Finding Enough

Fitting a reversing camera to a Ford Transit Custom

findingenoughwombat

14th Nov 2020

reversing camera display mounted on the windscreen like a rear view mirror

Before we start insulating the van, we wanted to fit a reversing camera to help us navigate narrow lanes and tight parking spots without incident. Having looked at various options, we decided on a camera mounted in the high level brake light at the top of the rear door, together with a display which mounts on the windscreen just like a conventional rear view mirror. There are a lot of complete kits available on Ebay, but by buying the camera kit and display separately, we managed to save a few quid (around £90 total rather than the £120-£130 for a kit).

October update & another lockdown

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7th Nov 2020

Autumn sunshine at a local National Trust property

Freedom Fund: £920,254

Hypothetical monthly income @4% SWR: £3,068

Actual monthly expenses: £2,436

October was a busy month and it turns out that it was good that we took the opportunity to get out and about and catch up with friends and family, as we are now back in lockdown in the UK for at least a month.

September update & the social dilemma

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10th Oct 2020

Summer is well and truly over, the heating is back on and it’s time to see how the numbers stack up.

Freedom Fund: £924,193

Hypothetical monthly income @ 4% SWR: £3,081

Actual Monthly Expenses: £1,913

We cut a big hole in the van!

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15th Sep 2020

We finally made a start on converting our Ford Transit Custom into a camper van. The first step was quite a brave one – fitting an opening privacy glass window in the sliding door. This is not something we had any experience of, but there are plenty of YouTube videos showing how others have done it, so how hard could it be……..

August Update

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6th Sep 2020

August was an expensive month for us, mainly for vehicle related reasons and due to it being TV licence renewal month (my almost irrational hatred of subscriptions or monthly payment commitments of any kind means we pay this in full annually). It was also the month we visited a restaurant with friends for the first time in 6 months!

Bye bye MX-5!

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31st Aug 2020

Last weekend I sold my car, and survived the dance of suspicion that is the private car sales process. Since we got the van in January, we have not had a vehicle with more than 3 seats and neither was particularly dog friendly.

July Update

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9th Aug 2020

IMG_20200802_121505309_HDR

It’s spreadsheet time again. The first week of every month, I update a spreadsheet which tracks 2 things; the value of our freedom fund and our expenses for that month.

This month, I am typing my update from one of my favourite places – in a hammock in my garden. The view is restful, and the numbers aren’t bad either…….

What is enough?

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15th Jul 2020

There is no single answer to what is enough, and my enough is likely to be very different from yours. One thing is for sure, though, if your life isn’t fulfilling before you retire, then it won’t magically all come together once you have more time on your hands, if you don’t know yourself well enough (that word again) to build a life that will be fulfilling for you.

There are an increasing number of blogs talking about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) which mostly focus on achieving what at the start seems impossible. If you can suspend your disbelief and have a go, you will realise that actually it is very possible. The maths works.

What isn’t so clear is what should we all do with the time we have earned for ourselves through all this hard work and conscious spending? If a salary deposited in my bank account is no longer my main purpose, what is?

The difference a pandemic makes

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14th Jun 2020

lockdown

Choosing to live a simpler life has meant the pandemic and subsequent lockdown in the UK has had less of an impact on us than many people.

So we hit our number, what next?

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6th Jun 2020

target hit

At the end of Nov 2019, we hit our magic number. Theoretically, now we could live off the proceeds of our investments indefinitely. I just didn’t have a plan for what I wanted to do next.