Yearly Archives: 2021

November Progress Report

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Heres the numbers for the month:

Mortgage

  • current balance: $30,470
  • down from: $40,866
  • total reduction: $10,396
Savings
  • current balance: $708,860
  • up from: $698,450
  • total increase: $10,410

Only 113 days to go until I retire!! 

I’m feeling so tired and also so excited at the moment. Yesterday I finally confirmed the date that I am leaving work and put in all the leave forms.  Next week I will let colleagues know at our last staff meeting for the year. I need enough time to handover some projects and catch-up on a lot of work before I go. Not long to go now. 

It’s been crazy busy at work the last few weeks as the long awaited restructure was announced and I’ve spent day after day in meetings. I am so grateful to my past self for frugal living and sticking to my savings & debt payoff plans over the years as I am not having to worry about losing my job like many others but about to retire 8 years early. 

We received our tax returns and put it all off the mortgage even though we had decided not to pay any more on it. It’s a hard habit to break paying extra off that mortgage. That took us to Year 28 on the mortgage amortisation table so another mortgage milestone passed this month.

This week I bought a few things at the black Friday sales, some courses I’d like to do were half-price and I will actually have time to do them soon! I’ve been busy with Share the Dignity collection and delivery. I’ve been daydreaming about the sewing and quilting I want to do next year and what it will feel like to have some energy for life outside of work. `In the meantime I have holidays coming up soon which will be a nice break. 

October Progress Report

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Here’s the numbers for October:

Mortgage

  • current balance: $40,866
  • down from: $43,731
  • total reduction: $2,865
Savings
  • current balance: $698,404
  • up from: $690,450
  • total increase: $7,954
I feel like a lot has happened this month. We’ve both given notice at work and started to tell a few people that we’re retiring next year. The reactions have been all positive and some a bit surprised. 
DH will leave mid-year as he will need to spend time training his replacement & wants to stay until a major project is completed. I’ll leave after first term, or even a few weeks earlier. That will give me time to handover from the management job I’ve done this year and have some time to catch-up on unfinished work before I go. 
I have just 5 weeks left to work this year, then  10 – 13 weeks next year – it feels amazing to finally be almost at the end after so long working toward this. I have so many plans for the house and garden, so many quilts to sew and books to read. I am counting down the days!
Financially we will make some changes. We will now stop paying extra on the mortgage – which feels very odd after it being such a focus for so long – and put that extra money in the mortgage offset account. We’ll keep salary sacrificing the maximum into super and then mid next year start drawing a transition to retirement pension. 
I haven’t done a lot outside of work as we have a bit of a covid outbreak here in the last two weeks.  I’ve had two tests and then the associated days working from home even though we really do not go out much at all. Everything is delivered, we only go to work and the occasional visit to the shop. Travel has now been opened up to our area from Sydney with thousands of visitors expected to visit for various events. So we will continue being home bodies for the next few months until we get our booster shots in February. 
I’ve found it hard to blog regularly this year with so much work & little else happening. Now that its easing up a bit I hope to get back to blogging more regularly.

September Progress Report

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Another month down and only one more term left in this management role thank goodness. On the finance front, here are the numbers:

Mortgage:

  • current balance: $43,731
  • down from $45,990
  • total reduction: $2,259
Savings:
  • current balance: $690,450
  • up from: $678,595
  • total increase: $11,855

 We’ve all been working from home during September and are still in lockdown which will probably end in the next few weeks. I am expecting to have to go back to the office next week which I am really not looking forward to.

 Last week I was on leave and spent a lot of time dealing with work issues & attending meetings including one where we were very rudely told off for working from home. It was quite insulting & very disrespectful. Each of us in that meeting was on holiday but still made time to attend. To be told off like that was just one more reminder of how toxic this workplace is & how much I want to leave. I keep reading about The Great Resignation and I could quite likely be a part of it the way things are going. 

On a positive note, I’ve been doing lots of decluttering and have several bags of old clothes ready to donate when the op shops open up. I went for a lovely walk with an old friend a few days ago down by the river. 

It was a beautiful spring day and we spent a few hours catching up, while we enjoyed the views and got some exercise.  We followed a walking path that goes along the river & even though we’re still in town, just 10 minutes from home, it feels like you are away from the traffic & noise.
Its magpie swooping season here and although there were plenty of maggies about there was no birds swooping at us as we walked.

The view back towards town. I remember as a kid we were not allowed to swim in the river but  I used to sneak down with a friend and go for a swim sometimes in summer. At the moment there are lots of snakes about so it’s not the smartest idea to swim here right now.  

Today we have a public holiday here so I’ll be doing some more decluttering and perhaps a bit of cooking for the freezer. We are meeting with the financial planner again next week to make some decisions so I’m looking forward to that and to enjoying this lovely spring weather in the next few weeks.