Prosperous soul in the making

jwil

That's a great loss, well done! Great news on the blog too

savingholmes

Thanks DIA and Jwil

£162.45 paid off today - taking balance down to £24,875.

Our gas hob now has two burners not working properly. Anyone got any advice on how to find someone to fit a new one even? Is it a gas engineer? Is my plumber likely to be able to help? It's irritating because we would like a new kitchen after we are debt free - so we might end up ripping out the replacement at some point... If we stayed I would like to move to halogen - if we were moving out I suppose we could put that one back in...

For some reason I have the Monday blues. I don't want to go in... Need to have a shower, rush around and go but so far it's just not happening.... Best finish my porridge first...

Hope everyone else has a good day.

MovingForwards

So you have an old dry toothbrush you can give the two burners a good scrub with? They don't react to well with bits going down / building up.

It needs to be a gas engineer to fit a new cooker / do any gas related work. If your plumber isn't gas Safe he will know someone who is.

Can you do a shorter day today? I know you are only recently back in after the holiday but you have a huge work / life drain on you.

savingholmes

HI MF - I made it into work but on the late side and worked late to make up. I was fine once I got there - the problem was pushing through the barrier and going.

I will try your toothbrush suggestion and let you know if it worked. Our plumber fitted our gas boiler - that's why I thought of him - but don't know whether he is equally comfortable with other bits. I'll text him and ask tomorrow.

We may succumb and buy a new bed tomorrow. It's the end of the sales in one of the places I''ve been looking tomorrow. I keep chucking DH into the other room because of his snoring and he needs a better bed...

DD seems to have had a better day. Her hormones have been terrible for the last week - not the best combination in any teenager... but especially not with her other issues on top.

I get paid Wednesday - exciting!

savingholmes

Paid £172 off cc today. Had to shuffle money around as it was a day earlier than I expected.

In better news - I got the cash equivalent transfer value for my old defined benefits pension. It's a lot. I am very excited. I need to see an independent financial adviser asap - and then I hope to transfer it into my sipp. There's enough in it that between mine and DH's tax free lump sums at retirement we should be able to repay the mortgage (if we chose to) and still have plenty to live on in retirement with other pensions due to come later.

The reason I want to move it - is if I were to die - DH's pension from my element would halve after only 5 years in retirement. That isn't good at all. It's also not inheritable by our children as it stands. If we move it and there's any money left in it when we pop our clogs it would be. It can transfer tax free to a spouse and others can inherit it after age 75 - but would pay income tax on it.

I am going to hold off sorting DH's sipp - as I am legally required to see an IFA and am unsure what the costs will be so I am going to put that money aside for now!!

lucielle

All sounding good SH
L

Chrystal

Great news SH :j

savingholmes

Thanks Lucielle and Chrystal.

I am glad I had this news to hold onto today as other parts of my day have been rubbish.

I've bitten the bullet - and posted on unbiased to get an ifa. Will see what comes from that. I don't really care what the advice is that they give - I just want someone to sign so I can transfer it out. It's a game changer. What it potentially means is that if we carry on with our plan of paying most of DH's salary into a SIPP after we've finished debt repayments - that we should be in a position to get a big enough lump sum at age 55 to be able to repay our mortgage if we chose - or to be mortgage neutral - and continue investing that money - partly in a tax free isa etc.

There are ways of re-using (recycling) the tax free lump sum into the other sipp if we don't draw it at the same time - to get more tax relief money added too - which could be a useful option. You are allowed to go back upto 3 years apparently if you didn't use up your total pension contribution allowance!

It should mean that we don't need to downsize at retirement unless we want to which is also really positive. I do know someone at work who transferred a DB - so will ask them for a referral too.

savingholmes

We also bought a new bed today - both the frame and the mattress had 20% off - and on top of that we should get 8% back from £co.

It looks like getting an ifa could easily cost the £4K I was planning to put in the sipp - so will be saving that up for the next 3 months.

MovingForwards

Congrats on the bed and the cashback.

IFAs are not cheap, would it be worth phoning a few local ones to see what they charge? After all, you only want the bit of paper signed and not their advice.