Dad on FIRE

Finance update Another good month in January. All asset classes up. In the months from September to the end of January it is up a total of £150k, although a few days into February has already knocked -£20k off that, so we'll see how we end up come the end of the tax year. On that, I've not done a 2024 summary post like a lot of other financial bloggers as all of my targets are aligned to the end of the financial year rather than calendar year, my ISA allowance and pension contributions mainly. Breakdown for January: ISA  up £11k Pension  up £13k GIA /easy access savings up £7k Crypto  up £12.5k House price  up £3k Total : up £49k My Crypto holdings have exploded in the past few months, doubling in price from September to January. I am still pound cost averaging into Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano £50 each a week and will continue to do this. At the moment with my ISA filled and my pension target met for the year I have been ploughing the spare cash into easy access sa...

Frugality I've found that the word "frugality", or "being frugal" is commonly used as a backhanded compliment or an ambiguous term depending on the context, who is saying it and who they are saying it to. Almost like it's the polite word of saying "you're a tight arse"!  But I think there's a key difference between being "tight" or "cheap" and being "frugal". Earning more (over spending less) is the generally accepted way of increasing your stack. There are a lot of payments that are a fixed amount, and so it proportionally impacts people with less income relatively more. For example a £10 cinema ticket for someone surviving on a basic income might be proportionally a good chunk of their disposable spend, whereas for a billionaire it doesn't even register. There are some notable exceptions to this rule though. Consider Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest individuals in the entire world. His frugality is b...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while! Since going to Disneyland I've relayed a few tips to a number of friends so think it would be worth a wider audience!  We were meant to go to Disneyland Paris in 2020 but Covid scuppered those plan, however a few years later we managed to get it sorted. It was my wife that actually recommended going to Disneyland and I immediately had shooting pains right in my bank balance due to my perception about how expensive it can be, however breaking it down it was actually really good value. Roughly adding it all up, for a family of 4 to travel to Disneyland we managed to do it for less than £1000 .  This included: - Ferry transfer from/to Dover - 2 nights in the Davy Crockett Hotel (5 mins drive from the park) - 3 days park passes for a family of 4 - All meals / food / drink bought - 12 months free Disney+ - 2 x Premier Inn stays in Dover - Fuel from Yorkshire to Paris and back, with French toll payments Given you'd struggle to get...

  Finance update December is an expensive old month in the Dad on FIRE household!  We have; 2 x birthdays, a week either side of Christmas 2 x MOT and Services due on each car Christmas (obviously) Land maintenance service charge due It might just be me but the prices for MOT and Services seem have to crept up quite a bit over the past few years. I dug out a combined MOT and Service on one of my mucky 1.6l diesels (sorry, not sorry), and it was roughly £100 for a full service and MOT. Ended up paying £300 each this year for exactly the same thing! I'm guessing parts/labour have all gone up but it seems like a huge hike given it was a straightforward check/oil replacement etc, with no work needed. Anyway...finances for December have been a bit up and down. Breakdown for December: ISA  down £3k Pension  down £3k GIA /easy access savings up £3k Crypto  down £3k House price  down £3k Most of my assets have gone down in December, but this was expected as the pas...