2020++ - smiling and waving and looking so fine

mark55man

so been a bit of a flat week, just one day in the office and a lot of being inside at home given lethargy and general f3cklessness.  Looks like I will maybe be 1lb lighter by the end of the week, better than flat but representing not quite being as strict as necessary.

Moneywise - OK - some XMAS spends going out, a big dent is looming in my EF as DD2 moves to London to seek her fortune so will need to top her deposit from previous flat.  will be sad but excited  to see her go, but glad to get rid of some of the furniture we are storing for her.  

Just about to do my mid month budget check - I'll be back, but feels like a cheap one apart (as ever) from Groceries 

mark55man

one week on almost identical report

so been a bit of a flat week, just two days in the office and a lot of being inside at home given lethargy and general f3cklessness.  Looks like I will maybe be 2lb lighter by the end of the week, better than last week and representing the benefit of being strict .

Moneywise - OK - some XMAS spends going out, it looks like the bonus I mentioned earlier will just about cover the extra costs as DD2 moves to London plus covers the accommodation for our sea side holiday in February. Another example of my magic money fairy who sometimes looks over me, as otherwise I would have had to raid my EF. 

DS1's live in GF has got a new job full time but short term (6 months) so that will be good for her, and good for me as I agreed to waive her rent while she wasn't getting many hours on her zero hours in her old job

Mid month budget check was good, going to be a cheap one apart (as ever) from Groceries

savingholmes

You are still taking so many positive steps to chang eyour life for the better. Keep celebrating how far you've come. £30K improvement in a year is stupendous! To add weight loss on top in such a weird year is also really good

mark55man

Thank you SH - yes it has been a good year - it feels a bit of a cheat to count the mortgage as well as unsecured debt in my totals, but it all counts, and my 5 year (nearly 4 year now in November) work/life countdown clock needs it all gone. 

Car loan will be finished next month - can't quite recall if its a full payment but I think it will be as I imagine that's the way they work it out.  Then all that money will start going to CC2, and hopefully can get that paid off in the first quarter of next year.

Longer term - In terms of a mechanism for aiming for mortgage neutral, I may increase my pension payments to gather an little extra contribution from work, and obviously the higher rate tax relief that I think will still be available for a while.   Then I will put that into a "ringfenced pot" by which I mean a cautious sort of fund with a little growth prospect within my pension and try and get to a mortgage neutral balance as soon as possible, without a lot of drama.  I don't mind a little investment risk in my search for neutrality so the pension seems a good bucket for it especially with a top up from work 

Not retiring before I have that got that mortgage matched - but at that point either I will decide to carry on working and able to carry on meeting the mortgage payment or I will be retired and drawing down on my pot (hopefully OH and I will both be in the Basic Rate band and still able to meet payments).  The challenge there is that I may need to start withdrawing above the basic rate band, which would be undesirable but I would still be up on the deal by the amount of work contribution - so even though I will have cleared my debts by then I will still need to be tweaking my spreadsheets which I will enjoy

Have got one last project to get done this year, and then will be taking a longish break over what's left of the year and into the start of next one.  Will be planning my 2021 then - but I can guarantee it will involve keep fit and decluttering I can tell you that for nothing, and a little more dieting, but I'm going to ease of that as I settle down to my target weight (once I've decided what that is).

That was a longer post than I thought, but not much chance to do a lot more pondering before we get into Christmas so - I'll just keep to business as usual until then
 

mark55man

Big shop at Little today - was not too busy - tried to get enough for the week, as my new project means I will be at the office again most of the week - that will be odd, haven't done a full week for a long time.  Got some lush pretzels that were still warm when I got home, which went down well with the kids but I was good and didn't join in.

otherwise just did a little gentle pottering and helped OH with her community need projects, which was nice

mark55man

Weekly report

It's been a hard work week, four days in the office. Looks like I will maybe be 2lb lighter by the end of it, better than last week and keeping the benefit of being strict. That puts me at 14st-6 just 2 lbs to go until under 200lbs.  My target is to be 13st-7, but I'll see how long it takes to get there and how slim I'm feeling as to whether I go further.  12 stone 12 sounds good - wouldn't be too much I think

Moneywise - The bonus I mentioned earlier has arrived a month early and was just into 4 figures which is nice and has helped protect my EF, as I have just paid DD2 deposit and she is moving up to London today.   Just about to load up the car and then following up with a vanful of furniture tomorrow

there_is_a_light_2

Hi mark55man, sounds like you’re on the right track with the weight loss so well done on that and for not eating the pretzels. I have the opposite problem in that I need to gain weight. Some of this is down to not eating much when stressed and partly that sometimes I simply can’t be bothered cooking. No idea what my weight is but perhaps I’ll work my weight up and meet you half way as you’re on the way down?

Good luck with your daughter’s move, exciting times for her but always bittersweet for us parents when they go.

Sounds like you were struggling for a couple of weeks being stuck indoors. I think a lot of us enforced homeworkers are feeling similar now that winter’s kicking in.  I’m lucky that my employer has introduced a winter wellbeing package. Flexible hours, encouraged to take 2 hour lunch break (avoid meetings between 12-2) so we can get outside and benefit from daylight hours. We have a wellbeing hub with loads of info, signposting, and where colleagues post pictures and videos from their lunchtime walks, runs, etc to hopefully inspire others to do the same.  I was feeling very lethargic the past couple of weeks and realised it was from hardly leaving the house.  I’ve started to go for a walk first thing in the morning and feel tons better for it.

You sound far more prepared for the future than I am.  Maybe I am prepared but my lack of knowledge around pensions, etc means I have absolutely no idea if I’m in a good place or not. I must confess I didn’t understand any of that part of your post which is why I say you’re more prepared. Knowledge is power so I must read up on pensions, financial planning etc. so I know what I’m dealing with.  I’ve paid into pensions all my working life and get around 6 or 7 statements a year from various old work pensions which get filed away but no idea what they mean in terms of financial security or not. Any ideas where I should start??

Take care and keep on keeping on!

mark55man

Hi there TIAL.  As you might imagine a bit busy this weekend with DD2 - just off to pick up a Van to take the rest of her stuff (mainly furniture and kitchenware).  We had KFC last night - I was very good and only had the chicken, but it was so good. 

I'll give you my view on the world in a bit more detail when I'm back home later today (or maybe over a day or so), but broadly if you've been paying into pensions all your working life you are broadly OK although it does depend on what sort and how much.  The first thing you need to do is list them and whether they are final salary (aka defined benefit) or money purchase (aka defined contribution).  That's your first piece of research !!

Laters!!

mark55man

Hi there - been a very busy week at work, including a 2 night stay away which was unwelcome return to pre CoVID.  Everything was safe enough.  Will be very busy up to the weekend before Xmas and then will have a complete break which is good.

Money wise just done the monthly payments and updated targets.  Just paid most of my in the black money at the end of last month into CC2 so that's now £7K. My car loan has 1 payment to go, although the car I have been using this year is nearing end of life so think I'll try and ebay it and see what I can make do with next year.  I'm tempted with spending £2-3K which will put my DFD back until June, but I can live with that

Weight wise, am taking a slight rest from the diet - in that following 12 weeks it is recommended to eat slightly more to reset the body.  With xmas coming that will be good timing.  So have maintained weight for last 2 weeks, I was tempted to push harder as I was very near my 200lbs target, but with everything else, I felt discretion was needed, and I'll pick up in 2021.  Currently 14 1/2 stone which was inconceivable back in January 

mark55man

Hi @there_is_a_light_2

Where you should start - is a difficult question as it does depend on how much you picked up, but broadly I would say try the following

• As suggested above, create a clear list of what you already have - pension provider, pension type, money invested and fund selections  (this will be bread and butter for later decision on what to do)    
• Regularly start reading the posts in the Pensions forum - that will give you a list of topics you should be thinking but not worried (yet) about 
• A number of those threads will be about ensuring you are aware of your state pension entitlements.  if you've been working most of your life, but it should be OK - broadly under new scheme you need 35 qualifying years, but depending on where your pensions were some years might not count

So the above advice will help you understand what your current position is, then the next bit is planning for the future:

• Firstly - what is your number - ie what do you need to live off in retirement - especially important to consider if you will be with or without a partner - and if with you need to think about if how the other would cope if one of you passes early
• What's the gap between your expected benefits from your pensions and that number (a whole world of difference between guaranteed money like the state pension and any pension pots you have which you may need to manage to provide an income
• What's your investment/funding strategy for the gap - if you stick it all under the mattress you can guarantee that you won't lose a penny, but that every penny you keep won't have kept up with the cost of living
• So you need to balance how long you have to retirement against how much volatility in your pots - experts argue even they can't time the market its all about having a blend of investments - many pensions offer you an element of choice, and some offer lifestyle funds that take the decisions, you just have to decide how much risk
• Over the long term (as long as you are not reckless) more risk will provide better returns but more volatility - if you have less time then you have less time to recover if it all goes Pete Tong so you need to be more cautious  

The other point of confusion is that the investments you need are different from the investment vehicles you use:

• So investment classes are things like equity (eg shares in companies or funds holding shares), bonds (either government or commercial - these are loans and value depends on interest rates and reliability of the issuer), then commercial or residential property, resources, .... - even Peer to peer lending or other cash like vehicles
• Investment vehicles (not classic cars) are like pensions, or ISAs, or LISAs, and they can all contain the various investment classes (plus or minus a few special rules) but have different treatment under tax and the pros and cons will depend on your tax position now and your tax position when you retire  (quite a few people are higher rate when working and lower rate when retired which works well).
• Pensions you pay your money in gross of tax (sometimes from the company - or sometimes via a rebate of tax on net contribution), but when you take it out you pay tax on it.  Broadly pensions don't impact on other benefits as long as you are not over retirement age
• ISAs you invest your money net (ie after tax) but when you withdraw it, you do so tax free.  LISAs etc are similar but with different rules for different government objectives

Broadly you should be looking to ensure that you can balance the growth and then withdrawal of your funds so that you have every likelihood of being able to get to the end of your life without a financial disaster !!.  Couple of last points:

• you have to decide if you would rather run out of money before you die or die before you run out of money
  
• you have enough time to consider this carefully, if I recall from your diary you have uni age kids so this is coming soon, but not on there.  don't do anything rash - there are plenty of scammers out there so only use trusted organisations and you can't do anything before you are 55 (currently - rising over the next 10 years)
• also some things - like taking money from your money pots can (but not always) trigger consequences in terms of limits on any future pension contributions - you should seek advise from Pensionwise or an Independent Financial Advisor, and not some random Smith's fan on the internet

There you go - good luck - don't forget the pension board is full of professionals and they are very helpful to genuine enquiries