Prosperous soul in the making

doingitanyway

It is brilliant that you have published a book! Is it a specialist subject or fiction?
I am slow resetting my diet after getting carried away on pecan nuts

Busy_Mee

Well done on clearing a credit card. Hitting a target always feels like such a positive achievement x

Moneyfordreams

Well done on clearing the card and sub £20k.   

DancingInTheRain

Great news on clearing the card and being sub 20k, fantastic! 🥂

clearmydebts

Well done on clearing the credit card. It is such an achievement when the amount of debts reduce. How is DS feeling about his diagnosis? DD has ADHD and DH suspected. We've been listening to free webinars over the past few weeks from this organisation and have found them very useful: https://adhdireland.ie/

enthusiasticsaver

savingholmes said:

Thanks MF - I do have a mobile contact but she is shielding her DH. I'm sure I  will resolve something.

Well today had another huge disappointment. The pensions transfer co have refused my case. They don't have to give a reason. I am sooo frustrated and gutted. I have already paid to get a new pension valuation too. May try again when that comes. I think this is potentially a good time to invest - but know when I was looking in January - most companies didn't want to touch me until I was 55 or close to it so not sure I will be able to find anyone that will. I know they are trying to protect me - but I would rather take the risk

In most cases pension transfer specialists refuse to agree to transferring out of defined benefit pensions (which I assume yours is) and I do not think being 55 will change that to be honest.  They are too worried about being sued for recommending or agreeing to people moving over from what is a protected scheme to one which relies on the stock market.  I am going to put the other side albeit from a  much smaller defined benefit pension.  I had an old ex bank scheme which was defined benefit and had been frozen since 1985 and was due to pay out this year when I was 60.  The monthly figure was not huge but it was in addition to my local authority pension and it gives me an extra £300 a month.  The transfer value a year ago was around £70k but on getting quotes from pension transfer specialists of around £5k I decided to just leave it and took it from February this year at the £300 per month (plus index linking).  If I had taken the £65k after costs (even assuming a pension transfer specialist would sign off on it) and invested with our other investments it would be worth closer to £55k now so I am glad I did not do that. 

I know you say now you would rather take the risk but once retired there is a massive attraction to defined income.  Many of my friends on DC pensions are having to delay taking money out of their pensions at the moment because of the falling stock markets. We have had no such problems because our pensions are fixed benefit. 

PurpleFairy26

Enthusiastic saver thanks for the above. I too have a small DB scheme and although a few years away from retirement I have been asked by the trustees to review it and they are paying for advice on it with one option to transfer. So your comments are much appreciated. 

savingholmes

Thanks guys. A lot of posts from you all yesterday. Very encouraging. Today I have been eating 'frogs' as per DIA and some others.

ES it is true that the DB pension was worth around £4.5K p.a (from age 60) when I left the company in 2005 and is now worth closer to £7.7K p.a due to inflation and change in NRA to 65. A pension pot I found last year £2.8K pot is apparently 15 years old. I can potentially take it tax free at 55 as it is such a small pot.

I have completed the ID checks for setting up my company. Hopefully that will now trigger a tax code that I need before I can finish uploading my book. It can take 14 days to come - so I am likely to miss my desired publication deadline by a few days. To upload to Am**** I will need to do a tax exemption type form for the US to reflect that I pay UK tax instead!. The frogs are multiplying!!

Getting ready to publish is eating £ eg things like the codes you put on the back of books. I've done some more formatting for my book and am debating whether to print it for a final proofread. I've found a designer who can take the image I like and finish' off the design for my book so I can have different versions for e-book, print, audio etc. Again costs vary from around £30 to thousands. I am going low end initially. If book sales take off I can revisit it. I've also been trying to do bits on my new website - but again it is a struggle.

I did my day job - upped my day by and hour but am still struggling with productivity. I had a nice chat with a team member which was positive. I think if the family wasn't in the house I would be much better able to focus but with everyone in it's really hard - especially DS as he's super noisy. I feel like I've been given 'busy work' rather than critical things which isn't helping either

I have had fun in the garden pruning and talked to my neighbours in a socially distanced way. My celery seedlings have finally sprouted!  I have planted out some marigolds, beets and more lettuce. I've had to water as everywhere is dry. My potatoes have really taken off - but I need more compost to cover them.  DH has hung a hose pipe holder on the wall to hold the new shiny metal hose pipe he bought last month. He's also been digging out the footings for a new metal shed. He needs to lay concrete but we are struggling to get builder's sand delivered and are trying to shield.

I've also caught up on my washing and done a little hoovering. Had to get DH to fix it after the kids had blocked it with something. Baby steps... Heading in the right direction. I also did the dishwasher twice today but DS cooked a stunning meatballs and spaghetti dish. I've also been reducing pain meds from 4 x per day down to 2. Night all. Have a good week.

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on getting below 20k.  Sounds busy getting ready for publication, how exciting! I had no idea that there was a cost element to ISBN codes.

Good news on the celery seedlings, mine seemed to take ages to germinate but getting sturdier by the day. We suddenly had to earth up the potatoes a couple of evenings ago. The plants had suddenly shot up!

savingholmes

Thank you HSL. Glad your allotment is coming on well. The spinach I sowed towards the end of last week and clingfilmed has sprouted too.

I tackled another couple of frogs this week. Ordered a couple of birth certificates as can't find mine. I finally have access to old pension. It was from 2005 and has nearly doubled in that time despite the 08 and current crisis.

My mortgage went out. OP was £206. It all helps. The sun is shining too. We are 'well'. Lots to be thankful for.