Let's try this again then shall we ?

ramorth

Been all quiet here still, have managed to pay some money into my pension and a wee bit to the mortgage, no more has been paid to the credit card, but I am happy to let that just do it's thing in the back ground, I feel as if I need a new focus and a new challenge as currently I am just plodding a long, and plodding can be a great thing, I've just been doing it for too long and need a wee boost so to speak, a change of gears or direction if you will

ramorth

So I'm trying to think of sustainable challenges that I will enjoy, none seem to be popping into my head however, I think this Is one of the things that happens when you've been around a while and done most if not all the things you can think of, I've no more money to cut back from am SOA standpoint, I'm selling what I'm happy selling, I save money where I can, I'm now at the stage where it doesn't always work out best if I over pay debt, so it's a case of balancing my need to clear the debt and have long term strategies in place for the future

Will keep thinking though

ramorth

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/10/27/the-balanced-money-formula/


Reading this blog just now, (amongst other blogs) apparently according to some in the know we should be paying 50% towards our needs 20% towards our savings and 30% towards having fun

Now I don't know about anyone else but for is that's way way way different from what we are currently doing with our money, I do wonder if it's that simple ? Maybe there is a formula to use whilst getting out of debt ?

Will keep digging

ramorth

Have re looked at the gas and electricity and decided to change again, saving us £82.63 .... Now I don't want to waste this money so will need to decide a way to pay £6.88 a month into a savings/debt plan

The only downside is I will be paying my current supplier on the 1st and my new supplier on the 5th so won't technically be saving anything

skint_spice

ramorth wrote: »

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/10/27/the-balanced-money-formula/


Reading this blog just now, (amongst other blogs) apparently according to some in the know we should be paying 50% towards our needs 20% towards our savings and 30% towards having fun

Now I don't know about anyone else but for is that's way way way different from what we are currently doing with our money, I do wonder if it's that simple ? Maybe there is a formula to use whilst getting out of debt ?

Will keep digging

Well my only debt is my mortgage but I've just worked out mine goes like this:

Needs - 70%:eek:, savings 26% and fun just 4%:o

ramorth

I will need to work mine out, although I did figure my fun money is 2% ... Apparently the people that devised these % say you should stick with the 30% fun stuff otherwise there could be trouble ahead, there would defiantley be trouble ahead if I spent 30% that's for sure

ramorth

Have been thinking some more on this whole new challenge/ boost idea ... I am already doing a challenge which will effectively get me out of debt etc so have decided I don't think I want to add any more challenges to myself just now

I have decided however that I need to refocus my intentions/ goals if you will

I have several which is probably not helping me stay on track tbh

Goal one : debt free, our current level of debt is approx £42k ( mortgage and visa) it is less than this but have rounded it up, currently we pay £850 approx to this debt every month so it is coming down, but I want rid of it faster

Goal two: have £200k in a pension, I currently have £40k so effectively I am 20% of the way there, this is something that I tend to go between paying off debt and putting money into, I will probably start putting more into this as £200k is quite a bit to find and I have 20 years left to find it

Goal three : early retirement, I need minimum £90k for this pot but potentially atleast double that, I have 0 in this pot but also don't want to start putting money into this pot until we are both debt free and also I have a much bigger % of pension money saved

Goal four: savings, now savings are to be divided by many different needs, so best really into 3 groups, short medium and long term,

short for things like holidays, repairs, emergencies, equipment replacement( washing machine etc)

Medium for things like solar thermal panels, new cars, bigger holidays etc

Long term for things like new kitchen, new bathroom, roof, cladding etc

I have approx £1k in cash for short term and £5k in cash for medium/ long term I would like to get this to roughly £10k but I am not in such a hurry due to the unknown of the work environment

So time to re focus I think

ramorth

So with all the refocusing I am intending on

1) getting the debt to £35k or less
2) getting the pension to 21% or more
3) having £2k in the emergency pot
4) having £5.5k in the medium pot

Now to work out how to achieve these goals, I havnt set them to be difficult, in fact very attainable with a wee bit of effort, and if I reach them before jan 2015 then I will keep pushing them on

But I will still have to put the effort in

elfy1807

Good luck with your goals.
I too have short, medium & long term money saving goals in place.

Short term - money for next year's car insurance so I can pay in a lump sum and save myself £42.99 a month, save £300 for Christmas presents for various friends & family members

Medium term - Save £2000 by jan 1st 2015 towards a house deposit (aiming for at least £5000 by jan 1st 2016 but cutting it into smaller chunks)

Long term - have £100k in the bank by the time I'm 70. I'm currently 25 so have 45 years to do this. This goal may increase over the years, but for now, I believe £100k is a decent goal to aim for.

I have debt to my mum of £2980 which is obviously interest free and also have a car on finance that I bought in January. Like you with the cards, I'm having difficulty deciding whether to overpay or just save a bit extra and lump sum it. Although mine is at 14.9% interest, so the minimum payments will only drop by about £7 for every £500 I overpay.
So for now, I've just been paying the minimum, but will have to look at it more seriously when I'm looking at getting a mortgage.

But anyway, I'll be subscribing as I'm looking forward to seeing your progress towards your goals

ramorth

Hi Elfy ....Welcome

Your goals are very interesting as well, I like how you have chunked them down also, I was thinking to myself the £200k goal is just huge so how can I make it less scary, that was when I decided % ... It's the only one I've done it with so far lol

It's is deff a quandary as to whether to over pay or not, but like you say if you are going for a mortgage it's best to try and make se headway I to the Visa card

Good luck with your plans ... Please feel free to share also