It’s been a busy month! Weddings, bachelor parties, conferences, and since the evenings a longer I’ve been getting out and running. My boss is moving to another city, so work has been getting extremely busy. I’ve found it hard to find time to write! Sure, I have time, but I haven’t had the energy.
Quite frankly, I need a holiday!
It feels like burnout might be setting in. Time is becoming harder and harder to find. And the main culprit is my work. I know I need my job to build up my nest egg, but the more I think about how much it costs me to keep my job, the more I think about doing something else that gives me more time.
It will be hard to achieve FIRE without my current job. The pay is quite good. I just don’t want to go on month after month working 10 hour days. I think a trip away can help to reset my attitude. I’ve got 27 vacation days saved up! Does anyone have a great idea for a vacation?
Another thing I have realized is that life is becoming more expensive, although I should have already known this. I did a post on the most expensive year of your life. The weddings, the bachelor parties, it all adds up, and we haven’t even thought about kids yet.
All this makes me think that my simple linear calculations for achieving FIRE by 45 might not work. I haven’t taken into account any increased expenses as I get older. I’m not talking about lifestyle inflation. I’m more talking about the decision to have kids and how that will impact our spending and work hours.
Spending in October
October has been an expensive month. With all the weddings and bachelor parties, the work conference trips (that will eventually be reimbursed). There was a lot of entertainment spending and petrol.
- Groceries $699.47
- Entertainment $486.33
- Mortgage $4000.00
- Investments $4700
- Eating out $40.90
- Petrol $563.01
- Professional Expenses $981.29
Even with my expenses being up, we still managed to save 41% for investments and 35% for paying off the mortgage.
Portfolio in October
The media has been going on about kiwisaver balances decreasing after the turbulence in the international and New Zealand market. Comments on these articles show that there is still a lot of financial literacy that needs to be taught.
I’ve been trying to do my bit on improving people’s understanding of kiwisaver. And I’m going to write another post outlining some of the common myths around it. So if you know someone who doesn’t quite understand it, share some of my posts, or point them to sorted.org.nz.
I’ve written about some KiwiSaver myths and what I think is wrong with KiwiSaver. Maybe I need to write a post about the basics of KiwiSaver.
Anyway, Here is how my portfolio looks for August.
My KiwiSaver decreased by $100 (it wasn’t a large sum initially). My managed and index fund dropped by $1557. Which was a bit of a hit. But the markets will do this, and I have faith that over the long run I will regain those losses and earn more interest. After all, the long term return of the NZX50 over the last 70 years has been 7.8%.
Goals
As I mentioned earlier my goal now is to book a holiday! Both of us are feeling burnt out. The Christmas holidays may help somewhat. But we are working too much at the moment.
Total Portfolio >100K by December 2019
I’m 53.5% towards my goal of having 100k invested by December 2019. That leaves me 14 months to invest the remaining $46.5K, or $3300 per month. This should be achievable if no unexpected expenses come up.
Anyway, that is all from me. I am trying to get back to writing posts. I just need to find some free time. Hope you are all well. Give me a buzz if you have any questions or comments. Have a great week!
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