Only freedom will do

Tropically

I know you want to get back to MSE discussions but I still want to pipe up! Applying council tax at a flat rate is known as a regressive tax. That's not my opinion, that's what it's called when poor people have to pay a greater proportion of their income to tax than rich people. So by googling regressive tax, one could find both the ups and downs of these kinds of taxes.

Our council tax has gone up by about 8% - not as high as yours. In your fancy spreadsheet, how do you account for inflation and increases in tax etc.?

Edited to add: It's not my intention to 'teach' you or anybody anything (especially things you already know), but in case anyone reading wanted to research further.

edinburgher

Thank you Tropically - that was the word that was at the tip of my tongue but I couldn't quite place - regressive!

I'm new to having to predict a tax increase as CT has been frozen for 10 years! My highly unscientific approach was to 1) amend the current budget spreadsheet so that the new amounts are reflected for the coming CT year and 2) add a new 'pot' to the worksheet that contains the list of savings for expected future expenses, saving a matching % increase towards next year's potential bill (so if it went from £100 to £110 this year, assume £121 next year (save £11/month).

This is how I budget for expected but unknown expenses - expect the worst, enjoy it when/if it doesn't happen.

AlexLK

So, you've worked out where I fit on the political spectrum. Often, I wish I had a robot brain, I'm sure it would be easier to switch off.

Do you have a spreadsheet which predicts expenses? I have a spreadsheet which I update after expenses have left the account. Direct debits I copy over from last month but that's the only "automated" element of the spreadsheet.

edinburgher

Yes, I have a spreadsheet that predicts all our unpredicatable budget categories (groceries, expenses for our daughter, petrol, home maintenance). All the other categories don't need to be predicted as they are so regular.

It's not particularly complex, but it uses a lot of data. Essentially it looks at averages since February 2015 and adjusts based on the length of months and any exceptions required.

We have just about got groceries nailed down, which is a relief, as spending has felt out of control for the last 4-5 months. The prediction is now accurate to £10, which I am very pleased with.

edinburgher

March 2017 Financial Update

Net Worth £157,738 (+£16,419.15) :j

Mrs E gets paid tomorrow, so time to call time on finances for March.

A great month for the finances, the bulk of that increase was from my small DB pension being uprated, but it was also a good month for DC pensions (+£2,000 or so). The one damp squib was the value of our house, which decreased by £1,500 based on my highly unscientific valuation technique (median value between last formal valuation and the Z0opla valuation).

April is going to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, we have a few significant expenses coming up (summer holiday, work clothes and a hotel for my London trip), on the other hand there will be some hefty payments going into investments. I've made a few adhoc SIPP payments, so will be expecting tax relief for those and I have reinstated our monthly ISA order (VANGUARD INVS UK FTSE GLOBAL ALL CAP INDEX A, I won't be rebuilding our holding in VLS100).

I hope that everybody else has had a productive month?

Suffolk_lass

Very impressive growth ed. Our month is severely impacted by 3 big things this month:

• Home buildings and contents renewal - obviously I had budgeted for this but I evidently transposed from £1440 to £1144 when completing the budget workbook so a slightly nasty surprise
  
• Husband's motorcycle insurance - up from £150 to £220 - with Saggy (:rotfl:) down from £290 with his renewal company. The steep increase is after his car accident in September that wrote off our car and the other car, with an injury claim in progress (husband's fault) - at least he took the course rather than the points or it could have been worse. He also paid for repairs to the bike following a minor self-inflicted episode last June - £280 and bought a replacement brake disk (£84) all in the same month . Safe to say planning isn't really his thing!
  
• I also had to sub the other house account £600 as we could not pay the plumber for sorting out the bathroom and boiler (a £1425 bill) - although we planned this, we then had to ask a tenant to leave when he became abusive so the account was short by 2-3 month's surplus

I haven't totted it all up yet but it isn't looking great with no mortgage OP for March.

Heads still up! I like the idea between the last formal valuation and the online estimate for house value. I might have to emulate that one.

Karmacat

:o:o I've never done this calculation in detail ...

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edinburgher

Thanks SL - that sounds like a very expensive home insurance quote - are you paying for any bundled services that you don't use? I ask as I was talked into taking out an impressive sounding 'deal' from L&G that was sold to me by our mortgage broker, but ended up costing double the bare
bones quotes from elsewhere.

@KC - if you never make the calculation, how did you know you could retire?

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

@KC - if you never make the calculation, how did you know you could retire?

How did I *know* I could retire? Short answer, I knew I was dead if I didn't, and I knew I could sell the house if I needed to, and buy a flat somewhere in the county where I live. I'd kept track of how my investments and savings were going, though I hadn't done a calculation of percentage increases.

But I haven't calculated the increase in NW because of house price increase, though if anyone should, I should - aside from the aspect of noise from the neighbours, I'd be perfectly okay with living in a one bed flat, as opposed to a 3 bed house.

However, I've never even tried to calculate how much the French apartment might be worth, let alone how much of any sale price I could get, the taxation and sales system is really different, and offers that are wildly different from the advertised sale price are accepted. I might have a go at that one, now, because my sister just successfully sold the French house she and her late husband were going to have as a holiday home (earlier this week!). It was on for E150k, and she eventually accepted an offer for E103k. And she'll know what the up to date situation is for who pays what tax, so I finally have a shot at finding out the accurate situation. Guesstimating, my NW might be somewhere around £470k, with £360k of that tied up in property I sound so rich, when I put it like that.

Okay, before the tax year ends, I'll calculate my NW - it will be good to know, and a good baseline to have.

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Suffolk_lass

It is expensive. I don't think it is bundled beyond combining buildings and contents. Is that what you mean?

We did sign up to a commitment with NFU until 2020 in 2015 (with a limit on the annual increase) - it is only £7.50 more than last year although I phoned up thinking it was £340 (felt foolish when I realised my error).

In mitigation, we do live in a thatched property so that more or less trebles the buildings part. Only £300k rebuild though

In the personal possessions we have named item cover for a four-oven aga (£10k, which TBH would not cover replacement new for old - they are nearer £12k now) and some expensive jewellery (all risks) roughly the same amount, oh, and four bicycles.

On top there are four outbuildings, a rather overstuffed cottage with most of the contents of a five bedroom house, you know, two dinner services, some good glasses, some oak furniture (it might be out of fashion but the replacement cost is no lower) one or two decent paintings, collections, clothes, shoes (husband takes size 13 which you used to have to get made (until the Americans and Dutch grew) these are over £1000 a pair to replace on a like for like basis) - it does mount up.

God that lot sounds pretentious. I am building up to a life laundry, honestly, I just have other stuff on at the moment... I might need to move it up the priority list a bit, I feel like someone on "Shop Well for Less" now I have looked at that lot