At 54, Flic Everett confronts a lifetime of bad money habits and learns the value of a more frugal approach. Her journey involves facing financial fears, understanding the impact of economic changes, and prioritizing financial stability.
At 54, Flic Everett was forced to confront a lifetime of bad money habits - and start enjoying a more frugal approach. Flic Everett started by going through her bank statements, which she says was reminiscent of the brutal step of AA where you have to confront the damage your drinking has done. In my late twenties, the economy was booming under Blair, I had credit cards stuffed into my purse like love letters, and I was earning a fortune writing for glossy magazines.
But nobody had ever taught me about rainy days, or HMRC. And all these lessons came at once when I realised I hadn’t put aside enough to pay my enormous tax bill, and was forced to sell my large Victorian house as a result.again due to my financial hopelessness – I still feared brown envelopes and took weeks to open them. I stuffed bank statements into the Drawer of Fear unread, and squeezed my eyes shut at the ATM in case I accidentally caught a glimpse of my bank balance. It was, effectively, a phobia, but rather than tackling the root causes, it was easier to pay my accountant fortunes to deal with my tax issues, and work hard enough to ensure a freelance writing income that would allow me to indulge my book and charity-shop habits, along with rent, bills (on easily-ignored direct debit), gifts and occasional restaurants.My husband Andy and I had paid for our 2022 wedding without borrowing any money. It did clean out our small savings but we thought we would make the money back the following year. went through the roof. Our rural cottage “isn’t eligible for a smart meter”, apparently, so we were on dizzying tariffs. Meanwhile, the cost of living shot up and food, fuel and even our preferred brand of teabags suddenly required all our available cash. To complete this whirling perfect storm, I had a new book contract to write three historic crime novels, which meant all my time was taken up researching and writing them for the entire year – and I wouldn’t get any money until they were publishe
FINANCE FRUGAL LIVING FINANCIAL FEARS MONEY MANAGEMENT COST OF LIVING
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