Path to Financial Freedom

[DublinHead54]

The reality is that we currently couldn’t maintain our situation with a halving of our income.

This would be a concern for me personally. High paying jobs are hard to come by, and more so now given the global hiring freeze many tech firms are going through. Although it looks like you have an artificially lower mortgage as 1/3rd of the debt is to family and not being repaid right now.

I'll go against the trend here and say an additional focus should be to keep cash on hand to fund your lifestyle and pay bills for an extended period of time.

 

[Blackrock1]

Thanks Kilkenny, agree completely on the lifestyle creep. I have battled against it aggressively and will continue to do so.

On the pension bit, I do worry about the standard fund threshold and for general peace of mind, I’d rather chop down our debt to safe levels rather than pursue strategy’s of wealth maximisation with higher risk. The debt is cheap now, but it won’t be for much longer.

Brendan, thanks for the previous advice on early repayment of mortgage. Your post motivated me to actually make the call and the ERC terms are far more favourable than I had calculated. We’re going to pay off a chunk with savings and also look to fix for a longer period (7+ years) at a lower rate. Already feel like the weight has slightly been lifted!

i wouldnt be too aggressive with battling lifestyle creep there has to be some reward for stress and achievement as long as it is proportionate.

Also dont be too hard on yourself, regardless how good you are at your job being put in more senior positions is new to everyone at some point and a lot of the required skills are learned and experience is the only answer to that. I'm sure if people are honest no one who has been promoted to senior roles (especially early) could say they didnt feel out of their depth at some point. When that feeling goes away the stress dissapates somewhat in my experience, i also feel you tend to get the best out of yourself the more 'out of your depth' you feel.

 

[Steven Barrett]

Have you spoken to a career coach or do you have a mentor that you can speak to about your career? Imposter syndrome is very common but your employer obviously thinks you are the best person for the job. It will take you some time to get used to the role. If there is someone with a lot of experience who can help you it will be money well spent. On the public speaking, it is natural to have nerves beforehand and it keeps you sharp and focused. Not sure what to do about the sleepless nights, a glass of whiskey before bed?

Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)

 

[Peanuts20]

However my last promotion has taken me to more of a ‘figure head’ position from previously managing small teams/doing technical work.
It’s not necessarily the work that’s stressful, more that it’s the first time in my life I feel out of my depth. That upward career trajectory feels like it’s suddenly stalling out and I’m not sure my skill set is suited to further upward movement anyway.
In addition to the stress of not being happy with the quality of my performance in the role, I also have to do a lot of public speaking which, whilst a strength of mine, is always something which brought sleepless nights.

I hope you’re right that I get better at handling the stress as I get older. It’ll change everything if I do! But for now I think I need to financially plan for flaming out.

You will get better at managing stress as you get older. You'll learn how to cope with things better and how to prioritise and most importantly, you'll learn that most of the things you stress over are actually largely irrelevant. Think back to what had you stressed with work 12 or 18 months ago, are they issues now or have they passed and been largely forgotten about?.

You do need to think about investing in your career so take advantage of whatever training you can get from your employer. Also don't feel afraid to utilise any support mechanisms you can get through work as well.

For now, focus on paying down the debt and taking time out to enjoy life a little