Escape the Professional Trap

My Property Investments                                         This is the first post in a series I will write about my journey into property investing.  I currently have two investment properties, plus the home I live in with my family.  If you have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you will know that the home you live in is not an investment!  So I don't count that.  In later posts I will go into all the details of how and why we bought the properties we did, what we did to them and how they are performing, together with all the ups and downs we have faced along the way.  For now, let me set the scene. Having decided we wanted to invest in property to generate additional income, my wife and I set about considering how we could achieve that.  As usual, we wanted to do it now, not wait and save up until we could afford to do it in the future!  We borrowed a lump sum against our home, which had some equity available to be re-mortgaged.  Then we used that lump sum to buy our first

Savings Rate vs. Spending Rate? If you read the Financial Independence (or FIRE) blogs, you will see a lot of talk about your Savings Rate.  There are some fantastic posts that tell you how quickly you can retire if you only have a specific Savings Rate (see here for example ).  The theory is that the higher your Savings Rate, as a percentage, the lower your cost of living is in comparison to your income and the quicker you achieve a level of savings that will generate enough income from being invested in the stock market that you can retire and live off your nest-egg and the income it produces.  There are lots of calculations on how this works and I recommend reading around the topic.  This article is not going into any of that detail... but I do want to talk about your Savings Rate.  It is such an important feature in the Financial Independence community but I think it needs to be looked at differently when you are coming at this from the perspective of someone in debt (li

Making it as a lawyer When I made the decision to go to uni and study law, I had visions of myself as a qualified lawyer earning enough to be able to live the lifestyle I wanted, beyond what my parents were able to.  I was aiming for the next level.  My parents worked hard to move from working class to what is now referred to as entry-level-middle-class.  I wanted to shoot for more.  I indulged in that fantasy for far too long before reality finally struck me... that I simply couldn't afford the lifestyle I had been living if I ever wanted some sense of financial security. Sure, I could afford my monthly payments and month-to-month things were fine,  I enjoyed new cars, holidays and the latest gadgets, but never really paid for them.  Because of my profession, I had lenders bending over backwards to give me loans, credit cards, overdrafts, and it all seemed far too easy.  I did't need to worry about paying it back, as long as I could cover the monthly payments, I wou

                                                        Why am I seeking Financial Independence? Well, I expect it's pretty obvious why anyone would want to be financially independent ... not having to worry about working for your income, being able to do what you want, when you want, etc.  But this post is more personal.  I wanted to write about why I particularly want to shoot for FI and I think that might resonate with a lot of other professionals in particular. I've reached the point where I realise that my income, although at an ok level, is never going to get me to FI if I don't change my spending and money habits.  I will write about habits and mindset in another post but for now that is what first got me thinking about a change. I am just coming up to my 39th birthday as I write this.  If I look at my current financial situation, retirement at any age looks like a distant dream!  My State pension age is currently 68!!  So my future is currently to keep worki