The Piano Diary

savingholmes

I think from past experience that having enough cashflow or savings is what gets you through a crisis. If as you say you can live on one wage you really are half way there. I still think there is peace of mind in a cash emergency fund. It all depends how liquid where you put it is. So for example I am debating whether to save up a 3-6 month EF once we are debt free of whether to put into DH's pension and get a 25% uplift with the tax relief or a combination of the two...

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Just had a few days off from work and I feel much better! Another week and a half to go and then I have a long break of 3 weeks. This is because all my leave has backed up since there has not been much of an opportunity to take it. Looking forward to having some time off. We are not going to go anywhere, but plan to go on some day trips. We have a few expenses coming up. Now that we know DS is staying with us for a year at least we have decided to redecorate his bedroom and other room upstairs. We are getting some new flooring and furniture. I could do the redecorating etc but I have decided to ask a local guy we have used for years who does an excellent job. He has been round to have a look and quote. I am glad we can put some work his way. We are getting some help from the in-laws with the cost. We are spending a total of around £1200. The car needs servicing and two new tyres as well. This will be around £350 I have also spent some money on some weights and a bench for the mini home gym (mostly used on ebay) I am setting up for me and DS. I have redone the budget and may have to rein in some of the more ambitious overpayment plans. Still, we will maintain the £300 regular monthly OP and the pension contributions at the higher level, which for me are hard commitments.

I’ve been using a meditation app every day for a month now, I am on a 30 day streak. 10 minutes every morning and it is helping me stay sane. The running club has started up again and I am going out once a week for training in a socially distanced bubble. That really helps too. Then the final change, I have made my default radio station Radio 6 music. I had switched from Radio 4 (which I used to listen to a lot) to Radio 5 Live. Trouble is Radio 5 is 24 hour news talk radio and it gets a bit wearing after a while. 6 music, short news announcement and the DJ carries on as if it had never happened. I am no longer watching news on TV either. Feels a bit irresponsible, like I ought to be keeping myself informed. But I feel so much better checking out from this. I wonder if this will be a permanent change.

South_coast

I agree on the news/radio - my BF almost constantly has either Radio 5 or Sky News on, then gets really wound up if they're exploring in great detail something he either disagrees with or doesn't consider relevant. I have tried to point out that it's because they have to keep rolling 24/7 and that means they have a lot of airtime to fill! I watch one 30-minute broadcast a day and that's fine for me

savingholmes

I've set myself a 15 minute a day limit on my phone on scrolling news channels

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Well we have made it to the holiday period! We both have 3 weeks off. It seemed like last week was going on forever and I couldn’t seem to close things down for the break. I still have a couple of work things to do but I couldn’t face them today so I will finish them off tomorrow. We will spend most of the time at home during this break, maybe go to some places for day trips nearby. We have booked a couple of nights at a pub/hotel in the Peak District, its quite remote so will hopefully be a nice mini-break away from it all.

We are redecorating DS’s bedroom. Last weekend I dismantled the triple wardrobe and took it to the local tip. It was quite a job! Monday it is being decorated and then the following week the flooring is being done and then the furniture will arrive.

Mid-year review

It seems like a good time to take stock of the finances. I received a letter from the bank about paying off the car loan. It seems that by paying it off early we saved £772 interest so that was good. Received the mortgage annual statement. In July 2019 we owed around £70K and now it is £55.5K. Payments totalled £15.6K including £3K of overpayments. 

Our savings total approx. £2500 across liquid and ISA savings. Still committed to building this up to a decent level.

Pensions.

Private pensions from previous employers total £150K. These dropped by 20% in the last 3 months before recovering to about +5% which is remarkable. Plus another £15K in AVCs since I increased my pension contributions at my current employer. I’m maintaining the 40% contribution rate.

Tax underpayment

In less good news I received a letter from the inland revenue telling me I owe them £1200 due to underpayment of tax. This was to do with the extra money I earned last year where I didn’t pay enough tax. Oh well, they will take it back next financial year by adjusting my tax code. No big deal but probably means I will need to make some adjustment elsewhere.

Looking forward to recharging the batteries!

savingholmes

That's a fabulous update. Well done. Great progress. 

South_coast

Ouch to the tax bill, £100/month is going to sting, even if it's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things - it's the principle!

Fab progress everywhere else though, 3 weeks off sounds great to reset and re-charge

glass_half_full

savingholmes said:

That's a fabulous update. Well done. Great progress. 

Thanks savingholmes! 

glass_half_full

South_coast said:

Ouch to the tax bill, £100/month is going to sting, even if it's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things - it's the principle!

Fab progress everywhere else though, 3 weeks off sounds great to reset and re-charge

Yes, it was an unwelcome surprise! I was kind of expecting something because they set me up as an employee so they could pay me and I suspected they wouldn't get the tax code right. I probably should have been a bit more diligent at the time making sure it was correct. Anyway, no matter and its good that I can spread it over the next 12 months rather than have to find it all now.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

We are now in the second week of our staycation. This morning the flooring is being laid in DS’s bedroom. The other room is also being painted today so the house is quite busy. I don’t feel guilty that I am not doing it, not least because they are doing a much better job than I would!

It has given me a chance to catch up on my various spreadsheets, the usual MSE obsession. I have been tweaking the various models for the mortgage, savings and pensions etc. Current projection shows the mortgage will be paid off by November 2022 when I will be 56. I have another model which tracks investments, savings and pensions. I can see that I could finish some time between 57 and 60, 60 being most safe. Its quite motivating to think that I might have the option to finish in the next few years. I must admit that this break has made me appreciate that I may not want to be doing my current job indefinitely. Work will be challenging when we go back. I do recognise that I am lucky to be working at the moment and that many people are facing very challenging circumstances.

I won’t be making an extra OP in August but aiming to in September if everything goes to plan.

Thursday we are off for a couple of days to the Peak District, looking forward to that.

Have a great day all!