the farmhouse in early spring
When we first came to Semilla Besada, we had already decided to use 40% of our capital to buy the property and 60% to develop it. Out of the 60% we budgeted not only for development but also for 10 years of living expenses for a family of three. This would enable us to devote all our time and energy to developing the farm, and we thought that 10 years was a realistic time period. After 4 years, we had lost 3 years of that time. Why was this?
Moving to another culture can have unexpected surprises: in England we enjoyed an organic, wholefood diet, but in Spain this type of food cost three times as much; unlike England, it was impossible to get a quote for an entire project, only an hourly rate, which meant that when projects overran so did the costs! However, when we incorporated holistic financial planning from the Holistic Management framework, we recouped those 3 years within 18 months!
The key factor, which is not part of normal financial planning is capping expenses through planned profit or savings. Once we had initiated the process, we could easily recoup our lost time. The added bonus has been that through continuing to use this method of financial planning, we have also bought ourselves an additional 3 years of time!
Aspen signing off, looking like a cat that got the cream!
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