How To Earn More Money

I was chatting with one of the kids recently and he pointed out that it seemed that most people pursuing FIRE were on really good salaries. He said that for them it was really just a question of pointing it out to them that they should save a big chunk of their earnings and they’ll be there in a few years. It should be easy for them as they can cover their basic needs with a tiny percentage of their salary, still have some fun money left over and then save the rest without too many problems.

First of all it’s nice to know that he’s been paying attention over the years when I’ve been banging on about money and FIRE. Is he right though? Well, certainly up to a point yes. It’s not rocket science that if you’re earning good money you have a much bigger capacity to save. Of course lifestyle inflation can all too easily creep in, and you might find yourself earning good money but with even bigger commitments. You can always do something about that though.

Although it can be frustrating to read about the big hitters in the FIRE community on fantastic money and being able to save a huge proportion of their salaries, there are plenty of us out there on much more modest income still doing our FIRE thing. Within a FIRE context I’m definitely on a low salary, and yet is that really the case in a wider context? A very quick google shows that the average UK income last year was around £30k, and I would imagine that would be down this year. I’m on about £32,500, so actually a little bit above average. Add in the extra perks I get, such as a base rate mortgage then I’m probably quite a bit better off than the average UK worker. I’m guessing if we averaged out the salaries for people striving for FIRE then I’d be very much near the bottom.

I’m not moaning about my salary, quite the opposite. For me this is the most I’ve ever earned. I’ve always valued time over money and have never gone for the sort of jobs that would have required me being “on” all the time. Compared to what I was earning seven years ago, this is a great salary for me. I’ve gone from £17k to £32,500 in seven years, which has definitely taken a lot of pressure of me as the sole bread winner in the house. It’s allowed us to have some fun money, which is always much appreciated.

I guess the next logical step would be for me to start earning more money. There are a few ways I could go about this:

Move companies and get a new job
Stick with the same job and be so good at it I get a pay rise
Keep the same job but develop some sort of a side hustle
Get a new job within the same company

Of these options a couple of them have some drawbacks associated with them., so let’s have a look at them in a bit more detail.

Move Companies And Get A New Job

If I join a new company I’m going to be penalised on my defined benefits pension. Although it was capped when I was working part time on a much lower salary and so isn’t still a full final salary pension, it’s still pretty attractive and there are some reasonably severe penalties for leaving the company early. It’s not that I couldn’t go down this route, but it would have to be a pretty spectacular job with a really good salary/benefits to make up for what I already have. Lots of the benefits I have now are typically still available to long standing staff, but aren’t offered to new starts. So if I went to a new company in the same industry I’d likely be losing quite a few perks.

I think if I was going to move companies then it would be because I decided to do something completely different. If there was something I was definitely decided on (there isn’t!) then it would be worthwhile to jump ship and accept that I might be slightly worse off for a period of time, but hopefully better off long term. I could retrain, and I have looked at some courses, but it’s a question of the costs involved and whether I would be working long enough to recoup those costs and make it worthwhile. The jury is still out on that. If I had a burning passion to do something then it’s quite likely I would just go for it, but in the absence of that conviction there’s a lot to be said for sticking where I am and keeping the benefits that I already have.

Be So Good At My Job They Give Me A Massive Pay Rise

In terms of keep doing the same job but managing to get good pay rises, it’s a good theory, the practicalities of that not so much so. First of all it’s very hard to control pay rises, and I certainly don’t work in an environment where you can negotiate your salary. A few years ago I set myself an objective of getting a particular rating which would impact my pay rise and bonus positively. I worked my butt off all year, creating roles that didn’t exist and shoehorning myself into them. It was a time in my career when anything seemed possible. I got the rating I wanted and the pay rise that came with it. The issue is that there’s a limit to what the pay rise can be, and I’m limited by the grade that I am.

Nowadays we don’t even get ratings. It’s all down to what your manager thinks of you and what proportion of the pay rise pot they think you deserve. Of course you can be the best at your job possible, but without a formal rating system, it’s very difficult to judge how you’re doing. I regularly volunteer for additional duties to try and raise my profile within the department, but it does sometimes feel that you’re banging your head against a brick wall. We are so busy this year that I am regularly working for free just to manage my cases, so the thought of doing additional work on top of this to help with my development is sometimes too much to contemplate.

Side Hustles

I could keep doing what I’m doing on the grounds that it’s not a bad job. On a good day I like talking to customers about their money and I’m good at what I do. Extra money would bring me closer to FIRE though, and I could keep doing any side hustle after I stop work, which reduces the amount I would need to save to live on. That’s a win win in my book. I’ve tried a few different side hustles so far, with varying success.

I like to get ideas from customers I speak to about how they earn their money, and my ears always prick up when I hear about potential side hustles. It’s always good if you can hear about it from someone who’s actually doing it already and making it work. One day I talked to someone who was self-employed. I probed a bit about his business. He sold things and was an author. Sounded intriguing, so I asked him to tell me more. All strictly work related, not at all to see if it could help me with FIRE. Obviously. Turns out he was making a fortune selling stuff on eBay and had written a best-selling book about it. On my next break I was straight on Amazon ordering his book.

I think it’s fair to say that side hustle wasn’t exactly an unqualified success. I think I was maybe a wee bit half-hearted about it. Probably the key to building an eBay empire is to source your goods from somewhere other than just your bookshelves and DVD collections. I made a bit, and I quite enjoyed it, but it most definitely did not make my fortune.

I then moved on to matched betting. I did better with this. I made a few mistakes, which I think is normal, but I soon got myself organised. I made a reasonable amount with this, but nothing earth shattering. I found the amount of time I was spending on it was difficult to justify based around the amount of profit that I was making. I may well revisit this at some point in the future to see if I can make it work for me.

My thoughts just now are thinking about ways that I can make use of my house to make money. In two year’s time both my kids will be off at university. That is going to leave me an awful lot of room in the house. Renting a room out may be something I look into. I’m really not keen on that whilst the pandemic continues, but hopefully at some point in the mythical future the world will be virus free again. I probably wouldn’t want to have a lodger all the time, but maybe students from abroad staying for a period of time might be a possibility. It’s something to think about anyway.

Same Company, New Job

Probably a more realistic option to earn more is to move roles within the company. This is definitely something I need to work on. Up till now I’ve been somewhat restricted with what I can do hours wise because of the kids. I have a lovely fixed shift of 8am-4pm. I work every second Saturday which I could do without (although I guess as parkrun is not on just now it’s less of an issue!), but apart from that it’s a pretty sweet shift. This shift has been essential up till now because of the whole single parent thing, but now I definitely have more flexibility with them being older. Saying that, it’s not all about the kids. I have running clubs I want to go to on an evening, and you know, a life I’d like to live.

I used to worry that going for a different job would mean I’d need to add a commute into the mix. Just now I live a ten minute drive from the office. A lot of the other jobs are likely to be over in Edinburgh, which whilst not horrendous, would probably mean a 45 minute each way commute on the train. You’ve got the travel costs and the extra time out of your day to think about. In the current Coronavirus world though I’m guessing most of those jobs will be home working for the foreseeable future. That makes the thought of a new job a lot more attractive.

My thought was always that when my youngest goes to university in two year’s time I’d be happy to go for a new job at that time. Which probably means that now is the right time for me to start to explore my options and work out what would be a good fit for me. I’ll start to build up some evidence of skills I have that I can use in interviews. I’ve just started a one year talent programme, which should give me lots of opportunities to get out of the comfort zone that I’m well and truly stuck in and build up some experience and new skills.

So really it looks as though I either look for a new job within the same company and/or develop a lucrative (ish) side hustle. Either way some extra money in the kitty is going to help with me reaching my FIRE targets. I know I’ll get there one way or another, as it’s something I’ve set my mind on, and once I’ve decided on something then it gets done one way or another.

The True Cost Of Having Children

The first thing to say is that I love my children with all my heart. Having them is without a doubt the best decision I have ever made. I was desperate to have children. I wanted a different sort of life from the one that I was living. I spent a few years surreptitiously going around the shops and looking at baby clothes. My husband at the time and I waited a few years before we started a family. Money was tight and he in particular was keen that we get ourselves in a better financial position before we added kids in to the equation. That was definitely a good plan, if somewhat frustrating at the time. So we cleared the credit cards and tried to get a little bit of money behind us to try and cover my maternity leave.

Everybody tells you how expensive having children is. They’re not wrong of course, although I’m never quite sure where they get their figures from about how much it costs to raise a child. Based on the figures you see bandied about only millionaires would be able to afford one child, never mind multiple kids. I tend to think that children cost as much as you choose to make them cost. There are certain things that you can’t avoid, but plenty that you can minimise. I think I pretty much lived in Mothercare when I was pregnant with the first one. You’re growing this baby inside you and you just want all the nicest things that are completely unnecessary. Let’s be honest, baby stuff is cute and you want the best for your unborn child. The fact of the matter is that what’s important with children is the time you spend with them, not the stuff they have.

Set Up Costs

There are certain basics that you need – pram, car seat, something for it to sleep in etc. A lot of the extra stuff is not needed, and if you decide that it’s going to make your life easier then the chances are you’re going to be able to get it either for free or very cheap. By the time I had the second one I’d figured out that most of the baby stuff isn’t used for very long, so even if you get it pre-loved it’s probably not seen all that much usage. I was lucky that in our family there are four male cousins. What that meant was that the clothes would get handed down from my nephew to my two and then on to my younger nephew. Result! Even if you’re not in this lucky position, in my experience people are always trying to get rid of their kids stuff. There’s a lot of it and it clutters up your house. People would much rather give it to someone they know can make use of it.

So as far as stuff goes, minimise what you buy, get stuff for free or second hand and remember that when your baby is first born you are inundated with presents for the wee one. People love it when a baby is born, and I found that neighbours I didn’t even know would leave gifts on the doorstep. A baby is a wonderful thing for bringing a neighbourhood together. Now although buying stuff for children can get out of hand, remember that you are in control of what comes into your house. I really don’t subscribe to the theory that you have to give your children what everybody else has. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but my kids have never come home and asked for the latest designer label. That’s probably partly due to the way I’ve raised them and also the fact that they’re just not into that sort of thing.

Prioritise Experiences Over Stuff

I’ve always made sure that my kids could do what interested them in terms of activities. I’d much rather that I was spending my money on experiences for them – whether that’s them going to things like drama club, judo, swimming lessons or trips away with the school. I’ve also been comfortable saying no to things too. They didn’t even bother asking, but I saw there was a school trip to New York that cost thousands of pounds. Er no. If I don’t spend that sort of money on a family holiday then I’m not going to pay that out for just one of them to go. That’s the thing, as a parent you’re in control. You get to say no. As a parent there are plenty of things you’re going to be saying no to over the years, so you might as well get used to it. Is it any worse to say “no you can’t watch telly, go and find something else to do” or “no you can’t juggle with knives, it’s dangerous” or “no I’m not buying that for you, it’s a waste of money. If you still want it when it’s your birthday/Christmas then add it to your list”?

Clearly everybody brings their children up differently, and I’m not trying to tell anybody what to do here, just saying what I did and how it worked. For me it was partly that I couldn’t afford to spend much on stuff, but mainly that I just didn’t think it was worthwhile. The house filled up with a tsunami of plastic crap no matter what I did, so there was certainly no need for me to add to what they had.

And don’t get me started on those Facebook posts at Christmas with the mountain of presents for the kids. Don’t, just don’t. There’s no need for it. The more you give the less impact each individual present has. You know what gift is going to bring joy to your child, not just on Christmas morning, but throughout the year. Some of the best gifts I got my kids over the years were a puppet theatre along with dressing up clothes for them to put shows on, bikes, an Xbox shared between the two of them and a shared laptop. I’ve been lucky in that my kids are only 18 months apart in age and have similar interests. This has meant that a present for one is effectively useful for both of them.

The Extortionate Cost Of Childcare

That’s us dealt with some of the costs you can control with kids. Clearly there are some extra costs that you can’t do anything about. Childcare is an absolute killer. Unless you can manage your work around your kids then you’re going to need some sort of childcare or loss of income. Maybe some people manage to run a business from the house with the kids running around their feet. Hats off to them if so, because I cannot for the life of me see how that would be feasible.

Initially I went back to work full time working a late shift starting at lunchtime. This meant that I “only” needed childcare in the afternoon. With one child this was tough financially, but just about doable. Eighteen months later I added a second child into the mix. This time I had learned my lesson from the first time around where I’d gone back to work with a three month old baby at home. No sleep, a full on job and a touch of post-natal depression made that tough.

Second time around I took a full year off and went back to work part time, working in the evenings when my now ex came home from work. I couldn’t organise part time hours in the job I’d been doing, so I had to switch departments, drop a grade and obviously deal with less money coming in because of the fewer hours I was working. My eldest didn’t sleep through the night until he was four, my youngest used to get up at 6 am and I was working till 10.00 at night. So basically I was constantly exhausted, working a soul sucking job and never seeing my husband. We used to take it in turns to sleep at the weekends. Funnily enough we ended up getting divorced!

For me then I didn’t have any childcare costs second time around, but of course I was earning a lot less as a result. My pension got capped during this time as well, so what I’ll get in retirement is based on what I was earning during that time. A nice financial hangover of the child rearing years. Once the kids were at school I switched my hours to the daytime, but still worked part time so I could collect them from school. They went to the breakfast club in the morning as that was much better value than the after school club.

Luckily my parents have always had the kids to stay in the school holidays. That has been an absolute lifesaver. It’s meant the kids have a brilliant relationship with their grandparents, my folks have loved it and it has saved me a massive amount in childcare over the years. I honestly don’t know how I would have managed without them. Even now my dad’s been on hand to take them off to university interview days etc when I’ve been working.

So from a cost point of view we’ve got the set up costs of having a baby, which as we’ve seen can most definitely be minimised. You’ve got childcare, which is hard to avoid. You either have to pay out for childcare or you have to organise your work life in such a way that you can look after your kids yourself. I went down the route of wanting to be there for them myself and earning less. In all honesty it probably would have suited me better to have worked during the day when they were younger. Being with them all day and then going out to work all evening was just too much. I think I might have appreciated them a bit more too if I’d had a bit more time away from them. A bit of time for myself. Linked to the childcare is the loss of income. You might choose to work less and not earn as much, change the type of work you do to fit in with your kid’s needs and earn less and you might be less invested in your career because of prioritising your children and so miss out on opportunities and so earn less. There seems to be a bit of a common theme going on here!

Maybe that’s not always the way it goes. It could be that having children motivates people to do well in their career and so be able to provide for their children. That’s not the way it worked for me, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. There are plenty of people in higher grades than me at work that are parents, so maybe I’m just using that as a bit of an excuse. Certainly for me the kids were my priority, and anything else came secondary to that.

I’m definitely more risk averse since I became a mum. I very much feel that I have to be in a position to provide for the kids and make sure that we’re all OK. I used to be much more inclined to move from job to job and feel that if it didn’t work out then it wasn’t the end of the world. Now one of my first concerns is that my working arrangements fit around family life. They’re old enough now that this isn’t really something I need to worry about, and yet still I do. In order to move on within the area that I work in just now it’s likely that I would have to work much more often in the evenings. This has always stopped me going for other roles, as I feel I want to be there for my boys when they need me.

It doesn’t seem very positive so far does it? Kids are expensive in terms of getting set up for them. You have loss of income from maternity/paternity leave. You either need childcare or a change in working hours to look after them, which in all likelihood will mean you have less money coming in. You’re likely to be less flexible in taking advantage of advancement opportunities at work. And of course you can’t work away from home, which many roles might require. So you have less money, a less good career potentially and you’re constantly juggling schedules to make sure that your kids are looked after and are healthy and happy.

Babies Are Torture Machines

Oh, and did I mention that the first five years are brutal. Total and utter torture. Yes, babies are cute and your heart fills with joy when you see them. Yes, you know that you would die to protect them and would do anything within your power to keep them safe. That doesn’t take away from the fact that they don’t sleep, they cry a lot and they completely and utterly take over your life. I could not go back to the baby stage no matter what you paid me. I know this is not everybody’s experience. People love babies, they want to be needed and they just love how dependent their kids are on them. Not me. I was always trying to get my children to the next stage, to get them to need me less.

I am willing to admit that I might not have been doing my parenting in quite ideal circumstances. A child that doesn’t sleep until he’s 4 is not necessarily the norm. My working arrangements, whist ideal from a financial point of view where not great from a life stand point. And when you throw a divorce into the mix when the kids are just 2 and 3 then it’s never going to be easy. I felt like I lost myself for quite a long time. I don’t feel like that any more, but I think it’s important to acknowledge how I felt at the time. Too often we see the idealised parts of family life on social media. I can’t be the only one who felt like this when my children were young.

Prepare To Be Exhausted

The children took absolutely everything that I had in terms of my energy levels. I was exhausted for such a long time. It’s hard being a parent, especially if you want to do it well. Maybe I could have given them more screen time to give myself a break, but that wasn’t how I wanted to play it. I have been far from a perfect parent. I have made lots of mistakes. I’ve been grumpy with my children, when I wanted to exude patience. I’ve craved time to myself rather than wanting to spend every waking minute with them. I am confident though that I have done the very best I could have done. Parenting is something I’ve taken incredibly seriously. I wanted to do my absolute best. I’ve fallen short on many, many occasions, but I know that I’ve given it my all.

Reading this it sounds as though I regret having my children. This could not be further from the truth. Being a mum is the most important thing in my life. My kids are my top priority. I get the greatest joy from time with my family. Even when they were younger and it was much harder I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It was hard though, really hard, and I think we need to talk about that more. I desperately wanted children, I waited a number of years before I started my family to make sure we were ready, and yet still it was incredibly difficult. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life by far. The most rewarding too mind you. If it’s something you really want to do, then go for it. Be aware though that it’s going to be tough. It’s also going to be the ride of your life.

September Net Worth and Goals Update

What Was I Worth In September?

It’s time for an update on my Net Worth figures and to see how I’ve done in working towards my September goals. I’ll also set myself some new goals for October to ensure that I don’t just coast towards the end of the year, which is far too easy to do.

Here’s my figures for September. As usual I’ve got last month’s figures in brackets for comparison. I’ve got my Defined Benefits Pension in there based on twenty years worth of money if I start drawing it at 60. I’ve also got my Net Worth not including the DB Pension or the house equity, which seems barmy, but is really just to represent how close I’m getting to mortgage neutrality.

Debts

Mortgage £96,806.40 (£97,298.42)

Assets

Cash £34,128.46 (£34,066.27)

Defined Benefits Pension £123.683 (£123,683)

AVC’s £7,002.82 (£6,452.88)

Shares £38,766.86 (£38,246.93)

House £250,000 (£250,000)

Total Assets £453,581.14 (£452,449.08)

Net Worth including house equity

£453,581.14 – £96,806.40 = £356,774.74 (£355,150.66)

Net Worth excluding house equity and Defined Benefits Pension

£79,898.14 – £96,806.40 = -£16,908.26 (-£18,532.34)

There’s not really too much to say about these figures. Things are ticking along quite nicely. My cash amount is almost the same. The shares are very slightly up. Rather unusually this month the Vanguard Index Trackers have not increased by quite as much as the extra money I invested. They have been pretty solid for me since I started putting money into them earlier this year, so I think I can forgive them an off month. Luckily my work shares very slightly increased, rather than the drops that I’ve seen during the year. Maybe they’re starting to pick up, or maybe there’s it’s just not possible for them to go any lower!

My net worth excluding the DB pension and the house equity is continuing to go in the right direction. I can’t wait until I get to zero where I can effectively say that I am mortgage neutral. I probably shouldn’t really include my AVC’s in that calculation as they are not strictly speaking something I could just cash in and use to clear my mortgage if I was so inclined. I’ve started doing it that way though, and quite frankly it’s too depressing to remove at this stage and feel that I’m going back the way. I guess they’re my figures so I can include and exclude as I see fit!

It shouldn’t be too long until my shares and index trackers sneak over £40k. I’m looking forward to that and then I can start to aim for £50k. So much of this FIRE business is psychological. You need to give yourself mini-targets to aim for so that you don’t get discouraged. It’s the long game we’re playing, but there’s nothing wrong with celebrating the mini successes along the way.

That doesn’t seem like a particularly exciting month, but at least things are continuing to move in the right direction, albeit slightly slower than I would like. I’m impatient as always and would like to see much bigger improvements in my figures month on month. With the best will in the world though I can only work with the income that I have coming in. For now anyway. More income would definitely give me more options in terms of investing and paying down the mortgage. From a purely financial point of view it makes perfect sense to put more into my pension and take advantage of the tax savings rather than paying off a base rate mortgage more quickly. I would really love to be mortgage free though. I spent so many years trying to pay my mortgage off that it goes against the grain to not be throwing as much towards it as possible. I have to prioritise though. My current strategy is the best way to make the most of the income I have coming in just now. If I can figure out a way to make more money then that will give me the luxury of also chipping away a bit more at the mortgage. That would be the ideal scenario for me.

Progress On My Goals

Not much more to say about my finances for the month, so let’s move on and see how I did against the goals I set myself. A quick reminder of what I was working on.

Get 7 hours sleep a night, 5 nights a week. PASS. There’s only been five days this month where I’ve not got at least 7 hours sleep. I definitely feel better for this, and am now in a habit of going up to bed early enough to get plenty of shut eye.
Do 4 forms of exercise every week. In an ideal world this would be 3 runs and 1 cycle or walk. PASS (SORT OF) Most of the weeks I did more than 4 lots of exercise. The minimum runs I did in a week was 3, although most weeks it was 4. The only week that let me down was last week. I had a really heavy cold and so did no exercise at all. As I knew I had a really busy weekend dropping number 1 son at uni I was trying to get healthy and was sensible enough to know that running wasn’t going to do me any favours!
Complete section 5 of the Duolingo Spanish tree by the end of the year. ON TRACK. I am now on a 497 day streak. I can almost taste the victory of getting to 500 days! I’m well on track to get section 5 finished by the end of the year. In fact at my current pace I should finish around the start of December. I’m really enjoying it and feel like I’m learning a lot.
Find a new Spanish series that I want to watch and see at least 2 episodes every week. KIND OF PASS. On paper this is a pass. I found a YouTube series to watch. I’ve see a lot more than the 2 episodes a week, but as they are about 10 minutes an episode this feels like a bit of a cheat. I still haven’t looked for a proper box set. This is mainly because I’ve not been watching any TV and I’ve really been enjoying that. I’ve been reading loads and generally feeling like I’ve been much more productive. However I need to recognise the fact that Spanish TV watching is productive and isn’t the same as just vegging out with no purpose in mind.
Keep my car mileage under 69,000 by the end of the year. FAIL. I’m at 69,635 miles now. Although clearly I’ve failed at this one, I’m not at all worried. This is one of those situations where life is much more important than goals. I had to do a round trip of 800 miles to go to a family funeral. My dad had just had an operation and so was in a wheelchair and my mum doesn’t drive. My sister’s car is too small to get a wheelchair in. It was great that I was able to get time off work, have a big enough car to get all of us in and safely transport us all down south. It ended up being a really lovely if exhausting trip. Of course funerals are always sad, but this was a real celebration of my auntie’s life. I got to catch up in a socially distanced way with cousins that I’ve not seen for nearly 30 years. Even the whole road trip with my folks and sister was a lot of fun. You’ve got to look for the positives in life, and as funerals go that was a lovely one. In an ideal world you wouldn’t be having reunions with family at funerals, but as you get older this seems to be one of the main sources of far flung family getting together. I’ll try and stick to under 70,000 miles for the year now. I’m still avoiding using the car for short journeys, which seems like fiddling whilst Rome burns considering my monster road trip, but I can only do what I can do. I’ll control what I can and not worry too much about the rest.

October Goals

So what do I want to work on during October? I’m not going to set myself too much I don’t think. There’s quite a bit going on family wise just now, so I feel like I need to be a bit kind to myself. Saying that, I do like to have something to work on, so here goes.

Track what I eat using MyFitness pal. I’ve had a lot of success when I’ve used this in the past. It is a bit of a faff when you first start using it, but once you’ve got some meals logged it becomes a lot easier.
Lose three pounds. My weight is all over the place at the moment. I keep losing a bit and then putting it back on again. My weight does tend to fluctuate quite a bit, but this is getting ridiculous even for me. This year I’ve been consistently heavier than my normal post Christmas weight. That’s not good. I really need to do something about that.
Complete section 5 of the Duolingo Spanish tree by the end of the year. I just need to keep plugging away at this. I’m on track, but it’s still a big stretch goal so I need to stay consistent.
Find a new Spanish series that I want to watch and see at least 2 episodes every week. Sounds familiar, but this is how I’m really going to improve my Spanish listening skills.
Learn to solve the white cross on the Rubik’s cube. I have Weenie from Quietly Saving to thank for this one! When I mentioned in one of my previous posts about one of the kids being really good at cubing she told me how she’d learned to do it a few years ago and has now challenged herself to learn the 4×4. I used to be able to do the normal 3×3 cube, but only with the help of my notes on how to solve it. It’s on my bucket list to be able to solve the cube without notes. Weenie has very kindly sent me the instructions that she used. The white cross is the first stage, so I think that’ll be enough for me to getting on with for this month. I think the key is to learn each stage in isolation, practising until it’s in my muscle memory, and then move on to the next stage.

So after saying that I was going to give myself an easy month, I think there’s plenty there for me to be working on.

September has been a fairly good month. Lots going on family wise, which luckily I was in a position to be able to help out with. Work were good with putting in emergency holidays for me to get to the funeral. I had already decided though that if that wasn’t forthcoming I would just take unpaid leave. Having FU money really is a help even if you aren’t anywhere near full FIRE. Yet more benefits of knowing what you’re worth financially and being aware of what your priorities are and how you can make use of your money to ensure that your actions match what’s important to you.

I’m reasonably pleased with how I’ve done against my September goals. The odd spanner in the works, but that’s how life goes sometimes. I’m going to keep up my focus on getting enough sleep as that’s working really well for me. I’ll keep working away at my Spanish and get started on a TV series to help with my listening skills. I’ll get cracking on learning the Rubik’s cube (whilst trying to avoid getting obsessed, which is what happened about 7 years ago!) I think that’s probably enough to keep me out of mischief. Let me know what you’re working on just now and any tips on how to keep motivated and ensure that you achieve your goals.