Rolling Down the Green Hill Towards REtirement 😊🌄💚💜

greent

Some thoughts on possible targets/ aims/ plans for this year:

Health (& Wellbeing)

Lose weight – having lost 2.5 stone in 2020 I regained most of this in the lockdown at the start of 2021 – I found that one really hard mentally and ate my way through it. New job hasn’t helped at the end of the year – so much food is around in a school! I want to get back to where I was this time last year – and maybe even a bit more. Am limited in what I can do exercise wise compared to before, so it will be more about getting my food right than burning it off..

Frozen shoulder – caused by jab 2 going into shoulder joint, not arm….. ouch! Movement has been getting more limited ☹

Dodgy big toe nail – a fungal infection years ago meant it mostly fell off and then started growing sideways and ultra thick – it’s very ugly and means I can only wear certain footwear (from a pain point). I have tried several podiatrists but none are taking on new clients. GP wasn’t interested. Need to sort it.

Other niggling issues will most likely improve if I achieve the weight loss (eg knees and hips)

 

Wellbeing/ personal grooming – I should really get my hair cut more often than I do – especially now that I have a ‘proper’ job and interact with SLT and parents (and my photo is out there!)  – I’m thinking that upping it to 3x/ year seems doable! – I also should get my brows done professionally about the same number of times/ year – and then maintain them in between by myself. I bought more work clothes when I started this job- and then a few more Winter-y tops. I should be ok for a while (although I do still have a very small work wardrobe) until I get into some smaller clothes (bought when I lost the 2 stone…)

 

Wealth

I started loosely monitoring our net wealth in 2021 – will continue this in 2022 on a monthly basis would like to see a decent improvement over the next year (with the note that a decent chunk of readily available monies currently held will be used on home improvements)

I have £300/ mth going into my S&S ISA and ad-hoc an average of another £200/ mth on top – should probably up this. I also make ad-hoc payments into my SiPP – not so much into DH’s, even though is a HR taxpayer, as he has way more pension than I do already.

Sort out transferring my old TP scheme (in it less than 2 years) to LGPS and figure out whether I want to merge my old LGPS with new scheme LGPS…

Some of our accumulated savings will be going in the ‘Home & Garden’ category – but would like to cashflow some of the jobs.

New rewards based CC to be applied for to use for our joint everyday spending (eg food shopping, fuel etc) and paid off as we go along – just to get the rewards – a case of every little (with basically no effort) helps

Review savings accounts – 2 reg savers mature early Feb – fingers crossed rates are improving.

 

Happiness

A holiday would be lovely! – but I’m not going abroad until I feel the ‘vid situation has improved.  Look at something in the UK – Centreparcs, maybe?  We have the money from our 2020 Florida trip stashed in PBs for sometime in the future (2023??)

Graduation ceremonies can hopefully finally happen this year for DD & DS1

We have a comedy night out in Jan with friends, another in April, a couple of music gigs and 2 vouchers for afternoon teas – although we won’t be being silly at any of these.

Get back into regular walks and family games sessions. We enjoy it once we make the effort.

 

 

Home (& Garden)

There is a list of jobs for around the home. Bigger ones include:

·        New bathroom for the boys – hopefully happening in Jan, but I haven’t heard anything from the chap for a while – will chase him up on it, as he was meant to be sending us details of the suite etc for our approval

·        Family room and home office remodelling – quite  a big job, as the floor has sunk (not on a sub frame) – meaning possible removal of a couple of walls, installation of sub frame, insulation and flooring (engineered oak) and new doorways – changing them slightly. Moving the 2 existing radiators in the family room (and chaging the type) and installing a radiator in office (currently has an electric wall panel heater). New skirting boards, new door architraves, new windowsills (3 – 2 are large – they are the plastic type and have cracked) and new lighting in both rooms

·        New outside lighting in front garden, back garden and one side of the house. Garage wiring to be brought up to current spec (currently unsafe) Possible CCTV.

·        New oak internal doors (possibly new architraves) – we have a LOT of internal doors and most are fire doors. Not  a cheap job.

·        Would also like at some point (maybe not 2022) – railings at either side of front garden, new driveway (extending it slightly), new patio and side paths, retaining wall rebuilt in back garden

·        Smaller jobs – redecorate living room, dining room, touch up kitchen, paint fencing, new hallway and landing lights, repaint our bathroom, new curtain rail for DS3’s room, maybe redo DS2’s room entirely…

edinburgher

Happy new diary greent - your input is always valued and it's good to see you sticking around

@killerpeaty - I think that the question you have raised will worry quite a few MFWers, as anecdotally there's often one "planner" and one "silent partner" in long term financial planning. Coming at this from a bit of a tangent, but if we/ a spouse or partner were to lose their marbles or die (God forbid), we/they would not be legally entitled to spend our/their money unless the accounts were joint/POA or guardianship was held. That's not me being trendy with the pronouns, just pointing out that the silent partner has just as much a chance of losing capacity/dying as the planner.

This is further complicated when most of the accounts are in one name (definitely a problem in our house, creative solutions were required to resolve it). That said, sounds like greent has everything under control (and unlikely that her DH would be instantly skint should the worst happen with a six figure salary)

killerpeaty

Hope it didn't come across as though I thought you literally hid the info! I know a lot of couples have one taking the lead on finances, I'm just nosey.

You have so much to do, I look forward to hearing how you get on!

Suffolk_lass

Happy new diary. Happy, Healthy and lighter 2022 too to you two

Don't leave that pension merger question - there is a very short window within which you are allowed to transfer one DB pension to another (six months for some). With less than 2 years in TP your best option needs to be carefully looked at as you have reserved rights to take it below state pension age whereas LGPS changed their rues and basis for calculation to SPA and averaging rather than FS. You should also consider a CETV is you are looking at moving or taking it early

try_harder

Always love reading your diary ,will look forward to following along .Good Luck

Porridgecat

Good luck with your plans, I'm pleased you've started a new diary so I can keep up from the beginning. 

maggiem

Happy happy New Diary Greent. Hope all your exciting plans come to fruition. 

Suffolk_lass

Porridgecat said:

Good luck with your plans, I'm pleased you've started a new diary so I can keep up from the beginning. 

I love that - it is the equivalent of me - "that's a nice cardboard box, far too nice to throw away..."

killerpeaty

@Suffolk_lass why are so many cardboard boxes so nice?  I have so many and yet I still "save" more.

Suffolk_lass

killerpeaty said:

@Suffolk_lass why are so many cardboard boxes so nice?  I have so many and yet I still "save" more.

lol - I saw on FB it's a sign we are getting old. I turned out the cupboard under the stairs between Christmas and New Year and I am ashamed to say that two muck boot boxes and four gin bottle boxes with the nice inflated plastic bottle-"condoms" went back in