How to fall in love with saving money

cathybird

Lomcevak wrote: »

I'm not on a FS scheme, mine's DC although my wife's is a good FS scheme. My motivation is less a hurry to retire than a realization that my profession is not very tolerant of the over-50s, and I work for a US corporation that will show no hesitation in wielding the axe when it feels like it - i've seen two culls of the 'expensive' older workforce in the last decade, and although i'm still in my 30s (just) and fairly immune at the moment i'm under no illusions.

So 'plan for the worst, hope for the best' I reckon.

I feel very lucky in that the organisation I work for does not seem to suffer from any kind of ageist mentality at all and quite willingly gives jobs to people in their late 40s and early 50s, though there have been fewer jobs on offer since 2008 ... but happily I happened to get one of them. Having said that we've had recent "culls", though fortunately there were enough people willing to take voluntary redundancy to make forced redundancies unnecessary. It's another factor I should bear in mind ... might motivate me to be even more frugal You're probably right to be on guard, Lomcevak - no employer above a certain size now shows much compunction towards the workforce when the chips are down. Smaller family firms might show a little more loyalty (I think). But really no job these days is "safe".

cathybird

Lomcevak wrote: »

I'm lucky to have lots of fairly quiet south downs on my doorstep so plenty of roads to ride, but a lot of my London friends just take their bikes out on a train at the weekend - e.g. a group go down to Haywards Heath, which is only half an hour or so out of Victoria. If you're not confident then clubs are very welcoming these days and there are a lot of very good beginner rides, my local one does 'nobody left behind' rides of 15 - 40 miles where you're out with more experienced riders who will organize cake stops, fix punctures and the like, and generally hold everyone together. So might be something to look for? It's a great form of exercise, especially once we're out of the worst of winter.

I'm fortunate in that I'm quite close to Epping Forest on one side and the Lea Valley canal on the other so have got miles of safe riding on my doorstep. But I'd love to be able to commute safely to work - it saves money, and is really good exercise. Sadly I can't see too many signs that London will be made truly safe for cyclists in the near future. I did join a club last year, in fact, but didn't like them for various reasons. Maybe I should look round and see if there are others.

I bet the south downs are gorgeous, especially in the sunshine

Lomcevak

I feel very lucky in that the organisation I work for does not seem to suffer from any kind of ageist mentality at all

Mine is too well-advised to be explicitly ageist, but when it comes to it will do anything it feels like in the name of cost reduction - and that normally hits the older, more highly paid workforce.

My 'lightbulb moment' came in 2009 when we had one such purge and my early-50s officemate failed his (largely unachievable) 'performance rectification plan' and found himself with no job, a big mortgage, and a large pile of credit card debt. Poor chap lost his house in the aftermath and still hasn't really recovered ; I swore then that i'll deal with them as they'd deal with me, and if the axe ever comes for me then i'll be able to stick two fingers up at them and walk out head held high. Been turning my finances around ever since.

On a more positive note

I bet the south downs are gorgeous, especially in the sunshine

they are. My favourite is sunrise midsummer, when I can get out on the bike at daybreak and have a couple of hours with them all to myself

cathybird

Lomcevak wrote: »

Mine is too well-advised to be explicitly ageist, but when it comes to it will do anything it feels like in the name of cost reduction - and that normally hits the older, more highly paid workforce.

My 'lightbulb moment' came in 2009 when we had one such purge and my early-50s officemate failed his (largely unachievable) 'performance rectification plan' and found himself with no job, a big mortgage, and a large pile of credit card debt. Poor chap lost his house in the aftermath and still hasn't really recovered ; I swore then that i'll deal with them as they'd deal with me, and if the axe ever comes for me then i'll be able to stick two fingers up at them and walk out head held high. Been turning my finances around ever since.

That's terrible Poor man. I'm sure he's not alone in having found himself in that situation, either - the crash followed so many years of easy credit and I'm sure caught quite a lot of people who had allowed the debts to build up, then found themselves without a job. One of the things I'm trying to avoid now is a "rude awakening" when I get to retirement due to failure to adequately prepare for it, but I'll bet there are quite a few people right now who are heading for one of those, too. What's heartless about companies axeing people like him, though, is they must have known perfectly well that at his age he would struggle to find another job - and in your early 50s you're usually still supporting a family, too.

My favourite is sunrise midsummer, when I can get out on the bike at daybreak and have a couple of hours with them all to myself

Sounds absolutely wonderful! Almost enough to persuade me to try getting up earlier One of the things I'd like to do in life is complete the North Sea Cycle Route, starting in Bergen, Norway, and I was toying with the idea of doing a short segment of the route this year, though I am not sure money permits, but if you went at the right time of year I'm sure it would be similar - absolutely gorgeous countryside, hardly anyone around - plus if you also got the early morning sunshine - fabulous - sounds like heaven.

cathybird

Well, this month, having gone over the rates of interest on various accounts, I decided to open a Santander 123 account and now that's been done. So my cash savings (such as they are) are now pretty much sorted and I can focus on building up the S&S Isa. Yay!

mardiemare2008

I want to fall in love with saving money too!!

After clearing my debts I am now looking at saving for a house deposit
& a general emergency fund. I have a default on my credit file from 2010 (only one) which will drop off in June 2016.... so this is my target date as I know I probably wont be able to get a mortgage with it on there.

I have about £400 spare pcm after all my outgoings. I want to save around £12,000. I just hope I can be strict enough not to spend it (I've always had a problem with money burning a hole in my pocket)

Lomcevak

Well, this month, having gone over the rates of interest on various accounts, I decided to open a Santander 123 account and now that's been done.

I've had one for almost 12 months now and it's been good, almost all of my non-ISA cash is in there at the moment. Don't know if the 3% will last in this low-interest world, must cost them a lot, but it's nice while it lasts. The 123 credit card is good too if you spend enough on the cashback categories to outweigh the annual charge.

I'm still bogged down in pensions, understand more than I did two days ago but still none the wiser on what to do. Will get there in the end, but charges are all very complicated

mark55man

Lomcevak - it all came simpler when I realised there was one question you had to answer for pensions. Namely are you more worried about

a. dying before you have spent all your money
b. spending all your money before you have died!!

Most people worry more about a. hence conservative opinions abound (probably correct to be prudent, but too much prudence can hurt your returns)

Probably there is a second question - do you want to structure your retirement so that

a. you can retire as soon as possible
b. you work a full life and retire on as much as possible

All the rest is detail (very very complicated detail), but hanging around the pensions board is educational. It is probably a mistake to try and understand all the details around pensions as when you come to make a key decision you can never know it all but you need to be informed enough to know what questions to ask you advisor

when it comes to investment and at late 30s all you really need to do is focus on growing (and not shrinking) that pot. to do this reading on investment strategies eg growth, income, high yield, fixed income asset allocation is really helpful and ultimately rewarding. I found the motley fool forums useful alongside MSE - http://boards.fool.co.uk/investors-roundtable-5007.aspx especially Investment Strategies sub board


there are many others eg monevator.com

Lomcevak

That's a good post mark88man, thank you. As regards long-term strategy I think we are on track to avoid 'b' (spending all your money before you have died!!), usual caveats aside Mrs L's university DB scheme should be the bedrock for retirement with my DC scheme a useful supplement. I'm more worried about your second point:

Probably there is a second question - do you want to structure your retirement so that

a. you can retire as soon as possible
b. you work a full life and retire on as much as possible

I'm not in a hurry to retire, but (as noted a few posts back) my choice of employment becomes more precarious post-50 and a secondary pension accessible if necessary at 55 would be a useful asset to have - plus, in the short term there are good tax reasons for it too.

I'm thinking initially of either a FTSE ETF or the trusty Vanguard lifestrategy; they may not be perfect choices initially, but don't seem to be badly wrong either. My current confusion is where to hold them; at a high level SIPP or non-SIPP, but also trying to understand the ways to contribute and where to hold it - was thinking of Sippdeal/Youinvest as it appears good for small holdings (under £20k) but a bit put off by the storm of protest over charges and the fact that i'll probably exceed £20k reasonably rapidly. So stuck in analysis-paralysis at the moment, although I have a month or two before I really have to take a decision about it.

mark55man

believe me - the next 10 years will decide that for you. Fortunately you will proceed much the same with your investments ..., unfortunately when you get to 50 and realise its a treadmill unless you have been skilled or very well organised or indeed simply very frugal you will then have a further 5-15 years working to really go for it

if you get to 50 and love your work (does happen - did for me) the next 10 years work much the same but probably with the mortgage being less a factor. for me I have a really interesting 2-3 year period then at 55 (as I will be then) it will be an interesting choice or rather a choice to be interesting, or just hang on and take the money


* the frugal point is worth making if you have only ever spent £15k a a year despite earning much more and you are happy to continue that, than it is relatively much easier to get there early than if you need £25K or more


** + I am also thinking that my need for money at the end of the retirement is much less than at the start so for meI am concerned about over providing for retirement and then not living long enough or not being well enough to enjoy it