December & Annual Progress Report

Well its the last day of 2020,  a year like no other! Time for the monthly & annual progress report on Year 3 of my 5 year plan to retire.

In 2020 DH's income went up as he returned to full time work. My income went down considerably as my second job dwindled down to less than one hour per week. We both contributed the maximum to our retirement savings (super), watched it plummet early in the year and then watched it bounce back.

Mortgage

Monthly progress: 

• current balance: $62,991
• down from: $66,976
• total reduction: $3,985 

Annual progress: 

• start balance: $101,991
• end balance: $62,991
• total reduction: $39,000

Savings

Monthly Progress:

• current balance: me: $194,374   DH: $368,364  total: $562,738
• up from:             me: $189,980   DH: $361,150
• increase:             me:    $4,394    DH:    $7,214
• total increase:     $11,608

Annual Progress: 

• start balance:   me: $157,700   DH: $341,226
• end balance:    me: $194,374   DH: $368,364
• increase:          me:   $36,674   DH:   $27,138
• total increase: $63,812

Work

This month I've been enjoying the holidays & not thinking about work too much.

In 2020, along with the rest of the world we worked from home for almost half the year. Covid meant that most of my work has been via phone or zoom & while my workload decreased significantly, I had more crisis to deal with as students were impacted by covid job losses & isolation stresses, but overall it was a good year for me at work this year as I wasn't there much lol!

Home

Although we spent a lot of time at home this year, we did not get many of the jobs done that I had hoped for. I did keep on with decluttering though. I think we will focus on the mortgage payoff & then address the house/yard jobs.

Health

I went off track a bit this year with my health, comfort eating, gaining weight & spending a lot of time vegging out in front of the TV or online - not the greatest stress management strategies I know! Diagnosed pre-diabetic & several arthritis flare ups - health must be the priority for 2021.

Other

My sewing, quilting & reading all got pushed aside this year and I did not get near as much time at my hobbies as usual. However I started volunteering, did some sewing & crochet for charity & got involved in some local groups online which I have enjoyed. We have not met with family since March. I'm looking forward to when we can all get back together again.

I'm looking forward to 2021 and happy to say goodbye to 2020. 

Christmas Day

We've  had a very different, but a very nice Christmas Day here. We had zoom calls with family, it was lovely to catch up with my son - I do miss him. We've watched Christmas movies - Home Alone, The Santa Clause, The Muppets Christmas Carol & listened to a few choirs while we've lazed about for the day.

Lunch was a lovely roast lamb dinner followed by beautiful gluten free plum pudding which was a gift from one of DH's friends last night. A local bakery gave him the unsold baking after closing and so they dropped off a gluten free pudding & Christmas cake for me. Gosh it was good!

My hope is that next Christmas we can all be back together with family & that the world has returned to some sense of normal.

A Christmas Eve Mortgage Milestone!

 

Woohoo!!  

It's Christmas Eve here and after two months of big bills I've finally got back to paying extra off the mortgage. 

Today we hit another mortgage milestone - the end of Year 24 on the amoratisation table - new mortgage balance is now:

$63,834. 

I've been on holidays for two weeks now and its just so lovely to get up and do things in my own time. I've been busy decluttering, crocheting, working on my goals for next year and thinking about how good it will be to retire. 

Our Christmas plans have been changed due to the covid outbreak in NSW, We will be having Christmas at home instead of with our extended family. My in-laws are in their mid 80's & MIL has been in hospital recently with heart problems, so it's just better if we wait a bit longer to get together.

Today we'll be doing some cooking, watching Christmas shows and organising zoom meetings with family for tomorrow. 

I thought I'd share this Aussie Christmas Song that all kids in Australia grow up with: Six White Boomers.

The Christmas season has begun!

 Its a beautiful Saturday morning here. We had a few days of temperatures in the high 30's (C) during the week so its nice to back in the mid 20's for the weekend. We had our Christmas party yesterday at work. Our local team joined with the state wide team via zoom. It was fun with lots of staff making funny videos about 2020. Later today we have a Christmas luncheon for DH's work. It will be nice to eat out again and to just enjoy lunch outside in the good weather.

I finished my crotchet rug this morning.  Our cat loves to sit in amongst the crotchet and chase the balls of wool. I'm keeping this one for myself as I love the bright colours and its just the right size for keeping warm when I'm sitting on the lounge or if I have a quick nap. 

I have spent a bit more money than I planned in the last few weeks.  We have a LOT of big bills every November but I really needed to buy some summer dresses and some new shoes after several years of no clothes buying. All were bought on sale which is usual for me, but I need to plan better for the end of the year expenses next year. 

My plans for the weekend are to go to the Christmas lunch today and tomorrow do some housework and set up the Christmas decorations. I am enjoying seeing all the different Christmas posts and even snow for some bloggers. Time to enjoy the Christmas season!

November progress report

 Time for another monthly update.

Mortgage

• current balance: $66,976
• down from: $68,752
• total reduction: $1,776

November is a huge month of bills for us so we paid less off the mortgage than usual.

Savings

• total: $551,030
• up from: $522,775
• total increase:$28,255

Great to see our savings going up again! 

Work

I've been learning a new stats program that we start using in 2021 which will save us a lot of time. There could be an option for me to work at a higher grade job next year so I've been talking with my manager about that. This could also open up an opportunity for me to go part time in 12+ months which might be a very nice step towards retirement. Unfortunately I can't just be appointed internally, it has to go to open application so I've dusted off my very old resume for an update over the Christmas break. 

Home

I made some progress in the sewing room and laundry with the decluttering. Not much else got done this month.

Health

Unfortunately my walking attempts seem to aggravating my arthritis so its very slow and steady. I'm aiming to walk every third day and halve the distance to see if that makes a difference. 

I'm looking forward to planning 2021 and setting my goals. Only eight days to work and then holidays!