Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

Karmacat

Wow, Elmo, thank you for that tight summary of your research there - that's amazing, truly.  I speak as somebody who really, really loves science but is actually very bad at it I'm just not careful enough for all of the time.  

You broke through a lot of glass/concrete ceilings too, from the sound of it - I have the advantage of being Anglo (with quite a lot of Irish thrown in, as I'm from Liverpool) but was the first in my extended family to go away to college, and oh good grief, I was in salaried work for about ten years before I went self employed, and the **prejudice** against women was just astonishing.  

Anyway, we're all doing pretty well with our chosen tracks and I hope the greenhouse and the tomato seedlings are doing well.

Kat78MFW

Really interesting to read about your research.  I sometimes wonder if I should have gone into the science field rather than healthcare. Have been feeling this a lot recently as DD1 has been looking at uni courses for physics and engineering. However my career has been easy to fit with having a family, working part-time and spending lots of time with my girls when they were young so shouldn't complain.

My daughter signed up for an online virtual girls in engineering summer school today and I saw this Year 12 virtual aviation course and thought of your daughter - Home | Smallpeice Trust. Just thought I'd post the link for you.

ElmoR

Thanks for dropping by and the words of positivity/encouragement

Thanks for the link to the aviation course Kat, I've forwarded it onto DD. In typical DD fashion she has looked at it and dismissed it in 5 minutes flat. Teenagers are such a challenging bunch. Part of me wants to sit her down with a folder and organiser sleeves and *make her* start doing research and prep for different career paths. But I know that if I come down heavy and force that along, she won't develop her own self motivation and oomph. She'll just flop at the next hurdle. No life skills developed. Yet on the other hand, I can see her missing opportunities already because she isn't grabbing hold of them. *Sigh*

Finance stuff is pretty much set up now I think. I ramped my salary sacrifice payments into the pension to 27% each month

This will hopefully bring me down below HRT threshold for this tax year, making absolute max use of gunmint (spelling?) contributions. The bridging fund is getting additional monthly payment of £1100 which does leave me counting pennies towards the end of the month, but I can modify the amounts easily if it gets too steep. Bridging fund is target goal 1 from original plan at the start of this phase, and according to the spreadsheet, we're 55.6% there. Nothing like being specific. Reaching target 1 would be a potentially FU liberating stage to reach.

I got to the bottom of the pension website numbers being incorrect. The added years that I contribute to are under the old, old scheme (the final salary one, ended ages ago) and they have no mechanism on the website to factor them in. So they don't appear and I have no way of knowing what the contribution I pay for that bit each month will equate to. Maybe if I scrutinise the annual summaries for the past umpteen years I can work it out approximately? I suspect it would need a slightly better qualified person to do the calculations though. For now, I just have to trust that it's there and will boost any numbers in the predictor/speadsheet by some unknown amount

The bridging fund is spread across the two new SSIPs and an ISA, all S&S. At the moment, the Van SSIP is down a tad and the H&L SSIP is at 2% up, in which FIL picks are down and my passive fund pick is cancelling out the drop and adding more on top. It's interesting to see that different passive funds go up/down at different times to other passive funds, I thought they'd all broadly so the same since they are tracking the same 'more-or-less everything' stuff and i've picked the same equity percentage. Just so long as the long term trend is up...

The little BMO trust fund has rocketed up again. I'm holding onto that tightly.

While that is all very positive, the bank account was anaemic at the end of the month and had to pinch a bit from the emergency pot to tide over til payday, so that would suggest some tweaking is needed. There was a dentist bill in there though. No pets bill this month and long may that continue...

The greenhouse and seedlings are doing very well :)I've swapped some tomatoes for bell peppers with a friend. Cucumbers are potted on, all 10 have survived and I have no idea where these and 20+ tomato plants are going to grow over the summer

Got the seed potatoes into their grow bags now as well. These bags have little windows in the side (Xmas pressie from DH), so I can peep at them as they grow. Potato telly?

Work. Bluerghh. I've been asked if I would like a bid admin role back again. I flounced last year because managers made a decision that pulled something from our offering the night before it went live - 6 months of prep down the loo. I sort of do want to crack on with it, but I suspect I'll have the carpet pulled out from under again, so the trust is dead now. Probably should also focus on things that bolster CV and this isn't one such thing. It's starting to dawn that my confidence is in tatters and maybe should think about applying for a new job again. It's either stay put and keep head down for another 8 years (which is quite a long time really) or up sticks and move. If we could combine that move to the part of the country we want to retire within, that would be incredible. So perhaps a plan is hatching. Though it has to be DD sensitive too...it's such a juggling act.

Enjoy the long weekend all.

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, good to hear you sounding more positive ElmoR, although it does sound like DD is frustrating right now....

As for the job, as you say, 8 years is a long time! If there's something you can do to make things more cheerful (or at least different - in my experience the novelty of a new job carries you through the nonsense for a while!) then I say go for it!

Karmacat

27% salary sacrifice is amazing, your finances are looking great!  And the plans you're just starting to hatch, for the next 8 years and a big move, my word, that would be seriously fantastic.  I hope you include lots of green space, since you're obviously so successful with your plants **bit of envy here** 🤣

I am in awe of anybody who manages to parent teenagers, by the way - it was hard enough 20 years ago, when lots of close relatives and friends were doing it.  Now ... words fail me.  

ElmoR

Plodding along for now. Feeling *very* weary and tired at work now. I suspect there will be a burnout epidemic across our sector soon.The VLE materials/templates for next academic year started to populate our screens and the thought of starting another year of online teaching all over again just made me groan out loud. It came after the student feedback data arrived in email - less than a third had bothered to fill in the survey at all. Thanks, that makes me feel like all that extra effort was all worth it   I kidded myself into thinking that the extra effort was appreciated. Next year will be a mini cooper version, screw the rolls royce

An internal role was advertised that would have come with an additional £4K salary but it would add nothing to the defined benefit scheme and only be able to siphon into the DC scheme. The role would be a move away from the elements of the job I enjoy and deeply into the political/strategy elements that I find heinous. This is one example where the money doesn't seem worth the aggravation.

In finance news, everything now ticking along with auto-siphons set up to various pots. Have reached 57.2% of target one. It was 57.7% before the markets tumbled this week. Target one is the bridging fund that would allow retirement at 60. If we get there faster than 8 years time, I would have to add several £1000s more to go a year earlier than that etc. Since the pension website doesn't add in my additional years AVCs set up in 2001, it's a bit like throwing darts at a moving board in trying to work out what's needed.

It feels good to be able to send such a big chunk via salary sacrifice Karmacat. Couldn't have done that with the mortgage payments too, so this is the one huge benefit of sorting that out first. I suppose the purists on the other board would say that I missed out on the market uplift had the money gone there but I feel like a different person without the mortgage, lighter/happier.

No large unexpected pay outs yet this month...only midway through so far though and a pet may jump into one too many bushes yet... 

DD seems to be enjoying looking at university courses online and has even emailed a couple to ask about required A level grades etc. The pilot thing is still plan A but having plan B is looking better thought through now. I'm crossing my fingers that uni campuses open up in the summer and we can go touring. DD signed up for the aviation technology online summer course too @Kat78MFW. I'm hoping it's all engineering and puts her off. Is that unkind of me?

If anyone else spots online/in person summer courses for year 12s in pilot-ty type stuff or biomedical/molecular biology type stuff please give me a shout!! She's in a receptive mood!! Must strike while iron is hot...

The seedlings are all coming along nicely. The greenhouse is going to need a shelving rearrangement to open up more floor space for all the toms and cucumber plants. If I remove the bottom shelves, they should have enough space underneath? The spud sacks can go outside the greenhouse between there and the garage for shelter. I still have about 50 of the little coir seedling plugs and am wondering what else to start off? I would like more houseplants - does anyone have any suggestions on easy houseplants from seeds?

This weekend is sorting out the rest of the garden - mow the lawn/moss, edging and weeding...

Have a good weekend all

ElmoR xx

ElmoR

A day of annual leave. Already had to answer work email since it is a panicking person with a deadline on the day I return, why do they leave things to the day before the deadline to ask a question?? People say, oh don't look at your email on your day off, it just doesn't seem to work like that, chaos always happens on the single day you take off and then the fall out comes back to you and you get pressured because it's either critical survey season or deadline season or appeal material...Grrrr.

Anyway, the cat was sick too, on a surface for maximal difficulty for clean up, of course. So the day getting off to a rubbish start is not entirely work's fault.

Finance-wise, it was interesting to hear people's differing views on support for children and how they go about it. Given me lots to ponder. The thread that @rara pointed out is interesting too. The numbers are more in line with what I had been thinking and about what was live-able as an entry level scientist (though without the child and with a first mortgage). I floated the £20k a year, as what we would need in retirement, past my DH and he was sceptical, but he hasn't seen the monthly budgets or taken an interest in the finances, so maybe I can spend some time with him and convince him it would be ok. It's tricky when the two of you have different levels of interest in such things. No way I'm working in my current role past 60, that's a hard stop for me. I wouldn't mind another job doing something else or even something I do now but somewhere else in the part of the country we want to retire to. Latter probably not going to happen as the HE sector is due one of it's massive cyclical contractions again.

Goals, still at 57% of goal 1. I suppose it's good that it didn't dip a percent this past week or so. Less impact than I thought there would be when the markets took the downturn. Must remember that.

I also need to change my signature and was thinking of framing it as % goal achieved and also maybe x words of a 70,000 word book achieved? I haven't written anything on the book since February. The problem is that I have a confidence crash and think no one will want to read this tosh. You're embarrassing yourself.

Ah well. Gardening today, between the rain showers and during the huge blasts of sunshine...

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like you need a hug ElmoR ((((())))))) Who was it said "your lack of planning is not my emergency"?? I know that doesn't help in the moment though! 

We have different levels of interest in finances in this house too. Fortunately Mr Cheery is extremely frugal by nature - but that does occasionally result in things being made difficult when we could afford to make them easier! I try to keep a realistic picture and update him regularly whether he's interested or not 😂

Sympathy with the book confidence crash 🙄 Our minds are funny things.

Hope you can enjoy the rest of your day off in peace. I recommend going somewhere away from Internet connection and cats!

Baileys_Babe

We have very different attitudes to money. OH has no interest in what I do with the money as long as we stay in the black, but the minute I start to get him involved with a plan he is very cautious 😣

Karmacat

So, no other check in to work emails today!  It's very good of you to do any at all.  And, cats being sick.  Urk, no words, just sympathies.
I've only just joined your thread, so I missed the previous book chat, found a description of yours on page 11 - if that's what you're still writing, I think people would be *very* interested, especially now that we've had covid, people are interested in what goes in science labs, and know a tiny bit more about the achievements since the vaccine news kicked off.  I realise that's not your sphere, but laypeople will think of it, I should imagine.  I'll get my coat!
As far as judging what's enough - check out Kindle for free books about writing (for kindle ...).  I like Jim Driver, though he writes about writing fiction, mostly.  Basically, there's information on Amazon that helps, if you look at your "competitors" - length, pricing, number of chapters - without you paying anything out.  You have to delve into the "look inside" and "free sample" links.  When I managed to publish my sole finished book, I also had a great proof reader, a friend from mse, but he doesn't post any more, and I don't know him in RL.  I have a fiction book on the go, and a "historical" diary/present day update thing thats 80% finished.  Go for it