Statement of Affairs

mae

Have you posted on the Endowment thread to see if they have some advice for you over there?

Spirit_2

Thanks - I did post on there originally but got equal and opposite perspectives from two regular posting IFA's so it left me 'paralysed by indecision'.

I have however found a website https://www.endowmentcheck.co.uk which has an endowment maturity calculator on it using recent bonus rates, which has helped in deciding to surrender it. If anyone is interested it costs 4.99 and gives an instant result.

(It actually cost me more than that because I needed 2 attempts - I did not put the right info in, - so have your plan details to hand when you do it).

Spirit_2

Two months after becoming a DFW and:

• Family conversation is at a standstill as I read the boards. Mr Spirit almost went into a decline when the one takeaway we have had (fish & chips) I classified as our social life on spendingdiary.
• DD off to Uni Sunday we are paying her accommodation only, she will use loans for living and tuition fees and we will pay these off at the end.
• I have completed my second grocery challenge; I am a pound over but I am counting it as achieved.This is 60% of what we were spending on food, and next month the target will be reduced as DD (and the BF with the voracious appetite) is off to Uni.
• I have paid off Capital One Today:T
• The total debt is below 60,000 :j
• I have had sympathetic and helpful posts from DFW's when Mr Spirit bought himself a little treat on a card that must be paid next month
• After much agonising (dithering) the endowment surrender has been signed and sent off.
• I have also joined in the MSE lose weight thread, so I am getting out and about on more boards. This must mean I have settled into my new DFW class, know where to hang my coat, and where the toilets are.
• A reply I got on the lose weight thread suggested using www.fitday.com as a nutrition, weight, exercise tracker. It is free, terrific and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to eat more healthily. It's great for HM food but it's database of pre-prepared food is American so may need to choose like products.

Well that is it for September.

Spirit

beanielou

Ooh Spirit
Thank you so much for sharing your diary.
I have loved it.
You are doing so so well.
What thread are you doing your weight loss on then?
Take care

Spirit_2

beanielou wrote: »

Ooh Spirit
Thank you so much for sharing your diary.
I have loved it.
You are doing so so well.
What thread are you doing your weight loss on then?
Take care

I am on Thread 15 too. I will go there now and see how you are doing.Bye.

beanielou

Spirit wrote: »

I am on Thread 15 too. I will go there now and see how you are doing.Bye.

Will see you over there as well.
Take care.

Spirit_2

I have just checked my bank balance on line and the surplus on our surrendered endowment has gone in which takes 6000 off our debts. :TI am so glad we surrendered the thing after dithering for so long. It has made a huge difference to our total level of debts. We are over half way to being debt free.

We are using this 6000 to reduce our overdraft as that has the highest APR and we have a snowballing plan for the outstanding loan and credit card.

Just a couple of months ago a 'windfall' such as this would have been converted into a holiday, in fact we would have anticipated it and already have the booking lined up! The change in mindset is astonishing. I love being a DFW.

Mmmm holiday. It is very tempting................:D

bathgatebuyer

Spirit, I've only just found your thread! It's one of the most uplifting things I've ever read on MSE (and that's saying something as everyone on here is making some pretty big steps to achieving DF status!).

missk_ensington

Hi there, sorry I'm late to this thread and I dont know whether this has been mentioned but, you would have a lot of extra money to pay off debts if you reduced the amount you were handing out to your daughter.

I appreciate that you want to do the best for her, but you cant afford to do it. I'm a uni student and I dont know a single person whos parents have got them a car, and paid their insurance!!!! Most students get the bus, cycle, walk or fund it themself.

Without wishing to sound at all rude, your daughter has her accomodation paid, her travel paid, a student loan (assuming she's taken it) of around £100 per week PLUS £200 a month you give her. She must be the richest student on campus, whilst you're the poorest parents! Where you might think you're helping her out, I *personally* think you're efforts may have an adverse effect as it looks to me (and please correct me if I'm wrong) as though she hasn't had to go without anything or learn the value of working long hours, getting your wages, and saving it up to make a purchase, ie car. If these patterns become ingrained in her, she will be posting the same SOA as yourself in a few years time.

I don't mean to sound mean, but none of my student friends get a penny off their parents (one particular friend needed £200 for their MOT failure and her Dad lent her the money at an interest rate of 6%, not because he's mean but because he believed in making her stand on her own two feet).

I just think that you're debts are far far far too big to be supporting someone who could and should be able to support themselves. Even if it was just the pocket money that stopped. Most students only get a student loan, and have to pay their own accomodation, food, books, travel.....out of that, and if they need more they get a part-time job, or work for 12 weeks full-time over summer to save up a couple of grand to take back in Autumn.

It seems a travesty to me that you're struggling to cope and in astronomical debt, whilst your daughter has, by my calculations over £150 per week disposable income, which is coming out of your pocket

mae

Hi Spirit I'm really pleased for you. I look forward to your updates. You have grasped the whole DFW thing with two hands and thats is why you are doing well because you are changing your mindset and putting a lot of thought and effort into your life which impacts on your finances.

Keep updating us its really interesting to read and also it will be inspiring some others along the way.

Well done :T