Long post readers, so depending on the time of day, grab yourself a Tea, Coffee, Beer or Wine...
Hi everyone, Willsie here again. Jenny's turn to blog soon. I know you all prefer her sense of humour.
Slight change in direction with our wiljen's Adventures blog at the moment.
F.I.R.E. not my acronym, I read about the concept 15 years ago, check out books like "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez or websites like
www.mrmoneymustache.com , Jen & I are just trying to follow the principles (& not very well I may add).
Firstly let me just update you all on Jesper & Thomas the "Danish Dudes". It was great to see them, they are our friends & we both enjoyed catching up with them. They stayed for 4 weeks, unfortunately they both were sick to some degree during their stay. The "Dudes" both made it home safely to Denmark where it is currently snowing...like WTF we just had a heat wave of four days over 40C plus ! & more bush fires !
For the first time in over a year Jenny & I have our house to ourselves...oh la la, it's GREAT !
Bill (Dad), Jen & Annie .... having a chat !
Late afternoon beach walk with Steve (my Brother) & our niece Shaye (on our 23rd Wedding Anniversary).
Ok we have joined a gym, need to do something. So far so good. (Yoga as well :-)
Happy Birthday Alex... Now the fun begins !
During our mission to downsize & consolidate our asset base I want to give you all the heads up on how we are trying to realise our dream of "not working for the man" . Keep in mind that we are both now debt free & intend to stay that way.
Never say never, we are both still only in our mid forties and anything could happen during our future lives. If we find ourselves in a situation where we both do have to return to the workforce, either for "the man" or running our own business again it's not the end of the world. Adapt & Thrive....
In the meantime we have been attacking some of our expenditures. The most obvious & easy one is insurance, so far we have tackled my motorbike insurance, saved approximately $200p/a for similar cover. Health Insurance, swapped providers for better coverage (we don't need IVF or children's Orthodontics any more), saved $650 per annum. Boat insurance, intend to sell the boat soon, so have decided to "self insure" which equals another $280p/a saved. Total so far, about $1130p/a.
There are heaps of other savings we can make and they are all on the radar & up for the slashing... I'll let you know as we tackle them.
That's enough about our immediate finances for now.
"What else has been going on for team wiljen, aka "Straya Animals"?
At the moment Jenny & I have three major projects on the go (normally called self employment &/or "work"). While there is no weekly pay, the final objective is for an improvement to our F.I.R.E. position.
Project One: The Mandurah House.
Repair, Recycle, Renovate & Improve the small ex-rental property we own in central Mandurah (which has a population of around 80K). We have owned this centrally located house for about 3.5 years. The seller was desperate for a sale so we bought it for land value plus about $30K. It's a small modest, brick & tiled, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom place. We ended up renting it to our son for a few years. It didn't work out overly in our favour but helped him get started.
Mandurah House Before May 2013, driveway, need to create more height to fit Landcruiser & Kombi through.
We never planned to live there, but during our cycling adventures, we came to the conclusion that it's fantastic location of 2kms to central Mandurah, 1.5kms to a beautiful beach, very close to a variety of shops and 5 minutes walk to the Train Station helped make it the perfect future "Lock up & Leave" home base for us.
Feb. 2016, Mandurah House, cleaning up for the future renovation.
So far we have come up with a realistic plan, cleaned out all the mess, commissioned a local Drafting/Engineering Company to draw up plans, organised block clearing & made a start on having a large "kick ass" shed constructed.
2016 Mandurah House. Small garage to be demolished.
Project Two: Our SY Canal Home.
Tidy up, Repaint, Re-carpet & sell our too BIG, too EXPENSIVE & now UNWANTED canal home (contact us if you are interested in a great home at a fair price).
So far the outside has been professionally painted by Ken & he is a third of the way through the interior. Not a cheap job at just under $9000, but he does sensational work.
We intend to cut out the middle man & sell our home ourselves, hopefully saving us & the buyer some money. Still heaps of work to do but we are getting lots of "Runs on the Board". Once we are ready to pull the trigger, we'll let you know the asking price.
Project Three: Replace Roof & Interior in our Old Camper Adventure Vehicle.
Dixie Van, our Orange, 1976, VW, T2, Hilight, Bay Window Kombi.
This baby has only done a genuine 153000kms, the twin carb, 2L air cooled boxer motor was rebuilt 25000kms ago. We are the third owner, the first German owner had her for a mere 16 years (& traveled Australia), the second owners Aldwin & Barry spent 20 years taking care of her. Then 4 years ago "team wiljen" became the current custodians.
She is all original, unfortunately the interior was showing signs of wear, looked dated (brown wood chip veneer...please no) & didn't suit our needs, i.e. the king size single bed is to small for us fatties !
Dixie Van in all her glory June 2014... Let the Reno begin....no hurry people !
Stuck in another time zone, they don't make them like this anymore, June 2014.
June 2014, lots of rips in tent/skirt section.
I made an error (really only 2 mid strength beers) & crunched fibre glass pop top into brick garage, luckily at a very slow speed. All fixed now. :-) bummer at the time !
Never mind, tent section & fibre glass pop top needed fixing anyway. June 2014.
Basically our Kombi Van is rust free, so far all I have found is a small amount near the sliding door window & even smaller amount on the drivers side 3rd quarter window. It is unbelievable how good the condition is of our old bus. Oh there are a few nicks, scratches & dings but for a 40yo vehicle it's nothing major !!!
Today Saturday 13/02/16, let the Reno begin. Remove RnR bed...gently we need to reuse it !
Today, the things you find in old vehicles, piece of signage from the 70's reused as a grill guard. Looks like the map of the Perth to Fremantle Rail Line.....cool, I kept it !
Decide to cheat with the jig saw. Today 13/02/16.
And Dixie Van is empty !
So far we have refurbished the Fibre Glass Pop Top, installed a new Pop-Top Skirt & I'm installing a new interior, with a "larger bed" happy days for team wiljen, people !
Heaps of other small upgrades have been done as well, no need to list them all as Dixie Van isn't for sale. (not quite true, all our material possessions are up for sale at the right price).
We got her at a very reasonable price & plan to use her on our future adventures, when you are driving a '76 VW Kombi the world slows down & you are always smiling :-) (well until the next mechanical malfunction anyway).
So that's it for this instalment friends, the blog only reveals a small excerpt of our lives, there is so much more that actually happens but you either don't have time or aren't willing to talk about yet. Chat with you soon....
