It’s time for the October 2023 results.
As a reminder, since September 2023 I’ve put all the numbers upfront. That means that if you only care about the numbers (all good, not judging), you can read the tables below and move on 🙂 no more need to scroll down.
Savings rate
Monthly | 42.26% |
Past 6 months | 47.20% |
Past 12 months | 46.44% |
Year to date (since January) | 51.22% |
Net worth
Change (%) due to savings | 0.83% |
Change (%) due to market performance | – 1.89% |
Total change (%) in net worth (nominal)* | -1.05% |
Inflation** | 0.54% |
Total change (%) in net worth (real) | -1.59% |
% of FI number achieved*** | 33.59% |
**Inflation decreases our real net worth. I use CPIH- “Consumer Price Inflation including owner-occupiers’ Housing costs”. As we are consumers and we own our home, I think this is the best inflation metric for us. You can see the changes in the index here.
***Reminder- I set our FI number (how much we need to retire) in July 2020 and I update it every month for inflation.
What have we been up to this month?
As promised in July 2021, I’ll share with you what we’ve been up to the past month. After that, we can talk about the numbers in more detail.
Mystery dine- NFL at Wembley
To start October off, my brother and I (who is also a mystery diner) went to Wembley to see the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Atlanta Hawks. We had a great time and by the end, we almost understood the rules.
Wembley visits are for 1 person only (you can’t bring guests). That means we both had to catch this dine, luckily we were successful in doing so.
Center Parcs
The day after Wembley, we headed to Center Parcs. As you may remember, we’ve been before, we love it there.
However, this time was different as we didn’t go alone. This time, we got a big cabin because Lazy FI Mum’s mother and brother joined us.
I’m really annoyed that I can’t share any photos as they all have my kids’ faces on them. We came back on October 6th, one day before…
The October 7th massacre
The day after coming back from Center Parcs we woke up to the news that Hamas attacked Israel, took control of a few towns, and there are hundreds of casulaties.
It all felt like a bad dream, like something out of Fauda, not reality.
For the first day or two, it felt like Israel lost to the terrorists, they controlled some of the towns for more than 24 hours.
I won’t go into the details of what happened there, I assume you all already know. I can share that our own experience started with shock and fear. We were all glued to our phones (our kids didn’t see any of that, of course).
As a reminder, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, who live in Israel, were at our place.
I watched at least 5 hours of news every day for more than a week as new horrific details came to light. I told my boss what had happened and to expect me at 20% performance at max.
Taking a step back, this really shook us to the core and we are across the ocean, here in the UK. You can imagine what our families in Israel (and worse, families of the victims) had to go through and are still going through. I am writing this in early May 2024 and no one is OK. There are very little updates about the hostages held in Gaza (including women and children).
I would like to take this opportunity to say that I hope all the hostages return home safely, “Fuck Hamas”, and that it put EVERYTHING in perspective.
I can go on about this but you get the general theme. I can also share that the October 7th massacre is the main reason I’ve been gone for such a long time. Posting about vacations and our savings rate just didn’t seem important or appropriate at the time (I’m still not sure it is even now).
The greatest sales pitch ever
As I said, after October 7th, everything became weird for us but we had some funny moments too, here’s one.
Background
Every time the boy that lives above us (he’s 11) gets sweets, he tries to sell them to his neighbours. I usually buy some jelly beans from him. Every time, Lazy FI Mum tells him to stop it as it’s not healthy for me.
The sales pitch
One day, he knocked on our door and Lazy FI Mum opened it. I was listening from bed to what I would later realise to be the greatest sales pitch ever.
“Hello, can I talk to Lazy FI Dad? You probably won’t want to see this”.
She calls me, a bit annoyed, and this is what I see:

He was holding a strainer full of nothing but Jelly beans!
I laughed for a few minutes straight.
Know your client/market research – 10/10
Removing obstacles – 10/10
This kid’s going places.
My brother’s visit
As you know, I have a brother that lives not too far from us.
He flew back to Israel to enlist as a reservist while his fiance stayed in London.
Another brother of mine (along with his wife and daughter) came to London at the same time. They stayed with my other brother’s fiance.
We spent a lot of time together and my kids got some quality time with their only cousin. We went to the zoo, soft plays, and had a great time.
They were even talking about a potential move to London but that didn’t happen in the end.
October 2023 results- What was different this month?
Every month something unusual happens. Sometimes it’s a one-off expense and sometimes it’s a one-off income. The fact that this happens every month amuses me but also makes it harder to analyse the savings rate and draw conclusions. That’s why I also use the 6-month, 12-month, and YTD average figures to “smooth” the data.
Anyway, what was different this month?
In short- childcare (as usual), another loan to a family member, and holiday
Childcare costs
As you may remember, we usually contribute to our children’s tax-free childcare account once every quarter (every 3 months). Both children’s contributions are in the same month****. This causes a huge fluctuation in our monthly savings rates. October was a “no childcare cost” month.
**** Going forward, as my daughter is eligible for 30 hours free childcare, we won’t be topping her account each quarter, only on an ad hoc basis.
Loan to a family member
I already told you that we lent a small amount to a family member at the end of September, we got paid back the following week (in October). As I account for income and expenses based on when they were paid, this wass an expense in September 2023 and is a “negative” expense in October 2023.
However… we then gave another loan to another relative. This time, it was a bit bigger and we agreed on exact dates and amounts for repayment (which were honoured). Same concept, this is an expense in October 2023 and will be a “negative expense” in future months.
Holiday
Yes, we went to Center Parcs and spent some money there but that’s not the big one.
We booked flights for April 2024 for my brother’s wedding in Israel.
I like to book flights in advance. I also like the fact that 50% is virtually in the bag for 2023 so prepaying for 2024 expenses means we will have an even greater chance of hitting that 50% for 4 years in a row.
When can we achieve FI (and possibly retire)?
Warning: This section is for new readers, it’s a copy-paste from last month’s results. If you’ve read any of my monthly results posts, please skip to the next section.
As I told you in the October 2021 results, calculating an FI date is not relevant for us anymore. We will move back to Israel sometime between December 2025 and August 2026. As my models are split into tax years, that means April 2026 is our relevant date.
Once we move back to Israel, I will either move to “just” teaching (no accounting) or try and keep my current job but part-time (unless I need a payslip for a mortgage).
If anyone’s wondering if moving to Israel will help or hurt our FI journey, I present to you this article:
Tel Aviv named as world’s most expensive city to live in – BBC News.
No need to click the link, the title gives it away. Good luck to us.
In any case, we will not reach our full FI number by the time we move to Israel. Therefore, the only relevant question is…
How far into our journey to FI will we be by April 2026?
Based on my “regular” (which is more like a worst-case) scenario, we expect to be 45.17% FI by April 2026. We are still close enough to the 50% mark to make it happen. I think it’s going to be very close to that benchmark in the end.
As a reminder, this number is based on our UK level of expenses. I don’t know how expensive Israel will be for us. We’ll need to track our expenses for a few months there to get a better understanding. Also, I will have to learn all the little local tricks (like I learned in the UK) on how to save money, get free stuff, and reduce my tax bill.
The April 2026 model assumptions
Warning: Another copy-paste section mainly for new readers.
My model assumes that only our ISAs, LISAs and pensions (essentially, our stock/equity investments) will generate an annual real return of 4%. Meanwhile, I assume our real estate and cash will retain their real value but not increase.
In addition, I assume no future income from teaching as I can’t reliably forecast how much I’ll earn from this side hustle. That means any future income from teaching will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
Another future income I ignore is my job’s annual bonus. Just like teaching, any future bonus is not guaranteed. That means that if my employer has a bad year, the bonus can potentially be 0%. My model assumes every year is such a year. Again, any bonus that does come through will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
I know these assumptions are very prudent but I prefer being prudent and positively surprised to “realistic” and having to deal with unforeseen issues.
Summary
This was a very mixed month with some positives and negatives.
From a financial perspective, 42.26% isn’t great at first glance.
However, when you consider that our year was so good that we can afford to prepay next year’s holidays and (almost certainly) still meet our 50% goal- things are great.
From a personal perspective, October 7th is like a dark cloud that still, to this day, floats above us.
Despite that. Center Parcs was great (although it was pre-October-7th) and so was seeing my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece. I even got to laugh thanks to the greatest sales pitch ever!
Well, that’s our October 2023 results, Have a great week everyone.