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Sun_Addict

What a lovely feeling that must be 😀 We’ve got less than £10k left on our mortgage and thankfully fixed to term on 1.94%. It should be gone in the next 3 years. 

redofromstart

KajiKita said:

Awww ….. that is soooo lovely 🥰 

KK

The really funny bit was that I said this to Mr Redo who promptly admitted he had done the same thing!

@Sun_Addict that's a great rate, makes sense to sit tight and pay it slowly. 

More playing in the garden, cucumbers and peppers moved from pots to the tunnel beds. The strawberries are green but huge and plentiful. Picking a few fat over wintered pea pods daily - so tasty. I pinched the flowering heads off the supermarket bought for pennies basil and gloried in the smell

i had to go into the city yesterday and came back via different MrMs. They don't look after their plants at that one but they had just had a delivery. Sedums and house leeks for £1.25, perfect fir my newly rebuilt natural stone walls. £3.49 for foot high Acers, my soil is acid anyway so these work well here. 

redofromstart

I logged onto the main bank earlier and spotted that they had charged the final interest to the mortgage account rather than at the end of the month (£1.05) but they have closed it so I had to faff about to pay it.  Mr Redo got a text saying we had closed the mortgage account, but nothing to me which irritated me.  Mr and Mrs Redo joint mortgage, but no other joint account with them, I have logged on as me for remortgages etc, and the funds came from both of our accounts so no excuse really for not informing both account holders.

A bit sensitive on these things at the moment as the USS (university pensions) and Capita have admitted that my unscrambled and detailed data was stolen on the internet, and I have heard all sorts of dark things about payroll data breaches in the last few days (with my work data protection officer head on). Current work pension statement arrived and has performed badly like everything else, but has at least had another year of reasonable contributions.  I checked our NI contributions - you currently need 35 years of contributions for full state pension, but the maths doesn't seem to add up on the website (if I didn't start work till 22 (and it says missing credits for 18 to 22, student low income) and I am 50, I can only have 28 max surely, not 32? Must check properly in the right mood. 

badmemory

Does it say you have 32 years or that you only need 3 more?

WinterWarrior

I really hate the missing women off communications with a passion. It has happened to me too. I also dislike the mr and mrs ‘man’s initial’…. 😡. At the very minimum I pay half, often more, so it’s very irritating. And don’t get me started on the state pension…moving goal posts and giving a minimum years, but quite happily taking many extra years for nothing. I started work at 16 so will have overpaid the minimum by many years when I retire for nothing extra at all….sigh. Even if they reduced the contribution it would be something. Terrible about your lost data 😞

RosaBernicia

Is it possible they've counted you for 16-18?  I just checked mine and found it didn't add up either, but scrolling down they appear to have given me full credit for the three tax years I would have been in sixth form.  Uni years are marked as not full.  (Not entirely sure this makes sense as both are full time education, and it was voluntary as you could leave at 16 then, but that's what's on the record.)

Also not entirely happy to find I will be paying for a full ten years beyond the max - there's even a line on the website cheerily saying "If you’re working you may still need to pay National Insurance contributions until [date of state pension age] as they fund other state benefits and the NHS".

badmemory

At least you are able to retire early & still get a full state pension.  Before a man would have to work from 21 to 65 (44 years) to get a full pension.  There's good & bad in all things it seems.

juliejim

Congratulations!

EssexHebridean

Back the truck up - you're mortgage free?! How did I miss that?! Congratulations! 

redofromstart

@RosaBernicia you are right, they count the A level years but not the degree 

thanks everyone, although no better off than before other than psychologically 

many small courgettes to use which is good.also developed a minor ceasar salad obsession. GF croutons are grim but Parmesan crisps add texture and taste