Onwards to freedom!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Karmacat said:

I see what you did there!  I love it 💙

I've been bobbing along in exactly that target-less way for a few years, and I want a target back!  I like targets, and they'll help me with what remains of the pandemic.  Mind you, nothing wrong with the target of winning a million on the PBs

A nice enough sentiment by itself at this time of year, but I think the wider lyrics are quite apt right now. Hopefully we can swap "war" with "pandemic" soon, high case numbers but with much reduced severity sounds like a virus naturally burning itself out to me, so let's hope it's nearly over 🍻 I don't expect it to disappear, but being able to live happily with it in general circulation as we do the common cold and flu would be a pretty big win! 🤞

I'm feeling slightly panicked by the lack of a target if I'm honest, which is quite ridiculous I know. It's a big shift for me... It was only a few months ago I was posting about the jumping from one target to the next possibly being a negative though. Maybe a break from targets will do me some good. I'm not convinced right now, but need to give it a chance. Knowing me I'll probably find some other way to gamify life though - maybe it's time to start a new side hustle that earns a few pennies. No plans, but I can see how it might end up happening...

The lottery let me down entirely, so my hopes are pinned on the January PB draw now. Best of luck to you too! 🤞

Thanks for the new year wishes longway2go, South_coast, and savingholmes 🥳

savingholmes

You have goals. You are working towards FIRE and you are maximising time spent with family...

South_coast

SuperSecretSquirrel said:
....high case numbers but with much reduced severity sounds like a virus naturally burning itself out to me

I hadn't thought about it that way. I hope you're right 🤞

savingholmes

South_coast said:

SuperSecretSquirrel said:
....high case numbers but with much reduced severity sounds like a virus naturally burning itself out to me

I hadn't thought about it that way. I hope you're right 🤞

It would be lovely if this was true. 

SuperSecretSquirrel

savingholmes said:

You have goals. You are working towards FIRE and you are maximising time spent with family...

You're right @savingholmes, of course you are! I may not have any specific targets to aim for right now, but I do have bigger picture goals. The targets were useful short term focus points that helped us progress towards our long term goals, but it's the long term goals themselves that really matter 🙌 

£25 PB win for me in January. Better than the £0 in December, but not much better... @shangaijimmy tells us "hope is not an effective financial strategy". He's right. Maybe it's time to ease off on the dreaming and start looking for practical opportunities 🤔

savingholmes

Personally I struggle to see the attraction of PB versus the stock market on say an index tracker unless you need the £ in the short term. Having said that - I'm only investing in the stock market via my pension currently...

edinburgher

@savingholmes - in the current low interest environment, PBs are probably about as good a home for your emergency fund as anywhere. They're also likely of interest to retirees or those just about to retire who plan to front load their retirement spending by using cash to smooth out the potential impact of sequence of returns risk.

SuperSecretSquirrel

PBs aren't for everyone. You could have 50k in there and win nothing. You could also have £1 in there and win a million...

Last year I "won" £550 on an average balance of £49,917. My easy access savings account fluctuated between 0.4% and 0.6% in that time. Even if it had been 0.6% the whole time, that amount would have earned just under £300 in interest, and no chance of winning £1M. Compared to my instant access cash account, PBs were certainly a winner.

2.1% can be achieved on a 5 year fix now, I'm not sure what was available last year. The full amount at 2.1% would have earned just over 1k. So maybe it cost me £450ish to keep 50k of cash easily accessible, and have a infinitesimally small chance of becoming an overnight millionaire. I'm OK with that.

No way of knowing how the stock market will behave, but in hindsight an extra 50k invested last year would have netted more than my actual PB return, but not anywhere near the potential £1M. Could just as easily have made a loss.

I don't want all my money in the stock market. 50k would last us about 3 years without any household income. That's a long time. Having both been made redundant at the same time a little while ago I'd be nervous of having less than a year's worth of expenses in easy access cash, but maybe 3 years is excessive. I could shift maybe 30k out into my ISA over the course of 4 years, or I could shift 30k immediately out into a fixed rate cash account, but, and this is what it really comes down to, I quite like having the full PB allowance and the best possible (though still incredibly small) chance of winning a million 😁

I did hold my stooze pot in PBs for a couple of years. Winnings on free money was nice, and I definitely wouldn't be happy to risk anything that needed to be repaid on the stock market.

Other than up to £20 a year on lottery tickets, PBs are the only gamble I partake in. There's a small chance of a massive upside, and the downside is inconsequential enough that I won't lose a wink of sleep over it. You pays your money and you takes your choice 🙂

savingholmes

I understand how unsettling you both being made redundant was - I just feel you are missing out on pension uplift or market gains. However, I have good pensions (that I can't yet access) and can only dream of your kind of EF.

SuperSecretSquirrel

We probably are losing out a little. If I transferred what would have been the big winning bond to my isa/pension though, that would be a much bigger loss. I'd never know about it, but the universe would 😆

I suppose the fact that we have very modest aims might be part of it. We don't have particularly good pension provision, but we don't really need it. Our comfortable lifestyle could be covered entirely by two full state pensions. Before then, we'll have enough in pensions to cover us from 57 to SPA, and enough in ISAs and PBs to cover us from sometime in our 40s to 57.

We intend on working beyond our FI point, and the additional buffer that will build up is most welcome. There comes a point where the extra future money isn't really all that interesting or exciting though. I'd rather a small chance of a life changing amount now, than an extra grand or two a year when I'm 60+ that we'd struggle to spend. I guess that's why I'm happy giving myself more "fun" money now than I have done in the past, why I'm happy working 4 days a week in my prime earning years, etc.

I don't want to lock any more than my current contributions away in a pension, and the ISA gets 1k added to it each month which feels like plenty. There could be some extra monthly cash savings on top of that, but right now I'm trying to encourage myself to spend that on fun stuff (very unMSE of me I know!)

I reserve the right to change my mind on any and/or all of this at any time in the future 😂