Prosperous soul in the making

clearmydebts

savingholmes wrote: »

Thanks for joining me CMD. I will follow your progress with interest too.

Sighs of relief all around. DD did well with her GCSEs although one subject she needs was one grade lower than ideally needed by 6th form I think that they will let her off. Find out for sure tomorrow. They gave me the impression that due to her circumstances unless she failed English and Maths they would be able to take her... as long as original predicted grades showed she had capability. I've already sent those through. Much better position than we anticipated today so hopefully stress will ease up.

Yay glad your DD did well. I'm sure it was a real worry. Fingers crossed re: her school too.

Just read back and saw your PPI claim money. All I can say is wow! I'm delighted for you! You inspired me to query a credit card and loan although I'm not holding out much hope as it was in 2004 and 2005!

savingholmes

Received a pension statement today showing already earned pension p.a. of £7.3K and if I stayed until 67 could reach £23.6K. This suggests with our state pensions and other pension I have - which I've asked for figures for today - should come by post within 10 days - and a couple of pensions OH has we are already on track to retire with about 60% income which is a relief. However, the way I am currently feeling, it is hard to imagine staying in the traditional workplace another 18 years to get to that £. I really need some advice about the lifetime allowance thing too so I can understand whether I am better off with AVC, SIPP or S&S ISA once we've cleared our debts. Then I can join ES and others and potentially retire / semi retire or take mini sabbaticals earlier than NRA. I am considering consultancy, self-employment etc longer term but would need things to stabilise at home first.

Still tempted by a little home in the country somewhere... if we can't do a bigger place - keep telling myself that a second place or bigger place with land at this stage could waste £ on repeat moves and keep us stuck longer - and make it harder rather than easier to move - but the itch remains....

savingholmes

clearmydebts wrote: »

Yay glad your DD did well. I'm sure it was a real worry. Fingers crossed re: her school too.

Thanks

clearmydebts wrote: »

Just read back and saw your PPI claim money. All I can say is wow! I'm delighted for you! You inspired me to query a credit card and loan although I'm not holding out much hope as it was in 2004 and 2005!

Good. Mine were 1998 and 2003 starts! Go for it. I still want to try at least one more... on our first ever mortgage I think we had ppi

clearmydebts

savingholmes wrote: »

Received a pension statement today showing already earned pension p.a. of £7.3K and if I stayed until 67 could reach £23.6K. This suggests with our state pensions and other pension I have - which I've asked for figures for today - should come by post within 10 days - and a couple of pensions OH has we are already on track to retire with about 60% income which is a relief. However, the way I am currently feeling, it is hard to imagine staying in the traditional workplace another 18 years to get to that £. I really need some advice about the lifetime allowance thing too so I can understand whether I am better off with AVC, SIPP or S&S ISA once we've cleared our debts. Then I can join ES and others and potentially retire / semi retire or take mini sabbaticals earlier than NRA. I am considering consultancy, self-employment etc longer term but would need things to stabilise at home first.

Still tempted by a little home in the country somewhere... if we can't do a bigger place - keep telling myself that a second place or bigger place with land at this stage could waste £ on repeat moves and keep us stuck longer - and make it harder rather than easier to move - but the itch remains....

That pension figure sounds unreal! Would love that. My own is abysmal. Need to get debt free before I can even think of tackling it though

clearmydebts

savingholmes wrote: »

Thanks


Good. Mine were 1998 and 2003 starts! Go for it. I still want to try at least one more... on our first ever mortgage I think we had ppi

Sure it's worth a go anyway! I'm fairly sure I did have PPI with them (MBNA credit card) and loan (RBS).

savingholmes

clearmydebts wrote: »

That pension figure sounds unreal! Would love that. My own is abysmal. Need to get debt free before I can even think of tackling it though

Hi CMD - we can only go forward from where we are. I have deliberately targeted working for organisations with either a final salary pension scheme or career average scheme. OH is in a really poor pension though. If they exist around where you are - that can definitely help - usually local government, education or ex-government schemes. Salary lower than would otherwise be though so trade off.

I've been listening to DR and CH on everyday £Maires - so trying to be focused on the long game - so can make it past the CC debt this time to paying off mortgage and going for investing so we can potentially retire early. I've worked throughout my life since leaving uni with only a few months off for kids or between jobs...

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi savings - I've not been around for a while but was thinking about your DD this morning on the way to work and managed to read earlier how well she did :T - that is really great news and hopefully tomorrow even better news she will have the 6th form place she wants. Sorry i couldn't log in from work. Will hopefully be able to get caught up this weekend with all your news and post my own update too x

WelshKitty85

Well done to your DD. That must be a weight off your mind.

Doing_it_my_way

Good news for you today, congratulations!

savingholmes

Thanks Stripey, Welsh Kitty and Doingitmyway

Yes it is a big relief. Hopefully we will get the news we need tomorrow after the 6th form interview and we can then put that to bed. DD's scooter trainer didn't turn up - we waited an hour for him before abandoning the course and demanding a refund. I think we were fortunate as it turns out he was late because an earlier student had come off their motorbike and landed in A&E - he had then also had to arrange to recover the bike. Re-booked elsewhere for Tuesday instead now. Hoping that one is more successful.

Been reading some of the mse pensions advice tonight - and some of the fire type threads on the pensions board.... So want to run ahead and buy dream property and then find a way of making it work. Just confessing here... I think at the very least we want to go to our bank and understand our likely options - at least then we would know.

DS is coming home tomorrow night - not see him since Feb so can't wait. Want to hug him and not let go - but BIL says that I should go more gently than that and not scare him off LOL.