There's Value

How to Set Goals - And Achieve Them

2014-08-28T16:44:00.001+01:00

Goals are Awesome - Goals are the Key to Success

Goals are awesome. They really are. Goals help you visualise the future. Goals help you get moving towards something. Goals keep you from being at a standstill, they stop you from becoming stagnant. I was so ignorant to these facts in the past. I look back over my life sometimes and think: 'What was I even thinking?' In fact, I wasn't thinking. I was just coasting on through, without a care in the world.

But then in 2005, I got made redundant from a job I had been headhunted for. The owner wound down the business and moved onto something else.Without any sense of a plan in case of emergencies like this one, let alone any other kind of goals or plans, I went back home with all my stuff crammed in the back of my tiny car.

Over the next three months, I decided to go back into education, apply to university, and completely change my career path, i.e. GET ONE!

Beginnings

But what got me started on this track of actually setting goals? The redundancy was only part of the prompting. Before I got made redundant, I was working in a sales job and we had loads of personal and team targets. I was really successful at hitting these targets, not because I was amazing, but because I was totally laid back. I got a salary whether or not I sold anything. Commission was a bonus, so I just relaxed and was really friendly and down to earth at work. The customers didn't sense any pressure, so they always bought from me!

One day, I was chatting with a co-worker. We loved to have a good natter about work mostly, but also other stuff. He said: 'M, you don't actually have any personal goals do you?' I thought that was a bit of a weird thing to suddenly say in the midst of an otherwise ordinary conversation... But he was right. I had never actually thought about what I wanted to achieve in life, and all the while the both of us were thinking about our work targets and how to hit them. I never thought to make some targets, or goals for myself, outside of work.

These thoughts just stayed in the back of my mind, I didn't even act on them. But as they say, there is nothing more powerful than an idea. The idea of changing my life's direction developed in my mind, without me hardly even thinking about it.

After being made redundant, the idea came back to the forefront again... so that is when I had to think about what I might like to achieve in life.

How to Set Goals -And Achieve Them

Start Now! Don't wait until you lose your job! Start writing some ideas down about what you would like to achieve in life e.g. travel to certain country, get married, run a marathon, whatever. The choice is yours and should fit your own dreams and desires
Write it Down! Write a major goal at the top of a piece of paper. Allow yourself to dream about it and visualise yourself doing it. For example, one of my goals is to visit Japan, so I imagine what it might be like, I imagine the plane journey, what food we eat on the plane, arriving in the country, and so on.
Break it down! Having smaller chunks of action makes it easier to think about working towards something big e.g. I will break down saving for my trip to Japan into: saving for flights; saving for hotels; and saving for spending money
Review Often! Going over your goals often will help keep your mind thinking about them. Your mind is your most powerful asset and works for you even whilst you're asleep. You will begin to come up with solutions and answers to obstacles in life and attaining each stage towards your bigger goals if you review them before you sleep.

It is as simple as that. And, once you get going, your goals seems to get nearer and nearer without even having to work that hard to achieve them. The key is breaking things down and doing those small steps regularly.

I've just reviewed my deposit statements for the year into my NISA, and I have already achieved my goal of paying in at least £100 per month. I didn't think I'd even managed it, because money has been tight this year, especially over the Summer. But lo and behold, my small, regular deposits have already mounted up past what I had even hoped to achieve!

What goals are you working towards, and how are you doing on your journey?

Photo Credit: StuartMiles/freedigitalphotos.net

There's Value - Liebster Award Nomination

2014-08-26T12:56:00.001+01:00

MANY THANKS!

Joe at Budget Breakaway kindly nominated me for a Liebster Award, which I accept! The rules of accepting are:

1. Display the Liebster Award logo on your blog (done!)
2. Link back to the person who has nominated you (done!)
3. Answer the questions they have posed (done!)
4. Create questions of your own (done!)
5. Choose your own nominations to continue the fun (done!)

MY ANSWERS TO JOE:

1. If I gave you £100 but told you that you had to invest it somewhere new, what would you do with it?

I would buy the highest ranked share off my watchlist. Does that count Joe? Or does it have to be a completely new area of investment? If the latter is so, then I would pay a CompSci student to help me start building another website idea I've been plotting for a while.

2. What is your next financial goal and what will help you to achieve it?
To earn £50 in dividend income by the end of this year. I do need to make a couple more small purchases, or else I think this won't happen! Money has been tight over Summer, but if I tough it out, I think and hope I can do it. Focussing on the goals really motivates me, so I guess I need to really do that!

3. Who would you say you look up to as a financial role model?
Am I allowed to have more than one? Well this might sound weird, but Jesus and Ben Franklin. Jesus got money from a fish's mouth to pay his tax, and whipped a bunch of cheating bureau de change guys in the Temple. Both sound fun. Wouldn't YOU like to crack a weapon over certain cheaters? And I'd definitely love it if my local river fish started winging me cash. He also said: 'give and you shall receive'. Pretty simple, pretty true.

Ben Franklin, because he also said the simple truth: 'the quickest way to wealth is to spend less than you earn'. I've read his autobiography several times, it's really cool.

4. What is your most productive time of the day?
Probably late morning through lunchtime, before I crash and need an afternoon nap. If I haven't had an espresso in the morning, then NEVER, lol. Or perhaps late evening when my spouse is in bed and the baby is in bed. Then I can FINALLY have some peace and quiet to blog, research, and answer Liebster Award nomination questions...

5. If you could go back and undo one of your financial mistakes, what would it be?
Not saving and donating regular percentages of my income from the very beginning, according to my current plan. I mean, I am gonna teach my, currently 1yr old, kid to follow a financial plan similar to that which I've come up with, because I basically didn't have one before, but saved sometimes, donated sometimes, but was inconsistent always. Consistency is one of those essential traits that you really need to get into the discipline of practising on your finances from an early age. This, of course, also goes for many areas of life.

MY QUESTIONS TO YOU:

Ok, phew, so I've answered all those questions. Here's what I wanna know:

1. If you got a sudden windfall (e.g. lottery, big compensation payout, etc.) what would you do with the money? Let's say it's £5million.
2. What is you favourite financial book, or if you don't have one, your fave PF blog?
3. Football (Soccer) or rugby?
4. What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?
5. Which will win, electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars, something else, or a combo? Give reasons for your answer.

I nominate:

1. Investing Pursuits
2. Stef von Grow Independent.com
3. Dividend Gravy
4. Steve at Kapitalust
5.Laura at No More Spending

If you're a reader and I haven't nominated you , please feel free to answer the questions in the comments. If I have nominated you and you've already received a Liebster award, please also feel free to answer the questions anyway! I am intrigued to know your answers...

Emotions and Money

2014-08-23T14:50:00.000+01:00

Kapitalust, another PF/investing blog I follow, very recently wrote about something which I have been thinking about for the past few weeks - emotions vs. money.

Recent Events

Well, let me tell you what happened to me recently. I had some family stay, one of whom decided to cause a big argument after we all a lovely day out together. Typically, emotions ran hot and all sorts of nonsense was said. The first sibling accused us of not providing food for the whole family and not being hospitable without question. Another family member joined in and said we were too focussed on our budget.

The Context

Of course, neither of these accusations were true, and both siblings were speaking out of their own hurts and their own negative past experiences. The first sibling didn't pay their rent, because they spent their housing benefit on something else, so ended up in "temporary accommodation" before being very lucky and getting a pretty decent council house (actually better than their previously privately rented house), the other sibling didn't pay their mortgage (even though it's pretty small and close to finished) because they spent their money on something else and their payments are now in arrears, but thankfully they have have a plan to pay it off completely.

Stimulus... Reaction - How Long is the Gap Between These Two?

Arguments never really give clarity to situations and pretty much always cloud over the truth of matters. As Kapitalust said in his blog post: "When it comes to stimulus and reaction, those who let emotion control their decision making process have a very narrow gap between the two. Those who use logic and reason in their decision making process have a larger gap". These two family members have pretty much no gap between stimulus and reaction.

Making Decisions - Emotions vs. Values

Clearly, both of these family members are pretty irrational and make decisions based on emotion. Now, we didn't have much growing up, there were plenty of hand-me-downs, no take-away food, no big birthday parties, only one parent working with several kids. So 4 of the 6 of us got jobs as soon as we could e.g. paper round, Saturday jobs, etc. I bet you can guess that the relative who accused me is one of the ones who didn't get a job...

Making decisions based on your emotions is a bad idea and sadly often ends up being a terrible mistake. Perhaps this is a reason for the high divorce rates in Western countries? We all too often base our decisions on 'feelings' rather than deeply thought-through decisions. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that emotions can really help us, but they are not our source of logic, or our basis of information. This is not advice to be a repressed person, or become a Vulcan-like logical robot. It just means that you should aim to base your decisions on something a little deeper.

Values and Purpose

The subtitle of this blog is 'aiming for a valuable and purposeful life'. I know I have emotions and I enjoy the human rollercoaster that they sometimes make me feel like I'm riding, but I at the end of the day, you have to know there is an end destination to that rollercoaster. That comes from having a sense of value and purpose about your own life.

This is the true reason why people make terrible decisions, especially financial ones - because they do not know their own value and purpose. And this is a really sad situation to be in. They think that they can fill that void with 'stuff' like houses, cars, clothes, maybe even experiences like extreme sports or travel. There is nothing wrong with those things, but I think you and I can often tell when someone is trying to fill the emptiness in their own life with objects that will never satisfy them.

You need to think about your life. You need to have a little imaginary exercise and ask yourself these types of questions:

Who are you? What are your characteristics, personality, and talents like?
What do you enjoy, truly? And I don't mean that pizza you ate last night, I mean the deeper things in life like what are your passions e.g. music, walking in the countryside, being creative with woodcrafts or cooking, or knitting or team sports, etc.
Do you feel like you may have a vocation? To feed the homeless, to be a nurse/dr/teacher/pastor etc?
Where do you see yourself in five years, ten, or twenty years?
Do you have dreams, no matter how obscure or wild, small or large? Perhaps you've always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, run a marathon, feed ducks with your grandchildren, or simply enjoy learning a new skill like woodwork or car repairs?

Invest in Your Own Future

Beginning to imagine a future for yourself is a really important and critical part of your own self-development. But you need to keep doing it every so often. Perhaps write a list of goals and dreams down and review it several times per month/year. It is really sad that we often go through negative experiences as children, which can affect our ability to see our future, but there is hope and there is a future. Anyone who says otherwise is a downright liar! You are not the only one who has suffered. Pretty much everyone has hurts from the distant or recent past, but as the saying goes: 'hurt people, hurt (other) people'

Relating it back to our finances...

All of this is really about our relationship to our own past, present, and future self. Some people might say you exist in all three states at once, although I think if you concentrate too much on your past, you occlude the vision of your future self, and have a terrible time being yourself in the present!

But part of the reason why I like saving, budgeting, and dividend growth and value investing is because it concentrates on the long-term, the more middle-to-distant end of the future. When you begin to imagine, and have the beginnings of a vision of yourself, you operate in this manner, essentially saying: " I believe there is a future ahead of me, and that future is going to be better than my present". This is because if you can see a future for yourself, that means there is life ahead of you, and where there is life, there is hope.

This type of money management means you live realistically in the present and look forward with hope to the future. It does not try to quickly satiate some kind of void in life, or attempt to the soothe pain of the past with a useless salve, but it is a means to achieve more freedom. This freedom is often just spoken of in terms of time, because when you are retired and living off those savings and dividends etc. you can choose to use time much more flexibly. But importantly, this freedom should also include freedom from your past self's problems, because you are working towards that hopeful future day...

I'm not going to splurge the (hopefully) substantial amount of capital when that future day of retirement arrives, but instead I will use that freedom to spend more of my time building relationships with my family (who I love to bits, despite their and my own flaws), my friends, doing more voluntary work, and yes to do some things that I am interested in and have dreamed of like travel, without the hindrance of being tied to a 9-5 job. It is a journey towards that day, and I do hope that I will be free from my past self's hurts.

Let me know what you think about these things...

Photo credit: StuartMiles/freedigitalphotos.net

Meat on the Bone is GOO-UH-OOD

2014-08-21T14:00:00.000+01:00

Sorry to the vegans and vegetarians, you may want to skip this post...

I am an omnivore, but I love my chicken, as you may have noticed, and I also love a bit of red meat. Who could turn down a nice bit of oxtail stew, leg of lamb, or a typical Sunday’s roast chicken? There is something so mouth-watering about the smell of the roast chicken in particular, and you just can’t beat that oxtail on a cold evening.

Now, I don't care what health professionals say about not eating red meat, because I know better. Yes, I really do, because they don't know me, and they don't know how my body responds to different foods, as I have struggled to explain to them over the years of my experiments with eczema and my diet. When I eat certain types of meat, my eczema gets better. I suspect it’s because I tend to slow-cook my meat. That allows us to digest it easier, as the meat fibres are more tender, thus reducing the work and time your body needs to digest it. It also is beneficial because I think slow-cooking aids nutrient absorption, especially because I think the broth it creates must hold a lot of the nutrients and we would typically eat/drink that too as part of the meal.

When it comes to meat, the best meat is on the bone. Yes, I know some people claim they don't like it, but basically they're just being fussy. And this goes for poultry as well as red meat. For me, I need red meat because I have an ongoing iron absorption problem, and iron tablets are utterly rubbish. I do get iron from eating a variety of vegetable sources, but for me it is far easier, less stressful on my body, and a lot more delicious to eat red meat once or twice a week. Even if you don't have any iron problems, there are three great reasons why eating any type of meat on the bone is cool:

Meat on the bone is cheaper, because people pay more for the convenience of having it stripped off the bone, sliced, processed, packaged more conveniently, so you will able to save money on your grocery budget by buying the bone meats etc;
It has a LOT more flavour, because the meat that’s closest to the bone typically is juicier and thus more flavoursome;
It's actually very healthy for you, as the bone also provides nutrients from the marrow and suchlike.

Can't say fairer than that. I am not recommending that you eat meat all the time, especially red meat, as I do credit those same health professionals that I think don't know anything with actually knowing a little bit of truth - it's a strain on your body to eat lots of red meat. It can also be harder to digest - it takes longer to go through your body, so it can make you a bit sluggish. At the end of the day, I value red meat on the bone and poultry on the bone both for health and for flavour. Luckily for me, it is also very economical to buy these meats.

Happy Eating!

Photo credit: amenic181/freedigitalphotos.net

Downshift Trials - Part 1

2014-08-19T12:00:00.000+01:00

In order to save money and squeeze my budget, I've downshifted quite a lot of different grocery and household items. What is downshifting? Well, it's where you find an alternative product that costs less. For example toothpaste. You could go with the teeth-whitening, breath-freshening, dentist recommended Colgate/Aquafresh/etc. or you could buy the supermarket own-brand, which is less snazzily packaged, about a quarter of the price, and probably on the bottom shelf, a little out of sight!

Many times, these sorts of things are even made in the same factory, albeit on neighbouring production lines. Whilst in Germany last year, I was watching a TV programme about this very thing. The researchers had gone to extraordinary lengths to trace the origins of comparable products, by looking up production codes on an EU database. They went to a factory that tinned fish of various kinds. The owner was completely open about what they did - premium brand on one side of the factory, supermarket own brand on the other, EXACTLY THE SAME fish in both tins. He said that in the cheaper brand, they put about 10% less fish and more sauce to make up for the space.

When you first start downshifting, you need to pay attention to the ingredients and the quality of the new, cheaper product. In the case of the fish, I could quite happily forgo a bit of fish for savings of 40% on the product. I've been doing this downshifting for years, and so have personally compared various supermarkets' own brands against each other in my quest to both save money and yet maintain what I think are good value items at low prices. For instance, Sainsbury's Basics natural yoghurt is a few pence more than the Tesco equivalent (ca. 55p), but the Sainsbury's one is proper live yoghurt, whereas the Tesco version has no live cultures. Therefore, it's not worth saving the few pence, as I'm getting what I would consider to be a useless product.

It is always a toss-up between price and value, as the famous value investor Warren Buffet said: 'Price is what you pay, value is what you get', so when you're looking to save money on your everyday shopping, I would say that you need to concentrate on value first, price second. There is no point buying the very bottom of the range items, as often they are not great quality, but sometimes they are decent, as Sainsbury's yoghurt is. Of course, if you're really short of cash, then you have to do what works for you, I was a student in a high cost of living city, so I know all about penny-pinching!

But you also need to think about your own health and well-being. For example, I decided to downshift from Dove soap to Johnson's baby soap because Johnson's is cheaper. You would think that Johnson's baby soap would be really kind and gentle on your skin, like their baby oil is. Alas! It left my skin cracked and dry! Bye-bye Johnson's, next time I buy soap it'll be back to Dove again. This is not disparage Johnson's, but I have eczema, so I thought it would be good to use an oil-based soap. It just disagreed with me. Lesson learnt: buy what works, even if it's a bit more expensive.

Photo credit: amenic181/freedigitalphotos.net

Why a Whole Chicken is Brilliant Value

2014-08-16T14:00:00.000+01:00

If you're a meat-eater, sometimes it can really send your grocery bill sky high. Luckily, there are some ways to get fantastic value for money when shopping for meat, in particular, chicken.

Chicken is an all-round great meat. Just 100g is full of vital nutrients you need every day, such as 25% of your necessary protein, 10% of your required vitamin B6, and smaller amounts of vitamin A, calcium, iron, and magnesium.

But what about price, and more importantly, value? Well, a quick online supermarket comparison shows it costs between £4.99 and £6.50 for a 2Kg chicken.

What to do with it:

Feed 4-6 people a roast dinner
There will be a lot of meat left, so cut it all off and have it as leftovers the next day
Turn the chicken over and cut off the meat from underneath, this is good for stir-fry.
Boil the carcass down and make a stock, like I'm doing in my slow-cooker here :)

That is a whole lot of meaty and delicious dinners for £5, plus the cost of a few veg. If you really have loads of meat left over, you can also freeze it down into manageable portions.

When the cost of buying a few chicken fillets to feed the family is more expensive than buying a whole chicken... I know which choice I am going to make!

Photo credit: amenic181/freedigitalphotos.net

Follow Me on Bloglovin'

2014-08-14T16:35:00.001+01:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I recently re-discovered Bloglovin' - it makes it easier to keep track of the other blogs I follow, e.g. those that are on my blogroll to the bottom right of this site. Check it out. I have made a group on there to follow the other dividend, frugalism, and value investment blogs I like to keep an eye on. It puts all your stuff into one feed, so it's easy to see the latest posts from everyone, rather than having to look up each individual blog separately.

August Share Purchase - Carillion

2014-08-14T07:30:00.000+01:00

Update 26.08.14: My monthly order went through, eventually, getting me another 29 shares, bringing my total to 136. This is great, because I now have reduced my overall cost basis (the shares were about 6% cheaper). This means I am adding at least £1.62 in interim dividends, payable before the end of this year, and ca. £3.55 in final dividends for next year. I should therefore receive about £24.50 in dividends from Carillion for the calendar year 2015 from my entire holding of 136 shares.

What I'm Doing

I am hoping to pick up some more shares in Carillion (ticker: CLLN on the LSE). I already own 107 shares and am hoping to get some this month, before they go ex-div, which I think is in early September.

Their price had gone a bit haywire recently, there were potential takeover/merger talks going on, but it seems to be that Balfour Beaty are holding out for a better deal, CLLN's price shot up and down by around 10-15% in a day or two. Anyway, that is good for me, as the shares are now around 10% less than what I paid for them, so I can hopefully pick them up for less than last time.

So, who the hell are Carillion? Well, you may have seen their name around boards sectioning off building work at railway stations and that sort of thing. They are in construction and support services, have a diversified business, and are globally diversified too.

Why I Like Them

Their fundamentals are pretty good. They have a <15 PE and a highish dividend, so they pass my strategy methods. They have increased their dividend for several years in a row, which also passes my methods, although their operating profit was down a bit last year so their recent dividends have been slightly under the rate of inflation.

They're a useful business and a slightly 'boring' business because of that. By boring, I mean necessary, not a fad, not the kind of thing you take wild speculations on, etc. This also passes my methods.

Gas Bill - OMG!

2014-08-11T16:43:00.000+01:00

OMG! WTF! and all that sort of thing. Is it just me, or have gas bills gone up LOADS in the last few years? I was just looking at our utility provider, as I do every month when I do the meter readings, and I was shocked to see the proportion of the bill that goes to paying the gas. I was also shocked to see that we are in debit by a couple of hundred quid, argh! It turns out that the new, lower, DD they changed is not covering the amount of gas we actually use. Meanwhile, our electricity usage is bizarrely low...

So, we need to figure out a way to get the bill down, because if it's already this bad in the Summer, what are the Winter months gonna do to us?! We came up with some ideas...

The Plan:

Do meter readings (even though I do them monthly on the1st anyway);
Use the dishwasher instead of washing up 3+ times per day. (This is an experiment, as we don't actually know how efficient the dishwasher is, or whether it heats the cold water or takes in hot water);
Just wash up non dishwasher stuff once in the evening;
We used to sometimes have a bath with our son, which was fun as he has loads of rubber ducks and whatever, so when he has his bath 2-3x per week, we can have a bath at the same time. We will have our normal showers on the other days. This is cool, because it helps us bond with our wee one;
Don't cook 3x per day (I've got into a bad habit of this). I love cooking, but the gas really does cane it! My slow cooker is on RIGHT NOW with beef skirt (bought on discount from Waitrose no less), barley, and vegetables;
Do meter readings after a month of trying the plan to see what difference it makes.

Fingers crossed, the dishwasher is as energy efficient as our friend Tim claims it is.

Photo credit: graur codrin/freedigitalphotos.net

Control Your Grocery Budget

2014-08-09T09:00:00.000+01:00

I always seem to go over on my grocery budget, but reading about fellow blogger's decision to go back to a cash system reminded me that I never went over in the days I ran cash! So... we have also moved back to a cash system. I am losing out on a bit of cashback from the credit card, but I will gain more in terms of not overspending. It's good to be self-disciplined.

So, there are two adults and a very small child. I have a veg box and fruit bag for £23.20 per week and about £100 extra for other grocery, so basically am trying to achieve £200 per month. This also includes money we spend on dinners when we're entertaining e.g. hosting a BBQ or having a few people over for dinner.

We started on the 25th of July, and so far we are UNDER budget, YAY!

Update: 14th Aug '14

We are still on target, thank God, even after my other half went and bought things that weren't on our shopping list... still have £45 'til the 25th August. Let's see how we do when we come back from shopping tonight, eh?!

Update 15th Aug '14

Got back from Tesco last night, having got £41.86 worth of food and a small bit of household stuff, BUT I got loads of discounts and coupons and vouchers, so the final receipt came to 31.96. Pretty happy with the ca. 25% off!!! This food will last at least a week, plus we still have about £15 left for the last 10 days until payday.

BONUS: we got 2p/L off our next petrol purchase. I did not know you got this, I thought you had to spend £50 or more in one transaction, but you only have to spend £50 or more across a month to receive fuel discounts! Plus we get an extra 3% off the fuel with the Santander 123 credit card. WIN!

Photo credit: dan/freedigitalphotos.net

A (hopefully) bright future for my child

2014-08-05T12:10:00.000+01:00

It's not about money. It's about opportunities. Especially the opportunity to learn. My parents weren't able to save for me, but they did give me pocket money. Unfortunately, I was undisciplined and even though I tried to save, I spent it all very quickly on useless things like sweets and pop!

I want my child to grow up with a good savings habit, to also enjoy those things I did, but to learn to understand, over time, what is valuable and purposeful. I hope that he will learn to think about all his interactions - be they relationships to people or objects, or how he relates to money, time, and other resources.

I want him to have opportunities in life to explore and discover who he is and a strong sense of purpose, maybe even destiny.

Saving and investing for him is just one way I can hopefully help him to have opportunities in the future, but the key thing for me is teaching him about his relationships to people, objects, and resources. I have set up a SIPP, a cash JISA and an investment JISA for him, and am planning to use them to teach him about long-term thinking, how to save money, goal-setting, and so on.

I don't have much to spare, so decided to put his child benefit money into these accounts, split 3 ways. It's something like £82 every four weeks, so I topped it up to £90 and decided to put £30 into each account once a month. It gets a bit fiddly over time between lunar and solar months, but whatever.

I am also thinking of getting him a current account in trust, where I will hope that he learns his first lessons in saving, as I am hoping to give him £1 or £2 a week in pocket money and encourage him to save half in the current account. I will explain to him that once he reaches £100, he will get a reward (the account has tiered interest from £100+). He can then continue to save for a large item e.g. a scooter, or he could continue saving for the future.

Fingers crossed, he won't blow everything when he gets control of the JISAs at age 16 and then withdraw everything at 18...

Photo Credit: feelart/freedigitalphotos.net