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

Kat78MFW

Great to read your end of year update. I'm hoping to post one of my own later today if I have time.  Congratulations to your DD for passing her driving test.  What an amazing amount you have saved up for her - sadly we're nowhere near that much for our DDs.  What field has she decided to study at uni?  Has the switch to pilot training changed back to a more conventional study path?  You have definitely fulfilled your thread title - amazing!!  

As far as student finance goes, the MSE advice is generally to ignore the interest added as only the highest earners will pay back all the interest before the loan wipes (30 years after graduation I think).  If my student loans had been on this scheme, I would have only paid back a fraction of what I had borrowed, despite being in a fairly well paid job because I have worked part-time since having the children.  So if having a family and working reduced hours would be part of your daughter's future plans, she could even be in a high earning field but still not need to pay back all the loan nor interest.

Sorry to hear that you have a parent with dementia too.  My mum is only 73 but is barely able to move and can hardly speak due to  vascular dementia. What have the care home said about the possible new relationship that is forming for your father?  As he is vulnerable and they have a duty of care, they should be able to offer some advice and ensure safeguarding and I'm sure it won't be the first time it has happened.  What a difficult situation for you though.  My dad is stubbornly making sure that my mum is kept out of a care home but I am very worried about the impact on his health as caring for her is a tough 24/7 job - I couldn't do it.  However, he has just organised an additional four hours per week respite so he can have a little bit more time to himself.

Happy New Year!           

ElmoR

DD is 18 Yay!! We made an adult! Or the beginnings of one.

I think she enjoyed her day, though it had an actual examination in the morning making it memorable for the wrong reasons perhaps. Lots of pressies from friends and relatives. Hilariously large unicorn helium balloon filling up our kitchen right now too.

While she has applied to uni for a sciences degree, the pilot thing hasn't gone away. We bought her an hours pilot lesson for her birthday, she can use the voucher in the next year - probably best wait for a sunny, clear day. I'm hoping she can see it as a past time rather than a vocation... :#I feel bad about somewhat squashing a dream. Didn't have a spare £80K floating around for flight school training though. She hasn't even flown yet either, so rather a large gamble.

In true MSW fashion, we've already sat down and started the finances101 tasks. She's taking a chunk from the Matured Cash JISA and applied to open a Bell S&S LISA. Also, going to open a new current bank account with fD, to bag the £130 hello cash by transferring out of her teenager NWide Flex account. I'm hoping that I'm instilling a money saving mentality into her. Will do some more transfers/finance lessons in a few weeks - she gets bored with it quickly 

Not in quite the same cashflow pickle as last month, so maybe the salary sacrifice to the pension can stay at the current level, maybe see in another month's time...

Hope everyone is well, it's nearly the end of the month...

ElmoR xx

Karmacat

Congratulations to your DD!  The finance elements sound really good, and a trial pilot lesson sounds fine to me.  Most pilots are training in their mid 20s at the very, very earliest, so a science-related degree sounds just the job in the meantime (sorry, just realised what phrase I was using ).

And a giant unicorn balloon must be a wonderful sight 🦄

Cheery_Daff

Happy birthday to DD! So sorry she had an exam, what rotten luck. 

I do want to say though that you have NOT 'squashed a dream'.  That dream is still there for the taking, just later - lots of time for her to work towards that pilots training herself if that's what she's motivated to do! 😊 Good that you are instilling plenty of financial training! 

ElmoR

Hello all   

The world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket? Am I the only person trolling large multinational companies on social media to stop trading in Russia as a new hobby? There's so little we can do

Finances. Not going to look at any investments for a few months. I keep bunging a large amount of salary at the limping USS pension DC horse each month. A smaller amount into the other diverse pots, all nose diving at the minute, so cheap to buy equivalent shares in relative terms I suppose.

DD's getting the hang of accounts and paperwork. She's much more savvy with the phone app versions of accounts whereas I prefer online. After much back and forth, she set up her S & S LISA. It took so long that she missed the drop and has gone in at a low. Unless there's more drops of course. Rest of her future war chest is safe in the Cash JISA but getting a tiny rate of interest. Least it's still all there. She's also confirmed her place at Uni, sorted out deposit on accommodation and filled in the finance form. I usually sit beside her as she does these, but she seems to be growing in confidence with such tasks. The funniest one was dealing with the LISA pickle - it needed a phone call, which she didn't want to do. So I said I would phone and speak to the person who answered...It went along the lines of ..."hello, I'm here with my daughter XXX and she needs to do..., she wasn't feeling confident enough to call herself so I've done the first part and now I'm handing my phone over to her so that you can talk to her directly." She looked daggers at me as I handed the phone over

On the gardening front, just started cutting back some bushes, a few at a time to allow the wildlife to relocate if needed. The tomato and cucumber seedlings are coming through. Chilli pepper seedlings not made an appearance yet...

Work. It's ok-ish. I only want to leave every week or two now, rather than every half hour of every day. Our uni didn't make the threshold for strikes, we've been in the doldrums for 5 to 10 years, no collective fight left. We're in the squeezed middle, not a prestigious place that overfilled their campus the past 2 years, and not a pack them in teaching intensive one either. We tick along and wonder what crisis is next. International Women's Day tomorrow - I hate the false window dressing nonsense that will involve. 

It's a sunny day though, and we live in a (slightly demented) free country, so that will do for now. Enjoy your weekends all,

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

Nice to see you ElmoR! Glad to hear you only want to leave work every week or two - I suppose that's an improvement 🙄 We did meet the strike threshold, so I'll be having a total of 9 days out, which as they've all started at the beginning of the week, they've mostly fallen on my working days, so for me it's more than a fortnight 🙄

Did you see the Gender Pay Gap bot following every organisation's post about International Women's Day with a tweet about their pay gap? 😂 A lovely level of rightly deserved chaos 😁

Glad to hear your daughter is growing in confidence, well done to you both! And good job on getting your seeds planted out too!

ElmoR

...Slinking back into the forum quietly! ...

Good morning all

Just did the MFW2022 update on progress and thought I might do an update on my page too since a lot is happening and there may be another mortgage in the offing...

Things had been ticking along, continuing with the MFW approach to life etc and then I was sent a job advert. Similar to what I do now but the vibe from the institution came across as a strong match for my own values. So I applied. Had the interview and offered the job. Huge dilemma follows...it's not in the oop North, how will we afford a home?, DD starts uni in Sept and will us moving unsettle her as she makes a big life transition?, probably going to need to take out another (maybe ~£50K+) mortgage?, cost of living rise and DD's addition to car insurance already being felt. And the big one = CHANGE.

Not sure how I feel about possibly having another mortgage   It wouldn't be forever in that we could maybe retire at 60ish, sell up and move back North again to the land of cheaper homes, paying off the mortgage on that sale/move?

Anyway, time to spend some reading reading your diaries and catching up...

Elmo R x

Cheery_Daff

Oooh, exciting news ElmoR - congratulations whatever you choose! 

South_coast

Agreed, great news on the job. Well done you 😀 Would you need to sell up and make a wholesale move in order to take it up? Could you keep your current house and rent in the new area? Or could you keep your current house, keep your OH in it so it's a base for DD to call home, and just work away during the week, renting/buying a crash pad?    x

ElmoR

Morning all

Long bank holiday weekend!!! Yay!!! Plus I have the next week off as annual leave. It feels positively festive here.

The dust has settled after a month of too much excitement and happenings. In the end, I talked with my current line manager about the job offer elsewhere and they arranged a retention package to keep me where I am. That was nice to have a manager who wants to keep me. Salary boost very welcome.

S_c - they offered those flexible approaches too, including living there for 2 or 3 days a week and the rest of the time at home with DH. I don't really want to live apart from DH even one day a week if I'm honest

It was emotionally draining going through the negotiations, letting down the new job offer colleagues, waiting to see if my current employer would match the offer to any extent. I wouldn't like to do that again. I can see how some colleagues can and have haggled their way up to better salaries. Anyway, it's done now. The extra salary is being deployed to support DD and means that I can leave my overpayments/salary sacrifice to the pension going while she is at Uni. A huge help in keeping FIRE on track.

The changes to the pension scheme were a bit of a blow to the FIRE plan but I think I now have plan B ready to get back on track. The advice to save whatever increases in salary you get, so you don't notice it, has been the main brick in this plan so far. Looking back at some sums in 2017, salary has increased by 25%, yet my take home pay has decreased by £300 a month, and that has been OK because the campaign to reduce monthly outgoings/bills in overpaying the mortgage meant that it was do-able. I just kept that mentality going once the mortgage was slain. The SiPP and ISA plan is on hold though, the cost of living crisis has eaten into those monthly payments for now.

So I need an alternative to those SiPP and ISA routes for FIRE. There's that damn book I'm supposed to be writing but am never sure anyone would really want to read even if I do manage to get it published. Not sure it would generate much cash either. So plan B has hatched. Consultancy. The loss of EU funding has been apocalyptic for my research, since the UK funding bodies are not an even playing field and not especially pro-environment. So I have been doing small bits of work for industry partners as contract research. I could be doing that as consultancy instead though. I've set myself the task of achieving Chartered status over the next 6 months. I'm also saying yes to any contract research work offers that involve an industry partner, to add these to my CV. I need to up my game in moving to that private sector funding game though. My academic, laid back, amateurish approach isn't going to cut it!

My FIRE targets remain the same. Target 1 is met this month - **orchestra playing in the background/fireworks display starts** We managed it by diverting the old mortgage overpayments to the SiPP/ISA and extra pension contributions. In theory, that allows us to "pull the pin" when i get to 60 and have a modest annual income. Cost of living increases make me wonder if that's still the case, but I'm not going to rerun the numbers again just yet.

Target 2 is £50K saved up for a car, maybe some home renovations, maybe a relocation at 60 too. Target 3 is another £50K on top of that one for a dream home without needing any more mortgage. It would be the cherry on the cake, but isn't the end of the world if not do-able. I wonder if we are better relocating sooner rather than waiting, so I'll keep an eye out over the next few years for jobs in the areas we would like to retire to just in case that is a possibility.

So can we muster up £50K over 6 years (getting to 60 years old) via consultancy income...?? That's the new FIRE mission. 

In other news, DD changed her mind about what course and what university. LOL. She did extremely well in her grades, smart cookie. The big change is that she will now be at the same uni I work at, but will go into their Halls. The bill for Halls is £2k a year cheaper than the place she had signed up at, so that's a result! No costs associated with car trips back and forth now too. We just have to agree the etiquette for when we bump into each other on campus.

Most importantly, she is happy.

My greenhouse is empty bar a spider plant and small Christmas tree. I seem to have lost the plot there...in my defence, there's been a lot of life stuff going on

Enjoy the long weekend all,

ElmoR xx