Fire Bull UK

Fire Bull UK – Blogging My Journey to Financial Independence

Tag: football

  • May 2025 Net Worth Update

    May 2025 Net Worth Update

    April was followed up by another great month in May. Whilst there were no holidays away, the 2 bank holidays meant that there was enough fun to be had. 

    Football

    As usual I will start off on the football front, but this will not be the case going forward! 

    I managed to get back for my final game of the season after my holiday. We lost (who cares by this point) but it was nice to have our final night out with the boys before I pack it up. 

    Ironically my final match of the season was against a lot of my teammates on a Saturday. Bragging rights were up for grab and maybe more needle in the game than was expected. Love the boys but there are one or two who believe they’re too good for our team on Saturday, so there was no way I wanted to allow that ego to extend any further by allowing them to lay a smackdown on us. Thankfully age overcome beauty with the Brexit tactics on top of some good football being played. Up the old boys! 

    Onto the professional football, the best part of the season is definitely the playoffs! After the blistering form in 2025, Charlton had their semi final legs against Wycombe. If you haven’t seen it I’d suggest not bothering viewing any highlights over 5 minutes in total as they were 2 truly dreadful games. Despite this the atmosphere was amazing and we were on our way to Wembley, meeting fellow Londoners Leyton Orient after the impressively knocked out Stockport. 

    Despite my lack of moderation when it comes to alcohol at times, I’ve never actually one to enjoy getting drunk for a football match. Losing your voice and not remembering the match has never appealed to me. That especially for this game as going to Wembley with your club is a truly special moment. With all that said, there was only really the goal to remember from the match, with it being another defensive masterclass from the Addicks, sending us back to the CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! 

    I went to the Sunderland Play Off in 2019 and whilst this game didn’t have the dramatic end like in 2019, the afterparty was brilliant. We ended up in Boxpark where the Charlton fans and players were both celebrating to the feelgood tunes of Shakira et al (Waka Waka still blaring in the head). 

    Shout out to Alex Gilbert as he was loving life, despite being a loan player. By the looks of it you wouldn’t want to have a drinking competition with Alex Mitchell either, unless you’re a top LAD like myself…. 

    2nd Leg of the Play Off Semi Final vs Wycombe (picture doesn’t do it justice)
    Boxpark Celebrating Promotion

    Life Updates

    Other goings on in May was a lovely weekend in Canterbury, birthdays, catch ups, a return to cricket and the biggest news from the month, my Working Holiday Visa to Australia has been approved! 

    I’ve been wanting to go much almost immediately since I landed back in the UK over 7 year ago now. Blimey that’s gone quick. However, the ‘need‘ to go back has waned with the improvement in my career, personal life and finances over the last 2ish years, so now I’m not escaping anything. I’m still looking forward to it and have the excitement, it’s just knowing how I’ve changed as a person and understanding it will be a different experience to when I was there in my early 20s. 

    It will be interesting to see how the financial independence journey goes during this Working Holiday. In a way the delay has helped my finances as I’ve been holding off moving and buying a car waiting for the time to come and get out there again. Last time I blew through my savings and if it was to occur again to would hit harder now being in my 30s. 

    Then there has been an internal debate regarding have I just wasted some of my best years waiting to go back only to find out it’s not what I actually wanted: Time will tell. 

    More Goslings by the office
    Canterbury Punting

    Finance Update

    With the markets picking back up in May, my investments have gone back in an upwards direction. Although, the weak USD is holding back the level of gains.  

    Cash is low this month after paying out on my visa, 2 bank holidays and paying for some stag stuff in July. The interest on my savings account has gone down by an entire 100 basis points since November, so not missing a whole lot in interest from the lack of cash. Will be looking to find a new provider soon. Whilst the bank rate has gone down by 50 basis points, the extra 50 reduction is an absolute libertyyyyyy. Hang your head in shame Vanquis! 

    Figures

  • April 2025 – Bring on Summer

    April 2025 – Bring on Summer

    April 2025

    This was a month I was looking forward to and it exceeded expectations: Brazil, Rome and a cup final for my Sunday team made it a memorable month. There was one that ended in disappointment though (no prizes for guessing which one!)

    Brazil is massive so whilst we only visited a small part of the country, it was truly beautiful. You hear the stories about safety and whilst we was cautious, booking taxis and not using our phone when out in public, we didn’t have any real issues with the Brazilian people and they came across as friendly, inviting people.

    It was great seeing some of my old friends from my days back in Australia after 7 years. After that time away from eachother, I was a little anxious to see how we would all get on but it was like we’d never been away. With them being Irish they were as happy as ever with no awkward silences had, apart from when waiting on them to turn up. Timekeeping was never a strength of theirs but as imperfections go there are a lot worse 🙂 

     The wedding was beautiful and the switches between English and Portuguese in the ceremony were almost seamless. How much the Brazilian contingent got of the best man speech I’m not sure, but likely more of what we understood of the bride’s side speeches. 

    After the Wedding there was a night in Sao Paulo so didn’t get to experience the city with the rest of the time being spent between Rio and Ilha Grande before finishing the trip in Rome. Football, hiking, beaches, sightseeing, quality food, quality people and DOGS!

    The perfect holiday to get over winter blues and rubbish back home, coming back with a change in headspace. Would love to be able to getaway and clear the head more often and this is a ‘why’ for striving towards financial independence. 

    One of my goals was to learn a bit of Portuguese to help get by when we got there, and immediately was required checking in to the first hotel and their English was as good as my Portuguese! Between us we made it work, which was pretty rewarding. Will continue to carry on with Portuguese for the meantime and see how I can enhance it further. 

    Doesn’t need any introduction….
    The Wedding Venue
    The Infamous Maracana
    A lovely Caipirinha on the beach
    One of Many Beautiful Beaches on Ilha Grande
    Are you not entertained?! (By my substandard blog)

    Liquid Assets

    Midway through the month it was looking very gloomy for the assets, with my ISA value even being under £90K, but the recovery at the end of the month limited the damage, albeit still down again this month. Lumped a bit into the ISA in April but sadly not at the time the value was at it’s lowest. 

    I must go to waste some more money on alcohol, with it being the bank holiday this weekend (but I do need to write a post on this as it is the worst spending habit I need to address). Hope everyone has a great one! 

  • March 2025 – Biggest Losses So Far

    March 2025 – Biggest Losses So Far

    Sigh! 

    Before we go into the finance side of the month, I’ll start with a little rant about how my Saturday football has gone in the month, culminating in multiple head losses, a 3 match ban and a hefty fine for the month. Football truly is the beautiful game but has been completely poisoned by the attitudes of people within the game. Even getting to a final with my Sunday team hasn’t sweetened the bitter taste. 

    This obviously isn’t aimed at everyone in these positions as a disclaimer (for any refs reading lol). The governance from the top is poor at best/corrupt at the worst, Referees don’t understand the game with an ever increasing level of arrogance, Manager’s who have watched too many punditry shows think they’re geniuses and the players; I can’t believe how many big timers and cheats there are at amateur level. 

    Rant over and I’m looking forward to a fun April, travelling to Brazil then stopping over in Rome for a few days on the way back. The break from work (and football!) is needed, with the batteries needing a recharge before year end and Audit.

    Liquid Assets

    With all the uncertainty coming out from the US in March it was a bad month for the USD and Shares. This made March my worst ever month since tracker my finances. In fairness it’s not really life changing money and it’s all on paper, but seeing my S&S ISA go back down to 5 figures is slightly annoying, but buying at a lower price beats that slight emotional attachment to 6 digits. Inconveniently, the price of the shares when I purchased in the month had a little spike meaning I missed in on a bit of a discount, but such is life. Paid into my vanguard account at payday, which I imagine is similar to a lot of people, although not sure this is the reason for that little spike. Time in beats timing blah blah blah 😀 

    Sorry this isn’t the greatest post ever, just trying to get this out quickly.