My diary - irons in the fire.

Andrew

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So. I'm Back! Made it to America. Spent a huge amount of money and now want to go Again! But I've also got debts to pay off. At the minute my payments on debt (not including mortgage) total £665 a month and I won't be reducing these. This puts me debt free by 40. But as an ambitious chap who dreams of living mortgage free I want to pay off all 50 odd thousand of debt I have in the next 4 years so that I can then turn my attention to clearing my mortgage (by 45 is the target for that one). I'm 33 currently so got a biiiig challenge.

I also want to keep living my life in the meantime though which means drinks in Central London most weeks, partying at the weekend and keeping my beamer on the Road! Plus an annual trip to the USA and various jaunts around the UK. I'm also planning on joining the Gym! I also have an ambition of buying an old rolls royce or bentley to tour my local town in when I'm debt free (crazy I know and entirely dependent upon whether I get a girlfriend who will allow This!)

I work hard and travel a lot with my full time job So I need to bear that in mind with the targets I set now that I'm more experienced in the online earning world.

Therefore I've set the following targets for now until the end of 2018. Some material and some not.

1. Get a new tumble dryer. Mine is past end of life and only works on one setting so it's only a matter of time before it fails or sets the house ablaze. I'm going to try and meet this target using online survey earnings paid in the former of amazon vouchers but that depends entirely on how long the tumble dryer lasts. I'm targeting £20 a month minimum in vouchers with the target refreshing each month, even if I've exceeded it in the previous month. By the opposite count if I miss a target in a month I will add the amount I've missed by to the following months target. I find this is the only way I can keep motivated to carry On!

2. Get a new TV. My TV that I use in my bedroom to play my xbox one on is now 7 years old and wasn't exactly top of the range when I bought it. It's ultra reliable but I need to start factoring in the fact that it will need replacing at some point Soon! A nice 40 inch 4k samsung tv with a good long warranty and accidental damage care is the plan. But I will probably get tempted by something from EBay!

3. Set up an emergency fund in an instant access savings account. I've learnt the hard way that when something expensive goes bang it's costly to fix. I'd like to have £2500 in savings by the end of 2018 (target is flexible if something expensive goes Bang in the meantime!)

4. Get a new laptop. I'm tempted by a refurbished surface pro or a macbook pro (or Both!) as I want something reliable but stylish (I like expensive toys as you've probably Guessed!).

5. Pay off my PayPal debt. It's interest free but it's £3500 so paying it off will go a nice way towards clearing my debt target (all my debts are interest free thank goodness!)

6. Pay off my overdraft. I owe about £1700 on this and so I plan to pay it off and remove the facility.

7. Have a trip to Boston in the USA for a week or so. I am planning on spending £2500 in total on this trip including spending money after last year's trip to the states cost me nearly Double!

8. Pay my mums conveyancing fees for her move of house. I think this will be one less pressure for her and gives me an easy target to aim for as it needs to be done in the next few weeks. I've paid £110 of a £900 target on this already so only another £790 to Go!

9. Get more exercise. I'm hoping to achieve this by joining the gym and actually going! Might also sign up with a personal Trainer! I'm also going to combine this with eating healthier. I've filled out enough surveys now to know my diet isn't good and I need to do Better!

10. Get promoted. It's always been my target to go to the next pay grade by 35 in work. Having just missed out by the skin of my teeth earlier this year I'd like to make a determined effort over the next few months and in 2018 to achieve this goal.

The above will form my new 10 target plan as I call it. Each month I intend to record my progress towards each goal. I fully expect that some goals will have little or no progress to report some months but I find documenting them and my progress in this way will help me progress.

To fund the above I intend to do the following:

1. Save 50% of my income from my lodger each month and put it straight into my savings account. This will go towards my emergency fund and big ticket expenditure items listed above.

2. Continue earning an average of £10 a day extra income each month. 50% of this will go towards my emergency fund.

3. Save £150 a month from my salary into my savings to fund the big ticket expenditure items. This is the minimum I aim to save each month but I hope to exceed this most months.

4. Bargain shop. I live a 5 minute walk from a supermarket that I can pick up food from at a fraction of its normal price and freeze straight away. This means I can easily live on a grocery budget of £40 a month when I combine visiting here with shopping I'm the Aldi next door. It also means I get a more varied diet as I'm purchasing entirely random Items!

5. I'm also playing with doing some online tech sales as well. This is a more volatile money earner but as it plays into my hobbies I'm allocating £180 to this with the target of making £20 a month profit. So far it's working but I'm not relying on it as my sole earner. Initially any profits from this will be reinvested back into my tech business but after 6 months I hope to start taking some money out of the business and gradually increasing this until I'm earning an hourly rate of £15 for the investment of my time into it. Even if I fail on this I will have still enjoyed exploring my passion. I also know a chap who would be a fantastic co-investor given his technical skills so I'm aiming to show him that it's a worthwhile enterprise.

So there you have it. My plan for the rest of 2017 and the whole of 2018. I've scaled back a bit from my initial dreams but have still set the bar high. Who knows in a few years time my dreams of a rolls royce on the drive may come True! In the meantime my other objective will be to inspire fellow shredders to do Similar! (Although maybe be happy with a Ford Mondeo instead of a rolls? Haha). I've also decided to focus my efforts exclusively on the shed as I find on the Green site the idea of having holidays and enjoying oneself whilst massively in debt is like kryptonite to them so this is the only place to read my Exploits!
 

Andrew

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4k for a telly, good Lord.. I don't even own one, ditched it in 2005!!! I'm also thinking to get rid of my car, given the taxes, fixed running costs and my actual annual mileage. (you'll find the understanding gf, not to worry. my DH has two cars, one of which is vintage. I was shocked when I realised how much he's paying for insurance, though.. as long as our wallets are separate, I don't mind.)

certainly, an interesting read. looking forward to the next update.

I’d be lost without my telly! Haha :) Thank you for reading
 

Lizziew24

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Hi @Andrew good read! Just curious to know about how you plan on managing the debt you pay £600 odd a month? Reason I ask is because you seem to have a pretty good handle on things and I am trying to think of ways to reduce my 20k credit card debt! Since joining this website and starting MBing I’ve managed to at least make the payments plus an extra tenner or so, but that’s hardly reducing it! Just trying to get them all into interest free but it’s a long faff!! Just not sure how to attack it all really!
 

Andrew

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Hi @Andrew good read! Just curious to know about how you plan on managing the debt you pay £600 odd a month? Reason I ask is because you seem to have a pretty good handle on things and I am trying to think of ways to reduce my 20k credit card debt! Since joining this website and starting MBing I’ve managed to at least make the payments plus an extra tenner or so, but that’s hardly reducing it! Just trying to get them all into interest free but it’s a long faff!! Just not sure how to attack it all really!

Stooozing is the way forward. Pop it on a balance transfer to a 0% interest card and from then onwards each payment you make will go on the balance. Not the interest!
 

Andrew

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Hi all

Thought I'd give an update on where I am so far with my new targets. Mostly just to give myself a boost!

Progress as follows:

1. Amazon vouchers for my tumble dryer. Earned £8 in amazon vouchers so far this month. Close to cashout on three different sites so I should exceed this months £20 target.

2. No progress on this front so far. Need to pay off some debts first so I'm thinking it'll be an Easter treat!

3. Up to £150 in this so far. Don't think it will go up much this year with Christmas so close but it'd be nice if it did!

4. Got a Microsoft surface 3 off splock cheaply so this does the job for now! Hoping to get a MacBook pro next year at some point.

5. Made a £25 payment towards this. Only another £3500 owed!

6. Made a £25 payment towards this so it's getting chipped away at. (I've opened a new bank account for my wages to go into).

7. Destination has now changed to Texas as I have friends out there. Will be looking to book in February or March.

8. I shall be making payments of £400 towards this over the next 2 weeks. However, shes had an additional charge of £420 so it looks like I will be making payments into January to help her out.

9. Failed to do this so far. Will be joining soon but waiting for a decent offer to come along at the gym.

10. Not seen the right job opportunity come up so far.

I've been a bit hampered this month as I have an online gambling addiction which occasionally surfaces every few months. It's cost me £300 this month which has meant that I've not put as much into my debts as I'd have liked to. Now I've got it out of my system I should be ok for the next 3 to 4 months at least! One day I'm hoping I will be completely free!

Anyway thanks for reading and good luck in your own journeys :)
 

Andrew

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Hi all

I thought I'd give a brief update on where I've got to against my targets so far!

1. I'm earning between £40 and £60 a month on the survey sites so I'm well on track with this.

2. New TV purchased - I came across a bargain I couldn't say no to on Ebay so am now enjoying the splendor of my new TV

3. I'm on track to hit a £1000 in savings by the end of next week so progress is good!

4. Decided to buy a windows laptop rather than a macbook. Purchased one but it had a problem in transit so will hopefully be with me soon.

5. This is now down to less than £3300 so its heading in the right direction.

6. No change on this front. With it being interest free I'm concentrating on building my savings up first before focussing on this.

7. Still saving for this. I think I'll book it in May.

8. I've nearly covered all these for my mum now. Another £200 next month and it'll be paid.

9. I've been bad at this but there's some good deals on at the gym at the minute so I might focus on this next.

10. Still hoping on this front!
 

geoff80uk

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I love this diary. In my next diary entry I will put some of the concrete goals I want to achieve and how I will achieve them using easy-to-do, achievable things just like you have.

Thank you for posting!
 
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Andrew

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I love this diary. In my next diary entry I will put some of the concrete goals I want to achieve and how I will achieve them using easy-to-do, achievable things just like you have.

Thank you for posting!

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it :)
 

Andrew

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A quick update on my targets

1. I'm earning between £40 and £60 a month on the survey sites so I'm well on track with this. However, as the tumble dryer is now behaving itself there's no need for me to get another one so far.

2. Complete

3. Savings are back at £150 so a way to go here.

4. Complete

5. This is getting closer to £3000 so heading down.

6. Made a couple of payments on this so it's down to less than £1700 now

7. Decided I can't bothered sitting on a plan so long so am booking a holiday to the Lake District instead!

8. All paid for so this target is now met.

9. Now joined the gym so getting fitter!

10. Still hoping on this front!

So I've met more than 3 of my targets so far. Still hoping to get the other ones met this year but any progress towards them is all good! :)
 

Andrew

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Latest update. So it's been a tumultuous April and early May for me. I've been going to therapy recently as my anxiety levels have been climbing again. Anyway one of the things that's come out of my therapy is that it appears I don't see or interact with the world in the same way as others. Long and the short of it is that I've ended up with a diagnosis of Aspergers. So I've been reassessing things recently.

At the same time my website Money Mental has been taking off and I've really been enjoying working on it. Doing this has made me realise how little I now enjoy my day job. So I've decided it's time for me to stop being so career focussed and do something I want to enjoy doing. Over the next few months therefore my focus is going to be on establishing some online businesses to make money from. So rather than pursue the targets I'd set myself at the start of the year I'm going to focus my efforts over the next 12 - 18 months on the following:

1. Continuing to build upon the successes of Money Mental and the opportunities that it's giving me.

2. Establishing an online merchandise business.

3. Establishing a resale business.

4. Develop my youtube skills so that I can build a successful vlog

5. Build up my skillset and reputation as a freelancer so that I can also use freelancing to supplement my income.

Eventually I want to reach the position where I have several businesses and websites bringing in money for me so that I can quit my job. It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication but when I think where I was a year ago in terms of money earning and how far I've come in that time I know it's possible!
 
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Jon

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Latest update. So it's been a tumultuous April and early May for me. I've been going to therapy recently as my anxiety levels have been climbing again. Anyway one of the things that's come out of my therapy is that it appears I don't see or interact with the world in the same way as others. Long and the short of it is that I've ended up with a diagnosis of Aspergers. So I've been reassessing things recently.

At the same time my website Money Mental has been taking off and I've really been enjoying working on it. Doing this has made me realise how little I now enjoy my day job. So I've decided it's time for me to stop being so career focussed and do something I want to enjoy doing. Over the next few months therefore my focus is going to be on establishing some online businesses to make money from. So rather than pursue the targets I'd set myself at the start of the year I'm going to focus my efforts over the next 12 - 18 months on the following:

1. Continuing to build upon the successes of Money Mental and the opportunities that it's giving me.

2. Establishing an online merchandise business.

3. Establishing a resale business.

4. Develop my youtube skills so that I can build a successful vlog

5. Build up my skillset and reputation as a freelancer so that I can also use freelancing to supplement my income.

Eventually I want to reach the position where I have several businesses and websites bringing in money for me so that I can quit my job. It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication but when I think where I was a year ago in terms of money earning and how far I've come in that time I know it's possible!

Welcome to my world

I realised this early last year which is why i dropped down to 4 days a week instead of 5. I thrive a hell of a lot more on being able to bring in online money than i do at work where my wage is set and not performance based.

Currently I run
The Money Shed Forum
The Money Shed Blog
Compare The Matched Betting
Totally Blogging

You try running all those when you work 5 days a week and you will run yourself into the ground lol
 
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Andrew

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Welcome to my world

I realised this early last year which is why i dropped down to 4 days a week instead of 5. I thrive a hell of a lot more on being able to bring in online money than i do at work where my wage is set and not performance based.

Currently I run
The Money Shed Forum
The Money Shed Blog
Compare The Matched Betting
Totally Blogging

You try running all those when you work 5 days a week and you will run yourself into the ground lol

Ah is your secret project live now? I shall have to take a look at it :) Worked out what the secret project was a while back when you were talking about the crazy prices of domain names but didn't want to let the cat out of the bag!
 

Jon

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Ah is your secret project live now? I shall have to take a look at it :) Worked out what the secret project was a while back when you were talking about the crazy prices of domain names but didn't want to let the cat out of the bag!
aye, totallyblogging.com is all up and running ;)
 
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Jon

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Ace - I shall check it out. Hopefully your sacrifice will be worthwhile!
we shall see ;)

I'm in the promotion stage at the moment with about 20+ guest posts about it going out that all take time to write etc

It's a slow burn but i'm already making money from it (though haven't made enough to cover the substantial costs of setting up the site yet!)
 
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Andrew

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we shall see ;)

I'm in the promotion stage at the moment with about 20+ guest posts about it going out that all take time to write etc

It's a slow burn but i'm already making money from it (though haven't made enough to cover the substantial costs of setting up the site yet!)

You will. It's a great concept. I'm just going through it now. I'm pretty sure sooner or later everyone's going to be kicking themselves for not thinking of it. You could be a guest speaker at blogon you know! Even more promotion then...
 
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Jon

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You will. It's a great concept. I'm just going through it now. I'm pretty sure sooner or later everyone's going to be kicking themselves for not thinking of it. You could be a guest speaker at blogon you know! Even more promotion then...
We'll see

Ironically it takes quite a lot of convincing with people that the information they are used to paying for is actually available for FREE!!!
 
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Andrew

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So it's drawing to the end of the year and I thought I'd review what I've achieved. I may not have had my holiday in the states but I achieved the majority of my financial aims. I now have less debt than I started the year with, have replaced my car, got a new TV and done the following:

1. Built my own website/blog.
2. Built up a youtube channel.
3. Increased my social media presence.
4. Established a successful eBay reselling business.

So I'm really pleased with how this year has gone. I now have a steady and sustainable source of income through the reselling business which helps fund other projects like the website and the youtube channel. I've become part of communities that I never even knew about before and am in a much better position than I started 2018 in.

So what will I be focussing on next year? Well, the focus will be very much on helping my eBay business move from strength to strength. I'd like to use it to fund another new television (this time for my front room rather than my bedroom) and also to fund a trip to the United S|tates. So I'd like to put aside about £4000 to do that. That's on top of clearing more of my debts which is always my first priority.

Wish me luck!
 

katykicker

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So it's drawing to the end of the year and I thought I'd review what I've achieved. I may not have had my holiday in the states but I achieved the majority of my financial aims. I now have less debt than I started the year with, have replaced my car, got a new TV and done the following:

1. Built my own website/blog.
2. Built up a youtube channel.
3. Increased my social media presence.
4. Established a successful eBay reselling business.

So I'm really pleased with how this year has gone. I now have a steady and sustainable source of income through the reselling business which helps fund other projects like the website and the youtube channel. I've become part of communities that I never even knew about before and am in a much better position than I started 2018 in.

So what will I be focussing on next year? Well, the focus will be very much on helping my eBay business move from strength to strength. I'd like to use it to fund another new television (this time for my front room rather than my bedroom) and also to fund a trip to the United S|tates. So I'd like to put aside about £4000 to do that. That's on top of clearing more of my debts which is always my first priority.

Wish me luck!
Good luck love! Looking forward to seeing what 2019 brings for us all! See you in May! x
 
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