Busy Mee's Last Leg

beanielou

Words fail me.

savingholmes

It's official people are weird. 
Glad you still got to relax and enjoy reading.

Suffolk_lass

Our only hope is that they are impotent as well as utterly stupid and that part of the gene pool becomes extinct.

Busy_Mee

Good Morning from a very grey and blustery Yorkshire this morning. 

DD still hasn't got a completion date and the mortgage lender now have a problem with the deeds ( shows a £1 a year rent charge to LA )  The Solicitor has suggested a remedy which could resolve it in a week or two if the mortgage lender accept it or the vendor will need to get the deeds changed which will take ages   

We have been trying to think through different options. She could apply for a mortgage with a less strict lender or we could lend her the money, but the issue will still exist when she comes to sell. We need to give it a couple of weeks to see whether the remedy suggested by the solicitor works, but I am not convinced and I think the deeds will need to be changed. We are all trying not to get down hearted but it is so frustrating. I have a feeling they are still going to be living with us until the summer. I might have to reinstate board payments  

I have been working through more detailed financial plans for when I retire and thinking about what to do with our savings. I am going to abandon the strategy of cycling funds through regular savings, as it won't be worth the effort as rates are fairly pathetic now. Instead, I am going to streamline all the bank accounts down to handful, where the rewards are worthwhile and probably split the money across my SIPP, S&S ISAs, and some fixed rate ISAs and PBs for Mr Mee who is very risk adverse.

In other financial news we have received £13.39 TCB that has been shuffled into the O&S account.

I think that is all.  We are having Katsu chicken curry for dinner tonight and hoping to see DS later. Have a good weekend.

PS The Mexican cheesecake was very good. More like a baked soufflé tbh and quite a bit of effort but very nice. The Delia Beef au Poivre recipe was delicious, very easy and an absolute repeater.

Suffolk_lass

Just to make a small observation on retirement money plans, I think your employer will pay for you to go on a pre-retirement course and that is normally presented by a reputable IFA.

The big take away for me was that I really did not understand investment risk properly. This was borne out when we first materialised 25% TFLS from DH's DC pension - in amongst the things we discussed, Scottish Widows really stressed the movement out of (risky) equities and equity based funds with higher risk (and return) investment strategies, into bonds and cash based investments at that point. I obviously don't know your detailed investments or funds and would not be qualified to comment, but in your situation, where you have a relatively large amount of "Cash" in order to clear your mortgage as well as make your retirement comfortable, I would take advantage of the first part (the free course) and consider taking a separate meeting with an IFA (maybe the one that runs the course), for which you pay. Your plans sound a bit DIY, and having been stung ourselves (when Neil Woodford's fund was suspended) I would not want you to inadvertently risk your capital. 

Having heard SKS (Opposition Leader) recommending the equivalent of War bonds to help the UK economy recover, I think many of us will be looking at these as long-term returns for a good portion of our retirement cash - I fully expect Rishi Sunak's budget to talk about these, ready to remove any traction SKS got from the suggestion. Not long to wait for that...

Busy_Mee

As usual SL you are spot on and I have been toying with speaking with an IFA. We recently dealt with one who sourced DD's mortgage and sorted out our wills, who was very good.

Thus far we have been DIYing because we were aiming to have enough to pay the mortgage off and needed the funds to be accessible in case mortgage interest rates went up, but we are getting to the stage where we could look at more long term investments, particularly when I get my TFLS.

I have chunked up our retirement in timeframes:

2021( Age 57 & 61) -2025 (Age 61 & 66 ). The first five years:
CS pensions x 2. The pensions will cover day to day stuff. But we will need accessible savings to top up for holidays and other extras. 

Mortgage paid off 2024

2025 ( Age 61 & 66) - 2031 (Age 67 & 72). The next six years:

CS pensions x 2 + SRP Mr Mee. We will need less of our savings for holidays etc

We might down size our house during this period, although I am not sure that this will release funds. We want to live somewhere as nice but more manageable.

2031 (Age 67 & 72) - 2041 (Age 76 & 81). The next ten years and probably the last hurrah

CS pensions x 2 +SRP x 2   We probably won't need to spend our savings for holidays at this point, but imagine we might start to have more expensive escorted type holidays at this point. 

2041 (Age 76 & 81) - 2051 (Age 86 & 91)
We might want to pay for health stuff, new hips, cataracts or knees

2051 onwards

The care years. I think we would rather choose our own care arrangements and the ability to maybe pay for care in our own home.

As you can see the first eleven years need the most funding from savings. We definitely need a good mix of accessible low risk stuff, with some longer term medium risk stuff.

Mr Mee was very underwhelmed by his retirement course, didn't tell us anything we didn't already know and the advice was to speak to an IFA. Which I think we will do.

savingholmes

Good luck with your plans

Suffolk_lass

A lot of my pre-retirement course was really basic and a bit rubbish too but there were some handouts that were really good, related to risks in investments. Also a quick chat in the coffee break to chat through our proposed draw down of DH's DC pot to maximise tax free elements (in this window between us stopping work and reaching SRP age). I also found the reference to inheritance planning quite interesting - and an area I am still not up to speed with. Mine was not helped by the presence of maybe 3/4 of the course participants having done nothing, looked at nothing and done zero budgeting with many of them actually retiring that month with no plans at all (so they were a massive distraction) but I found some jewels in among the pebbles. I remain amazed how many of my colleagues took the maximum lump sum and reduced their income, and then just put the maximum holding into premium bonds, and planned to spend the rest.

We had a chat last night about electric cars but will have to return to that when DH is feeling a bit more motivated. Then he read out a post that said "List the top 3 things that stop you getting stuff done" Answer; 1. Lazy. Hmm

Busy_Mee

I am still debating whether to take the maximum lump sum. Although I know it makes more financial sense in the long term to have the higher pension, this doesn't start paying back until after 15 years.
We actually need more of our funding up front, as once our SRPs kick in we will have "too much" income. We are a lot better off than we originally anticipated thanks to this site so I am undecided now.

Much depends on how long you live and what sort of returns you can get on your investments...I will go and fire the crystal ball up . 

try_harder

Your next 40 plus years look amazing !! Fantastic work and planning ,wish i could say the same about mine