Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

Bimbling around sounds great to me. When people ask me what I am going to do when I retire, I say more faffing.

I love faffing about with the garden and house  and have never had the time. Can't wait  

Suffolk_lass

Busy_Mee said:

Bimbling around sounds great to me. When people ask me what I am going to do when I retire, I say more faffing.

I love faffing about with the garden and house  and have never had the time. Can't wait  

  

Busy_Mee

Good Morning. I am not sure what has happened to the weather but it has been pretty dire here.

There is not much to report this week. I have had a busy week at work again. I am not sure when I get to go and relax in the departure lounge, but clearly not yet. Only 12 weeks to go though. I can't wait. After all the dithering, this definitely feels like the right decision.
Our diary post retirement is filling up nicely and I doubt I will be bored this side of Christmas 

In financial news, there has been a lot of money movement this week, as a fix rate Marcus account matured. We have two further fixed rate ISAs to mature next week, followed by regular savers with FD and M&S.

I have started to consolidate bank accounts and switched Mr Mee's TSB to an existing Lloyd's bank account. Lloyd's have the facility to switch online without ringing up or going into a branch. I am now deciding what to do with our defunct FD and HSBC accounts. I could also fold these into the Lloyd's accounts or I could hang on for a switch offer with another bank account. I would be annoyed if I consolidate now and then find out in a few weeks I could have switched them for a cash reward. However the desire to tidy and consolidate is also strong.

My other problem is we have a joint M&S current account that is closing down, so I need to switch that somewhere before August. It needs to be switched to another joint account, but both Barclays and Santander where we have other joint accounts require effort to switch. You used to be able to switch online to Barclays but they seem to have turned that function off during COVID. I keep checking to see whether it has been turned back on, otherwise I think it will be a phone call or visit to a branch.

I have been good on the exercise and diet front this week, walked or run every day and lost a lb. I am aiming to lose a stone by the time I retire. I want to start my new life slimmer and fitter 

I think that is all. I am off for a run in a while and then if the rain holds off this afternoon helping DD clear some of their garden.

Have a great Sunday 

South_coast

Well done on keeping the diet and exercise up while work is still bonkers 👍

On the bank switching front, you could always consolidate now and open a new dummy account if you see a good offer crop up. Usually the direct debits you switch just need to have can paid out once in order to count as active, so you should be able to manage that within the window that an offer is open. I must look into that myself again actually. I did well out of it when I did the rounds before, but that was about 5/6 years ago so I might count as "new" again now 😀

Cornish_mum

Hi BusyMee thanks for the update- you have inspired me to do a proper review of my extra accounts and soon to finish regular savers. CM

beanielou

The count down is firmly on   

Busy_Mee

Good Morning. An early morning check in to do the May round up. I am not sleeping very well at the moment and keep waking up at 4.30 am. A combination of light mornings, noisy blooming pigeons and too much on my mind. 

The pace at work continues to be ferocious but only 9 weeks to go and I now have a few days off over the bank holiday weekend. I honestly feel like they are trying to rinse every last ounce of work out of me before I go. To be honest getting to the end of May feels like it should be a bit of a turning point because I have a few long weekends in June and a week off in July, so not many more full weeks   
So on to the May update. 

May 2021
Repayment Mortgage.                 £4,743.32
IO Mortgage.                             £148,000.00
Total.                                          £152,743.32
Reduction in Mortgage.                -£2,132.15
Savings.                                     £186,000.00
Savings minus Mortgage.             £33,256.68 (towards forever fund, along with pension lump sum)

Odds and Sods (wedding dress).      £477.89

The finances have felt comfortable and the reduction in monthly mortgage payment, along with my change in tax code because of my pension contribution has meant we have been able to pay a chunky £2k off the interest only mortgage. I have four full pay days left, so at this rate the IO mortgage should be down to £140k by the time my pension starts   
There has been much movement of money as various fixed rate products and regular savers have come to an end. I have paid £15k into my SiPP and now need to wait until my last payday to top this up to the maximum I can pay in this year. You can only pay in up to the total of your earned income in the year you finish work (less pension contributions through employer and not exceeding £40k ). I think I will be able to pay in around another £4k this year. The rest of the money that has been freed up has been moved to sit in the mortgage offset account, so that we won't be paying any interest on the mortgage.
I have also been tidying up and consolidating accounts. I have decided which current accounts I am keeping:
Barclays.               Mortgage account + £12 per month Blue rewards
Santander lite.       Annual bills + Cashback on utilities etc
Halifax x2.             £5 per month each for saving £5k in there
Lloyd's x2.             2 x magazine subscription and 0.8% on balances up to £5k

I am busy folding all the other accounts into Lloyd's as they have a nice easy online switching facility. I will however have to get in touch with Barclays to switch our joint M&S account into there.

We have an awful lot going on in real life, some good and some not so good. We have an elderly parent in hospital and are heading off for the weekend to visit them. 

The weather forecast looks good though and as they live at the coast, I am hoping to get to the beach. I am just trying to remember what I wear when the weather is good.....it has been so long 

Hope you all have a very warm and sunny bank holiday weekend x

beanielou

Hope your weekend trip goes well.

savingholmes

Hope you get to the beach and your parent recovers

Busy_Mee

Thank Beanie and SH.
We are back from our trip to see my parents. Dad is still in hospital and it is difficult to assess where things are going. He has a number of things going on, he is 84 with chronic ill health. He has been in hospital for 2 weeks and no sign of getting any better. Mum is going to speak to the Dr next week, but tbh it doesn't feel good. We are heading back in a couple of weeks unless things become more urgent in the meantime.
We did get to the beach and it was lovely. We live 80 miles from the sea, so haven't been in months and of course the weather was glorious.

I have been furiously number crunching on the retirement figures again. I was just doing a comparison between taking my actuarial reduced pension from my early retirement date or using my SIPP to bridge the gap until age 60. Taking the actuarial reduced rate is actually the better bet, as I will receive £58k in pension after tax in the period up to age 60 (30 months). If I defer my pension I will get around £300 more a month from age 60, but it will take 16 years to recoup the £58k and I will also have spent the funds in the SIPP.   Phew ! Stick with Plan A then.
 It was just a couple of conversations with other retirees that made me think I might be doing the wrong thing, but I feel better for checking.

We are building the arbour today for gin and tonic corner. The kids are coming to provide some extra muscle and I have promised sausage sandwiches for the workers, so just need to nip to Lidl for bread.

Enjoy the sunshine x