Tag: ThingsTheyDidntTeachUsAtSchool

I just want to do my job…

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There is a lot more to doing your job than just doing your job.

If you were to mull over the specifics in your job description and not deviate, you’d probably struggle to legitimise a lot of the activity you’re involved it.

Like people, companies, jobs and requirements are always evolving.

Mindset is crucial. The Growth vs. Fixed mindset and how you react or view things that are happening to you is everything.

People often scoff at childish antics or allude that behaving in such a way is unacceptable, however the greatest games I’ve ever encountered were in my professional life. What you say, what you do, the way you say it and to who. It can be quite tiring, but the bottom line for me and something I always lead with is being kind. It’s absolutely free not to be an ass.

If someone writes to you in an abrupt manner or even steals your idea, that’s fine. Be graceful. There is absolutely no need to match energy with energy. Don’t ever allow the way someone treats you to change you. That would be devastating. Be kind always and a good example in the way you react to and treat others.

So yes, you may just want to do your job, but what does that even mean nowadays?

A career break shouldn’t break your career.

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Do childbearing career breaks stunt your growth?

We’re in the thick of Q2… Are you still gyming or have you given up the 6am wake ups already? Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice. If you haven’t already guessed, this months instalment is all things career growth and parenthood. Circling back to my initial point, I don’t have much say in the time I wake up in the mornings as my beautiful gifts in child form are completely unpredictable.

I am a wife, mum of 2 under the age of 3, and a manager in the financial space. I spin a lot of plates in my personal life doing a plethora of roles that I am not paid for, but that’s parenting for you, no days off!

If you’ve been a follower of TellMeElleCee and the “Things they didn’t teach us at school” journey, you’ll know that I am an avid 5 Year Plan advocate.

You need to know where you’re going in order to get there. If you know, you can rope in others and seek the relevant support as and when needed.

Back on topic, the lovely career break. Sigh… Unfortunately the first thing that sprung to mind when I fell pregnant last year was my 5 Year Plan, career and what I was going to do. With that being said I worked right up until my due date and returned to work when my princess was only 4 months (madness, I know!).

So… Do childbearing career breaks stunt your growth?

Yes – It’s simple maths. If you break whilst others are still accelerating it is simple math. Those still moving whilst others have stopped will move further ahead.

No – Although you stop for a period of time, it’s not what you haven’t been able to do that matters, but what you do when you put your foot back on the gas that does. Jump in with both feet, use those transferable skills to your advantage.

I once read that parents are the best hires as they simply cannot fail; they have too much riding on them to give up, are epic multitaskers and simply get the job done!

To all my Parents. Culture, flexibility and diversity is everything! Keep this in mind when you make your next career move…

Life is extremely short. I often speak to colleagues and friends in the industry that suffer severe parental guilt because of a lack of work-life balance. Our children are not going to be this age ever again and by the time you get to a place of “calm” or your desired pinnacle point of success, it may be too late. Your children will get older, lose interest or even worse; choose to continue the vicious cycle clinging on to the example you set.

There’s a lot to think about, mouths to be fed and job satisfaction to be had.

Ultimately do what is right for you because you will never get this time back and if growing in your career means neglect or mental harm, then maybe it’s not all it’s cracked out to be…

Work-Life Balance: The Intern is equally as important as the Exec

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This week I planned to share a post which highlighted the importance of Diversity, Inclusion and being able to bring your whole self to work, but I’m going to deviate slightly.

The title of this post is pretty self explanatory.

Regardless of who you encounter in the workplace, give them the same amount of respect and time that you would anyone else.

Why?

1- It’s human decency and good character

2- You never know where this person will be in years to come. Some people are extremely ambitious and may end up being your boss in a few career cycles.

3- You never know what people are going through. Some people are uber qualified, but take whatever role they can get to pay the bills or they may have just taken a career change and now need to work their way up from an entry level position due to a lack of experience.

All in all regardless of role or seniority all people deserve to be treated fairly.

Don’t ignore someone’s email because you don’t see “the decision maker” copied in. Don’t reply with a snarky tone because you deem yourself more important than said recipient.

After all, life has a funny way of humbling people. That colleague you treated horribly could be related to the person whose decision it is regarding a big contract you’re banking on signing.

I once read a really interesting quote that I think is quite relatable to this topic. It says, “you can tell the character of a guy by the way he talks to the waiter”.

Be kind.

You don’t know what people are going through or who the “real” boss is. Titles are great, but the man on the field delivering deserves a little nod of thanks from time to time.

People don’t leave companies, they leave bosses and unpleasant relationships.

Stamp Duty Holiday – Survival of the quickest

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Now is a good time to sell your property.

Houses and even flats are flying off of the market like hot cakes.

Now that buyers with as little as 5% deposit are in the mix, they have more choice and are competing with first time buyers and home movers for properties that would have previously been unaffordable and out of their budget.

In terms of applying for a mortgage, the same affordability factors apply (i.e annual salary, debt to income ratio and stress testing).

This new initiative means that those who can generally afford a £200,000.00 property, but just didn’t have £20,000.00 for a 10% deposit, can now buy a property within that price range with a 5% £10,000.00 deposit.

It’s important to note that nothing is ever done as a good will gesture. This kind of lending does present risks to lenders which is why you’ll find that interest rates are a lot higher when a buyer is presenting less deposit and borrowing more (loan to value).

Before the pandemic and the 5% deposit initiate, a 90% mortgage which meant the borrower would of been presenting 10% deposit, had interest rates in and around the 1.89% region. Now for the similar kind of mortgage, you’re looking at 3.49% interest rates. Shocking! That’s almost double!

  1. Find out how much a bank is willing to lend you & get a decision in principle (known as a DIP or AIP)
  2. Look for properties within your budget. See it, view it & make an Offer on the property within 24 hours.

“I called the Estate Agent to arrange a viewing as soon as the property came on the market and within minutes it was gone!“

You snooze, you loose…

Remember, it’s survival of the quickest!

The evil chain that stole my dream home – House hunting in a pandemic

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Part 2

When we started house hunting in March 2020 it was a ghost town.

We had agents at our beck and call and were spoilt for choice. The houses that were on the market had been there for a while, no real haste and vendors were happy to get people through their doors.

As the months progressed we took our time, looked around and didn’t make any real commitments.

Once the Chancellor made the stamp duty holiday announcement in July 2020, everything changed dramatically!

We noticed that as soon as a house came on the market, it was gone within 7 days.

I was set up for email alerts and was quite quick to book viewings, but before we could get through the door, the house had been sold subject to contracts!

A trend that was quite apparent was that home movers were making the most out of this stamp duty treat.

The stamp duty holiday meant that people could use this time to size up, relocate and make money! (Equity)

Let’s bear in mind that we were in the thick of a pandemic and forced to stay indoors for the foreseeable. If your 24 hours, 7 days a week is going to be your home, then it may as well be somewhere you feel comfortable and love being.

We saw city lovers opting for properties in the country/the outskirts of the M25 due to the flexibility of working from home and not having to commute in to corporate inner city offices. Not forgetting to mention that you get a lot more for your pound outside London.

What you’d spend on a 2 bedroom London flat, you could buy a 4-5 bedroom house with generous garden space outside London.

Ultimately the housing market was booming, it was the right time and everything was working in every home owners favour.

UNTIL we were all reminded time after time that we are in a pandemic, people are dying and services aren’t running at their usual speed.

Our chain fell apart because the upper upper chain had a Covid fatality and the middle chain participants had quite a bit of strain placed on their relationship due to lockdown Covid side effects.

All in all house hunting in a pandemic is not for the faint hearted.

Resilience, empathy and speed are key.

Chains fall apart, people let you down, but our lives are priceless and as long as we hold on tight to those, we have all that we need!

The evil chain that stole my dream home – Background Story

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Part 1

In this series I will be detailing the personal experience of trying to buy & sell property throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

2 weeks ago I shared disappointing news on my Instagram I had received a week prior. 

My husband and I were in the process of selling our flat and buying a new family home with a garden in acknowledgement of our son turning 1 and the need to size up. 

This all fell through 1 day before exchange was due and 2 weeks before completion was due.

Many had questions, many were scared, many didn’t want this to happen to them, so here we are.

Enjoy the 4 part series.

March

In March 2020 we put our property on the market. A week later the country was placed in a lockdown due to the rapid spread and threat of the COVID-19 virus.

This was not a great start to a journey we thought would be quite simple given my background and the fact that we’ve bought a property before with ease.

Everything was bought to a dramatic holt. No movement.

May

Things began to ease and we started to house hunt and made Offers on 2 properties – these were accepted. Now we just needed to find a buyer for our flat. Fast forward a few weeks – we lost house 1 because we took too long. With the seller being on haste, she sold the house to a chain free first time buyer for a lesser amount.

The second house was still in the works and both the agent and seller were patient with us.

July

In July 2020 the Chancellor announced the stamp duty holiday. This was great news for us. This stamp duty holiday meant that our expenses were to be bought right down. We then understood that we had more money to play with. It was a matter of, do we look for bigger houses? Or continue with what we had been looking at, presenting more deposit bringing our mortgage down/doing a more luxurious Reno job. 

August

At this point we’ve had around 5 viewings. No serious offers and everyone commenting on our slightly dated kitchen. 

September 

Aware of the stamp duty holiday potentially coming to an end in March 2021, we started to house hunt in September 2020 with the hope to exchange contracts and complete on our Sale/Purchase around December 2020 – January 2021

October

The second house we had made an offer on in May had been sold at this point due to our lack of a buyer. We were okay with this as we wasn’t too keen on all of the works the electrics needed. The house was a detached Edwardian home and needed a full rewiring (alarm bells).

Later this month we had a buyer! We began to give up hope until this lovely man came for a viewing with his business partner, shook hands with my husband and determined a gentleman’s contract had been made. 

We began to scramble because we no longer had a house we wanted. We immediately started to view properties, short list and then we found the one!

It was beautiful, had a drive, garage and a newly fitted modern wood burning fireplace.

We made an offer, it was accepted and the rush was on!

Days later our solicitors couldn’t get hold of our buyer and he advised that he was no longer looking for an investment flat as he had previously only dealt with houses due to leases bla bla bla. 

This was very disheartening and meant that we were now causing delays for the house we were buying.

November 

The agent that was orchestrating  our purchase of the house was great and quickly helped us find suitable buyers. We had viewings after viewings and eventually accepted an offer with the condition that things had to proceed quite quickly. 

December 

Searches had been paid for. Leasehold paperwork had been paid for. The solicitors we’re going through the motions and satisfying as much as they could.

Everyone in the chain was getting itchy feet. Things were dragging and our buyers were taking their sweet time. Eventually they got their mortgage sorted, searches back and we all awaited exchange/completion dates. Given the festive season, we knew this wouldn’t take place until the New Year

January 2021

COVID-19 was lurking. Some in the chain became victims and there were layers knocked off of the upper chain – this meant that it went from 6 parts to 4 parts.

It was understood by all parties that completion had to take place 2 weeks after the exchange of contracts due to the top of the chain’s situation.

14th January – the day before the anticipated exchange of contracts. We receive a call from the agent letting us know that unfortunately the sellers of the house we were hoping to buy are no longer proceeding for personal reasons. Everything fell apart. 

FAQ’s

What is the Stamp Duty Holiday? 

On 8 July 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a temporary stamp duty holiday that cut the rate of stamp duty to zero per cent for all properties £500,000 or under until 31 March 2021.

What is Stamp Duty?

Stamp duty is the tax governments place on legal documents, usually in the transfer of assets or property. … These taxes were called stamp duties because a physical stamp was used on the document as proof that the document had been recorded and the tax liability paid.

What is a Chain?

A chain is a series of linked house purchases which are mutually dependent for a successful outcome. Your chain consists of the person you’re selling a home to, and the person you’re buying from.

Join me next Monday for post 2 of 4.

There will be a New Post every Monday of February 2021

8th February 2021 – “The evil chain that stole my dream home – House hunting in a pandemic”

15th February 2021 – “The evil chain that stole my dream home – No chain, no pain. New builds”

Coming soon – “The evil chain that stole my dream home – Recovery. What’s next?”