The Piano Diary

savingholmes

Well done - that's fabulous news on the pension.

Enjoy your new garden. May as well make the most of the work you've had done. 

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

I have caught covid. I had noticed recently several people mentioning to me that either they had had it or someone they knew had had it. To be honest as it never gets talked about any more I wasn’t aware it was still around. I recently went to a conference in London so maybe that was where I picked it up. I tested myself because OH and I were supposed to be going to a couple of events this weekend and I didn’t want to spread it. I had a feeling it was different from just a normal summer cold. Anyway I don’t feel too bad. In a way its good to have an excuse to step back from things for a couple of days. With all plans cancelled, I plan to rest and do a few simple jobs around the house. Finance wise, I am maintaining the new tighter purse strings approach. We will both be paid next week and should be able to make some significant payments to the credit cards. There is one last item I want to buy for the garden which is a parasol to sit over the garden furniture. Going to pay for this out of cash once paid next week.

On the pension front, last week I asked OH to access her pension information to get an update on where it is. She has very little interest pensions and doesn’t want the hassle of logging in, getting the details etc. She got the information and it looks like it has increased a bit since we last had the information. Its important to keep track of where things are for both of us. The main DC fund continues to grow, by £10k in the last week to £378k. This fund is quite volatile so tends to exaggerate movements up and down, but over the longer term has outperformed the other funds so I am sticking with it. I know it could drop significantly as well if there is a stock market correction, but I am ok with that. I’ve been playing with some modelling tools and my favourite at the moment is guiide.co.uk. In the past I have built quite complex and detailed spreadsheets. But as I have simplified my pension funds I have found that this modelling tool gives me the necessary understanding. So with the assumptions I am using, it looks like November 2025 would allow us to retire to a moderate lifestyle eg around £41K per annum at which point I will be 59.

savingholmes

The modelling sounds reassuring. Great win on the pension - hope it stays positive for you.

AgathaSquirrel

Sounds very positive and a nice age to be able to retire.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

We are both off for a week. It feels like we really need this break. We are not going anywhere, just relaxing at home. We have a holiday coming up in August and are taking DS and his GF. Tomorrow we are going shopping for clothes for the holiday and will meet up with them for this. We debated going away for a couple of nights, but in the end we decided to stay put. I think it is a good decision as we can just unwind here. Hoping the weather is reasonable in which case we can sit out on the patio at least.

The pension fund has been very volatile. It has moved +/- 5% in the last week. The last week has seen a minus 5% correction, so the total is now £370K down from a high point of £390K. I am relaxed about this, it will recover. I have been turning over the decision about retirement a lot in my mind recently. I think I need my August holiday to get some distance and clarity on this. I enjoy aspects of my job, but there is also a lot of reorganisation and disruption going on at the moment, high staff turnover etc. This leads to extra work, some of it necessary, but quite a lot of it is unnecessary. I think that some time away will help for this to settle in my mind a bit more.

One bonus of some time off at home is that I can get some more piano practice done. I have an exam on the horizon in the autumn.

savingholmes

Enjoy your time off. I totally get how disruptive work re-organisations can be. 

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Paying off the credit cards

I have built up rather a lot on two credit cards. Since the beginning of the year there have been some significant costs including repairs to the roof, a new patio and landscaping to the garden front and back. Then there is the cost of our summer holiday which I have paid for in advance. We are taking DS and his GF so that has been quite expensive. I decided to do all of this and not delay it, but in doing so, have had to put rather a lot onto the credit cards. Now its time to start paying it down and I want to record it on here to keep accountable to this goal. Its time to reign this in. I think I will stop using them as well for the moment. So the totals are :

CC1 : £9,992

CC2 : £8,945

Total : £18,487

According to the budget there should be around £2000 each month available to pay this off, so that would be around 9 months. So target is to have them paid off by end of April 2025.

We have an emergency fund of £5000 which I am keeping back for the just in case.

savingholmes

Good luck with clearing it again 

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

The weather has improved a bit and so we have been able to enjoy the patio more. One more week left and then we will be on holiday for a couple of weeks. The holiday is mostly paid for up front. There will be some spending money but that is mainly budgeted for. There aren’t any major spends on the horizon, so now I am focused on paying down the credit cards. Time away from work last week has helped me to gain some perspective. I suspect that a couple more weeks away will help with this further. I have signed up for a course in October as suggested by my new boss. This is helping to stimulate some more interest for me.

The pension fund is quite volatile at the moment along with the stock market. I am confident that it will recover over the next 12-18 months. If nothing else, if the prices fall then it will make it better value for buying over the next few months.

savingholmes

Hope you have a fab holiday.