Young, free and simply stupid; MrCF takes control!

MrCrimeFiction

Having a bit of a dilemma today. I finished reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and I am dreaming of owning assets and getting rid of my loans.

For the past 4 years, I have been paying 12% into my pension, but as part of the public sector reform, this has gone upto 13.5%, starting 1st April. It means I paid a whopping £333 into my pension this month.

I was thinking, as I've now been told that I'm working till 60 before I can retire and get my pension, should I take a few years out of it and pay my debts off quicker. This will minimise how much interest I pay on my debts and 'should" make me debt free quicker. I would also use this money to put my share into the house.

I can then either rejoin the pension again or use the extra money to save up for a but to let etc.

I'm on a career average salary pension.

Let me know your thought, I'm open to suggestions.

MrCF

Magpie100

Subscribed to your diary and enjoying it. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post on the pensions board here and make sure you get plenty of advice before you do anything like stopping your pension. I know it seems tempting to be able to use the cash now, but it's a risky strategy for the future, depending on the details. Remember, your employer's contributions are free money that you will be declining every month, and with no way of getting back.

Good luck with whatever you decide, but I really wanted to say DO YOUR RESEARCH carefully!

Mags100

MrCrimeFiction

Hello Magpie. Thanks for visiting and subscribing

I have been reading up on my pension situation for the past 2 days. I've been using the calculators and I've realised that yes I'm still getting a decent pension. Although it will probably change again in future, I will still be in a decent position.

My current predicament is that once I work for my allocated number of years and retire at 53, I won't be able to access my pension until 2 years later at 55 at the earliest. If I take my pension at 55, I would loose 25% of its value than if I waited until I was 60. So either I wait 7 years from retiring to get my decent pension, or wait 2 years and get a reduced one. My dilemma was that you can actually carry on working till your 60 in my job, so that would be another 7 years of a good wage. The problem here being is that you can't opt out of the monthly pension contribution, so you would have to pay into the pension for another 7 years, with absolutely no gain in the final pension package. There is no difference in the pension package value from retiring at 53 or working an extra 7 years and retiring at 60.

The only benefit I could see here say is that if I did come out the pension for a number of years, these extra contributions would bump my pension upto where it should have been if I hadn't come out of it.

I'm not making any decisions yet and I won't stupidly pull out of it, but I'm going to speak with the finance department about the extra years and see what the score is with them.

Anyway, a small fuel up of £12.50 yesterday and a lovely family member of mine bought me a piece of clothing I was needing for work which I was going to buy anyway. I saved nicely there :cool:

End of April Update

Outgoings - £587.81 (2 Loans and Car Loan)
Spending - £205.40 (Did include £99 work clothes and cash to xmas tins)
Fuel - £54.50
Mobile - £21.19
Joint Account - £775.00

Total expenses - £1643.90

Wages for February - £1625.35

Total saved during April -£18.55.

Savings

Current Account - £1672.28
ISA - £1454.49

Total Savings Worth - :j £3126.77 :j

Debts

Loan 1 - £9441.06
Loan 2 - £2186.60
Car loan - £3846.00 (roughly)

Next month I will try to batter down loan 2. The clothing for work got in the way of it a little this month. Also, my wage took a hit as it's the first month my cycle to work deduction came off and my pension went up. I think I actually missed out on about £50-£60 compared to normal.

The only positive thing in the last week was that I got another day in the office at double time. I got a phone call on Sunday asking me to go in and start on a presentation for Monday morning. I jumped at the chance. Hopefully both that day's overtime and the day the week before will both get paid in May's wage.

Anyway, a few purchases today from the house account. I got a new man toy to play with :rotfl:

MrCF

MrCrimeFiction

First post of May :j

My standing order of £25 went over to my Emergency fund (ISA) as normal. I topped it up with a small payment of £1.28.

I was humming and hawing over what overpayment to make to the loans. In the end I put through an overpayment of £100.00 to loan 2. Now it's done I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the month. When my usual loan payment comes out later in the month, it should see the total come under £2000.

Had a bit of a silly moment earlier though. Love Top Cash Back and I used it for car insurance quotes to get a few £ in the account. I deposited £21.00 into a gambling account and essentially gambled it. I know this isn't very MSE, but the only reason I did this was to get the £27.50 cash back it was offering for opening an account and wagering over £20.00. Hopefully it comes through ok and I don't essentially loose out on my money. If it works out and I get the cashback, I'll make £6.50 profit.

My overtime still hasn't been approved by the boss. Really hoping it comes in Mays wage as I could do with boosting my xmas pot and paying more towards loan 2.

I've signed up for the 'Make £10 a day in May' challenge, but I'm only doing £1 a day to start with. This extra money will go over to the ISA to help build it up.

I hope everyone else has got that Friday feeling. I sure have :rotfl:

MrCF

Trixxibell

Hiya Subscribed,


I'm in a similar dilemma of overpaying or saving for settlement figure on my car. I have decided to save and pay the settlement figure once I reach the magic number of £1,000 in my emergency fund almost there.


I'm used to getting excited seeing a figure go down, its a new experience watching a figure rise instead. Looking forward to following your journey x

[Deleted User]

Just dropping in to say :wave: MrCrimeFiction.

I've seen you on other diaries/challenges and have just discovered yours. I've now read it all in one go and would like to congratulate you not only on the way you're getting to grips with your finances but on the impressive way that you write and express yourself:T. It's a pleasure to read and I've subscribed.
It's nice to see that someone as young as yourself is an avid reader too:j.

Don't beat yourself up for making financial mistakes when you were a lot younger. The main thing is that you've already realised what needs to change and are putting commendable effort into doing it. I was older than your parents before I saw the light:o. The extent of my debts was horrendous before I discovered the MSE way of life. For someone so young you are really getting to grips with your situation and, after all, time is on your side. I'm truly impressed and will look forward to following your progress:beer:.

By the way, I'm the member whose signature idea you 'stole'. I don't charge huge commission fees, in fact I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when my invoice arrives;)

Take care and Good Luck:beer:

MrCrimeFiction

Hello Trixxibell and carbootcrazy. Thanks for stopping by with your kind words of wisdom. It definitely does help, as this week I've been a bit down

I'm still laughing about the signature, I still love it. I want to edit it all the time, But the only way to do that is to either save more money or pay off more debts. Have you got your own diary? I would defo follow as I see you on all the challenges I'm on lol.

A few of my recent posts have centred around me saving as I wasn't sure my job is 100%. It's now confirmed that my job is secure, although I'm moving 'downstairs' to help out a struggling department. This should mean further learning and development for me along with the possibility of more overtime. Hopefully this should pan out well and il get noticed by management

I've been doing a few more things on TCB to earn more for the '£10 a day challenge'. I've signed upto a bookmaker and deposited/wagered £25 to get £15 cashback. After a few bets, I withdrew my initial £25 so I haven't lost anything. Hopefully the cash-back tracks like the last one I did.

I withdrew £30 from the current account and put this into mine and OH's joint xmas pot. Spent a few ££ at the shops last night getting a very small takeout for me and a family member.

I checked my online banking for my loans, my £100 overpayment has come off loan 2 so I'm delighted that has worked properly.

Stayed upto watch the boxing last nights, I feel hungover :rotfl:

I'm going to have a lazy day, most of it probably spent on here

Happy Sunday everyone.

MrCF

[Deleted User]

MrCrimeFiction wrote: »

I'm still laughing about the signature, I still love it. I want to edit it all the time, But the only way to do that is to either save more money or pay off more debts. Have you got your own diary? I would defo follow as I see you on all the challenges I'm on lol.

Thanks, glad I made you laugh:T

No, I don't have a diary. Yours is a 'novel', mine would be a 'horror story':eek:. Yours is really inspiring and interesting whereas mine would be pretty boring:o. I try to be upbeat (I've always been a 'glass half full' type of person) but I doubt my day to day life would be remotely interesting to anyone else, and not even to me lots of the time:rotfl:

I'll just stick to posting on other people's and joining in challenges, it's more fun:beer:

MrCrimeFiction

carbootcrazy

The reason I made my diary was so that I had to be accountable to my readers. I think that if didn't come on here to update this or run the £1 a day challenge, I would fail really bad. This is just like having someone looking over your shoulder and giving you advice all the time.

The reading hasn't been going to well but I plan on getting through a few chapters today.

Managed to squirrel away £5 into my own xmas pot, which I've now realised I'll need to use for my holiday later this year.

I haven't left myself with much spare cash this month, but it's my birthday in a week so I reckon I'll get some vouchers to use. At least I've saved a little into the emergency fund and overpaid the loan, which is what I'm aiming to do every month.

Gosh, it's the 3rd already. Time really is flying by. I wish you all the best on your own personal challenges and I'm sure we can push each other on a little. Can't beat a little kick up the !!! sometimes :rotfl:

MrCF

MrCrimeFiction

Hello Everyone. I had a few days working but I've got tomorrow off so it's time to relax and have a beer :beer:

Checking the bank, here are my transactions since my last update!

Vodafone - £23.02
Xbox Live - £5.99
Gambling transaction - £25.00
Cash Withdrawal - £30.00 (Joint Xmas fund)
Cash Withdrawal - £20.00 (Personal Xmas fund)

I did get my lovely £25.00 back into my current account today from the gambling transaction listed above. The £15.00 cashback for that deposit/wager hasn't tracked yet on TCB, although the £26.25 cashback has tracked for the 1st gambling transaction I did at the beginning on the month when I lost £21.00.

Overall, the two deposits/wagers should see me gain £20.25 (£15.00 + £5.25 (£26.25-£21.00)) from TCB

It's my birthday tomorrow so I'm actually quite excited to see what I get :rotfl:

No other news financially. My monthly interest hasn't gone into my ISA yet, it normally goes in on the 1st so I'm a bit puzzled.

Car needs fuel but I'm holding off as long as I can. I think I have a few social gatherings in the next few weeks but I hope I can keep spends to a minimum.

Need to think of things I can sell as I sort of need a new laptop. I only have an iPad at the moment and it's no use for doing work stuff and lots of typing, like on here. I've been needing one for ages but with my shift at work, I need it sooner than later. I might put any birthday money towards it, along with some of my overtime from this months wage as it should be a lot bigger if my overtime gets approved.

I really don't want to have to buy it as I'm on fire saving and paying more towards my debts, but there is nothing I can do. I just need to minimise the cost but selling other stuff. I will see how the budget looks when I'm paid at the end of May.

I hope all you readers are well. I'm off to blast some more of my book as its getting great. I have so much inspiration at the moment

MrCF