As a contractor do you sometimes lose perspective when it comes to money?!

[Old Hack]

Build a spreadsheet. I have one going back to 1997. Every year in Jan I add a prediction for the next 12 months. Contracting, investments, Ebay, rental, interest, shares etc with outgoings. I then add 20% Pareto to the outgoings and I work out how many days I need to work for breakeven. I know exactly what I need to do.

I then calculate a best case, land and worst case for the year. I aim for the best case but always seem to hit the land number. That is normally 2k per month above my outgoings, which is my worst case. If I find over the year that I am exceeding my land rate, I normally increase my outgoings. Ie. holiday, gadgets etc

According to my spreadsheet in 1997, kid free, first mortgage, perm my outgoings where £1500 per month. I left a job at £28k and my first year as a contractor was £58k. Year 2 £79k. Year 15. My outgoings with missus, kids and responsibilities are now £3500 per month. I only wish the takehome had gone up the same percentage and that 'Ill be a millionaire in 5 years never seemed to come true' ;-)

Fook me, get a life.

I spend what I spend and pay off the mortgages with whats left. I have £30k in my chest in case I have to take a year off.

Lifes too short to continually worry about money.

The closest I get to this is to have a plan, and to head towards it; I have no dates other than, hopefully this year. You're a long time dead, and not a long time alive, not in relation to living a good life with your kids. Spend it, enjoy it with your kids and go from there.

IMO.

[MyUserName]

Fook me, get a life.

I spend what I spend and pay off the mortgages with whats left. I have £30k in my chest in case I have to take a year off.

Lifes too short to continually worry about money.

The closest I get to this is to have a plan, and to head towards it; I have no dates other than, hopefully this year. You're a long time dead, and not a long time alive, not in relation to living a good life with your kids. Spend it, enjoy it with your kids and go from there.

IMO.

But surely this only applies if you have enough money to not need to worry about it?

[Old Hack]

But surely this only applies if you have enough money to not need to worry about it?

I was applying it to Contractors, it being a Contracting forum, but yes, I do understand your point. But seriously, none of us should have money worries, or should be caught up in the tangle of planning for the future whilst simultaneously forgetting about the present.

[MyUserName]

I was applying it to Contractors, it being a Contracting forum, but yes, I do understand your point. But seriously, none of us should have money worries, or should be caught up in the tangle of planning for the future whilst simultaneously forgetting about the present.

I am a contractor myself - not having money worries is not the same as spending without a thought.

You are only, realistically, able to spend without a thought when you already know that you have enough money in the bank to cover everything that is likely to happen (roof caving in, sudden bizarre illness, someone suing you etc). Otherwise you are just being wreckless.

I would also guess that you have a good idea how much you generally spend a month and that you can cover it easily, hence you have already instinctively done the spreadsheet style calculation - it is just in your head rather than on a PC.

[d000hg]

The only reason OH has no money worries is because he still lives with his parents, at least until he fails his A-Levels for spending all day on CUK and gets kicked out of home.

[MarillionFan]

The only reason OH has no money worries is because he still lives with his parents, at least until he fails his A-Levels for spending all day on CUK and gets kicked out of home.

I don't think that's true. No way is he smart enough to take A-Levels.

[Old Hack]

The only reason OH has no money worries is because he still lives with his parents, at least until he fails his A-Levels for spending all day on CUK and gets kicked out of home.

Honestly d000hg, do you have to do this everytime? I think it's demonstrable I think you're ancock and vice-versa, how about you stop stalking me mate for it's tiresome and I am sure you can make better use of your bandwidth, like looking up pictures of naked man, which we all know you prefer.

[Old Hack]

I don't think that's true. No way is he smart enough to take A-Levels.

I'm told you like taking A-Levels MF

[Old Hack]

I am a contractor myself - not having money worries is not the same as spending without a thought.

You are only, realistically, able to spend without a thought when you already know that you have enough money in the bank to cover everything that is likely to happen (roof caving in, sudden bizarre illness, someone suing you [eh?]etc). Otherwise you are just being wreckless.

I would also guess that you have a good idea how much you generally spend a month and that you can cover it easily, hence you have already instinctively done the spreadsheet style calculation - it is just in your head rather than on a PC.

I genuinely don't think about the roof caving in, nor a bizarre illness, as insurance covers both.

I also have utterly no idea of what I spend a month. Genuinely. When we were both contractors, or just me as one.

[Normie]

This thread has made me have a look at my finances - something I don't do very often.

Total outgoings per month on bills are £700 - not including food or beer spending money, etc. Mortgage paid off, so bills are just for car/house insurance, car tax, phone, council tax, water, electric and gas. So adding on food and beer money looking at about £1500 a month outgoings - luckily this is just about covered by my wifes salary.

So basically, my contracting income is "spare" and has been for about the last 5 years. This has resulted in a fairly large war chest and lots of retained profits in the company account. I've been contracting just over 10 years, never been out of contract and averaging £400+ per day.

My main concern is that we don't spend enough! My wife is frugal beyond belief and so am I to a certain extent. I need to put together a spreadsheet detailing our finances - show her our outgoings/incomings, show her the value of our accummalated savings and tell her to start spending and actually enjoying the financial postition we are in! Our lifestyle is no different to our family and friends - no really expensive holidays, no flash cars, no flash clothes, etc - if they knew how much I earned they would be in total shock.