Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

chumpy45

Well done on finishing DS2's room. We should really start on the whole redecorating process again, but don't think I have the energy atm! I do hope the sun appears so you can enjoy your beer in the garden. I have a bottle of vino chilling in the fridge, but it's currently really cold and raining where I am. Just off to find a jumper!

shangaijimmy

Thanks chumpy. No such look with the garden. I did manage to sneak a 30min dog walk in between the rain and then had a couple of beers with the golf.

As I was doing that Mrs SJ tackled DS2's wardrobe, drawers and then the dreaded cupboard under the stairs...more widely known as 'Narnia' as its like the wardrobe! Outcome is I have a car full of stuff for charity shop and tip. Seriously the car is full and the house looks no different!!!! It seems its an un-winable battle!

Anyway football tournament for DS2 tomorrow and then a bit of prep for work on Sunday. Hopefully Mrs SJ tackles DS1's clothes tomorrow, but I fear she has been both overwhelmed and defeated!

shangaijimmy

Typically the only rain forecast for us today covers the entire period of the football tournament! I was hoping for dry for football and then monsoon for the afternoon and to justify an afternoon of tea, snacks, golf and snoozes. I guess I'll have to shamelessly do it anyway, in spite of the dry!

Seriously though I am planning on completing my new mortgage and savings targets for the remainder of this mortgage term. And then updating my first post for any new readers.

Oh, I did redo my cars breakdown cover during the week. Managed to knock £5 off my re quote, and then through £co I'll get a nice £6.25 payment to OP in about 3 months time! It's only a cheap policy as to be honest my car doesn't go that far very often!

shangaijimmy

Well it absolutely poured with rain as we drove to football tournament. Stopped as DS2 put his boots on, and thankfully stayed away. It was a windy one though and 2 gazebos ended up in the trees! They lost the semi final 1-0, but it seemed a little unfair to me (not biased obviously) as our team had to play up hill and into a very heavy wind. Poor 7yr olds couldn't get the ball past the half way line, so had no chance of scoring!!

Well 2 little dog walks completed, and an afternoon of sport with tea and a little snooze for good measure. I'm now watching golf with a cold beer!

I managed to update my target for this year and complete some targets up to 2030, but I'm pretty sure that as we get nearer that I'll aim to accelerate (somehow) and be done for Feb 2029. There's a significant reduction in money allocated for OP's, as this money has been redirected towards pension provisions whilst the interest rates on mortgage is so low (1.99%). I've made a few assumptions on interest rate for our next remortgage in 2024, so just used the same as we have now. Link is copied below, fingers crossed it works:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DMa3uykkq1XwADPiN-MgiKCwf6YQeS9TNy5GZRH0MPI/edit?usp=sharing

shangaijimmy

Well I thought I would take the opportunity to put explain some percentages of income in how they are now allocated in relation to our income.

Firstly Mrs SJ's pension is an excellent DB scheme of which she has been paying in the same percentage of salary since she was 19. This currently sits at 16%, and she then puts in an additional 4% of her salary in their AVC scheme. Once the mortgage is gone we will allocate extra cash to Mrs SJ's AVC scheme to build up her lump sum (I may start this after this current mortgage ends, with the cash from reduced payment).

I have a small DB scheme that I paid into for 4 years from my first employment, and then my current pension is a DC scheme. Although I have paid into this since i was 23, and I have increased contributions throughout my employment, its probably only now that I really putting an appropriate amount in. I am now paying in 26% of my salary to this to play catch up (working on 17yrs at least), and a further 10% into a S&S Isa that will act as our pre -retirement funds.

We also have our EF, and we out money aside for holidays, cars and kids university. So all in all I am quite happy with how our cash is allocated. I now just need to stay strong on our plans and not meddle too much!

Karmacat

Wow, those timings and percentages are really impressive, Jimmy, good for you and Mrs SJ both.

shangaijimmy

Right...feeling very miffed at freecycle...well at people on freecycle. We've had 2 no shows for the bed now! The bed is far too good to go landfill but really needs to go out of our hallway! Just wondering how long you keep trying?? Of course it won't go to landfill as i'll send it to charity shop, but I'd really prefer someone to have the bed for free!

Rant over...

Mortgage_Minimiser

Delurks from the shadows..... always read your diary SJ, rarely post anywhere.

Just in relation to the bed, we have a local WasteSavers group, things seem to go really quickly on there as opposed to groups like Freecycle. Always baffles me when people don't show, but I thought I would share in case there is something similar near you.

Anyway, your numbers are all looking impressive! Keep up the great work.
MM

shangaijimmy

Thanks MM. Appreciate the message, I've had a quick look but doesn't seem to be one in our area. Worth a try. To be honest I got 3 asking after about 10hrs, its just that they didn't turn up.

Also thanks for the motivational comments!

Fortune_Smiles

Do you have anything like this near you? I've donated some big items to them before and they've collected.

Fortune x