Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

beanielou

If I am going backwards to think when I was wee it's all due to being in hospital & being scared.

KajiKita

beanielou said:

If I am going backwards to think when I was wee it's all due to being in hospital & being scared.

Huge sympathies x 

For me it was about being a nuisance and having to be on my own a lot to leave my parents to work in a big Victorian house ….

There’s also a lot to unpack around my inherent perfectionism, apparently … 😉🤷‍♀️😊

KK

beanielou

Nothing in this life is simple it seems. x 

KajiKita

beanielou said:

Nothing in this life is simple it seems. x 

I love the quote that we are similar water levels as a plant but with more complex emotions … 😉 That puts it into perspective for me.

Also, when feeling weighed down by the layers of conditioning and past times I remind myself that, in spite of all of that, I function pretty well as a person, member of society, friend, cat owner, wife etc. 😊

KK

Brie

KajiKita said:

Thanks @redofromstart, they seem remarkably reluctant to talk to me about values or anything else but they have recently rebranded themselves (tbh I think the fund has changed hands) so maybe there was a hiatus whilst they were in transition. I will try again. Waiting and getting more value later does sound like it would be logical …

@Brie, why would 60 be the age to look at it again? Genuine question. 

I don’t feel like a kitten at nearly 55. I feel old and tired already ….

KK

Given your relatively youngster status currently I'm guessing that the normal retirement age for the scheme is 65.  But I'd certainly check that that is correct.  And make sure they send proof that is correct because my administrators got it wrong for me at one point because the scheme had changed and my NRD was 60 but my OH's (same scheme, later version) was 65.  

But assuming it's 65 you want to get an update on where things stand.  Now I thought that DB schemes had to send out benefit statements at least once every 2 years.  (most schemes I've been in it's been yearly).  But sometimes the info is a bit daft as they are assuming that you are still working for them and an active member of the scheme.  Which of course means the info is wrong.  But if you ask for a retirement quote for when you turn 60 you can check the situation and have a better understanding of what things might be like when you hit 65 (or whatever other NRD they might have).

AND in 5 years things in your life may have changed as well.  Premium bond win, so much overpaying on your mortgage that it's paid off, inheritance, whatever.   And all of these things obviously change one's need and perception of need for money.  You might decide you want to retire and contemplate your lovely garden and find you can live off the DB ££ until you hit state pension age and get all that oh so very generous ££££ as well.  

AND also - you're obviously a spreadsheet kinda person so keeping track of these things is a positive.  When I put all my pension number together it was a relief to see how much there actually was rather than thinking I might have to scrape by on discount beans and yellow sticker food.  

KajiKita

Been a busy but satisfying day 😊

- 2 loads of washing dried on the line, folded or hung and all put away 👏😊
- watered pots, veggie beds (those under cultivation so far) and new plantings. Walked two full watering cans down to the bottom of the garden to give life to the bay tree and the Amalanchier. The spare sweet pea plant I popped in the Amalanchier ‘bed’ is doing rather well 😊
- Wrangled the Tosco’s delivery on my own as Mr KK was excavating more subsoil and roughly made up path to make space for shuttering for steps …
- Cleaned the downstairs loo. 
- Cleared the greenhouse now that the kale has finished flowering and took all the flowering stems out of the parsley. Gave the parsley and the one remaining red sorrel a good drink. 

- Excavated (literally - there were brambles growing through it! 😳) the cedar staging from behind one of the sheds. I think this will be its last year as it becoming completely rotten - shame. Took it down to the greenhouse, set it up and then took down all my dahlias and the slowly rooting cuttings of comfrey bocking 14. This has made a load of space in the conservatory 😊
- Cleaned the glass fronted cupboards in the kitchen and the insides and outsides of the patio doors glass to the lounge. 

- Did all my financial updates. 

- Read all the emails relating to a parish council topic and also drafted some feedback from one of the parishioners who was being passionate at me about it, ready for the AGM on Monday

Had a lovely hour on the sofa doing tapestry this afternoon in the heat of the day and then had a cuppa on the bench with Mr KK by the big pond. We saw a broad bodied chaser (like a stubby bodied powder blue dragonfly) and a couple of red damsel flies 😊

I have really focused on drinking lots more water today and I’m not worrying about eating snacks - just making sure they are not refined carbs and do include fibre and protein 😊 It does seem to have helped my energy levels. 

KK

KajiKita

Thanks @Brie, all useful thoughts.
I think you are right about the standard age for the scheme being 65. 

It’s a bit of weird one as the scheme was owned by my then employer but they withdrew the DB pension as a benefit and moved all employees into a DC scheme. After a while the DB scheme was ‘sold’ to someone else. 

KK 

redofromstart

Mr Redos scheme (DB Pension 1) was the same situation, the company was sold, pension fund was transferred and then the pension company itself changed hands several times, although his guaranteed pension remained roughly the same. I have also been involved on the fringes of these transactions from the company end.

On the simplest level of explanation the company 'sell' the whole company DB fund and liability to a pension company and effectively buy a policy for the members and transfer the risk to the pension provider.  The individual still gets the guaranteed benefit they have bought (although some of the frills may vanish, and as Brie says, check the detail), but if the fund doesn't perform then the pensions company lose out. This makes it easier to sell the company itself as the unknown pension fund liability ends because the responsibility has transferred to the pension provider.   

I get annual statements of fund value from my DC pensions, but never from my two tiny DB pensions once I had left (one USS, one PPF) presumably because they have a fixed benefit rather than a fund value as such.  When Mr Redo got to 55 they both sent him pension options packs which is what I assume you have had.

Cheery_Daff

I'm late to the pension party (tried posting the other day but lost internet) but just wanted to say definitely check DB pension figures accurately. We took Mr C's DB pension early at 58. We'd been under the impression it was always better to wait, but in his case, because he hadn't paid into it for 10 years anyway, the difference wasn't that great - a few years of additional pension made up for the slightly lower amount. 

I was still all for waiting, but because of our stupid age difference, it worked for us. Mr C wanted to feel like he was contributing more financially, and it allowed me to drop down to 4 days at work earlier than planned.

It may not have been the absolutely optimal financial decision in terms of compound rates or whatever, but for us it was a small difference and well worth it.

KajiKita

Cheery_Daff said:

I'm late to the pension party (tried posting the other day but lost internet) but just wanted to say definitely check DB pension figures accurately. We took Mr C's DB pension early at 58. We'd been under the impression it was always better to wait, but in his case, because he hadn't paid into it for 10 years anyway, the difference wasn't that great - a few years of additional pension made up for the slightly lower amount. 

I was still all for waiting, but because of our stupid age difference, it worked for us. Mr C wanted to feel like he was contributing more financially, and it allowed me to drop down to 4 days at work earlier than planned.

It may not have been the absolutely optimal financial decision in terms of compound rates or whatever, but for us it was a small difference and well worth it.

Interesting … I left that job c. 8 years ago and it closed maybe 3 years before that. 

KK