty simple way of guiding your money rather than tethering it down, which is why it is easier to do if you have some slack in your budget and aren’t troubled by impulse spending.

      You set out your expenses into buckets: 50% for needs, 30% for wants, and 20% for savings. You will need to know your fixed costs, then be prepared to budget down on your needs so that they fit within your budget envelope. It’s a really good way to get started in terms of savings – or paying down debt – and trimming your budget in a way which helps you to build good habits. You will still need to roughly track what is going to each bucket during the month so that you can make sure that the ‘wants’ 30% isn’t going off track but you can also be secure in the knowlegde that you have covered all your bases, and you are living within your means.

      Extreme Budgeting

      Best for: those who are really driven by their goals and have flexibility. Or who love budgeting.

      This seems to be a pretty common story in the FIRE movement, but it’s not something which has ever really worked for me. I could argue this is because of lack of flexibility though these are linked partly to my status as a single parent and partly to other choices, like staying in a career which prevents geo-arbitrage.

      This is a huge leap from either of the other two, which are more focused on the basics of mindful money. Extreme budgeting can be done in fact with either a zero-based budget, or using different percentages with the same 50/30/20 approach but the focus is on drastically reducing spending. Here you would audit your spending then really interrogate it. What can ou cut back on? What would that mean for your life – moving house, selling your car, cleaning your own house? I like the focus on a Marie Kondo-esque focus on what brings you joy and cutting it out. There is often a focus on discretionary spending, but this can also be applied to your fixed costs – maybe that big house isn’t bringing you what you thought it would, and you can consider downsizing for example. As with all budgets, it’s totally personal, so for me one latte a week brings me joy so I buy one on Sundays whilst my daughter is at ballet class and really savour it: buying another one at any time feels like a waste of money rather than a treat, so I just don’t do it.

      There are brilliant resources from people who live this way and have done brilliantly on their FIRE journeys. Try the Frugalwoods blog or book (which I love though the couples element personally puts me off a little) or try Michelle McGagh’s No Spend Year for a detailed and inspiring journey from the UK.

      Find the joy in everything, even budgeting – you are owning your future. Photo by Taylor Heery on Unsplash

      There are a lot of different options and you might need to try a few, or move on from one to another. The main thing is to get started: to be mindful with your money you need to know what you want it to do, and then intentionally guide where it is going. There is always going to be an element of tracking as well, especially at the start, and I will talk about tools for that too in future posts. Budgeting can feel like a tricky process to get started with, but it is putting you in control, and that’s a great feeling.

      How do you do your budget and what tips do you have? I’d love to hear from you!

      Featured

      Beach money: investing and risk

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / Leave a comment

      I’m taking a break from the New Year Money guides to riff a little. This week has been filled with stories of stock market crashes, crypto circling the drain, and general doom. Quick reminder that when weeks like this seem long, do join me for mindful money hacks and positivity over on Instagram @brilliant_ladies_money. Now with added Barbies and reggae!

      So I wanted to chat a bit about risk, opportunity and how growing into your power means making decisions you really believe in: feeling your way through the different options and trusting that you have your foundations on point, whilst still showing up with courage.

      Either way, let’s make it to the beach. Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

      If you spend enough time on social media it is easy to believe that we are all missing out on the ability to make easy millions through crypto, NFTs (IKR?), or indeed being eight years old and making videos of oursleves opening gifts. I don’t believe it’s all snake oil though. My parents, like many working class people, refused to have anything to do with investing or the stock market because of deep suspicion, and it harmed their finances in the end. On my mum’s side I think it was partly her left wing politics but for both of them it was definitely lack of trust that the system could benefit them in any way, as well as lack of confidence. I think I’m the only person in my family to have investments, and it still causes my mum to freak out.

      I thought a lot of this was historical, but a study by Forbes shows that 65% of people aged 18-40 say that investing in the stock market is scary or intimidating. But this is the interesting thing about perceived risks: that age group is also the most likely to be familiar with cryptocurrencies; have holdings or expect to buy crypto in the future. There are a lot of brave investors out there as well who see engagement with Wall Street as part of the great Battle Between Good and Evil. Whilst it’s not totally clear who is on which side, the pandemic, climate change and heated global politics means it’s not hard to get the sense that the End of Days are on the way. This week was the anniversary of GameStop – the memestock phenomenon that saw average small investors drive up the price of GameStop shares by 1,700% through enouragement on reddit. If you are interested in hearing more about that, and about understanding the ethics of engaging with the stock market and how to impact it, I really recommend Paula Pant’s podcast on the topic.

      Whatever you do, make sure you understand the risks. Photo by janilson furtado on Unsplash

      After a few years of investing – and freaking out, and sometimes doing stupid things – here’s what I learnt:

      Your portfolio should have different options depending on your risk tolerance based on what you want that money for and the consequences of losing it. There is room for both the tortoise and the hare here: room indeed even for the Pink Fairy Armadillo. The question is choosing the right vehicle for your money at any particular point. If you are socking money away for retirement you already know:

      • What your time horizon is, and probably that you have a long period to invest meaning that you can choose vehicles which take a longer time to generate a return, as well as needing to factor in inflation. The long horizon also makes it wise to look at tax implications since you will, hopefully, be making a bunch of money over a long period.
      • That you need to be sure there will be money by the time you retire, so your risk tolerance will likely change as you get closer to the date and you will have a chance to rebalance so it makes sense to find a mechanism which allows that.
      • The consequences of not investing wisely would have a massive impact on the later seasons of your life. If you lose your retirement fund, it increases the likelihood that you will have to work way, way past when you want to and are more at the mercy of health issues, not able to help out adult children and so on. Basically, it’s not where we want to end up, and for my generation who worked 15-20 years before pension auto-enrollment but will probably get to retirement after the State Pension has gone up in smoke, it is a very real destination.

      Balancing the options therein should get the balance between comfort and discomfort.

      • Get the very basics right first. If you have a clear saving and investing strategy for the money you have coming in based on hierarchy you will create a foundational level of comfort which frees you to be courageous elsewhere. Allocate the money that needs to be there to pay your bills, keep your kids fed and a roof over your heads, and it removes a whole load of late-night anxiety. This money is not something you need to invest anywhere, at any time. Keep it accessible, and spend it – it’s what you made it for. Check out my post on working out your fixed outgoings, and go from there.
      • Prepare for emergencies. I am a total catastrophiser. I think working in the humanitarian sector for so long, coupled with a few unexpected life disasters and an overactive imagination means that the only answer I ever have to the question ‘what could possibly go wrong’ is ‘EVERY DAMN THING’! Whether you think they are coming or not, having rainy day money, or an emergency fund, means that you won’t be thrown off course by a broken down car, month without work, or whatever else. Keep it accessible but don’t spend it unless you have to – it’s there to protect you later on. As I say to my kids, boredom is not an emergency.
      Beauty has foundations and grandeur. Work out what needs to be where to hit the right balance. Photo by Johannes Ludwig on Unsplash

      After that, base decisions on what you are prepared to lose.

      • Optimism bias means that we are programmed to think about what we have to gain. Negative Nelly over here says – but what about what you might lose? There is a reason though why this is the right question to ask when thinking about investing. With the examples above of retirement, monthly costs and emergency funds, the answers are quite different. The risk balance for retirement is also cushioned by the longer time horizon, and by the fact that (hopefully) you can delay using that money by a few months or years if you need to ride out an occurance in the market.
      • Conversely working this out gives you a whole load of freedom for other pots of money. I have a few super high risk investments which have all been done with what I call beach money. This is money where if I lose it all it means I can’t take my kids to the beach for a holiday – not that we can’t pay our rent. It means I can be brave (or ill informed, let’s be fair) and it really doesn’t matter. I have about $10,000 of beach money investments across angel investments and crypto, and I only really think about it when I am getting antsy that I might be missing out on something.

      Working out your priorities means you will create a framework in which you can have certainty and risk where you need to. Let me know how you balance this out, I love hearing from you!

      Featured

      New Year 3: Paying yourself first

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 2 Comments

      Firstly – huge thanks to everyone who has joined me on @brilliant_ladies_money over on Instagram. It has been eye opening for me to post every day over there, and really inspired me to connect with the FIRE community in another way.

      Secondly – I know we are getting close to the point where you have to stop saying ‘happy new year!’ January has been smoke this year and it’s almost done. But I wanted to carry on with the series about planning for your money, and to talk about the step after you work out your basic outgoings.

      Last week I shared how to audit your fixed costs: all the money that you know for sure has to be made and spent to keep the wheels on. This week I want to introduce the idea of paying yourself first. Basically, this means mentally going straight from fixed costs to your saving goals, instead of going to work on your discretionary spending budget.

      It can be hard to start, but waiting for things to sort themselves out is harder. Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

      There are a couple of caveats with this. If you are living on the breadline or only just making ends meet each month, then this method is not likely to suit you. I really want to recognise that so many people are struggling in these hard times: the impact of prices hike in the UK where the rising cost of living is now a crisis for people who are at the ‘normal’ end of the income spectrum is shocking. I will reflect on this – and how to cope – in future posts, but for now I just wanted to recognise what is going on in the world. Secondly, if you have struggled with controlling your spending in the past, you might be better off working to a zero-based budget to tighten the reins. Again I will talk to this in future posts, but for now I wanted to reflect on how I am planning my own money for 2022.

      Working out how to ‘pay yourself first’

      You know when you get paid, all those good intentions about saving or paying off extra debt seem to get pushed to one side? Bills get paid, the monthly take away gets bought, and then things just sort of slide. And this happens over and over again, even when people’s incomes increase.

      This is often down to two things: hedonic adaptation, and Parkinson’s Law. Together these basically mean that as you make more money, your perceived needs and wants expand; and if you have money to spend, your needs will expand to spend it. The only way to overcome this is to be mindful with both your money, and your wants and needs and plan accordingly.

      Get that pot ready! Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

      Set your self payment plan

      Once you have worked out your fixed costs as a percentage of your take home pay, you then know what you have left to play with. In my case I spend 65% of my income on the fixed basics, leaving 35% for everything else – whether that’s groceries, holidays, or savings.

      For the last few years, I have been trying to save 30% of my income. Since I pay a healthy amount into my pension pre-tax – the equivalent of 15% of my post-tax income – this has been easy to surpass. But in 2022 I want to consciously try and save 20% of my take home pay. Realistically this will mean cutting back in terms of spending. But for me the mental exercise of setting saving goals and sticking to them is more doable and inspiring than setting a tight budget and then saving what is left. They amount to the same thing, so it will depend on what turns you on as to which is useful.

      Saving 20% as standard

      I calculated that I have £7,500 as monthly take home with £2,538 left after fixed costs. This means I should be saving £1,500 per month. Currently I do the following:

      SIPP personal pension £    300.00
      ISA savings £    500.00
      Children’s’ ISA £    200.00
      Children’s’ Junior Pensions £      50.00
      Emergency fund top up £    100.00
      TOTAL £ 1,150.00

      I also overpay my mortgage by £500.00 a month which goes mostly to capital so I count that in my mind when I think about savings.

      Planning for the future. It looks beautiful. Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

      So with a total of £1,650 I am at my 20%. I am fine with keeping to that amount but I will review whether I should be paying off my mortgage or focusing my savings in a different way this year. I will talk more in future about options for savings and investing, and how to make those precious parts of your income work for you.

      Next week I will talk about the spending part, and ways to look at how to best use the rest of my income. There are lots of ways to do this which facilitate planning for bigger or less regular costs like holidays or repairs. But once my savings goals are set, I feel much more in control.

      Let me know how your financial planning is going! And good luck with this exercise, I hope you found it useful.

      Featured

      New Year 2: Auditing your fixed costs

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 4 Comments

      First of all, in line with ‘new year, new challenges’ I am thrilled to let you know that I have set up an Instagram account, @brilliant_ladies_money linked to this blog. Do join me for daily tips, hacks and inspiration on mindful living and growing into your financial power – plus I’d love to see what you are working on!

      Last week I wrote about giving yourself a break: this week, it’s more about knuckling down and finding ways to do some of the foundational tasks on which you can build out your financial independence journey.

      Whilst most people think about going straight to budgeting, my feeling is that can seem like a huge mountain of joylessness. and sometimes that is offset by knowing how great you will feel afterwards but – a mountain is a mountain, you know? So I recommend splitting this out and focusing first of all on an audit of your fixed costs.

      Maybe boring but necessary – find that paperwork! Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

      Undertaking an audit of your finances literally just means going through the details of your spending and working out what your outgoings are, and how often they are paid. I am not talking about discretionary spending at this point – that will be what you have left over once you have done steps one and two. And you don’t need to include things which go out of your pre-tax salary like pension contributions or healthcare since all we are doing is balancing your take-homie budget. There are tons of different ways to do these things, and they key is trying something and sticking to it long enough to see if it works for you.

      So, what are all the things that you have to pay regularly, whether monthly or annually? We’ll talk about ways to plan for the non-monthly outoings but for now, just make sure they are in here.

      1. Think about your fixed costs and what they might be – housing, transport and childcare are usually the three biggest. Think about your utilities, council taxes, car service or tax, income tax if you are self-employed or have side hustles and so on. It would also include debt repayments if you have them. How to fast track debt repayments is a different discussion: for now just list them out.  The list doesn’t include regular payments which you could choose to live without, like media subscriptions: only the essentials.
      2. Go through your direct debits and standing orders first, listing out the detailed amount, what it’s for, and when it goes out of your account into a spreadsheet or notebooks. You can write this down however you like but it’s easier to use a spreadsheet because then you can change figures and it makes it easier to track your overall spending over time.
      3. Go through your bank statements and identify other areas where you might have other regular costs. I pay our public transport passes via a recurring card payment so they only show up on my statements. Add these into the spreadsheet. You might need to scour a full year of statements, but if you have in mind when your fixed costs come out you can be a bit more focused.
      It can even be beautiful before you start the climb, but the view is much better from the top. Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash

      This is what my real numbers look like. And I know the actual amounts are OUTRAGEOUS but I live in Denmark – which also explains the salary – so it’s also pretty standard. I will chat another time on the sky-rocketing utility bills happening all over Europe (when I can find the time in between putting extra jumpers on), but for now, this is what I expect to have as monthly fixed outgoings in 2022:

      Personal insurance £               11.48
      Home insurance £               38.33
      Car insurance £               54.91
      Buildings insurance £               88.29
      Insurance Totals £         193.01
      Electricity £             147.62
      Internet £               35.70
      Water  £             209.72
      Gas & hot water £             494.13
      Security (offset by cheaper insurance) £               32.94
      Council tax £             302.59
      Utilities Totals £      1,222.70
      DK Loan £             788.22
      Mortgage £         1,045.30
      Deposit Loan (more on this later…) £             498.00
      House Repayment £      2,331.52
      Train passes £             100.00
      Car service and tax £               25.00
      Transport Totals £         125.00
       Childcare Totals£      1,089.45 
       MONTHLY FIXED TOTALS£      4,961.68 

      Remember that this is your life, and your money. Some people see childcare as negotiable and might look at this and see how to rebalance their priorities with their spouse. That is not my life, so this stays as a fixed cost. Ditto transport – whilst people can change how they approach transport, I don’t plan to do so this year so it’s going to stay fixed.

      And that’s it! Everything else you spend is discretionary. And yes there are other things you need to stay alive like food, but we’ll deal with the monster topic that is grocery shopping in part three.

      Once you know what your fixed costs, are, take your income, and minus these costs. Then you have the money you have left over to save and to spend. For me that’s £7,500 as monthly take home meaning I have £2,538 left. That means my fixed costs are already 65% of my monthly income.

      Next week we’re going to work on what this means for saving, spending, and making it all come together for the changes you want to see in your life.

      It will make everything so much simpler for the next step. Photo by Pablo Arroyo on Unsplash

      Let me know if you undertake this process and how it works for you. And here’s looking forward to a fabulous 2022!

      Featured

      New Year 1: Getting started with money

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      So here we are again, another year! Having started off with a cheerful little post on loneliness, I wanted to come back to thinking as the FIRE community, where you are definitely not alone. Whether you are new to thinking about personal finance or fully on your path, the new year offers a moment to take stock and think about where you want to be, and how you will get there.

      Woop! Photo by zero take on Unsplash

      Now, I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. As my dear friend said – why add pressure? Why not just resolve to be kind to yourself, and treat yourself well? I think that is sage advice, but I do like to find tangible ways to treat myself well (and also to myself, said with love – this does not involve a cold beer and some cheese straws).  I’ve written before about how managing your finances is an act of radical self care and it’s certainly true for me.

      I know lots of people find thinking about finance stressful: try imagining instead that dealing with your money is a way of reducing stress now and in the future. You might have to sit and do some tedious legwork now, but what if it meant no more sleepless nights worrying about money? What if it freed up some brain space for you to dream and act on those plans? Now that’s worth a resolution.

      So my advice to you, especially if you are just getting started, is to give yourself a break. We’ve all had a hard few years, and a lot of the financial (and other) news coming out suggests that 2022 isn’t going to be a bunch of roses either. The most important thing though is to give yourself some grace and some space, not just because you deserve it but because when you are ready to work on your finances (or your weight, your love life or your novel) you will come from a place where you are more centred and compassionate, and more able to engage.

      New year, same old you, but maybe with some new ideas. Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

      I also believe there are a lot of easier ways to cut through the white noise of financial confusion. My next few posts will cover some options as to how to knock your finances into shape for 2022, when you are ready.

      There is a ton of financial guidance out at this time of year. January feels like a fresh start, plus it’s common to come out of the holiday period feeling a bit queasy about overspending, or about carrying debt into yet another year. Sometimes the advice can be helpful, but I find many of them either over simplify – “set a budget and stick to it” is a frequent gem which makes me think “oh thanks! :facepalm:” – or cram so many different things in that it can feel overwhelming.

      So my new year financial resolutions are limited to the following:

      • Audit: Work out what my fixed costs are;
      • Pay myself first: Work out what I can reasonably save and ensure that it is automated to come out straight after I get paid;
      • Burn the budget: Basically, I’m not going to sweat what happens with the rest of my money. I mean, within reason.

      And that’s it. Simples! Looking forward to sharing my audit process, and my own results, next week. Until then, put your feet up and finish off the Christmas chocolates. You got this.

      Grace and space first: everything else will come. Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

      Wait, what? Handbags?

      Featured / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      The idea of the Brilliant Ladies’ Handbag Club comes from an all-women group I used to attend. It was created to help women set and achieve their goals, from cleaning out the attic to getting their start-up on the road. That group was called something else, but my then 6-year-old son renamed it to the BLHC, because just attending made me brighter, happier, and more focused. Since then, I have focused on working out what I want to do with my one wild and precious life – and it turns out the answer isn’t ‘work for a salary’. It probably isn’t ‘do yoga on the beach’ either to be fair – but wouldn’t it be great to choose?

      I love the image of the handbag: full of useful tools; creative things like books, postctards, dried out daisies, and colouring pens; somewhere to dive in and finding things I didn’t know were there but turn back up just at the right time. My handbag always has nourishing snacks (and plenty of sweets, because you never know – also spare underpants, because you never know) to keep you going on the way. And a phone and a list of contacts in case I get lonely on the journey.

      I’ve spent a year diving into a brilliant community around FIRE (financial independence, retire early) and whilst it’s becoming more diverse, as s British single mother there is only a small amount of it which resonates – which feels like me. So the Brilliant Ladies’ Handbag Club is an online place for me to chronicle my journey, reflect and store all the nuggets of wisdom along the way and share them with like-minded people. If you’re interested in FIRE; taking control of your money, even when things get tough, and in doing so stick it to the consumerist man; dreaming and building a different life; or just looking for some company, then come on in. Amongst the sweeties and the underpants, might be your tribe.

      Heartbreak

      / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      In January my son was hospitalised, and he has only just been discharged. It is heartbreaking to be living in this season, and the nature of his illness means that it might not be a season, but where we live from now on.

      Everything has, of course, been put on hold, including this blog. We were already in a challenging place trying to work out my next job, where we will move to and this means that we have to just pause and focus on keeping us all as well as we can be.

      One thing I am so grateful for, other than love from family and friends and living in a country with an amazing healthcare system, is how much financial stability has given me breathing space. I’ve always talked about how financial planning prepares us for disaster, but I never believed it would apply to me. I have seen my money plans as positive pathways to great futures – a way of buying freedom, and buying options.

      But at this time, it meant that I could take time off work. I could focus entirely on my family and not worry about paying the bills or keeping us all fed and housed. And whilst I hope that I will find another job when my contract ends in December, my savings mean that I won’t have to move my son at a time when that would be detrimental to him.

      It’s not the kind of peace and freedom maybe I had in mind, but it has meant so much. It has given me space to focus on love, and at the moment, that is all we can do.

      2023 Spending Review

      / Gracie Sunderland / 1 Comment

      Welcome to 2024! Whilst lots of bloggers and personal finance folk are kicking off with goals and plans for 2024, I am coming into it a bit more gently. I worked crazy hours November and December right up to Christmas, so I’m just working on reviewing last year and getting into the right mindset for moving forward.

      That said, I already have GREAT plans for this blog and the related accounts in 2024 so watch this space! And until the launch of the transformation in February, do come and join me on my Insta.

      I like to start the new year with a stocktake of how my finances are doing and whether my savings and investments went according to plan, then using this as a baseline to setting some plans and goals for the coming year and understanding how well it worked. This isn’t the only focus for the year, so check out future posts to find out more about setting intentions, vision boards and the like. But it is a good way of gathering some baseline data and starting off from a position of honesty about my behaviours.

      2023 wasn’t as challenging as 2022 when it comes to finances and socio-economic issues, but it also wasn’t amazing. Inflation went up by an additional 4% over the year, which was a slow down on the previous year but continued challenges with rising basic costs on food, transport, and mortgages or rents, mean that most people felt the pinch. Food inflation rose to 19% by mid-2023. This is a measure of inflation just on food and non-alcoholic drinks, which can be impacted by things such as transport costs or conflict which limits shipping (watch this 2024 space for more on the Red Sea issues on shipping and their impact on household costs…) which people really felt at the shop.

      Unlike 2022, I undertook a complete review of my spending and was pretty horrified by how much I have been shelling out. I will say two things – one is that I live in Denmark, and my salary includes a ‘cost of living’ allowance which recognises the increased costs here compared to the UK. Denmark is the 10th most expensive city in the world, and whilst this isn’t an excuse there are areas where I feel like we have been really careful in making choices and the overall costs have still been huge.

      So what did I spend?

      So in total, I spent almost £90,000 in 2023. Even with Denmark prices, and with my ‘pay yourself first‘ savings approach, getting my budget under control is deiniftely my focus for 2024.

      25% of that was my mortgage, then there were five other areas around 10% of overall spend: childcare, groceries, holidays, house repairs and utilities. In total, that’s 75% of my entire spend, with everything else fitting into the other 25%. There are savings to be made here (I was horriffied that my blasé approach to subscriptions – i.e. if one person in the house values it, we keep it) means we are spending more than £500a year on this alone. But that’s good news as it’s something with infinite possibilities to work on.

       TOTAL GBPMonthly average%
      Childcare £                   6,985 £                 582.078
      Clothes £                      579 £                   48.231
      Cosmetics £                      378 £                   31.470
      Eating Out £                   3,656 £                 304.684
      Extra-Curricular £                   1,669 £                 139.062
      Gifts £                   2,337 £                 194.783
      Groceries £                   9,161 £                 763.3810
      Health £                   1,739 £                 144.922
      Holidays £                   8,984 £                 748.6810
      House £                 10,240 £                 853.2912
      Insurance £                   3,701 £                 308.394
      Kids £                   2,039 £                 169.292
      Mortgage £                 20,717 £              1,726.4223
      Shopping (misc) £                      347 £                   28.900
      Legal £                      116 £                     9.690
      Subscriptions £                      779 £                   64.881
      Treats £                      492 £                   41.011
      Transport £                   4,892 £                 407.706
      Utilities £                   9,533 £                 794.4311
        £                 88,344 £             7,362.01

      How was your spending in 2023, and what do you want to change? Whilst actual numbers will differ depending on location, priorities, household size, available income etc, the percentages should at least mimic your priorities. What does your spending tell you about areas you might want to work on in 2024?

      Happy new year, and happy goal setting!