Category: Living my best life

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What is my progress towards 2019 goals? First quarterly review

Flowering gum – photo taken on a recent evening walk

How is it the end of March already? That must be why I am enjoying the cooler autumn nights and crisp mornings which later turn into mild sunny days.

I started writing this blog as a way to be accountable on my FIRE journey, knowing that I may very well be tempted to give up when the going gets tough. And to support others on a similar path, especially those of us who discover FIRE in our forties.

My 2019 goals are simple – I want a less stressful life and most of all, to carve out time to think and reflect. I want to look after my physical, mental and financial health. So let’s check in with what actually happened during the last three months.

(1) One hour reflection time every week

It was important for me to intentionally set aside an hour to reflect on the week that has gone by. I was very good and diligently did it for the first 6 weeks or so. If I knew I was going out that night, I would do it the next night or earlier in the day.

Until I went away to Sydney for a business trip one weekend in mid February. Because I was away the whole weekend and it was jam packed with work activities plus catching up with friends, I skipped that week. And then for some reason or another, it was really hard to get back on track.

Besides more social commitments, I kept being distracted by excellent programming on the ABC on Saturday nights. Time to turn off the television! Or reading excellent content on personal finance blogs. So many excuses.

I found that I missed that reflection time so I’m back on track these last two weeks. It has made a big difference to my mental health.

(2) Journaling 10-15 minutes every day

Once again, I was  good for about 6 weeks then somehow, time eluded me. I started by writing at night. Then I kept falling asleep on my couch before I wrote in my journal.

So I tried writing in the morning. But I made the cardinal mistake of fitting too many things into my morning routine and basically set myself up to fail. More on that later.

I will focus on writing about how I am feeling for the day rather than thinking about what I did for the day.

(3) Exercising daily

Well …. yes and no.

I really wanted to start running again (or rather jogging – you really can’t describe my shuffling along as running). I started running round an oval near my house. My plan was to run one extra lap a week and by the end of the year, I would be running 52 laps. That would be 400m (round a standard oval) x52 ie I would be able to run 20km by December! How is that for the aggregation of marginal gains?

So … I started with alternating between walking one lap and running one lap. Did I mention I was very unfit? My personal trainer had 2 babies in the last 5 years which meant my exercise routine was very interrupted. Oh dear, why am I trying to blame her for my failing to exercise? Sorry, I am just making excuses. She is the very best trainer and I didn’t make any effort to find another one while she was on maternity leave.

Anyway, back to my running … by the end of January, I was running / walking 3 mornings a week plus a personal training session once a week. I was feeling very proud of myself. Then my friend wanted to walk every evening after work. So I walked with her most nights then went back to work after our walk.

Which made me slack at getting up in the morning to run – after all, I had walked the evening before. Also because as I was improving and running more laps around the oval, it took more time. And I didn’t have enough time in the morning to fit everything I wanted to do. So I stopped running in the mornings.

But the good news is that after an absence of several weeks, I am back to running one morning a week. And the extra good news is that because I run on the path on the outside of the oval, one lap is more than 400m. After two weeks, I ran 10km non stop last week! That is a massive milestone for me.

My plan is to continue running at least once a week and not beat myself up if I miss a day. Oh, and I entered a fun run for 12.6km next weekend – fingers crossed, I will be able to run the whole way.

(4)  Morning routine

Sunrise over football oval

I aspire to be a morning person. A person who gets up immediately when the alarm clock rings. Someone who exercises, reads, writes, eats breakfast and goes off to work relaxed and ready to have a productive day ahead.

This is a spectacular fail.

I have improved in that I only press snooze once or twice. But I still do not get up immediately when the alarm goes. I travel with a friend who just bounces up out of bed when her alarm goes even if she were snoring just seconds ago. I really admire that trait but I acknowledge it is hard to break a lifetime of bad habits.

Because I do not wake up on time, I cannot fit in everything I want to do. After a while, I don’t even try. Besides brewing my coffee, eating breakfast and getting lunch to take in to work, I may squeeze in some reading or catch up on personal email. Exercising and writing fell off my routine. Which makes me feel like a failure.

When I did manage to do everything on my morning routine in the first few weeks of January, I felt very good and was productive before I headed off to work. So it’s back to the drawing board on this one.

(5) Night routine

Now I have struggled with this for years.

I am basically a night owl. I have always loved staying up late reading and sleeping in in the morning. To me, that is the height of luxury.

As the years have gone by, my stressful job meant I often came home late at night, mentally drained and physically exhausted. I would have dinner and pass out on my couch. Then drag myself to bed when I wake up at 1am, 3 am, whenever, usually after midnight.  So my sleep routine is always interrupted. I never sleep for more than 3 to 4 hours at a stretch.

But as my Twitter friends pointed out to me, I need to sort out my sleep FIRST before I can have a productive morning routine. Thank you @The Fioneers and @Shaunhasablog

This is very much a work in progress. I am getting better at going to bed before midnight during the weeknights, not so good on the weekends. And having scheduled screen downtime on my phone from midnight to 6am helps tremendously.

(6) Building relationships

Maintaining relationships is another area I worked on.

I am an introvert by nature. Plus I work in a demanding and stressful role so it is much easier to say no to outings and just stay home for peace and tranquillity. As I grow older, I’ve discovered that I need down time after interacting with a lot of people. And that it is ok to need that.

Looking back for the last 3 months, I am pleasantly surprised by my social outings – I’ve been to a wedding, entertained overseas guests, celebrated Chinese New Year with a sumptuous dinner at my house, stayed with friends interstate, taught my friend’s 11 year old son how to make wonton dumplings and chocolate fondant cake, attended an art exhibition, watched a musical, cooked for others etc. Overall, a good start to the year.

(7) Financial goals

Finally! I hear you – yes, this is a personal finance blog after all. But life is so much more than just our finances 🙂 And there is no point in acquiring wealth if I am mentally and physically broken.

Even though I discovered FIRE late in life,  I feel I am at the stage where I can breathe a little. And let my finances bubble along in the background. I am still learning a lot but the basics are set in place. It is vitally important, though to assess goals, review progress and make minor tweaks, as needed along the way.

So what is my progress? Here goes …

Superannuation

My aim is to max out my superannuation contribution this financial year. So I reviewed my salary sacrificing amount to make sure I am on track. I had to increase my contribution by $60 per week to make it to $25000 (including my employer’s contribution) by the end of June 2019. I don’t want to have to pay a big lump sum in June to catch up.

Investment Fund

I want to contribute an extra 1% per month of my take home pay into my investment account. This is on track as it is automated. At the beginning of the month, I adjust the amount by an extra $5.

Sinking Fund

I opened another online savings account for a sinking fund – to save for yearly fees and home maintenance expenses. All is on track here as once again, it is automated.

Travel and Emergency Funds

I am happy to report that I have not dipped into either fund yet.

I briefly toyed with the idea of swapping or essentially renaming them ie the travel fund becomes the emergency fund and vice versa. Basically because my travel fund is much healthier than my emergency fund. But I am planning to travel this year so maybe it is not a good idea just yet to tinker with my travel fund.

The emergency fund is currently at 32% of my goal of 6 months of expenses. It’s taking ages to build. I can accelerate this but it will be at the expense of my investment fund. I am already well behind on the investment front so I’ll just leave things be for the moment.

Share Portfolio

My share portfolio is growing slowly. I aim to invest $5000 every quarter this year – currently on track for this quarter. My latest acquisition is Milton (MLT) shares on the ASX. I am building a portfolio of LICs (Listed Investment Companies) and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), in line with my investment strategy of acquiring dividend paying shares. For that reason, I sold my Afterpay (APT) shares for a profit of $4000 and will reinvest in another LIC, most likely Whitefield (WHF).

For the first time ever, I am tracking my dividends. In 2018, I earned a gobsmacking total of $1991 in dividends. So far, in just 3 months in 2019, I have already earned $2541 – and we are off to a great start! At last, some passive income is growing …

Most of these dividends are reinvested back, in acquiring more shares in the various companies where Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRPs) are offered.  I am lazy and prefer to automate as much as possible. In this way, my share portfolio is growing by stealth and dividends will be paid on the increased number of shares next time.

Expenses and Savings rate

The end of February marks 12 months of me tracking my expenses.

Drumroll please ….

Total expenses came to $41 240 which is in line with what the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) considers as a comfortable lifestyle for a single person aged around 65 to retire on – $43 317

My initial reaction is … Far out, this is higher than where I would like it to be …

But at least I now have a baseline to work from. I have not analysed my spending in any great detail except to note that home maintenance which includes utilities is the biggest category. I will delve deeper and share in a more specific post later.  Lots of work ahead.

This brings my savings rate to 43% – I really wanted it to be 50% or better. I calculated savings rate based on take home pay only for the sake of simplicity. Therefore I did not take into account pre taxed dollars that is salary sacrificed into superannuation or include any bank interest (minuscule) or dividends (most of which was reinvested into buying more shares) in the income part.

Final thoughts

While my finances can always be improved upon, I am slowly building good habits and carving some time out each week to reflect and learn. Thus I am learning what brings me value and joy which will ensure my money is spent accordingly. I will dive into my expenses more in the next quarter to see if I can improve my savings rate.

 

How was your first quarter? Are you focusing on non financial goals as well as financial ones?  Let me know in the comments below! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Travel – is it self indulgence or self care?

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Disclosure: Please note that I may benefit from purchases made through some of the links below, at no cost to you.

I love travelling.

Discovering new destinations, learning about different cultures & customs, eating new foods, enjoying a new activity or mode of transport …. What’s not to love?

When I was growing up, we lived in a different country to the rest of the extended family. We always travelled in the school holidays, alternating between visiting two sets of grandparents in neighbouring countries.

So from a young age, I was very used to travelling – long days cooped up in cars and immigration queues at customs checkpoints; big and small aeroplanes; even helicopters.  Armed with a book or two, I could withstand any travel inconvenience, delay, cancellation or simply just the boredom of waiting. 

Since the family immigrated to Australia, we have all continued travelling, even if it was just visiting family back in Asia. My parents travelled until recently when my mother’s dementia made it increasingly difficult. My brother now lives in London and his family travel a lot especially before they had children.

To date, I have travelled to 24 countries. The tally should increase to 26 by the end of the year. I do not include any countries where I’ve only been to the airport on transit.

But since discovering FIRE, I have felt guilty about spending money on travel.

Related post: My conflict between FIRE and YOLO

I suppose because I don’t usually travel on the cheap … unless the cost of living in the countries I am visiting are low or the currency exchange is in my favour.

It is expensive to travel from Australia

We are so far away from the rest of the world, which can be a good or bad thing.

A one to two hour flight from Melbourne takes you to Sydney, Hobart, Canberra … whereas a one to two hour flight from London takes you to Dublin, Paris, Lyon, Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Geneva ie cities in a different country!

Don’t get me wrong – there is no need to travel overseas to have a good holiday. There are incredible places within Australia to see and experience – Uluru, the Whitsundays to name a few. Though to be honest, I haven’t seen that much of Australia besides all the capital cities – yep, I have visited every capital city in every state and territory.

That leaves the majority of the continent to explore – I want to visit Broome, the Kimberlys, Kakadu, Kangaroo Island, driving across the Nullabor to Perth … My logic though is that I will visit my own backyard when I am older, when the thought of being in a plane for twelve hours is horrendous …

Travel hacking

Unfortunately for us Aussies, travel hacking is not as lucrative as in the United States.

I am very envious of their credit cards awarding generous reward points for dollars spent. These reward points can then be redeemed for flights and hotels within the States or overseas. As in you may be able to travel for FREE!! Check out travel miles 101 if you live in the States for lots of ideas and strategies to start travel hacking.

I do use credit cards to earn Qantas frequent flyer points (I pay off the full balance each month). I take advantage of sign up bonus points each year by getting a new card and closing another. All of my bills are paid by credit cards via direct debit; I pay by credit cards whenever I make a purchase, big or small.

Still, it takes me 2 years to earn any decent points for overseas travel. A one way economy flight to London costs 60 000 points.

Accommodation is the killer

I don’t have any cards that award points for hotels. Sometimes I use Qantas to book hotels if it is the cheapest rate and I can earn more points along the way. It is far better to redeem Qantas points for flights rather than for hotel stays.

And I feel like a fraud in the FIRE community in that I don’t like staying in hostels. Airbnb has let me down in the past so I am not a fan. Just thinking about couch surfing gives me palpitations. House sitting – I don’t mind but without the pets please as I am too scared of what can go wrong.

So while there is some scope to save on flights using frequent flyer points, I still need to pay for accommodation. Not 5 star hotels but a basic 3 star hotel in Europe may set you back $200 a night.

What I do have is a separate Travel fund that I diligently pay myself each week.  I realised how important travel was to me when I would readily pull money from my emergency fund instead of touching the travel fund.

So how do I justify this expense?

It is a toss up between self care and self indulgence …

I love the whole process, even the initial research of – where will I go? Where will I stay? How will I get there? What sort of activities or sights should I plan for? How long do I need at each destination? How much time will I allow for this, that and the other?

There is something about the anticipation of freedom, of new experiences that excite me and draw me again and again to travel. Just thinking about travel makes me happy.

Of course, sometimes there is stress and anxiety about how everything will come together.

But that satisfaction and sense of achievement when all planned activities have proceeded without a hitch … that is priceless! I am guilty of scheduling lots of activities, meals at specific restaurants etc while on holidays.

Note to self – next holiday, I need to schedule more rest and relaxation time. So I don’t come home from a holiday needing another holiday to recover.

But overall, I am a much more relaxed person when I am travelling versus the me at work.

It brings me so much pleasure later too, after the trips are done and dusted. When I am in my own home, eating the chocolates or snacks that I have brought home or seeing something on TV and thinking I have been there and the flood of memories open up …

This surely is self care? As defined in this article by psychcentral.com – “self care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health”

Planning my travels and travelling certainly takes care of my mental and emotional health directly and my physical health indirectly.

Is travel an escape from the reality of my daily life? 

I am currently reading Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Domingues (affiliate link). It raises many questions about how I am living my life and how I am using my time, my most valued and finite resource.

It also made me reflect on my love of travelling. 

Do I use travel as a way of escaping? Escaping the stresses of my job and the boredom sometimes?

The answer is yes – guilty on both counts.

It is difficult for work to contact me when I am travelling overseas due to the time differences. If I were travelling within Australia, I am still very available. The stress just melts away as the plane takes off  into the sky.

I once booked a flight to Tokyo because I was sitting at my desk working on paperwork for an upcoming accreditation and being bored out of my mind. An email alert from Qantas advertising a cheap fare to celebrate their direct flights from Melbourne to Tokyo flashed up. Ten minutes later, I have a seat on a flight to Tokyo. If that is not impulsive, then I don’t know what is.

This is probably the self indulgence part! As defined by Merriam-Webster, self indulgence is the “excessive or unrestrained gratification of one’s own appetites, desires or whims” Yep, definitely self indulgence.

So if my work is not so stressful or demanding, will I still love travelling?

Guess my answer will be evident once I stop working!

The Dilemma

However the question I come back to again and again after discovering FIRE is – if I indulge now and spend my money travelling, will I then travel less when I retire? ie will I run out of money for travelling by the time I retire? It will be supremely ironic that when I finally have all the time in the world to devote to travelling, that I cannot afford it.

I remember being on a tour through Europe in my mid twenties where several members of the group were not physically fit enough to climb the steps up to The Parthenon in Athens. I felt so bad for them – imagine spending your life wanting to visit these unbelievable far away places, only to get there and just admire from afar, not getting close enough to touch and interact.  It is still closer than watching on TV or reading a book, I know.

I resolved then that I would not leave travelling to the to do list at the end of my life (which was how I thought retirement was – the end of my life!) but rather, while I was working and physically capable.

There is also no guarantee that I will live long enough or not succumb to dementia early in my retirement. That thought is always at the back of my mind – my Mum has dementia and this has severely impacted her enjoyment, ability and desire to travel. (And impacted my Dad as well)

And speaking of ageing parents, I may not have the freedom and flexibility to travel for long extended periods once their health deteriorates even more in the future. I may be anxious about leaving them and worry that I am not there for them should something major happens.

Changing focus

My focus in travel has also changed slightly.

I now have a little niece living on the other side of the planet, in an expensive city. I want to spend time with her in her environment, getting to know her routines, learning what she likes to do – just building a relationship with her. It is important to me to do this now and not wait until she has grown up to be an adult.

So spending time in Europe is a top priority in my travel plans.

Final thoughts

In the end, travel for me is probably both self care and self indulgence. I need an escape from my daily stresses and so I indulge in an activity that brings me great joy – travelling. Although for now, my focus will be to spend as much time as possible visiting my niece in Europe.

Travel is an expensive hobby for me. So saving for my Travel fund is crucial in addition to earning frequent flyer points. Plus I haven’t totally written off Airbnb, housesitting ….

I just need to learn that it is ok to spend money on what brings value to my life. And not feel guilty about it.

What about you? Is travel important to you? What are your strategies to make it happen?

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