Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Today ... well, today is *so* grey and misty, its quite odd. The layers of tree-covered hills I can usually see (because this is a small town!) are almost completely obscured

Anyway, these are the plans:
- two hours counselling work
- I'd better go into town to get some frozen green veg, and square batteries: my smoke alarm runs on those, and it died over the weekend.
- start the work to get my French apartment bills paid by direct debit online - it used to cost more than the cost of a stamp, but its now free with my bank, though they're not nearly as easy to set up as they are over here.
- cat stencils! Get the two of them done!
- Water the garden. Talking of the budget - there's food in that there garden that I don't harvest - make sure I get it into a state where I can harvest everything next year (including killing the ants that run about the big blackcurrant bush, every single currant had 3 or 4 ants on it, it was horrible ).

I notice I've used two of these when actually, even though my energy levels are low, because of the options I have I really need to be represented by these: :j:j:j

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

The £300 figure assumes that you're trying to create a perpetuity (i.e. the money won't run out). For the sake of simplicity, 4% has been the safe withdrawal rate over the last 100 years or so for a balanced portfolio, although it's likely that it will be lower in future as global growth has slowed.

£1/mth expense = £12/year cost
100% / 4% = 25
£12 * 25 = £300

If you don't have dependents/want to take it all with you, you could theoretically have a higher withdrawal rate.

Thanks for that! So, if I'm using the 4% withdrawal rate, I don't need to think about the 300, its implicit ... is that right?

The other thing is that the 4% withdrawal rate is exactly that, withdrawing - i.e., not buying an annuity, but keeping it all invested. I can live with that...

And I don't have dependants, which is a a :cool: or a , I'm never sure. It would be nice to leave some money to my nephews and niece, but not at the cost of hurting my own later-life requirements.

I'm just about to alter the sig again, to reflect your tax comment, and I realised, actually, that its a fair bet I'll inherit at least that from my mum - I'm not going to count on it, of course, because there's all sorts of things she might need that money for - for instance, I keep pestering her to get private sector hearing aids ... she's had the NHS ones for a year now, and they've become very upsetting for her, they hurt, they whistle, they don't **work** ... so amongst many other effects, she doesn't like to talk on the phone any more I keep saying that thats what her money's there for, not to pass on to us, but she won't - I think its quite hard for her to envisage spending out on something when the NHS already provides a version....

Anyway, for me, that means £48k to find :j

edinburgher

Not entirely sure what you mean KC. I mentioned the £300 as a guide/rule of thumb more than anything (i.e. for every £1/mth you want to spend, make sure you've backed it up with £300 of assets). As I said, I think this assumes a balanced portfolio (say 60/40 equities/bonds).

Keeping it all invested and drawing down once a year will probably work well, but remember that the value will fluctuate year-to-year and that you may lose your faculties as regards managing investments at some point. By then you'll probably be better off with annuities etc.

It's a shame that your Mum finds it hard to spend money that would improve her quality of life. I doubt my parents will have this issue, their home looks like something out of a design magazine (without saying they're spendthrifts, just enjoying the tail end of tough careers!)

Karmacat

Thanks Ed - it comes to the same thing, I've now worked it out both ways: firstly projected income x 25 (the moneymustache recommendation for safe withdrawal), and then using roughly the same projected monthly income x 300, and it ends up at the same thing. I don't think I've expressed that very well but its practically there ...

It *is* a shame about my mum and expenditure like that. I'll keep working on her! She's quite elderly compared to the parents of someone your age, I think thats why it is...

I hope your parents are having a blast :beer:

gallygirl

I think what Ed was saying that if you cut out £1 a month out of your monthly spends AFTER retirement then that's £300 less you need in your pot. So, we're down to £47,700 already. Assuming you cut down on your Primarni knicker habit :rotfl:.

Karmacat

And exactly how have you been managing to see into my knickers drawer? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

ZTD

Karmacat wrote: »

And exactly how have you been managing to see into my knickers drawer? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Whenever one asks a question, one should also ask one's self: "Do I really want to know the answer?"


:eek:
:rotfl:

Karmacat

Telepathy? Remote viewing? Analysis of my purchasing patterns hacked from a government website thats been set up especially to spy on me?

edinburgher

Through technical analysis of your technical analysis

Karmacat

Ye gods, that thing about £300 has finally sunk in ... I'm not sure it'll stay, but its there for now :j

I'm also pretty bad at sticking to a plan - I *did* do some work on the sleeping cat stencil, which has also finally gelled for me in my head, but the work was about ten minutes of the day, at this rate it'll take forever. Nor did I do that shopping - that, at least, was a decision, because I'm off out soon to my business partner's again, for a scheduled meeting, and when I come back, I can combine it with doing the shopping then: stuff like a hot water bottle, batteries, stamps and systemic weedkiller, as well as a few bits of food.

Better get cracking.


ETA - but before I do, I found this article in Guardian Online: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/30/-sp-narendra-modi-india-solar-renewables-energy
There's a description of the design aspects of building a solar array over a canal - government owns the canal, so free land, less evaporation from the canal, the evaporation cools the panels and ups the output of the panels a little, the canal is free of weeds, agricultural land is kept for crops. Amazing!