Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

More about sugar-free - off-subject but equally important to me

Not sure what is going on here. Another 2lbs off this morning - that is 9lbs since Wednesday. I know I am fat but that is comparable scale with the crash diet TV programmes! (and they are usually morbidly obese, which I am not)

Not upset by the stats though. I shall keep going. Must drink more water today, or I shall get a headache (apparently this is when sugar-cold-turkey kicks in).

Suffolk_lass

Bobarella - I didn't answer your question. Yes, I think so, but really only if they have some sort of alternative income provision in place. I would not want to draw-down my capital pot unless I had a prospect of more income kicking in at some point. Some might argue it only needs to last until State Pension kicks in (sp) but I'm not sure I want to live on sp with nothing else until I am old and not able to travel or get out and about. So I want my pension to be enough.

For DH, he has both a private pot and a DB pension come. And I have a DB pension to come so I don't think the risk is so high for us.

To be honest, the blow of the spa moving so late was greater. Access to the private pot means I feel slightly less under pressure with the mortgage and a bit more ready to save in different things. As the pot would buy an annuity of less than £200 a month (I looked yesterday, based on last year's statement of value) - I think paying down the mortgage with it gives us the direct control (and associated risks) over the money we are saving that would otherwise have been paying down the mortgage (iyswim).

My current area of financial learning is to understand what we pay for our investments to be managed.

So far I am aware of:

1. platform fees - Hargreaves Lansdowne, Charles Stanley Direct are two of the lower ones, for direct investments
2. annual charges - I think people like Fidelity charge these
3. transaction fees to buy or sell shares - maybe some do this for funds too
4. management charges - our contribution to the bonuses of the active fund managers who supposedly do wizard things with our money to outperform passive funds
5. exit fees - on top of transaction fees
6. transfer fees - if you ask for your investment to be moved from one fund to another, maybe as your risk appetite changes
7. IFA advice fees (we now pay independent financial advisers for the advice they offer)
8. compulsory activities - e.g. if your pot is greater than £30k you must obtain advice from an IFA (and pay) and if you then transfer (payable) from one provider to another, or drawdown - you pay 3 times
9. tax - if your investments are in an ISA - none. If they are in a pension pot, you can draw up to 25% without tax - anything above that is taxable at your prevailing rate of tax

Grr :mad: - all of them really

Bobarella

Thanks for that useful information Suffolk lass

The house situation must be a strain. How old is your son now? You said he inherited at 21. I'm sure you aren't the first parents to feel put on by their off spring in this way.
Have you broached the subject at all with him? I think I'd be more annoyed about him letting friends treat the place badly, when he knows you will pay to put it right, than him not being in a position to buy you out.

Suffolk_lass

Bobarella wrote: »

Thanks for that useful information Suffolk lass

The house situation must be a strain. How old is your son now? You said he inherited at 21. I'm sure you aren't the first parents to feel put on by their off spring in this way.
Have you broached the subject at all with him? I think I'd be more annoyed about him letting friends treat the place badly, when he knows you will pay to put it right, than him not being in a position to buy you out.

To be honest I think it is part of growing up. He is 24 now and a good person, very thoughtful and loving. We just didn't housetrain him properly.

He is in a house-share and things happen when he is away or out so not really "letting them" - just not willing to come back and rail at friends when he does not know who is responsible.

I think the friends taking advantage is possibly a by-product of his need for people to like him resulting from a completely miserable two years after we moved here (when he was systematically bullied at school and was horribly isolated and lonely). It was hard watching a happy go lucky child turn into a withdrawn, suspicious teenager with no confidence and no trust in anybody.

DS is really careful with his relationships and basically gets cr***ed on by so-called friends who assume we are rich and take advantage. We are considering taking one of his former resident friends to court and guess who is round there, making lunch? yes the very same. DH manages the house as I manage this one. It makes me cringe but it is DH's thing. I do not have the time or energy to intervene.

SL

Suffolk_lass

Logged in to my BS which has our mortgage and I can see the overpayment I made has been applied - so, I made another one. I will post a proper account at the end of the month but I added a bit, to put the CA under a bit of pressure. I know what I'm like if I'm feeling flush - I go shopping for stuff I don't need. So now I don't feel flush - feels safer somehow!

Suffolk_lass

Well, I have "made myself poor" for the rest of the month after randomly spending £17 on underwear on the way to work, just because I was feeling slightly smug about how my prep (for retirement), savings accumulation and debt reduction are going this month.

I am hoping that by reducing the amount in the CA it stops me spending. I think it is important to recognise this behaviour in me, so I can compensate for it.

Suffolk_lass

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

The debts I have currently are:

£110,621 - Mortgage - interest rate of 0.74% (0.5 above the BoEBR)
£3,476 - DH's car - 0% credit card until Sept 17 - a £4000 cash advance with a £76 fee
£8,755.54 - Barclays Finance for double glazing 0% over 2 years 2/24 paid

Total £122,852.54

I am going to add the other side of the picture - our savings as I am trying to get to the point where we are comfortably in credit so here goes:

£7,644.81 (aiming for £10,000) Emergency fund today -£2,355.19
£11,960.07 S&S ISA with Fidelity International (original £10,000 4 years ago)
£4,969.70 DH's S&S ISA with Charles Stanley Direct
£3,108.33 2 year Bond with Skipton BS @ 4% (one year in)
£10,947.52 7 year bond with Skipton BS - matures Oct 20
£38,630.43 Total actual savings

Shortfall £71,990.57 (mortgage)

I cannot see me addressing all of this before we retire but I want to challenge us to get this down as much as possible without tapping our pension funds. I know they are there but we started them for our retirement security so it feels slightly deceitful, relying on them to clear our mortgage and other debts.

I was shocked that we still paid over £1000 in interest last year, even on our very low mortgage interest rate.

I am going to think about this, and how best to balance savings, at a higher income rate than our debts (so off-setting) and how comfortable I am, actually paying over a thousand of our money to the BS.

In addition, in less realisable funds we have:
£60,000 (estimate for DH's frozen DC Pension pot)
£23,000 (approximate tax-free lump sum from DH's DB pension)
£? my DB pension tax free lump sum - might need this for our travel plans and treats or might need to up our income by "buying" more pension so not counting on this.

Bobarella

So you have £40k roughly in savings, & £83k in pension plus your own figure to add in?

That sounds pretty good going!

Suffolk_lass

Bobarella wrote: »

So you have £40k roughly in savings, & £83k in pension plus your own figure to add in?

That sounds pretty good going!

I would describe it as superficially impressive.

Let's look at the DC pot.
If we cash in DH's DC pension, the first 25% is tax free but the rest is taxable at his standard rate of tax. At the moment that is standard but if he takes it while he is working, it would push most of it above the 40% tax rate. I think we can get round this by taking it in the gap financial years between him giving up work, and the tax year in which he reaches 66. Although 75% remains taxable, he would effectively have an additional £4000 pa that could be tax free because his pension is about £7,000 pa and the tax threshold will by then be £11,000 (or possibly a little more)

And because the pot is greater than £30,000 my understanding is that we have to see an IFA to obtain advice - of course since the changes to their regulations this means we will pay for that service (out of the pot, after 1st April 2017).

Then it just feels wrong to rely on his tax free lump sum from his DB pension so I would like to pay more off the mortgage with cash-based savings so that he still receives that pot - especially as we are already planning to use his DC pot.

And all the DC calculations rely on his pot not reducing (it did so, quite dramatically in the late naughties)

Can you see why I am looking at contingency planning?

Karmacat

Just catching up, SL, but my brain aches when looking at my *own* pension issues, let alone anybody else's. I *do* understand why you're looking at contingencies, though, and if you can face it, good luck to you - I'm sure that thats a profitable thing to do over the long term - though I do hate the sound of *having* to consult an IFA.