Brogden's Debt Disaster & Self Managed DMP!

Brogden

NoOneAround wrote: »

Am in desperate need of sleep so look forward to it
Good to know you've been keeping an eye out, but I don't understand what made you think I don't like talking to boys?
Can't help it if I'm a mushy sort but it doesn't mean I don't talk to boys! :rotfl:
xx

You're not 'mushy'......that's peas (good with fish from the chippy :cool:)

You're 'spiritual.' You know that anyway

Good you are back after an (inexcusably long) break

Note: NOA must pull her socks up and try harder

Brogden

Well I have a million things to do but wanted to settle down for a moment and put in writing where I am at in this second week of February 2016 .

I have dropped the ‘debt totals’ from the footer of my posts, I think permanently………although, as I have mentioned previously the mortgage may appear and I will need to restart and rehash my diary activities but I guess there is no rush for a few weeks – perhaps do it at the turn of the tax year which I am beginning to see as the official start of a new era in Brogden Towers.

So…..if it isn’t obvious already, I am at a turning point…..a crossroads. Thank you to everybody who has spurred me on in self-employment when I came to the decision that I would no longer seek PAYE work but to stop doing (a) and immediately throw myself full time into (b) is at this stage on the path neither desirable for me or even possible . Teething issues…….how could there not be any? As I may have mentioned, I am not self-employed in splendid isolation but working under a new business where not everything is fully in place and everything takes longer than anybody would have thought at the start. All looks OK for the longer term and I foresee I will be chugging along with this shortly and am preparing and studying stuff currently.

I appreciate that I could get completely steamed up if I wanted to. It’s worth me reflecting on this though…..I have been on a payroll for well more than 30 years and now that has ended. If I go over to the ‘Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning’ forum I may be caused to feel a little downbeat by some of the smug, ‘well to do’s’ there :mad:. However, as a normal man of working background I feel positively elated and very, very fortunate. I know that I have challenges…..I still have debts for one thing and the mortgage too. I can still see that everything ‘may’ fall into place in the next couple of years or so but for starters I am likely to be debt free in the next few months (I think )

I have held off on much as I needed to be sure I could keep a roof over the heads of four people and a ‘puzz.’ The ‘debt free notion’ comes of a decision that I should now put ‘debt’ behind me. How pretentious . It seems odd that I should even have a choice and maybe I have been treated much too leniantly…..what with the nicy-nicyness which has come into our lives where the consumer is king and the FCA fights our enemies for us. I would still have expected to be locked in the stocks on the village green but if things are not like that anymore then let’s enjoy the freedoms and choices. I think my choice is to be finished with this and I will report in on my ‘fun and dancing’ as I go through the CCA requests and………here we go…….. ‘P’ & F’s………Did everybody get that? The first letter is a ‘P’ for Peter not an ‘F’ for uuuurgh…….. Florence .

Thinking about it….the old ‘F&F’ always makes me think of ‘Florence & Fred!’

‘Well I can’t afford to pay you the full amount Mr. Banker but do you thing you could afford me the honour of a ‘Florence & Fred?’


:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!!!! Laughin' at me own jokes !!
There are a few things I could post about current financial activities. I mention the tax year end again as that will be when things start to really fall into place. Whilst it is (in a way) a coincidence that this is the time, in a way it’s not. I say that because:-

• My PAYE is truncated due to my redundancy. There will be a sizeable tax rebate.
• Whilst I have registered with HMRC as self employed to get a ‘flavour’, what am I realistically going to earn in self employment in this tax year? Could it be zero? Taking account of the ‘teething problems’ the organisation is clearly experiencing, should I just start keeping my receipts from 6th April? Well it depends but I really do think so unless I have a biggie but……having said that, what’s the point of a tax-deductible item in a business that has received no income?
• My trusted and now very respected IFA should have completed the pensions work for me in the next few weeks. We won’t be far off the end of the tax year then either and the outcome of that is very central to my feelings about everything.
• Will I still at that time have a nicely solvent bank account? Further pension contributions may be made to mine and Mrs B’s arrangements by when? You guessed it…….end of the tax year .

All in all the end of the tax year is becoming something of a ‘pivotal point.’

So my thoughts are on spring……Easter……a time I love and have many memories over lots of years of spirits rising and plans coming together…….as the sun lights our days and the sweet smell of newly mown grass hangs prettily in the air……………. The Grand National………..Patti Smith’s stupendous album ‘Easter.’ A complete and total gift of culture, passion and expression which moved me so much in the sixth form and sounds even better today as everything else seems to fade to crud.

So……..as I think about financials, I am doing the following:-

(a) MB-ing!
(b) CCA-ing!
(c) OP-ing!

(d) DG duties.....that's 'domestic goddess' :rotfl:


Right – MB……slowly as she goes……each day that I make more than my living expenses, it causes me to think…..but a maturity born out of too many false dawns breeds an air of caution….let’s just go slowly and see.

The CCA activities are me thinking about debt being in death’s throes and wanting to finish it off in the most cost-effective and efficient way way having approached it from all angles. I am not walking out on any debts regardless of what comes back on these applications and although I am playing this game, I (controversially) still think of this as an abuse. If I am assertively kicked back by a predator I will not rise to the bait as I do on most things. The fact is the law allows us to pay a small sum to receive a small service from the predators and I am doing just that and seeing what comes back. I will, however take a dim view of any lies that are told to me and any incompetence which may be uncovered.

OP-ing….just a little, nothing terribly serious at the moment. As I have recently signed up for a new two year discounted deal, I will absolutely die if when I come to ‘refix’ the mortgage doesn’t look a good bit different ie. much smaller and uuuuurgh….hopefully starting to fade in significance.



DG-ing....well if I've got a bit of time on my hands I might as well and I've been wearing my pinny since the new year :rotfl:!!!!!


I really must try breaking these posts down into ‘bite-sized chunks’ but I haven’t posted on my own thread for quite a while. People will think I’ve got nothing to do .

So let’s all move forward…..onwards and upwards. As I have spoken about the lady already I’ll finish with this……….

[FONT=&quot]‘I don’t f*** much with the past but I f*** plenty with the future ……’ P.Smith. :T (.....in awe again.) [/FONT]

Verbatim

Fantastic positivity. (Had an i there where the o is now! Good job I checked.)
You sound as if you're firing on all cylinders Broggers and it's lovely to see.
Hope the debt goes up in a puff of smoke and the mortgage gets large chunks eaten in short order.
xx

Bobarella

Fantastic post Brogden. Really hope your tax rebate will be a biggie

January2015

Great post Brogden - nice to have you back on form

I assume by MB'ing you mean match betting? Correct me if I am wrong.

I did that several years ago and have often thought of dipping my toes back into the bookie's pools. Not sure it's worth it though because I did all the new account opening offers and would be reliant on new offers via emails etc. I don't know if I have the energy to go through all that.

What is OP'ing?

You're okay - I know what CCA'ing is as I am onto that one myself

NoOneAround

Wow, that was worth waiting for ( and not too many ZzZZzzZ's.....;) )
Good luck with the rebates and debt freedom.

NOA must try harder.......my plan for 2016 is to do less!!

I know that OP is Old Person making Over Payments but am embarrassed to admit I can't quite work out/remember what CCA' ing is?:o
NOA
xx

Skinnylatte

Great post and lovley to be reading your muses again. I also need an explanation of CCA, no all about MB tho

Ali-OK

Good to read your update Broggers.

One suggestion though - making a loss in SE is not uncommon and you can offset that against other income during the tax year...lowering your overall tax bill further. So I would keep all receipts and report accordingly

Roll on Easter!

NoOneAround

Totally agree with Ali, must KAR (keep all receipts )
Hope all activity, whatever the abbreviation, is going well:)
xx
NOAh

Brogden

A long time away from my diary .

Thank you to you all for your words of encouragement – they are very much appreciated and I am grateful Ali for the advice on deductibles when self-employed and making a loss. I do have some expenses with receipts to deduct from my income for 2015/16 and I did scratch my head for a while wondering whether these could be deducted from earned PAYE / Schedule E income. Excuse me if I use some very old fashioned terms here…….I’m still trying to get used to ‘HMRC’ as opposed to ‘The Inland Revenue.’ Oh well…….the world reinvents itself again for no particular purpose………………………….

On self employment and business……well…….I am sure I will get there in the end but I think as I mentioned earlier that April will be the month of ‘breakthrough.’ It is coincidence that this rings in a new tax year too .

Yes…….I am still in the middle of everything pensions. I have opened two new SIPP’s, one is mine and one is Mrs B’s. Mine will receive my ‘defined contribution’ transfer from my ex-employer and ongoing contributions will be paid to one or the other or both – I’ll make my mind up on this as I go along.

The important thing is this……these two SIPP’s are my (our) mortgage repayment vehicles. I will not be doing any serious OP-ing directly into the mortage although I have done a tiny bit. I intend to ‘OP’ into these…..if you know what I mean. I have previously bumbled on about about pensions and mortgages and I am 100% convinced this is my best route. Altough the mortgage is not ‘small’ I pay extremely little interest and that will probably be the case until the next review at the end of 2017 when I will have to review. I will just have to try and tolerate George Osborne’s changing moods as he tries to understand pensions and the needs of the people :mad:.

There should be a further SIPP on the way which should receive my main occupational pension transfer. I am extremely hyped up about this to the extent that I cannot speak about it further now. I will report back on again. This is not ‘mortgage repayment’ but intended to be ‘additional family security.’ Different pots for different purposes…….that is good for the Brogden-type personality and hopefully makes it easier for me to remember what’s for what down the line :cool:.

Debts……I am not keeping a running total in my siggie now as that had lost it’s purpose. I have five credit card debts left. Fifteen predators have been slayed during the course of the DMP. This is nothing to be proud about and I am not feeling like jumping for joy……..CCA (Consumer Credit Act 1974)……thanks for asking……….unlike my pensions passion, I cannot get passionate about this at all BUT I have requested the agreements and accompanying paperwork for each of these five debts. Two are patently enforcable …..the thre others …….well……who knows? How long? What do I then do? Well I have exmined my own moral compass and that points to ‘not’ walking away but I am increasingly finding this subject to be very difficult to discuss and probably wish I hadn’t………..I’ll say no more for now .

I hope this update was not a bit too dour and boring. I think I am full of frustrations which are ‘growing pains’ as I grow things which are different in every way to what I have been used to and try to have everybody understanding my feelings and motivations……that’s a job in itself……:eek:

Hump day…….here we come (it’s funny how I still get the ‘hump day’ and ‘TFIF’ feeling even as an aging self-employed gent .