The Edcawber Principle

Karmacat · 8 January 2018 at 4:06PM

That's amazing, Ed, well done! It's hard to imagine what public services will be like when she's my age ... at least the bump in the baby boomer population will have ironed out by that stage, hopefully (because there's a secondary one, isn't there, when the baby boomers had children?) so she won't be on the receiving end of any focussed spending horrors.

I started to write more, and found it quite distracting, so let's just stick to "Congratulations"!

edinburgher · 8 January 2018 at 5:08PM

Thanks KC. I feel a renewed sense of urgency to provide her with opportunities when I realise that there is officially no chance of me swanning off into the sunset at 40 :rotfl:

Well... the £2.50/month for the lottery syndicate might pay off

AlexLK · 8 January 2018 at 8:43PM

We used to save for our son. At one point my wife and I were in debt with no savings and he had £15,000 when he turned 3. He still has that but we have not added to it. I hope it will fund a restoration through his teenage years to give him a nice classic car (MGB, Triumph Spitfire or something similar) and a project he complete with Mrs. K. and I. I can't say I feel any guilt over not saving more for him, to be honest.

Will let him earn an income from family investments when he is older but I will want him to put some work in for it. Used to want to tell him he didn't need to work at all and felt terrible I was not the one to have achieved that for him. Now I feel very different. I think he needs to work and learn the value of money. Something I didn't achieve for a very long time (perhaps still do not fully appreciate how difficult it can be for some people). I've thought things were terrible for my wife and I over the years (convinced myself news stories about poverty in Britain = my situation) but started to come to the realisation I'm actually in quite a privileged position and annoyed MSE'ers could see what I couldn't.

ZTD · 8 January 2018 at 9:36PM

Karmacat wrote: »

That's amazing, Ed, well done! It's hard to imagine what public services will be like when she's my age ... at least the bump in the baby boomer population will have ironed out by that stage, hopefully (because there's a secondary one, isn't there, when the baby boomers had children?) so she won't be on the receiving end of any focussed spending horrors.

A secondary one, and a tertiary one, and I'm not sure if that's a quaternary one at the bottom, or if the little "waist" is because teenagers die at an alarmingly high rate.

So Ed, is there any reason why you're saving £5K while still having debts? Or is that just a nominal "accountancy" £5K?

edinburgher · 9 January 2018 at 10:29AM

AlexLK wrote: »

We used to save for our son. At one point my wife and I were in debt with no savings and he had £15,000 when he turned 3. He still has that but we have not added to it. I hope it will fund a restoration through his teenage years to give him a nice classic car (MGB, Triumph Spitfire or something similar) and a project he complete with Mrs. K. and I.

I suspect that DD will need to use her investments for either education or a house deposit, but it will be hers to do what she pleases with it once she reaches a point in her life where she's reasonably well behaved with money (no plans to tell her this money exists).

ZTD wrote: »

So Ed, is there any reason why you're saving £5K while still having debts? Or is that just a nominal "accountancy" £5K?

Yes. 1) About a third to half? of the money has been gifts. I've invested every penny she has been gifted since birth. 2) The rest has come from child benefits. Apart from £2k or so in one time costs and intangibles such as moving to a house with more bedrooms (our choice), DD isn't too costly yet

I've tracked spending since she was born after reading all those horrific "a child costs £250k!" clickbait articles and she spends about £115/month in baby stuff. Sorry, rambling. In short, I've always been of the opinion that CB was 'her money', as it wouldn't be there if not for her. I'm sure a lot of people probably view that as very twatty and middle class, but that's how I feel

Our debts arose from both a structural deficit and short-term factors, neither of which were DD's fault.

The investments are actual and I would consider using them to pay down debts if they would wipe out the debt, but not if they were just another drop in the ocean. One option would be to sell her holdings down to one unit and then repay her over the next 1x years. This would make for far lower monthly payments, but we'd expose ourselves to quite a bit of risk as we would be morally obliged to match the growth of the investments. So if a magical super bull market appears because we crack the secret of limitless free energy or something, we'd be gubbed :eek:

edinburgher · 9 January 2018 at 10:50AM

£5.60 paid off CC (Mr M's have a cracking offer at the moment where you get £6.25 in points per £50 Am@zon gift card purchased). As we spend something like £1,000/year with them, I tend to stock up and mark the vouchers as grocery spend so that I can save/pay down debt with the nominal saving. Expecting another 5 vouchers or so to spit out when I go back this evening

edinburgher · 9 January 2018 at 1:01PM

Just found out that my 'mentor' from my last job died at the weekend, the poor chap only managed to enjoy his (early) retirement for a few short years. These sorts of sad stories certainly strengthen the resolve to not want to be in the office any longer than necessary

Karmacat · 9 January 2018 at 1:05PM

Love what you're doing with the gifts and CB.

I wish I had a Morrison's nearby - I *did*, a closed pub became a local Morrison's for a while, but that closed too. Now its finally a mega expensive convenenience store, right next to the old fashioned convenience store ... nothing bargainous from either.

ETA - just saw your post about your mentor, Ed, sorry to hear that. Yep, it comes to us all, but I'm going to make it wait as long as I can.

edinburgher · 9 January 2018 at 1:13PM

One of the good things about being a few miles away from a major city is the ridiculous amount of supermarkets! I can think of 4 Mr M's within a 15 minute drive off the top of my head...

I am pretty sure that mentor had a long, fun-filled retirement full of golf, sunshine and church activities planned. Unfortunately he was one of the unlucky ones who developed something quick, nasty and terminal. He was a lovely, patient guy, but a bit of a dreamer who never quite saw his plans come to fruition. It's probably negative, but I think that's why I found it so easy to relate to him? He had a million bright ideas but was all too human when it came to delivering them.

If I could only acquire his gift for patience I suspect I'd be a happy man!

Brodiebobs · 9 January 2018 at 2:56PM

Mr E, I've just 're-found you' i thought you'd gone AWOL subscribed and will catch up with your adventures

The Edcawber Principle

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