Moving forward and upwards

savingholmes

Things will work out. Just do what you can for now and go with that.

MovingForwards

Friday update.

My goodness, it's all kicked off at work this week and I'm barely getting any of my other work done. It's completely unheard of for me to have as many emails outstanding as I have. Yesterday was a complete write off of my day as I was barely at my desk, managed to grab a quick break in the morning, but that was it! No lunch or afternoon break, didn't even have time to 'nip to the girls'. I'm the price today and using my walking stick around my office, again this is something I rarely do. 

Today, I'm focusing on clearing emails, so far 40 have been dealt with.

My boss won't be happy with everything that has gone on, I've had my manager hat firmly stuck on my head this week, dealt with everything, stood for no carp and having nothing but praise off people!

There are a few people that make this job even harder than it is and I told them for a certain part of my role that is a position in itself. Basically, they are demanding, refering things to me that I'm not involved in and generally just nominating me to do everything. I do have a very clear job spec and have been told to stick to it.

Anyhow, it's payday today.

MSAs and AFs:

Moved £60 to my one higher interest account. That's now just over its max for the good interest (1.50%) and anything over £10k it is less interest (0.20%). That will earn over £12pm interest on the higher rate and a few pence on the lower rate per month. Not looking forward to paying all that out as I've never had this amount of money in my life!

Get to move my £200 into my H2B ISA on Sunday. In theory I only have 1 more payment to go into that and potentially about £6 in interest before I close it.

Pension and Retirement Planning:

Purchased a PB today! Will look to buy another after moving then hopefully each month after that.

Made a manual payment to my S&S ISA, ended up starting another pot. I'm up to 5 within the S&S now and cover around the world which isn't too bad. I'm not paying into the 6th as that only takes big lump sums.

General Savings (For post home purchase):

Slipped some money into my car fund. Made 10p interest on that account this month.

Property Purchase:

I've sent my solicitor, his secretary and the trainee an email asking this morning for an update and a response to my other two emails, as I've not heard anything from them for nearly 3 weeks, pretty poor IMO. Took a rant out as he has just replied!

Apparently he can't conclude missives as he is concerned I won't pass probation / get the mortgage monies (mortgage funds won't be released until I get the letter saying I've passed my probation, lender won't accept a letter saying I will be passing it). Seems he does a lot of assuming without actually checking anything with me or the sellers solicitors.

He has actually annoyed me, whilst I know English legal terms, he has sent a load of Scottish legal terms without any 'plain English' to explain. Argh, had to print it all off to read.

Lost my train of thought now so will sign off here!

savingwannabe

Oh dear it's not good that you are working so hard. I hope you are being rewarded for this. Well done on all your financial savings. I hope the solicitor is able to hurry up. 

MovingForwards

I'm not, unfortunately. This is something my boss is looking to rectify.

Managed to finish 30 minutes late today, possibly because I dared take 5 mins out to nip to the ladies. Worked through my lunch and late afternoon ended up swearing at my PC.

Didn't manage to get my emails down, which was also annoying.

I'm firmly of the opinion that the one part of my role is a role in itself due to how much work this one guy creates.

My solicitor is frustrating me. I find it had to believe I'm the first English person to buy a property and use him as a solicitor. For years the various legal regulators have been promoting the use of non-legal terms when speaking with clients, for nearly as many years law firms have been telling their staff to do layman speak to clients. How many times do I need to say I'm English and don't know Scottish conveyancing legal terms!?

I did manage to get the title deeds and plan out of him. Apparently he will explain it to me at some point, wants to know if I've any queries about it. He has a few queries for the sellers solicitors but won't raise them yet as he isn't ready to conclude missives......well no, of course he won't be as he hasn't even done anything!

I've asked how long the lender usually take to send funds, after they've been requested and a few other things, probably will have a two week wait for that response.

It's so daft, he wants me to give the go ahead to conclude missives, yet the bit in the middle hasn't been done. How can anyone exchange contracts without having asked questions of the sellers / their solicitors?

I'm 100% confident I'm passing my probation, I've been told I have, but my boss just can't hand over the letter as the probation is a term in my contract. 

If this purchase does manage to complete, I won't move again; I can see why they say it's stressful!

Getting the mortgage offer was the easy bit, even taking into account Christmas and New Year holiday, with the lender asking for a bit more stuff via the broker.

savingholmes

Sounds really frustrating with the solicitor. Is it a fixed price fee you are paying? You seem to be doing well financially now.

You need to make sure you are taking the rest you need - and not causing yourself more pain. Hope that you manage to rest up and find a way of creating joy this weekend.

MovingForwards

@savingholmes
It is fixed fee, thankfully. I've just never known a partner and his/her secretary to be so lax. Perhaps that's how the legal field is nowadays. None of my old teams would have got away with it.

I've decided I will tell the solicitor to conclude missives in a few weeks, when my boss returns. It will give me confidence that the flat is mine in April. I can then say about what I'm buying.

With my financial position, it was always going to get better leaving my ex. It can only get better with each passing payday too. 

I am getting some rest today. Been thinking about my life and what I want when I move. 

My pension investment provision won't change from what I'm doing now. I will transfer my two small pensions, do a few occasional top ups but not as much as I planned. I need to get some serious money in the bank after I move and so I will be saving for the first two years. What I don't want to do is rely on my CC for a car bill or boiler service etc. I only want my mortgage debt.

I'm not enjoying my degree, so will just finish this year and evaluate where I'm going with my work and whether I will carry on; the way I feel now I won't be. 

I knew it would impact on my life, but all my life consists of is work, study, pain.
Pre-degree it was work, pain, reading, art, beaches, photography etc. My avatar is one of my photos.

The good thing is I don't need a degree in anything due to my background / previous career. I've managed this long without a degree and I'm sure I can get through the rest of my working life without one.

I want a work / health / life balance, which right now I don't have.

Life is too short and I've so much to see and do up here. Loch's, mountains, sunrises / sets, picnics in forrest's, beaches, parks, fruit and veg to grow etc and when I move I've a whole new world to explore.

My proper camera equipment has not seen daylight for too long and that will change when I move.

savingholmes

Photography sounds a good place to start to bring back more joy and less pain. If it is digital I assume it will be relatively low cost too?

MovingForwards

Yeah, full DSLR kit, various lens, filters, tripod, loads of memory cards, few different types of camera bags and spare batteries. Worst case I will have to replace my batteries.

I'm not one who uses Photoshop to tweak my photos, so my PC and external harddrive will be sufficient for me.

I've got my old film camera still, as I couldn't part with that.

As I will be in walking distance, even for me, of the water, I will be out and about several times a week. Worst case is I stop off on the way home after my commute.

Talking about the move and what's on my doorstep is starting to stir something, making me feel alive inside.

I will probably set up a social media account just for my photos, instead of having them piggyback of my accounts.

savingholmes

MovingForwards said:

As I will be in walking distance, even for me, of the water, I will be out and about several times a week. Worst case is I stop off on the way home after my commute.

Talking about the move and what's on my doorstep is starting to stir something, making me feel alive inside.

Sounds really good

MovingForwards

@savingholmes it is, the location is great. Just what I wanted. I could be set up for a long time in my home.