January 2015 is the beginning

January2015

Hello diary

Lots to update you with. We are now officially self-managing our DMP. Letter from SC received yesterday confirming they have closed our DMP with them.:j

So, at Christmas I was panicking my job was at risk and on Monday I have 2 interviews for internal posts. I'm assured I will get one of 4 jobs available. One of the jobs looks very interesting and if I got it, it would mean I could take home about £200 per month more - I've been counting those chickens again and playing with the figures to see what that would mean for us and it's huge. We could squirrel this away and put it towards building up our F&F pot. If I don't the job and get one of the other 3 that are available, my salary will not change. One job is less money but if get that one my employer will maintain my salary at it's current level for 3 years so I'm not too worried about that.

And then....OMG I feel like someone is shining a lucky light down on us. My DH applied for and was notified today that he will receive extra money each month. That is going to be over £300 per month extra. There is also a nice (over £1k) lump sum in backdated payments. That will be added to our pot of savings. We have just managed to get to £1k in savings (by sending token payments for beginning of self managed. Token payments start in February but we are paid mid month so the salary we have just received this week covers Feb payments).

So even if I don't get the job with the extra pay, we are already up on our monthly income. It's been a good day but I don't think I will mention any of this to our predators;)

I'm off to jump and shout and jump a bit more :j:j:j

Have I mentioned recently....Life is good

Golightly72

That's fantastic January, what amazing news! :T

Really pleased for you that it looks like your job situation is going to be OK.

Be nice to have a lump sum to start negotiating your P&F's with - after some token payments the predators may be nice and open to some good offers, and you can really start chunking numbers off that balance. :beer:

January2015

Hello Diary

I've been a bit lapse in talking to you recently - especially when so much is going on in our lives.

Well I got a job - which I knew I would as HR had told me one of the four jobs would be mine. I didn't get the job with more money but to be honest it's also nice not to have more responsibility. I'm sure if I had got the higher paid job I would be here saying how wonderful it was to be looking forward to more responsibility - I think my responses are being adjusted to fit the situation:rotfl: I move to new job beginning of April. Apart from where I sit, it's a very similar role, just in another team that hasn't yet been hit as hard by cuts.

So with back pay from DH disability benefits and not paying SC this month we have almost £1.7k in the savings. I've left my emergency fund signature at just over £1k though. By next month with overtime from this month, disability benefits and savings from paying token £1 payments we should have :j £2,900 :j

I am starting to see the F&F opportunities already. Although I will never let our savings balance go below £1,000 for our emergency fund - so really our F&F fund will hopefully be at £1,900 by 1st March. It's not going anywhere too quickly because the only debts that have gone to DCAs are all £10k plus - so a bit more saving needed then I can see that by Christmas 2016 we might be in a position to start thinking about an F&F. Six of our debts are £10k plus at the moment - with one being almost £20k. It would be nice to save and get rid of the largest rather than the smallest, but we will see. Those who read my diary will recognise I am counting those bloody chickens again :rotfl:

My ebaying progress is non-existent. I listed 2 items and neither of them sold. I also listed them on Facebook local for sale pages - no takers. Hence I think they will go back on Facebook free to collector and if no takers then I will take them to the dump. This is as much about de-cluttering as selling to make money to save towards clearing debts.

Still no response to my CCA request from MBNA/PRAT group. MBNA responded with current T&Cs so wrote back with lovely letter template created for me by the wonderful FERMI and whooosh they immediately sell the debt to PRAT group - so I wrote the same letter to PRAT group who have put debt on hold whilst they obtain documentation from MBNA. It's been 6 weeks now and no more letters. So in the words of the wonderful Diana Ross.....and I'm still waiting .....:rotfl:

Self-managed DMP started this month. Most predators set up for standing order payment of £1 this month. One predator decided to move the debt this month:mad: so I am trying to sort out where to send DMP letter to and token payment notice (note, I do not offer token payments, I tell them now how long they get token payments for and how much they will get after that). What a change in my attitude from this time one year ago. No more tip-toe-ing round predators for me. Also Hellifax have moved OD debt to Flloyds and I have a new reference number but SC won't give me a contact address for Flloyds so I am trying to find out where to write to in order to ask for standing order details. I'll get there eventually. Annoying though that the debt was moved and SC was told but I never received any correspondence about it. I know that technically Hellifax and Flloyds are/were one and the same bank, but at least they could let me know what they are doing with my debts.

Anyway - Feb going okay (except that diet thing). Take care everyone -x-

Eager_Elephant

Well done January on going self managed and getting the savings together.:T

The address for Flloyds debt collection is 3 City Park, The Droveway, Hove, BN3 7PY.

Puzzcat

Hi January,

Loving all the smiley faces and jumping peeps on your post, glad all is well with you and your savings are fabulous.

Good Luck with the self managing, I am nervously waiting for the post to arrive this week with contact from my creditors.. they best play nicely...!

Take care,

Love Puzz. x

January2015

So - DH has a pension which he took out ages ago and paid into for a few years and then changed jobs, forgot about it....etc...etc.

Under the access your pension at 55 rules we think he can get his hands on this 'forgotten' pot (we have remembered it over the years, but just left it to do it's thing). We both have good pensions now, that forecast to give us a combined income of about £40k (based on today's values) when we retire...so if debt and mortgage free by then we will have so much cash we won't know what to do with ourselves. There is also a lump sum each that will be paid when we retire.

Anyway, back to the forgotten pension. DH is going to phone this week to enquire how to access it. If he leaves it, it forecasts an income of just over £1k per year when he retires. There is currently approx £26k in the fund (and forecasting to be almost £34k by the time he retires). So we are hoping that with the early release options we may get enough to start F&F offers on our larger debt(s).

I think he can get first 25% tax free...so 25% of £26k is £6.5k
I think he will pay 40% tax on the remaining £19.5k which means paying a whopping £7.8k tax. Which leaves £11.7k payable.

So the tax free bit of £6.5k and the taxable bit we would get of £11.7k means a payout of £18.2k

I have no idea how pension release works, but have done these calculations from what I have read on the internet. I am either going to be delighted or disappointed......will report back when I have more information.

I know paying £7.8k tax is a lot of money, but we look at it as if we never had this money in the first place and hence whatever we get will be a 'free bonus' so to speak. Leaving this pension till he is 65 is ridiculous for an income of just over £19 p/wk when we could use that money to make such a difference now, especially as we do have good pensions in place other than this one.

Those bloody chickens are dancing round the lounge as I type

January2015

DH spoke to pension company. They are sending through some paperwork with options. OMG - we could have this within a month.

Brogden

Based on the figures you give Jan, you are possibly not too far out on hubby's pension but you need to get independent advice from an FCA regulated adviser and talk about everything you need and your overall financial circumstances. If you prefer to talk to a provider directly then again, they must be FCA regulated.

'Pensions release' is a term used by conmen and scammers. The change in the law with effect from 6th April 2015 allowed 'Pension Freedoms' for those over the age of 55. The distinction in terms of phrase is ridiculous I know but 'release' is absolutely no go.:eek:

Make doubly and triply and quadruply sure that those pensions you are talking about from other sources are just that and are the amounts you think. I am green with envy by the way...:o!! Think about how early retirement would impact. Think how death would impact etc etc. Think about states of health and life expectancy. Sorry......as I have said.....go for independent advice and if it costs a bit then that has to be money well spent.

We want rid of the debts but.....not at a cost that could really ruin things.

All the best with it all,

Brogden x

January2015

Brogden wrote: »

Based on the figures you give Jan, you are possibly not too far out on hubby's pension but you need to get independent advice from an FCA regulated adviser and talk about everything you need and your overall financial circumstances. If you prefer to talk to a provider directly then again, they must be FCA regulated.

'Pensions release' is a term used by conmen and scammers. The change in the law with effect from 6th April 2015 allowed 'Pension Freedoms' for those over the age of 55. The distinction in terms of phrase is ridiculous I know but 'release' is absolutely no go.:eek:

Make doubly and triply and quadruply sure that those pensions you are talking about from other sources are just that and are the amounts you think. I am green with envy by the way...:o!! Think about how early retirement would impact. Think how death would impact etc etc. Think about states of health and life expectancy. Sorry......as I have said.....go for independent advice and if it costs a bit then that has to be money well spent.

We want rid of the debts but.....not at a cost that could really ruin things.

All the best with it all,

Brogden x

Sorry, it's not pension release I'm talking about unlocking this pension through the pension freedom scheme.

We both work for the government and both have well over 20 years service with nicely built up pension pots. We will continue contributing to these pots for the next ten or so years. We have both always paid into the government pension, and I did pay additional voluntary contributions for a few years. We get lovely annual statements each year, and unless Mr Cameron does something else to our pensions I am confident on the forecast figures. Regarding death.....well we both have death-in-service cover of 3 times our annual salary, and life cover of quarter of a million. We've also got health cover built into the life policy so it pays out a large lump if we are unable to work through health issues.We've had this policy since our 20s so it's not an expensive monthly payment (it felt like it was when it started!)

DH has spoken to a pensions adviser which he got free of charge through a union organised event. The advice was to cash this pension out at 55 under the new rules as in our circumstances it would be more financially beneficial that to wait til retirement.

This little pension was from a job DH had in the 80s and he paid into for a short while and we forgot about it. We always meant to find out if we could transfer it into his workplace pension, but never did (boy am I glad we didn't now:T). The little pension is with Zurich and they have been really helpful and did go through our life cover, pensions apart from this one, etc. etc. (as DH said, it was a twenty plus questions call;))

Now having said all that I also have a small pension pot from a job in the 1980s. I can't find the information and am going to use the pensions tracking service to find it. Maybe I will be able to access that fund next year:)

Brogden

January2015 wrote: »

Sorry, it's not pension release I'm talking about unlocking this pension through the pension freedom scheme.

We both work for the government and both have well over 20 years service with nicely built up pension pots. We will continue contributing to these pots for the next ten or so years. We have both always paid into the government pension, and I did pay additional voluntary contributions for a few years. We get lovely annual statements each year, and unless Mr Cameron does something else to our pensions I am confident on the forecast figures. Regarding death.....well we both have death-in-service cover of 3 times our annual salary, and life cover of quarter of a million. We've also got health cover built into the life policy so it pays out a large lump if we are unable to work through health issues.We've had this policy since our 20s so it's not an expensive monthly payment (it felt like it was when it started!)

DH has spoken to a pensions adviser which he got free of charge through a union organised event. The advice was to cash this pension out at 55 under the new rules as in our circumstances it would be more financially beneficial that to wait til retirement.

This little pension was from a job DH had in the 80s and he paid into for a short while and we forgot about it. We always meant to find out if we could transfer it into his workplace pension, but never did (boy am I glad we didn't now:T). The little pension is with Zurich and they have been really helpful and did go through our life cover, pensions apart from this one, etc. etc. (as DH said, it was a twenty plus questions call;))

Now having said all that I also have a small pension pot from a job in the 1980s. I can't find the information and am going to use the pensions tracking service to find it. Maybe I will be able to access that fund next year:)

That all sounds beautifully under control Jan !!

You know I am going the same sort of route and am making pensions, both occupational and personal the mainstay of the family's financial security and the tool for the riddance of problems . I am very sorry if you thought I was jumping in just to be negative (like they do on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning Board :mad:) I don't really think you thought that though .

Going back to being a young man, the civil service pension scheme was always referred to as the 'yardstick' and a large private sector company would try to copy the benefit structure in its own scheme. Thankfully I got a long run in one of thoses old fashioned final salary / defined benefit schemes until they kicked me out before Christmas. Without that I would be feeling a bit less positive (to say the least :rotfl:!!)