Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

enthusiasticsaver

crunchy_time said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

It will definitely be a good idea to up your pension but the LGPS (I have one of those too) is a good scheme and only working part time (or is that full time at a lower rate per hour?) means less pension needed to plug the gap when you do eventually retire. I don't think you are 40 yet so you have time. I worked part time until our youngest was a teenager then full time until they left uni then part time again after DH retired until I retired too. So altogether out of a 40 year career I had a career break of 3 years while our daughters were babies then 14 years part time(25 hours pw) and 23 full time.  One mistake I made was to prioritise my husbands pension over mine because he was a HR tax payer and earned more. We definitely did the right thing by him as his pension is more than 3 times as much as mine but it would have been a good idea  to have overpaid mine more than we did as I am not maximising my personal allowance as my pensions are under the £12k or whatever the limit is now. Simply the down side of working part time for so many years and accepting lower grade jobs to fit in with family life.   It will go over though when my state pension pays out and in the meantime I have transferred part of my PA to my DH.

I focused on S and S ISAs for me to plug the early retirement gap. 

Thank you for the advice ES!  Husband's company pay a lot into his pension and he only pays the minimum and its still a good one.  I've been working part time for 8 years.  I'm now full time but receive the equivalent monthly take home as 2 days a week teaching.  I think we shall overpay mine first like you say and then just organise husbands so it is all in the same pot.  I'm nearly 39 and the LG pension said I can't retire until I am 68 so I have a loooooong way to go which is fine as I love working!  I don't intend to retire early but will probably look at part time or contract work when I am much much older.  I'm planning to work full time from now on.

Bear in mind the LGPS doesn't tell you that you cannot retire until 68 it is just the projections for your NRD (normal retirement date) are when you are 68. You can take it earlier but usually with a deduction or you retire early using other finance and don't draw on it until 68. Lots can change in almost 30 years. My NRD for my LGPS is 2026 but I took it in 2018 as the reduction was not that much and was balanced out by it being paid for 8 more years than projected. 

Lots of my teacher friends did supply work which they they said was less stressful than being a FT teacher. Glad you enjoying the TA role though and I definitely agree with leaving a stressful job for one with lower stress albeit lower paid. I did that myself by leaving a high paid banking job to go into HE event management in the 1990s. 

enthusiasticsaver

Annoying about the hair and even more to pay £100. Bleach baths sounds scary though. I have highlights and have been with my hairdresser over 20 years and he is great at getting the colours right. If you haven't been happy there then time for a change. 

Sarahwithlove

I agree if you're not happy deffo change but it's a shame you're not happy with how it is as you're gonna have to wait to have it done again. I agree you get what you pay for if you find one you like then stick with it. I just try and make myself go a little longer between having it done then I used to. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Annoying about the haircut 
Pensions boggle my brain a bit, I daren't look at mine.  I've always worked, but have been part time since I had my eldest 16 years ago... no imminent plans to go full time, perhaps when youngest starts secondary in 6 years time.  My pension will have taken a big hit....  I checked my NI contributions recently and they showed 26 years, so even my little part time job while doing A-levels has counted, which is nice

crunchy_time

Morning
Husbands pay day today!  A whole £83 more than I budgeted for!  Husband's credit card is now up to £1200 which needs to be sorted out.  We are going to have a money chat tonight as he is too stressed now.  He spent £90 in supermarkets this week on to up shops alone - His Monzo card isn't working so he has been using his card but not keeping tabs on how much he is spending.  I am furious but trying not to show it.  My plan this month is to stick to £150 a week food shopping money and then slush whats not spent into an account on Monzo then we can hopefully use some of this to pay back what is owed for food on his credit card.  I'm going to start a sheet of paper on the fridge to log the top-up shops for transparency.
He did have £9 left in his account before he was paid so I have slushed that towards his loan as well as the £25 for gymnastics which doesn't seem to have happened bu there is more than enough money now in the joint account to cover it if it did come out at a different time.
Perhaps the solution with husband is to be uber strict.  Perhaps we need a joint spending account.  He just wants money to spend on himself since he earns so much but why is that fair?  Ugh!  I think he hates talking about it because I get so stressed but it's hard not too.  I want him to feel ok about money but I feel like its me doing to nitty gritty work to keep us afloat.
Anyway, plans for the day include a very frugal aldi shop and meal plan.  Oh and I sold an item on ebay so I shall be posting that today.  Money will go towards some childrens clothes I bought.  I also think there is some money sitting on my pay pal account so I can slush that towards it too.
Happy Friday everyone!

Crunchy x

Aspiration

Morning,
Always a hard conversation and I’m guessing most of us are here as we put those conversations off for too long.

You’re making great progress and hope the conversation later is productive and doesn’t cause too much stress. 

Monzo is transformational we’re big fans!

enthusiasticsaver

Do you not both have personal spend accounts? That works for us now. You could always save your spends if you don't spend as much. That is what we do. 

 My husband was like you and tetchy if challenged on what he was spending. He did once say that he earns well and felt he should be able to spend what he wants until I pointed out the things we would need to sacrifice to cover his little spending sprees. Things he wanted like doing things to the house, holidays, Xmas presents, early retirement savings etc etc. Going into debt was never an option so if he over spent in one area we had to under spend somewhere else and sometimes I made him choose what to give up. I never got angry with him, just stayed calm, showed him the budget and asked where he wanted me to take the overspend from. He got better then we got personal spends accounts with allowances every month so I don't need to challenge him. I don't care what he does with it and he knows where the rest of our "joint" income goes. I have no time for men who think because they bring in the lions share of income normally because their partners are picking up the slack elsewhere then they have more of a choice where the money goes. 

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Hi Crunchy. We have a similar loan amount to pay 🙂 congratulations on getting it under 10k. 

I'm avoiding the news at the moment too. Also in the south east, semi rural, but our area is one of the top three for increases. I'm a home bod but even l'm fed up with being indoors so much 😒 hey ho, dry day today!

shoppingobsessed2020

Sounds like you’ve had a tough few days and some self care is needed. Sod the gatherings and do what suits you and your family.  

spending wise for us, his lordship has asked he have his fun money in cash so he knows what he has to spend.  Grocery shopping I’ve added him as a cardholder on my credit card so I can keep track of everything in the one place.  We’ve also naughtily changed the pins to the same number so he only has to know the one number.

t2rry

Morning Crunch!  I swear I could have written most of what you've just said, I have grown to hate the conversations because in my head he'll get irritated, so in fairness I think sometimes I even pre-empt that so much that I'm the one who gets het up first.  Either way, it's rarely good, but I have to accept it is so much better now we can see the end goal (plus avoiding the conversation in so far as possible!!).  It's now more a case of explaining that we can do the things he wants to do in 6 months.  We've lived fairly frugally now for so long, I genuinely don't think we'll ever change drastically, and I think he appreciates that now, it's for the bigger and greater future!  I think the thing for us that cracks it was having him finally understand that the more he is free to spend what he 'deserves', the more stressed out I will be trying to balance it out, and the longer it lasts having to feel like this!!