Mortgage Free Mini-Goals

mrsp1987

I think you might be right as I have suddenly moved up to Money Saving Stalwart and have 2 extra blank stars and the only thing that has changed has been me passing 200 posts.

mrsp1987

I'm losing the will to live but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel. I only have 18 minutes left to transcribe. I will get this done tonight and then I have to proof-check it in the morning. Interestingly it's about pensions, which is better than natural yogurt or tinned pineapple.

EatingTheElephant

Great news that your foot is getting better. I'm always on the lookout for off-road routes. Either for walking, running or riding and used various online resources over the years.

At the moment I'm using view ranger as it works reasonably well on my phone and iPad. I've also used bikehike but that works best on a PC. there is usually an option for opencycle online map which is great for finding tracks.

I may have missed it if it was mentioned before but is the transcribing part of work or is it an 'up your income' type thing?

mrsp1987

Ooh fab suggestions ETE! I'll take a look at some of those this afternoon. I think I'm just unaware of what is a public field around here and what is a farmer's field. Would hate to get caught trespassing on someone's crops.
Woke up this morning and my foot is a bit sore again . Aiming to go to the gym this afternoon and do some weight training. Had hoped to do a mile on the treadmill but I think I'd better not.

Yes, the audio transcription is an income top-up rather than my main source of income. Last year when I was thinking of returning back to work after 3 months off sick with depressions and anxiety I stumbled across this and thought if I can make this work then I can afford to give up one of my 5 days which would help with my illness. Luckily I was able to make it work so I've just carried on. It's even more convenient now I only work 18.5 hours over 3 days for someone else (higher rate of pay than when I was working 32.5 so the gap isn't as big)

mrsp1987

Right I'm done! File submitted and I've probably got eye-strain so I should really get off this computer but I love this site so much!!!
Not 100% happy with the file. Struggled to hear little bits of what people were saying so I've got lots of little bits where words are missing. I've formatted it properly (otherwise I wouldn't have this job) but I don't like handing a file back when I feel there are loads of misheard bits. I always worry it will fail the proof-read at their end. I never have, but I always worry that there will be a first time!

Got a bug in my ear now about pensions after listening to that file. Might do some research, get confused and scare myself with how unprepared I am!!

mrsp1987

So I did go and lookup my pension pot online after I found my paperwork - so glad that I spent some time last year organising everything. I knew exactly where to go to put my hand on it. Sadly my pension pot is very, very small. I have £3.8K in it :eek::eek::eek:
So, once I know for definite that my contract is being extended past the end of March (as in I get a letter as I've already been told I'm being kept on and they've just accepted my holiday request for April) I'm straight in there asking to join the pension. Not the rubbish opt-in one but the other decent one where if I pay in 5% I think they pay in 6%. That'll do donkey, that'll do.

Also, I've just had a HUGE MAHOOSIVE transfer into my O/P account as I got the £100 switch bonus from TSB and another £13.12 from TCB so I'm now upto £338.17!!! :j:j
Only £161.83 to go and I can make an over payment!!! :dance::dance::dance:

I'm also expecting to get paid a bit more this month, possibly next month as we've received a very small pot of funding to "raise awareness of energy issues and support in the rural community." So, I've got a few extra hours to do this month as ideally it needs using up before the end of March. So, I think I shall be driving around the county visiting rural parishes asking if I can drop off leaflets and posters and trying to arrange 3 or 4 pop-up events across the county all in 3 weeks. Can't carry it over into the first week of April cos I'm in Zagreb!!
Oh well, I need to get pushed out of my comfort zone and start re-building my confidence.

Toodle-pip!!
*goes hunting for £168......*

shangaijimmy

Pension pot and retirement is a real puzzler for me as well. In the last few years I've just added pay rises to my monthly direct debit. Mrs SJ's is a fantastic company pension, mine unfortunately isn't! I do pay the 'rubbish' opt in one as its free money but only 1%. If we can get this mortgage boxed off in 7-8 years then I'll really ramp up pension payments the, with another 20years of it. Our plan is also to downsize at 55-60yrs Young and free up some house equity as part if the pot. But as you acknowledge we do have to keep it in mind!

mrsp1987

shangaijimmy wrote: »

Pension pot and retirement is a real puzzler for me as well. In the last few years I've just added pay rises to my monthly direct debit. Mrs SJ's is a fantastic company pension, mine unfortunately isn't! I do pay the 'rubbish' opt in one as its free money but only 1%. If we can get this mortgage boxed off in 7-8 years then I'll really ramp up pension payments the, with another 20years of it. Our plan is also to downsize at 55-60yrs Young and free up some house equity as part if the pot. But as you acknowledge we do have to keep it in mind!

That's part of what I was thinking. If I can get rid of the mortgage then there will be extra time where those hundreds of pounds a month can be used for topping up my pension.
I'm only 28 and I only have a very basic knowledge of how pensions work, both private and state. I'm also working on the assumption that in 40 years when I'm currently allowed to retire (state pension age) it won't be anything like what we have now. It may not even exist as a pension but some other means tested old age benefit.
So, I'm trying not to worry too much about it now plus we have about £50K in cash ISAs or S&S ISAs - the advanced inheritance from hubby's father. Hubby seems to be taking a keen interest in investing using H&L. Also his employer is changing their pension system so he's considering moving his pot (which I believe was a final salary non-contributory thing) and putting it in a SIPP with H&L.
I don't know. All I know is that I want to be very comfortable when I'm old but it's so far away and there always seem to be more pressing matters at the moment.

mrsp1987

Decided to send an email to the company inquiring as to when I may receive payment for the work completed. I hope this comes across professional not pee'd off and b**chy.
However, I want my flipping £75!!!!

mrsp1987

Response received. Payment due 15th March.