Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

Karmacat said:

I guess you know about the furloughing, at least, Jimmy - scrabbling to find a bright side for you, at least it takes the pressure off finding the time to do those jobs

Glad that your littlies had such a good Easter Sunday

To be honest our intention was always to make the most of Easter for the kids. Lots of crafts, lots of films and made a point of getting the paddling pool out, even when the kids only lasted 20mins!

greent said:

Nice to hear your wages are being topped up look at all that time you'll have for more decluttering/ dog walks/ running/ home schooling.....  

Its a huge relief for our wages to be topped up. Not sure what will happen after the 3 months, but then again no-one does and probably not even the chancellor! Running and dog walks have been my salvation from the house (I love our house and we are lucky to have space and a good garden) as I've never ever been one for being 'in'. Fully agreed on time for declutter but with the tips and charity shops being closed I'm a bit stuck! I have a car load waiting in the garage and a few charity bags already, so have hit a standstill really.

lippy1923 said:

Good news about your wages being topped up. We are lucky as I'm on full pay for Mat leave right now and OH is working from home so our wages haven't been hit (fingers crossed it stays that way).
I hear you about opening the refuse centre. Loads of waste to get rid of!

Thank heavens for MFW over the last 5 years, as its taken all my potential money anxieties away. Who knows what working world I will wake up to in September, but I know we'll be fine. Mrs SJ's job is secure and pays well and if my industry collapses, something will have to replace it and I'll be someone with 19yrs experience at pretty much every level. We are very much responsible and will cut our cloth accordingly! This I can't say about the vast majority of friends and some are in a real state. Hopefully when they are through this they will switch on and make some changes, however we all know that most will blame other things than their spendy lives and revert to normal as soon as they can! Rant over!

shangaijimmy

Wow, how have I not found the time to log on for a few days when I've literally not gone anywhere!?!? Last day of work from home today, although in all honesty I reckon I've only done 1 days worth of work each week. Furlough was inevitable to be honest.

Moneywise nothing going on. We have now accepted that we won't be able to go on holiday this year, other than maybe a long weekend at the caravan. So I made a decision to put our holiday savings into premium bonds for the next 12 months. I'm done with having multiple savings accounts for pittance dotted here there and everywhere so I figured what the heck. If we win 1 £25 then that's about as much as we'd have made for savings! Oh I also made the decision to put our petrol savings into the kids university fund, so £100 has gone into there.

Payday next Friday and I reckon this is the first month in years that we haven't been getting to this point and I'm looking at our balance hoping that I've got everything right and that we won't slip into the overdraft! A sign of the times that Covid 19 has even curbed Mrs SJ's home bargains spendings!

Last one from me is that perhaps the biggest positive to my life is reacquainting myself with my kindle. Definitely something that will continue.

Really the last one...I tackled the weeds at the front that were emerging in between our bushes! Am now scratched to buggery with multiple thorn splinters...I remember now why I hate that job so much!

debtfreeoneday

Sorry to hear about furlough.. but you are right, MSE has made us 'better' in so many aspects.  
Positives (thorn bushes aside), you can concentrate on the kids fully during this time which is a blessing.  I too have picked up so many books during this time.  

shangaijimmy

Thanks debtfree. I'm not sorry about the furlough thing, I'm extremely grateful that its been made an option and that our company are embracing it. Anyway about to go on a family walk to wave to both sets of grandparents. I'm also going to sneak out for a second time later on for my run. There'll be no one about, I need it for my sanity and it reduces the alcohol consumption! I can also contemplate finishing my fence painting as I now have some more paint. Its forecast rain tomorrow so its either a job for this evening or Sunday.

Karmacat

Good to hear things are all right, Jimmy, and that in turning things over you're finding the right way forward for you and Mrs SJ and the family.  Premium bonds are waving themselves in my face at the mo, the universe is obviously sending me a message

Kittenkirst

Great news that your job is being furloughed and your company are topping up your salary. 

My work has totally dried up, and they’ve begun furloughing some teams in my area so I’m secretly hoping they’ll furlough me (my company offer the top up) as I’m hating being non-busy and not spinning multiple plates! 

Love that you have put your petrol money left over into the kids savings- I have stashed my petrol money into the ‘new job’ fund for when/if that happens once this all settles.

Suffolk_lass

shangaijimmy said:

Last one from me is that perhaps the biggest positive to my life is reacquainting myself with my kindle. Definitely something that will continue.

Really the last one...I tackled the weeds at the front that were emerging in between our bushes! Am now scratched to buggery with multiple thorn splinters...I remember now why I hate that job so much!

Two things here - the penny has just dropped why I have had an upset tummy - I was doing stuff with blackthorn and hawthorn in the garden and got thorn splinters in a finger - I had forgotten - so thanks for nudging me to understand the cause!

I have actually bought a couple of page turning books after joining a book club in February (just in time for it to go online). My kindle has lots of good books but I am enjoying the physical thing of reading a real book this month

shangaijimmy

Well last day of freedom before home schooling begins again 

Not sure if I mentioned but as well as running out of fence paint with 80% completed, when I was powerwashing the hose split with 5 flags remaining. Well thankfully online shopping enabled me to buy a new hose which arrived yesterday. So, powerwashing has been done, just need to wait for it to dry and then brush the stones back into place etc... Next up is dog walk and then I will crack on with the fence. I reckon 2-3hrs painting at most! I'll run at tea time as it stops me drinking all afternoon 

Lastly, I did my Sunday morning job of OPing my TT pot. £4.70 dispatched to mortgage this morning. Keep chipping away!

shangaijimmy

• Power washing completed
• Fence painting completed, including the gate (who was I kidding by thinking it'd be 2hrs, try 4hrs!)
• Dog walks x 2
• 4 mile run done (the second dog walk was a cool down from my run so still classed as daily exercise!)
• Kitchen tidied and prepped for home schooling to resume tomorrow
• Alcohol consumption nil  (well it is a school night for the stand in supply teacher...Mrs SJ was calling me Stalin before Easter so I have a lot to live up to!)
• Now heading to bed to start a new book!

So all in all a good day in lockdown! And I've avoided all miserable news round ups today. I told Mrs SJ to tell me if there was anything significant/vital to report!

shangaijimmy

Well I can't believe its been 5 days since I posted. Where does the time go when you're just sitting around...??
With back to school routines the week has passed through pretty quickly. TT's have continued and I've spent my garden time reading up a bit more about pensions. When I say a bit more I actually mean loads, and loads. And listenned to many podcasts on same subject whilst out with the dog. 

This was all prompted by a friend who was very confused about some changes made to his DB pension. I offered to run my eye over it and then started to offer some 'normal English' explanantions/advice. Unfortunately he then backed off with the typical response from people who don't want to look strategically at financial matters and make a decision - "very kind but I'll play it by ear".

Anyway it got me thinking/looking more at mine (DC pension) and I've made some adjustments to the funds by taking things out of the standard offering, and a side effect is an effect on fees. With my approximate workings out I reckon I'll say about £300 this year on fees. Money which then compounds within the investment. Working up to 18 years and I should reduce fees from approx £2500 to £375. Again money to compound within the investment itself. 

Going back to thinking strategically about money, a takeaway from a podcast that resonated with me was when the interviewee commented that the hardest part of making financial decisions is "pressing the trigger" on that decision! And this is so true. If we think about how long it takes us to click 'submit' when switching a mortgage, savings account, insurance and so on. In regards to my pension changes I done stacks of research, cross checked, slept on it, relayed figures and reasoning to Mrs SJ...yet my finger still hovered over the 'submit' button!!

Anyway thats me. The boys are 3/4 through their English lesson, then they have Maths after their break. Mrs SJ is taking over for the afternoon for science experiments, baking and painting options. I will be hiding in the garden revelling in the fact that I have no jobs to do, and plenty of sun to bask in!

Stay safe people.