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

Sea_Shell

DH spoke to Aviva yesterday, and is going to arrange to take one of his smaller plans (worth approx £18,000) in September.   We don't need to worry about MPAA, so no need to stick to "small pots" only.

Of which 25% will be tax free, so £13,500 taxable, which if I sort out the transfer of the extra PA, he should squeak into not having to pay any tax on it.    (If the fund happens to rise to being worth over £18,500 by then, so be it.   It'll just effectively be tax on the growth!!)

They will no doubt deduct 20% (£2700) at source under an emergency tax code, but we can then arrange for that to be reclaimed, as this will be the only pension he'll access in this tax year.  

In the meantime, it should initially give us £15,300 cash in our pockets for the next years spends.

pensionpawn

Our council tax rose to be more (£2650 South West) than our interest only mortgage!

Stubod

..council tax inflation could become a real issue for some. Mrs Stubod gets an nhs pension which I believe is index linked to Cpi. This went up by 0.5% this year, but our council tax went up 9% last year, and another 5% this year. Electric has also gone up by 15%!

(Being a pessimist I did set up our long term budget spreadsheet to reflect an overall inflation rate of 4.5%).

I don't see the logic in not including housing / council tax costs in a measure for inflation as I assume the vast majority of people have to pay it?

Ibrahim5

I have always used spreadsheets to manage my finances. I keep a list of my current direct debits both annual and monthly. I periodically scan them and dump anything I don't need. The ones I do need I consider whether I can reduce them. It always intrigues me that council tax is the only bill I can do absolutely nothing about (except move house of course).

RueyE

Our 6 month scores on the doors are in for 2 of us + 2 at university (still) plus our pets, and we are pleasantly surprised how little we actually need for the basics. The first 6 months of the year is much cheaper though. Admittedly certain categories are much less due to the pandemic, so will be interesting to see how it changes once we get back to normal. 
Retirement for both of us is hopefully now about 14 months away (fingers crossed), and could do with life being somewhat more normal by then! 

Sea_Shell

Thanks RueyE.

Actually very similar to us, if you removed some of the categories we don't have large spends in.

Kids, loans, medical, mobiles and pets!!

pensionpawn

Stubod said:

..council tax inflation could become a real issue for some. Mrs Stubod gets an nhs pension which I believe is index linked to Cpi. This went up by 0.5% this year, but our council tax went up 9% last year, and another 5% this year. Electric has also gone up by 15%!

(Being a pessimist I did set up our long term budget spreadsheet to reflect an overall inflation rate of 4.5%).

I don't see the logic in not including housing / council tax costs in a measure for inflation as I assume the vast majority of people have to pay it?

Which is one of the reasons why I installed solar (on both East and West pitches of our roof) at the end of the 'generous' FiT payment era as this will pay all our energy costs, including 'electric petrol', once EV's are cost effective (for us). Solar was just one cog of the long term diverse view of retirement as I viewed reducing costs as important as maximising pot size. I've even suggested to the wife that she embark on a degree (she has a HND) so that we can reduce our council tax for a number of years  She'll never earn enough to repay the student loan either 

SouthCoastBoy

Council tax is going to be a real issue in the future if it continues increasing as it currently is, the compounding will see to that. A large percentage of council tax adds no value to quality of provision in local services as it is used to pay db pensions. Public sector need to move to dc pensions like the private sector or alternatively get employees to increase their contributions significantly so that reflect the final benefit they will receive. It seems particularly unfair currently council tax payers pick up the contribution tab.

Ibrahim5

Council tax would be incredibly expensive during a transition period. You would be paying DB pensions for current pensioners AND paying into DC pensions for current workers.

Stubod

..it gives me a nice warm feeling that I am paying ever more to fund other peoples indexed linked DB pensions who generally offer a very poor / reducing service...