How much to live on

SouthCoastBoy

Organgrinder said:

Well today I thought I'd better redo my budget as I'd read an article saying council tax in my area was going up a whopping 8.2% this year.

So I also added in known pension increases (1.7%) and what many assume will be the teachers' pay rise this year (2.8%).

My other costs save for food and petrol/lpg are pretty much fixed but I do need to switch savings/ISA providers once bonuses are paid out. The actual returns aren't looking great at the moment but by the time the bonuses get paid it should average out at just over 5%. Not great but real term growth so can't complain.

Council tax is a big issue for me as it is a cost I can't control and compounding the increases means over the next 20 years the cost could get very high 

cfw1994

Nebulous2 said:

Pat38493 said:

Albermarle said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL_USS said:

Interesting discussion regarding risks...

It is indeed a culture-bound attitude. Chinese, South East people tend to take the golden middle point, not showing anything extreme especially in public, and call it "playing the stock market". Americans have higher percentage of their assets in stocks and shares whilst British favour a higher percentage in property (well, let's see how much this trend will change after all the tightening rules for the BTL sector).

Whilst I am risk-adverse in general, I still think if I don't try lots of things when I am still quite young then I will never experence these when I am older. I cycle to work even when I am warned our roads are not cyclist friendly. Scared at first but I thought "little kids could go so why not me", so I then went on all the most "scary" roller coaster rides when I took my children to Disney Land/ Alton Towers/ Thorpe park.... I ride a moped (only with a bit of hesitation ) when I travel in Asia. Perhaps still not skiing though :-).

My husband  and I used to go to a casino sometimes. I know, I know.  My poor dad was horrified,  but my husband and I enjoyed it.  We were sensible, we gave ourselves a budget and stuck to it. If we lost our stake we quit.  If we did well we quit whilst we were ahead.  Oddly enough our track record was pretty good.  Obviously the only real "winner" in the long term is the house , same with bookies.  

As an aside I once made a killing at Ascot on Ladies Day and all for a £1 stake. . There were 5 ladies in our group.  So for the first race we put £5 between us on no 5.  It won. Not knowing how to play the game properly we put the lot on no 5 for the second race. It won.  After that we did change our numbers but we just kept letting the winnings ride.  We kept winning.  By the 4th race we had attracted quite a crowd, cheering, laughing and egging us on. The bookie was looking a bit concerned.  We won again. After winning the 5th race we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and take our winnings.  Beginners luck.  

Casinos and race meetings are fascinating places  to people watch.  You really do get all sorts.  At the casino the most reckless gamblers were the Chinese.  They would lose small fortunes and act as if it didn't matter.  "Keeping Face" lol.  I found the same when we were in China.  They will bet on anything.  It seems to be a macho thing.  

Roller coaster rides.....no thanks. They make me feel ill and give me vertigo.  I once visited a lighthouse in Orkney and passed out.  Not my finest hour.  My vertigo seems to come and go.  Once went for a walk along the cliffs at Lands End. The vertigo was so bad, my poor husband had to practically carry me back to the car. And yet i am fine with chair lifts and cable cars.  Go figure.  Lol. 

Looking back the most reckless thing I did was hitch hiking. Didn't give it a second thought. It was a different matter when I had my own children. I even hated them getting taxis, even when they were with their mates. I much preferred it when they let us pick them up.  

 I was never really happy until they were home safe and sound.......

Apart from the responsibility of becoming a parent, times have changed a lot in our attitude to safety and risk.
Remember you could drive drunk without a seatbelt as one example.
Also rose tinted spectacles have a place as many seem to think the world is a more dangerous place nowadays, than it was in the good old days, when they as children could play out on their own without fear of abduction etc.
Just think about the Moors Murders ! ( which happened close to where I lived and I was about the same age) .

If you want to understand the terrifying extent to which most of us believe that today's world is a much worse place than it was in the past, and much worse than it actually is, I reccomend the book "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling.

  I've just lashed out and bought it. Currently 99p on kindle.  @Pat38493

Hans Rowling was a very smart fella 👍

Do yourselves a favour and spend 19 minutes watching his Ted Talk here 😎👍
A man who gave hope, unlike many we see preaching hate & anger 🙄

On the topic of siblings and attitudes to finance: well, I am always reminded of that famous Scrooge quote: 
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.” 🤷‍♂️

For a final recommendation on planning & finance for later life….follow James Shack, a very smart wise head on young(ish) shoulders.  His latest piece here, 23 solid lessons 💪

& on the topic of how much: there has been a very lengthy thread here on the retirement section.  Hadn’t realised it had a twin here 🤪

AlanP_2

Nebulous2 said:

Pat38493 said:

Albermarle said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL_USS said:

Interesting discussion regarding risks...

It is indeed a culture-bound attitude. Chinese, South East people tend to take the golden middle point, not showing anything extreme especially in public, and call it "playing the stock market". Americans have higher percentage of their assets in stocks and shares whilst British favour a higher percentage in property (well, let's see how much this trend will change after all the tightening rules for the BTL sector).

Whilst I am risk-adverse in general, I still think if I don't try lots of things when I am still quite young then I will never experence these when I am older. I cycle to work even when I am warned our roads are not cyclist friendly. Scared at first but I thought "little kids could go so why not me", so I then went on all the most "scary" roller coaster rides when I took my children to Disney Land/ Alton Towers/ Thorpe park.... I ride a moped (only with a bit of hesitation ) when I travel in Asia. Perhaps still not skiing though :-).

My husband  and I used to go to a casino sometimes. I know, I know.  My poor dad was horrified,  but my husband and I enjoyed it.  We were sensible, we gave ourselves a budget and stuck to it. If we lost our stake we quit.  If we did well we quit whilst we were ahead.  Oddly enough our track record was pretty good.  Obviously the only real "winner" in the long term is the house , same with bookies.  

As an aside I once made a killing at Ascot on Ladies Day and all for a £1 stake. . There were 5 ladies in our group.  So for the first race we put £5 between us on no 5.  It won. Not knowing how to play the game properly we put the lot on no 5 for the second race. It won.  After that we did change our numbers but we just kept letting the winnings ride.  We kept winning.  By the 4th race we had attracted quite a crowd, cheering, laughing and egging us on. The bookie was looking a bit concerned.  We won again. After winning the 5th race we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and take our winnings.  Beginners luck.  

Casinos and race meetings are fascinating places  to people watch.  You really do get all sorts.  At the casino the most reckless gamblers were the Chinese.  They would lose small fortunes and act as if it didn't matter.  "Keeping Face" lol.  I found the same when we were in China.  They will bet on anything.  It seems to be a macho thing.  

Roller coaster rides.....no thanks. They make me feel ill and give me vertigo.  I once visited a lighthouse in Orkney and passed out.  Not my finest hour.  My vertigo seems to come and go.  Once went for a walk along the cliffs at Lands End. The vertigo was so bad, my poor husband had to practically carry me back to the car. And yet i am fine with chair lifts and cable cars.  Go figure.  Lol. 

Looking back the most reckless thing I did was hitch hiking. Didn't give it a second thought. It was a different matter when I had my own children. I even hated them getting taxis, even when they were with their mates. I much preferred it when they let us pick them up.  

 I was never really happy until they were home safe and sound.......

Apart from the responsibility of becoming a parent, times have changed a lot in our attitude to safety and risk.
Remember you could drive drunk without a seatbelt as one example.
Also rose tinted spectacles have a place as many seem to think the world is a more dangerous place nowadays, than it was in the good old days, when they as children could play out on their own without fear of abduction etc.
Just think about the Moors Murders ! ( which happened close to where I lived and I was about the same age) .

If you want to understand the terrifying extent to which most of us believe that today's world is a much worse place than it was in the past, and much worse than it actually is, I reccomend the book "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling.

  I've just lashed out and bought it. Currently 99p on kindle.  @Pat38493

I have as well. Has coming on here cost me 99p or saved me £12 against the list price??

Albermarle

cfw1994 said:

Nebulous2 said:

Pat38493 said:

Albermarle said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL_USS said:

Interesting discussion regarding risks...

It is indeed a culture-bound attitude. Chinese, South East people tend to take the golden middle point, not showing anything extreme especially in public, and call it "playing the stock market". Americans have higher percentage of their assets in stocks and shares whilst British favour a higher percentage in property (well, let's see how much this trend will change after all the tightening rules for the BTL sector).

Whilst I am risk-adverse in general, I still think if I don't try lots of things when I am still quite young then I will never experence these when I am older. I cycle to work even when I am warned our roads are not cyclist friendly. Scared at first but I thought "little kids could go so why not me", so I then went on all the most "scary" roller coaster rides when I took my children to Disney Land/ Alton Towers/ Thorpe park.... I ride a moped (only with a bit of hesitation ) when I travel in Asia. Perhaps still not skiing though :-).

My husband  and I used to go to a casino sometimes. I know, I know.  My poor dad was horrified,  but my husband and I enjoyed it.  We were sensible, we gave ourselves a budget and stuck to it. If we lost our stake we quit.  If we did well we quit whilst we were ahead.  Oddly enough our track record was pretty good.  Obviously the only real "winner" in the long term is the house , same with bookies.  

As an aside I once made a killing at Ascot on Ladies Day and all for a £1 stake. . There were 5 ladies in our group.  So for the first race we put £5 between us on no 5.  It won. Not knowing how to play the game properly we put the lot on no 5 for the second race. It won.  After that we did change our numbers but we just kept letting the winnings ride.  We kept winning.  By the 4th race we had attracted quite a crowd, cheering, laughing and egging us on. The bookie was looking a bit concerned.  We won again. After winning the 5th race we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and take our winnings.  Beginners luck.  

Casinos and race meetings are fascinating places  to people watch.  You really do get all sorts.  At the casino the most reckless gamblers were the Chinese.  They would lose small fortunes and act as if it didn't matter.  "Keeping Face" lol.  I found the same when we were in China.  They will bet on anything.  It seems to be a macho thing.  

Roller coaster rides.....no thanks. They make me feel ill and give me vertigo.  I once visited a lighthouse in Orkney and passed out.  Not my finest hour.  My vertigo seems to come and go.  Once went for a walk along the cliffs at Lands End. The vertigo was so bad, my poor husband had to practically carry me back to the car. And yet i am fine with chair lifts and cable cars.  Go figure.  Lol. 

Looking back the most reckless thing I did was hitch hiking. Didn't give it a second thought. It was a different matter when I had my own children. I even hated them getting taxis, even when they were with their mates. I much preferred it when they let us pick them up.  

 I was never really happy until they were home safe and sound.......

Apart from the responsibility of becoming a parent, times have changed a lot in our attitude to safety and risk.
Remember you could drive drunk without a seatbelt as one example.
Also rose tinted spectacles have a place as many seem to think the world is a more dangerous place nowadays, than it was in the good old days, when they as children could play out on their own without fear of abduction etc.
Just think about the Moors Murders ! ( which happened close to where I lived and I was about the same age) .

If you want to understand the terrifying extent to which most of us believe that today's world is a much worse place than it was in the past, and much worse than it actually is, I reccomend the book "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling.

  I've just lashed out and bought it. Currently 99p on kindle.  @Pat38493

Hans Rowling was a very smart fella 👍

Do yourselves a favour and spend 19 minutes watching his Ted Talk here 😎👍
A man who gave hope, unlike many we see preaching hate & anger 🙄

On the topic of siblings and attitudes to finance: well, I am always reminded of that famous Scrooge quote: 
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.” 🤷‍♂️

For a final recommendation on planning & finance for later life….follow James Shack, a very smart wise head on young(ish) shoulders.  His latest piece here, 23 solid lessons 💪

& on the topic of how much: there has been a very lengthy thread here on the retirement section.  Hadn’t realised it had a twin here 🤪

Pedant alert !

It was not Scrooge, but Micawber 

Albermarle

LL_USS said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL. sounds like you are doing the right things.  You're right as the survivors we do have to ensure all "i's" are dotted and "t's" crossed, especially when you have younger children who are still minors.

 Have you done POAs. 

@helensbiggestfan no I haven't. I thought it would be under the appointment of executor for the estate in the will, which I have. I will need to sort out the Power of Attorney form then (I have just searched to see that the form is on the Gov's website). Thank you for this Helen :-).

There are two PoA forms.
One for Health & Welfare and one for Finances.
£82 ? pounds each online .
Some people pay a solicitor to do them but that is not necessary. Just be careful filling in all details and the getting all the right pages signed in the right order.
Once done it will take up to 3 months for the forms to be processed, and the Po A 's issued.

Roger175

Albermarle said:

LL_USS said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL. sounds like you are doing the right things.  You're right as the survivors we do have to ensure all "i's" are dotted and "t's" crossed, especially when you have younger children who are still minors.

 Have you done POAs. 

@helensbiggestfan no I haven't. I thought it would be under the appointment of executor for the estate in the will, which I have. I will need to sort out the Power of Attorney form then (I have just searched to see that the form is on the Gov's website). Thank you for this Helen :-).

There are two PoA forms.
One for Health & Welfare and one for Finances.
£82 ? pounds each online .
Some people pay a solicitor to do them but that is not necessary. Just be careful filling in all details and the getting all the right pages signed in the right order.
Once done it will take up to 3 months for the forms to be processed, and the Po A 's issued.

Yep, we now have £328 less in the bank as a result of doing both of ours this morning (2 each). Still, it's something we should have done long ago if I'm honest.

helensbiggestfan

Once they're done, they're done. And then you can relax.......

LL_USS

THank you @Albermarle and @helensbiggestfan regarding the POA info - I will do accordingly.

LL_USS

helensbiggestfan said:

LL_USS said:  

I tend to have to be a role model for most things that are important that I need my children to know.

Last night I thought I had to push them, to stop procrastinating and start working on a job given by a company through a family member, which is well-paid but rather difficult, riddled with finance and banking terminologies and concepts that are not all straightforward to me myself (we agree they both work on it and I do careful quality control before submitting the work). Seeing that they struggled to start this on their own, I spent last night looking at the materials and today explained to them, discussing how we can deal with the difficult bits. I said I am here to help, but the more percentage they could work on the job, the more of the fee they will be paid. They then perservered, working non-stop and just finished their shares of the task before cooking dinner, AND they say it's interesting and great way to earn money. Yay!

I explained and asked my son to work on the numbers for our mortgages from quite a young age :-) (only very basic I must admit). The girl is not trained yet for this but she is managing her brother's saving within her children's saving account (until her brother sets up his own flexible ISA), only transfering some money back to him when he asks (he's worried he spends too fast).

Still a lot to teach them about how to manage their finances I suppose.

Sounds like you are doing a good job, teaching them valuable life skills and giving them a good grounding.  Your children will thank you in the years to come. 

Before my son goes back to university, I've just sat down with him to see how he sets up a flexible ISA account for saving, AND a Dodl S&S Lifetime ISA. He's looking at how to start basic investments. I give him £100 as seed money for this (the minimum requirement to open the account) and explain to him why his generation is more likely to rely on DC pension and thus better start from young. 

First one in the family to learn how to do Stocks and Shares yay :-) !!!

Nebulous2

AlanP_2 said:

Nebulous2 said:

Pat38493 said:

Albermarle said:

helensbiggestfan said:

LL_USS said:

Interesting discussion regarding risks...

It is indeed a culture-bound attitude. Chinese, South East people tend to take the golden middle point, not showing anything extreme especially in public, and call it "playing the stock market". Americans have higher percentage of their assets in stocks and shares whilst British favour a higher percentage in property (well, let's see how much this trend will change after all the tightening rules for the BTL sector).

Whilst I am risk-adverse in general, I still think if I don't try lots of things when I am still quite young then I will never experence these when I am older. I cycle to work even when I am warned our roads are not cyclist friendly. Scared at first but I thought "little kids could go so why not me", so I then went on all the most "scary" roller coaster rides when I took my children to Disney Land/ Alton Towers/ Thorpe park.... I ride a moped (only with a bit of hesitation ) when I travel in Asia. Perhaps still not skiing though :-).

My husband  and I used to go to a casino sometimes. I know, I know.  My poor dad was horrified,  but my husband and I enjoyed it.  We were sensible, we gave ourselves a budget and stuck to it. If we lost our stake we quit.  If we did well we quit whilst we were ahead.  Oddly enough our track record was pretty good.  Obviously the only real "winner" in the long term is the house , same with bookies.  

As an aside I once made a killing at Ascot on Ladies Day and all for a £1 stake. . There were 5 ladies in our group.  So for the first race we put £5 between us on no 5.  It won. Not knowing how to play the game properly we put the lot on no 5 for the second race. It won.  After that we did change our numbers but we just kept letting the winnings ride.  We kept winning.  By the 4th race we had attracted quite a crowd, cheering, laughing and egging us on. The bookie was looking a bit concerned.  We won again. After winning the 5th race we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and take our winnings.  Beginners luck.  

Casinos and race meetings are fascinating places  to people watch.  You really do get all sorts.  At the casino the most reckless gamblers were the Chinese.  They would lose small fortunes and act as if it didn't matter.  "Keeping Face" lol.  I found the same when we were in China.  They will bet on anything.  It seems to be a macho thing.  

Roller coaster rides.....no thanks. They make me feel ill and give me vertigo.  I once visited a lighthouse in Orkney and passed out.  Not my finest hour.  My vertigo seems to come and go.  Once went for a walk along the cliffs at Lands End. The vertigo was so bad, my poor husband had to practically carry me back to the car. And yet i am fine with chair lifts and cable cars.  Go figure.  Lol. 

Looking back the most reckless thing I did was hitch hiking. Didn't give it a second thought. It was a different matter when I had my own children. I even hated them getting taxis, even when they were with their mates. I much preferred it when they let us pick them up.  

 I was never really happy until they were home safe and sound.......

Apart from the responsibility of becoming a parent, times have changed a lot in our attitude to safety and risk.
Remember you could drive drunk without a seatbelt as one example.
Also rose tinted spectacles have a place as many seem to think the world is a more dangerous place nowadays, than it was in the good old days, when they as children could play out on their own without fear of abduction etc.
Just think about the Moors Murders ! ( which happened close to where I lived and I was about the same age) .

If you want to understand the terrifying extent to which most of us believe that today's world is a much worse place than it was in the past, and much worse than it actually is, I reccomend the book "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling.

  I've just lashed out and bought it. Currently 99p on kindle.  @Pat38493

I have as well. Has coming on here cost me 99p or saved me £12 against the list price??

Doesn't have to be an either or, can be both! 

We had an old minister, now long gone, whose wife was enthusing over bargains and savings available from reduced prices. His response was:-

"Margaret, we can't afford to save any more money!"