The Big Adventure

chumpy45

Back on the subject of postal orders, and showing my age somewhat, I remember receiving a postal order for ten shillings (that's old money )and finding it very exciting!!

Goldiegirl

greent wrote: »

I ended up with 12 watchers - and not one bid! Have relisted it today - maybe this time
x

That's the weirdness of eBay. I often find if something doesn't sell first time round, the second time I list it, there's a bidding war

chumpy45 wrote: »

Back on the subject of postal orders, and showing my age somewhat, I remember receiving a postal order for ten shillings (that's old money )and finding it very exciting!!

Hi, Chumpy, good to see you. I think you must be the same age as me. A 10 shilling postal order was untold wealth!




Exciting nature notes today. We left the house for our walk just after lunch, and heard a strange bird/animal noise. When we got on to the pavement there was a pheasant, about 10 feet away. It flew off as soon as it saw us, but it's a rare sight here, about the third one in 26 years.

Karmacat

I've seen quite a few at Wakehurst, but not at all round where I live, thats quite something! And I wouldn't be able to tell you what they sounded like either, I wish I could

Watty1

Used to ride through a 'shooting' woods. Lots of pheasants. Rounded a corner once to find them holding some sort of party in a bush. Horse was terrified as the bush was noisy and moving. Hilarious

atypicalblonde

Hi Goldiegirl

I am an avid lurker on your diary and just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading all about your retirement adventures. I also really enjoy your posts on the OS board too

DH and I are watching BB at present, nearly at the end of the 3rd series and we love it! If you have enjoyed it so far, just you wait until you get into series 3.... enjoy! xx

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

I've seen quite a few at Wakehurst, but not at all round where I live, thats quite something! And I wouldn't be able to tell you what they sounded like either, I wish I could

It was a sort of honking noise !

Watty1 wrote: »

Used to ride through a 'shooting' woods. Lots of pheasants. Rounded a corner once to find them holding some sort of party in a bush. Horse was terrified as the bush was noisy and moving. Hilarious

:rotfl:I'm not surprised he was freaked out !

atypicalblonde wrote: »

Hi Goldiegirl

I am an avid lurker on your diary and just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading all about your retirement adventures. I also really enjoy your posts on the OS board too

DH and I are watching BB at present, nearly at the end of the 3rd series and we love it! If you have enjoyed it so far, just you wait until you get into series 3.... enjoy! xx

Hi, ATB, good to see you. We're also on series 3 now, and have been freaked out by those manic Mexican Kray twins :eek:
Would just like to put it on record that I completely adore Jesse:)




Financially, our M&S monthly savers have been opened and the Nationwide switch has happened, so that's another thing done and dusted.


Have been thinking ahead, to next year, when Mr Goldie hits 65. He's got 3 pension pots, and I'm thinking that it would be an idea to get them all amalgamated into one pension, which would allow draw downs at some point in the future.


I've posted on the Pensions board, hoping for some input. My initial idea is for the tax free 25% to go into S&S ISA's and the rest into a SIPP.


I'd need to research more about investing, as we'd want a low risk, diversified portfolio, but I just wanted to bounce the idea around, and see what comments might be forthcoming.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Is there a financial advantage to amalgamation? My oh is in the same situation.

Goldiegirl

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Is there a financial advantage to amalgamation? My oh is in the same situation.

I think the trouble with some of these older pension schemes is that they don't allow flexible drawdowns, and some schemes insist that all the money has to be either taken out, or used to buy an annuity by the age of 75.

But if the pensions are transfered to a modern new pension, there's all the flexibility for draw down built in, and the pension pot can continue beyond the age of 75.

As we don't 'need' the money just yet, we want to keep it somewhere where it'll continue to grow, until we want to start making drawdowns.

But I don't want to rush into anything and we can leave the money where it is for the time being, even for a few years, until we've worked out exactly what we want to do.

One of the pensions has an annual return of 8%, which I think is good. So we'd need to make sure we knew how to invest in a SIPP, to get a good rate of return. I don't want to give up something paying 8% in a hurry.

It's a lot to think about.

I'm thinking or starting a S&S ISA, just to dip my toe into investment. All our savings are currently in cash, and I know that investing can protect against inflation, but of course there's greater risks.

In the past we've had unit trusts, but didn't keep them for long. We also bought shares like British Gas, and BA, but sold them fairly quickly. There's also my Halifax shares, which I still hold, bought from employer sharesave schemes, I hope to live long enough for them to get to a point where I'm not making a loss on them.

We're not experienced investors, so we need to learn more about this

I think the advantages of amalgamating are convenience to have everything in one place and flexibility of a modern pension. I think any financial advantage would depend on what return you are getting now, and the chances of doing better in a SIPP.

Not to mention charges and fees - I haven't even thought about that until now!:eek:

Karmacat

:o8% is a great rate of return! I'll be watching closely on this, but I have absolutely no knowledge to share

Goldiegirl

The second pot currently has a return of 4% per annum, so that's not too shabby either.


Now that I've realised what rates of return he's currently getting, we're in less of a rush to do anything.


Ultimately, we'll need to move the funds to a modern pension to achieve our goal of flexible draw down. But in the meantime I will monitor the returns and educate myself regarding investment.


The third pot is worth just over £2500, we're going to cash that one in under the Small Pot pension rules, and that'll be spending money for our 'big' holiday in February 2017.