Self employed quest to be debt free before retirement

Mara_uk7

Morning sunnyskies, Sounds like you really have a finger on the pulse of the situation. One thing to consider maybe .. a friend of ours, also self employed was in a similar situation a couple of years back, and he asked his clients to pay for any materials directly from the supplier. It meant that my friend lost a wee bit of the mark up that he put on the materials, but he didnt have supplier bills to pay often before he could bill and get paid for the job. Worth considering for even a wee while till you get yourselves straight ?
Good Luck

sunnyskies2

Thank you both for popping in and commenting, it's much appreciated:)

Yes hohum as sole trader just seems easier to bunch into one account and as not loads of income/outgoing transactions helps to keep track ( and avoids extra cost of business account - dumped that a few years back!) - I think will def keep OH under one category - May be useful for analysing too - which I have never done:) and may be helpful in long run for business efficiency.


Thank you Mara that sounds like a good idea - I will definitely bear in mind if we can't get on top of things.

No letters/communication from creditors today - should start a NCCD 0/30 - now there's an idea to keep track:)

Sarah:)

Puzzcat

Hi Sarah,
You sound more positive and confident everyday. The set up is the hardest part, then it's just keep paying and stick to your budget!! I did 3 months of token payments, useful for emergency fund and I had some car repairs to get done. May be something you could consider to raise your buffer for se salary and that e.fund, unless the 2 months is enough. It also gives you time to ensure your budget is working.
See you soon on the dmp mutual thread.
Puzz.x

sunnyskies2

Hi Puzz

Thank you for looking in:) - yes these threads are making me feel that I can deal with anything and take control too. Mmm that sounds like a good idea, I have written and asked SC to start from August do you think they will they be ok if I put it back another month ?

Thanks again

Sarah:)

Puzzcat

sunnyskies2 wrote: »

Hi Puzz

Thank you for looking in:) - yes these threads are making me feel that I can deal with anything and take control too. Mmm that sounds like a good idea, I have written and asked SC to start from August do you think they will they be ok if I put it back another month ?

Thanks again

Sarah:)

I just told them when I wanted to start as I also had a joint account to close etc, so didn't send my paperwork back until I was ready. At the end of the day they are your debts and your dmp.
Puzz.x

sunnyskies2

....following sensible advice from Puzzcat I phoned SC today and explained we need to pay July tax bill and accountant, we don't have anything put by for this and asked that we start payments in September when we will be in a better position to start. They were ok with this - so - they now have all paperwork from us and are ready to go! They will write to all creditors tomorrow:) and we should get activation pack in next few days.

Have had a few letters 'your dd has been cancelled, if you don't pay will be passed to collections..,.' And then new cc from same company:rotfl:

Last night, after checking out Youtube video a few times (thank you hohum I re-loaded a new budget on ynab and started inputting - it felt really good being able to budget ahead:j I've always kept excellent books and paid all bills - by a wonderful juggle process I had perfected until now when i nearly dropped a ball and knew it was time to do something. The DMP is great to solve the debt problem but just as good is that I will now be able to learn how to budget within budget with ynabs help - something up to now that has been next to impossible being s/e.

Next step, I need to set up a couple of subsidiary accounts with Nationwide for 'emergency and other funds'. Start meal planning. I have reduced food to £100 this week. I'm sure I can reduce all sorts a bit further but also think there are some bills/expenses I've forgotten about that will pop out of nowhere!

To make things a bit edgy, yesterday at work they rolled out another 're-structuring exercise' with a number of redundancies and my dept has been axed - but I am hopeful because I've had no communication from them and our roles apparently will now be managed by various other departments....would be nice to know what is happening though ! - possibly a change of hours or contract????

Will keep cheerful for now though -

Sarah

sunnyskies2

It's been so lovely and sunny:D - always makes the days happier!

Not much has happened really - which I guess is a good thing ie no hassling letters or phone calls, that I've been around to take anyway:)

SC have now set up the DMP to commence September, now awaiting log in details and hopefully acceptance from creditors of the plan.

On YNAB - I've got a few categories - household monthly direct debits which includes OH s/e national insurance and tax payments - which up until now have been part of a monthly agreement but not direct debit. I intend to increase this as much as possible up until Sept to get the July payment paid as much as possible and then revert to what we were paying and in theory pay ahead ready to have January paid by January. That will be a first:). Other category is OH work expenses - everything that will form part of outgoings - then we will be able to analyse that as a whole. I've decided to let us go 'in the red' for a month or two to encourage me to get trade accounts paid in advance - or before month end.. I am really excited to see how ynab is going to be the tool to manage complicated budget/income and am looking forward and motivated to get in the 'black' .

Sounds like my job is secure for now - there will be changes but will obviously go with the flow - and grab any opportunities to increase my skills - ready for any change!

Happy days:)

Sarah

hohum

sunnyskies2 wrote: »

It's been so lovely and sunny:D - always makes the days happier!

Not much has happened really - which I guess is a good thing ie no hassling letters or phone calls, that I've been around to take anyway:)

SC have now set up the DMP to commence September, now awaiting log in details and hopefully acceptance from creditors of the plan.

On YNAB - I've got a few categories - household monthly direct debits which includes OH s/e national insurance and tax payments - which up until now have been part of a monthly agreement but not direct debit. I intend to increase this as much as possible up until Sept to get the July payment paid as much as possible and then revert to what we were paying and in theory pay ahead ready to have January paid by January. That will be a first:). Other category is OH work expenses - everything that will form part of outgoings - then we will be able to analyse that as a whole. I've decided to let us go 'in the red' for a month or two to encourage me to get trade accounts paid in advance - or before month end.. I am really excited to see how ynab is going to be the tool to manage complicated budget/income and am looking forward and motivated to get in the 'black' .

Sounds like my job is secure for now - there will be changes but will obviously go with the flow - and grab any opportunities to increase my skills - ready for any change!

Happy days:)

Sarah

I had to read the paragraph about s/e tax and NI a few times but think I've got it now

We probably need a category for boyfriend's tax. Fortunately we've never had enough profit to trigger the July payment. I'm still in the process of doing my 13/14 return but willing to lay money that I'm owed money . Going forward, for 14/15 my income will be entirely through PAYE. I need to prod boyfriend to get his completed, so we know how much we will need to pay out by January. That will be a first for us too!

For class 2 NI contributions the way I've handled it is to have a category for each of our class 2 NI current contributions in our 'monthly bills' master category. I then have our NI class 2 debt set up as an account in 'pre-YNAB debt' and track payments to that debt separately. I am debating about whether to claim small earnings this year, as I worry that my NI contributions through PAYE and self employment are the only pension arrangements I currently have...

Great news re job for now, a little weight off your mind?

Puzzcat

Hi Sarah, My job has been restructured, renamed and changed departments so often in the last 7 years I've given up worrying about it now!!! I often don't know who I am, use many different job titles and department names to fit the job I'm doing at that moment in time!!!
No point worrying over something we can't do anything about!!!
Glad all is getting sorted your end.
Puzz.x

sunnyskies2

Thanks hohum and puzz for support and encouragement -

I think like you puzz- don't worry about 'maybe' but don't 'bury head in the sand' - it was this way pre DMP - I wasn't burying my head in the sand about debt - I just carried on because I could manage it - paid every bill, every month - then when I knew I couldn't sustain it I had to look for an alternative way to manage it - sounds simple now - I was worried at the beginning, as you know - but not for very long ( thanks to the fantastic people on the DMP thread:)

Well, I have login to SC now:) - I had a 'mooch' around - looked at my debt :eek: played around with repayment 'tool' - looking at how I could bring forward my DFD (currently 14/11/2023:eek:) - but actually it is pretty amazing by how much you can bring it forward, by making a small increase in monthly payments - so I will work hard to do this:)

hohum you may be interested here - I did my first reconciliation on ynab:T

...actually it wasn't that simple - for background information : historically I have entered all income and expenditure for bank account in a note book, then reconciled each month with paper statement - I say reconciled, it wasn't to the penny, just checking all transactions cleared, and lived by bank balance. I have continued to do this with my new (in credit :j) bank account too. -

I have entered every possible outgoing onto my ynab budget, have my bank account, a cash account, and two savings accounts (one on and one off budget), I also have a SC debt account (off budget).

I havn't watched too many tutorials - I think I have picked it up quite easily so far (hopefully I'm not making a complete mess of it)! - so anyway I reconciled the cash account then, after changing rounded figures to actual figures for bills etc tried to reconcile bank account. Uh oh - because I didn't realise I would be doing a reconciliation I had omitted some early June transactions - so had to enter/juggle some extra bits - it took a few hours to get my head round but hey it was worth it for a full reconciliation! yes:) I'm loving ynab - as I'm getting more confident I'm using it more efficiently. I can't wait for the next lot of income to bring that 'red' overspend dooowwn:) - I know it will climb again but it will be a downward trend:). Am now also having thoughts about possibly opening a new budget for OH s/e stuff - but will probably leave that for a while. I think I will reconcile each week from online bank statement. Onwards and upwards:) :T

Good luck England - first World Cup game :T