Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

savingwannabe wrote: »

I love your planning. It is so meticulous. Good on you. I wish I had thought like this when I was younger. Money was easy come easy go. You are going to be so well off when you retire. Hurrah for MSE.

Keep up the good work MF and have a great weekend. :j

Thank you, it's taken years, but since splitting with my ex I just tightened the belts to clear the old stuff and save for a home.

Doubt I will be well off when I retire, I've left it too late, not been able to put much away (pension wise) for nearly 20 years and won't have enough time to make a huge difference. I've done enough pension calculators to know I can't out away what I should be, all I can do is keep throwing a bit of money in and hope all my pots work out in the end.

Again, I've had a lucky break, as I did with my other diary, with this diary it's getting a DB pension from my employer. It's a trade off for having a lower wage, 'less' responsibilities, although they seem to be increasing every day.

It's 1/75th of my salary for each year I'm employed, so at best 24 of 75ths.

I'm aiming for, the pension equivalent in now money, £1k per month when I retire, plus about whatever £20k will be in the future as cash for major home repairs in the bank (anything structural/roof etc) and a few other cash pots which is why I'm trying to get into the routine of all my pots now.

The plan is to do any internal work (electrics, kitchen, bathroom etc) in the run up to retirement, unless I've done it before, so in theory it will last me however long I have as a lady of leisure and to moan about the youth of today

Just need to remember I have to live and enjoy myself in the middle, but that will happen soon :beer:

MovingForwards

Weekend update.

House Stuff:

Just emptied, most of, my wardrobe. Picked up some big bags from IKEA and filled one :eek: Also filled a big Primark bag with stuff to be dropped off at the charity shop. I've kept stuff in the wardrobe that I have been wearing to work.

Got two IKEA units to go through, the ones where you put boxes in for storage. Will be a bit more ruthless with the things in that; cardigans, tops etc.

Having seen how much stuff I have kept, I'm going to see what happens over the next year eg weightloss, keeping it off etc. If I don't manage it, then off a load more of stuff will go

I know I rarely go out, but I would like the option of having a few nice outfits.

I thought if I spend the next few months downsizing and packing there will not be a chaotic rush when the time comes.

Savings:

My four little S&S ISA pots are doing ok, will add another payment to three of them later in the month. The original pot has a monthly DD payment, the three new pots are manual payments for flexibility. I'm only putting £2.50 into each of the new pots at a time, but it's helping me understand how it all works.

Moved £200 to my H2B ISA and also moved £20 to my next biggest interest paying account. Just under £1382 to save for my AFs :j

Got a full tank of petrol, have a couple of payments to come out my account over the next few days.

I'm still working my way through the freezer and cupboard, as always just my breakfast and lunch items to buy.

Pension:

Sat working out my potential pensions yesterday, remembered I have a 4th one and looked into how much is in it. My current pension pots are around £11k, being very generous with my calculations £400 a year......

Pension one £5.5k
Pension two £4.5k
Pension three and four under £500 each.
The latter two must get moved to something better as they are too small to really do anything as stand-alone pots, the former two are working well.

Whilst hanging around on the pensions board, a thread caught my eye, within that thread was a link to Vanguard and their new low-cost pension. It's not been released yet, but I've put my name down for more details.

I've looked at my post-purchase budget, it's doable to increase my private pension to £100 pm and still have all my little cash pots.

I'm after a nice mix of pots that I can pay into, like I'm doing with my S&S ISA.

Still got a while to make final decisions and do loads more research :cool:

Plans for February

Got a leaving do to go to just before payday, (£10 to buy a couple of soft drinks).

Dye my hair (£0)


£170 in the bank, 26 days to payday

savingwannabe

Happy February, well done on sorting out your clothes and on saving and thinking ahead to your pensions in so much depth. Fingers crossed for a great month. swx

MovingForwards

Savingwannabe, I can't not do a lot of research before jumping into something. Fills the time and helps me plan, weigh up pros/ cons, look at available options, think about it, more research, rinse and repeating the process until I have everything decided, with a few back up plans.

Not much has gone on so far this week. It's going to be quite boring again until payday.

I've submitted my next assignment for uni and have a week to do the next one; only 9 left!

Depending on the weather, I am contemplating a BBQ on the beach the weekend.

Will try and sort the rest of my clothes out this week, then that's another task done. I'm looking to get the smaller things scaled down over the next few months. Then I can relax, knowing it will just be the big furniture / electrical items and that last of my bits to pack, when it's time to go.

Paid another £7.50 into my S&S ISA today, that's my lot now until payday.

Waiting on my PayPal payment to come out, that will be any day now.

I've £106.56 in my current account, 23 days til payday

MovingForwards

Managed to find my own thread and have subscribed to it! Subscribing to other diaries as they pop up to make sure I don't lose people.

No more savings put away since my midweek update. Will have a look how my money is next weekend and see if I can comfortably move a bit more.

I'm taking part in research tomorrow evening with the OU and will be receiving £15 voucher as a thank you. I will keep that to one side and spend it when I've moved, hopefully find something nice to buy.

Not had much luck qualifying for my online surveys, but I've got £74 stored up so far which will come in handy for paint etc.

Works going well and I'm getting some interesting projects to deal with, so that will be good and increase my events experience

I'm shattered again, as to be expected with the amount of running around I've done this week, the extra pain because of it and lack of sleep due to the usual suspects in this block.

Hopefully, I will be ok to tackle the IKEA units and get the spare clothes packed up Sunday, worst case is I don't

I'm off over the water tomorrow to spend time with my OH's family and raid their allotment (well, I will supervise and point as my OH follows my request).

Anyhow, I'm waiting on a kebab and an old Clint Eastwood film!

Have a good weekend

savingholmes

Have fun on your weekend away. I would still be tempted to have your diary on the MFW board - other savers do even before they own anywhere - and you will get more 'traffic'.

On pensions - I am very interested in Vang* too. From what I've seen if I look at annual charges 1nteract1v3 Invest0r will be cheaper for me - if you look around the net you can find sipp cost calculators.... I can still invest in Vang* through that site so that's my current plan. Like you I do lots of research first - I haven't quite finished - plus what I want to move to start wtih is for DH so feels more complicated... I'm planning to use global index funds excl FTSE at the moment but that could change. JL Collins and The Simple Path to Wealth is a good read - or see him on Choose FI on Youtube - he explains his strategy there for free

MovingForwards

@savingholmes I'm undecided about the MFW board as I won't be chipping much off the mortgage to start with (under £30pm, just to round it up). I know how quickly I want to pay it down and how I will be moving to a normal lender when my 5 year fix is up.

It's not the traffic I'm after, just wanted somewhere to plot most of my thoughts and keep me sane in this crazy rental. 

I will need to save again when I transfer my money to my solicitor, as my pots will be right down. 

Most of the money I'm able to save is for my home eg my deposit and legal fees and at best £50pm into normal savings. 

It's looking like I will have about £1k of actual ready access savings; I'm not including my PB's or S&S ISA in that figure as they are loooong term savings.

Plus, I've also got my car insurance due in April, so that pot will be right down too.

I'm even debating hiring a van and getting a few mates to move me, rather than paying for removals.

I've decided to hold off doing anything meaningful SIPP with a for this year, just get those two small pensions into it, save up and drop a few hundred in as and when I can, then once settled next year start throwing money into it each month.

For now I want to concentrate on getting my savings pots up a bit, so it doesn't hurt too much paying over £15k to buy my home

I also like this little quiet diary, it gives me a place to escape from real life, just a brief few moments where I can be happy and not trapped by my circumstances and perhaps give someone else hope that things can get better.

Anyhow, I will end this post with a top tip, never rub your eye after eating a kebab, it gets very painful!

MovingForwards

What a lovely afternoon I had over the other side of the Forth!

Met up with OH's sibling and mini me, which was wonderful.

Had a slow stroll round her allotment and I'm assisting with the layout and what to plant where, my OH is doing the physical work; we came away with a few bags of leeks, which will be made into pots of leek and spud soup. 

Afterwards, we went for lunch, followed by ice-cream (was like ice-cream chocolate gateaux!). I will be returning as it had the most wonderful views over the Forth and back over my side, to the Pentlands etc.

I've done my interview for Uni and have my £15 voucher, not sure what I will spend it on yet. I would like to use it for something in my new home, but what could I get for that? Ideas on a stamp please

As I'm not doing any shopping this weekend, I've moved £5 to my AFs and £5 to my car pot.

Need to get just under £1362 together for my AF's, so I'm still on track to have it in two pay packets time.

I noticed my main bank have updated the app, before I just had the ability to allocate spends under categories, now I can set a monthly budget for each one and it will show me how much I've spent and how much I've left of that particular category budget. Guess what I've been doing this evening anyhow, I've done it based on the figures for when I move as it will be more use then.

One of the things I do when I'm faffing with my main account is see what offers are available to me, also see how much and chance of getting it. Allows me to see what an actual bank thinks of me, which is more useful than the CRA info.

I've the option of another CC, a rediculous large OD and a loan of more than my yearly income; the loan is quite interesting as the APR is actually reducing. So, I see it that I'm conducting myself well, they like my income and the fact I have savings with them. I'm not going for any of it as I have my CCs as an absolute emergency back up. I just find it quite fascinating and gives me an indication as to what financial institutions look for. (I need to get a life!)

Anyhow, that's me all talked out, I need to rest up a bit

savingholmes

Glad you had a good time and that the diary is working for you. Sounds sensible on the savings goals. Good to have a liquid EF too. Good that your credit report is cleaning up - roll on being able to get a mortgage at a decent rate.

MovingForwards

@savingholmes I'm still working out the finer details on savings. I know my pots, just have to work out how much I would realistically need to save over a 12 month period.

I've opted to tie in to my sub-prime lender for 5 years, that way I can always consider remortgaging to a mainstream lender at some point within that time and pay the ERCs. It probably seems crazy doing a 5 year fix, but I just didn't want to feel obliged to remortgage in 2 years.

The first few years will give me the breathing space to settle in, keep building my credit history, make a home and replenish funds.