Oops \u2014 the month is almost over and I’m only now writing my update. My plan is to publish a recap around the 15th of each month, right when we pay our mortgage instalment, to reflect on our wins and failures. My main goal? Pay off our mortgage as fast as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t make any overpayments this month. That\u2019s because my wife and kids went to visit the grandparents during half term, and that\u2019s where the extra money went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of now, we still owe \u00a3161,200<\/strong> on our mortgage. Every month we chip away at it, and while this month didn\u2019t bring us closer with an overpayment, we stay focused on the bigger goal: wiping it out completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lately, I\u2019ve been drawn into the world of dividend investing after watching a few YouTube channels discussing it. I got pretty excited and even considered jumping in myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then I came across a video by a YouTuber called The Compounding Investor<\/em>, where he summarized his 15 years of investing in dividend-paying assets. Turns out, if he had just put everything into the S&P 500, his portfolio would be worth twice<\/em> as much today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So\u2026 yeah. I\u2019ve decided to hold off on dividend investing for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since my wife and kids were away for a week, I thought it\u2019d be the perfect time to wrap up a few DIY projects around the house. Spoiler alert: It didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For some reason, I always think I\u2019ll get more done than I actually do. That 80\/20 rule? In my case, it\u2019s more like the 20\/80 rule \ud83d\ude05.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lately, I\u2019ve been reflecting on the world, people, money \u2014 and a bunch of other things. One thing struck me: there are more of us on this planet every minute. To meet our growing needs, we consume more \u2014 more food, more housing, more resources. But Earth\u2019s resources are finite. So, simple supply and demand tells me: things will just keep getting more expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It felt really nice to receive a message from Nationwide in March saying they\u2019d be sharing their profits with loyal customers like me. And they kept their word \u2014 on April 10th, \u00a350 landed in my account. Thank you, Nationwide!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I discovered this app about a year ago. We mostly use it to generate Tesco gift cards. In April alone, we earned \u00a328 worth of rewards, which we\u2019ll swap for another gift card to do even more shopping. I love this app!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Revolut isn\u2019t just great for currency exchange \u2014 it also offers savings accounts. Even on the free plan, you can earn 4% annually. We keep our sinking and emergency funds there, and this month they earned us \u00a39.60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I should do this every day, but often come up with excuses \u2014 too wet, running late, or just\u2026 something. Still, it saves fuel, improves my health, and helps the planet. Win-win-win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n April\/May didn\u2019t go exactly as planned \u2014 no mortgage overpayment, some unrealistic home improvement goals, and a short-lived flirt with dividend investing. But that\u2019s life, and that\u2019s the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The important part is that we keep showing up, learning, adjusting, and moving forward. Even small wins like cashback apps, interest from savings, or cycling to work are steps in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Onward to June \u2014 one pedal stroke, one pound, and one lesson at a time \ud83d\udcaa\ud83d\udeb4\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\ud83d\udcb7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another Month, Another Check-In Oops \u2014 the month is almost over and I’m only now writing my update. My plan is to publish a recap around the 15th of each month, right when we pay our mortgage instalment, to reflect on our wins and failures. My main goal? Pay off our mortgage as fast as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5,42,46,52],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-financialfreedom","tag-financialindependence","tag-lifestyledesign","tag-personalgrowth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\ud83d\udcb8 Dividend Investing<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f My Estimating Problems<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\ud83e\udd14 Random Thoughts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udcb7 Extra Money Wins This Month<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\u00a350 from Nationwide<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\u00a328 from JamDoughnut<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\u00a39.60 from Revolut<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\u00a37 for Cycling to Work<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\u2705 Final Thoughts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n