Help to keep me honest

System

I thought I had replied to you last weekend , but obviously not. The Nordic walking is great exercise , have met a few people on walks in the lakes doing this . I am more of a fair weather walker with a few inclines thrown in for good measure. I have done the Old man of coniston though . Do you go walking ?

I hope you get your promotion, you will be debt free on a larger salary , so the retirement plans will start off well. The moon has been amazing to look at the past couple of nights , it's started snowing here now so looks lovely ( till you need to drive ) . Have a good weekend .

glass_half_full

Good morning Cumbria!
Yes, I have always enjoyed walking. We have holidayed in places for that reason over the years, like Wales, Scotland and the Lakes. It must be great for you being within a reasonable distance of the Lakes. We are in the Midlands so it is a bit more of a trek to these places for us.
I have a few chores to do and I think I am going to go out on foot as I think it will be safer than driving, but also quite nice being out in these conditions.
Have a great weekend also!

System

I have taken my parents shopping , but anything else this weekend is on foot. Yes about 1hr 10 gets me to Windermere, very lucky and grateful to be so near .

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Early start today but the roads were clear. On the way up north on a train to a training course. My promotion meeting was postponed to next week as one of the managers couldn't make it in due to the snow. It's now happening on Tuesday. Just a couple of days left at work for 2017. Looking forward to picking up DS from Uni on Friday or Saturday. Will be nice to have him at home for a couple of weeks. Finances ok I think payday will be a week on Friday. Aiming for a decent payment to debt, slightly reduced as I have paid a couple of insurances in full this month. Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Good morning diary and all,
Second to last day at work for 2017 . Going to Christmas lunch at work, hopefully a quiet day. Picking up DS on Saturday from Uni. Need to do a proper grocery shop since the last few days we have been managing on top up shops. Will need to get plenty of food in with DS coming home. Pay day should be on 22nd. Budget seems to be on track.

glass_half_full

Good evening diary and all,
I collected DS from Uni on Sunday so he is home for a couple of weeks. He seems to have taken on a nocturnal bodyclock sleeping during the day and then up most of the night.
Today I finally had my promotion conversation with the two senior people. It had been delayed due to the weather when one of them couldn’t get in. I was really nervous waiting outside the room for some reason before going in. Once I went in and starting talking to them it was actually ok. In the end it seems to have gone well and I have their support. I need to believe in myself a bit more as for some reason I had convinced myself they would not support it or there would be some problem. So now I need to finish off the paperwork for the next stage. Need to stay positive and focused on the next step in front of me.
On the money front, both DS and I have been paid early. As the budget is on track, I have made a payment of £1000 to the debt. There is no council tax payment in January or February, so there are just two more payments left and we will be debt free.

enthusiasticsaver

glass_half_full wrote: »

Hi Enthusiastic,
Yes, when I get the debt paid off I will start a MFW diary. I'm aiming to be mortgage free by 55 ish. I want to have the option to do what I want rather than what I have to do. You have done so well to retire at 57, that's a great achievement! :beer: Do you mind me asking how you will manage the period between now and state retirement, did you both overpay into your pension?

Sorry I missed this. Yes we both overpaid into pension, mortgage and invested in SIPPs and stocks and shares ISAs so three prong attack. We are lucky in that my pension is LGPS so DB scheme and mostly pre 2008 as I worked full time for a number of years and overpaid and transferred old pension into it. Consequently there is not a massive drop with me taking it early. Similarly with my DH paying 10% contributions his company were paying 20% as incentive for switching from DB to DC scheme with the 20% reducing by 1% each year so we maximised that and his DB pension was protected due to more than 30 years service.

Once our daughters finished uni and mortgage finished we invested heavily and saved large cash buffer to bridge the gap.

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on the great debt busting - only 2 months left thereabouts and on possible promotion. My suggestion would be to think long and hard about priorities as it is so easy to loosen the purse strings and go a bit mad once released from restraint of debt. Keeping going with the budgeting will pay dividends and enable you to have a bit more money to enjoy but also put some plans in place for the future whether that is overpay mortgage or pension or save towards holiday, new car or home improvements.

When our daughters finished uni and we had repaid our mortgage for the first time ever our direct debits were a fraction of our take home pay. We had a lot of disposable income and it would have been easy to spend that on holidays, cars, house projects, meals out etc. We did them all but also invested for early retirement and divided the money up into monthly amounts but also doubled our personal spends from £100 each to £200 each. We did not always spend it but we kept it separate so we each saw the benefit of no mortgage.

System

Good news on the meeting about promotion, hope it progresses satisfactorily. Another £1000 payment well done , edging closer to the finish line .

glass_half_full

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Sorry I missed this. Yes we both overpaid into pension, mortgage and invested in SIPPs and stocks and shares ISAs so three prong attack. We are lucky in that my pension is LGPS so DB scheme and mostly pre 2008 as I worked full time for a number of years and overpaid and transferred old pension into it. Consequently there is not a massive drop with me taking it early. Similarly with my DH paying 10% contributions his company were paying 20% as incentive for switching from DB to DC scheme with the 20% reducing by 1% each year so we maximised that and his DB pension was protected due to more than 30 years service.

Once our daughters finished uni and mortgage finished we invested heavily and saved large cash buffer to bridge the gap.

HI Enthusiastic,
Thanks, ok that's what it looks like when you get really serious! It must be great to reach that point where you are truly free and can do what you want with your time and know that you have financial security. I guess this is you last couple of days at work, I hope you have a great celebration. :beer: Please let us all know on the threads on here how you are getting on.