April Review

After such a ‘bad’ month for our investments in April, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reviewing our investments for May, that was until I checked out the crypto charts for my investments… It appears my investments have gone from -22.53% to 20.69%, wow what a gain!

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So with regards to our budget we have really stripped it back to basics, as I am on furlough and my partner is waiting for his government grant to come through. We decided to slash it by 20%. But we have increased our grocery budget by 15%. The reason why our grocery budget increased is because we aren’t shopping at the usual stores. We usually get most things from Aldi and Iceland but recently we have shopped at Iceland, Asda and a the corner shop, purely for convenience. But like you know, convenience comes at a price.

Investment Update

Comments on this months investments

Biggest Winner: Cryptocurrency
Biggest Loser: Property Partner

Well, cryptocurrency … what a turn around from last month. I expected my crypto investments to increase because of the up and coming bitcoin halving. There is always a rally leading up to and after the halving – as proven in previous years, I’m hoping bitcoin hits $50,000 this year

My precious metal investments have once again steadily increased in value. Although you never get huge gains from gold or silver, these are the two most stable investments you can make (in my opinion).

As you can see my Property Partner investments haven’t given me any return this month, reasons of which were stated in April Budget & Investment Review.

We received a nice return on our private property investments this month as well, more than it should’ve been to be honest. Mid April we received our monthly statement from our letting agent, with the monthly rent and any management fees deducted. However, upon reviewing the statement I noticed a discrepancy. The agent, without consent from myself or my partner, decided to increase the rent by 2%. I have told my agent for the past 3 years not to increase the rent, and EVERY YEAR they have failed to follow instructions and put the rent up anyway! I have to micromanage everything they do as they failed to get some works completed in time and then they consistently ignore instructions.

I try and be a good landlord and keep the rent at a reasonable amount as I have really good tenants who pay on time and give me no grief. If I kept increasing the rent, greed would end up costing me money long term; pushing my current tenants too far and they could find somewhere else to live, leaving me with an empty property (with bills to pay) or worse, get really bad tenants. ⁣ I’ve once again told them to decrease it back the original amount and apologise to the tenants.

Goal(s) For May

As most of the UK is unable to work and I’m on furloughed, I am going to have a ‘beans on toast’ budget. My beans on toast budget is a basic budget that only includes my mortgage, utilities, groceries and any debt repayments. Things like holidays, hair and beauty appointments and dining out are absolutely unnecessary in this economic climate. Our fuel budget has pretty much decreased by 80% because the only places we are driving to is to and from the grocery store and we still have a good amount available in our budget ready for when we can go back to work and it’s all systems go.

Previous Updates

March 2020 update
February 2020 update
April 2020 update

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I wonder how many people have said, when I start earning more money I will start budgeting or start saving? I can imagine quite a few people to be honest. 

I’m going to share my 10 easy ways to save money using your current paycheck.

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Remember even the janitor can leave the rat race and become financially free in Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow board game, so there’s no reason why you can’t. It’s just about following some simple strategies: 

1. Budget; Work out all your incoming and outgoing expenses. 
2. Create saving goals
3. Decide what your ‘necessities’ and ‘nice to haves’ are.
4. Review and re-evaluate all your outgoings
5. Open several check and savings accounts 
6. Pay yourself first 
7. Review your Annual Calendar
8. Set yourself No Spend Days or Weeks
9. Use Cashback, Voucher and Money Saving Apps and Websites
10. Observe your behaviour

I have gone into further detail below, so continue reading for some fantastic life and saving hacks. 

Budget!

Workout what money you have coming in and what money you have coming out.

 Download our Annual Budget Template to help you with this step. You can start using a spreadsheet but if you are more comfortable with a pen and a piece of paper then use that. There is no right or wrong way of doing it. I prefer using the spreadsheet as I can play around with the figures and the spreadsheet will instantly update the total amount as I go. You can also use a YNAB or Every Dollar.

Create Savings Goals

What do you want to achieve, financially? Do you want to save £20,000 over the next 5 years to save up for a deposit for a house? Do you want to save some money to take your family to Disney World? 

Once you have figured out your why, you can then break that goal down into bite sized pieces; so you will need to save £333.33 per month for the next 5 years to hit your £20,000 goal. It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it like that, does it?

Decide What Your ‘Necessities’ and ‘Nice To Haves’ Are

In an ideal world, we could afford to live the best lifestyle possible and we don’t have to worry about budgeting, but as it currently stands, we are not million or  billionaires, we must live within our means, which means, we sometimes have to decide what we really need from what we really want. Like we don’t NEED to buy a new outfit every week, or we don’t need to order a takeaway every Friday night, but what we must do is pay for things like rent or mortgage, gas and electric bills, council tax, home insurance and any debt repayments, the ‘necessities.. Anything in the flexible lifestyle category is a ‘nice to have’. 

Review and Re-evaluate All Your Outgoings

 If you only earn £2,500 per month but your current outgoings/savings etc are £3,000 then you must start cutting things down or out. Do you use that gym membership you have been paying for, for the past 6 months? Can you cut down how much you dine out? Can you switch your £40.00 per month phone contract to a SIM ONLY £20.00 per month tariff? Continue reviewing every expense going out until you are within budget.

Check out Look After My Bills, successfully featured on Dragons Den (the UK version of Shark Tank),  they offer a free auto switching service on your energy bills .. forever! They make the switching super easy for you, you can sign up, even if your current deal hasn’t ended. Once your deal has ended, they will automatically find the best deal for you. You’ll never have to think about switching ever again, it’s brilliant.

Open Several Checking and Savings Accounts 

This is something a lot of people on their financial independence journey does. Jordan Page from Fun Cheap or Free recommends having at least 7 different bank accounts… yes that’s at least 7!

For the best currents account deals visit moneysupermarket.com. 

Gone are the days were banks give you money for switching but most banks offer incentives for switching. There are so many banks that will reward you for using their bank. 

Set Up Standing Orders To Savings and Investing Accounts

This is also known as paying yourself first. 

As soon as your paycheck hits your bank, a standing order of 5-15% of that paycheck needs to automatically be sent to your saving and investing accounts. This way you can guarantee you hit your saving and investing goals.

Review Your Annual Calendar

A great way to get ahead is to review your calendar. Write down all social occasions, people’s birthdays, when you car insurance, MOT, car tax etc is due. Don’t forget to include Christmas. These are all called sinking funds.

Set up standing orders to cover your sinking funds and like your savings and investing account(s) you also need another bank account.

Here is a great calendar for you to plan your weeks and months of occasions and bills coming up.  

Set Yourself No Spend Days or Weeks (or years)

Setting yourself no spend days is a great way to save some extra cash. At the beginning of each week review your calendar and decide which days of the week you are going to have a no spend day. Start with a no spend day for guaranteed success, then you can work up to a no spend week or even month. There are thousands of people who do no spend years … I am not one of those people, I could do a no spend week but not a year. It’s too extreme in my opinion. 

Use Cashback, Voucher and Money Saving Apps and Websites

Gosh, there are countless cashback, voucher and saving apps and websites available. Refuse to pay for anything in full, unless you really have to. 

I use apps like Quidco, Topcashback and Honey.

Quidco and Topcashback offer a percentage of your money back via cashback for any of your online purchases. Can you also do it with most of your utility bills and car insurance. I received £25.00 cashback on an annual car insurance policy via Quidco. 

Another great hack is to use company referral programs when possible. I switched energy suppliers when I moved house a few months ago, my dad recommended me to So Energy and we both received £40.00 credit in our accounts. I was going to go with So Energy anyway as they had the best deal on the market and the fact that I could receive money for signing up was simply a delightful bonus. 

I could dedicate a whole article on this topic alone. 

Observe Your Behaviour 

Figure out what triggers you into emotionally spending money and tackle it head on. 

Is your Achilles heel shopping online after a very stressful day at work, or do you order a takeaway after a long hard week? Once you know your triggers you can prepare and plan for when it happens again. 

We often aren’t aware of our triggers until we put our focus and attention onto our actions.

A Little Bonus Tip

A great way to manage your money is by using Dave Ramsey’s Cash Envelope System.

Each envelope represents a category in your budget, for example, you will have  grocery, fuel, beauty and a ‘fun money’ envelopes. This is a very basic but effective way of tracking your spending. 

So there you have it, my 10 ways to easily save money using your current paycheck.

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March Review

 

Well, March ... what a month.

Hands up who found March to be the shittest month (so far)

 

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I'm very fortunate that all I lost this March was a bit of money ... people have lost much more than me, so I am still very grateful for what I have. Luckily my family and friends are well and I pray that they continue to be.

 

I am eternally grateful to my previous self for creating an Emergency Fund, this would be a much more stressful time if I hadn’t created one.

 

I set myself the following goals for March: I sold quite a few unwanted things on eBay and Facebook marketplace, I will use that money to reinvest in Live Full Retire Early. I decided NOT to invest in Wealthsimple until I feel the stock market is more stable. I decided to keep the money in my bank, ready for investment when the world has gone back to ‘normal’. We also decided that putting 5% of our paychecks into the 'refurb' budget wasn’t a good idea. I haven’t worked since 23rd March (and have now been put on Furlough) and my boyfriend finished the following day, so we're trying to be VERY conservative with our spending.

 

In March's update I said " I’m looking forward to a ‘normal’ month. Normal being where there is nothing that affects my boyfriend working and we have no major expenses coming out" well ... I guess we are going to be waiting a while to get back to normal. Over the next few weeks/months I expect the world to get back to normal however, my biggest fear is the state of the economy once all this is over. We are going to have to pay of it ... literally!Any Brits reading this, expect your income tax to increase ... start planning for it now.

 

Lets see how the C word has affected my numbers...

 

Investment Update

 

 

 

 

	Money allocation	Returns last month	Returns in 2020
Cryptocurrency	70.04%	-22.53%	-64.07%
Real Estate - Property Partner	1.18%	-1.18%	-1.09%
Real Estate - Private Rentals	24.65%	-1.21%	-7.76%
Precious Metals	3.50%	6.72%	8.60%

 

 

Debt	Paid back this month	Paid back in 2020
Mortgage	0.36%	0.99%
Credit Cards	4.75%	26.01%
House Loan	0.46%	2.19%
Loans	2.37%	8.89%

 

 

 

Comments on this months investments

 

Biggest Winner: Precious Metals
Biggest Loser: Cryptocurrency

 

Well, so far my crypto investments are performing very poorly and seeing these numbers in black and white doesn't make me feel good at all. That being said, I invest for the long term, I have no intention of selling any of my investments so the loss is only a paper loss not a realised loss.

 

My precious metal investments are clearly the best performing asset of 2020, which isn't a surprise because precious metals are proven to perform the best during a recession.

 

I received an email from Property Partner with an announcement stating that all dividends are going to be suspended for 3 months and will be reviewed on 30th June 2020.

 

The email says " Net income that is earned in the next 3 months will accumulate within each property’s bank balance, for the benefit of that property’s capital reserves and that property’s investors. "

 

I completely understand why they have done this however, the dividend payouts would've come in handy... so for the next few months you don't be seeing any gains (or losses) to my Property Partner returns.

 

Goal(s) For April and May

 

I’m not going to go mad with goal setting for the next month or two, the world is very uncertain and I guess my main goal is to continue to be conservative with our spending and be mindful of every penny I spend, to stick to my budgets and to review and update my budget weekly.

 

10 things you can do to improve your investment and financial situation during lockdown

 

1. Read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad Book
2. Read Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover
3. Download the Live Full Retire Early Annual Budget Planner
4. Use the above planner to review or create your budget
5. Do your own net worth/investment update. Tag me on instagram @livefullandretireearly
6. Set your financial goals for the next 8 months
7. Read Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
8. Read The Richest Man in Babylon By George S. Clason
9. Listen to The Sunny Show Podcast by Sunny Lenarduzzi
10. Listen to the Build Your Tribe Podcast by Brock and Chalene Johnson
11. Listen to The Financial Confessions Podcast by The Financial Diet
12. Listen to the Blogging With Leslie Podcast by Leslie Samuel

 

 

Previous Updates

 

March 2020 update
February 2020 update

 

 

 

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It’s always a good code of practice to check and review your budget and your investment portfolio. There have been a lot of changes in the stock market this month due to the Corona Virus … It went crazy high mid-month then dropped all of a sudden towards the end of the month … you will see exactly how it has affected my investments below.

February Review

What can I say about February? Well … financially it didn’t go as planned. Due to the bad weather we experienced in the UK my partner was weathered off at work so he ended up having the last 2 weeks off work (without pay). So that’s 2 tight months we’ve had so far, which if we didn’t prepare for events like we’ve experienced, we would’ve been shitting our pants. But thanks to our ‘safety cushion’ aka our Emergency Fund we haven’t been hugely affected. 

We stayed within all our budgets which has been great. We’ve bearly eaten out as we’ve made some lovely meals at home. We’ve brought the party to us and had friends round.

I had my hair done mid-month (which I budget for in my sinking funds) but from March onwards the cost to get my hair coloured and/or cut has increased by 20% so I’ve had to review our budget and make the relevant increases. One thing I have decided to do is get my hair done every 8 weeks instead of every 6 weeks. 

Oh, due to unforeseen circumstances my boyfriend’s car stopped working, so he had paid to get a new fuse, which got him home from London but the next day when he tried to use it, it stopped working … again. We’ve spent a lot of money on that car over the years, it has been a great car but it is time to say goodbye and scrap it. So, one weekend we nipped to Available Car in Morley and checked out their stock. Their selection was OK, maybe a little expensive, but we didn’t buy anything, it was merely for research purposes. So the next day we nipped into our local BMW garage and we ended up buying a used 5 Series. We got a great deal on it, we’re both chuffed. BUT this is one major expense we hadn’t accounted for, luckily we’d been saving for a while for when the car did give up the ghost. 

I’m looking forward to a ‘normal’ month. Normal being where there is nothing that affects my boyfriend working and we have no major expenses coming out … it has been an expensive few months. Thank God I budget … WELL!

We set a goal to boost our Emergency Fund (we’re 70% there) but due to all the unforeseen expenses stated above, we had to put that goal on hold. We’ve got enough money in the Emergency Fund and we intend on using an end of year bonus to give it a healthy boost. 

Investment Update

Comments on this months investment progress

According to Bullion By Post, Gold had hit an all-time high, so I reviewed our investments and considered selling some the gold and moving that money into an Index Fund to start earning a money dividend. But after having a sanity check conversation with my bestie Chris, we soon realised that Gold wasn’t at an all-time high and it might be best waiting a few more weeks. The stock market is pretty high and it is possible that due to the knock-on effects of the Corona Virus, it could severely affect the stock market. 

Here are some updated charts to show you what I mean.

The US stock market over 348 days was up 24.66%. Then in 9 days, it went down 15.84%
The UK stock market over 323 days was up 9.21%. Then in 42 days, it went down 15.99%
Gold over 354 days was up 31.87%. Then in 4 days, it went down 7.47%

If I had sold my gold when I consulted Chris and moved into an index fund, yes I would’ve made money from the gold capital gains, HOWEVER, if I moved that money into an index fund that day, I would’ve lost a hell of a lot of money. I asked him on Monday 24th February and the very next day the UK and US stock markets began to crash further.

Goal(s) For March & April

I don’t have any known huge expenses due to come out in April We have my sister-in-law and my brothers birthday but that’s all covered in my ‘Gift’ Sinking Fund.

Like I said earlier. Since we bought our new house in December 2019 it has been a VERY expensive few months, there are a lot of repairs and renovations, 70% we have budgeted for and 30% we haven’t. So every month we’re going to put 5% of our budget towards those extra repairs.

I have decided to give Wealthsimple a try and see what their investing platform is like. So I have allocated a small amount each month to see how much my money grows using them. I will let you know in May’s update on my first month’s progress.

I’m going to continue selling unwanted things on eBay and Facebook Marketplace, I have done quite well so far, I’m averaging at a guess, £50.00 per month. I’ll add an extra table or graph next month for where all my side hustle income comes from and then I can tally it up each month and see how much extra I have made over 12 months … is anyone interested in seeing it?

Previous Updates

February 2020 update

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Every month on Instagram I share my investment progress, however, I’ve decided to start writing a dedicated post every month to give you a more detailed overview of each investment along with my thoughts, feelings and feedback.

As this is the first in-depth Investment Portfolio Update some of the information is missing as I didn’t do one last month as I was in the middle of sorting out the chaos after I moved house. Next month will be much more interesting and enlighting.

You’ll notice that I don’t include the actual amounts and values of each investment. That’s because it’s just not necessary and not helpful to you. The only reason I can see why someone would publish their own figures is to make them look good.

I’m here to educate you on money management and investing, and sometimes it doesn’t go according to plan. My net worth isn’t helpful to you, it won’t make you financially free, only investing principles do. All that matters is the investment distribution and percentage gains/losses, that way you can take my percentages, apply them to your net worth and see what the actual amounts would be in your case.

Thoughts on this months progress

As you can see we paid a big chunk of change off our credit cards this month. We did this as one of the credit cards deals was up for renewal (or pay an insanely high-interest rate at 19.6%) I simply transferred the balance of the credit card to Barclaycard on a 28-month deal at a 1.9% transfer fee. Simply by restructuring the debt we now have an extra £200 per month.

I’m not particularly pleased with how much of my portfolio is in cryptocurrency. However, I’m still in the red with some of those investments (damn bear market!!) so when I am in the green I fully intend on transferring some the capital into an index fund and buying another property to rent out.

We’ve had a couple of minor setbacks this month as my partner injured himself at work so was unable to work for a couple of weeks, then when he was ready to go back to work he was booted off the job he was on (he’s a contractor) which was a highly paid job for the next year or two so I had to go back and comb through our budget. As usual, he landed on his feet and automatically went on another job but this was isn’t as well paid as the previous.

Budgeting Goal(s) For March

In 2019 we smashed our goal of a 3-6 month Emergency Fund. However, since we hit that goal we have moved into a much bigger house with higher expenses so we have to go back to baby step 3 and increase that figure by 50%. It hadn’t occurred to me that I would need to increase the fund (I know, silly me). Hence why I hadn’t budgeted for it in January and February.

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There are so many people searching the internet every month on “how to make money online” (18,100 every month in fact) 

So why isn’t everyone a millionaire? Well, it all comes down to self-belief. The likes of Gary Vee is continuously banging on about how simple it is. We think it’s harder than it is and we tend to overcomplicate matters. That being said, it’s not as easy as people make out, you do have to put the hard work in and occasionally turn down invites from friends or family as you are working on your hustle. 

So what is the difference between being wealthy and being rich?

So for those looking for a get rich quick scheme, then this isn’t the blog post for you. I am going to teach you how to get rich slowly but surely. So if you want to know how to generate a constant passive income, then continue reading. 

Well, think about Ebeneezer Scrooge. He had a lot of money, come on he was rich! However, he lived a small purposeless life. All he did with his life was work, eat and sleep. He didn’t live a full, balanced and enriched life. That was until the ghosts showed him the error of his ways, and he soon changed how he lived his life, only then he became wealthy. Did he start earning more money? Did his numbers come up on the lottery, OK, that was a bit far fetched, but you get what I am saying?

Rich = Rich people have high income and lots of cash such as a world-class basketball player.

Wealthy = Wealthy people own assets that generate income such as a real estate empire that stays in the family.

3 Ways To Make Money Online and Earn Passive Income With Little or No Money

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is one of the easiest things you can do to make money online. Amazon.com (.co.uk) and eBay both have affiliate programmes. You can join networks like Awin that is a global affiliate marketing network. It has 100,000 publishers and 13,000 advertisers.

If you want to start small, you can recommend products on your personal social media pages. However, I recommend you have separate groups/pages purely for your business. Growing your affiliate marketing business will take time but if you had a following of 10,000 people and just 1% of them spent £20.00 each month through your affiliate links with an average of 5% per sale that would equal £100.00 in paid commission every month. Scale that up, and 100,000 followers would earn you £1000.00 per month using the same formula. Imagine if 5% of your followers clicked through and bought from your affiliate link, that would be £5,000 per month if you had 100,000 followers. 

Retail Arbitrage

Retail Arbitrage is what Gary Vee is continuously telling people who tell him they want to make £100,000 per year. He says this is one of the easiest things you can do and I don’t disagree. You can go down to your local bargain store/pound store/dollar store pick up 100 x Colgate Toothbrush Premier Clean 4 Pack from B&M for £1.00 each then flip it on Amazon for £2.19. That’s a gross profit of £119.00 minus fees. 

Sound too easy? It is, the hardest bit is overcoming your own criticisms and self-doubt. 

Write an eBook

We’re all experts on something. Some people are so passionate about their dogs they have written a handbook on how to keep your German Shepherd happy healthy and well behaved, mum’s who have been at their wit’s end have found solutions for new mums to help with their sleepless nights, investors who specialise in specific industries have written beginner guides for those getting into crypto, for example, and others have created products that teach self-defence. You will be surprised what kind of products are on Amazon Kindle, Clickbank and Etsy. 

I created a product on Clickbank called “How To Sell Your House Quick”. It’s for those whose home has been on the market for several months; they aren’t getting many viewings, any offers and they just don’t know what to do. I would call myself an expert in this field. I have viewed, bought and sold many properties. I have seen some great properties, and I have seen some terrible off-putting properties. What I thought was basic and common sense was actually a skill I’d acquired after my many years in the real estate industry. 

It just about having the confidence, knowledge and ability to monetise that information. Clickbank is the perfect platform to sell your eBook along with Etsy, Amazon Kindle Publishing. 

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Blue Monday is just days away so I thought I would share some tips to help you survive and thrive.

The third Monday of January is called the saddest day of the year, also known as Blue Monday. Christmas is over, we have packed up all over decorations, we are back to work and ‘back to reality’, and made and broken a few New Year’s resolutions. You are not alone. Millions of people will be feeling exactly how you are. However, all is not lost. Let’s use this feeling as an emotional springboard to set new realistic goals (not New Year’s Resolutions) that I know you can smash.

I have read so many blogs and articles that offer ‘advice’ that just isn’t practical and leave you feeling more frustrated than ever! Try working through the 9 steps below to help improve them Blue Monday Blues.

Plan the next few months.

Make a plan and give yourself something to look forward to. This could be researching and planning your next holiday, planning a spa day with a friend (this is what I’m going to be doing) or even a shopping trip with the girls (or boys).

Go for a power walk or run.

Spending a good 20 minutes outdoors (and in nature) can have huge effects on your mental health. You will get your endorphins pumping and you will burn calories in the process. Trust me, with all those good chemicals pumping throughout your body, it’ll be hard to feel depressed. 

Set your goals for the year

These are not New Year’s Resolutions but things you want to achieve throughout the year.

Consider setting goals for each of the following:

• Financial
• Social 
• Health
• Wellbeing
• Career

If you set a goal stop smoking from the 1st January, you may have had a sneaky cigarette (or two) already. But don’t worry, all is not lost. Obviously going cold turkey is not a realistic approach for you. Instead, try cutting down to 1 a day, then 1 every other day, then 2 a week, then to none a week. If you do it slowly, you are less likely to feel a huge loss and won’t be such a shock to the system.

Break your goal down into small bite-size pieces, this will help you feel less overwhelmed and give you the motivation to achieve your goal.

Many of us set materialistic goals, thinking that will make us happy. But the goals we should set are “feeling goals”. Goals to be happy, fulfilled, contented etc.

My primary goal for this year is to find out what makes me truly happy. How or what I have no idea but I am going to try different things and gather as much data as possible. It’s very exciting. I am going to keep a log of everything I do and analyse how I feel about each thing. It’s going to be like a Gratitude journal, but a Happiness Journal.

Create a budget for the next 12 months.

This can assist you in regaining control after any Christmas and New Year splurges and planning the next few months out. Maybe you want to go on holiday, maybe you want to move house and save up a deposit or maybe you want to be able to go out with friends and you want to see if and how affordable it is. 

Creating a budget is one of the most empowering things you can do for yourself, especially if you feel like you are drowning in debt. 

If you’ve never created a budget, don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be this difficult thing. You can do it on a piece of paper, in a spreadsheet or using budgeting software like Every Dollar or YNAB*. Before I met my partner and we combined our finances, I used a simple no-frills spreadsheet but as our finances started to get more complicated, I felt I needed a little extra help so I  now use YNAB. 

If you would like access to my FREE 12 Month Budget Template > Click Here

Meditate

Beginning and ending your day with a 10-20 minute prayer or meditation is a great way to start your day. You can set the intention of no matter what is going to happen, that today is going to be a good day and you can overcome anything that comes your way. You will be surprised at how good you feel.

Try laughter yoga

Sounds weird? Well, you are right, the first time you do this you will feel like a right weirdo but guess what? You’ll feel so much better and if you do it in a class then you will do be weirdos together. In all seriousness, there are many benefits to laughter yoga and has proven to make you feel happier and overtime you will naturally begin to laugh more. 

Try it now 
Lay down on the floor, spread your arms and legs out – like a starfish and just start laughing. Go for it, just laugh your heart out. Think Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. 

Check out my Laughter Yoga playlist on YouTube

Surround yourself with positivity.

This can mean several things; look at your friendships, are they loving and empowering ones or are they fuelled by gossip and negativity? Do you leave the interaction with your friends feeling uplifted or feeling a little low and unsure of yourself? Cut out all gossip, remember, what goes around comes around.

Watch old funny movies and comedians. 

My favourites are any of the Carry On movies. Check out the YouTube playlist below I have put together for you to enjoy.

Check Out my ‘Funny’ YouTube Playlist

Watch inspirational movies and YouTube videos. 

I have created a playlist for you to check out.

I will constantly update these playlists so subscribe so you don’t miss anything. 

Check out my YouTube Playlist

TIP: Observe your behaviour. Avoid nipping online and doing a spot of online shopping, although this might help you feel better at that moment however that feeling won’t last and you will just go back to square one only 50 quid lighter.

If you have any more practical suggestions then please comment below. I’d love to add more to my list for next year.

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The post 9 Practical Tips To Survive and Thrive This Blue Monday appeared first on Live Full Retire Early.

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Welcome to the first installment of what I (Emma Woodhouse) spends in a week. This week includes trips to the pub, a quiet weekend and making lots of new Keto recipes. 

Let’s see how I did …

Monday

Today started off with me nipping to the co-op to get a couple of Pepsi Max’s to drink at work. I bought a 600ml bottle which was £1.55 (rip off) and a 2 litre bottle for £1.50. 

Later that evening my boyfriend and I decided to go for a walk (something that we love to do together) and then decided to go to the pub for a drink (£2.25) and then we nipped to the spar shop to get a couple packs of chorizo and salami to have as snacks throughout the week which cost a whole £2.00. 

Daily Spend £7.30

Tuesday

Today I nipped to B&M to get some toiletries (£19.92), drinks (£1.96) and some items for me to sell on my amazon store (£80.91). I thought about going into town to get the toiletries I needed but I knew that the price would be at least 20% more. Why pay more for exactly the same thing. #shopsmart

Again, my boyfriend and I went for our daily walk and sneaky visit to the pub (I only drink Pepsi Max, don’t worry, I don’t have an alcohol problem, LOL) and that cost £3.38

Daily Spend: £106.17

Wednesday

Today I decided I wanted to try a couple of Keto recipes so my friend and I nipped to Tesco for the ingredients, along with some other extra bits (£17.22). 

On the way to work I had a craving for a Pepsi Max so I nipped to the local shop and bought a couple of small bottles (£2.00).

I also received a refund of some Jeans I bought my boyfriend from Amazon (£19.99)

Total Spend £19.22
(plus a £19.99 refund) 

Thursday

Like most days I had a craving for a Pepsi Max to drink at work so I nipped to the same local shop (I’m becoming a bit of a regular there) and bought another couple of Pepsi Max’s (£2.00), one I’ll save until tomorrow. 

As my boyfriend is going away for work this weekend we decided to go for a lovely walk around our village and have a sneaky drink at the pub (£2.25) before going home to a lovely spicy chicken dinner with peppers and onions, ingredients of which I bought yesterday.

I ordered some equipment to help make Keto recipe videos on amazon for you guys. It has proper changed the way I see ‘dieting’ and have to share my yummy finds (£34.98)

Later that night I attempted to make a second batch of pud in a mug but I wasn’t happy with the sweetener I have been using so I ordered a 1kg bag of Erythritol (£8.50) as it’s extremely low carb unlike agave and Total Sweet. 

Total Spend: £47.73

Friday

I intended on having a no spend day and I was almost successful until 8pm but unfortunately I had to nip to Aldi and do a mini food shop for the next coming week. I bought a roast chicken, steaks, eggs, and lots of veggies (£14.50).

Today I day the day off work, spent time in my soft office (my bed) and worked on my side hustle. #lazyday

Total Spend: £14.50

Saturday

Today was a relatively cheap day. I spent the day hanging out with my bestie. We took both of our cars to get washed (£7.00) then went back to mine and chilled.

We had dinner with what I had bought earlier that week. I made Keto bread for him to try and we watched Celebrity Catchphrase on TV. #rocknrolllifestyle

Total Spend: £7.00

Sunday

Today I had a me day. My boyfriend wasn’t back until 11pm, so at lunch time, I decided to take a walk into my local village (I wanted to get my steps in on my Fitbit)  to the co-op and get myself a pack of Pepsi Max’s to drink for the next few days (£6.04)

Total Spend: £6.04

TOTAL WEEKLY SPEND: £207.96

(and I received a refund of £19.99 which went back into my clothing budget)

So to review the week, I spent:

£115.89 at B&M for my side hustles. 

£42.22 for Groceries all covered by my ‘grocery budget’. Sadly, grocery bills can’t be avoided but by shopping in the right places (aka Aldi) you can bring your weekly spend way down!

£7.88 at the pub, that doesn’t sound too bad upon reflection.

£19.92 on toiletries. Again, all budgeted for and the products I bought will last me a few months. 

£15.05 on Pepsi’s, wow that’s more than I would’ve like to spend.

£7.00 on getting my car cleaned. This is a one off expense really and I probably wont get my car cleaned for another couple of months.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad week. I budget £175.00 per month for my ‘grocery budget’ so I’ve stayed within this weeks budget and the numerous trips to the pub and the car wash came out of my ‘fun money’ budget. 

Despite me spending over £200 this week, every penny was budgeted for. That’s the wonderful things about budgeting, if you set yourself a weekly/monthly budget anything you spend won’t affect your lifestyle for the rest of the week or month. I had fun without putting myself in the red. 

Next week I intend on having at least one no spend day.

How’s your spending going this week? Have you stuck to your budgets? Do you even have a budget? What could you have improved with your spending this week? Let me know in the comments below. 

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The post Money Diary: Trips To The Pub, A Quiet Weekend In & Lots Of Keto Recipes appeared first on Live Full Retire Early.

Hi and welcome to Live Full Retire Early (LFRE). Here we talk all things money & lifestyle and explore and share ways to live your best life on a budget. Here are our 9 Rules to help you do just that…

Rule 1. You must always talk about Money. 

Money is a bit of a taboo subject, especially for us Brits. We feel talking about our levels of success is a bit of a narcissistic and ugly thing to do, like we are bragging. However, I don’t see it that way. If you talk about your struggles and listen to other people’s successes you might find something however big or small to inspire you into creating a better life and increasing your finances.
 

Rule 2. Set Yourself Annual Targets. 

Think about how much money you intend on saving or investing in that 1 year and then make it your personal mission to hit that goal. 

Rule 3. Learn how to repair, cook and make things whenever possible. 

My friend had to quickly learn how to repair something recently. The ringlet in his favourite pair of trainers broke and as he didn’t have any room left in his budget to go out and replace them, we went to Wilkos (a low budget household chain) and purchased an Eyelet Plier Repair Kit for £6.00.

It was relatively simple to repair the trainers and watched a YouTube video on  How To Repair Eyelets on Shoes.

Rule 4. Always have a side hustle. 

In today’s world, relying on one stream of income is risky. VERY RISKY. Since the recession I don’t think there has been one person not affected by it in some way. Some people have been more unfortunate than others. 

See my blog post How To Make More Money. 51 Lucrative Side Hustles

That leads me onto my fifth rule. 

Rule 5. Start an Emergency Fund. 

For years I never realised just how important one of these was. For a long while I had never even heard of the term Emergency Fund. But now, I preach this rule. So many people live hand to mouth, never knowing what is around the corner. Receiving a high gas bill in the middle of Winter can wipe many people out and it takes months to recover from this. This type of lifestyle scares me. It scares me so much that it drives me to have side hustles and invest hard! 

Check out my blog post of 9 Ways To Create An Emergency Fund

Rule 6. Spend less than you earn and invest the difference. 

For this rule I must give credit to Chris Coney, the co-founder of LFRE and Founder of Cryptoversity. He is the one who taught me this and it has worked for us both every time. 

Rule 7.  Know your numbers & set a budget. 

I was horrified to learn of a friend of mine who has been running his own business for over 5 years told me how much he would like to buy his own house and would like to save up for a deposit. I asked how much he earned and if he could afford to save after paying out all his current living expenses and the reply was …  “I don’t know how much I earn”. I was absolutely mortified. 

How can you have your own business for so long and not know your numbers. How do you know if your business is profitable? It may be more beneficial to get a regular job (still in your current industry) just with a steady paycheck. The business can be a side hustle until it financially overtakes your day job. 

Here is an easy 4 step action plan to help shed light on your current financial situation:

• Gather all your paychecks or self assessments together 
• Write down how much you earn after tax
• Write down all your monthly expenses
• What is the difference? Do you earn enough? If not it may be time to consider a side hustle or a career change?

Just make yourself aware of your current situation. You might realise you need to earn more money to cover all your expenses. That’s not a problem. It’s only a problem if you don’t know your numbers. Now you do, we can figure out how to move forward. 

Rule 8. Plan for the future. 

I know most of us don’t like thinking too far into the future but god willing, we are all going to get old, we will retire and need some form of income to rely on. I’m not necessarily recommending pensions .. we all have our own view on them which I will talk about in another post but we do need some form of plan.

Do you intend on investing in property, stocks and shares and bonds, ISA’s, precious metals, cryptocurrency or yes a pension. 

What is your retirement goal? How much do you think you need to retire on? 

Rule 9. Prioritise and Scrutinise EVERY Pound and Give Every Pound a Job. 

You work bloomin’ hard for your money so let your money work hard for you. You are the boss! You get to decide where every pound (or dollar) goes. 

Here is a very simple 3 step plan to follow:

• Get some money
• Prioritise and Scrutinise that money 
• Give that money a job

Review your energy supplier, are you on the best deal? If there is an early repayment charge, do you still end up saving money long term … the same applies to your mortgage. In the last 3 years interest rates in the UK have fallen, I know happy times right? But the interest rate I went on 3 years ago is 1.34%  higher than the interest rates now. Eek!

The post How To Become Financially Free. LFRE’s 9 Rules of Money & Life appeared first on Live Full Retire Early.