Busy Mee's Last Leg

shangaijimmy

Update - thank you...I've just switched the old donor account to Natwest! Now what to do with the £125... at least I have a few weeks to decide!

Busy_Mee1

That is great Jimmy. How about Mrs Jimmy ....a quick opening of a H@lifax account to switch to N@t West and £250 could be yours !

themadvix

Sorry to hear that things have been difficult lately Busy Mee.

Think you *have* to treat all this money-saving as a hobby - otherwise you end up spending all your time doing stuff you don't enjoy. It feels like a win though when you make that bit extra - especially from the banks!

Busy_Mee1

Tiptoes in quietly, in the hope that no one realises I have been missing for a month :whistle:

It has been a month of up and downs and not very much focus on the finances....in fact I have probably slipped down the slippery slope to "sod it" mode. We had a two week holiday in the States, staying with friends and I now need to face the consequences of a rather large credit card bill. Still we had a good time :T

The big news is that Mr Mee handed in his notice of retirement before we went away and something visibly lifted off his shoulders and he is now very much in the metaphoric departure lounge. It also means that we now only have five more pay days to go. However I feel really confident now about our finances and the affordability of his retirement. This is thanks to the focus of my diary and support I have received on here from you lovely lot over the last four years.

Anyway on to the May Update:

Monthly Savings. £1500
Total Savings. £76,500 :T

Repayment mortgage. £56,563.17
IO Mortgage. £169,000
Total Mortgage. £225,563.17

Savings offset mortgage to. £149,063.17. :T

Holiday Savings. £1600/3228.52

So the good news is that we have maintained our savings at £1500 a month and our mortgage is now offset to under £150 k. This feels like a normal person's mortgage, rather than a big scary beast of a mortgage :rotfl:

The bad news is that we only managed to save a paltry £100 towards the big holiday and this needs paying in August, so I need to get focussed on this. Unfortunately the rather large credit card bill also needs to be paid this month, so June needs to be very frugal and there will be much scraping of the barrels to get through the month

So I am back and trying to focus again :T

Suffolk_lass

Welcome back - you were missed (not just by me, I am sure). We have just four more mortgage payments before DH finishes - he has just seven weeks of the half term to go and I know he is really excited. As you say the metamorphosis is occurring before my eyes. I could do with a frugal month - I have just paid for my new back doors (cash from savings). Just the front door to sort now.

You might be interested in hearing I got a little update letter from CS Pensions yesterday - because the best of my last three years was in 2016 they have applied the (annual indexation) increase now due, to my lump sum calculation between 9 Apr 2018 and the date of my retirement in Feb - and the upshot is that £2k popped into my bank account - it might apply to you or your DH.

themadvix

Hey Busy Mee, you were missed by me too. It sounds like Mr Mee's retirement will be anticipated with joy. Glad you had a good holiday!

I'd join you for a frugal June, but we're off on holiday in a couple of weeks, so probably not going to happen here.

I'd say that today, a £150k mortgage is small, not normal, so well done! :T

Busy_Mee1

Thank you both, it feels good to be back.

Suffolk Lass thanks for the update on your civil service pension. This will apply to me as my best year ended 30 June 2018 so I will get the annual indexation. This does mean that to benefit from it, I I need to retire before 30 June 2020. Unless anything changes, i.e. another spell of temporary promotion (possible) or an exit scheme (also possible but more unlikely) This is only 13 months away :eek:

Mr Mee's pension is more straightforward, his last year will be his best year and he will be 60 so no actuary reduction.

I have been really refining our financial plans for retirement, and for those of you who are interested it looks like this :

Mr Mee: retires age 60 November 2019. Me: Still working
£50k paid off repayment Mortgage to reduce outgoings
Income will cover all expenditure, including holidays and will be able to continue saving approx £1k per month.

Me: Retires June 2020
Pension income will cover normal expenditure but no holidays or other large items.
We will use capital to fund holidays etc.

2024 - Mortgage will be paid in full

November 2025 - Mr Mee receives State Retirement Pension at age 66
Pension income will cover normal expenditure, including holidays etc

2031 :eek: I will receive SRP at age 67
Essentially we could save my SRP because everything else will be covered.

As you can see we will only be using our capital to fund holidays etc for just over five years and by the time we get to 2031, we will be able to start saving again. We also have the option of downsizing at some point too.

In our case ( but I suspect it is the same for others too) it is the early years of our retirement that need funding and this of course is when you are young enough and fit enough to enjoy travel etc

What this has highlighted to me is that I don't actually need to work to the bitter end to get a better pension. Of course it is nice to have the choice.

I know many of you are a way off retirement, but it is worth having a think about when you might want to retire, particularly if your partner is a different age, and what your income streams will be and when they will kick in. It has been quite illuminating for us

teapot2

Hello Busy Mee, glad you enjoyed your holiday even if it resulted in a large CC bill . Retirement plans look good and full of possibilities - well done.

Suffolk_lass

How will you pay off your mortgage in 2024? If you are using your capital for holidays, have you taken into account how this will impact your off-setting?

Busy_Mee1

Morning All.
Thanks for popping in Teapot and Suffolk Lass.

I "think" we are going to both take our maximum tax free lump sums and a reduction on our pensions. This means we can use all of Mr Mee's lump sum + whatever we can throw at the mortgage until I retire. If I retire in June 2020 there should only be around £5k left to cover on the mortgage and the rest of my lump sum will supplement our pensions until SRP kicks in. Although commuting pension to lump sum is probably less financially advantageous in the long run ( an increased pension starts to outstrip the amount of your lump sum after around 15 years, assuming you live that long ), we need to fund the early part of our retirement. We have never really relied on SRP because we have such good DB pensions, so effectively SRP has become a bonus that is allowing us to fund an earlier retirement. The only risk is if the rules change on SRP or it becomes means tested, but tbh that is less likely for Mr Mee who is due in 6 years time, although more likely for me in 12 years. I am watching with interest to see what happens when the WASPI case gets heard in the High Courts.

I feel like things have been back to normal this week (well our normal :rotfl:) I manage to finish work early on Friday and weeded another border and Mr Mee and I tackled a large bank at the bottom of the garden yesterday. This means with another hour or two today we will have weeded around the entire garden :T I think then we will be able to cope without the gardener this year, which will be a considerable saving this summer.

I nipped to Sainsbury's yesterday morning as I had a till spit for 8p a litre off fuel if you spent £10 in Tu. They also had 25% off Tu this weekend so I bought some much needed tights and socks to spend £10, so good reductions all round. They just give you a voucher when you hand the till spit in when paying for your clothing. It did occur to be that you could be completely naughty and buy something in Tu, get your petrol voucher and then take the clothing item back afterwards. But only if you are completely naughty :cool:

I also spent some cash ordering a new cover from Ik€a for our trustee Ektorp sofa (it must be coming up for it's 20th Birthday and still going strong ! ). It used to reside in the kids playroom but now lives in my office and desperately needs a new cover. My parents are coming to stay in a few weeks and we will turn my office into a bed/ sitting room for them. Anyhoo we have been psyching ourselves up for a trip to the big blue and yellow shop, until I discovered we could order it and have it delivered for £3.95. Mr Mee and I consider that to be £3.95 well spent :rotfl: I would have probably spent that in candles if we had gone to the shop :rotfl:.

I think that is all my news ....Mr Mee's switch to FD hasn't happened yet. It was slightly delayed by our holiday and them requiring a copy of his signature to open the account. We will be going shopping today to H@meBargains/@ldi but don't need too much, just some fresh bits and then we will spend the rest of the day in the garden.

Enjoy your Sunday