Busy Mee's Last Leg

themadvix

Yes, I realised you had more than one Nw (and we don't have HSBC).

I agree SL - Busy Mee's shuffling/juggling/general faffing (not meaning any disrespect to you BM, just that's what's necessary!) with bank accounts *does* pay off, for all that it must be a mega pain sometimes!

Busy_Mee1

:rotfl:General faffing sums it up beautifully

teapot2

Thats a very impressive interest total - well done. I think once all the accounts and transfers are set up it all becomes simpler but it can be the setting up and arranging the transfer dates etc that takes some working out.

At one point OH and I had 6 current accounts between us that required money whizzing between and that was enough for me to cope with. OH was supportive but didn't want to get involved with the admin of account juggling :eek:

Good luck with your UFF

Busy_Mee1

We have experienced a ferocious cold wind over the last few days and finally the wind has dropped and the sun is peeking out again. Luckily we haven't had any damage but plenty of fences have gone around here.

We have had a change of plan this weekend and postponed our planned day out with friends to next week. This is because we have had one of the elderly parents in hospital again and the logistics of visiting and caring for the one at home have been tricky. This means we have been grocery shopping today and £54.60 spent but we won't go again for a fortnight. Total spend for February £130.79.

Nothing much else spent this week - no yoga and then just my train fare of £5.60 to the city to meet a friend for afternoon tea ( A groupon paid before Christmas) I did have a small spend in the big M&S in the city - they had 90% off their sale stuff and I bought gym leggings for £2.79 and a shirt tunic for £2.49 .......would have been rude not to :T

I have been doing lots of financial modelling for retirement and some might say I am getting a tad obsessive with this .......moi ?

Anyhow I am fairly satisfied with how the finances are looking for Mr Mee's retirement. With his pension and my full salary we continue to pay everything comfortably and save ( but not as much) and pay for holidays.

It obviously becomes much tighter when I retire and our pensions will cover our outgoings and day to day spending, but there will be no saving and holidays and emergencies will need to be covered by our capital. Effectively from this point we start spending our capital rather than increasing it :eek: This is where I start hyperventilating and breathing into a brown paper bag.

Our capital should last us about 10 -12 years during which time SRP kicks in for Mr Mee in 6 years and 12 years for me.....so we should be able to make it last longer. We will also have the option of downsizing if we want/need to.

This is all doable on paper but is a very scary prospect and I am going round and round the figures just to make sure. I have a few options:

1. I retire from April 2020 Age 56. - This is 6 months after Mr Mee. This is very attractive...I get to walk away from work and do what I like but money would be tighter.

2. I retire from April 2021 Age 57 - This is 18 months after Mr Mee. This means I will increase my pension by around £120 a month and earn another £6000 on my lump sum. I would also have potential another £14k in savings and we wouldn't have started spending our capital.

3. I partially retire from April 2020. This means I take my pension as in 1 above but I continue to work maybe 3 days per week. Your work and pension cannot exceed your current salary but effectively I will be earning the same as now but in theory working less. I could do this for as long as I like.

Option 3 seems like the sensible option but work would need to agree and the reality is that I would probably end up doing a full time job in part-time hours, feeling like a pariah. There is still not a great attitude to part time senior managers in our workplace. I think I need to discuss with my boss nearer the time... there could be an option of me averaging my hours over the year, so that I work more or less full time but take more holidays.

Sorry for the ramble but I keep going around this circle crunching the numbers. All three options are viable and it is probably too early for me to be making a decision yet but it helps to write them down.

gallygirl

I feel your pain, it's hard to move from saving to spending! You have great choices though, well done :T. It's a great situation to be in. Personally, I'd probably try for option 3 but be ready to walk if/when it doesn't work out.



I'm currently hyperventilating at the thought of lifting money from my SIPP which is in drawdown. It's what I planned but still........:eek:. Am planning on lifting out a few thousand so I stay below the tax threshold which is crazy - if I don't accept I have to pay tax to access it then I will never get it all! I'm currently going to run out of ready cash later this year to fund regular savers (and em.... maybe a bit of a special holiday for Mr GG's 60th ). Thinking I may draw out a larger amount than initially planned and take the hit once rather than prolong the agony over a number of years.Though I may stay below the threshold this year and do it next instead .

Suffolk_lass

It is really hard to predict the future isn't it? - Just to add to your calculations there are a couple of things you may wish to consider as part of your considerations.

You want your time with Mr Mee to be full and enjoyable while you are both young and fit enough to enjoy that, so a bit of front-loading your spending does no harm. Personally luxury sedentary activities like cruises are not really my thing, but if they are yours, strike that last point - I have been reading about some today that are between £5k and £8k for a couple of weeks! You would need loads of capital to fund these when you are done learning to surf, fly and climb Everest :T

Don't forget to count the increased benefits you will draw down from your pension if you take it early - if that is three years before you can draw it without penalty, don't only look at the 5% per year reduction, look also at the 3 years you will receive it without having to make those payments.

In your partial retirement considerations remember you can do this before your scheme's normal pension age - if you were to go part time at 56 or even 55 and a half, when Mr Mee stops, you could take more of a lump sum from the part you take early (because the actuarial reduction on the TFLS is 3 % whereas it is 5% per year on your pension income (per year you take it early)). I have heard from others that 57 and a half is the best time to go early, but I think this relates to stopping altogether, and not partially retiring. You need to check out some calculations on your scheme calculators. It was never an option for me as mine is the bigger pension.

Consider National Insurance. If you partially retire, you will continue paying it on your salary, but not on your pension that you take at this point. For either of the stop work options, you may want to make a voluntary contribution year payment to cover the period from the April after you stop work and SPA- I think you are a public servant as and such, you were likely to be opted out of SERPS until 2016 so would be set for Basic SRP, not the full one. For me, this is one to watch. There is a change in April this year (2019) that will increase the cost for voluntary contributions and whereas it used to take four years to pay for itself, this may now take longer and be less financially attractive.

Of course you could save more to cover your costs of living from the point you stop work until your pension scheme's normal pension age to avoid reductions - but you need to look at the pension income you could be living on during that time, vs the benefits. If you did that into a SIPP you would get tax relief on it. If you drawdown that SIPP in yearly lumps to live on, conceivably you could burn Mr Mee's money a bit faster and keep that below the tax threshold after taking the initial 25% TFLS.

And then there is my dilemma - pay off the mortgage so there is no drain on our income, vs exceed the interest by what we are earning on the capital. If you get the Sunday Times there is an interesting article on Stoozing in today's Business and Money supplement.

Anyway, you have time to work these through and decide what is best for you.

Busy_Mee1

Thanks GallyGirl and Suffolk Lass for your really thoughtful responses to my ramblings. It is good to know that others share some of the same dilemmas.

We always intended to front load our retirement and spend some our savings to fund activities through our 50/60s ( someone on the retirement thread referred to these as the GoGo years :rotfl:) on the basis that we might calm down in our 70/80s ( the Go Slow years :rotfl:). However spending savings still feels counterintuitive after a lifetime of trying to build savings up.

I think things will start to crystallise as we get nearer to Mr Mee's R day and much will depend on what is happening at work for me. Change is in the air and a general downsizing is in the wind, which could help me to make my decision.

GG - Mr GG and Mr Mee must be the same age. We also have a big trip booked for Mr Mee's 60th this year

Suffolk Lass - We do like cruises, mainly as a good cost effective way to see lots of different places but have never paid £5-8 k. :eek: We also like land based independent travel but can see that this would get too much as you get older. You can walk miles in transit across enormous airports to get from one flight to another. I have taken to travelling in trainers as a result.

We love to travel and have always tried to do this in the most cost effective way and will continue to do so while ever we can. Then I guess we will just settle for more sunshine Mediterranean holidays or cruises where you never get off :rotfl:

My other slight concern is that neither of our two children are married yet and one is yet to buy their own home and I would like to help them when they do.

Anyhoo must stop going around this circle ....all will become clear in time I think.

In other MSE news I have now cancelled our smaller life insurance policies and activated the switch of Mr Mee's donor account to the N@t West.

I also complained to Waitrose Florist about a bowl of narcissi I was sent for Christmas that are showing no signs of growing and they are sending me a £25 voucher for Waitrose/JL in recompense :T

Busy_Mee1

So we are finally going on our day trip to the seaside, after our plans were scuppered last week. The weather has been beautiful here for the last few days, so I am hoping it will hold today. I have plans that involve fish and chips out of the paper and and a 99 ice cream cone:cool:

Frugal February is going well .....I spent the grand total of £2 this week on an emergency cup of tea on the train back from London. This was a slightly annoying spend as I had my flask with me but forgot to fill it back up with hot water for the journey home :mad:

I also did a small shop in Lidl yesterday to pick up their weekend deals ...crisps, beer and chorizo and some other bits. This came to a total of £11.36. It has been ages since there has been anything on the weekend deal that we would use....I could do with teabags being on offer again as stocks are running low

In other financial news the JL gift card for £25 has arrived and I have decided that I am going to save this and any other gift cards/reward vouchers for Christmas. This will be the first Christmas where Mr Mee is a pensioner :eek:, so hopefully this will help.


I claimed £18.46 back from topcashback and shuffled it to the donor account to make it look active. I have applied for Mr Mee's N@t West account and triggered the switch. I just need to swish £1500 through it and hopefully the £150 switching bonus will be ours :T. This with the other bits of rewards, Tilly Tidies etc will go towards the holiday fund.

Everything else is on track. I have £65 in cash in my purse and this should last us until payday as long as we don't go too mad today.

Think that is all, I need to get a wriggle on as we are picking our friends up in an hour :j

Suffolk_lass

Asbo Everyday Teabags are 160 for £1.40 (cheaper than Lidl)?

beanielou

Have a happy day