Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

crunchy_time

Oh!  And if I manage this I shall save about 3 payments worth of interest - £1300 ish!
Yes!

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like it is worth overpaying the loan if it will save you £1300 and get rid of it more than a year early.  
When you  say you are 25 years off retirement do you mean your state retirement date or the date you want to retire on? 

Honeysucklelou2

Great news about the pay rise! 

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sounds like it is worth overpaying the loan if it will save you £1300 and get rid of it more than a year early.  
When you  say you are 25 years off retirement do you mean your state retirement date or the date you want to retire on? 

That's the state retirement age - I'm 38 so I haven't thought in detail about what date I actually want to retire on.  I'd like to pay my mortgage off early but that's a long way off at the moment.  I also like working and earning money so I don't think I shall be one of those people that wants to retire early to go and travel or potter in the garden.  I have always wanted to travel while I am young.  My parents waited until they were retired and then were too exhausted/ had multiple ailments and bogged down looking after their grandchildren to do so. Finding a way to be balanced about the now but also look forward to the future is the way forward to us.

crunchy_time

I knew it was too good to be true.
Just had a letter through the door from HR saying that they made a mistake with my apparent £4k payrise.  It's actually a £1k payrise.  So £150 a month less than I worked out that I had with my £4k pay rise.
Doesn't make a difference to our plans, it just makes me question my worth again.  I felt like £18k was better than £15k in my head.  Perhaps what it is telling me is that I need to do some head work about my worth.  I want to do some specialist training at masters level but also want a year of not having to think of anything outside of work but I can't help but think that I am selling myself short, but I love my job and feel like I am where I need to be.  Perhaps I need to listen to my heart rather than my head.

enthusiasticsaver

I agree that a balance is important. My dad died with no retirement at all at 63 and a lot of  our friends are the same in that later life has been dogged with ill health. We retired at 58 but planned for that in our twenties as my DH did long erratic hours and I was badly affected by losing my Dad so young and determined that would not be me. 

We travelled when young, before  having kids and had a gap of about 5 or 6 years when they were little where we only did one overseas trip for my dads 60th and from then on did alternate years abroad and then a cheaper holiday in UK.  My wage was used to save for holidays, replacement cars, home improvement projects and early retirement and mortgage and pension overpayments.  We lived off my DHs wage which covered bills and living expenses.

Often if people wait until state retirement age they are exhausted from working and have no energy for anything. We do one days childcare a week for our  pre school grandchildren  but we have friends who do 3 or 4 days which must be exhausting but we set limits on how much we would do. I don't feel guilty about that as we had no help when our children were small.  We love looking after them but they are non stop and we are exhausted by  the end of our childcare day. The rest of our time is our own and we always find lots to do and am enjoying taking up new interests and seeing more of the UK and abroad.  What I would say is that 25 years sounds like a long time but it goes very quickly so having a  short term and long term life plan is important. Many of our friends are now forced to work until 68 because they lived for the now and did not focus on the future so they have no choice. Great if you don't mind working but having retirement plans in place means you have options to carry on working or finish if you have had enough.  After us both working 40 years we were ready to go.  A balance on the present and the future is imperative I think.  

 We planned for our mortgage to finish as the eldest started Uni so that might be a goal you could work towards. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I like that idea ES, would love to use my salary for all the extras and live off husband's wage.  I agree with balancing the living for now vs more choice when older thing too.
Crunchy, when I took a pay drop after my Dad died to give myself some head space by working in an easier role I had the same issues.  Really struggled with earning less than I knew I was worth.  I ended up giving myself a deadline and then went back to my higher paid job, but I'm not a teacher and my job (much as I don't like it) is contained in my working hours so I compartmentalise it.  When I was discussing it with friends, one said something that resonated... she says that everyone has to decide on the time vs stress vs money trade off and they're all currencies in their own right, just not financial.  She said it's like the space vs location when house buying.  One person will choose the big house, another would choose the quiet location and feel rich in their own way.  You choose what's right for you and your family.  She worded it better, but made sense to me

crunchy_time

Thanks to both of you for commenting - I like hearing about how other people manage things.  Lots of food for thought.
The music magpie money arrived into my account today - another £12 off the loan!  Every little bit helps!  Tomorrow it will be minimum payment time meaning we will dip into £16 xxx!  
I'm struggling with anxiety today - not feeling good enough is something I really want to get over but struggle with.  Perhaps every day I should state what is good enough for me and meet my own targets.  I'm feeling really tired too - thank gosh its only 2 more weeks after this one until the end of term.
Crunchy xx

Sarahwithlove

The local government pension scheme is one of the best ones around its only perk you get really so keep that! Ours also offers an advanced pension through prudential where it can be done as salary sacrifice or a monthly payment like your current work pension is. That way you do it before tax and NI. Once things have settled again I am going to be joining up for that as well as my standard LGPS. 

crunchy_time

Morning all!
First of the month - loan payment has gone out so total stands at £16,668.  Oh how I love to see it go down!
I've had a look in the joint account and there seems to be too much money in it at the moment.  I use it to transfer money between our accounts so I wonder whether or not I have missed something.  I will have a proper check later.
After a busy period, work seems to be dying down at the moment ready for the summer holidays.I get paid on the last day of term as well which is something to look forward too.
Husband has been invited to the pub on Saturday night but is not going as he thinks it will be so busy and he doesn't want to sink all his money on beer.  I do agree with him.  He has had some lovely nights out with these friends but they do like to drink and there is something about guys not being able to say no and having to get drunk even when they don't want to.  Maybe I could persuade him to go for one or two just to socialise or the lads come round to ours in the garden for a bit beforehand.
Both mine are at school today (one full time, one 2 days a week) so I plan to get lots of work done this morning and then tidying this afternoon.
Happy first of July everyone!
Crunchy xx