It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Sea_Shell

One spreadsheet I have I update with end of month figures (pensions/ISA/cash), comparing to the same month last year.    But I also put the calender years spends on another sheet.

So I have calendar year and year to date figures!!   Data overload!!!   

cfw1994

I hope one sheet has cheeky luxury items you hide from view, & that the numbers are weirdly at odds.....I'm sure mine would 

Sea_Shell

cfw1994 said:

I hope one sheet has cheeky luxury items you hide from view, & that the numbers are weirdly at odds.....I'm sure mine would 

Don't be daft...

Hubby does joke that I could have squirrelled some "secret" money away somewhere, such is our convoluted money trail!!  (funding requirements/reg savers etc)

This month I had to pull £1500 out of VRS13, Santander to Club Lloyds and back, then repay it back into VRS13, 14, &15!

We don't really do luxury items.  We have treats, but they're modest.  I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise!!

Sea_Shell

Sea_Shell said:

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

Actually, I'm hoping that the pension funds part of the pot will have increased since the end of October, which has not been factored in yet, so that 4.2% should be higher.   We'll see.

As it stood at end October, our pensions were down 3.1% on end of 2019, even after accounting for our gross contributions during the year so far.   

enthusiasticsaver

Sea_Shell said:

Good Morning everyone

Well, we're getting towards the sharp end of the year, and it's nearly time to do the final "scores on the doors".      We're estimating to have spent approx. £11,300 this year, which is actually slightly up on last year.     This is despite only getting 2 short breaks away, but we have spent some money on household stuff.    Will do a full tot-up/comparison for year end.

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

That is a good result and impressively low spends.  I just checked on our portfolio and it is up 9.96% this year so I am pleased with that but our spending is way more than yours at £27546 to date.  If we took away the home improvements (new gas fire, garden work and furniture for conservatory) at £7245 it looks a bit better.  Gifts are high at £2413 covering most Christmas presents and the money we give our daughters for birthdays but not yet including the money we give them for Christmas. A couple of UK holidays and spending on a Caribbean cruise for holidays is £2445 and my husbands personal spends on hobbies are around £2000 brings it down to £13443 so a bit closer to yours.  As I have said before though I do wonder if because we have DB pensions we spend up to them rather than drawdown so maybe aren't as careful with our spends. 

Glad your pot is doing well.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well our investments have held up. 

Sea_Shell

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Good Morning everyone

Well, we're getting towards the sharp end of the year, and it's nearly time to do the final "scores on the doors".      We're estimating to have spent approx. £11,300 this year, which is actually slightly up on last year.     This is despite only getting 2 short breaks away, but we have spent some money on household stuff.    Will do a full tot-up/comparison for year end.

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

That is a good result and impressively low spends.  I just checked on our portfolio and it is up 9.96% this year so I am pleased with that but our spending is way more than yours at £27546 to date.  If we took away the home improvements (new gas fire, garden work and furniture for conservatory) at £7245 it looks a bit better.  Gifts are high at £2413 covering most Christmas presents and the money we give our daughters for birthdays but not yet including the money we give them for Christmas. A couple of UK holidays and spending on a Caribbean cruise for holidays is £2445 and my husbands personal spends on hobbies are around £2000 brings it down to £13443 so a bit closer to yours.  As I have said before though I do wonder if because we have DB pensions we spend up to them rather than drawdown so maybe aren't as careful with our spends. 

Glad your pot is doing well.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well our investments have held up. 

Great insight.     Interesting to see that if you strip out some of your spends, you do get down to the sort of level we're at.   By comparison, so far this year, our spends in those specific categories you mention are only...

Household - £1400  (includes insurance, no big projects)
Gifts - £240 (we're not at the point to be giving large sums away to N&N's just yet!)
Holidays - £1300   (2 UK only this year)
Hobbies - £200?  (hardly any gym/pool costs this year)

I don't have a separate column for Hobbies, as for me it's mainly running/swimming/jigsaws, and for DH, just our walking, so most spends either end up in "Health/Beauty" or "clothes/shoes", which together are about £540.

But then, if you stripped out all our spends in those categories we'd only be at £8,160!!!! 

Interesting thought on spending more because you have a known fixed income (DB).     We are a bit in that limbo land between being solely reliant on our own savings and investments at the moment, which will continue for the next 11 years, and having that knowledge of exactly what our income is month on month.     

Audaxer

Sea_Shell said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Good Morning everyone

Well, we're getting towards the sharp end of the year, and it's nearly time to do the final "scores on the doors".      We're estimating to have spent approx. £11,300 this year, which is actually slightly up on last year.     This is despite only getting 2 short breaks away, but we have spent some money on household stuff.    Will do a full tot-up/comparison for year end.

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

That is a good result and impressively low spends.  I just checked on our portfolio and it is up 9.96% this year so I am pleased with that but our spending is way more than yours at £27546 to date.  If we took away the home improvements (new gas fire, garden work and furniture for conservatory) at £7245 it looks a bit better.  Gifts are high at £2413 covering most Christmas presents and the money we give our daughters for birthdays but not yet including the money we give them for Christmas. A couple of UK holidays and spending on a Caribbean cruise for holidays is £2445 and my husbands personal spends on hobbies are around £2000 brings it down to £13443 so a bit closer to yours.  As I have said before though I do wonder if because we have DB pensions we spend up to them rather than drawdown so maybe aren't as careful with our spends. 

Glad your pot is doing well.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well our investments have held up. 

Great insight.     Interesting to see that if you strip out some of your spends, you do get down to the sort of level we're at.   By comparison, so far this year, our spends in those specific categories you mention are only...

Household - £1400  (includes insurance, no big projects)
Gifts - £240 (we're not at the point to be giving large sums away to N&N's just yet!)
Holidays - £1300   (2 UK only this year)
Hobbies - £200?  (hardly any gym/pool costs this year)

I don't have a separate column for Hobbies, as for me it's mainly running/swimming/jigsaws, and for DH, just our walking, so most spends either end up in "Health/Beauty" or "clothes/shoes", which together are about £540.

But then, if you stripped out all our spends in those categories we'd only be at £8,160!!!! 

Interesting thought on spending more because you have a known fixed income (DB).     We are a bit in that limbo land between being solely reliant on our own savings and investments at the moment, which will continue for the next 11 years, and having that knowledge of exactly what our income is month on month.     

That's impressive as even stripping out our big spend I get nowhere near that level.  Our total spend for year to date is around £27k, which I am quite pleased about as it includes a lump sum final payment of nearly £5k on my wife's car. Only £700 on a holiday back in February has kept the holiday spend very low this year.  Meals Out spend is also very low this year due to Covid. My spreadsheet has an 'Other' column, which amounts to on average about £500 per month. It seems a lot but just includes some spend on hobbies, gifts and various things that crop each month that are needed or need replacing. 

jimi_man

Sea_Shell said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Good Morning everyone

Well, we're getting towards the sharp end of the year, and it's nearly time to do the final "scores on the doors".      We're estimating to have spent approx. £11,300 this year, which is actually slightly up on last year.     This is despite only getting 2 short breaks away, but we have spent some money on household stuff.    Will do a full tot-up/comparison for year end.

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

That is a good result and impressively low spends.  I just checked on our portfolio and it is up 9.96% this year so I am pleased with that but our spending is way more than yours at £27546 to date.  If we took away the home improvements (new gas fire, garden work and furniture for conservatory) at £7245 it looks a bit better.  Gifts are high at £2413 covering most Christmas presents and the money we give our daughters for birthdays but not yet including the money we give them for Christmas. A couple of UK holidays and spending on a Caribbean cruise for holidays is £2445 and my husbands personal spends on hobbies are around £2000 brings it down to £13443 so a bit closer to yours.  As I have said before though I do wonder if because we have DB pensions we spend up to them rather than drawdown so maybe aren't as careful with our spends. 

Glad your pot is doing well.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well our investments have held up.

Interesting thought on spending more because you have a known fixed income (DB).     We are a bit in that limbo land between being solely reliant on our own savings and investments at the moment, which will continue for the next 11 years, and having that knowledge of exactly what our income is month on month.     

Yes I think that makes a massive difference. You are effectively 'decumulating', so you are eroding your pot day by day, whereas with fixed income (DB) it's no real change from being employed when a salary is paid. Psychologically it is vastly different between the two methods.  

Audaxer

jimi_man said:

Sea_Shell said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Good Morning everyone

Well, we're getting towards the sharp end of the year, and it's nearly time to do the final "scores on the doors".      We're estimating to have spent approx. £11,300 this year, which is actually slightly up on last year.     This is despite only getting 2 short breaks away, but we have spent some money on household stuff.    Will do a full tot-up/comparison for year end.

The investments are holding up, quite well considering, still up on last year, with the total pot up 4.2% for the 12 months to date (end Nov).

That is a good result and impressively low spends.  I just checked on our portfolio and it is up 9.96% this year so I am pleased with that but our spending is way more than yours at £27546 to date.  If we took away the home improvements (new gas fire, garden work and furniture for conservatory) at £7245 it looks a bit better.  Gifts are high at £2413 covering most Christmas presents and the money we give our daughters for birthdays but not yet including the money we give them for Christmas. A couple of UK holidays and spending on a Caribbean cruise for holidays is £2445 and my husbands personal spends on hobbies are around £2000 brings it down to £13443 so a bit closer to yours.  As I have said before though I do wonder if because we have DB pensions we spend up to them rather than drawdown so maybe aren't as careful with our spends. 

Glad your pot is doing well.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well our investments have held up.

Interesting thought on spending more because you have a known fixed income (DB).     We are a bit in that limbo land between being solely reliant on our own savings and investments at the moment, which will continue for the next 11 years, and having that knowledge of exactly what our income is month on month.     

Yes I think that makes a massive difference. You are effectively 'decumulating', so you are eroding your pot day by day, whereas with fixed income (DB) it's no real change from being employed when a salary is paid. Psychologically it is vastly different between the two methods.  

That's true. Also I think it's psychological that I like investments that provide natural income in the way of dividends like equity income funds, although I appreciate all the arguments that you will have a better diversified portfolio looking for more growth and total return. To prove that point my VLS funds have had better returns this year than my income portfolio, but I still seem reluctant to swap some of my equity income funds for growth funds.

badmemory

I tried doing an April to March spreadsheet & it just never seemed to work.  So now I have one based on the actual year and another that is perpetual, well until I delete the very old months.  Got to love those what on earth have you done type comments when you do the first deletion.  Love even more the Control Z that undos that.  I have three favorite keys, control Z obviously, F12 save as - I seem to do that a lot when I decide to juggle stuff & then delete it when I know where I am going & finally F2 start a new game.