In need of encouragement...

Sarahwithlove

It's good that you don't have a mortgage anymore to worry about. What's your pension fund like now though? Do you need to be paying into another one?
I have my emergency fund of £1k at the moment and unsure whether to increase it. I'm in quite a good position work wise as even if I go sick for any reason I get 6 months full pay and then 6 months 50% before it would become an issue. I also know if redundancy gets offered there is at least 5 people in my team of 10 that would volunteer for it.
So my focus now is keeping on top of my savings pots for yearly payments and then rest on credit card. I have a 0% purchase card sat there waiting with 18 months left on it so in an emergency that my £1k wouldn't cover I could use that or use bank of dad. Don't want to as want to be independent but I think for now my debt needs to be a priority then I will save a bigger emergency fund before I do mortgage overpayments. I'd never be able to manage more than the 10% anyway as its of the original loan amount on mine not what's left. 

IrishSean

Yeah, not only do I not have a private pension i'm behind on nat ins. For state pension too. Think I def need to get both sorted by switching child benefit from DW into my name and backclaiming against her effective 'double payment'. 
It's a lot of form filling but doable (thought at 1 stage I had to pay thousands into nat. Ins. Myself but govt resolved it about 2013. )

DW is civil servant 25 years, awesome pension with avcs so its why im looking at bricks and mortar for my pension. Tax breaks not as good (unless I employ a super smart accountant), but buy to lets mean i've something (genuinely) concrete that's extra to pass to kids as when last surviving parent dies pension ends where as buy to let can be willed as an income generating asset. 

Plus it might pay some contribution to uni for any of my little darlings that work hard enough to go!

In the mean time im thinking improve look of home here and pay off the 0% cc. I can see a lot of ppl looking to target the mortgage after short term debts as it's a huge saving over actual savings and gives security of roof over head should income fall in a hole for any length of time. No right or wrong answer; not having short term debt with interest is def. The key tho!!

DW has 6 months full and half too, massive safety net there. She would consider redundancy tho if the package was good enough (tho her role is new and her boss just laughs). In that case we would look at buy to let & both of us working part time to share childcare. Enhanced redundancy can be a big pot that can take a long time to earn esp. if you can get another job and bank the lump sum. 

GL with DFW; looking at your signature numbers you're doing great! 

Sarahwithlove

Yes you deffo need to get that sorted out! There's pros and cons to both. The biggest being that if either of you ever needed care in the future and you own a 2nd property you would automatically be responsible for paying for it yourself. A lot of us think it will never happen to us but I have seen people who were fully fit and working have strokes and their life's be turned upside down. There's also the issues that come with renting a property even with deposits these days.

Thanks having my housemate has deffo helped with the debt repayments. Looks like she will be staying around for a while so just gonna keep going. 

IrishSean

Sarahwithlove said:

Yes you deffo need to get that sorted out! There's pros and cons to both. The biggest being that if either of you ever needed care in the future and you own a 2nd property you would automatically be responsible for paying for it yourself. A lot of us think it will never happen to us but I have seen people who were fully fit and working have strokes and their life's be turned upside down. There's also the issues that come with renting a property even with deposits these days.

Thanks having my housemate has deffo helped with the debt repayments. Looks like she will be staying around for a while so just gonna keep going. 

Ohh, yeah, you're right! 
I'll have to look at succession planning from now. One of my parents' memories started to go early so they signed house over to us; nearly 20 years later it couldn't be included in surviving parent's means test. They're tougher in England on Deprivation of Assets I know; I wouldn't advise it but we were lucky. 
I think houses can be placed in a trust or even listed as a 'company' asset depending on circumstances; again, if I was going down that line i'd def get professional advice!

More pressing is my state pension; if anything happened DW prior to sorting it her pension would pass over to me but trying to get my contributions sorted for state pension then would be a nightmare. Geez, I need to get that done in Oct for def!

At the minute we are 6 family one income with not a big amount of savings and CC debt so as it stands it's a pipedream😱😊

Sarahwithlove

IrishSean said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Yes you deffo need to get that sorted out! There's pros and cons to both. The biggest being that if either of you ever needed care in the future and you own a 2nd property you would automatically be responsible for paying for it yourself. A lot of us think it will never happen to us but I have seen people who were fully fit and working have strokes and their life's be turned upside down. There's also the issues that come with renting a property even with deposits these days.

Thanks having my housemate has deffo helped with the debt repayments. Looks like she will be staying around for a while so just gonna keep going. 

Ohh, yeah, you're right! 
I'll have to look at succession planning from now. One of my parents' memories started to go early so they signed house over to us; nearly 20 years later it couldn't be included in surviving parent's means test. They're tougher in England on Deprivation of Assets I know; I wouldn't advise it but we were lucky. 
I think houses can be placed in a trust or even listed as a 'company' asset depending on circumstances; again, if I was going down that line i'd def get professional advice!

More pressing is my state pension; if anything happened DW prior to sorting it her pension would pass over to me but trying to get my contributions sorted for state pension then would be a nightmare. Geez, I need to get that done in Oct for def!

At the minute we are 6 family one income with not a big amount of savings and CC debt so as it stands it's a pipedream😱😊

They are stricter but generally as long as you've had had no prior involvement for at least 5+ years then putting it in trust is a good option. Only problem being a lot of solicitors won't do it now because there's been so many come backs on it. The more your property is worth the more likely the council will fight you over it. My suggestion would be as soon as you pay mortgage off put it in trust then. Problem with assigning it to a business is the person who owns the business then has it as a disposable asset so would never be able to claim any benefits if required ever in future etc. 

IrishSean

Sarahwithlove said:

IrishSean said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Yes you deffo need to get that sorted out! There's pros and cons to both. The biggest being that if either of you ever needed care in the future and you own a 2nd property you would automatically be responsible for paying for it yourself. A lot of us think it will never happen to us but I have seen people who were fully fit and working have strokes and their life's be turned upside down. There's also the issues that come with renting a property even with deposits these days.

Thanks having my housemate has deffo helped with the debt repayments. Looks like she will be staying around for a while so just gonna keep going. 

Ohh, yeah, you're right! 
I'll have to look at succession planning from now. One of my parents' memories started to go early so they signed house over to us; nearly 20 years later it couldn't be included in surviving parent's means test. They're tougher in England on Deprivation of Assets I know; I wouldn't advise it but we were lucky. 
I think houses can be placed in a trust or even listed as a 'company' asset depending on circumstances; again, if I was going down that line i'd def get professional advice!

More pressing is my state pension; if anything happened DW prior to sorting it her pension would pass over to me but trying to get my contributions sorted for state pension then would be a nightmare. Geez, I need to get that done in Oct for def!

At the minute we are 6 family one income with not a big amount of savings and CC debt so as it stands it's a pipedream😱😊

They are stricter but generally as long as you've had had no prior involvement for at least 5+ years then putting it in trust is a good option. Only problem being a lot of solicitors won't do it now because there's been so many come backs on it. The more your property is worth the more likely the council will fight you over it. My suggestion would be as soon as you pay mortgage off put it in trust then. Problem with assigning it to a business is the person who owns the business then has it as a disposable asset so would never be able to claim any benefits if required ever in future etc. 

Ty Sarah!
I have to get my assets in gear and get all that sorted in Oct! My late parent's house / land goes to market tomorrow but it's like Voldermort I refuse to talk about it until it's done, not because of emotional side but for 2 reasons 1. It's future self ££ and 2. It's been a 2 year royal pain in the posterior to get to this stage.

There's a house selling window at the minute which I don't think will stay open forever. 

Sarahwithlove

Fingers crossed it goes quickly then for you as i think you're right it won't be long before the market pretty much shuts down until spring time. 

IrishSean

Quick update:

DW 0% card down to £800, will clear @ £100 pm
Mine is circa £990, 0% til July / Sept next year.

Had a great walk through all finances with dw last month. Have a p/t job interview next week. We are just coming out of the month lockdown that Eng is going into; kids were off so have been doing car stuff, some diy, christmas shopping, home schooling, applying for work. Zero gambling of any kind which is great; 2 months, squeaky clean. I took £660 off phone, media & tv for the year: cant believe savings by quitting the crap package we were on with Sky! Have also avoided OD since halloween & have persevered with £1k saving, albeit at expense of more demanding diy. 

Stressors have been covid nonsense, diet (closing in on 2 stone off since end of Sept but hard work),  parental house sale (nightmare as expected; not sorted), have to back claim nic's via wife double claim working & claiming CB.. have been putting it off but cant any longer, I need to keep my state pension entitlement!!! Lastly kids are split 2 grammar, 2 primary; cant agree on best time to move; DW stressed to hilt with work, cant consider it.

Will update again when things finally settle down; hope your e.g. journeys are going well. 

IrishSean

*Dfw journeys; sry autocorrect...

Sarahwithlove

Are any due to do gcses or anything? Probably want to avoid doing it during that time. Tbh there's never really a good time to move.