The Edcawber Principle

turtlemoose

Just popping in to say hi Ed. Nice to catch up and read your goings-on. SAD lamp sounds interesting, I'd love to read what you think of it now you've had it a little while

edinburgher

@turtlemoose In classic me style, I can't say that I haven't prioritised myself and used it for the minimum recommended period for at least 7 consecutive days. As such, my winter mood remains a bit bleak. Thank you for the timely reminder, I shall go and stare at it directly

We have had a few financial mini dramas of late, I don't really have anything positive to say about these, so they will keep for another day. We are all healthy and plodding along.

beanielou

edinburgher said:

@turtlemoose In classic me style, I can't say that I haven't prioritised myself and used it for the minimum recommended period for at least 7 consecutive days. As such, my winter mood remains a bit bleak. Thank you for the timely reminder, I shall go and stare at it directly

We have had a few financial mini dramas of late, I don't really have anything positive to say about these, so they will keep for another day. We are all healthy and plodding along.

Plodding is always good. 

Suffolk_lass

I'm having to raid the emergency fund for the second month running and I think I need to seriously rein it in. Sort of minor but it just creeps creeping up. Be aware that the next two weeks are the saddest in terms of daylight impact. Try to allocate some time each day to mitigate this. It really is worth investing in you

badmemory

I've found that a simple change like having cool white lights downstairs rather than warm white can make a difference.

edinburgher

Suffolk_lass said:

I'm having to raid the emergency fund for the second month running and I think I need to seriously rein it in. Sort of minor but it just creeps creeping up. Be aware that the next two weeks are the saddest in terms of daylight impact. Try to allocate some time each day to mitigate this. It really is worth investing in you

@Suffolk_lass - 8 rugby tickets and a 5 star holiday booked for our tenth wedding anniversary next year. I have quite a lot of money to find. Going cold turkey in Jan    Luckily next mortgage payment about £250 lower...
And paid of £350 of mystery debt Mrs E fessed up about a few months ago 
@badmemory - that is a good shout, we now have daylight frequency bulbs in a couple of rooms

Suffolk_lass

We had to postpone our tenth anniversary plans when DH's father and then brother both died within three months of each other (FIL not unexpectedly) - so we postponed by a year and bought an oil painting (!) of a beach scene and had a weekend in one of the local (of course it was not local then!) medieval hotels - not sure how we managed it (in July!) but we had a bridal suite. I do remember lots of other wedding activity underway and I think it was one big wedding while they often had two. I do recall our meals were in a small private dining room with the other non-wedding guests. All rather exclusive and expensive but sometimes you just need to do that thing. Personally I think tenth is a really good one to have a bit of a splurge on. I love the Rugby tickets thing.

Mystery debt - how many on here have had similar discoveries or similar secrets in their journeys!? lots! - I think my equivalent was when DH bought the first Harley Davidson on-line without discussion...

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - glad to know I'm not the only one discovering surprises...

greent

I think £350 is a pretty small mystery debt, too - years ago I discovered DH had 5k debt that I knew nothing about on a credit card! (Eek to that monthlybinterest!!!)

edinburgher

As I may have mentioned before, we got incredibly lucky transferring our DC pensions to a low cost provider (Vanguard, no obscured company names or anything!) I opted to transfer them as soon as they opened for business and this managed to coincide pretty much exactly with the bottom falling out of things when COVID-19 kicked off. We were then transferred in while the markets were in the doldrums and have captured some fairly hefty upswings since then. Other factors such as the existence of vaccines etc. mean that the best of the SIPPs (mine, transferred a bit faster) is now up by >30% since then. I can't really believe it... In real terms, we have now passed £100,000 in SIPPs and when you add in the value of DB pensions, it's well over £220,000! I no longer have any fear of eating cat food in retirement

20 years to retirement. We will either move or extend in 3 years, then 17 years to knuckle down and pay as much into salary sacrifice pension, ISAs and off the mortgage as we can, while trying to enjoy life.

I'm wary of sharing positive news when others are finding things so tough at the present, but thought that it was an interesting example of how dumb luck can make all the difference when it comes to financial planning! We are doing what we can to support our local community and are digging deep for every charitable appeal that comes our way. I only hope that government support and the small margin of hope that has returned to daily life will make a difference to people sooner rather than later. I am otimistic - even a sibling who had been unemployed for 9 months has managed to return to a (reasonably) well paid professional role.

Take care everybody