Those of you who have read my blogs in another place will probably know that we have a holiday house in France.
I don't want you to think that we are therefore wealthy. We used to take the children on self-catering holidays in France (being cheap and easy to reach) and, as you do, we looked idly in the estate agents' windows at the houses for sale.
For a moment I thought I'd slipped a decimal point somewhere. At that time houses in the part of England where we lived were going for upwards of £100,000. In France you could get somewhere really nice for a fraction of that. At the time, of course, with three small children and one income, it stayed just a dream.
Then eventually I went back to work, and was sent on a time management course. Wait, and all will become clear. One of the things they told us on this course was not just to have a goal, but to think about the steps it would take to achieve the goal. And they had us make lists. I remember one person's list was "Go to China. Er."
Mine was a lot more detailed. Starting with "See how much finance we can arrange," passing through "Go to French property exhibition, look at French property magazines" to "take a trip to view possible buys".
Within a year we had bought our house, taking out an extra mortgage on our house in England to finance it.
It sounds simple. In fact it was pretty simple. And our little house in Normandy, habitable as-is, cost us around £27,000 plus fees and taxes (not a neglible amount in France).
We have had friends who have said to us that they would love to own a little house in France like ours. We have offered to lend them our house, for nothing, so they can look around. But I doubt that they have ever achieved their wish.
So if you have something on your bucket list that is practical, that you have the finances for, then what are you waiting for?
My list includes publishing books. Watch this space!
