The Piano Diary

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Dear diary and all,

Home alone as OH is out tonight. The decorating is done and really pleased with the result. I had forgotten how uplifting a new look room can be. We have gone for some 70s retro wallpaper on one wall and then some nice paint on the other walls. We now need to choose the carpet and the blinds/curtains. Should be ok to keep it in budget as long as we are sensible. We are about half way to Easter. This time of year can be a struggle as work is quite full on and the weather doesn't help. We are trying to break it up with small things to look forward to like meals out etc.

I am in a strange period now where I know I am going to hand in my notice at the end of May. I think once we reach Easter it will be super quick to reach that point. In the meantime, just making sure I am doing the best job I can and be professional.

DS has messaged us so hoping to set up a call soon to catch up with him and hear all his news.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

OH has decided on Roman blinds so went looking yesterday at the shop we have used in the past. Very helpful lady found the colour to match the wallpaper sample we had taken. Quote is around £400 which includes them coming out to measure and fit. A local small family business, they do such a good job so will be going with them. So that leaves carpeting and a new light. Budget so far is £750 decorating, £125 wallpaper, £400 blinds. I'm estimating £350 (this may not be enough, let's see) for the carpet and £60 for the light (plus fitting, I don't do electricals). So total of £1685 so far. Room is a 3.2 x 3.4 metre bedroom. Sunday long run today. Veggie roast later.

AgathaSquirrel

Sounds reasonable. We have a huge bedroom and decorated 2 years ago. We know the carpet cost will be astronomical so have kept putting it on the back burner. We really should get it finished.

Waiting for everyone else to get up so we can go on our short run!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

At the beginning of March I will have 6 months to go. In my mind I am working my notice, although I will tell them with 3 months to go. This is not because I want to be difficult, but once before I worked a long notice period and I found it wasn’t great. I’m focusing on putting things in the best possible state I can before I go. I’m thinking about it as if I was an interim for 6 months, holding my self accountable for delivering projects before I go.

The new pension freedoms mean we have to make more decisions. I am trying to keep things simple. Moving into withdrawal rather than accumulation, I will no longer be focusing on optimisation but more on simplicity. I don’t want to be particularly active in managing it and making lots of decisions. My pension provider has a partner organisation you can use for flexible drawdown. I have had a look and I’m minded to use them. They are not the cheapest on the market, but I like the simplicity of it and would be happy to pay a bit more so that it can be more hands off. I will have to decide how much to take and in what form. The DB pensions plus their associated lump sums should cover the first years costs for us. This means I should have time to get my head around the drawdown process and decide how much to withdraw and when.

The DC fund was £500k at Christmas and has grown to £512K. I moved away from a heavy investment in the US and diversified. UK and Emerging went up and US went down but overall a 2.5% increase. I wont be making any more changes before I finish in August.

UK fund £158/£150 + 5.3%

US fund £98/£100 -2%

Emerging fund £81/£75 +9%

Bonds £75/£75

Liquidity fund £100/£100

Total £512/£500 +2.5%

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Managed to catch up with DS via a video call yesterday. It was really great to see him. It’s the first time we have spoken to him since he set sail on his cruise ship in January as a working musician. He has been super busy for the first several weeks. Only one day off per week and most of those have had training courses on them. A few port days where they are allowed on shore. It sounds like he is really enjoying it despite it being hard work. He looked really well so hopefully it is agreeing with him. Super proud of what he has achieved, and that he is being adaptable and resilient. It will really stand him in good stead for the long term. We are looking into sending him a package of some treats from home if we can work out how to do it. He is leaving today again on a cruise around the Pacific.

In more mundane news, we have chosen the carpet for the bedroom. Something like £15 per square metre and the room is around 10 square metres. The clutch on the older car (10 years old) may be on its way out. Strange noises and smells emanating from it. Its booked in on Friday at the garage for a check up. I hope its not a new clutch but lets see.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

I took the car into the garage. They think there may be something going on with the drivetrain buts its complicated. They also mentioned that there might be something needed to be done with the rear differential. They have referred me to a specialist as they don’t do this kind of work. Mulling it over at the moment. I think it might be time to sell this car. It owes us nothing as I bought it with 40,000 miles and we have had 60,000 trouble free miles of motoring. I may take it to the specialist, not sure.

Carpet for the spare room has come in at £400 which is reasonable and quite close to the budget.

I have had my last ever performance appraisal. It was last week and ‘mid-year’. The end of year one would be in September, except that I will have left by that point. It’s a strange feeling. Ironically, the one last week went quite well because I am very delivery focused knowing I am going in 6 months. So from Monday in my head I am starting working my six month notice.

DS has posted a video on Instagram of him in the South Pacific. It looks amazing. Meanwhile here another day of grey rain !

KajiKita

Be careful with performing so well at work … they may make you a crazy offer to stay on … 😉

Glad you got to speak to DS and things are going o well for him 😊

KK

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Dear diary and all,

Thanks @KajiKita ! I don’t think they will be throwing any money at me 😊! End of first week working my 6 month notice in my head. I can feel my approach to a number of things shifting. I’m kind of in handover mode. Need to get things done. Easter is now four weeks away. I think once I reach Easter time will fly. Car is booked in to a specialist on Monday. I’ve decided I will go up to £1000 repair and if it is above that then its going to go.

Redecoration of spare room is nearly complete. Just the new blinds to be fitted and then some new furnishings etc and we will be done. There are a few more home improvement type things we would like to do. I’m currently thinking of waiting until I finish work and using the lump sums to pay for a few things.

Its great that the weather has picked up even if only temporary. Went for a run yesterday and it was actually sunny and pleasant for the first time since Christmas!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Took the car to the specialist garage. He was very friendly but explained he couldn’t work on this vehicle since he can’t get the parts from suppliers. Could be plausible since this make vacated the UK five years ago. Strangely, the fault has not reappeared despite me driving around locally over the last few days. Not sure whether to sell or just keep driving it. Athough we could manage with one car, it would be a bit less convenient. May see how we go with it for a while. No warning lights have come on so that is one good thing. Its probably entering its end of life phase, but that could go on a while. I am prevaricating over this a bit.

DC fund has dropped from £520K to £505K since the start of the recent war. I have £175k in bonds and liquidity which haven’t moved. The other £330k is in equities and this has fallen around 4-5%. I guess this what I was guarding against when I changed the mix back at the start of the year.

Yesterday was the March management meeting. I will miss the April one as I will be away at a conference. To the extent that I can, I am very much starting to be selective what I am getting involved in. Mainly focused on the things I can get done in the next 3-4 months.

This weekend we will be finishing off the spare room.

glass_half_full

Dear diary,

Some good news on the car front at least for now. Took it into trusted local garage and they fixed something in the rear differential (bush) that resolved the clunk when moving away. Car now seems to be driving fine. Cost £325 so pleased with that if it leads to a couple more years of use, fingers crossed. I would like to keep it going if possible since I have looked after it in the 7 years we have been driving it, acquired it at 4 years old so it is now 11 years old with 102,000 miles.

I have received my provisional retirement quote in the post. No big surprises there since I have been keeping a close eye on it. The next step is to submit the notification of retirement, which I will do at the end of May. It seems that if I want to transfer the DC fund to the draw down provider I need to get advice from Pension Wise, or say that I have declined this advice. I will arrange the appointment because who knows, they might point out something important I have missed.

Weather is picking up. Its amazing how much better it feels with just a little sun!