It's Been A Year - Did You Miss Me?

It's been a long time since I last posted. Nearly a year in fact. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm sorry for the long period of absence and that I'm doing fine - I'm still on my path to financial independence!

The truth is I realised some time ago that to hit my FIRE target of retiring by age 50, it was going to take some concerted effort - more than just saving as much as I could each month. I also got so fed up of working in an office that I couldn't bear the thought of having to continue doing that for the next 8 years or so.

So I started looking for ways to supplement my income. I think I previously mentioned that I'd been getting into online publishing - this is where the majority of my time is now spent. I'm focused on launching books so that I can build up an income stream which will ultimately cover my annual expenses - therefore allowing me to step away from my freelancing work.

Alongside this, I am continuing to save into my Freedom Kitty and into my Personal Pension, with the same targets as I previously discussed.

Here's the latest standings as of the start of June 2018:

Freedom Kitty

£58,691 of £190,000 saved (31%)

Personal Pension

£147,581 of £446,300 saved (33%)

I've been updating the progress bars in the sidebar from time to time even though I haven't been writing posts and I will continue to do so.

So for both savings pots I'm at the 30% point, or a third of my way to goal. I now have just over 7 years left to squirrel away the remaining 70% (although I will be helped by the effects of compounding). If I assume a 6% annual investment return, to hit my targets I need to be saving the following every month (until the month before my 50th birthday):

Freedom Kitty: £1,006 per month
Personal Pension:  £650 per month

I would say that this is feeling do-able. The Freedom Kitty savings target is harder than the Personal Pension target.

I'm currently paying £1,000 per month into my Personal Pension so there's no problem there. I don't have regular payments set-up into my Freedom Kitty yet this financial year as I have not yet decided which stocks and shares ISA provider I will be using. However my intention is to max my ISA out this year which will be the equivalent of £1,666 per month which easily covers my goal amount.

The only risk to my plan is that I have just started a year's sabbatical from working in IT so that I can concentrate on building up my publishing business. This means that I am living off the savings I have accrued in my business account for the next year. If I don't manage to build my publishing business up to the point that it covers all my expenses (including Freedom Kitty and Personal Pension savings), I may need to reduce how much I'm paying in, or *gulp* head back for another IT contract.

I will be re-assessing where things stand in a year's time to see whether I need to return to IT, or if my publishing business has reached a point where it can sustain me. If I achieve my publishing income goal this will be a game changer because it will mean that I'll no longer feel the need to "retire" by age 50 as I will already be doing something that I enjoy with the freedom to choose when I work and where from.


If you have any questions or comments on the above do let me know. I'd also love to hear how you're getting on - do say hi in the comments...

My Marvellous Mid Year Update

Ah June, such a wonderful month. It sees the transition from spring to summer, the longest day of the year on the summer solstice, the beginning of many fetes, garden parties and barbecues, and of course it's half-way through the year which means time for a progress update!

Despite my best intentions, I've struggled to find time to regularly update on how things are going with my quest for financial independence. It was so much easier to plan time for writing and perfecting my blog posts when I wasn't working (even though it's only a year since I finished my 4 months off it feels like much longer). Any spare time I have (after working full time, keeping house and of course socialising with family and friends) is taken up with my pursuits of side income from online publishing, researching other online money making possibilities and a little bit of matched betting. My first 6 months of 2017 have been action packed, lots of fun and very fulfilling, so here's a little about what I've been up to...

It was all about reviewing how I'd got on with my goals from 2016 and taking note of the lessons I'd learnt along the way. Then, with much enthusiasm and excitement, I set my goals for 2017. I was also working hard on preparing my second ebook ready for publishing: editing the manuscript, formatting it ready for kindle and paperback, and commissioning a book cover.

Near the end of 2016 I joined a Mastermind Group to keep me accountable for my goals and to share knowledge. Throughout January I participated in weekly calls which really helped me to keep focus, and ensured that I had progress to report back each week. If you haven't participated in such a group before I would highly recommend finding one to join.

On a social note, TheBF and I travelled to Wales for a weekend to visit friends and their baby twin girls who were about 8 months old, it was super to get to meet them for the first time. We were invited to a New Year's dinner party by friends, as well as 2 family games nights (such a fun way to spend winter nights), one of which we hosted.

TheBF and I also decided to take advantage of the January sales and invest in a new super king size bed! We opted for a Tempur Cloud mattress from Bensons for Beds, however we failed to research the reviews about Bensons before we placed our order. Big mistake. All I will say is that a saga of failed deliveries, lack of customer service and many trips back to the store ensued. So come the end of January, we had received a bed frame but no mattress, with no delivery date in sight!

Continuing the bed purchase story, after 3 failed attempts at delivering us our mattress and no commitment on a new delivery date, we decided to cut our losses and cancel the mattress order. We placed a new order with Dreams, who gave us a 2 week delivery slot, and delivered on time exactly when they said they would! I cannot recommend the Tempur mattresses enough, they are simply a delight to sleep on.

I am extremely proud to say that I published my second book on both Kindle and as a paperback near the end of February. As part of publishing it I ran various promotions to kick-start sales, so that took up a reasonable amount of my time. As well as that I hosted a Ladies film night, planned a holiday with family to France for later in the year, helped my parents with emptying a property they are selling, went for a delightful dinner to Nailcote Hall and enjoyed a romantic dinner staying in with TheBF.

The month began with a trip to Thurlstone in the Peak District for my second time attending a FIRE Escape meet-up. These are organised by Huw from Financially Free By Forty, where like minded individuals meet up to share ideas and generally geek out about all things to do with personal finance. It's a wonderful opportunity to meet lots of other people in the FIRE* community and I particularly enjoy the chance to put faces to some of the blogs that I read. I was very pleased to finally meet Weenie from Quietly Saving, whose blog I have really enjoyed following over the past year. Topics of conversation ranged from investing (including the more unusual investment options of whisky and trainers/sneakers!), online publishing, matched betting, eBay reselling, blogging, vlogging and personal development.

With my desire to pursue online publishing and to make a success of it, I was grateful for the opportunity to talk to other budding publishers, as well as Huw who is now so established at publishing he has been able to quit his regular job. I was very excited to come away from the weekend having agreed with one of the other attendees to start a weekly Kindle Mastermind call.

In terms of progress with my publishing side hustle, March was mostly about promoting both of my 2 books and tracking how successful those promotions were.

Socially there was plenty going on with a trip to see my niece's ballet show, a fun day out celebrating St. Patrick's Day, a trip to a gun range as part of a friend's birthday celebrations, helping on the telephones for Red Nose Day donations, enjoying a Sunday roast out with family for Mother's Day and holding a dinner party for a couple of friends in our newly fitted dining room.

* Financial Independence Retire Early

There were many exciting things happening in April for me, but the most outstanding of which was attending a Tony Robbins' event in London called Unleash The Power Within. I booked to attend when I saw tickets on offer during last year's black friday sales, not really knowing quite what to expect. This is truly a life changing experience. I simply cannot do justice in a few sentences to how great these 4 days are, or how much I have learnt, or even how many changes I have been able to apply to my life since attending. What I can say is that I am now determined to go to more Tony Robbins events, no matter where they are in the world, because it was totally worth every penny. I should also add that as part of Unleash The Fire Within I became a fire walker! Yes you read that right, I walked across a bed of hot coals, and I didn't burn my feet one little bit. It's all part of the process of showing you how to conquer your fears, and proving to yourself just how much you can do if you put your mind to it.

Hot coals at the firewalk event

Socially we enjoyed spending wonderful time with family over Easter as well as a fantastic trip to the Kenilworth Cocktail Lounge followed by dinner at The Almanac in Kenilworth, and we also spent a weekend visiting various friends in Southampton where I used to live.

Healthy eating and post-it notes would be the unusual tagline for May! 

Fresh from the Tony Robbins event which was at the end of April, I was all fired up to do the 10 day challenge which is about changing your eating and lifestyle habits to really maximise your energy and create a body which is primed to go out and achieve all the goals which you have set for yourself. I jumped into the challenge full on, with fantastic weight loss as a side benefit to feeling really alert and alive. I'm happy to say that I have continued with the majority of the healthy changes ever since.

When you come away from something like Unleash The Power Within (UPW), there are so many ideas, thoughts and things to remember buzzing round your head, it can be a little challenging to know where to start at first. I decided to focus on re-reading my notes from the workbook from the event and writing up key points onto post-it notes which are now taking pride of place on our office wall! I also shared my experience with several people who were keen to hear of what it was like and all that I'd learnt. This was not only fun to do because it meant I could relive the event, it also helped seal many of the learnings in my mind.

One of the things I made a decision about while I was at the event was that the time had come to leave my freelance work so that I can start working on my sideline businesses full time. Ironically forcing my sideline businesses out of the "side" income genre and making them my main income streams. I have set myself a goal of quitting freelancing by the end of 2017, and I will do this no matter what. During May I started to take a look at what I'd been working on the past month or so, to assess where the money will come from, so that I can really focus on those money making ventures. My two weekly mastermind calls are still going strong, and these will help keep me accountable as I move toward my new giant goal.

There was plenty going on socially in May with some family dinners, a ladies film night to attend, hosting afternoon tea for some family friends and of course our traditional sweepstake evening watching the Eurovision Song Contest final.

Which brings us up to the present month. Business-wise, I've begun my transition from freelancer to online entrepreneur, by negotiating a new contract with my current client. I'm now working just 4 days a week as a freelance Scrum Master, and the fifth day each week I work from home on my own business ventures. I've now prioritised generating new books to publish as my first priority and this is what I'm spending my spare time working on.

I have also started to turn my attention to opportunities for mentoring, training and coaching others. As an established Scrum Master I already have lots of experience at mentoring and training in Agile skills, so I am now starting to offer bespoke introductions to agile and scrum master training through the wonder of online video calls. I am also offering mentoring and accountability partnering in goal setting, life organisation skills and basic personal finance planning. I held my first Scrum Master mentoring sessions in June with great feedback. I have also been helping with CV reviews for aspiring project managers, to help give them the best chances of finding their first agile role.

My weight loss goal is progressing nicely, fuelled by the healthy lifestyle changes I've made following UPW. The current heatwave has somewhat hindered my exercise regime since we don't have air conditioning at home and I simply couldn't bring myself to do my usual morning run on my rebounder (mini trampoline). I'm hoping to restart this next week.

This month I've had the pleasure of helping out at my niece's 6th birthday party at the local bowling alley, a trip to see Shirley Valentine at The Belgrade Theatre with my Mum and Sister, a visit from a group of University friends where we all went to my niece's school fete, and a lovely barbecue in our garden for Father's Day. Coming up still in June, we have a trip to London to see Annie to look forward to, and spending time at my parents' as we celebrate my Mum's birthday.

So that's my half-year summary. Hopefully you're still with me! I should probably add that during the first half of the year I have continued to add to my Personal Pension and Freedom Kitty, remaining reasonably on target for the financial goals I set myself. So far I've added £6,000 to the Personal Pension and £6,000 to my Freedom Kitty bringing their current values to £130,266 and £37,747 respectively. I'm really pleased with how both of these are growing, and at the moment my intention is to continue to pay £1,000 per month into each of these for the rest of the year. Once I stop freelancing I will have to reconsider how much I continue to invest while I build up my new businesses to a suitable income level.


How is your year going? Are you on target for meeting your goals (if you set them)? Have you ever attended a Tony Robbins event, and if yes what did you think? As always I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, I read all of them and am always really grateful for your interaction.

One Year Of Organised Redhead

Just a very quick post today to acknowledge the fact that Organised Redhead has turned 1 year old! It was a year ago yesterday when I published my first post, and what a journey it's been.

I had no idea when I started this adventure where it would lead me to. In the space of the year I have continued to grow my experience and confidence with blogging, as well as avidly following my fellow FIRE seekers' blogs and cheering them along the way.

The most exciting part of the journey has been my discovery of ways in which I can earn extra income through activities such as Kindle publishing, affiliate marketing and matched betting. It's been a year of discovery, and I look forward to many more to come.

For those of you who have joined me on my journey this far...

THANK YOU!

I really appreciate it, and hope to share many more tales with you along my continuing journey.

Happy New Year

2017 - A Year Of Great Things To Come

I'm conscious that it's been way too long since I last posted an update. I think part of the reason for this is that I'm too much of a perfectionist and I find that each time I write a post it takes me many hours of revisions and formatting to make sure that everything is just perfect.

So an experiment today! I'm sat in the break room at work taking my lunch hour and now that I've caught up on some reading (Financially Free By Forty's 2017 goals) I thought I'd open up Blogger and just see what I can achieve with a short post.

I do intend to continue writing and sharing my goals and progress in 2017, I also plan to share a quick review on how I got on with my 2016 goals.

I hope to chat with you more as our journeys to FIRE (financially independent/retire early) continue.

In the spirit of breaking my 2 month plus silence and "just doing it" I'm going to publish this post just as it's been written.


I'd love to hear about your plans for 2017, how you're getting on with your savings and goals, and just to say hi...so please do leave me a comment...

Now You Can Trade Gift Cards, With A Free £5 Credit For You To Try

Have you ever found yourself after Christmas, a birthday or even a wedding, having received a generous gift card but unfortunately it's for a retailer who you have nothing particular you wish to buy from? Or perhaps you have won a gift card in a competition? Or been sent a gift card as a reward for being a loyal customer elsewhere and you'd rather have received the cash value instead? 

It's possible to end up in a situation where you are scouring a retailer's online site or store simply to find a product to purchase so that you can make use of the gift. It's a lovely gesture, but sometimes it falls flat when you'd rather be able to spend the value at a retailer of your own choice. Well that's where handy site Zeek comes in, solving the problem by allowing you to sell your gift card (for a small fee) so that someone else can purchase it who actually wants to use the retailer in question.

Not only does Zeek allow you to sell unwanted gift cards, you can also find generous savings on a vast array of gift cards available for purchase. 

Recently I was kindly offered a £50 credit to check out how Zeek works so that I could share the experience with all of my readers in an honest review. Unsurprisingly I couldn't wait to jump straight in and give it a go, particularly because I also have the opportunity to offer £5 free to all new members signing up using this link.

So, here's how I found the Zeek user experience...

First things first, with my frugal hat on I checked on Quidco and TopCashback to see if there were any cashback deals to be had for signing up with Zeek. Sure enough Quidco offered 4% and TopCashback offered 4.04% cash back for first purchases, nice! I found the sign-up process very quick and simple, opting to sign-up with my Facebook account (though there were also options to use your Twitter, Google or email accounts).

Since I didn't have a gift card to sell, my experience was instead from the perspective of a buyer. The great thing about Zeek is that you can pick up a bit of a deal, because you can buy gift cards for less than their face value, so I was excited to see what was on offer.  I found the site easy to navigate with options for "Buy Gift Cards" and "Sell Gift Cards" always present on the top navigation.

Just some of the many gift cards available to purchase at a discount

Selecting the Buy Gift Cards option, I was presented with a vast array of well known brands including NEXT, Debenhams, iTunes, Argos, Tesco, Boots, Pizza Express, Prezzo, John Lewis, Toys R Us and many, many more. I had been a bit sceptical about how much choice there might realistically be, but I wasn't disappointed.

Under each brand a percentage was displayed to indicate the maximum discount available, though the exact amount of money-off depends on the individual gift card being purchased. Since the cards on sale at any given time depend entirely on what has been sold to the site by other Zeek users, the denominations of card available for each brand can be quite variable.

On selecting a retailer, it was then possible to see any gift cards currently on sale, with the purchase price for each clearly listed. 

For each retailer there are a mix of card values to purchase with varying levels of discount

I opted to buy a £25 Debenhams card for online use, and a £30 physical card to use at Cafe Rouge, enjoying 8% and 7% discounts respectively (total cost £50.80).

For online cards, once purchased they're available immediately to spend, and can be accessed via a handy wallet option on the Zeek site. Physical cards are posted via recorded delivery to be received within 7 business days.

So my Debenhams gift card was available to use immediately from my Zeek wallet and I received my Cafe Rouge gift card in the post about 4 days after my order was placed. Unfortunately the Cafe Rouge card which I received was for £20 instead of the £30 I'd ordered. I immediately contacted Zeek to explain the problem and I have to say they responded very quickly and were keen to rectify the mistake. My personal view is that most companies will make a mistake at some point, but it's how their Customer Services handle the challenge of making things right that makes a good company really stand out.

Zeek, didn't disappoint, offering me two options to resolve the Cafe Rouge situation. I could either post the £20 gift card back, and once received, they would send me a £30 card (assuming they had one available for that value), or, they offered to credit my account with the £10 I was missing plus an additional £5 as an apology for the situation. I opted for the latter which meant I had another £15 to spend! This time I decided to opt for another online card, so I purchased a £20 Interflora card for £18 at a 10% discount.

In total I spent £58.80 for gift cards of value £65.00 which meant I'd saved £6.20 (nearly 10%).

Although I haven't tried selling an unwanted gift card to Zeek yet, the process sounds relatively simple. Gift Cards can be sold as long as their value is between £10-£500. The cost of sale is 7% of the card value (with a minimum fee of £3).

There are some things to consider when deciding to use Zeek for gift card trading:

• For gift card sales, some of the face value is forfeited due to the sale fees (though this is nothing new - sale commissions are common practice across vendor sites on the internet)
• You're not able to resell a gift card through Zeek if it was already purchased through their site
• For purchasing, it would be nice if you could see the expiration dates of cards you are buying, as far as I could tell this wasn't an option to check before purchase (although for some of the retailers the duration is stated on the purchase page). Having said this, the 3 cards which I purchased all had long expiration dates on them (the earliest expiration being October 2017)
• There's no easy way to search using the denomination you're interested in buying, instead you have to click into each gift card retailer to see what is on offer. A few times I clicked on a retailer to find that they only had £100 gift cards available, sadly outside of my budget
• Turnover of gift card values available for sale can be fast, so you have to be quick if you see a card that you want
• At the moment this service is only available in the UK. Although Zeek have advised that you can follow on Facebook, Twitter and their blog to find out when they're launching further countries

The things which I really liked and why I will continue to be a Zeek customer are:

• The concept itself is a really good one - I love a bargain, so being able to essentially buy "money" for less is always a winner in my book. Plus it's nice to have an outlet for disposing of gift cards I simply wouldn't get around to using otherwise
• The site is easy to use and the purchase process was quick and simple
• The discounts I saw while looking through the different brands ranged all the way up to 25% off - certainly not to be sniffed at!
• The handy Wallet feature allows you to easily see all cards purchased, and keep track of which ones have been used, as well as the all important expiration dates
• I cannot fault the Customer Service, which was always super quick and very helpful
• Zeek offer a referral program, which means that you can invite your friends to sign-up and they will receive a £5 free credit (as will you)

If you're interested in signing up to Zeek to make use of the promotional £5 credit, I would recommend following these steps:
1. If you already use a cashback website such as TopCashback or Quidco, navigate to Zeek via these to get your 4% cashback! (correct at time of publishing)
2. Sign-up for a Zeek account
3. Hover over your profile in the top right corner of the site and select the Promo Code option. Enter the promotional code: 23R7773N so that your free £5 will be applied to your account
4. Ensure that you spend your credit within 10 days of applying it to your account, because otherwise it will expire

Alternatively, if you don't use any cashback sites simply follow this link to sign-up and get your £5 credit (and importantly, remember to spend it within 10 days so that it doesn't expire).

PLEASE NOTE: In the interests of transparency if you decide to use the free £5 credit offer, I too will receive a £5 credit in my Zeek account. If you don't like the idea of this, please don't let this put you off giving Zeek a try, here is a non-referral link to Zeek from which I do not benefit whatsoever (though obviously you wouldn't benefit from the free £5 either should you use this). I also use other affiliate links in this article for the cashback sites I mention. Happy shopping!

If you give Zeek a try I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts and feedback, do drop me a line in the comments below...

Look out Dallas, FinCon2017 here I come!

While I was reading my favourite blogs this week, I noticed in Mrs Frugalwood's latest post that she had not only attended FinCon16 but their website won the Best Frugality Blog of the Year Award in the 7th Annual Plutus Awards. Many congratulations on a well deserved win!

I've never attended any sort of conference before despite the fact that it's something I've always wanted to do. I guess I'd previously assumed that attending conferences was for employees of companies who decided to send "the chosen few" (of which I was never one). However, having entered into the blogging world earlier this year, and indeed venturing into Kindle Publishing as an income generating opportunity, I feel that attending a FinCon event could actually really help me get to a whole new level. Most importantly I suspect that I would enjoy it tremendously.

So this morning I bit the bullet and bought myself a ticket! I have to confess I am slightly daunted about going. For a start this means solo international travel to Dallas, a reasonable amount of expense after ticket, flights and accommodation are accounted for, and throwing myself into a situation where I'm likely to know no-one. Having said all that I'm also incredibly excited and will look forward to this immensely. Hopefully I'll get to meet fellow UK and non UK bloggers alike and maybe even make some new friends.

The early bird catches the worm
The real driver that nudged me into taking the plunge was the fact that there is currently a "List Sale" price for purchasing FinCon2017 tickets that's a significant reduction on the regular ticket cost. Until October 3rd 2016 the sale price is $189 per ticket compared to the normal $449 price. If anyone is interested in going here's where you can purchase your ticket. If you miss the October 3rd cut-off I'm not sure whether there will be any other form of "early bird sale" but it's always worth checking.

If you do decide to go (or indeed already have your ticket), or if you have attended FinCon before please let me know. We could share tips on getting there, what the best things to do are, best places to stay etc. Heck we could even arrange to meet up in person there!

No doubt I will do some sort of write-up on the event after attending (even though that simply feels too far into the future to even be thinking about just yet!)

It's all about the Side Hustles

I'm acutely aware that the regularity of my posts has been somewhat lacking of late, a long way from my aspirational 1 post per week! I have actually begun work on an update about how I've been getting on with my goals so far this year (given that the last update was for March), but it's going to take me a little while longer to get that post finished to a standard I'm happy with. So for the sake of letting people know that I'm very much still alive and kicking I thought I'd drop in this post about the side hustles I've been trying.

I think I've mentioned before, I'm currently putting in a full time work week freelancing in IT for a retail company. I love the flexibility that contracting brings me, where I can have several months off at a time in-between contracts. The trouble is while I'm on my breaks between contracts I enjoy my freedom so much that I never feel like starting a new contract again! Of course I always do start again, because I have financial obligations to meet. 

In my ideal world I would be able to generate enough income from my side hustles to cover my expenses working from home. This is what I feel would allow me to truly be my own boss. Don't get me wrong, I feel very privileged and fortunate to be in a position where I can contract. In my opinion the freedom, variety and degree of autonomy freelancing provides, far outweighs the perceived benefits of having a permanent job. Nevertheless, while I'm working onsite as part of a contract, there's invariably a boss-man/boss-woman to be accountable to, whereas I'd rather be in a position to set my own deadlines and working hours.

So why am I telling you all this? Well it's because this year I've found myself on a bit of a journey. I finished my previous contract at the end of January and ended up taking 4 months off, mostly because I was preparing to move house. During that time off, I found myself drawn more and more to the blogs in the personal finance realm, because I was keen to find an escape route from the cycle of contract after contract. After initially being fascinated by the discussions around frugality, I quickly moved on to learning about investing as a means to becoming financially independent. This really struck a chord with me. Here was something I could work toward and action. 

So I set up this blog, worked out what I'd need to achieve to be FI in 10 years and I set myself some goals for this year to help get me motivated and keep me on track. 

As I read more blogs I started to discover that as well as saving I could potentially speed up my trek to financial independence by considering some income generating endeavours in addition to my freelancing. So I decided to take one or two of the ideas I've read about by other bloggers and have a go myself. Ironically it's because of the time I've been investing into these side ventures that my frequency of Organised Redhead posts has declined somewhat.

So what income generating activities have I tried so far?

Matched Betting

Back in May/June I had a go at a couple of matched bets. I love the idea of being able to make money (albeit in small increments) for relatively little effort and time. I used the two free beginner guided bets on Profit Accumulator and pocketed a profit of just under £40. However when it came time to sign-up for a paid account I paused because I had just moved house and did not feel I had enough time to dedicate to it. At some point I fully intend to get back into matched betting, but for now my focus is on my second side hustle attempt...

Kindle Publishing

I first heard about the potential of kindle publishing as a viable side hustle when I read about Huw's early experiments with it on his wonderful site Financially Free by Forty. It's not something which I would have considered previously because the thought of writing my own book was far too daunting a task. However, as I investigated my options online I realised that it was possible to get into Kindle publishing by commissioning someone else to write the book, once I had determined the topic, title and a loose outline of how I wanted the book to be laid out.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which I think goes hand in hand with having an OCD streak, so putting a book together was not a quick, throw-it-together kind of affair for me. I opted to recruit a more experienced writer who commanded more money per words than other people on Upwork (the site I used to find my contributors), because I wanted a quality book. It also meant that I took a reasonable amount of time to consolidate the book after it had been written, spending hours choosing the right cover, title, keywords, and getting the editing just how I wanted it.

After several months of working on my first book, I finally managed to publish it on Kindle (under a pen name), and then on Createspace which allows me to sell my book as a paperback. My next goal is to get the book onto ACX which is the site which allows you to offer books as audiobooks.

I launched this first book for sale mid July, being utterly clueless on how to market it to best advantage. Needless to say the sales were disappointingly low. However, I have since sought guidance through kindle coaching and putting what I've learnt into practice I've seen a markable upturn in sales and consequently my profits.

My endeavours into kindle publishing have ignited my passion for pursuing this side hustle with a view to one day making this my main income source. I have a long way to go, but I feel that for the first time in my life, I have genuinely found something which excites me and inspires me. Could it be that I've finally stumbled across my true calling? It certainly feels like exciting times ahead for me.

Even if I don't achieve early financial independence (which I am still pursuing in earnest incidentally), if I could simply succeed in growing my kindle publishing business to the point where it covers my month to month expenses, I would be one extremely happy lady.


I'm interested to hear of anyone else who has got the bug for Kindle Publishing, or indeed Matched Betting, or any other side hustles which they're enjoying. Please do let me know in the comments.

If you would be interested in being among the first to hear about my upcoming book publications, with exclusive previews prior to publication drop me an email using my contact form, and I'll be sure to let you know when I have new books coming out.

Yes I'm back!

It's been a while since I last posted, but fear not I haven't abandoned my blog - I've simply been moving house and have had no broadband until yesterday. I think it will take me a while to get back on track with my posts and I may have to do a consolidated catch-up post to get up-to-date with my finances, but the main thing is I'm back!

A historical day
This morning I set my alarm to get up at 5am to catch the last of the EU referendum results for whether Britain would vote to remain or leave. I have to confess I wasn't expecting the result as it's turned out, we will evidently be leaving the EU. A couple of things have struck me as the last results have come in...

We're now entering a period of very uncertain financial times - the truth is no-one really knows what will happen next and this is reflected in the immediate turmoil in the world markets - notably with the GB pound down 10% at the last reckoning. It will be interesting over the coming hours, days and weeks to see whether this is a temporary wobble due to the immediate shock of the result, or if this is a sign of things to come for the UK.

The other thing that I find deeply saddening is that this historical decision looks like it could end the UK union as we know it, with both Scotland and Northern Ireland calling for referendums to leave the UK and stay in the EU. It looks like the Great Britain I have grown up in could be about to change forever.

I also feel sorry for any of those from the EU currently in the UK who must now be feeling pretty unwelcome and worried for their future - particularly those who have been here many years and are an integral part of our communities. For my part I would just like to say that as far as I am concerned you are still very much welcome and I hope that anyone here in this country will be permitted to stay.

As the weeks ahead unfold who knows what else will happen - perhaps this will signal the end of David Cameron's reign, perhaps other countries in the EU will call for their own referendums, perhaps the UK will enter a recession, perhaps my savings and investments will bottom out for a while, perhaps interest rates will rise (glad we just locked in our mortgage rates for a while!), perhaps there'll be a run on the banks or we'll see some large financial institutions collapsing - financial armageddon?!, or perhaps things will stabilise much quicker than anticipated and things will trundle along much as they ever have...

I certainly will be following with great interest the developments that this historical decision has caused, and I hope that things are not going to be as bad as some have predicted, but instead as good as the Leave campaign have predicted...

More news
Following on from my previous post where I updated that we had exchanged contracts on the purchase of our new home, I can now proudly declare that we have moved in to our beautiful new home! The big move date was on 26th May and I have to say the move itself went very smoothly, much to the credit of family and friends who so kindly helped with our move.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, we have been without broadband since that date because the landline had been stopped by the previous owners and it takes about 4 weeks to get the landline reinstated in a new name so that a broadband provider can then be selected. We have both dearly missed our sturdy internet access! We did have limited internet capabilities through our mobile phone data packages, but it's certainly made me realise how many things we have that require wifi to operate, and how much data we actually use month to month. TheBF works from home so having a stable and robust internet connection is key for us.

Unpacked boxes waiting to be disposed

It's often said that moving house is one of the most stressful things a person will do in their life. So despite going through 2 house sales and a house purchase and move, I decided that this wasn't enough for me and that it was time to rejoin working life! Just one week after our move I started a new contract working on a project in an IT department for a company involved in Retail. It's a position which effectively requires a full-time week of hours so my free time is significantly impacted. This poses challenges on several levels, I will need to be very good at managing how I split my time across unpacking boxes, setting up home, writing this blog, working on income generating side hustles, catching up on reading all the blog posts I've missed, and of course leaving some time for sport and hobbies.

Getting back to normality
So now it's time to settle in and get into some sort of routine where I can hopefully fit in everything that I would like to do. One of our first challenges is putting all the furniture that's still displaced around the new house into the rooms where it will eventually reside, and of course unpack and dispose of the many, many boxes still waiting to be unpacked in pretty much every room of the house! Please be patient with me while I endeavour to return to normal, my posts may be a bit sporadic for a while but I am trying!

More boxes - waiting to be unpacked!

In the meantime, do tell me what's been going on with you?
I'm also interested to hear your thoughts on the EU referendum result - the UK was clearly split on the vote, obviously slightly in favour of "leave" - it's really interesting to hear thoughts from the different perspectives, I'd like to try to keep an open mind on these things...

Busy times

Time for a quick update post to let everyone know that I am still alive and very much here! I'm sorry for the slow-down in posts over the last week or two, but there is good reason with some breaking news...

TheBF and I have finally exchanged contracts TODAY on our new house!

That's a giant step toward achieving my number 1 goal for the year! We are both incredibly happy, particularly because the journey to this point has been fraught with problems and stresses. There were several times over the last few weeks when we thought that the chain we were in would collapse and our dream home would disappear from our grasp. Luckily, the stars appeared to align today (despite it being Friday 13th!) and the contracts were finally exchanged.

In the UK, the key part of the house sale/purchase process is the exchange of contracts, with the completion date following either on the same day or within the days/weeks thereafter. In our case, we now have a completion date just under 2 weeks from our exchange date (near the end of May), so now we're going to be very busy packing, boxing everything up and moving our things into storage ahead of the big move day.

As well as doing a lot of chasing with Solicitors and Estate Agents and packing over the past days and weeks, I've also been working on a side hustle which is new to me - I'm having a go at Kindle publishing and this has also been taking a lot of my time. Hopefully I'll be getting my first books published soon and will see whether my hard work has paid off in getting some returns on my investment. I will keep you all posted!

As soon as I am able I will be back to "usual business" with my blog posts, I have 1 update post for March still to post (about how I invested my money in March) as well as all of my posts for the month of April. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here and will be raring to go again once the house move is complete.