Jan

2

net worth 2008?

Filed Under plonkee | 25 Comments

I’ve a while ago my net worth position in 2007. A year has gone by, am I any richer?

Of course, since I started blogging, I’ve become immeasurably richer just by interacting with all the people here. I’ve had similar results with some other things that I’ve done in 2007. My life is rich.

My financial situation is a little different. Although I’m theoretically happy to share the details of my net worth, since I bought a house, they’re a little more difficult to calculate. Basically, I can’t work out how to value my house because I don’t know whether the market is stagnant or falling.

Anyway, cashing up, board game style I have (rounding for laziness reasons):

  • £5500 in savings accounts
  • £12850 in investments
  • £97000 in house
  • -£9800 in student loans
  • -£87000 in a mortgage

This leaves me with an approximate net worth of £18550 - I’ve assumed a stagnant housing market here so this figure is plus or minus £5k.

This is a serious amount more than my net worth in 2007, but I received a windfall last January and a couple of gifts - these formed the house deposit, and/or have been allocated towards improving the said house.

The plan for 2008 is to increase my net worth further by saving and investing 16% of my income (my arbitrary but achievable target).

How has your net worth changed over the last year and what’s on the cards for 2008?

Here’s what some of my blogging friends are saying:

Nov

17

a public commitment

Filed Under plonkee | 9 Comments

A little while ago, brip blap tagged a bunch of bloggers to turn a private wish into a public declaration. I’ve refrained from posting a response for a little while as  I couldn’t think of any commitment that I wanted to make.

However, I’ve been inspired by Chief Family Officer’s boycott of chocolate and I resolve to not buy another piece of un-fairly traded chocolate.

Oct

29

working towards my dream life

Filed Under plonkee | 25 Comments

I’ve noticed that in my normal life, most of my stories start the same way, and it’s the way this story is going to begin.

I was in the pub the other day…

I was in the pub the other day with a friend, when he asked me what my realistic dream life would look like. I think he was looking for reassurance since his dream life is apparently nothing like his actual life. He didn’t get any. My dream life is pretty much the same as my life now, except that I work four days a week instead of five, my blog is more successful, my house is in better condition and location and I take more trips abroad. Possibly I’d be living in the Netherlands. It did get me thinking though. It was pretty easy for me to enunciate my dream life and I’m part of the way there already, it seems silly not to make my dream life part of my goals.

working four days a week

Working four days a week, rather than five would mean earning less money. I’ve calculated that if I could do it right away, I’d be taking home £250 less a month, with a reduction of about £350 in retirement contributions as well. I can’t afford this at the moment, but if I earned a bit more, and I was more frugal, this could become possible. My immediate goals are a promotion at work and maintaining my existing spending (incorporating some inflation) when I get a pay rise - almost certainly in April.

a more successful blog

What I mean by success for this blog, is in fact more commentators. I love getting feedback from people and interacting. I like both agreements and disagreements. My immediate goal is to double the number of comments that I receive on average per post.

my house in better condition

My house needs work doing to improve its condition, when I had the survey done the surveyor said that it was in typical condition for its age (it’s about 100) and gave a list of jobs that need doing. My ongoing goal is to complete these jobs (which include redecorating the interior and putting in a new bathroom and kitchen).

travelling

Travelling means happiness to me. There are so many countries that I want to go to, and so many things that I want to see. I’ve got a list of places to visit and my ongoing goal is going to be to travel to every single one.

Now that I’ve defined my goals, I need to work out next actions to be associated with pushing each one forward. That’ll require some brainstorming.

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