49 Days of walking to work and not spending money at work

Stats. 

So far I have walked 34 Mile in November 175 miles in total since starting this blog

I have stopped myself from spending £147 at work (£33 of which in November) on sweets and snacks, I don't really need.

Click this link to see how all the endeavours are helping to build towards the final goal. 

Thoughts

Just one away from the half century which I will gladly celebrate on my next post, today is thoughts on day 48 and 49, Friday and Saturday. I didn't do a blogpost for 48, as life does keep on coming and just didn't have the time.

Yet Friday I had one of those light bulb moments for me. Now for some they may have thought it quite normal and why hadn't I thought of it before? But what may be a simple thought process for one may well be a land of illusion for another. As I was walking to work I was thinking about the shares that I am buying, and the thought at the time was to get to the end of the 5 years, and if they are worth more than the the 6 grand I have put into the scheme, sell them and save the money or if they devalue then just get my 6 grand back.

But you do get dividends from the shares, paid twice a year, for the amount of share I would be getting and even at this years dividend pay out that would mean £350 twice a year. A gift which keeps on giving. It is what amazes me about governments and councils when they sell off what belongs to them and then have to pay to hire it back. Anyways lets not get all political. The thought about selling the shares was to say it's better to have the money than have something which may devalue, a bird in the hand and all that. 

Then I thought, if I then keep the shares I still have that money which I can access by selling the shares but twice a year get a dividend. The shares actually only made up of the third of my goal, two thirds were liquid assets (cash) there is me talking as though I am a professional. Then I did a little bit more thinking, walking to work is a great time to think. I thought about how I get a 20% discount on the shares I buy, if I buy them over 5 years. I can invest up to 300 pounds a month at any one time (currently £100 a month) So next year when the scheme opens again invest another £100 a month the year after set another scheme going having reached the full £300.

As each investment scheme matures, depending on the price of the shares at the time. I would keep the first one and see how the dividend payments go, then when the 2nd and 3rd ones mature I can sell them at least making 20% which I get as a discount, hopefully anymore from the increase of the shares (fully aware they may go down) and then invest that money into another set of shares. then keep the process going until I have 12 sets of shares. Now this does have risk, shares can go down as well as up. I would only deal in FTSE 100 companies. Even then monitoring whats happening. But I did feel this is the best way to ensure an income when I retire. It does involve not actually fully retiring at 50 but semi retirement so I can continue with the work share scheme. But this was the basis of my thoughts.

Will dreams become reality? Well its another slow burner, but it can't but help to dream.

43 Days of walking to work and not spending money at work

Stats. 

So far I have walked 13 Mile in November 154 miles in total since starting this blog

I have stopped myself from spending £129 at work (£15 of which in November) on sweets and snacks, I don't really need.

Click this link to see how all the endeavours are helping to build towards the final goal. 

Thoughts

Well, everything is going in the right direction, as I keep on, keeping on. The wobble for yesterday is that I had a pound change in my pocket. Normally I don't take money with me to work, just have my cards. This way I can't be even more easily tempted than usual to spend money. I was heating up my chilli and rice, and stood there thinking should I get a plate of chips, rather than just ask for a plate for my food I was heating up. This debate raged until I got to the canteen. My mind declared that it would be still breaking the rules by spending a pound, I asked for a plate and hot tailed it back to the microwave as quick as I could. The chilli was lovely as it was 'our lasses' home made one, and although I could have eaten chips as well as the rice that I had brought with it. It wasn't really necessary, so another day another batch of unwanted food not eaten.

Whilst I was off I had the CNBC channel on, (I love the numbers, and they can talk passionately about naff all it seems, an entertainment in itself) anyways, an advert came up and this bloke was talking about how he doesn't buy coffee from the coffee shops. so rather than spending $2.50 he equates it to the 18c he spends on the coffee he makes himself and he invests the rest. So the strap line essentially being "Make it and invest the rest". Which could be counter intuitive as you best not buy shares in coffee shops then... But it made sense, as I went onto think about projects at home. The garage door broke recently as the cones and wires tangled and snapped after years of wear. I looked on YOUTUBE, and checked how much the parts were (£15) but bottled it at the last minute and called in a garage repair guy, ended up spending £85 for someone to bash and crash, leave a bit of wire up which I had to ask them to take off, and thinking to myself I should have had more faith in myself. So that is a plan I am going to take into the future. I have made a back garden gate, total cost £30 where as someone wanted to charge £180. I fixed the pond pump for a £5 which would have cost £80 getting someone in. So I may live to regret this but the next job which comes along, and if it is possible for me to do it I will do it myself and put the rest of the money away to the pot which I am saving.

Have you had projects which you have done, where you have been able to make it and then invest the rest?

I have also started finding cartoons and adding them to the posts, folks like visuals, what do you think?