Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

Hello. I'm back ! Hope everyone is well.

Sorry it has been a while but real life has been very real again. But I thought I would pop in and give a bit of an update.

So life has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Just as we started to get my Dad sorted and settled with carers at home, then FIL started being unwell. He then had a catastrophic stroke and sadly died a week later. At the same time our new baby Grandson was born. We literally had the old "one in and one out" scenario. It was all very difficult trying to celebrate the joy of the new baby and not spoil that for the new parents but at the same time deal with the loss and everything else that needed to be sorted out.

We have had all the estate to handle . Mr Mee is executor and his brother is useless so we have had it all to do. Thankfully we have done it before a few times now and are getting quite expert at this. Mr Mee spent 3 days sifting through paperwork and we have spent days and days clearing the house. ( People get rid of your rubbish before you get too old to do it yourself !) We are now through most of it and the financials are ready to go to HMRC and probate and the house is on the market. We are just waiting for a local charity to pick up the last of the furniture.

So we now just have my Dad and Step Mum remaining ( we had 6 parents between us). Dad is 85 very disabled and frail but with the most amazing fighting spirit. Step-Mum is 81 and spritely. Still driving, with lots of friends. She is however getting worn down looking after Dad who is very demanding. So we have been going to stay every month for a few days ( they live 250 miles away) to try and help her. We normally arrive to a list of jobs that they need doing....both practical ( Mr Mee) or admin (me). 

But it is not all bad news. We have a new baby grandson who is an absolute joy❤️ 

We are besotted with him. We are incredibly lucky that DD and her partner are very generous with him and want him to have a strong bond with his grandparents so we see him lots and he has now started to come for a sleepover most weeks. In even better news they have bought a new bigger house and are moving very close to us.

So retirement....Has it been worth it ? Hell yes ! I never think about work other than to occasionally  think " thank God I don't work anymore" I am certainly never bored !

It hasn't quite worked out as I had imagined with me floating about being all creative and doing things like flower arranging, and cake decorating. I still don't have the time 🤣

However I am much fitter. I walk loads and have rejoined the gym, and swim regularly. I have never felt so well both mentally and physically. I also regularly meet up with friends for coffee and Mr Mee and I try and have a day out once a week. 

We have managed some travel (couple of short haul trips last year) and we have just come back from our first long haul trip abroad in two years. It was wonderful and I will forever appreciate being able to travel again. We have quite a few trips booked this year. Some closer to home and then another long haul later in the year.

In terms of finances. I have been a lot more relaxed about money, now that we no longer need to save for retirement. We are very comfortable living on our DB pensions, but probably a bit too complacent tbh. I need to get a grip again. I've been quite shocked  at how much things are going up. I am hoping to start posting regularly again to keep me on the straight and narrow, and to share some of my financial shenanigans 😊

themadvix

It’s lovely to see you back Busy Mee! Very sorry to hear about father in law, but lovely to hear about your grandson.

 It’s lovely to hear that you rarely ever think about work and that you are enjoying retirement.

South_coast

Wonderful to hear from you, I had been wondering how things were with you. Sorry to hear life has been a bit of a rollercoaster, I hope there are very many more ups than downs in your future x

greent

Lovely to see you back! Sorry to hear about fil - but how lovely to have the new gs arrive and be spending lots of time with him. And holidays, too - splendid things!

beanielou

Good morning.
Good to hear from you. 

What a rollercoaster. 

Condolences for your FIL
 Congratulations on you grandson. 

savingholmes

My sympathies on FIL

Congratulations on your Grandson
Great news your DD is moving closer
Glad retirement was the right decision for you. Feeling fitter and healthier is fantastic

I am sure you will soon get your money back on track

Busy_Mee

Morning and thank you everyone. I need to catch up on everyone else's diary to see what you have all been up to.

I thought I would just do a bit of an update on the financial stuff. I haven't completely lost my MSE ways whilst I have been MIA 🤣

Firstly the mortgage. Regular readers will remember that we have an offset mortgage with a lifetime tracker that tracks 0.69% above base rate. The mortgage is in two parts, a repayment mortgage and also an interest only part. We still haven't paid the mortgage off but are completely mortgage neutral, with the full amount sat in the offset account so we don't pay any interest. The amounts outstanding are:

Repayment Mortgage outstanding £935.42

IO Mortgage.                                   £140,000

Total mortgage outstanding.       £140,935.42

I smile every time I see my monthly mortgage payment of  £40 go out 😊 When I started this journey 7 years ago we had an a large mortgage of £280 k and I wasn't sure whether we would be able to keep the house in retirement. 

We decided to keep the mortgage running until the end of it's term ( another 2 years )as it gives us quick access to some very cheap borrowing, should we want to buy some land or another house to downsize. In actual fact, we probably won't be moving for a while now DD has decided to move very close to us. However we will potentially using it to provide DD with a bridging loan to buy their new house until some of their other funds come through. They will just pay us the interest monthly. 

All our other financial plans for retirement have worked well so far. We can comfortably manage on our DB pensions and still save £500 a month towards holidays. I also still have my odds and sods account, where I save my daily Tilly tidies and other free money such as TopCashback and bank switch rewards. I net around £500 every 3 months in this account.

As part of our financial planning we also saved a financial cushion that would provide us with some capital to spend on big ticket items for example  holidays, house stuff and cars for the next 20 years. We have already dipped into that to buy a new electric car and that has paid dividends in terms of reducing our outgoings. However we will be able to replace the funds used because we will now be receiving an inheritance from FIL. We never factored any inheritance into our retirement planning although it was always a possibility. I guess you never really like thinking about benefiting from someone else's death.

I consolidated lots of our accounts before we retired and split our capital funds into easy access and some longer term investments and fixes. I have just further consolidated the easy access funds into a new Chase account to get 1.5% interest. I am also going to move an amount for everyday spending into the current account to get the 1% cash back.

I still maintain two dummy accounts for switching and just when I think I have had every switch reward there is, another pops up. We have just received £280 from the Spanish bank 😊

I have also actually done some ebaying (regular readers will know I hate selling stuff). I ebayed a pile of our own stuff and also some decent furniture from FiLs. That meant organising couriers which I have never done before.

Our finances are all good, so you might be wondering why I am back ? Firstly I have missed the community on here, but also I miss the accountability. I want to get back to more conscious, considered spending, particularly in day to day spending on food and gas and electricity 😮

I have started by doing an inventory of my freezer and cupboards and meal planning again to use stuff up. I made a very nice baked leek and bacon risotto last night to use up some risotto rice ( best before 9/21 !) and there have been no ill effects. We have also turned the heating off and will be banning the use of the tumble dryer over the summer.

I think that is all. We have DD's dogs this weekend and I will be taking them for a long walk today to try and burn some of the youngest's energy off. He is a 9 month old lab cross gazelle 🤣 No seriously he is just a lab but bounces like a gazelle.

 I love walking through the woods at this time year. The bluebells are gorgeous.

Hope you all have a great bank holiday.

try_harder

So very happy to see you back ,i have really missed you !

Sorry to hear your sad news ,how difficult its all been for you I had the same thing happen ,my father died and my GS was born .., i found it so very hard ,i can totally relate to everything you said..

Busy_Mee

Aw thanks Try Harder. Lovely to be back.

I've just been setting up my new Chase account. Not only do you get an attached savings account paying 1.5 %, you get 1% cash back on debit card transactions but it also Tilly Tidies for you and you get 5% interest on this round up pot.
My cup runneth over.......

And this is why I have missed this forum. The only place where I would dare share this level of excitement about 5% interest on pennies 🤣

savingholmes

Glad you are back and finding the accountability is helping. It's lovely to hear about all your plans and that things within your control are on track.