Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

SYA, I must factor in more relax time.

SH, I'm looking forward to having meals with homegrown sides.

Haven't been out yet today, just letting my haggis settle then I will check the garden. OH has been exploring today and had a break from working in the garden.

Checked all my pensions and charges, some of them are quite high, which could eat into what little is in a few of them. Will start reading up properly on SIPPs soon, hopefully get one started up in the New Year and get the smaller pensions added to it. 

I've been looking at finances and tweaked my spreadsheet again. 
The new plan is to increase the mortgage O/P by £5pm and increase my S&S ISA a bit every other month. 
I'm happy with how much is put away each month into the other pots.
Will review everything in December, ready for the New Year and plan the yearly outgoings.

Hope you all have a lovely evening 😊

savingholmes

Glad it is all going well. It's been such a long time coming.

MovingForwards

savingholmes said:

Glad it is all going well. It's been such a long time coming.

Now I'm here, clearing everything, saving like a mad woman, saving every penny possible, cutting back but still having treats etc seems like such a long time ago. 

I am not the kind of person to go out all the time as I quickly learned how expensive it was up here.  It was relatively easy to save and not a 'hardship' like others seem to feel. 

Even now I've adapted to saving and buying to do the garden / home up.

Some 'big' purchases (£50+) go on my low APR CC and I can do fixed instalments on it for up to 2 years. I've put a couple on for 6 months (they don't do shorter than that), but that will be cleared within 2 paydays. The interest is under £1pm so negligible. Any normal spends get cleared each month as always.

Due to the CC instalments option I could easily hit 1k3a and furnish our home exactly how we want it, buy the right carpets etc, but that takes the fun out of saving and doing our home up bit by bit. How would we fill our days if everything was done 😁

I balance the outgoings / savings on my wages only.

Anything from my OH is a bonus and mainly goes to garden, home, and spare savings pots as his pay is a quarter to half of my take-home pay, depending on how many shifts he has done. 
I won't ask him to work FT as that never works out, due to his MH and suspected spectrum clash.
OH would prefer it if I wasn't working, due to my health but understands / accepts I have the greater earning power and will always work even PT, which is my long-term aim and definitely before I'm 60!

savingwannabe

MF can you come to my garden. Well done on ISA and fruitful garden. 

MovingForwards

Thank you SW. No, sadly I can't come down to do your garden 😉

Finally got my car insurance refund, the insurer didn't like my new address and another via the broker was going to charge nearly £500 more. Needless to say I found another one for about the same as I usually pay (just over £200py). My car / house pot now looks healthy!

Was having a mess with mortgage overpayment calculators last night. If I overpaid by:
10%, it would be cleared in 6 years
£500pm, it would be cleared in 7 years. 
£300pm, it would be cleared in 9 years.
£150pm, it would be cleared in 13 years.
£100pm, it would be cleared in 15 years.

Seems a bit of a no-brainer to increase it, especially with my interest rate, so for now I'm starting at the bottom as that allows a decent amount of savings to be put away still each month. 

About to have a nap as I've been up since 4.30 🙈

savingholmes

Hope you get better sleep tonight. Clearing the mortgage would be a huge win - but remember your pension too!

MovingForwards

savingholmes said:

Hope you get better sleep tonight. Clearing the mortgage would be a huge win - but remember your pension too!

I may have got up at 4.30 this morning too 🤫

I'm in a bit of a catch 22, which is why I'm constantly looking over my spreadsheets, doing internet searches and posting up where my head is with financial matters.

Here's a few figures and explanations:
- Wages under £17k PY take-home
Health dictates roles I can do.*
- DB pension contribution over 9%
Have under £12k in previous pensions.**
- Commute costs under £2700 PY
At some point, will change jobs to massively reduce this, obviously not viable to do in current climate.

- Mortgage over £66k***
- Interest rate over 5.5%
- Normal mortgage payment under £5200 PY

- Savings under £5900 PY***, made up of:
-- £600 PY Pension Cash (S&S ISA and PBs)
-- £3k PY is saved for communal repair costs.
-- £1200 PY is EF
-- The remainder is annual bills, home repairs / DIY and garden, car related expenses and a smaller saving pot just for savings sake.

The rest of my income goes on food, utility bills, union subs etc.

* That was getting too long to explain when trying to make the facts / figures easy to follow!
I have earning power of upto £40k PY, especially if I return to my previous career, but health means I last under 2 years in better paid jobs. The time I last gets shorter now I'm older. I end up signed off with a new health issue, leaving, taking on an easy low-paid job for upto a year, trying again in a better paid job before health declines. It's a constant circle, doesn't look too good on my CV, I want some stability and to make my final move by the time I'm 50. 

** Previous pensions are with N, SL, RL, A and B&CE. The former three are what I want to move into a SIPP, the latter two hold the bulk.
The only realistic thing I can do at the moment is move the former three to a SIPP and make £100 payment in every quarter.
I've considered paying into one of my older pensions, but the provider charges are 0.3% - 1%. N is 0.3%, but for how that performs I may as well save cash.
A is 0.6% and does quite well.
I would prefer a SIPP for the flexibility of being able to do a mix of low, medium, high risk, picking different pots within it, being able to draw down before pension age etc.
I am looking at the Vanguard SIPP due to its low cost, but it's a case of £500 one off payment or pay in old pensions and £100 PM payment.

*** As it's a sub-prime I want to save as much interest as possible, get it paid down a bit and move to a normal lender ASAP, that potentially frees up at least £200pm for O/Ps and pension.

**** For this year, I'm prioritising cash savings, may even do the same next year. I've 23 years to reach SPA, 20 of which I will be paying into a SIPP.
Potentially by December I will have about £5k in savings (not including S&S ISA / PBs), by next December it could be £10k, which I would feel more comfortable with and happy to reduce monthly savings and pay into pension.

I know I'm one of the lucky ones where state pension would be enough to cover our outgoings when reaching SPA, the other pensions are a bonus.

Miscellaneous information:

I spent about a years wages buying this flat and left myself (us) pretty broke on completion day.
OH had no interest in buying a home, so I did all the saving. He has no interest in finance matters and leaves it to me, only to be surprised when I say how much is in the bank.
I only ever work at places there is a death in service benefit, if anything happens while I still have the mortgage it will be cleared in full with some leftover for OH after funeral costs. Plus he receives my pensions and savings.

I will not rely on receiving any money from OH, which is why the budgets are based on my salary; at best it's £240 PM, at worst it's £0 PM. Out of his wages he pays his phone, petrol as he uses the car for work, he also picks up some shopping / treats each week, plus pays for whatever he wants for himself eg decent alcohol, clothes, footwear, glasses etc.
Due to his MH and spectrum traits, he cannot work FT. This is the longest he has held the same job since we have been together, he does two - five shifts a week and can decline any shifts over and above his contracted two PW, waiting a new contract to up it to three PW.
I've tried for a while to get him to speak with the Dr about getting an official diagnosis, so far his severe depression has been confirmed, he hasn't yet mentioned to them about spectrum testing.

I may have a small inheritance in the future, about £30k or £0 if my mom goes into a home. My one sibling only contacts her when wanting something, my other who still lives in the family home doesn't have the time or patience now for her, I have my own reasons based on my childhood.
OH will have upto £125k but wants to buy a house further north with it worth at least double that. Doubtful his mom would go into a home based on family history, how she is managing and would be moved in with us or his sister.
All based on today's property prices.

(It's taken 3 hours to type this 😂)

MovingForwards

This weekend has been an odd one, I've worked both days.

I've finally potted up some of the trailing fuchsias. The pot I've secured into the tree stump in the secret garden. It's going to be a nightmare to water, but should look phenomenal when they flower.

Four of the tomato plants are now with flower, just waiting to see if the fifth one wants to or not.
No more pepper flowers yet, aside from the grafted one.
The radish and lettuce seeds OH appears to have had a growth spurt due to the rain. I either have a weed or one spring onion growing.
The herbs are growing nicely.
The two roses have so many flower buds on them, I can't wait until they start opening up!

Having roast chicken tonight and still working through the Bond films 😁

savingholmes

I would encourage your OH to pursue a diagnosis. Are you going to look into PIP for yourself? I think with OH I would try to hold onto all the things you appreciate about him and how much other stuff he does.

MovingForwards

I'm still gently encouraging him to get a diagnosis. Took long enough to get him in about his depression, but I think that goes hand-in-hand with being on the spectrum.

I've not decided yet about PIP, feels like I'm accepting defeat and I'm not quite prepared to do that, maybe when another couple of things pack up on me 😂
I will see how I cope over this winter and when I'm back in the office, attempting to do the different walks as part of the commute 😶
I'm hoping now we are in our own home, stress and tension levels will drop which then has a positive impact on my health.
When the swimming pool reopens I will be going a few times a week, see if that makes any difference now I'm older and with other issues.
Logically, I know I should apply!

I must register with a local doctor, apparently the practice I want are really good. Who knows, they may do something to try and help, rather than packing me off with various prescriptions.