Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

Mortgage offer signed and posted. I am very pleased with our 5yr fix @ 1.99%. I really feel like we are in a great position to be able to make whatever life decisions we need to in the next few years. My job is very tiring, not particularly because of stress or intense work, but more the long days that are unavoidable. I'm not sure how long into my 50's i would be able to keep doing it, so to know that we'll have no mortgage and have had a few years of pre retirement investment gives me the mindset that i can look at work options in 10yrs time and have financial space to make decisions on health etc...

Although about to go into another re-org at work (literally every 2yrs) Mrs SJ wage will be going up by approx £175 a month this month. We're planning to add some to holiday fund, some to daily expenditures for family activities and then redirect a few £'s to mortgage.

Gas and Leccy has been switched this morning. Gone for an 18 month fix this time and it works out at about £9 a month cheaper than other options, with a small amount of cashback (that i will add to the new running shoes fund).

Right dog walk beckons. Cold, crisp morning, nothing better!

shangaijimmy

Well its hump day already...where on earth have Monday & Tuesday gone??

It feels like 2019 has actually got underway and settled down now. Mrs SJ seems to be "recovering" from the horrendous emotional month of January, which ranged between horrific trauma to multiple family birthdays so she was all over the place. So looking forward to a quiet month with nothing going on.

Running is going well and i should hit 100miles this afternoon, which is 10% of the way through. Considering the weather we've had I'm very pleased to be on track and not having to play catch up.

I have 2 current accounts to close this week, and this will be the final stage of streamlining what we have. Multiple accounts served their purpose but for my next stages I'd be happier with a less complex set of accounts!

Karmacat

shangaijimmy wrote: »

It feels like 2019 has actually got underway and settled down now. Mrs SJ seems to be "recovering" from the horrendous emotional month of January, which ranged between horrific trauma to multiple family birthdays so she was all over the place. So looking forward to a quiet month with nothing going on.

That sounds much better than January already, it was a rough time, wasn't it

Running is going well and i should hit 100miles this afternoon, which is 10% of the way through. Considering the weather we've had I'm very pleased to be on track and not having to play catch up.

Congratulations!

I have 2 current accounts to close this week, and this will be the final stage of streamlining what we have. Multiple accounts served their purpose but for my next stages I'd be happier with a less complex set of accounts!

Earthgirl and I have both been mentioning that on our respective diaries, I think there's something going round its sort of like a kondoing bug

katep23

shangaijimmy wrote: »

I have 2 current accounts to close this week, and this will be the final stage of streamlining what we have. Multiple accounts served their purpose but for my next stages I'd be happier with a less complex set of accounts!

Totally with you on this - have stooze money via 7 credit cards with payments each month, a joint account to transfer money into for bills plus 2 additional current accounts to feed then trickle on to regular savers before bouncing the balance back to the joint account. It takes some coordinating!

shangaijimmy

Thanks Kate & Karma - I like the notion of a "Financial Kondo"! Happy to report that I have actionned the account closures and we are now a lot more streamlined. I do wonder how easily Mrs SJ would be able to unravel things though, and seeing as i nearly got wiped out on the motorway by a ridiculously driving Asda lorry driver in atrocious weather on Thursday, a 'financial fact' sheet may well be needed. I will raise a discussion at an opportune moment with the boss!

Ahead of our remortgage I'm going to borrow a few thousand off the kids uni accounts for a few weeks. We have a reg saver that ends about 2 weeks after the switch date. This cash is mortgage OP cash so a temporary loan off the kids will have us remortgaging £3,600 less, and then I'll repay as soon as the reg saver money lands in our everyday saver. As for the reg saver for next year... there's only a small difference between the reg saver and OPing because of the small amounts involved (I do OP the interest when it arrives), but in the past I've thought of the reg saver cash as a bit of an extra emergency pot in case of anything happening. Nothing has after 4 years but its nice to have an extra buffer in the background.

Not much else to report really. Mortgage switch paperwork done, gas and electric switch done. I OP's a bit of interest from a current accounts (£2.31 and £3.68 to be precise). TT's this week have been small (I forgot on a couple of days and the rest the pennies were small) so the pot was only £1.78.

I have a wet outside morning at work scheduled by the looks of the sky and am hoping I can catch a dry 30mins before i go to walk the dog. However the lazy fluff ball is still in bed! This evening I need to get a 7 mile run in to hit my mileage for the week. I'm a few miles down as the wind, work and family scenarios made running on Thursday & Friday impossible. But if I'm only feeling like a 3-4mile run then I'm certain I can catch up a few miles over the rest of the month.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

SJ

Busy_Mee1

All sounds great Jimmy. I am always toying with trying to streamline my accounts but I also like wringing every last drop of interest out of my money and not paying anymore bloomin tax !

Mr Mee I think is concerned that if I get run over by a bus ( or totalled by an @sda driver ) he wouldnt know how to unravel the finances. I have all the details of the accounts in a book with the passwords etc suitably coded so he would be able to work it out.

Mind you this is the man that didn't know his own PIN number for years, so if he needed cash he would just go to the supermarket, buy beer and get cash back !

katep23

Busy_Mee1 wrote: »

Mind you this is the man that didn't know his own PIN number for years, so if he needed cash he would just go to the supermarket, buy beer and get cash back !

That was his excuse anyway :beer:

shangaijimmy

I like that mans logic...

Dry dog walk successfully negotiated. I had to drag him out of bed and kick nudging him with my foot towards the door though...can't blame him really...warm and cosy on a fleece bed or outside for 2 miles getting wet paws...

shangaijimmy

Thursday finally. After 10 days continuous in work today is definitely needed. All plans wrecked though as DD had vomiting bug last night. So lots of washing to do and I have a very floppy little girl, so i don't think we'll be going anywhere.

Current account is looking slightly sorry for itself, payday is 11 days away and we don't have the temporary recuse of child benefit being paid to tied us over! We'll need a temporary loan from holiday savings i think. Its no drama and is only us clawing back our horrendous month of January for family birthdays. That process will be finished by end of Feb, possibly March.

Enjoy the lovely Spring weather.

A_Frayed_Knot

Could never do 10 days continuous, never !!! would be totally knackered.

Says she that asked for an a/l day - got it , then took off me only to receive an email asking me to use my a/l I have left :mad: :rotfl: as if we don't use, we lose. That will be . . .

Then I go and spoil it all by . . . working late might just ask for time off instead of being
paid :rotfl: that would teach them.

Hope DD is feeling better by tomorrow.