{"id":93040,"date":"2025-02-17T06:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T06:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/investing\/fire-and-energy-costs-south-wales-fi\/"},"modified":"2025-02-17T06:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T06:04:18","slug":"fire-and-energy-costs-south-wales-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=93040","title":{"rendered":"FIRE and Energy costs – South Wales FI"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Nobody really likes paying their bills- be honest now, do you really like all those direct debits (or credit card payments) that go out of your account every month (or year)?. Nobody really does, especially when on the route to FIRE you want to reduce your outgoings- as it has a two-fold effect. You both reduce the amount you spend (so require a lower FIRE number x25\/33) and you also keep that money to invest and reach your FIRE number faster. <\/p>\n

Energy costs have gone through the roof recently<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not going to talk about the why (many others already have)- and it\u2019s a number of factors that you or I have literally zero control over. Unless you happen to own some Russian gas lines etc etc. The sad reality is that this is just one of many many things that we have very little control over. You also can\u2019t control your council tax bill, your car insurance costs, home insurance, etc etc. But yet- you have some control over these- when you pick the house you live in (rent of buy) you are signing up for that council tax bill- sure it might go up, but the band you are in is likely never to change. <\/p>\n

Energy costs are the same thing. Firstly you have the age-old choice of going for a variable rate, or fixed rate (much like your mortgage payments). Both have their advantages and disadvantages- fixed setting a higher base rate of cost- but then not changing for the length of the contract \u2013 1 or 2 years is very standard. Variable (should) get you the lowest cost, but with the possibility that the price might raise whenever the wholesale\/other prices rise too. Secondly- you \u201cchoose\u201d how much you use. You aren\u2019t forced to have lighting\/heating or all the other technology or other things you might have at home- everyone is a choice that then uses electricity\/gas\/oil that you then pay for. So start thinking efficiently- turn off\/or get rid of things you aren\u2019t using. Especially things that are left on\/on standby that just aren\u2019t getting use (as well as the potential of realising cost from these too).<\/p>\n

Think for the long term<\/h2>\n

There isn\u2019t much you can do today that will change the energy tariff that you are on I\u2019m afraid- most of the energy companies aren\u2019t taking on any new customers now. Due to the way that they hedge and the price cap they are allowed to charge customers, if they took anybody new on- it would be at a loss. Nobody knows what the energy prices might do next, so it\u2019s not like they can bare short term pain for a long term gain- these prices might stay around for another year at least.<\/p>\n

But there are thing you can do if you think a bit further than today:<\/p>\n