This Time I'm Really Going To Do It

Suffolk_lass

Hello Watty1 - I have been a silent reader of your diary and I too am happy to "see" you back and posting and planning.

I have been active on the Pensions Boards for a few years but not in the aggressive, slightly blunt manner of some of the posters over there - I try to help out in language of the normal person regarding certain private pensions (DB vs DC) and how non-working pre state pension age people can improve their state pension, and how to interpret state pension forecasts (especially where the basic vs new pension are an issue). Helping people to understand what they are looking at, and what they might want to consider to improve things. There are some very knowledgeable people there, they just don't rate high on the emotional intelligence scale in some cases. No need to elaborate!

The savings and investment lot are worse - the disdain is sadly evident and a significant number of them have no real tolerance of novices. I'm a silent reader these days after having "my nose bitten off" for asking an apparently stupid question. Apparently it is more important for them to look clever (not all, but...).

Anyway, it's a long-winded way of saying that if you want to ask questions and I think I can help, I will be along, and feel free to PM me if you think I can help.

When you get your SP forecast, just be aware that although the previous years is an actual score the "you will get" figure is based on you continuing to pay for every year up to the 5th April before you reach your SP Age as the last year (incomplete) does not count, even if you continue working.

Watty1

Lovely Suffolk Lass. Thank you. I may well be in touch


I do tend to lump the savings and investments lot in with the pensions lot as really they are all as scary :rotfl: but this time around I'm determined to get to understand what is really going on.


Today's simple task is to find out how much i actually have in the bank and sort out my credit cards. I am well aware I've been living above my means for a while now!

Goldiegirl

Hi, Watty, good to see you again !

Watty1

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Hi, Watty, good to see you again !

Thanks Goldie. Good to be back with a focus

Watty1

Yesterdays challenge was to sort my personal bank accounts out. One account was overdrawn and rough calculations would be about a £900 overdraft had I not checked Paid myself a dividend to equal that one out as I am fairly sure the company has some cash in I am due. I will get to looking at that later ..... but ... this led on to me looking at my savings account and wondering how much I needed for my tax bill and how much was genuine savings. I got out the calculations and I can only assume I had some kind of mind breakdown earlier this year. I cannot make any sense of it at all. Total gibberish and unlike me... i can be a bit ditzy but this is just completely off the wall. The figures seem random the dates are out of sync. It was actually quite worrying.

I'm going to try and sort it out today.

Karmacat

You went through such a lot these last few years Watty, I wonder if you just tried to come back to mse ways too early? I know that if my brain isn't in the right space for finance things (eg my mobile bill, at the moment) even from something quite trivial, it can really disrupt my concentration.

ajmoney

Watty, KC is right. You are in a better place now and ready to deal with these things, hopefully it won't take too much to get back on the right track.

Durban

This is interesting regarding the Pensions board.

I was always an avid Mortgage Free wannabee and spent a lot of time on the Mortgage Free wannabee board.

However , for the past couple of years have been spending most of my time on MSE on the Pensions board where I have learnt as much as I can about pensions. They are very good with answering questions.

I have stopped overpaying my mortgage and now pay what I would have paid in mortgage overpayments into higher rate savings and investments which beats my low mortgage rate.

In 2 years time , I will then take this money that I have put into higher rate savings etc and put this into my husbands DC pension. This will be an amount of around £20,000 This will then get government tax relief , which will bring the amount up to around £25,000 time , we will then draw that amount out as part of the 25 % tax free lump sum and pay off the remaining mortgage.

By doing it this way , instead of the traditional overpaying the mortgage way that I was doing originally , we will pay it off much earlier than we would have done otherwise. We would have also gained around £5000 " free " in tax relief.

I appreciate that we are the right age for this as my husband is coming up for 55 which allows him to do this.


We also are making sure that we are taking ONLY the overpayments and tax relief out of the pension and not touching the actual pension that would have been there which will continue to grow.

Watty1

Thanks KC and AJ. I think the trauma and chaos just addled my mind.



All figures redone. And I have a clear spreadsheet showing where my money is now and how much is where and what it is allocated to.


And the good news is that I have hit a financial milestone. Yay me! Later in the year my accountant will have to check the figures but I think I could just about make an offer on this house now. It would be turned down because it would not be sufficient in his eyes but it is a start. My aim is to try and buy here so I dont have to move the business and an elderly horse.

And then ultimately I will have to sell up and release some equity for my old age.

I've read some more on the pensions board - and actually - once I got reading it wasn't so scary

Watty1

thanks for posting Durban. I like your strategy. With the perfect vision of hindsight i really wish I had done the same as you are doing now. It would have made much more sense - and - of course I would still have access to the money I had earned. Hey ho.

If I knew what I know now I would have done things very differently. But I did not. So time to dust myself off and start over