Travelling On

Cheery_Daff

Love the idea of you having your vaccine at Winterfell Hall 😁 Glad they're going to contact you for the second dose. Mr Cheery managed to book his second at the same time as the first which we were grateful for.

Gosh, all this pension malarkey sounds complicated 😮 Feeling very grateful for my straightforward works pension right now! 

taka

KC If you are going to try to take out some of your H&L pension (to use up spare tax free allowance for 20-21 tax year) before the end of the tax year you will need to do it ASAP as Easter bank holidays will eat up a bunch of the working days left this tax year.

Need to get my big girl pants on and open a S&S ISA before then myself. It seems awfully grown up a thing to do. 

I'm in Scotland so get little to no choice when I get jabbed! I just got the blue envelope therough the post (appointment letters come in blue envelopes here!) with about a week or so's notice of the date and time. Glad I managed to adjust my work day to get mine a few weeks ago as I tried to rearrange it and there were no slots available for at least a month! No signs of a blue envelope with a date for the 2nd one but it should hopefully be around May.

Suffolk_lass

Karmacat said:

Suffolk_lass said:

We are taking 25% of DH's private (defined contribution) pension in each tax year between that within which he finished work and that within which he reaches state pension age. His occupational pension is about the same as a full state pension so about £4,500 of each lump is tax free - he will reclaim the tax in the new tax year following each drawdown, if that makes sense.

Our thinking was to minimise the tax rather than try to eke it out, so that we have the capital to enjoy while we are young and fit enough to enjoy it, relying on the higher income the pension will provide to cover emergency things in future

Aha!  Thank you SL!  I've been pootling about on the Hargreaves Lansdown pension pages - tax free drawdown, of course!  Yes - and if I could do a bit this tax year, that would be great.  I only have about £60k in pension funds, most of my actual money is outside the official pension system; trouble is, its in 3 separate funds - two of which are managed by the same company, actually.  Pension funds are the majority of my shareholdings, as opposed to cash, and I can't help but think that at my age, with my health record, I need them out of shares before (financial) boom goes bust.    That could pay for my windows.

With three pots, you might want to consider another option - liquidise one whole fund at a time - it will be a balance between admin fees vs tax. Once you take some, a fund has to move it to a more safe bundle that is more bonds than shares (so less risk) and of course they charge you for this set of transactions and also subsequent draw-downs - this happened to us when we took the 25% TFLS, while DH was still working (quite a big fee) and again when we drew(?) down more in January this year.

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Love the idea of you having your vaccine at Winterfell Hall 😁 Glad they're going to contact you for the second dose. Mr Cheery managed to book his second at the same time as the first which we were grateful for.

Gosh, all this pension malarkey sounds complicated 😮 Feeling very grateful for my straightforward works pension right now! 

I know, it's good, isn't it    I didn't want to use the actual name, and Winterfell popped up straight away - last bastion of freedom, etc etc

The pension malarkey is *extremely* complicated, and not getting simpler.  I've been on the go constantly today since about 9.30, so I *might* do some research, along the lines of checking how much it will cost to take a little lump sum, and let go of everything else.

Karmacat

taka said:

KC If you are going to try to take out some of your H&L pension (to use up spare tax free allowance for 20-21 tax year) before the end of the tax year you will need to do it ASAP as Easter bank holidays will eat up a bunch of the working days left this tax year.

Need to get my big girl pants on and open a S&S ISA before then myself. It seems awfully grown up a thing to do. 

I'm in Scotland so get little to no choice when I get jabbed! I just got the blue envelope therough the post (appointment letters come in blue envelopes here!) with about a week or so's notice of the date and time. Glad I managed to adjust my work day to get mine a few weeks ago as I tried to rearrange it and there were no slots available for at least a month! No signs of a blue envelope with a date for the 2nd one but it should hopefully be around May.

Hi taka!  Oh my, that's an extremely good point - I'd completely forgotten about Easter.  I'm glad you've got your first jabbing: sounds like you're in the same system as me, not getting info about the second until it's nearly time.  Everyone else I've talked to in RL has been on the other system, booking both jabs at the same time, so I was feeling a bit left out 

apple_muncher

I've heard nowt re my second jab other than being told at my first one that I'd be contacted about it at some point! I'm not bothered as I'm lucky to be getting tested twice weekly, so at least I know I'm clean...

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

Karmacat said:

Suffolk_lass said:

With three pots, you might want to consider another option - liquidise one whole fund at a time - it will be a balance between admin fees vs tax. Once you take some, a fund has to move it to a more safe bundle that is more bonds than shares (so less risk) and of course they charge you for this set of transactions and also subsequent draw-downs - this happened to us when we took the 25% TFLS, while DH was still working (quite a big fee) and again when we drew(?) down more in January this year.

Oh gosh!  Right, I definitely need to sign in to the funds and check what might happen.  Very grateful for your knowledge, SL, thank you so much  

As I say, I've been flat out: finishing cleaning the last lot of supermarket food, putting the dw on, taking delivery of the next delivery (still no normal price sheep and goat feta!  Bah humbug!) and cleaning and drying the frozen stuff straight away.  Plus a phone call that lasted 1.5 hours.  

Ooh!  And apart from all that, some good news: the new baby came into the world bang on cue, weighing 12lbs!  Those organic cotton sleepsuits I bought are for a 6 - 9 month old, and it's a good job, I'd say!  All's well  

apple_muncher

12 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ouch!

beanielou

12lb.  Shudders.

rtandon27

Wow - 5lbs is plenty big enough - but 12! ?- that is a healthy size for a new born 👶🍼