Venturing Out of the Vault (of Debt) 27 March 2019 at 2:45PM edited 28 March 2019 at 2:09PM in Debt Free Diaries 97 replies 7K views

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

Anyway, as a result i came across a thread where someone posted a useful link to a retirement planning tool to estimate possible pension outcomes. Very useful. As much as I've tried to gauge where we'll be and work on the theory that more is better when paying in, I've never been sure as to whether we're doing enough, other than to think I'm doing more than the average person my age so SHOULD be OK. Having played around with various scenarios, it seems we're well on track to exceed my MINIMUM target of around £20k p/a in retirement (barring a MAJOR financial disaster). This is good and has set my mind at ease now.
....
Getting into a right ramble today!!:rotfl: Long story short, looking at the long off future has made it even clearer that long term debt has more of an effect on life than just emptying the bank account each month. Once again, thankyou everyone for helping me come to this realisation. It's not too big a statement to say that this LBM could, literally, have changed our lives just in time.

This has been weighing on my mind, too. Now, don't forget to include yours and your wife's state pensions, which in today's money would be worth £17.5k per year between them if you took the full value. Admittedly, if you're anything like me, it doesn't kick in until age 68, whereas I was thinking 55 was a nice time to stop...

Could you copy in the link to the tool you saw?

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

Just reading through my diary, it seems as though I'm rambling away and talking to myself :rotfl:
Must watch for the men in white coats coming to the door. Off to make a tinfoil hat and sit in the cupboard where no one will find me...........

We're reading... we're always reading... :eek::eek::eek:

Pip_Boy_111

https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/tools/my-retirement-planner/

Voila! One link as requested.
I haven't been factoring the state pension for two reasons. 1) i want to know we can get a comfortable retirement even without it because 2) it may be at age 90 by the time I get to retirement :rotfl:

I'm aiming for 58 but I think 60 is more realistic.

Pip_Boy_111

poppytattoo wrote: »

This. Exactly this. It's good to see there are others in the same boat. I feel bad sometimes for whinging when I got myself into this situation. Sure, there were factors that contributed, but at the end of the day it was my decision to take out the credit. I never bothered about the debt at all until I realised that the majority of my wage every month now goes on paying it off. Then I think of what we could be doing with all that money - saving for a bigger house deposit, holidays etc - and I want to give myself a knock on the head!

But, at least we're on the right path, eh! Hope bike shopping went well, and the bargain McDs (we have one five minute's walk from our house, it's a major challenge not to go in every time I walk past.

It did thanks. Wee man finally had the penny drop about saving when he kept asking if he can afford this and that. His face when I told him he had enough saved to buy ANY bike he wanted in that display was a picture :rotfl:
The McD was good. We live in a seaside village so things like that really are a once in a while treat. Plus it cost next to nowt :money:
Off for golf on a budget on our beautiful local links course soon. The weather is stunning today. A sense of contentment and calm is to be found here today. Just proves you CAN have luxuries even on a budget :T

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

I haven't been factoring the state pension for two reasons. 1) i want to know we can get a comfortable retirement even without it because 2) it may be at age 90 by the time I get to retirement :rotfl:

Thanks for that - it's good to see one that illustrates drawdown as well. It's fairly similar to the spreadsheet I made for myself, with similar assumptions, so I'm glad I wasn't too far off.

Pip_Boy_111

Sanctioned_Parts_List wrote: »

Thanks for that - it's good to see one that illustrates drawdown as well. It's fairly similar to the spreadsheet I made for myself, with similar assumptions, so I'm glad I wasn't too far off.

Yeah I was getting a bit fed up of seeing low incomes due to most calcs using annuity figures. The drawdown illustration is exactly what I was after and I was pleasantly surprised. Just gotta get rid of this blasted debt now. Weird that they see low investment growth as -0.5% though. That's not low, that's catastrophic :eek:

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

Weird that they see low investment growth as -0.5% though. That's not low, that's catastrophic :eek:

Indeed, which is why I'm always left wondering why cash ISAs are so popular, as they pretty much lock in a real-terms "growth" of -0.5%.

Next few years will be interesting... I'm planning to stay semi-expat until the mess settles down a bit. Feel sorry for you island-dwellers, though :cool:

For my own situation, this might be useful. I stopped being eligible for child benefit slightly before DW became British. If we can back-claim that far based on ignorance, then I can save about £7k of make-up payments for her...

Pip_Boy_111

So just had the bill for the car service and safe to say i'm not impressed. It came to around £70 more than i'd budgeted for. I suppose that's the ongoing price you pay for taking a PCP deal (having to use dealer services). Counting the days until this deal ends and i can walk away and NEVER go down that route again. Next time i will be buying a car outright, and it'll be one that's "pre loved". By that time we should be debt free, so the plan is to look around at 3-4 year old models and, if necessary, see what rates are available on traditional loans. We're talking £7000 tops here. Not after a Ferrari :rotfl: If nothing suits it'll be back to good old bangers for a few hundred quid. I actually miss my old bangers. They had "character"
Before anyone thinks this will be a return to buying things on credit on a whim, let me allay those fears, dear reader. This time round it will be a calculated decision, based on what's available that is SUITABLE for our needs, interest rates available, and a solid budget to work to. Research and due diligence will be thoroughly carried out. Being rural we NEED a car. Just not a flashy car. A necessary debt, if you will. Again, if nothing is suitable (in terms of interest rates and car) I won't jump just because. We'll make do with a banger and save instead.

Anyway, back to the present. The higher bill is not a disaster. I have moved some stuff around in the budget. Mainly debt overpayments. Another win for having a budget and actually tracking spends instead of guessing. I don't like the fact that my nice shiny debt repayment spreadsheet with projections (yes i have one of those too ) is now out of whack and needs adjusting, but it is a far better fate than having to add to credit, which would also put it out of whack but mean we owe more. Lesser of two evils.
No matter. Next month SHOULD (cutbacks and the like) be bonus month, which means i can make up the missed overpayments and then some. I never include them in the budget as we shouldn't be relying on them. If it doesn't come i can work a couple of overtime shifts to make it up. No biggie, although my early retirement thoughts give away how much i actually like having to go to work :rotfl:. If it does, we'll be better off and a couple of months ahead. :T

DAILY RAMBLINGS
On the plus side, the weather is fantastic again and our 5p jar (that i've been filling but not checking much) seems to be growing nicely. I hate 5p coins, so fiddly and pointless, so just throw them all in the jar. ALL coppers go in a seperate jar. I hate them too. I'm sure anything less than 10p was designed just to weigh down the pockets and take up space in a wallet as a mickey take. There doesn't even seem to be anything such as penny sweets any more either. The last time i looked a Freddo was 10p. Apparently they've doubled in price :eek:
Have a good day all :j

Pip_Boy_111

Sanctioned_Parts_List wrote: »

Indeed, which is why I'm always left wondering why cash ISAs are so popular, as they pretty much lock in a real-terms "growth" of -0.5%.

Next few years will be interesting... I'm planning to stay semi-expat until the mess settles down a bit. Feel sorry for you island-dwellers, though :cool:

For my own situation, this might be useful. I stopped being eligible for child benefit slightly before DW became British. If we can back-claim that far based on ignorance, then I can save about £7k of make-up payments for her...

This seems very close to a political post on Brexit and I kindly request that you refrain from turning this thread into a Brexit cesspit.
I'm past caring what happens now. I'm sure the sun will rise (or not here in the North but daylight will come :rotfl:) whatever happens. Unless the price of fresh air and grass rises, i'm sure we'll be fine here either way :rotfl: (i'm not that simplistic by the way, i realise the implications of the whole mess but realised a LONG time ago, it matters not what i or anyone else actually thinks. politicians will do as they please either way and there's no point getting stressed.)
I turned my thread political didn't i? Off to crawl through nettles then bathe in vinegar as self punishment

Pip_Boy_111

Morning all. Another stunningly beautiful day here again. Unheard of round these parts :rotfl:

Had a look at DS's bike online last night through top cashback. Can get the same bike with 3% cashback AND Halfords are doing a "scrappage" scheme where you get 20% off the price if you take your old one in! WIN :T

Gonna look into the FD current account switch today. £100 plus a £250 0% overdraft sounds like a savvy thing to do. Knock 33% of my owed overdraft onto 0% and pay off another £100 with the switch money :money: My only reservation is that I have all my accounts together at the moment and I've been with HSBC literally my whole adult life. It's silly because it's the same thing just with a different (ish same group and all) bank. I also worry that disasters will happen with the DD switching and they'll all go unpaid. Irrational, but we'll give it a bash and see what happens.

Not much else on today other than to enjoy the weather. It's NEVER this nice at half term

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

So just had the bill for the car service and safe to say i'm not impressed. It came to around £70 more than i'd budgeted for. I suppose that's the ongoing price you pay for taking a PCP deal (having to use dealer services).

I'm still ambivalent on car finance - I've done both the "buy a 4 year old car and run it for 5 years" and the "lease a car and just give it back" thing. In the end, especially with how thirsty some of these cars can be for parts between years 5 and 10, I can't say that buying the older cars worked out particularly cost effective.

Possibly I need to be happier to chance cars breaking down on me, but foolish me tends to replace components when recommended by the manufacturer.

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

This seems very close to a political post on Brexit and I kindly request that you refrain from turning this thread into a Brexit cesspit.

That's your interpretation - I just said it looks messy over there :rotfl:

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

Gonna look into the FD current account switch today. £100 plus a £250 0% overdraft sounds like a savvy thing to do. Knock 33% of my owed overdraft onto 0% and pay off another £100 with the switch money :money: My only reservation is that I have all my accounts together at the moment and I've been with HSBC literally my whole adult life. It's silly because it's the same thing just with a different (ish same group and all) bank. I also worry that disasters will happen with the DD switching and they'll all go unpaid. Irrational, but we'll give it a bash and see what happens.

I switched to FD about a year ago - completely painless, don't worry!