I cannot believe it has been two years since my last post. My absence has mainly been due to a combination of technical, personal and work related.
The technical is rather boring. My 2013 old laptop was reaching the end of its life at the start of 2021 and I decided to trade it in for a £190 gift voucher before it became nothing more than a shiny paperweight. Not bad for an eight year old laptop. Since then, I have been waiting for a particular laptop to be updated before making the leap. When it was finally updated, I bought it and then had buyer’s remorse and returned it. Finally took the plunge and hoping it will last me another eight years.
With no more excuses, I think it’s time to resurrect this site from the blog graveyard.
This short post doesn’t have any purpose other than to provide a bit of a life update and I have no idea when the next post will be.
Family
I am now a father of three boys: 5, 3 and a 10 month-old. It has been a busy and stressful time. Not quite seeing the light yet but I can just about feel the breeze at the end of the tunnel. Parenting is tough and rewarding of equal measure. I’m not sure how the boys can be both infuriating and adorable at a flip of a switch. They are wonderful and we are so lucky to have them in our lives.
We have decided three is a good number. With four hands between us, it leaves one spare and with five of us in total, it means a standard size five-seat car is enough. Practical and financial sense.
In all seriousness, the balance feels right for us.
…never say never though.
At some point this year, we will also be moving into our ‘forever home’ to finally settle down. This means Mrs. CfC will be leaving the MoD and our eldest moving schools.
Lots of change on the horizon.
Work
As above, Mrs. CfC leaving the MoD is a big thing for us. Our eldest is 5 years old and in that time, we have lived in four different houses in three different cities. It would be nice for the boys to have the opportunity to build lasting friendships and grow up without having to move so often.
Work for me has been so busy. I’ve been promoted and of course, that comes more responsibility and more hours. The thing with many public sector managerial roles is that the higher up you go, your real hourly rate reduces. Like many, I do this for passion, service and ‘to make a difference’ .
So cliché.
But true – for me at least.
I just want to leave this world a tiny bit better for my boys than when I entered it.
Business
I’ve learnt that property income can be such a dirty word in the personal finance and FI world – especially on forums such as Reddit and reading the comments on certain news articles.
It’s a shame because it’s such a useful asset to build inter-generational wealth. Some of the negativity discourages many from sharing what they have learnt and drives people desperate to build wealth into the arms of unscrupulous ‘property gurus’ charging thousands for worthless courses.
As our property income increased, I’ve decided to set up a company to be more tax efficient. I recently just finished and exited from a large development turning a six bedroom property into a ten-bed, consisting of seven studios and three en-suites.
Covid delayed things – a lot. The cost of materials and labour significantly increased!
Cost of sound proofing the property (a planning requirement) was £50,000 alone.
There were many lessons, but that’s a post for another occasion.
We are in the conveyancing process to compete on a nine bed property with planning to make it a 13 bed.
Full circle
Since writing this blog, I’ve always given myself until 2025 to review my work situation. As the date draws closer, I’ve been getting myself some career and financial coaching. Seems odd to say, but it only recently dawned on me that I’m a workaholic. I’ve been so busy for as long as I can remember ever since I was young, I’ve not really paused to consider this point.
I’ve written about how I pay extra into our work pensions but I know that if I leave policing early, I can only access them at the state pension age. Our financial advisor said to me:
“A pension is just another source of income. There is no reason to stay in Policing for the pension if you already have income which replaces that unless you really love what you do”.
My career coach asked me on the morning of finding out I passed the promotion process:
“How do you feel?”
I simply replied:
“I’m not sure. I know I should be happy, but in my mind, I’m already moving forward with the next step in my plan and figuring out what I could have done to be better in the promotion process.”
It was in that moment, the coach asked the simple question:
When will you stop?
Financial independence or no financial independence. In me is this drive to always be productive or to feel like I am adding value. If or when I leave policing, the time I save will be filled with something else.
So, around I go again.
What is my why?
More from the Blog
Humans of FI
[starbox]
Great to hear from you CFC. Sounds like you’ve been having a great, if very busy, time. Look forward to hearing more from you soon.
Thank you! It’s been a long time and it’s good to be back.
Great to see you back and thanks for the update CFC. Interesting to see that you are still going down the property route, especially with landlords demonised so much these days – good for you and good luck. As far as I see it, you are providing homes for people who can’t/don’t want to buy their own properties.
Thanks Weenie. No doubt there are some really bad landlords around – but you see characters like that in all walks of life and in all sectors. I provide really high quality housing and the maintenance is above and beyond. I even provide a gardener for one property even though it is the tenant’s responsibility.
My personal view is that small landlords are being demonised to make way for institutional investors. If service is poor now, just imagine what it will be like when people’s homes are in the hands of a corporation with thousands on their books. The service we received living in family quarters contracted out to a private company is next to nothing. We had bin bags up in the bathroom and shower because the tiles were taken down and left like that for the best part of a year. That’s despite several complaints and with a young family. They just didn’t care.
Interesting to see how this will all pan out.
Totally agree – the bad eggs are all over the news, but people don’t tend to talk about landlords they are happy with. Interesting that the poor little lad who died from black mould lived in a house run by a council housing association – I think people should be careful what they wish for.