Preparedness for when

nuatha

fuddle wrote: »

Ok, a basic preparation is to get rid of debt and mortgage. I don't have either.

What I do have is rent to pay and at 35 I am losing the ability to 'prep' for my retirement. I am looking to get mortgaged to the hilt to 'prep' for my elder years. I am behind everyone else. Time is of the essence and it's my bad for making poor life decisions but hey, face up, relearn, grow and do something about it! I am trying to.

I think the idea that the most basic and first bits of prepping is to rid of all debt including the mortgage is an ignorant view based on idealisms. It's not at all 'basic' in real terms. To prep for SHTF is much more about bread and butter than surplus money to buy people off. I think anyway.

The only reason I have a mortgage is that at 42 it became more expensive for us to rent than to buy. I've shortened the term of the mortgage and hope to be able to do so again when the current deal comes to an end.
I consider the first principle in prepping is to learn how to learn and the second to learn how to adapt what you know.
Prepping for SHTF is not the same as prepping for old age - hopefully the later happens to the vast majority of us. The former is the unforeseen that happens while we are planning or as the saying goes life is what happens while you're making plans.
Money can buy flexibility, it doesn't always, it can't buy good health. There is no single idiom that works for everyone as far as prepping for SHTF, because we all face different scenarios with different priorities. What we can do is share what works and what doesn't in the hope that we can learn from and adapt other people's experience. We can also hope that what we and others plan for doesn't come to pass.

fuddle

No preparing for old age isn't the same as preparing for SHTF and that is why I brought it up because I felt strongly that the idea as a basis for prepping was to rid of debt/mortgage was not wholly accurate.

My need to get a mortgage to gain a property to retire in is separate from my need to prep. The idea that ridding of the debt/mortgage is a basis of prepping is absurd to me and felt I needed to address it.

It is encouraging to me to read that you were 42 when you mortgaged Nuatha. Our rent is the same as what it would to pay in mortgage at the moment. Due to my promotion we no longer need to live hand to mouth and we can really pull our belts in to fulfil the burning desire to secure a small property to retire in.

We know that anything can happen to stop that plan but we feel strongly that we must try.

[Deleted User]

Oh for a crystal ball and the ability to see what the future holds for ourselves, and then there is the real world. In prepping, for whatever your inclination drives you to feel the need to propare for we can ONLY do our best, we can only work with what we have and we can only do what our financial situation allows us to do. There is NO right or wrong in how to prepare, what to have in your equipment, bartering, stash, skills, knowledge only the things you as an individual feel the need to have, get, learn. We each do things differently, see the world through vastly different pairs of eyes and from vastly different viewpoints as our lives have all been so very different from each others. We do WHAT WE CAN and there is no right or wrong way to be a prepper. Even if you have a gold mine and a mountain of food and all the skills in the world there is so much random uncertainty in life that all or none of these things may or may not be any use in an emergency situation, no amount of gold will cure you of an pandemic disease, no amount of food will guarantee you survival of a huge tidal wave or forest fire and no amount of skills will save you from a tornado or a sudden and devastating freeze up. We can only do what makes us feel safer on an individual level, all the adivce and suggestions on the planet won't alter that fact!

sb44

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Think its called "s*d off" money...always as well to have some if possible;)

I think a lot of people would love to have some "s*d off" money (like the term ), unfortunately a lot would love to have some "how the f*!$ am I going to pay the bills and feed the family this month" money, according to the media.

It is surprising though how good it feels to be debt free and be able to save a bit each month, if only about £20, it is something.

moneyistooshorttomention

As was pointed out by FrugalSod your "minimum required income to cope" reduces if none is needed for debt repayment. This is, I would agree, a very basic way of looking at things. If the minimum amount you can literally survive on is, say, £500 per month then you have a good chance that a salary or pension will provide at least that amount. However, if you also need, say, £200 per month for debt repayment and several hundred £s more for rent or mortgage, then a lot of employers these days wont pay sufficient to cover that in the case of lower-paid jobs.

I have found that to be true personally, as it would have been literally impossible for me to retire at 60 (as per plan from Day 1) if I'd had to pay debt and/or rent payments out of the part pension that is only income I am due for from 60 until that darn revised State Pension Age. Because I was clear of debt and mortgage, then I could go ahead and retire at 60 - if not at all happy about this temporarily reduced income I'm currently on whilst waiting for my revised SPA.

Speaking personally, I took the chance I had to buy a house at last some years back and then paid back the mortgage as fast as I could reasonably manage and then got clear of debt. If I'd not done that, then I'd still have rent to pay on the one hand, but my employer would have made me redundant after I hit 60 and retired anyway and I don't want to think what my financial circumstances would have been like then:eek:.

Hence I thoroughly agree with FrugalSod's assessment on the most basic thing. Add in I have repaid every debt I had and bang on time exactly according to plan and I can sleep easy knowing there is no risk of being put in a situation where I couldn't repay debt and had to mentally put it on a list to "repay when I can - even though I'd officially been let off the need to do so". I would always have repaid every penny I owed regardless and at least am free of having that sort of thing hanging over my head for the rest of my life or until I found a way to repay it (whichever came first). You cant put a price on an easy conscience.

boultdj

Fuddle, if it's any help to know, I only got a mortgage last year, at the age of 45, and it's £120 per month cheaper than the rent I was paying the council.

DawnW

fuddle wrote: »

It is encouraging to me to read that you were 42 when you mortgaged Nuatha. Our rent is the same as what it would to pay in mortgage at the moment. Due to my promotion we no longer need to live hand to mouth and we can really pull our belts in to fulfil the burning desire to secure a small property to retire in.

We know that anything can happen to stop that plan but we feel strongly that we must try.

OH and I didn't buy until we were in our 50s Fuddle, though we probably could have done so a few years before we did. We bought just before the banking crisis / crash when prices were highest but felt it was then or never as far as getting a mortgage was concerned - our jobs were under threat, and ok, we were fairly confident of getting work if the worst happened, but not necessarily well paid or secure enough to be certain of qualifying for a mortgage. And as we had substantial savings by then, we didn't think we would be entitled to any benefits if we found ourselves unemployed, and could see the money we had worked so hard to save simply dwindling away if we didn't act when we did. A bit of a risk perhaps, but we bought modestly and had some savings left over, and would have done any kind of work to pay that mortgage. We also hedged by buying a house with a decent spare room so we could let it out if needed, and space to start a small business. This sounds a bit idealistic, but what we actually have is an older style terrace with a loft conversion, and a garage and workshop at the back, in one of the cheapest local towns. We were amazed when we did our research how prices vary within just a few miles. In the event, our jobs survived for long enough to pay off the mortgage (we overpaid as much as we were allowed each year while it was fixed, and once the fix ended, the gloves were off!) Not my dream home by any means, but we like our neighbours, and I love my little garden, and realistically I am not going to get my country cottage unless one of our premium bonds comes up :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

I rather think that getting yourself debt free and trying as hard as you can to stay that way and provide yourselves with a home and a secure future is a very fine and sensible thing to do. I guess that to see money as 'spare' is a very different life experience to having been so poor as to have to start from below rock bottom and climb up to the gutter as a massive effort in the first place. We all come from very different backgrounds, you CANNOT glibly write off other peoples personal financial affairs and priorities as irrelevant or to condemn the rest of us as people with no consciences. We have done and still do THE BEST WE CAN! I personally don't feel the need to stand on a pedestal of my own pride!!!

BettiePage

boultdj wrote: »

Fuddle, if it's any help to know, I only got a mortgage last year, at the age of 45, and it's £120 per month cheaper than the rent I was paying the council.

This gives me hope, I'm 45 this year and looking to buy maybe next year.

boultdj

We were 'lucky', my dad died the year before, we sold his house, which was a right mess, paid off his debt's which took half the money, what was left was split between me & bro, found this house, and it turned out to be one of bro's old work mate's mum's house, we did not argue over the price,and they keep it for 8 month's for us due to OH not having any 'recognised' id, we had to wait to get him a passport, just as the strike started, since then I'v been doing the repair's that are basic, ie; plastering in the bathroom, replacing some broken floorboard's, and we've had to have someone in to replace some of the tile's that came off the roof, the neighbour's are brillent, 2 of 'em use to work with bro, found out I liked gardening so cadged me a greenhouse, all it cost me was some scone's,cake's and stew & dumplings, seeing as they are both widower's in their 70's. Can say I'v never been happer since moving in and the tree's are growing better in the ground than they were in the tub's.