The "Save 12k in 2017" Thread!

Xenon

Xenon The Excruciatingly Lazy And Astonishingly Handsome

This month a mighty £1207 This Year £9062

So that's the mortgage deposit + solicitor + other costs + small emergency fund all set

Jazee

Just reporting in for September. Another £1k so still on target to save £12k this year. Also started a separate pot to save for next year's holiday.

Eco_Miser

CrabbitDutchie wrote: »

Have realised just how much I hate using a credit card and then paying it off - even with it being paid off in full every month. It feels like paying for stuff twice.

When I buy something on a credit card, I enter it as a purchase on my spreadsheet, and the DD to pay it off automatically appears on the forthcoming movements sheet as a transfer between my accounts, same as all those needed to operate the multiple current account and regular saver regime so many of us operate.
So I don't feel like I'm paying twice.

darkidoe

Wentthedaywell? wrote: »

Big fanfare - I've now semi retired and have received my pension lump sum. My savings this month are...£62,000! :j

Congrats on the milestone. Well done for the hard work saving in the past decades! I am sure this gives you alot more flexibility in life.

While we are on this topic, just to familiarise myself with how pensions work, so I presume this lump sum is 25% of your entire pension that you do not have to pay tax on?? Any subsequent income you get from the pension, you have to pay tax according to the income tax rules?

How do you access your pension; is there a draw-down plan or you get to choose year to year?

Thanks!

Wentthedaywell?

darkidoe wrote: »

While we are on this topic, just to familiarise myself with how pensions work, so I presume this lump sum is 25% of your entire pension that you do not have to pay tax on?? Any subsequent income you get from the pension, you have to pay tax according to the income tax rules?

How do you access your pension; is there a draw-down plan or you get to choose year to year?

Thanks!

No, it's even better than that, Darkidoe!

I have a defined benefit pension, which gives me a guaranteed, index-linked income for life. In addition I got a £90,000 tax free lump sum (the balance was my Additional Voluntary Contributions but I'd already counted that in my monthly updates here).

There is no "pot" as such, but I think mine's the equivalent of about £500,000 (the index-link boosts the value quite a bit).

Defined contribution pensions work as you have set out I think, but I don't know the details. It's such a complicated subject and I wish I'd learned more about it when I was younger. I had a mad maxing-out of my AVC in the final couple of years but I should have done it ages before - tax free money on the way in, and tax free on the way out.

I'm a bit of a pensions evangelist now and keep nagging people to sort theirs out NOW and pay extra and not to leave it too late! I'd really recommend looking the Retirement thread. There's lots of very knowledgable and helpful people there, they really helped be make the right decisions.

Lomcevak

Lomcevak wrote: »

#69 (not #56) updating with £3,546.00 for June and £3,152.40 for July - two much better months that make £16,589.33 for the year so far. August also looking good, so maybe, just maybe, i'll get back on track

Blimey, I'm not doing very well at updating this year

August was £4,532.08 and September was £2,143.99, so i'm firmly back on track. Total £23,265 of my £30k target.

Lomcevak

Wentthedaywell? wrote: »

I'm a bit of a pensions evangelist now and keep nagging people to sort theirs out NOW and pay extra and not to leave it too late! I'd really recommend looking the Retirement thread. There's lots of very knowledgable and helpful people there, they really helped be make the right decisions.

Good advice - I must figure out what my plan is.

For me it's not a lack of contributions, I've always made some AVCs and for the past few years i've been putting the full £40k annual allowance in to mine so the 'pot' is somewhere around £400k (i'm in my early-40s, so a fair few years to go yet), Mrs L. is a full professor and is in the University DB scheme so that's probably a pretty good pension. However, I have no idea what i'm saving for, what the timescales are, or whether my fund allocation is appropriate - mine's all in low-cost trackers, so my risk profile's probably a bit too sporty.

cathybird

hello all, number 38 here, for the second month in a row my amount is a big fat zero :beer: , this month due to legal expenses on something property related, nothing scary, just routine but it took out the potential savings for the month basically. October I've got a holiday to book but still more than hopeful of meeting target, which is tantalizingly close, by the end of the year if not before.

Wobblydeb

I'm on the ball with my update this month. A lovely £2,260.02 to report for September. This was really helped by nursery doing the 30 hours free care by way of a refund.

I could have saved £300 more, but we spent it on a weekend break doing fun stuff and eating out.

There is a bit of a time delay on our house purchase, so there is a chance that we won't complete for another couple of months. I might hit my target yet!! :T ......... and then spend it all on the new house :rotfl:

george4064

george4064 wrote: »

Below average month for me, August was expensive with lots of social activities including festival over the bank holiday weekend.

HTB - £200
Sharesave - £223

Total £423

September's figures:

HTB - £200
Sharesave - £223
P2P - £269

Total - £692