FinancialBliss: My hurty to thirty savings diary…

financialbliss

atush wrote: »

Do you have a pension with your employer?

Thanks atush - yes I do. I'm aware it's tax efficient to add to my pension. I've currently got a final salary pension, but it's changing - April 2015 I believe, but must confess to not knowing as much as I perhaps should about it off the top of my head. I'd have to dig out documentation. I also pay the basic rate of tax.

I'll find somewhere in this diary to add in a to-do list and add review pension/ pension AVCs - perhaps in 6 months time once I've got a bit of cash behind us we can draw on in emergencies.

FB

atush

As long as you have one (and a FS one to boot- this means you are already saving!!!)

Doesnt matter if it is changing, still better than about anything out there, and so great one you.
'
If you want to know more, post a Q about your scheme on the pensions forum, or just say which one you are in here.

financialbliss

Just a further brief note on FlexDirects - the plan originally was to open four via Mrs Bliss, as she doesn't pay tax, but as Nationwide are now clamping down on the 5% paid across multiple accounts, the plan is to open three:

As far as I'm aware, all run at 5.00% AER (4.89% gross) from the date of opening for 12 months. Based on our own tax statuses, we will get the following rates on the three accounts:

* Mrs Bliss: personal account - no tax - 4.89%
* Joint account: partial tax - 4.40%
* Me: personal account - taxed - 3.91%

Can I pop a question in while I'm discussing FlexDirects. Going to accumulate funds in the Santander 123 and then open / transfer to a FlexDirect when the funds are available. Do I:

a) Open and partially fund a FlexDirect, eg open with £750 and keep adding to the account up to the £2,500 limit.
b) Wait until I've accumulated £2,500 and open / fully fund the FlexDirect.

Option 'a' maximises the interest across Santander 123 and FlexDirect, while option 'b' maximises only the FlexDirect product.

I'm inclined to go for option 'a', but I'm open to guidance.

Finally, we've received our first interest of £1.10 into the 123 account. Keeping an eye on the FlexDirect which should materialise on the 1st January.

FB.

financialbliss

OK. No posts here this year so far from me, so happy new year to anyone who is reading this and thanks for dropping in.

Nationwide FlexDirect.
Got 8.04 interest for December, which wasn’t too bad considering this was only a partial month’s interest. Logged in on the first and transferred £1,000 in and £1,008.04 back out, satisfying the £1000 credit requirement. Seems an ideal time to sweep £1k in and out, so will continue to do that at the beginning of the month.

NatWest Credit Card.
Have £1,000 of remaining mortgage debt at 0% on this card. I’ve paid off £25, leaving just £975 to clear before the interest free period ends on 22nd January. Aim to clear this on 18th, giving four days for the payment to clear.

Other credit cards – American Express / Capital One Luma / Amazon.
All taken for various cash back deals and are cleared each month. January was always going to be a challenging month and I’ve got around £1,200 on these three card to pay this month, and with the remaining £975 on NatWest, that’s, £2,175 this month on credit card payments. With getting paid on the 17th January this month, should just about be able to manage to clear these three before the 17th, then clear the NatWest card on 18th onwards.

Santander 123.
Have had zero issues with them so far, although it’s early days. I’ve dipped my toe in the water with some balance alerts and they kicked in immediately on funding transfers between Nationwide and Santander. I’ve also downloaded the Android mobile app and that’s not too bad either.

Bike.
I cycle to work most days – free gym with a view and free shower once I get to work, and I put my bike (hybrid) in for a service. The front chain ring and rear cassette plus the chain all needed replacing, as they were worn due to mileage. Cost of £62.97, which isn’t too painful. I normally keep tabs on my cycle miles and I’ll rustle up a 2014 sheet in the next few days and link to in somewhere at the start of the diary. Normally, I do a summary sheet and a detail sheet, but I think I’ll try my hand at a cost/saving sheet too. I’ve been getting the bus in so far this year at a cost of £3.80 daily.

Fell off twice in 2013 – once in January due to ice and once in December due to wet / greasy roads, and not looking for any drama in 2014. Finally on the bike front, did 2,614.00 miles in 2013 – going to set a target of 3,250 miles in 2014 – this being a combination of commuting and recreational miles.

New accounts for January.
Probably just one – another FlexDirect. As you can hold two – personal and joint, I’m looking to open a joint account, which for partial tax, should give 4.40% for 12 months. Wont be able to fund this until the patter part of the month.

Interest.
Taking the Nationwide and Santander interest together gave £9.14 in December - I'm hoping this is the minimum monthly interest we see that it will grow monthly onwards.

FB

financialbliss

Quick update on the accounts front.

We opened a joint FlexDirect last Sunday. You’re permitted just one 5% account, but you’re also permitted a joint account, so we have done just that and were accepted for a joint account. I make that a net interest rate of 4.40% after partial tax.

No correspondence just yet, but I’m hoping it’s open by either the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Need to pay off the remaining £975 of the NatWest credit card, where the zero percent deal comes to and end on 22nd January – this and the Christmas spending on credit cards comes to around £2,050 and this all needs paying off this week to make sure we hit the due dates. Hopefully, any remainder can be tucked into the FlexDirect earning a little extra interest over the 123 account.

Now that I’m settling into the 123 account, I’m going to set up the credit cards to be paid in full by direct debit. I’ve done one already and as soon as I’ve done some paperwork sorting for the other two, I’m going to set them up also.

I've updated the savings goal spreadsheet, with the a new FlexDirect column - balance currently zero.

FB.

AlwaysHappy

Sounds as if you are doing really well with all your targets. Hope you can keep it up!! Look forward to following your progress

Suffolk_lass

Just watched Martin Lewis and I can definitively confirm you are using all the most efficient regular accounts for saving. I am considering what he said about peer-2-peer and quite interested in the zopa protection. It reminded me of your approach...
SL

financialbliss

Evening! A few changes on the savings front, so may as well put in an update…

NatWest CC.
This was my last stooze credit card. Accumulating debt on this card allowed me to overpay and finally clear the mortgage. The zero percent interest period finishes tomorrow (22nd January) and the remaining £975 debit on this credit card cleared today, which means apart from ongoing monthly credit card usage, I’m totally debt free, which is nice!

First Direct.
The first standing order collection to one of our 6% regular savers was today, which means we now have £600 in my regular saver – taxed, thus 4.80% net. Mrs Bliss was a bit slower out of the starting blocks and her SO is in a few days time.

Nationwide.
Had to give them a push, as despite opening a joint FlexDirect on 12th January, we should have received some correspondence to sign before the account can be added to the internet banking according to a telephone call we made today. Hopefully will get paperwork by the end of the week, and aim to return to the nearest branch, so that they can add the account ASAP. With it being a joint account, it’s partially taxed, but still 4.40% Want to switch some of the Santander balance (~1.78%) to this FlexDirect to up the overall savings rate across our accounts.

January was always going to be a tight month with the NatWest CC to pay. Currently we have attained an increase in balance of just £690.65 and a savings interest change from 3.48% to currently 3.71%, but this will improve slightly as the second FD regular saver and the Nationwide FlexDirect interest kicks in.

I have updated the online savings spreadsheet to reflect our current situation - see link at the top of post #2

Off to update signature…

FB

financialbliss

Nationwide FlexDirect.
Been having a few issues with this one. Opened and accepted for a joint FlexDirect on 12th January. After having no paper or e-corresponse at all, we called this week. Turns out we needed two signatures before they would open this. A day later, the original letter dated 14th January arrived to sign and return. A day later, a second letter arrived. On Friday a third letter arrived!

So, we signed and took the original to branch, as they had supplied a second class return envelope. On checking the internet banking daily, it was added yesterday – Saturday 25th. We were advised over the phone that we should not use the account until we received an “account open” letter, but as it had been added to the internet banking, I decided to take a punt and tried a £1 transfer from Santander to Nationwide which has credited almost immediately.

But a further £1,499 to take the FlexDirect balance to £1,500 failed to materialise yesterday. On checking Santander and Nationwide this morning, the £1,499 payment bounced back to Santander, then it was automatically re-sent, so the FlexDirect is now showing a balance of £1,500.

As Santander is now less than £1k, it’s not attracting any interest, but migrating funds to the FlexDirect, plus a First Direct £300 credit increases the overall savings rate from 3.72% to 4.52% at present. They have set the account as net interest, so we will have to request it as partially taxed.

I’ll have to draw on some of that FlexDirect balance for credit card bill payments in February! I’ve updated my savings sheet – see post #2 for the link.

FB

Suffolk_lass

My DH opened a Nationwide Account in August to run the bills and rent for his (planned) retirement property and it was appalling - almost four weeks to set up and lots of calls and visits. It turned out it had fallen over part way through the application so the account number was generated but it was not activated. Seems to be OK now though.


All the best
SL