MG - The Matrix Re-wired

tellmeitsfriday

See now - if you hadn't put them up (like me) you wouldn't have to be faffing about taking them down

"Officially" they can stay up 'til the 6th (Epiphany - is the the Coming of the Wise Men>)

Happy New Year everyone... it has to be better than last year eh xx

Memory_Girl

We always have a "special" dinner on the 6th to celebrate the Night of the Three Kings. Thankfully it is on a Friday this year so might leave the decorations up till the Saturday morning (any excuse).

Finally grabbed enough courage to go into the kitchen to tidy up - you know, it took ten minutes to tidy up, do the washing up and put out the bins and recycling. You think I would have got my head around the fact that it doesn't take as long as you think it might by now!!!

MG

Gemmzie

Tax return done, I owe 20p :rotfl: so all paid

tellmeitsfriday

...writes cheque to Gemzie for 20p - hope that helps

ClootiesMum

I'm back - had to come off laptop as fingers were frozen.

But I have now got heat & hot water again. :j:j How embarrassing though - engineer just pressed reset button & hey presto - it worked:o. Forgot about that....now have a note sellotaped to boiler cover to remind me in future

Thanks for the offer MG - if it hadn't been fixed I might have taken you up on your offer - after all I am back at work on Wed - work colleagues might not have been too enamoured if I hadn't showered.

Away to celbrate heat by sitting in another room for a while !!!!

greenbee

Gemmzie wrote: »

Tax return done, I owe 20p :rotfl: so all paid

I owe more than that. And yet I was claiming tax BACK on my pension and charitable contributions, and only owed it on tiny interest and dividend payments. Which means that they got my coding wrong (again).

I also discovered that every year, when my coding changes, my current employer fails to implement the change promptly, resulting in further reissued codes in a never-ending attempt to catch up...

What it has made me realise, is that as most employees don't fill in tax returns, there will be millions of people underpaying (probably far more than are overpaying).

I can't say I envy anyone who works for HMRC (you know who you are )

Gemmzie

I didn't do any SE work this year, just worked two jobs, so I'm surprised it was that accurate to be honest! Don't think it will be this year :eek:

Must have some lunch, am cold and un-inspired - this is why I need pre-prepared food!

Triciaxx

Alan's code was wrong when he was employed and it went on for 3 years - they caught up with it last year! Literally £thousands. My accountant checked it and he said it is very common!

He's paying it at the slowest rate they will allow with no interest - why should it be in their pockets earlier than it has to?

greenbee

I started life self-employed, and confused my next couple of employers as just after this the inland revenue decided everyone needed only one tax code, and payroll didn't like being given a Schedule D number. I haven't done self-employed work for around 8 years, but once they get you on the system they keep you (they did used to chuck you off if they had to give you money back ). Apparently they are going to increase the number of people they get to do it now it is online. I'd suggest starting with all those higher rate tax payers who aren't declaring dividend and savings income that is only taxed at basic rate at source

It may be boring, but at least if you submit returns, there is a chance it won't go quite as wrong as it did for your OH Tricia!

Anyway, I've paid (let's hope they notice... the Royal Mail don't always, because, to quote "we've got so much money going into the account we missed the £50k your company paid"). And it reminded me that I have the following financial targets to sort out:

1. Find a new personal pension, as my old one was with the same provider as my current employer, so when I joined their pension scheme I amalgamated them. It's not easy finding an ethical pension fund though...
2. Find a new savings account (again, I need an ethical one). I closed the last one, because although the bank was an ethical one, their systems were a nightmare and I could never get at the money when I needed it. Choices are either with my current bank/mortgage provider or my local credit union, which I need to investigate
3. Work out how much I'm going to pay into my ISA this year and transfer the money before I forget.
4. Change my will. My DB is currently my sole heir and executor. I need to change it so that his children are beneficiaries, but in trust to pay for their education. Which means I need to either find a solicitor or arrange to visit my parents sometime and see theirs, who I know and trust!

I've been spending this year rather than saving, investing in getting the house sorted (this is by no means finished) and getting help with all the stuff I couldn't manage myself while I was ill. However, I do need to continue thinking about the future. And this year's health scare has made me think about it more. I know FW says that overpaying the mortgage isn't necessarily the best investment, but I have no dependents and therefore no critical illness or life insurance... and there was a moment during the summer when I wondered whether I was going to be too ill or having too much treatment to hold down my job. (I'm still being very careful about taking as little sick leave as possible, as I don't want to run out and have to rely on SSP).

ETA - Gemmzie - keeping warm is really important. I get incredibly lethargic when I'm cold, so am investing in heating the house whenever I need to use my brain. Also drink tea/soup etc to help keep your core temperature up.

Big frog for the day/weekend/year done, so I may go and have a cup of fennel and cardamom tea

Gemmzie

Leave the will until March if you can greenbee, then you should be able to do it for free . With the pension, do you save enough for it to be worth a pension? Most people are better off filling an ISA first - this might also act as a back-up for ill health?