Virgo In Pursuit

jwil

It's definitely worth opening a LISA even if you choose not to use it immediately.  You need to open it before you are 40 and if you don't use it for a house, you can use it towards retirement.  You can open a cash LISA just with £1.

anjyeah

Back for a catch-up - just returned from a three day city trip. I haven't really went anywhere since the pandemic and the little break, although local, is just what I needed for my mental health. I never realised how much I missed going somewhere outside of my usual confines until this trip. It was just what I needed before the month ended. Hope you all have a chance for yourself as well  

First of all - welcome @GinoOhGinoGinelli! To the forum, this page and to your debt-busting journey. I've bookmarked your page too as I like to go around the boards and read on everyone's journey. I will take your advice on the LISA. I'm going to look around on what accounts suit me - I don't know if it's advisable to go with my usual bank? I'll see 

Thank you - @jwil! It's just the last piece of information I needed to go and apply for a LISA. I can always transfer funds over should I decide my current HTB one isn't for me, I only did apply for it for the sole reason that I get it access to the HTB properties but that scheme has changed recently too. 

There really is no harm isn't it? With my age now, it's really looking beneficial for me. Someone said it here before (or maybe on the social media guides that I follow) - I need to start investing on my future self so I little pot like this whether for property or retirement would suit me well. Thank you! 

Hope everyone has a good weekend ahead. I have already had my little treat to tide me through.

I've booked myself for an extra shift tomorrow - psyching myself to go more like. The idea of the money reward motivates me, I just don't want to remove my coloured nails (as it's not allowed)

jokono

Mmmm, I would love a few days away, without the children!  

I was one of the people who suggested LISA and I don't have one.  We already bought a house so I could only use it for retirement and that feels like such a long time away. But I am almost 40 and the 25% bonus is huge, so I will go on to the retirement boards to read up and open one before the financial year end.

I'm intrigued about your work, why would you not be allowed coloured nails? No need to answer if you feel like it's giving too much information

anjyeah

jokono said:

Mmmm, I would love a few days away, without the children!  

I was one of the people who suggested LISA and I don't have one.  We already bought a house so I could only use it for retirement and that feels like such a long time away. But I am almost 40 and the 25% bonus is huge, so I will go on to the retirement boards to read up and open one before the financial year end.

I'm intrigued about your work, why would you not be allowed coloured nails? No need to answer if you feel like it's giving too much information

Yes you did! I just went a few pages and saw your suggestion there - thank you!  

I don't have my own property yet but I'm building money towards it. If I ended up not using it for that, then it can go to my retirement fund - I'll have a lurk on your page as well to see what you find. These days I find myself scrolling through the boards even on my phone for reading so I'm going to hunt for those information as well. 

Oh I don't mind - I work in the health care sector so painted nails / fake nails are against policy. It's my guilty pleasure when I get long days off but I picked a nice colour this time it sucks to let it go. I can't even hide it as it's not neutral or a light colour (I had it painted sky blue) 

anjyeah

I have a confession to make and it’s mostly to do on the motivation as to why I have been booking extra shifts. I have gone through my spreadsheet for this year - it’s only really simple page with a graph of my current debt and savings. I have reached that point where they meet and the trajectory that I want to see for both. Which is good!

However - I forgot to account for my CC1. The same credit card that I paid off following the balance transfer but kept for minimum spends. Well, rookie mistake - those spends accumulated and haven’t honestly put back the full amount when I used them. I don’t like it. It’s only a £1,000 but it’s far from last year’s zero. The little charges I did from our celebrations all the way to Christmas (the going outs that I didn’t account for) have added up so I will stick to the original plan of me not using it all until I get back some reasonable control for myself. Come to think of it, I also did get an alert from my spending account that my highest spends have been eating out lately so I will modify that budget for this month once I’m in the right mindset. 

And I might just update my SOA if I need to - I haven't updated it since I started this diary so I might as well revisit it so I know what I'm dealing with again. 

Tasks for the week ahead and possibly next month: 

• Review budget plan (maybe post it on here for extra scrutiny) and maybe look for the right budget log for my journals that would keep me on track 
• Continue decluttering and reselling - all items now listed. Time to hunt for more to post. 
• Starting today, my CC 1 will join the ranks of my CC2  balance transfer card and will just be on my board for display - within sight but out of reach. 

Rookie mistake! But hey, some setbacks and then plans to make up for it.

anjyeah

PS: I have decided to go ahead with the LISA as suggested - been reading through the guide on here and it has convinced me. 

As you said, I may not want to use it now but at least I get to create the account and maximise my contributions once I'm able to. I'll might try to balance it with my HTB ISA but that's a topic for another day - I haven't fully convinced myself on that one plan of action anyway. 

jwil

Great news about the LISA.  Many of us have been there with the CC as well.  It's good that you've caught yourself early.

GinoOhGinoGinelli

Thanks so much for the warm welcome @anjyeah 

I imagine we'll all make the odd error, or forget to add things to our budget, but you are making excellent progress, so it's a blip in the journey and you have a solid plan!

That's great news about the LISA, as it would be a shame to miss out on the Government top-up. I can't wait until I get to the point where I can actually pay a decent amount into mine though!

Have a lovely weekend 

anjyeah

GinoOhGinoGinelli said:

Thanks so much for the warm welcome @anjyeah 

I imagine we'll all make the odd error, or forget to add things to our budget, but you are making excellent progress, so it's a blip in the journey and you have a solid plan!

That's great news about the LISA, as it would be a shame to miss out on the Government top-up. I can't wait until I get to the point where I can actually pay a decent amount into mine though!

Have a lovely weekend 

I will probably set one up for now and think about decent transfers once I sort out my debt too! I can't wait to get to that point as well. 

Yeah, the setbacks are a clear reminder that nothing is indeed perfect in this journey. I’ve forgiven myself on that one especially now that I know a bit better. Speaking of set backs.... the next five days will be chill as I am now isolating. I work in the health sector and even with COVID surrounding me daily, I never got infected. The two weeks that I’m on leave is the week that I do. So the next five days will be hopefully - low spend as I’ll just be indoors. All good though. I think I was more bummed out that my plans now have to be diverted, but it is what it is. 

The time will allow me to sort out the money-saving tasks ahead: 

• Sort out budget 
• Allocate extra shift funds to CC1/2 or savings - it’s really pennies after tax but it’s still something 
• Cancel subscriptions that I’m no longer using and reactivate only when I have my shows lined up (Netflix, Disney+ are both making the cut this month). 
• Definitely no more CC spending! 
• Meal plan

I’ll be keeping an eye on here once I’ve done most of mentioned tasks above. Stay safe everyone and have a good weekend! 

jwil

Sorry about Covid, hope it's mild and you get to have a good rest.