Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

I struggled a bit to get to sleep last night, for the first time this holiday so maybe I am finally catching up on my sleep debt. Time to pull the alarm froward to 6.30am. 

Got a (free) call with a pensions specialist this morning. One effect has been to make me get all my pension paperwork in order. Yee Gods there are so many of them, two with Aviv@ from two separate employers! I guess that’s what comes of moving around so much. It will be interesting to see what they have to say about my situation. This call has been arranged via a cold contact through LI and I note that a ‘sales person’ at the same company looked at my LI profile 8 hours ago so I expect to start being bombarded with sales calls …. 😉🤷‍♀️

Then I will go out to see a friend. This is an old friend but one who is quite hard in her view of the world, judgemental and inclined to look down on others (in spite of all her Buddhist practice 😉). I am going to see her because she has nagged me to, a lot. It will be interesting to see how this visit goes and if it leaves me feeling up or down …..

Mr KK has Jeep friend coming round today and after one last effort on the braking system (they are struggling to get a hard pedal) they are going to move into putting the steering column and gear box back in etc. 

When I get back, it will be leftovers for lunch and I am going to sow some red onion seeds and start my inventory in the cellar (progress to date enclosed 😊) / keep going with reviewing vegan grocery items in the kitchen.



KK

KajiKita

Oh and we tried my HM piccalilli last night - it was really good! 😊👏 So chuffed as I have never tried anything like that before 😊

I have some HM tomato ketchup from my homegrown tomatoes in the cellar too - I should bring that up and try it too 😊

KK

South_coast

I managed to sleep for 10 hours last night, can't quite decide whether that's a good or bad thing 😮! Good luck with your multiple tasks today, hope the friend can't find too many bad things to say 🤞

KajiKita

Just had an interesting 'free' chat about my pensions with someone who contacted me through LI ... I suspect I was 'picked on' as being over 50 (so I am allowed to fiddle with my pensions now) ...

One thing I discovered through this process (it made me file all the paperwork in folders by provider and in chronological order) is that I already have 6 different pensions, two of them with @viv@ from 2 different employers!! He was interested in my first job's 'final salary pension' and turning that into cash that his company could then manage for me for flexi retirement etc.. Whereas I was more interested in looking at doing something with all the little bits of pensions I have, here, there and everywhere. He was upfront with me and said that he reckoned they would equate to c. £26K of cash funds or so, and as his company's fees would be £1K for doing this I would be better off doing this myself. I wondered if a SIPP might be a good idea. He suggested looking at @viv@ as I already have two of the tiny pensions with them!

I have to go out now, but I think tomorrow I shall give @viv@ a call and find out what their SIPP is like, the fees for doing internal v. external transfers of those funds and doing a bit more research on SIPPs in general. 

KK

KajiKita

South_coast said:

I managed to sleep for 10 hours last night, can't quite decide whether that's a good or bad thing 😮! Good luck with your multiple tasks today, hope the friend can't find too many bad things to say 🤞

You must have needed it South! 

Heading out now …. 

KK 

KajiKita

The visit to the friend went okay, she was in a good mood and I came away with root trainers, old New Scientists and a pot of mushroom pate she had bought for both us to try ❤️ Very kind of her 😊

I have JFDI’d and started the process of combining the 4 tiny pensions into one SIPP via @viv@. The advisor took me through the process and I have bookmarked the relevant my @viv@ pages so I can see the progress of the transfers and see how the SIPP is performing in future. The transfers should be complete within 3 to 6 weeks so worst case by end of February I can chuck out a ream’s worth of other pension paperwork and just look at 3 pensions (my first employer’s ‘final salary’ one, the SIPP and the one I am building with my current employer). So relieved to have this done as it has been hanging over me for ages. I feel like a grown up!! 👏👍💪😂😉

KK

badmemory

Be very careful re your pensions.  A real pension advisor is not allowed to cold call for one thing.  Another is a final salary pension is unlikely to be improved by moving it out.  Also the smaller Aviva type pensions could be cashed in & if you need small amounts could be better kept in small bits to do this.  Please post on the pensions bit of this website.  Although sometimes it appears that they are helping people with huge pensions they are also helpful for others.  I think they will agree with me that a real pension advisor would not even suggest moving out of a final salary pension without a face to face first.  There are a very limited number of situations where that would be a good idea.  Obviously I am no expert but used to read that part of the site a lot.  They tend to be blunt, so don't take it amiss.  If Dunstonh is still posting (I think he is) then you will have struck gold.

The biggest scams going in the last 20 odd years have been peoples pensions, so extreme caution.

KajiKita

badmemory said:

Be very careful re your pensions.  A real pension advisor is not allowed to cold call for one thing.  Another is a final salary pension is unlikely to be improved by moving it out.  Also the smaller Aviva type pensions could be cashed in & if you need small amounts could be better kept in small bits to do this.  Please post on the pensions bit of this website.  Although sometimes it appears that they are helping people with huge pensions they are also helpful for others.  I think they will agree with me that a real pension advisor would not even suggest moving out of a final salary pension without a face to face first.  There are a very limited number of situations where that would be a good idea.  Obviously I am no expert but used to read that part of the site a lot.  They tend to be blunt, so don't take it amiss.  If Dunstonh is still posting (I think he is) then you will have struck gold.

The biggest scams going in the last 20 odd years have been peoples pensions, so extreme caution.

Thanks for the warning @badmemory. Please don't worry though, I have absolutely no intention of letting anyone other than my original provider, anywhere near my final salary pension! 

KK

KajiKita

Good morning all 😊

Had a really bad night’s sleep last night. Partly to do with the cat wanting to come in with me when I had to get up in the middle of the night (but at least Mr KK got to sleep through for a change!) but also I suspect because of all the junk I am consuming at the moment. Haven’t quite got it in me to go completely ‘cold turkey’ on it, but aiming for no more than one packet of crisp and two chocolates today to see if that helps. It’s dry here today so I also want to get out in the garden - I think that should also help. Not sure if I am going to clear the path through the bed that I want to set up, cut back and clear all the volunteers and weeds on the patio or cut back, cardboard and top-mulch one of the veggie beds …. I want a job that I can do in one day and see from the house so it encourages me to keep going in the garden over the weeks to come. 

Also, want to make a start on my YNAB budget today, do some more Duolingo and some QMee. I will also have to feed our Jeep friend some lunch. Probably soup, cheese and part baked rolls (after baking them! 😉).

KK

KajiKita

Well the YNAB budget is being reluctant! I have a complexity that Mr KK and I contribute to two joint accounts (one just for food and one for all house costs such as mortgage, utilities etc.) at different intervals (me monthly and him fortnightly). I have been wrestling with how to organise all this. As often happens with me, the back of my head has been working in this whilst I have been doing other things today 😊 I think I have worked out how to manage it - I will use three accounts for balancing my YNAB budget(s) against (the two above and my personal one)  whilst also categorising the spends against the YNAB categories as ‘Must haves’, ‘savings’ and wants. 

I have had a good session in the garden. Hoicked out all the big weeds on one of my veggie beds, carboarded it and spread enough compost and old pot contents on it to hold it down as it gets wet from all the rain tomorrow. Also, cut back the last huge straggly lavender in the front garden and dragged all of that down to the bonfire. The root needs removing at some point but that will need a mattock or Mr KK 😊

Another nice thing out there, was that I managed to rehome a whole load of foxgloves from the veggie bed I cleared to the bottom of the garden, under the apple tree by the pond. Hoping they flower this spring 😊

Whilst cooking dinner this evening I wandered into one of the Frugal Queen of France’s videos, specifically about the 5 habits of people who are never poor. She got quite animated when she got to the 3rd habit about waste! She had specifically mentioned people thoughtlessly having multiple toiletries, moisturisers, or bottles of cleaning materials on the go at the same time. My eye happened to fall on the bathroom window sill as I was showering just now …. Oh dear …. I have <whisper> 7 bottles of shower gel on the go atm! 😳 This is ludicrous! I think it’s partly a hangover from the days when I was in huge debt and having different, nice smelling shower gels was an indulgence I could just about afford. But it points to a consumption habit in me that is not helpful (would I rather be mortgage free or have 7 different shower gels?  An easy question to answer!) It makes me wonder what other excessive consumption or waste habits I have … something for me to keep an eye out for. For now, I will work my way down through the 7 that I have open atm and limit myself to a maximum of 3 open at once 😉

(Top tip: if you have a toiletries bottle that doesn’t want to stand upside down so you can fully empty it, set it up in a plastic jug! 😂😊)

KK