Getting FIREd up 😀

South_coast

No, me neither 😯!

South_coast

£10 Pinecone reached and reward redeemed 🎉!

South_coast

Right, a sensible post for once 🤣!

First of the month round-up....

• Cards minus savings: £271.32 (DOWN £3,133.13) - so near, but yet so far 😅!
• Savings for retirement: £148,279.72 (UP £486.95)
• 7.75 years to go

So I did manage to cross the £100k in pensions threshold this month, but the £150k total saved for retirement excitement will need to wait for another month 😀

I do wonder sometimes whether I'll ever feel the benefit of working. After setting money aside for the credit cards, bills, food and petrol, I was left with a measly 8% for me - which doesn't feel like a lot (this is actually nothing new, but it did feel unusually depressing this month)! I know that this year I have been focusing on the credit cards, but then next year (and the year after 😬) it's repaying my neglected pots, then it's getting FIREd up.... It feels like by the time there's actually none needed for other things, I'll be retiring - and then I'll still have to think about what I am spending! I know it's all for the greater good, but it does feel relentless sometimes!

Additionally, following the budget, I'm pondering whether to re-jig the order in which I repay my pots next year 🤔 I'm due to start getting FIREd up in July 2027, so the reduction in the amount I can put into a cash ISA from April 2027 isn't too much of an issue for me, as I'll be moving from cash to investments that tax year anyway, but it would be sensible to try and make the most of the £20k allowance for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 years. The plan for (calendar) 2026 was to hammer down the car finance and get rid of that early, but I may change that around so that instead I start with cash I'll be hanging onto for a while rather than soon paying back out again (I'm thinking of the next tranche of "the other thing" and the like). I need to tot up exactly where I am at the minute and see how much allowance I still have left before I make a decision (not very easy when Moneybox only show a running total of what I've put in, and doesn't deduct what I've taken out 🤦‍♀️!) Lots to think about, am adding it to the Christmas holidays to-do list!

South_coast

Balance transfer update: I've managed to get 21 months with a 3% fee, so have loaded that up with the January card and a few hundred from the March one. Total credit limit now over £80k, with 9 cards from 7 providers 😬

debtfreeoneday

Gawd I don’t know if I’m brave enough to have that much on credit cards. 

South_coast

Don't worry, the balance outstanding is nothing like that much! The important thing is that I'm only a few hundred away from having it all offset in savings 👍

South_coast

Actually, that's just prompted me to close down a £6k one I'd identified for removal, so back down to £74,750 now 😅!

Jessy103

South_coast said:

Actually, that's just prompted me to close down a £6k one I'd identified for removal, so back down to £74,750 now 😅!

I just did a 'clutch my pearls' at that amount 🤣

South_coast

🤣🤣🤣

Panic not, that's just the credit limit! I actually owe just over £21k, and have all but £442 already sat in the bank (gone up a bit since the start of the month due to the balance transfer fee, but will be fully offset on payday 😀)

QueenJess

Wow... and yet no one wants to extend my current credit despite seeing my earnings come in and always paying my bills off in full.  And my credit is a minuscule amount of yours!.  The mind boggles..