Keep calm and carry on....

savingholmes

I have good pension pots from working in public sector or ex-public sector organisations - lower salaries but better pensions

South_coast

I've always worked for plc's: It's all about the money, money, money (for the shareholders 😂)

Ah well, something else to mull over I suppose....

themadvix

Every little helps Jess - and it’s all about putting it in ASAP to benefit from the wonder of compounding!

Argh, SC, that must be very frustrating! If it’s any consolation, we have a similar situation here - Mr MV’s ISA has definitely fared better than mine.

South_coast

BF is just a jammy so and so in every respect 😦 For example, he is currently furloughed but topped up to 100%, whereas I am still working full-time for 85% (and he earns a lot more anyway!) 😡 Am glad in a way that we're not in the same house at the moment so I'm not constantly reminded of that fact! He always seems to land on his feet while I stumble along! 

Jessy103

Oh bless you, SC. Your hard work will pay off soon enough!

South_coast

It has today Jessy - 41p interest on the pay off mortgage account 😂!

savingholmes

It brings new meaning the the phrase every little helps

shangaijimmy

Just chipping in about taking control of pensions, and especially for those with DC pots. It's definitely defintiely definitely worth taking the time to read and learn. I took the view point that its a 'maths problem' to solve and if I could understand mortgage and interest compounding and so on, then I should also be able to understand any other financial package! Small changes can make a huge difference both with the compounding effect of the investment and compounding effect of the fees. I've taken control of mine over the last 6 months, and made some little changes bit by bit.

South_coast

They're just so complicated and unpredictable SJ 😦 And I also have the worry (and I realise this is going to sound ridiculous) that I'll never get the benefit of it. My Mum had a big health scare earlier in the year and I reduced my contributions to the minimum as I was genuinely quite worried that I might only live for another 20 years (my Dad died at 57, my Mum is 56 and I was just about to turn 37, so it was looking concerning). I decided that if I only had 20 years left, then what I really wanted was not to be paying a mortgage and to be working in a stress-free job so I actually got to enjoy life a bit. Actually, it turned out that my Mum is fine (this time), so where does that leave me with my retirement planning??? I know I'll get a state pension, but not for 30+ years, so that's so far away I can't even begin to think how that will affect my finances. Then there may or may not be some inheritance at some point, as there may or may not be care home fees to pay, or the rules may or may not have changed by then. There's just so much to think of that might impact the final figure that I don't know how to start planning for it. What it boils down to is that I want to make sure there is enough that I have a decent standard of living, but not too much that it goes to waste (I have no kids to leave anything to and you can't take it with you), while also having a nice life now in case I don't get there. 

Phew, sorry that was a bit of a stream of consciousness! The things you divulge to acquaintances over the internet!

South_coast

Setting aside the macro question of pension provision vs life expectancy (😮), much navel gazing going on over here this morning about "right now" in advance of payday on Tuesday. While I'm still miffed about it, I'm trying to view the missing 15% as the premium they pay me for getting up early, dressing smartly, doing my hair and make-up and getting home late. As I'm not doing those things at the moment, I don't get paid the premium. But we'll see if I feel the same way once I have seen my wage slip. I think it's going to be OK. 

Salaries are due to be reinstated on 1 July, but I think the smart money is on it being deferred to 1 October (or even 1 January 😮), plus I'm fairly confident that the current "salary reviews are under review" position will end up being "salary reviews are cancelled". Whenever we get our salaries reinstated it's going to feel like a pay rise anyway, so I think that is going to be the time to put my pension back up to the maximum percentage that they will match, so I don't feel it as a drop in money. I used to contribute a much bigger percentage, but I'm edgy about it now so will just keep to getting the max free money out of the company. 

Mortgage-wise, I'm going to stick with the plan of saving into a ring-fenced account for now, with a £100 OP every Friday so I feel like I've still got a foot in the door. The real challenge is going to be what to do if I'm still in the same position once all this blows over. The dream will be to OP £700 a week until the pot is empty, but will I be brave enough to leave myself with no savings again? It's too soon to tell! 

I'd also like to get to the position where I have 12 months' worth of money set aside to pay my bills (not counting the mortgage), so each month I just sling an amount into the pot and with April 2020's salary I would be setting aside the money for April 2021's bills and it's just a rolling lump sum of money in the current account. This would then pay for everything in relation to my monthly and annual bills and I would only need to think about the budgets for petrol/groceries/personal on a monthly basis and saving for holidays/gifts on an annual basis. I think this would be very calming and also achievable on a lower salary if that's where I end up in a few years. The amount I want to get to is £9k and I've been dithering all week about the best way to go about it (do I start small now or do I wait until the mortgage is gone and snowball it so I get there in a few months, or do I do a bit of both) but I've decided to set it up now at £125 a month to start with (so it will be a very slow burn!) and going into an account which is hidden on my internet banking, so I can't even see the balance and can hopefully forget about it until I get to MF and can then decide whether to up the payments so I hit the target more quickly. Once I have the £9k then it's a swap from thinking about paying bills every month/saving for the annual ones, and just a simple £750/month into the pot to maintain it and disengage brain. It will slow down reaching my MF date, but hopefully not by too much. 

Oh, and I "spent" £13.29 last night buying another bottle of booze out of the bag (money to be transferred on Tuesday, when I actually have it!). It tasted pretty good, so no need to buy any from the shops this week now.