Onwards to freedom!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thank you all for stopping by and posting

VDOT47, absolutely agree that it can be quite tricky deciding how to cover all the bases. We've fallen into our allocations by accident really. First of all I wanted us to be mortgage free, but our ERCs were quite high in the early years so we ended up aiming for mortgage neutral and paying the full 10% fee free amount each year. OH wanted a certain amount of easy access cash on hand, and I wanted to get started with S&S, so we struck a happy balance between the two. I realised (with edinburghers help!) that my pension contributions were too low, so ramped them up. OH followed suit a few years later. I did consider increasing/reducing pension contributions a while back (increase to max out on the potential upside / reduce to shield from political risk) ended up doing neither, just carrying on with my arbitrarily set 20+5% - doing nothing is easy, and strikes a balance between the potential downsides and upsides... We're just bumbling along really, but it all seems to pretty much fall into place and work out fairly well

Trix, I'm honoured to have you here! :cool:

Ed, thanks, and of course the same goes from me to you! :beer:

SuperSecretSquirrel

What a month! Unbelievable pension and S&S rebounds :eek: Net worth up £6,456.38 since 1st January...

If all months were like the last one we'd be done with MFiT5 in the first year :rotfl: Of course, all the other months will absolutely not be repeats of the last one :rotfl:

pinknsparkly

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

What a month! Unbelievable pension and S&S rebounds :eek: Net worth up £6,456.38 since 1st January...

It's worked out pretty nicely for me I must say - I put money into stocks and shares for the first time ever in January. And whilst I am prepared for the value to fall (which it did in the few days immediately after depositing the money) I am very happy with a 6% increase in value. I know that won't last, but it's been nice not to be completely horrified and traumatised in my first few weeks of investing :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Watty1

investing....something I really must dip my toe in (hovering over the water now)

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi pinknsparkly and Watty1 :wave:

Nothing much happened when I first started with the S&S ISA. Things were pretty steady early on when I was drip feeding £50pm. A little up, a little down, very little overall change. I remember thinking I'd have at least earned some interest in a savings account! Now the value can swing up or down by up to four figures in a matter of days - much more exciting I'd recommend getting started with a small monthly drip feed to anyone who can afford £50pm (or more), and who isn't a complete nervous wreck

Another unexpectedly good month in the markets has seen our net worth increase by a further £3815 in February. We're now 12.9% of the way to hitting my MFiT5 target, and that's just two months in, on a three year challenge! Of course, my next check will be a couple of days after March 29th... Will be interesting to see, if after this ridiculously good start, we actually end up in a negative position at the time of the first official MFiT5 update! I'm expecting to see some crazy things happen in the coming weeks and months so it wouldn't surprise me

crv1963

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

Of course, my next check will be a couple of days after March 29th... Will be interesting to see, if after this ridiculously good start, we actually end up in a negative position at the time of the first official MFiT5 update! I'm expecting to see some crazy things happen in the coming weeks and months so it wouldn't surprise me

It will be an interesting time, I'm not sure that it may just be a little damp squid rather than the world crashing down, the hype from the politicians to the papers may just prove to be that?

Thanks to you and others SSS I've taken the plunge, we've opened a SIPP for Mrs CRV, I've joined the MFiT5 thread to try to hold my feet to the fire and crack on with ardent saving. Our retirement is hopefully timed to the end of the MFiT5! We can have a little slack but I don't want it to be tied in to the end of the MFiT6!!!!

I've taken some inspiration and ideas from SSS and others threads and Mrs CRV who has little interest in the mechanics of it all, preferring the bottom line of "how much, when and how much does that mean saving now?" actually said to me "It is a great feeling that we can see an end rather than dream an end of working before 67".

So to others I'd say with some planning and saving on an average wage you can go before SP. We intend me being 58 and Mrs CRV 55.

kaycastle

I'm so in awe SSS! I'd love to pay my mortgage off as quickly as you did and hope I do! Its really inspiring to read about your next steps to financial freedom - although investing still goes way over my head. Is that something you started doing before you paid off your mortgage or did you worry about that later?

gallygirl

kaycastle wrote: »

I'm so in awe SSS! I'd love to pay my mortgage off as quickly as you did and hope I do! Its really inspiring to read about your next steps to financial freedom - although investing still goes way over my head. Is that something you started doing before you paid off your mortgage or did you worry about that later?

Investing is something to start now, not at some stage in the future. Your future self will thank you. I know this is a mortgage free board but it often (well, usually) makes sense to save and invest as you'll get more growth and interest that way than you are paying in interest. Even if you only put £50 into an S&S ISA and say £50 into a regular saver paying 5% (or a NWide flexdirect account that pays 5% on 2.5k). Then if you get extra cash, say from quidco or selling something, use that to overpay the mortgage.

Sorry for hijack SSS .

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi all Hijack away gallygirl! :cool:

Kaycastle, I opened my S&S ISA back in February 2013. I kept putting it off, but eventually got around to it. At that time the mortgage balance was about 75k, and we had about 30k in cash savings, so about 45k short of mortgage neutral. Started out with a £50pm drip feed. Bumped that up over time, and now it stands at £1000pm. Would be nice to eventually max out the ISA allowance, but that won't be happening any time soon! My net salary is about £1650pm (after pension and childcare salary sacrifice, and tax and NI deductions). That wouldn't be enough to max out the ISA, even if I didn't spend any money at all! It would be nice to save more, but it's even nicer to only work 4 days a week, so I'm happy with the choices I've made :rotfl:

Crv1963, brexit going off with a whimper not a bang would be wonderful. I do recall the armageddon scenarios bandied about pre-referendum - emergency budget the day after a vote to leave, massive recession, massive unemployment, Scotland leaving the UK, etc. All hot air. Hopefully we'll be able to say the same about whatever happens at the end of this month, and of course once again at the end of any transition period which will no doubt have the media in another tizzy

kaycastle

That's given me a few things on my to do list
Really insightful thank you.
My spreadsheet got really messy yesterday so I am going to spend some time reorganising how much I can put across savings, pension and overpayments. I put 650 away in savings at the moment but they could be better interest rates.

That's amazing going from 50pm to 1000pm!