The Four D's

FootyFanDan

Ah we reach the end of another pay-cycle. I hope everyone is as well as they can be and keeping safe. This month has been a bit of an up &down month really, had spells of feeling really meh and tired and others days feeling all good. It’s been a strange month as the girls have been away so it’s felt a little (lot😏) quieter than usual.

Food : The food budget this month as gone a little over what was planned but that was to be expected I think given we are doing separate shops now plus I have spent a bit more for convenience than normal. It hasn’t really dented the plans too much though so that’s all good

Finance: It’s been rather mundane on the finance side of things, most things are just ticking along and seems in control at the moment. The big new this month was obviously reaching my emergency fund target, that has been put into an account that we don’t really use for anything to keep safe & separate. £500 covers the basics of what could go wrong now and it’s the first time I have had that level of backup which is silly considering I have been in stable employment for a while now but what’s done is done and now that has been addressed. I will keep drip funding this now but the focus now is on other things like the annual stuff that normally creeps up. The car insurance has been renewed and I will pay monthly for this which I wanted to move away from but at the moment it’s not a deal breaker. 


Plans for the next month is to try look after myself better my sleep/eating has been very eractic this month tbh some days eat hardly anything. I need to maybe look at some sort of goals too as we are nearing the debt ending I think I need something to focus on

mark55man

I know how you feel Dan, my OH has worked away in the past or visited friends and relatives and its always a bit odd.

I agree about setting goals, the classic one on here is to redirect the firehose of you savings onto enhancing your emergency fund.  or possibly saving for a specific target - maybe one for near term eg holiday/car and one for the future (eg deposit).  Maybe read up a bit more on some of the investment or pensions boards - just to get a feel for it

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

I know how you feel Dan, my OH has worked away in the past or visited friends and relatives and its always a bit odd.

I agree about setting goals, the classic one on here is to redirect the firehose of you savings onto enhancing your emergency fund.  or possibly saving for a specific target - maybe one for near term eg holiday/car and one for the future (eg deposit).  Maybe read up a bit more on some of the investment or pensions boards - just to get a feel for it

Hey Mark, hope you are keeping well,

Yeah I need to really look into the investment/pensions stuff a little more to be honest, this is something that is in my mind at the moment to kind of set up for the future me haha. I like the idea of trying to ensure the EF is in place and still getting topped up and medium term once my debt is cleared then the current debt payment will be diverted into my Help 2 buy account (which i hope to use one day). At the minute I need to decide how I handle the saving pots thing as sometimes it gets a little confusing, I do wonder if I am better diverting a set amount into a account and then that funds what it needs to at the time rather than having four or five different pots to fund. I think now that my budget is in a better place there is a little wiggle room should there need to be any money put towards things. At the moment they are set up as pots in monzo so always visible and can be dipped in and out of so I think could be good to change it up. 

An holiday is something we 100 per cent need I think, although I think that is probably something that might be better planned in 2022 rather than this year, I am really unsure of how this year abroad holidays will pan out. I hope we are on the track to some form of normal but nothing is guaranteed.

DancingInTheRain

Hi Dan
Well done on the EF and edging closer to debt free.
Sounds like your March has been challenging, hope your OH's Mum is doing as well as possible as well as you, your OH & DD.
I could've written some of your last post in terms of saving pots being adjusted.
After leaning on ours a lot in recent years while in debt and reduced income (2 x maternity leaves) I've found the chopping and changing between pots a bit frustrating since becoming debt free and more recently just haven't had the headspace for it so now it all sits in one savings account attached to the current account we have for variable spends and just transfer it across when an irregular (but expected) bill is due. We then have a separate bills account for monthly direct debits and the EF locked away so just 4 accounts/pots in total, seems to be working for us.

mark55man

Hey Dan - plenty of time to get your head around stuff

Many people are sleepwalking to an  unnecessarily frugal retirement - it doesn't take much a bit of knowledge, a bit of cash and a lot of time to let the power of investment.  Just don't forget the basics - make sure you and partner have got state pension sorted that's £20K a year, then work out what you need per year, then work backwards to the point where the money you have saved can provide the money you need between your retirement date, the date(s) you can take your  state pension   and your happy ever after

FootyFanDan

DancingInTheRain said:

Hi Dan
Well done on the EF and edging closer to debt free.
Sounds like your March has been challenging, hope your OH's Mum is doing as well as possible as well as you, your OH & DD.
I could've written some of your last post in terms of saving pots being adjusted.
After leaning on ours a lot in recent years while in debt and reduced income (2 x maternity leaves) I've found the chopping and changing between pots a bit frustrating since becoming debt free and more recently just haven't had the headspace for it so now it all sits in one savings account attached to the current account we have for variable spends and just transfer it across when an irregular (but expected) bill is due. We then have a separate bills account for monthly direct debits and the EF locked away so just 4 accounts/pots in total, seems to be working for us.

Thank you, March as definitely brought it’s challenges for sure! 

The pots situation has has been a bit of a pain to be honest and I do get the principle behind them but it just seems more hassle than it’s worth at the minute. I do think moving forward I will probably just put money into a separate account a set amount and then take from it when the expense is due which should work okay now that finances are a bit more under control. I think having the security of the EF certainly gives so flexibility, I guess what one defines an emergency varies to the individual but if car was to need work the money is there

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

Hey Dan - plenty of time to get your head around stuff

Many people are sleepwalking to an  unnecessarily frugal retirement - it doesn't take much a bit of knowledge, a bit of cash and a lot of time to let the power of investment.  Just don't forget the basics - make sure you and partner have got state pension sorted that's £20K a year, then work out what you need per year, then work backwards to the point where the money you have saved can provide the money you need between your retirement date, the date(s) you can take your  state pension   and your happy ever after

Haha you make it sound easy....I am also in the workplace pension so it’s not like I don’t have the stuff being saved towards it but research is defo needed to ensure it’s right plan. 

mark55man

The principles are simple "save for your future needs", the reality is not "ISA/SIPP/Personal Pension/DB/DC, investment choices, withdrawal strategies, etc etc". 

Make sure you can secure every bit of guaranteed income you can (mainly state pension).  Let time be your friend with you investments, and be sensible, but not overly cautious if you have 20-30 years to go.  Work on the basis of 3% of your pot as a safe amount to take as income each year - you might get more, but historically that should see you through - but don't worry too much about spending it while you are building it, but you do need some clue as to the shape of your retirement.

If you are already saving, and getting company contributions, you are already ahead 

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

The principles are simple "save for your future needs", the reality is not "ISA/SIPP/Personal Pension/DB/DC, investment choices, withdrawal strategies, etc etc". 

Make sure you can secure every bit of guaranteed income you can (mainly state pension).  Let time be your friend with you investments, and be sensible, but not overly cautious if you have 20-30 years to go.  Work on the basis of 3% of your pot as a safe amount to take as income each year - you might get more, but historically that should see you through - but don't worry too much about spending it while you are building it, but you do need some clue as to the shape of your retirement.

If you are already saving, and getting company contributions, you are already ahead 

I think I am more prepared than I believe I am. The workplace pension is something I have always paid into and I have the advantage to be young....ok relatively young haha. I think the workplace pension is something that is something I will definitely keep moving forward. My main savings target right now is home ownership and keeping that emergency fund topped up. I have the advantage at the moment of been in a secure job that overall I am very happy in despite the odd meh moment, so hoping there will be no real shock changes to income so I can forward plan 

mark55man

I agree - definitely doing all the right things.  Just one word of advice - don't stop what you are doing pension wise to support your house ambitions.  You're giving away free money from the company, tax benefits, and the power of compounded growth (through thick and thin - for money regularly invested, and not needed for a long time, you should laugh if the markets have a down day or year as you are getting more for less with your new money).  There is almost always something you can do to meet both needs. 

Although I have had my financial flaws, ignoring the long term wasn't one of them