Regular readers of our blog may be aware that we are a large family… with six kids!
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Secret Hobbies and the Big Match
Have you a secret hobby?
Something you’ve not mentioned to any friends or family because it would mean too much explanation (and even then they might put you on their People-I’m-Worried-About List?)
Mr FU and I have.
We’ve all the necessary apps on our phones, an inboxful of related emails and tons of SMS messages. But no-one else can see them! It’s all very cloak-and-dagger.
The other day I had to snap my laptop shut sharpish when my dad came round, for fear he’d see the list of most-visited sites on my Google homepage! Oh my…it was close. He has eagle eyes and is so genuinely curious that he’ll open a notebook if it’s lying on the kitchen counter to see what’s in it so I was very lucky to get away with it.
So do you want some clues? Our secret hobby involves money. (Naturally!)
And a lot of excitement when it’s an important sporting event like today – when England play Sweden in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup.
Fire up the bookies’ websites, Mr FU!
Posted in Mrs FU
Tagged family, financial, financial independence, fire, free, matched betting, money, retire early
10 Comments
Which Index Funds do you invest in?
Throughout the FI community the default advice on investing and building wealth seems to be “…invest in low-cost index funds…”.
So when deciding to invest, whether in a pension, Isa, or other investment vehicle, just buy your low-cost index fund and forget about it.
That’s it.
End of post?
This investing lark is easy, isn’t it? Continue reading
Posted in FU MON CHU
6 Comments
Beware of Freebies – a Warning to Parents
If your child is a console/PC owner you’ll know only too well that games for them can prove extremely expensive, with the newest releases commanding prices of £40 up. I saw a special edition one for the bargain price of £80 yesterday!
So when my children asked to download a free game called Fortnite onto their Xbox I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Free? Wow. What a bonus!
That was the start of our Fortnite-Mare.
That, my friends, was the last time I saw my four youngest children properly. Ha ha!
June ’18 – Net Worth and monthly updates
I’ve fallen behind on posting recently and have been put under pressure as Mrs FU seems to be taking over my blog lately.
She has generally been on my case about my laziness and procrastination, and has been mocking me by keep playing this Jocko Willink clip. (Jocko makes me feel so inadequate!)
There has been a bit of informal competition on who is getting the most post views, not that we get many, so I thought I better get my ass into gear and write an update, and take advantage of the fact Mrs FU has gone to the Trafford Centre (hell on earth) with our daughter, FU#2. (By the way the wine tastes good, Mrs FU!)
I have decided to start doing monthly and weekly updates, including net worth updates (partly inspired by cashflow cop’s numbers post here) as I haven’t put my figures out there yet.
So here goes.
Posted in FU MON CHU
10 Comments
Financial Education in Schools… or the Lack of.
Mr Fu and I are both in our late forties and seriously lament our late discovery of financial independence. What hope did we have, though, considering our non-existent education in all things financial?
Posted in Mrs FU
Tagged children, education, finance, financial education, money, schools
12 Comments
£1m Pension Pot – How to climb the mountain and when to stop saving.
In the UK news this week it has been reported that, for a comfortable retirement, people need to save a ‘pension mountain’ of £260,000.
Cue the doom-mongers and naysayers. ‘Who could ever hope to save this amount of money?’
Using the 4% rule this would give an annual income of £10,400. Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me.
So, how do we climb this ‘Mountain’?
Continue reading
Posted in FU MON CHU
Tagged compound interest, early retirement, investent, million, pension, pension pot, retire, retirement, saving, stock market, strategy, tax relief
5 Comments
An Apprenticeship in FIRE-Starting
I was listening to Jonathan and Brad on their ChooseFI podcast all about coding this week and found it really interesting. They were interviewing Ryan Carson from Treehouse, an online coding tuition course website, who considers coding to be a trade rather than a professional qualification achieved at college/University. TreeHouse originated from a desire to make coding education available and financially accessible to more people, and students can try it for free before committing to a course. One point made during the podcast was that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that there will be 1.4 million new jobs in tech in the US by 2020, and only 400,000 will be filled by college graduates, so presumably the positions will be taken by those who’ve either studied elsewhere or topped up their qualifications somewhere other than college.
Fingers crossed Little Fu#1 will benefit from a similar scenario in the UK after he found college and University wasn’t for him right now.
He attended our local grammar school and was planning to continue in the Sixth Form there to do A-levels. At the time he’d no idea of a career goal, or the path to it, so he chose subjects he’d enjoyed at GCSE. Things started well, but by Christmas, the sheer workload of A-levels started to take its toll, and, at the suggestion of school (who were very supportive) he dropped one of his four chosen A-levels.
For us as parents, though, this made us think deeply about whether he was doing the right thing at all. Continue reading
Posted in FU #1, Mrs FU
Tagged apprentice, apprenticeship, college, debt, earnings, fire, qualifications, savings, school, skills, student, students, university
7 Comments
Little FU#1 – Step 3 Devise an Investment Strategy
Recap – This is step 3 in the process to set up a plan for my son, FU#1, to buy a property and reach FI before he is 40 years old.
In step 2 of the plan, we set up an initial budget for him to implement. The main part of this budget was to automate his savings to enable him to achieve a 50% savings rate.
Now we come to step 3, which is to devise an investment strategy to attain the goal of the plan. Continue reading
Posted in FU #1
Tagged budget, children, compound interest, contributions, early retirement, financial independence, government, income, index funds, investments, ISA, LISA, lupm sum, pension, plan, property, purchase, retire early, retirement, saving, savings, strategy, tax-free
3 Comments
UK on FIRE! Free places to make memories with the family
Five Little FUs go crazy at Tarr Steps, Dulverton, Somerset ….A great place for a family walk
In my last post I posted a list of free educational apps and sites, but what about downtime?
As a family of eight going anywhere can end up costing the earth, but after listening to Brad & Jonathan on a ChooseFI podcast talking about the importance of making memories and reading this inspirational and fun post by My Son’s Father on frugal family activities like picnics, nature hikes and bike rides I decided to go one further and make a list of some of the best free places (mostly indoor) to visit in the UK. Fun can be free, too, right?
It’s not an exhaustive list and I expect to add to it, but please send me any of your favourite places to visit that won’t ruin the path to FIRE and I’ll add them to the list.
Posted in Mrs FU
Tagged apps, art, budget, children, compound interest, days out, discover, early retirement, education, explore, family, financial independence, fire, free, gallery, halfterm, holidays, kids, learn, learning, life, museum, sightseeing, summer, trips, UK, value, visit, visits, websites, workshop
4 Comments