February is finished, so it's time for my early retirement cost update, and also a look at how I'm getting on with my targets.
Costs
We've now finished our second full month of living in France, although it feels longer as we visited while our apartment was being completed. It will take some more months before we can make judgements about our normal costs, but it's nice that February's costs were lower than January's. The bank cards must have stayed in our pockets a little more.
Writing this post is a reminder to prove my car insurance no claims bonus. I saved money in the past by switching insurers most years, but that makes getting the no claims paperwork difficult. It could generate a 35% reduction to my premium, so it's worth spending some time on. I'm annoyed I've let the whole month go by without doing anything on this. Procrastination is rarely a good thing when it comes to money.
There are a few costs that aren't included because we haven't had the bills yet. One is the property tax and another the Homeowners Association (HOA), or copropriété, fees as they're called in France. I'm guessing these could total €400 (£357 / $468) a month, so not an insignificant amount to be added in due course.
I expected our going out costs would fall significantly when we moved to France, but this hasn't happened. We're living in a tourist resort which bumps up the prices, plus we go out more, at least twice a week on average, compared to once or twice a fortnight when we lived in Dubai. Going out more costs money, but it's fun.
I'll leave the costs there, as two months of information doesn't give me too much to talk about...you'll probably be pleased to hear🤣
Targets
I'm including this new section because although I've previously made an effort to set targets, my focus on them thereafter has been more miss than hit. I hope being more public with my targets will encourage me to keep them front of mind and help me get them done.
I set my current targets just a few weeks ago, so I haven't had much time with them, but let's see how they're going:
It's a start. If I hadn't set these targets, I'm sure I wouldn't have invested the spare cash, and it's also pushed me to think about the travel plans, which I'll try to conclude during the coming month.
Injuring my knee isn't helping the running. Hopefully it will heal quickly, I don't think it's serious. Maybe it will teach me not to get over-confident (cocky) with my skiing, although I suspect it may make little difference. I've refined my target to be running 3 times a week, one short, one medium and one long run, and to achieve times in the same ballpark as I was doing a year ago.
The GoPro target is something I need to work on as I'm quite lost on this one at present. Hopefully, being more public with my targets will help me achieve them. I would say fingers crossed, but it's not down to luck, it's down to me!