Onwards to freedom!

edinburgher

£1k a month for the ISA is fantastic SSS

savingholmes

You are doing really well across the board... 

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thank you both 🙂

I've realised that there is another reason why I like the PBs as opposed to shovelling more into ISAs/pensions. The pension money is obviously inaccessible until a certain point in time. The ISA is not restricted in any way, but in my head the ISA is early retirement money, not to be touched until then.

In a very severe emergency the ISA is there for us, but I only really consider cash/PBs as mixed emergency and retirement money, the ISA is firmly pidgeon holed as retirement funds.

I'd hesitate withdrawing from PBs. They are at arms length, but available if truly needed. I'd feel defeated if I had to withdraw from my ISA. Plenty of buffer in PBs works for me.

In the end, I think it all comes down to psychology and coping mechanisms 🤔 

greent

^^ with you on this - we (yheoretically) have way too much cash and PBs - but we have several costly jobs needed on our house this year and much (some? Z depends on whether we find tradesmen willing to do the work at an agreeable price) of the cash will go - PBs are there to be touched 'if absolutely necessary'. My ISA is not to be touched at all - I view it as early-accessible pension funds 😃

savingholmes

It's always interesting seeing different people's reasoning. Too much of my 'wealth' is in house equity and pension. I have very little that is liquid.

Karmacat

Loving reading the reasoning, thank you all for this.  When I started saving properly, my business partner lost £40k in one of the big pension busts, and a smaller amount a few years later.  Plus, coming from a working class background where no one I knew had ever had a private pension, they seemed ... weird.  Controlling?  Something like that, though I wouldn't have phrased it like that at the time.  Most of my money is in property, some is in cash, and nearly all of my pension money (less than my cash) is in stocks and shares.  I know it sounds weird, but I'm happy with it.  Sort of 

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks for posting greent, savingholmes, and KC 🙂

End of January means the end of my first "new budgeting approach" month.

I have £101.90 left in the "monthly boring stuff" pot, £17.80 left in the "monthly fun stuff" pot, and £187.02 spent from the "annual lumpy spends" pot.

I'll leave the excess amounts in my current account as I'm sure some months will be over and others under.

Only one month in I can see that separating the boring and fun budgets has really helped me spend a bit more than usual on treats. A couple of days out, a couple of meals out, a paid sporting activity, and a takeaway. Not much of a rock'n'roll lifestyle, but more than we'd normally treat ourselves to in January.

Feels a bit weird to be trying to spend a certain amount per month on fun stuff, especially posting about it here, but I think without it I'm in danger of spending only on the necessities and not enjoying the journey as much as we should. I think getting value for money is in my blood, so I'm not worried about potentially going off the rails, we still know how to have a good time on zero or minimal spends 😆

Karmacat

Aha!  I can understand it more clearly now, with a month's concrete examples lighting up the path, so to speak.  I agree with the thinking too - it's part of the reason I want to finally get a car.  Life is finite, covid has snookered the ease with which people my age use public transport, I want to do it.  Hope you really enjoy your treats!

julicorn

I'm mainly just impressed that you have fun money left over - my YNAB budget pots are always completely depleted at the end of the month, haha! Well done.

savingholmes

Well done on finding ways to bring more joy in your life - and not making your life all about £.