Get a grip woman!

Karmacat

So many good things in your post, but this summary at the top is fantastic
:j :j :j Congratulations!

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

£122,852.54 - This was my total debt when I started this diary

DEBTS
Total [STRIKE]£122,852.54[/STRIKE] £38,140.89 (all mortgage, everything else is done and gone) - that is £84,711.65 or 68.95% paid off so far.

SAVINGS
£12,663.57 Emergency pot
£12,438.63 S&S ISA with Fidelity International
£9,388.93 DH's S&S ISA (with Charles Stanley Direct]
£11,727.25 - 7 year bond with Skipton BS - matures Oct 20

[STRIKE]£38,630.43[/STRIKE] £46,217.48 Total actual cashable savings and 19.64% better than when I started (our priority is to clear debts)

SURPLUS £8,076.59 (against debts)

Suffolk_lass

Thanks KC, I am trying to not feel complacent - my "smug filter".

I have opened an ISA account and also an investment account, the latter from which to pay all the trading and transaction fees (this is a slightly sneaky way to account for the costs versus the investment returns as they will be in different accounts on the same platform). After some consideration I went for Charles Stanley Direct as my investment platform (it is a Which Best Buy as well as appearing in the top 5 lists for transparency and management fees). As DH and DS each have an account with them I like the ease of use and access this offers. I have not bought any shares or funds yet though

Busy_Mee1

I think you are entitled to feel a bit smug, you have worked hard to get yourself into this position.

I am shamelessly stalking you in retirement to see what Suffolk Lass did next !

Suffolk_lass

Persuaded DH to move the money I put in the running costs account to his CSD account so that he will achieve a full £20k there by the end of the financial year (he has been paying in a modest sum each month. There is far too much cash in each of these accounts at the moment so I am off to check a few things out with more global perspectives than my research so far.

My caution is based on the additional risks associated with Emerging Markets (India has elections coming up and the markets seem to go doo-lally when that happens, and of course South America is still basking in the success of the Venezuelan economy and the Brazilian mining safety situation). Compare that with anything else that says Global on the tin and they all seem to mean between 40% and 70% USA and much of the rest in China and Japan.

I am not sure European funds are doing much better in the Brexit space than we are in the UK (except some companies are taking up additional offices and warehousing so maybe commercial property (non-retail) will increase.

It all seems quite risky but as enthusiasticsaver said, this has caused the purchase prices to drop so it is not all bad for us! More pondering...

In the meantime I went John-Lewis-!!!!!!-browsing with DH yesterday and ended up buying two things (both his choice (!) with my gift card. I did prefix the purchases by saying these did not constitute my retirement gift and were primarily because I did not like having a gift card with over £300 on it!

enthusiasticsaver

Great you have now got your TFLS and have made another massive payment to the mortgage. Getting rid of it in 3 years is great.

I may have missed how old you are, think you are a little older than me (59 tomorrow ) but presumably at some point your state pension will also kick in giving you another £8k+ a year? It is a minefield trying to decide whether to leave investments or draw on them before spa to minimise tax. Personally we are leaving the investments and if we had spare cash now we would be investing more. I am wary about leaving us short of cash though given we have another 6 or 7 years until spa.


Some fantastic targets.

Debsnewbudget

If you are leaving work before SPA then check your pension entitlement.
I found I can get an extra £30 per week by paying NI contributions for next few years
As I am self employed I will pay £150 per year for 6 years and get an extra £30 per week
Seems a no brainer to me
The people on the Future Pensions help line were really helpful

Suffolk_lass

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Great you have now got your TFLS and have made another massive payment to the mortgage. Getting rid of it in 3 years is great.

I may have missed how old you are, think you are a little older than me (59 tomorrow ) but presumably at some point your state pension will also kick in giving you another £8k+ a year? It is a minefield trying to decide whether to leave investments or draw on them before spa to minimise tax. Personally we are leaving the investments and if we had spare cash now we would be investing more. I am wary about leaving us short of cash though given we have another 6 or 7 years until spa.

Happy Birthday enthusiasticsaver! you are right, I am nearly two years older than you so have five and a bit years until my SPA. DH is a few months later but both in the 66 bracket. I think you are too?

Our plans are for DH to draw down from his DC Pension to cover the tax years after he stops work this summer - he won't start until the following tax year so that the gap between his teacher's pension income and the drawdown is partly free of tax. It should be enough but if not, we have that Skipton Bond I report on, due to pay out in October 2020, and we could take the income from the investment funds out of the ISAs to top up. Our investments have been accumulation rather than income so far, but most offer the option to switch. His DC pot can be drawn down against 4 times, to last less than 5 years.

He also said he might do a tiny bit of supply teaching, if there is something he wants to "save for"

Debsnewbudget wrote: »

If you are leaving work before SPA then check your pension entitlement.
I found I can get an extra £30 per week by paying NI contributions for next few years
As I am self employed I will pay £150 per year for 6 years and get an extra £30 per week
Seems a no brainer to me
The people on the Future Pensions help line were really helpful

We both have enough qualifying years for full basic state pension projections. We will monitor what the cost vs benefit of making voluntary contributions is for additional gap years between stopping work and taking SP.

It depends on what the NI Cont rates are increased to. My understanding is that there is a change from April this year that means the additional years cost will increase.

As two people with at least some of our time opted out of SERPS it is a maths thing, and will depend on inflation (and how that increases the SP), average wage increases and whether the triple lock for pensions survives (which offers a 2.5% "backstop" - so we must compare increases in benefits and how long the added years purchase would take to pay back (added to the question of affordability).

Karmacat

Qualifying NI is odd, isn't it. I simply worked out the number of years I'd worked the whole time (I had two gaps of three months, when I went travelling), and worked out I qualified for full SP with about 3 years left over. Imagine my surprise this year when I logged on to hmrc to do the usual declaration, and this year they had that information laid out - I have 42 years qualifying! Gratifying



Happy Birthday, enthusiastic saver!

enthusiasticsaver

Thanks for the birthday messages Suffolk and Karma. Sounds like you have a good plan for financing the gap between now and spa. We have found the first few years of retirement quite expensive in that DH has done quite a few DIY projects now he has more free time and we have fitted a new kitchen and had more holidays, short breaks and spent out more on entertainment, hobbies and eating out. A necessary expense when you have more time. I did not worry about it in the first year of both DHs retirement as I was still working or last year as that was the first full year of my retirement. We invested 75% of DHs lump sum and 50% of mine and have been drawing on this to subsidise our everyday expenses. This is the first year we are planning to live within our DB pensions and investment income.

Great you have full NI contributions Karma. You get NI contributions if you receive CB or carers allowance I think even if you not working. I had a gap of three years when my children were babies when I didn't work but still qualified according to my NI record.

Suffolk_lass

The NI credits is a bit of an issue since the Government introduced the salary cap for receiving Child Benefit. Lots of people who had their children since then have not bothered to register for CB and HMRC are very stubborn about crediting people who misinterpreted the guidance. The thing is, if your partner earns over £50k there is a sliding scale of actual benefit, but for the partner who gives up work to provide the childcare, they need to be registered and then opt out of the benefit, so they get the carer credits added to their records. Young people also get it if they stay in education, including Uni if they don't take a gap year. My only non-years in my contribution record is my Uni years but I took a 5 year gap so no credits available. In addition, it is too far back to make these up as we can only pay for up to 6 years back.

Ooh, interrupted as post arrived. What lovely post!

• The letter confirming the overpayment of mortgage confirms that our interest is down to £39.42 per month. My next target should be £1 a day, or maybe busting through the £35k barrier.
  
• And my seeds. I ordered from Thompson and Morgan as they are local to me in Ipswich (well it is East Anglia) and Mr Fothergill's who seem to be Newmarket based. The seeds I ordered have all come and Mr F has added in two bonus packets free - marigolds (good for distraction of slugs and some flies) and kale. It would seem rude not to take advantage of these so I will plant them.

I've had lots of advice on growing chilli seeds so will plant these first, along with peppers, and I need to plant tomatoes this week so that they are up and running when we get back from Easter hols. As DS is away I will need someone to water them in our collective absence, and that reminds me, I must book our cat into the cattery (which she loves as she always has a holiday cottage overlooking the aviary and sits there chattering all day).