2019 

2019 has been a year to remember for us, with highlights including: 

• Starting a blog in March!!! 
• Getting engaged in July 
• An incredible month-long trip to East Africa
• Finding out we are expecting our first child, Baby Way , in July 2020 
• Booking a wedding venue for 2021 

Clearly, 2019 has been more expensive than we would have liked!  

Despite this we have still managed to achieve all of the above, as well as an unwelcome new car purchase, while saving in the region of 35% of our income. We much prefer to see a figure above 50%, but considering what has happened this year we are happy to still make significant contributions to our ‘FI funds’.  

Progress to FI 

We measure our progress to FI by adding the value of our pensions to the value of our ISA investments and any cash reserves.  

As we’ve discussed previously, Miss Way has a much more complicated financial situation. She is mostly self-employed while also having teachers pensions etc to account for.  

In addition, Miss Way intends to always maintain some degree of work. This means the time taken to reach FI is less critical. She is slightly behind me in accumulating her FI fund, as she started investing later. Broadly speaking, she has about 20% less than me. 

For me, FIRE is the dream. I intend to stop work eventually. I also have a much simpler financial situation, being employed full time. 

At the end of 2019, I am 30.3% FI!! This is the first time we have ever worked this number out and is quite a pleasant surprise, although by our calculations full FI will not be achieved for another 10 years. This figure has also been helped by the strong end to 2019 for the financial markets. Who knows what the next decade may hold in this regard! 

2020 

We really can’t wait for 2020 and the exciting new direction our lives are taking.  

Baby Way 

As we’ve said, we’re expecting our first child in July. While this is a scary prospect and will have a significant impact on our finances, we are determined to show that bringing a child into the world doesn’t need to be astronomically expensive.  

Our research into frugal parenting has already started in earnest. We can’t wait to share some of our experiences with you, as well as continuing to document our monthly spending and continuing progress to FI and self-improvement.  

Wedding 

As well as parenting, we are also in the process of planning our wedding, which is booked for July 2021. Again, we’re excited to share our top tips as we aim to minimise the costs of this. 

New Ventures 

As if we weren’t busy enough, I have also agreed to take a leading role within my local tennis club in the new year! While we will be sure to find the right balance with family life, we are excited about the new adventures this could bring. 

The Blog 

As we head into 2020 we are excited about continuing to document our journey here at A Way to Less. We’ve been gradually building a friendly community and can’t wait to continue to interact with you all. Hopefully the New Year will see this site go from strength to strength. 

Parental Help 

It is worth pointing out that with both the baby and wedding, we are likely to receive some significant and incredibly generous help from our parents. We fully appreciate that this is not an option for everyone, and we will fully document every penny we do receive. This will not impact on our spending decisions and we will spend every penny as we would with our own money. 

This help has also been provided to our siblings. It would therefore seem unwise to refuse their generosity outright. Both sets of parents are adamant that they want to provide this help and we are confident that their financial situations allow this. We will be sure to not only accept lesser amounts, but also get better value out of this money that our siblings have done! 

Over the longer term, we are sure these gifts will be re-distributed. We will not only help our parents in old age, but also provide for our own offspring. 

Summary 

We’re going through what are likely to be the most expensive few years of our lives. As our family and friends are constantly reminding us, children and weddings both drain your bank balances! 

With our frugal and somewhat contrarian natures, we are looking forwards to picking holes in these pre-conceptions! As with most things in life, frugality can be achieved by adopting the skill of life design.  

We obviously want to do the absolute best by Baby Way and will always keep this in mind, ahead of finances. However, our early research makes us confident that we can drastically reduce most of the expenses people usually associate with babies. You won’t see any needless baby tat in this household! 

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2020 for all. We hope you meet your goals and desires in the new year and decade ahead!