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December 2024 update

 



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 past three months were phenomenal. I ended the month of December down £3.5k, but in the previously 3 months I was +£100k in, with Crypto and US stocks leading the charge.

I've been sitting on a bit of cash for a few months, predominantly as I need a bit of cashflow to get through the month given the extra costs mentioned at the start, but also because I'm not sure what to do with it. ISA is maxxed, looking likely that I'll also max the savings allowance, and I also plan on putting some extra into my pension towards the end of the tax year (to ensure that I duck under the Adjusted Net Income to dodge the High Income Child Benefit Charge). In the end I've decided to plonk £5k into Premium Bonds, let them run for a few months and then transfer out into my pension.





2024/25 tax year:

Not much change here, with Net Worth only changing by £3k for the month.





Side hustle update:

Another crazy month for side hustle income. I received another load of Interactive Investor referral rewards, receiving 7 x £200 for new referrals during December. This was on top of 7 referrals for November! A massive thank you for anyone who has registered on the platform using my link. I hope you enjoy the platform as much as I have done! 

My low effort side hustle is now looking at £6925 for the year.

If you're interested in switching/joining Interactive Investor my referral link is below where you'll get the first year for free.


Here's what it looks like for the monthly breakdown. I got £1000 from Hargreaves Lansdown for an ISA transfer, and I'm expecting to get £1.5k in January 2025 from Interactive Investor for their cashback transfer as well. I don't see these levels continuing in 2025 given it needs me to switch providers (which I don't want to do as I like Interactive Investor too much!) and obviously it needs new referrals as well.




Non-Finance update

  • Books - I had a target to read 24 books during 2024, the plan is to increment this up by one a year, every year. I've managed to do the past 3 years and during the last week of December I snuck in my final 24th book for the year.

  • Drone - The drone has had a bit of a rest during December, the weather has been pretty terrible, and although I've taken it up in 30mph wind, it's not something I really want to be doing too regularly. December seems to have been full of fog and wind, especially the last couple of weeks.

2025 resolutions
I've done a few resolutions in the past few years but mainly around finances and reading books. With my finances reaching a 'coast' like state in 2024 I've got a lot less finance related goals in 2025 and a lot more 'lifestyle' related goals:
  • Get fitter
    • I've asked ChatGPT to design me a workout plan for the year, using my weight and height. We'll see how it goes! My weight has been fairly consistent over the years, and only really differing by 2 stone. Currently, I'm the heaviest I've been, and I want to lose weight, feel fitter and gain muscle. There's no particular target in weight loss, I just want to work through the workout regime that AI has given me. 
  • Take 2 months off work
    • I can request this in January with my work. I plan on taking 8 weeks off Unpaid Parental Leave, and this will be my taster for FIRE life!
  • Fill ISA
    • Token finance goal! It's looking likely that I will achieve this pretty quickly into the tax year by liquidating GIA, Premium Bonds and receiving a HMRC pension tax rebate.
  • Read 25 books
    • Building on my incremental book goal, I plan on reading 25 books in 2025
  • Watch 25 of the top 100 films
    • I'm a big fan of films anyway, but I want to work through more of the classics
  • Learn Spanish
    • We are going on a 2-week Mediterranean cruise in August, hitting a lot of Spanish cities on the way. My son has said he wants to learn some Spanish so this will also hold me accountable as well

That's it, that's the update,
See you next year!



Comments

  1. AnonJanuary 3, 2025 at 12:40 AM

    Well done on getting 2 months off work.
    I had last summer off and it was liberating. Og course, it's easier to spend the summer pff than winter.
    My deal was that I was between jobs - don't know how it goes with the same employer...
    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

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