*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

PAYDAY!! Well, OH's anyway and that's the biggest one that enables the bills to be paid... we had £22.13 left in our current account before I got paid from Job 1 on Wednesday, a little bit tight!

We didn't make a dent in the ever refilling CC in January, but the end of month balance didn't increase either, so I'm happy enough with that. Usually we have a massive post Christmas financial hangover, so this is definitely an improvement.

Having put February's planned figures into YNAB, I'm hopeful we can make a dent in it during this month

savingholmes

Good that things are improving financially and that you are getting to grips with ynab. I still pref XL

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I wonder if you bank with HSBC whether you can switch to First Direct and get the cash incentive

clearmydebts

Thank goodness for payday! Keep plodding along, you're doing great!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

clearmydebts wrote: »

Thank goodness for payday! Keep plodding along, you're doing great!

Thank you CMDs

Quiet and cheap weekend just been;
- Saturday, I did an extra morning shift, so £135 earned there. Afternoon was catching up on chores and chilling with the children in equal measure.
- Sunday, we had some relatives round, managed to cover the food in our usual weekly shop. It was lovely to see them and a fun day was had.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Inspired by SavingHolmes, I've been looking into pensions. We'd like to retire in 20 years (hopefully sooner though!), I'd be 62, OH would be 65.

My pension(s):
My main one is NHS, I've only been there 7 years though, prior to that I didn't really have one. Not ideal as I'm in my early 40s!
NHS pension; I contribute 9.3% a month, they (NHS and HMRC) contribute 20.68% apparently.
My other job, I contribute 4.5% and they match it.
I've always had a job even when studying, so when I checked my pension on gov.uk it shows 26 years contributions already, so comfortably on track for a full state pension whenever/whatever that may be.

OH:
He's got about 8 different private pensions, it's mind boggling. Also, it's difficult to track them all as some funds have been taken over by other companies. At some point, I need to make a list of them all and what is in all the pots. He can't remember which pots are from which company originally, so I need to make sure they're all accounted for as we've moved several times in the last 15 years.
He's also always worked, so he's up to 30 years NI contributions already.

House:
We're planning on paying our mortgage off comfortably before we retire and downsizing considerably once the children have left home. Our house is a decent size in an expensive area, estimated value of £700-750K (current mortgage is £340k with 20 years remaining on term), so we're thinking if we bought a house for half that, the residual equity would be a pot for our retirement too. I'd have no idea how to invest it though, we'll look into in when relevant.

savingholmes

HI glad you are looking into pensions. With your DH - is he in danger of breaching the lifetime allowance for pensions - it may be worth doing some reading around that and if he is at risk - it may be worth seeing if you can get some kind of protection. Also the government run a pension tracing service.

HTH

Eyebright

It's taken me about a week, but I am all caught up on your diary!

You are doing so well, my mind can't boggle how organised you must be/been to have/had multiple jobs on the go, studying, house renovating and raising 5 children at the same time.
I can barely keep track of myself, OH, and LO and my 1 job!:rotfl:

Isitdoable

You sound like retirement wise you will be fairly sorted. That is one of the biggest things scaring me right now. We have nothing!!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

savingholmes wrote: »

HI glad you are looking into pensions. With your DH - is he in danger of breaching the lifetime allowance for pensions - it may be worth doing some reading around that and if he is at risk - it may be worth seeing if you can get some kind of protection. Also the government run a pension tracing service.

HTH

I've never even heard of the lifetime allowance, so will definitely read around, thanks. I don't think he has massive pots with any of them. I've given him homework of listing every company he's worked for since he graduated and I'll try and map the pensions to the jobs. I've heard of the government tracking service, so once I've got a clear pattern, I'll go down that route too, thanks:D

Eyebright wrote: »

It's taken me about a week, but I am all caught up on your diary!

You are doing so well, my mind can't boggle how organised you must be/been to have/had multiple jobs on the go, studying, house renovating and raising 5 children at the same time.
I can barely keep track of myself, OH, and LO and my 1 job!:rotfl:

Thank you, that's lovely of you to say....you did very well to persevere though, I have the tendency to overthink and repeat myself a lot!
I also think I over complicated life for a while, especially after the birth of my 5th and my Dad's illness/death... I felt so sad and overwhelmed and I tried to avoid putting kids into too much childcare, but ended up working more hours overall and we sacrificed family time altogether, it was either me with kids or OH, not both. There are ads/disads for all work patterns though.

House renovating is something OH and I both enjoy, but it can be a juggle :rotfl:

Isitdoable wrote: »

You sound like retirement wise you will be fairly sorted. That is one of the biggest things scaring me right now. We have nothing!!

I find it a bit daunting to be honest, in one way it seems miles away and yet worryingly close!