Half way there and a slight change of direction

edinburgher

I keep swithering re. pension. Want to convert our ISA bonds into pension bonds, but not convinced that the free boost from the gummint is worth losing access to the funds for 23 years minimum :think:

elantan

edinburgher wrote: »

I keep swithering re. pension. Want to convert our ISA bonds into pension bonds, but not convinced that the free boost from the gummint is worth losing access to the funds for 23 years minimum :think:

I felt that way as well ... However, what the deciding factor was for me was that, if the worst comes to the worst and say Mr El and I lost our jobs we would have to go about trying to claim benefits, if we had over £16k in savings then we wouldnt get anything, we would have to use our savings to get by, and we may not get the chance to save for our retirement, However, the money in our pension is not counted towards benefits, the plan is to never ever have to claim benefits ( we have never had to yet) but it's for us an insurance policy, there will come a time soonish when we can start having those ISA savings as we will have reached the tipping point, but that time is not just now. this way we let our money grow a wee bit and can make plans for retirement as well

edinburgher

Typical Scottish defeatism

What about the offset account? Surely that counts as savings?

elantan

edinburgher wrote: »

Typical Scottish defeatism

What about the offset account? Surely that counts as savings?

Nah just covering all bases lol ... why risk my savings and retire older if i dont have to the offset is made up of an endowment and some ISA money ( £9k in ISA) so we do have some savings ... but not the £16k required to stop us from getting any benefits should we ever need them

elantan

Barely slept last night due to the pain in the shoulder and have had to phone in sick for today, dont think I will be able to work on Sunday either, now that I am on a zero hours contract I wont be paid either, so next month will be a tight month, but thats ok as my health needs to come first.

Mr El wants me to go get a new tyre today, yep we deff need one and the plan was to actually get one yesterday, however I am unable to drive just now so will need to wait till Mr El comes home then hopefully we can get one then.

Current plans for today are uni work and housework, with maybe a wee siesta fitted in somewhere

elantan

Just remembered its Halifox £5 day, now that we are putting the lump overpayments towards the pension and all the other wee bits off the mortgage I need to try and remember to pay these things in, so £5 duly paid off the mortgage which covers a couple of days interest now ... every little helps

we go away next week with Mil and Fil ... our bed breakfast and evening meal is covered so we just need to take spends, Mr El has used the tosco club card to get two tickets for the pleasure beach so that is handy, I dont see us spending much on anything else, we are not shoppers or anything. We only have £100 to use before we have to go into the overdraft so we will do our best, the challenge is on

edinburgher

Thanks El, I hadn't realised that everyone had the same fiver day :beer:

Feeling very skint just now, trying and succeeding to stash £15/day on top of my usual S&S DD, but the lack of football has slashed my MB income to next to nowt.

Every little helps...

elantan

Well done with the £15 a day ... I'm managing the Tilly tidies and the wee fiver but thats about it

I need to keep reminding myself that this skintness is just a for now thing, once I am qualified and have a job life should be easier, the mortgage will be nearly paid and the pension filling up ... But it is frustrating when your staring at the bank balance and wishing there was more lol

edinburgher

There's a good chance that it will all be gone by the end of the year. Planning on gingerly dipping my toe back into some (career specific) education with the hope of an eventual career transition. It's a gradual process, fully expect to be at my current place of work until next March

elantan

not good I know how you feel I felt that way with my last place, even though I wont be paid for todays shift that I cant do I would still rather be where I am now than where I was

What area are you thinking of studying in?