I'm going to need a (new) budget

enthusiasticsaver

Therese1 wrote: »

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Congratulations on putting yourself in a position where you can do this. how old are you and what is your pension provision so far


Re your soa I agree road testing it or putting an app for tracking spending on your phone is a good idea. £200 for food for 1 sounds a lot but if you are used to picking up wine with your food shop or have shopped without restraint up until now it may take you a while to get used to living within a tighter budget.


Car insurance may be high as we found when my husband gave his company car back although he had no accidents on his record the lease company insisted on it going into the car body shop to have chips and dents from hospital car parks sorted out (he was a medical engineer). That ended up as a £3k claim on his insurance record and consequently showed on his letter from company insurers. Buying a car was his biggest expense and car maintenance depends on how old a car you go for.[/QUOTE

Thank you! It's funny this hasn't been a long term plan but once I'd starting thinking "I've had enough of this" I kinda realised that THIS is what all my savings were for - I've never been a big spender it didn't know what I was saving up for!!!128514;. Now, time is worth so much more than money to me.

I am 48 and have company pension which will be £20k if I wait til 60 or about 16k if I cash in at 55. Do you think I need to keep adding to this going forward - separately or via this existing pension? Any tips would be much appreciated.

if you leave employment I don't think you can continue to add to this pension. You can open a SIPP but maximum per year is either 100% of earnings if you are working or £2880 which is topped up to £3600 by HMRC.
This last 6 months I've put away £1000 per month - basically what was left on payday. This wasn't too difficult but didn't involve scrimping or the cost of running a

My plan is to go for a 1 or 2 year old car - with the theory being start with a good condition one and run it for as long as it holds out until uneconomical. I've no need to renew every 4 years etc.

Ouch! Was that because of an early return? I've never had any recharge when I've changed car.

It was an early return as DH took early retirement at 58. Originally my DH planned to work until 60 and car deal would have run out then. He could have bought it but they wanted £17k for it and he wasn't over keen on the car anyway. We did exactly as you plan to and went for 2 year old cars.

Therese1

Update!

I've been and gone and done it! !!!55356;!!!57225;!!!55357;!!!56397; I resigned at the end of May and finish end of August!!

Oh my goodness, what a fantastic feeling this is....no panic or nerves, just a brilliant sense of "I am in control at last"!!!55357;!!!56397;. Bizarre and unexpectedly I have been approached with some different work offers which in theory would all be freelance and flexible. I now need to think carefully before saying yes to everything otherwise I could end up losing my "work part time with good breaks" plan pretty quickly! That would defeat the purpose but it's a nice place to be.

A few questions I still have if anyone can help please.

I have been quoted £12300 to buy my 17 plated Seat Leon deisel car. According to Autocar this would be £14500 on the forecourt. Seems a good deal to me but do you have any thoughts?

I like the car and would probably be looking for something similar anyway. I am thinking that it might even go down in price when I'm buying it since the new registration comes in September?


Pension....am I right in thinking I can't touch this until I'm 55? There is a pot of just under £45k in the cash pot...outwith the final salary one. Can I consider this cash as another savings account that I could potentially access at 55 without reducing my pension?

enthusiasticsaver

I don't know anything about Seat Leon cars but £12300 sounds good for a 1 year old car.

You can't touch your pension until 55 even if some is invested in cash. Do you really have £45k in cash in your pension? Why is that when you cannot touch it for another 7 years? Is this a completely separate pension to your DB scheme or is that the pension commencement lump sum?

Therese1

Hi Enthusiastic Saver,

Its all from the same company - I have the original Final Salary DB scheme but that was closed in 2006 and the only option then was the cash fund which both my employer and I have contributed to since then. So effectively, this £45k is a cash sum in the pension scheme but not part of the final salary. Does that make sense?

Yes, I think the car price is good and Im going to go for it.