Welcome to The Money Muppet
This blog post introducing you to The Money Muppet was originally written for our sister website – The Money Muppet. We set that site up in January 2014 as we embarked on our journey to financial freedom. The Money Muppet site no loner exists, so we’ve incorporated our financial journey into our travel blog.
Hi. I’m Jason, the author, and a self-confessed money muppet.
I’m 41 years old, married to Julie, and living in Nottinghamshire, in the English Midlands. We’re nipper-less by choice. Having spent a couple of years travelling Europe on a mid-life gap year, career break, mind-broadening experience, irresponsible doss, whatever you’d prefer to call it, I’ve had something of a revelation. I know nothing about money, I’m a complete gibbon. If I knew about money, I might make myself free. Free to travel, to take lower-paid and more meaningful work, to contribute time to charity, to dance and sing as I generally tootle off into the sunset. By my muppet-like calculations, which I’ll share at some point in the future, we might be financially free by 50, which would be just plain awesome.
That gives us just over 8 years. We’ve got a LOT of work to do. Having said that, we have a few advantages:
- We’ve paid off the mortgage on one property, and have another smaller one, both of which are rented out.
- We have in-demand skills; mine in information technology, Julie’s in marketing.
- Apart from the mortgage on the smaller place, we’ve no debt.
- We’re used to living without much stuff, and know that we can live an awesome life without blowing a fat wedge of dough.
Our main disadvantage, and it’s a HUGE one, is our clear lack of financial education. Neither of the houses we rent were bought as rentals, we just fell into the position of being landlords; professional real estate investors we are not. Pension statements spin my head. The only shares I’ve ever bought are now worth roughly half what I paid for them. I’ve basically zero idea how to get the money we work hard for to work hard for us, and that simply has to change.
So that’s where we’re at. We’ve made a call to work hard for a few years in order to secure our financial future, and this blog’s going to track our progress. My hope is it’ll attract like-minded folks, and through shared knowledge and encouragement, we can collectively accelerate our cash-daft butts out of the deep dark hole of financial illiteracy. Please comment on the posts, or fire me an email at julieandjason@ourtour.co.uk.
Cheers! Jason
Next: The Disclaimer
Hi, I look forward to your financial education with interest. At last someone has the guts to say what i have been thinking for years!
We were in business for years and fell into everything as we went along. We were lucky and came out reasonably well, but more good luck than good management!
I think there are far too many “financial experts” who know how to spend other peoples money.
Jenny P
Hi,
Well, it seems like you are on the right track……but!
How about capitalising on your skills?
Other countries pay substancially more for your abilities and skills, must be worth a look at least?
My nephew is a car mechanic, he now lives in Canada and is a maintenence manager for an oil company.
His annual salary is off the scale compared to the UK.
In 6 more years he retires (49). Just five years at 150k is a lot of dollar!
Keep at it! Think out of the box!
Mike n June
Hi guys. We think about this stuff a lot, like endlessly, for years on end. The skills we have were hard won over the years, and are worth a fair bit now. The question we wrestle with is simply this: are we enjoying life, using these skills, to the very full, and if not, for how long should we put off enjoying life for? I seriously doubt I’d enjoy the 9 to 5 doing what I do in any other country and more/less than I do here in the UK. This calls for a beer to mull it all over some more. :-) Jay
Hello. What’s up everybody?
I recommend the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kyosaky.
Hi Zsolt. Couldn’t agree more – a fabulous book, it had a massive impact on the way I view personal finance. Cheers, Jason