FIREside Chats

SuperSecretSquirrel

edinburgher said:

Perhaps I'm part of the problem - nowt to spend money on but bills, Internet shopping, food and drink and investments?

Yep, same here. 0.4% being the best easy access cash savings rate probably has a part to play in this too. Might as well tie it up in the market and hope for the best...

SuperSecretSquirrel

South_coast said:

Well the BoE seems to think we're all going to rush out shopping as soon as we can, so it will be interesting to see if that figure plummets over the next 5 months. Then you'll know if it's just you!

If everyone has piled into investments, then the market crashes, there will be no money to service that pent up demand... Not that that has ever really stopped people spending in recent times - average household debt would probably just shoot up!

It'll be interesting to see if these new investors will try to "cut their losses" in the event of a large market correction...

Tartan_Mum

This might be people like me? First dip of the toe via a S&S ISA. Not overwhelmed so far but it’s only been a couple of months. 

This is why I like mortgage OP. It’s a blunt instrument but it’s certain. You pay it off and the balance reduces. The black and whiteness of this is reassuring. 

edinburgher

@Tartan_Mum - if you've opened an ISA because you want to provide for your future, accept that investments inevitably go up as well as down and have realistic expectations, no. If you've opened an ISA because "stocks can only go up - yay free money", yes

As an example of the sort of thing I'm talking about, there's a thread on Hotukdeals where a market leading savings account (3% RS from N@twest) is being shot down as useless by a vocal minority saying people should just buy cryptocurrencies.

becky_rtw

I was thinking about my S&S ISA today. Set up recently with a small amount in, but from next payday I could start piling significant money into it... Just not sure I want to do that yet, but then again I'm going to end up with full holding of PBs soon and unless I want to put my money under a mattress I'm not sure what else to do with it.

Can I withstand a correction? Yes. But how much I'm not sure. I don't NEED the money for anything so I suppose I could lose the lot, but I'd be bloody !!!!!! off if that happened and might not be able to retire as early as hoped for. 

Tartan_Mum

Absolutely. I’m so not a gambler! But I also know how things fluctuate which makes me nervous about losing our own hard earned £££ 😂😂

I just don’t “get” the crypto thing. It’s been kicking round for years. And I didn’t get it then and I still don’t now. Maybe I’m just a traditionalist. Maybe brain washed by the big corporates who don’t want (us) to get into it? Who knows. 

edinburgher

@becky_rtw - what a happy position to be in If you don't need the money for the mortgage, are there any home repairs that you need to take care of? One thing that you occasionally see mentioned in personal finance circles when people are thinking about FIRE are measures to improve energy efficiency etc. Before we FIRE I plan on replacing our solar panels, windows and doors, potentially adding solar hot water heating and an air source heat pump. I'll be lucky if these pay for themselves, but they will reduce our expenditures, will give us nice long warranties (one less thing to worry about) and are all good for the planet. Might be something to consider in a low interest world?

becky_rtw

We'll move when we retire as the building is tied to the business. Like all part commercial property we have to maintain the building exterior as part of business costs, but adding new kitchen or whatever in the living bit, doesn't tend to pay back in increase in value. 

We redid the garage a few years ago (former stables or hayloft we think) and sorted out the driveway for next owners as they may have two cars versus our one. 

Solar panels is an idea, not sure how feed in tariffs work for commercial property. Something to investigate. *saunters off to Google*

I agree that these sort of things are great for environmental and self sufficiency basis even if they don't pay back in financial returns. 

Cheery_Daff

edinburgher said:

@becky_rtw - what a happy position to be in If you don't need the money for the mortgage, are there any home repairs that you need to take care of? One thing that you occasionally see mentioned in personal finance circles when people are thinking about FIRE are measures to improve energy efficiency etc. Before we FIRE I plan on replacing our solar panels, windows and doors, potentially adding solar hot water heating and an air source heat pump. I'll be lucky if these pay for themselves, but they will reduce our expenditures, will give us nice long warranties (one less thing to worry about) and are all good for the planet. Might be something to consider in a low interest world?

Love this suggestion 😊 We're not in this position yet, but until relatively recently have mostly ignored home improvements/big repairs - hence why it took us almost 3 years to get our old house ready for sale (not done any actual decorating since Mr Cheery moved in 25 years before, just added pictures/wall hangings/rugs) 😮 Changed our tune now we have this new place, and I'm finding it quite overwhelming thinking about everything that needs doing, although oddly satisfying knowing that I won't "have" to put up with misted double glazing and crappy central heating forever!

Still very much partly in that 'poor' mindset of just putting up with stuff cos it costs money to fix though 🙄 Only relatively recently come out of that position, and it's hard to adjust...

greenbee

Cheery - I'd really consider doing the eco-improvements as you sort the heating etc now rather than having more disruption later or thinking you'll get round to it. I have a 'solar ready' heating and hot water system, but really can't face this disruption. 

After all my efforts looking at pensions over the last week, I'm now even more confused about the work pension - I know that they are removing the qualified earnings cap (although whether for their contribution or just the employee one I'm not sure), but that they count the tax recovered at source as part of the contribution so take 4% employee contribution and count the tax to get it to 5% (not sure whether that's correct). HR have told me we're not changing to salary sacrifice but also sent an invitation to a 'Financial Wellbeing' webinar that includes 'how the change to salary sacrifice will affect you'. 

I've also discovered that my Aviva pension actually has useful information in it. Sometimes I wonder whether investments are actually do anything or I'm losing money... but as they list my contributions, employer contributions and tax reclaimed over the life of the pension it's clear that there's a lot more in there than I put in there, which is good news. Whether it has grown as much as it should have, I have no idea, but at least there is more in there than I've put in over the years. Sadly I can't find the same detail on other provider portals, but I'll make the same assumption.