Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Ok, so I've done us a VERY vague spreadsheet, using rounded numbers as they are now (and not changing), to give a general idea of when everything overlaps. 

2021: My full time wages + Mr Cheery's work pension = £3300 a month
2030: £0 wages for me + Mr Cheery's work pension + state pension = £1350 a month (this would be the year we'd pay off the mortgage as well)
2035: My work pension + Mr Cheery's work + state pensions = £2453 a month
2048: My work + state pension + Mr Cheery's work + state pensions = £3203 a month

Obviously these are EXTREMELY vague And these numbers assume that 
* I will have no salary increase at all (unlikely)
* I will work full time til 50, then stop completely all in one go (unlikely) 
* no pension amounts will change (also unlikely) 

My work pension amount will be wrong as the calculator won't let me retire earlier than 55, and I'm assuming I'll stop at 50 - but it also assumes I'll have no pay rise (and of course there's the other pension I already have, which isn't counted in here). 

Alternative scenario: 

2021: My wages, Mr Cheery's work pension = £3300
2022: I drop to 4 days + Mr Cheery's work pension = £2760
2027: I drop to 3 days + Mr Cheery's work pension = £2200
2030: I stay at 3 days, Mr Cheery claims state pension as well = £2970
2035: (me aged 55) - I leave work = £2453
2048: I claim state pension = £3203

Ok. I'm not even sure I need to go into more detail than that at this stage actually. We have enough of an overlap us that we're not going to be destitute. It's unlikely I'd go from full time to nothing in one go - far more likely that I'll drop to four days within the next couple of years, then 3 days after a few more years. 

Obviously mortgage/spending is going to influence all this too, and the figure for my pension assumes I'll take it all as an annual amount with no lump sum. 

The point of all this is that we need to keep throwing dosh at the mortgage and get rid of it as soon as possible, and then YES, I can (just about) ditch work at 50 if I want Would have to eat a few less cakes, but quite frankly that's no bad thing  

Viking_mfw

As I thought, we are exactly the same age, but I've been in USS for ten years and my TPS is from before doing my doctorate. 
What I need to do is track down my TPS....

Cheery_Daff

Good luck Viking! I'm going to try ringing USS when they're open tomorrow, see if they'll let me in....

missymoo81

Hi Cheery! Sorry just caught up! Wow what exciting times! New windows!!!!! That should make such a difference! And loving all this pension talk. I don’t have one at nearly 40, I know, I know 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️! I absolutely need to sort it out, as don’t want to be working into my 70s. Is there any good websites/forums does anyone know, that could help? 

I’m also one that gets made up and dressed up for work, even at home. Otherwise I swear I’d live in my dressing gown!  I often have porridge for lunch! It fills me up nicely! Anyway sorry for rambling! Take care x

Karmacat

That's so good to look at future waymarks, and consider what impact they have.  And battering down the mortgage is going to help with all of that.

One question, Cheery: are all your savings in pensions, or do you have cash put by as well, even a bit of an emergency fund?

Cheery_Daff

Hey Missy, lovely to see you! I'm sure Martin will have a page on pensions somewhere! 

Thinks KC. Only savings outside of pension mostly consist of Mr Cheery's pension lump sum,  now in premium bonds & regular savers. Not enough to keep us going without pensions,  but enough for me to have a year off work if necessary, plus paying for stable roof, finishing kitchen, and enough left for replacement car, septic tank, and whatever other household disasters come our way. 

Plus my job is reasonably secure - if I get made redundant I'll get at least 6 months wages, and if I'm ill I get 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, so enough to tide us over. 

If i die before I retire (!) Mr Cheery gets life insurance (enough to pay off the mortgage) plus £150k death in service grant, and a proportion of my pension, which should be some consolation and keep him and the chickens in treats for a while

If he dies first, which let's face it is more likely, I get a bit of his pension (can't remember amount, suspect about £400 a month), and I think that's it. No life insurance for him - we figured since mine is the main income at the minute, mine would be the problematic one to lose. If he dies, I'd likely have a few months of sick/bereavement leave, and then go back to work. Obviously costs would decrease (but not by that much, he's far cheaper to run than me )

And of course if absolutely necessary we could sell this ridiculous house and move somewhere more sensible. Mortgage was only about 50% LTV when we moved and will be less now, so if necessary we could do a swap for a house like our old one and be mortgage free again. 

So I feel like we're in a pretty decent position, for which of course I'm very grateful. Financial security is pretty recent for me and I don't take it for granted one bit.

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff said:

...Obviously costs would decrease (but not by that much, he's far cheaper to run than me )...

Cheery - it's the same for the OH & me - he's much easier on the pocket book - but since mine has been the main salary for quite a few years and is now the only salary, our forward planning is based on that!  Pensions don't start for the OH until next year, but they basically replace the amount he's been using from savings each month for the past couple of months, so no change financially for us.

A huge thank-you for sharing your 'workings' - it's much more thought out than mine have ever been, so I may revisit this topic in the next week or so & see how I can revise our plans!

Karmacat

Same here, RT, Cheery's workings out are far and away better than mine ever were   

Cheery, those are great savings levels, you're doing *so* well!  And you have your lovely trees, and enough space to set up a whole garden full of fruit bushes of all sorts for your delectation and delight

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely people

I'm always a bit wary of sharing workings on here, partly because generally I think people are quite private about money so it feels odd doing the opposite, and partly because I think sometimes I get rather too much detailed and feel like people will get bored But then they could just scroll on by, as I'm sure many of them do! And I love seeing other people's workings out - and really, if you can't post financial wafflings here, where can you?! 

Gosh, yesterday was a long one Mr Cheery came to bed at 4.30, and I couldn't go back to sleep, so I ended up on the sofa at 5.30, and figured I might as well get on with a bit of my work that really should have been finished by Wednesday but wasn't. Carried on on the sofa til the laptop battery ran out around 9am, then got dressed and carried on at my desk til about 2, had a brief break with the chickens, then worked again (standing up this time) til I had a zoom call with my sister at about 7

Bizarrely I just got into the zone and it didn't really feel that bad. Once I'd stopped though I was worn out! Still, got a couple of things ticked off, had a goal planning meeting with my sister (we're doing one every month), and then nipped to the supermarket, which I ran around very speedily until I realised it was actually 8.45, not 9.45 and I had an extra hour There were only about three of us in there - it was actually quite a pleasant experience. Stocked up on a few things we'd run out of (what is with the current chick pea shortage though?!)

So, today. The weather is VILE - sideways howling wind and snow AGAIN. There are a few things I need to do over the weekend

* go and buy some chicken bedding - our online supplier was out of stock the other day so I'll need to go to the shop
* dig all the mud out of the chicken run and replace with wood chip
* fill in the local consultation document, and contact the neighbour who dropped the community one round last night to say we're going to sign it (think I need to do that before 12, must check)
* Covid study woman is coming at 3pm today for our next swabs
* zoom call with one set of friends tonight, and another at 4pm tomorrow

In between that, some washing, several days of washing up, , and I'm going to attempt to get started on plasterboarding the kitchen ceiling.. 

Cheery_Daff

Oh! And I rang the smaller pension people yesterday - spent 45 minutes waiting in the queue Turns out I can't register online because there's a query on my account - my last employer never filled in the leavers form, so the pension company thinks I still work there, but obviously they're not paying any contributions. 

They've contacted the local rep to sort out me officially leaving, and then I should be able to see what I have

Annoyingly after I got off the phone I realised that this may be because I still have access to some files there as part of an old project, so still have an email address so I can log in, which may be why it looks like I've not left. This will probably trigger my old boss to realise this, and shut off my account, which is fair enough I suppose, but may be mildly inconvenient. No intention of having that conversation with her though - very happy not to have any conversations with her any more if I can avoid it!