The Big Adventure

ljaneyr

Hi Goldie :wave:

I'm just popping in to say hi as I've been away from the site for a while! I'm starting the mammoth task of catching up on everyone's diaries

Hope you are well?

Janey x

Watty1

Rates of return seem great. Pensions board always seems a bit scary when I've been over there

smallholdingsister

Where will the "big holiday" take you?

Goldiegirl

ljaneyr wrote: »

Hi Goldie :wave:

I'm just popping in to say hi as I've been away from the site for a while! I'm starting the mammoth task of catching up on everyone's diaries

Hope you are well?

Janey x

Hello Janey, good to see you again. Yes, thank you I'm really well and enjoying life. Things are quiet here are the moment, but we have holidays booked, so there'll be plenty of action over the next 18 months or so!

Watty1 wrote: »

Rates of return seem great. Pensions board always seems a bit scary when I've been over there

Yes, it is a bit scary over there. I had to pluck up courage to ask my question, but I'm glad I did as it's got me thinking. Although I have a fairly simple question I want to ask, but it's probably a dumb question as well..... I'm going to pop over to Ed's thread in a minute, because he won't make me feel dim!:rotfl:

smallholdingsister wrote: »

Where will the "big holiday" take you?

Literally around the world. We fly out to Singapore, cruise from Singapore down to Australia and New Zealand, then up the Pacific to San Francisco, and fly home from there.


We've dreamed of doing something like this, since we first met, so it's fulfilling a lifetimes ambition. We'll be away for 6 to 7 weeks.






I've been doing more pension reading, and found out something I didn't know. Instead of having a one off 25% cash lump sum, you can have 25% tax free of any drawdown you do. This would probably work better for us than doing it the lump sum way.


Lots to think about, but I'm putting it on the back burner for a while as I want to concentrate on more immediate matters, like getting a few more current accounts, for an immediate home for some dosh!

Goldiegirl

For the last few days I've done nothing at all on the financial front, except spend money!


But it's spending that we'll enjoy. We've booked some excursions for our cruise in February. We'll only be visiting these places once, so we want to see as much as possible. So we have outings booked for New Orleans and Miami, plus a few other places. Then I booked a couple of coach trips for April and May, so we'll have something to look forward to when we get back.

Karmacat

That sounds great! New Orleans seems to be the kind of city that if you step a half a mile outside the tourist area, you can be in trouble really easily ... and Miami looks so spread out that unless you have a guide you'd be hard pushed to see the main bits. It'll be nice to see it before its submerged!

Still having some local bits to look forward to when you get back is really important, especially at that time of year - its a good plan

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

That sounds great! New Orleans seems to be the kind of city that if you step a half a mile outside the tourist area, you can be in trouble really easily ... and Miami looks so spread out that unless you have a guide you'd be hard pushed to see the main bits. It'll be nice to see it before its submerged!

On the cruise forums, some people are quite sniffy about doing ships excursions, but to my mind, it makes it possible to see a lot in a short time. When you are only going to pass that way once, it makes sense to see everything you can, and do it safely, as there are some dodgy areas around.


Some of the smaller ports are a lot easier to do yourself, as the tourist area is right by the port, but some of the bigger ports are in the industrial areas.


I did a bit of financial stuff this afternoon. I opened our second TSB current account. It's all opened and funded, which is great, but it needs to be a joint account. The only way we can make it joint is for us to both call in at a branch, which is a pain. We'll have to go next week sometime. Mr Goldie is already huffing and puffing about it:mad: I'll have to buy him coffee and cake afterwards as a reward!:rotfl:

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

That is a couple of months' interest down the drain! Men......

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

That is a couple of months' interest down the drain! Men......

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Karmacat

Yep, I wouldn't do a guided thing for somewhere close that I could easily revisit like Amsterdam etc, but out that way, and places like that, yes, tours all the way

You're so good with the financial admin! At the moment, I'm thinking about the accounts ... the French stuff makes it all so difficult, I know I can't do it at the last moment...