Breaking Through, Travelling On

themadvix

Sounds like amazing progress in house and garden KC!

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Good luck with the pension! I'm studiously ignoring mine (although as I pay in nearly 10%, and my employer over 16%, and I have over 30 years til I reach official retirement age :eek: I'm going to assume it's ticking along nicely...)

I would *so* do the same in your shoes :rotfl: and I didn't even have an employer at that stage

Lovely to hear your garden plans :j I try each year to plant something and have variable results, although I suspect in my case it's down to lack of skill and abject neglect ....
Can't wait to have a bit more space so I can try a few things, and a few *more* of the things I'm trying - if I've got more than one courgette plant the slugs won't be able to decimate my entire crop in one night (I hope...) :rotfl:

Yeah, I've been too ambitious in the past, and its got overgrown when I've had a virus for months at a time. Now, I'm prepared to be more ruthless with uprooting things I don't want - I'm going to have a patio border of chives and whatnot, for the bees and for me; the grape hyacinths, the heather, the oregano, primula and lemon balm are all welcome to stay, but if a non-helpful plant lands in my border, its gone

gallygirl wrote: »

Yes you can. So, whatever you earned less the £2,880 already paid

Thank you gally!

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

There is an article in yesterday's Money section of The Times that clearly says that you can go back several (I think 4) years to increase your pension contribution and it also says you can pay up to £3,600 even if your earnings are less than this - at the moment. They were discussing it in terms of the budget which they expect to raid pensions relief to pay for social care. If you want to see the article I might be able to share it or send you screenshots, if you don't have access to it.

You can pay in up to your earnings (up to £40,000 for the current tax year) on a matched basis - it is only the minimum that allows for subsidy by (say) a partner.

I think this means your late cashed cheque can still be allocated to a previous tax year, and if you want to pay in £2880-£3600 for this year you can do so.

SL

Thank you too, Suffolk Lass - good to know. I won't take you up on the S Times article, I'll find the gov.uk webpage, and go from there, but thank you for offering, and for posting about it.

And I'll need to do the list of my bankings, till the end of August (and a few for the little kindle book, which continues to sell a few copies each month) so I can find out what my gross income was this tax year.

The French rental income, though it never gets back to this country, is also part of that, and sadlly it will be higher this year, because the exchange rate works against me (both ways :eek:) - when I send money to France, I get fewer euros, and when I make my English tax declaration, the rental money counts as more :eek: - I'm pretty sure I still won't need to pay tax, though, because of the tax allowances I can claim for.

Off to see my colleague soon - he's given me the wording for his retirement notice on our website, and I've uploaded it, so he's on the same path as me now :j


ETA: found the govt's page on payments in: https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/pension-tax-relief

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Karmacat

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Apologies for being absent for so long but internet has been a nightmare for weeks, the connection constantly dropping out almost every hour:mad:. So frustrating as pretty much my whole life depends on the internet:o. It's happily working now I've switched providers:j but I won't get complacent as it's still very early days and it's very slow broadband in this area anyway. Massive improvement so far though, not to mention the cheaper prices;)

There are so many pages to read now I'm back:eek: so will have a catch-up and try to pop in again tomorrow.

I hope everyone is well and life is good:beer:

Sweetie! I was wondering about you - sorry to hear how troublesome your internet connection is being - I hope its more solid now. Don't bother reading back unless you're bored and you don't want to do anything - you know how I blather, and I'm very garden-focussed at the moment

earthgirl wrote: »

I can't help with the pensions stuff, but just wanted to say, wow and well done for all the clearing you are doing, internally and externally. It takes a lot of work and effort..must feel great to see it going the right way.

Thanks EG - I can really see the difference, especially in the garden. And to have so much less paper in the house is a wonderful thing :T

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

I hope that you feel lighter mentally after clearing out stuff - I love it whenever yet another bagful goes out of the door.

You're right, Squirrel, I feel a lot lighter about things - and even though the garden looks a bit like a bomb site it also feels lighter as well, the overgrown hedging and grass were really becoming oppressive.

madvix says: Sounds like amazing progress in house and garden KC!

Thanks madvix (I ran out of quotes, oops :rotfl:). I'm really pleased with it. Not done as much cleaning as I'd like, though I cleaned the hob and the outside of the oven last night (I don't use the oven, I only use my little halogen, so it didn't take long).

Back this evening - hope everyone has a lovely day

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[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

...... Don't bother reading back unless you're bored and you don't want to do anything - you know how I blather, and I'm very garden-focussed at the moment

Garden focus is good, KC:j:j:j


You don't blather! I always find your musings interesting, often fascinating, and very motivating:A. The whole thread is an eclectic magical mystery tour. You seem to attract the most interesting people on MSE:rotfl:. I'm never bored reading back on all the posts I've missed:)

Karmacat

Aww, thank you! I love the idea of the thread as a magical mystery tour Speaking of which, check out the flowers I got the other day from Virgin Trains: https://sunlightandimagination.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/unexpected-flowers/

gallygirl

Karmacat wrote: »

if a non-helpful plant lands in my border, its gone

Remember - a weed is any plant growing where it's not wanted .

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rtandon27

Karmacat wrote: »

Aww, thank you! I love the idea of the thread as a magical mystery tour ...

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
:D:D
:T:T:T
:j:j:j
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I find this lovely and highly amusing all rolled into one!

Karmacat

We aim to please :j:j:j


Right. Throughout the day yesterday I was making a list on my phone of stuff I wanted to do before I went away on Thursday. I've now done 10/24 - an eclectic list, true, but Mine Own :rotfl:

Done:
- clean oven hob
- text colleague and see him*
- open isa
- change bed
- wash sheets
- arrange bins (less obvious for neighbours, cough ....)
- garden navvying**
- submerge self and get rid of garden detritus
- email friend***
- checked income so I can make a pension payment

*
people staying with colleague are lurgified, he knows I don't want to be around that, particularly not just before I go see my brother, so I did all that gardening, instead of going to see him.

**
cutting back some green hedging plant that does nothing, and has some sort of disease plus more of the Very Lengthy Grass.

***
Friend has a business meeting in my town, but the dates and times don't add up, cos of my trip away.

Today: finances, garden navvying, checking on travel plans. Hope everyone is going to have a good day

Karmacat

So, this morning I have:
- paid cc bill.
- paid French accountant (439 euros! Way too much, I might have a moan next year).
- emailed friend I was going to see tomorrow, its too much when I'm off up north the next day after.
- moaned at paypal - I have a balance in there, and they say they'll use that first, but they don't. Latest example was for that glass measuring jug I bought when I was on about baking.
- been checking house prices oop norf - obviously essential work

This afternoon:
- go pick up my rail ticket. I never like leaving it till the morning of travel.
- now I know how much pension contribution I can make, I need to figure out which little private pension to put it in: whats the returns been like, what are the charges, what are the blasted things invested in?
- if I can squeak it in before it gets dark, some garden time.

themadvix

I'm tired just reading all of that KC - you're certainly making up for lost time...

'check house prices oop norf' - are plans afoot?!