How much to live on

Willow1983

congratulations Organgrinder 🥳 happy retirement. Willow

louby40

CONGRATULATIONS welcome to the retired teachers club!

If it's all quiet on the TP website your lump sum will drop on 1st Sept or whenever that first Monday is.

It all worked seamlessly for me.

BEST thing I ever did.

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073653#Comment_82073653

Well they've updated my service history to the end of August which I'm told means all is being processed.

My timetable for next year looks great too.

Smudgeismydog

Congrats, I’m so pleased for you

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073653#Comment_82073653

Oh just re-read your post. No lump sum for me. I'm in the NPA65 and CA schemes. I took some of these on a phased retirement.

Prior to teaching I worked in IT, so took lump sums from those when I went part time. Have used these to pay mortgage off and have continued to top up my personal pension.

Humboldt

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073322#Comment_82073322

Congratulations @Organgrinder. Wishing you a long and happy retirement.

Organgrinder

Well first week of "retired life" completed.

Haven't done a great deal to be honest. Couple of bike rides and reorganised finances again.

In terms of goals.....

Cooked from scratch more -tick

Played guitar -tick

Cycled -tick

On the finance side, I've opened two new ISA's purely for cashback purposes. £1100 invested for £175 cashback payable in 4 months. Not a bad rate of return!

I've got a new balance transfer card at 0% and hopefully my existing cards will continue to offer deals. So got sufficient credit to transfer approx £20k of stoozing from card which are due to end in the next 8 months.

Still waiting to hear from teachers pensions with regard said pension and still waiting to hear from HMRC about new tax codes.

Currently waiting to see how much EDF will credit my account for the football free electricity. Currently paying £162 /month - pretty certain I can lower this but to be prudent I'll leave it there until I know how much the EV will cost to run from Sept onwards.

Clubcard challenges ends on Sunday too. Racked up another 3400 points worth £68 in partner vouchers. Though the cupboards are now bulging with tomatoes etc!

louby40

I'm glad you've enjoyed your first week of retirement. And that you continue to be money savvy! I think people like us enjoy the challenge.

We have just changed our broadband after our 2 year contract ended, we were paying £38 a month with Sky. We have now changed to EE which is £25.99 a month, it does rise after the first year but the most we will pay is £29.99. I went through Topcashback which has given me £100 (I've just seen it's claimable ) and EE are also sending me a £100 gift card. It's a total no brainer.

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82080372#Comment_82080372

I use three for my broadband. Decent speed and £17/month.

I've claimed about £1300 from topcashback over the last 3 years too. Sometimes you end up paying a little more but overall it always works out cheaper.

But yes, I do like the challenge of saving money. I'm not tight, just like to get value for money. We've spent about £30k on various house renovations over the past 5 years along with another £25k on changing cars and probably £20k on holidays. That said when I look at that I almost shudder!!!

louby40

We are off on our first ever cruise at the weekend. It was booked 2 years ago in order for us to watch the Total Eclipse from Spain. We are going with my parents who have been avid cruisers for the past 12 years - both in their 80's but extremely fit and well (my dad still rides his bike around their little town - he's nearly 84!)

We don't known if cruising is for us but are up for the experience and adventure!

We will be watching the Total Eclipse from El Ferrol - glasses at the ready!