Good news!

 I've had a lovely week. DH and I took a few days off together making it a four-day weekend. Neither of us did any work and it was really nice just to have some time to catch up and hang out together. 

We met with our financial planner and had a very detailed talk about what we want our retirement to look like, how we'll spend our time & money, and going over our current finances. And the good news was that he thinks that we could probably retire much sooner than we had planned. That was a pleasant surprise and a relief. I just feel that all the hard work has paid off and we are going to be OK. 

In 2010 we were in a bad place financially and we have turned that around. I felt a bit emotional after our meeting ended, and since then I have just been daydreaming about what's ahead - gardening, sewing, being free to fill my days as I please. There is still a lot more detailed planning to be done before anything will happen officially but I feel less stressed already. 

July Progress Report

 July has been a difficult month. I have spent my time working, sleeping, and working at home after hours & on weekends. The workload is just crazy and exacerbated by dealing with covid lockdowns, being very short-staffed ( I am covering 4 positions) and the area I cover was just increased with more staff to manage. Added to that is preparations for restructuring so lots of meetings & reports.

I am very tired and life has been too far out of balance.

So I'm very glad that it's August - the start of a new month!  I am going to work at getting some more balance back in my life and I only have a few more months left of this workload. 

Heres the current numbers:

Mortgage:

• current balance: $47,650
• down from: $49,111
• total reduction: $1,461

Superannuation:

• current balance: $665,116
• up from: $649,758
• total increase: $15,356

I've been saving this month to pay the financial planner and also I have some big annual bills to pay so my mortgage payoff has slowed down and next month will likely be the same.

We reached our 2021 savings target a few weeks ago - I am just amazed to watch how quickly our superannuation is growing. 

This week I've been getting our finances ready for the accountant and also preparing information for the financial planner. We had our investment property valued and I was stunned to see how much it has grown in value! It has more than doubled.  I felt quite emotional as we could sell that property now, clear all debt and still have money left over to invest. I am not sure what we will do yet but it feels good to know that we have options.  

So August is about me getting back into some better routines, relaxing more, and working less.  DH and I both organised to work just three days this week, so we can step back a bit from work. I have meetings with HR about part-time options and with the financial planner at the end of the week. Only 501 days to go!