Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

SandyShores

Good thinking @Brie.  MrShores has two or three year's missing for some reason(s) but he's got another 12 years of work to add on and make it up to maximum, so from memory it was fine.  But I'll double check again when he's home.

KajiKita

Brie said:

KajiKita said:

Brie said:

@greenbee
you might want to ask some questions over on the pension board.  there's an IFA that lives over that way and some others who know bits (I lurk too as a former scheme administrator).   But first thing I tell anyone is to drop it all in a spreadsheet complete with contact details & account numbers for everything.  Makes life so much easier.  

Thanks for the book title KK.  And get Mr KK to check his pension forecast and then see if he can plug any holes to bulk it up for retirement time.  

Thats a good idea Brie, I’ve started lusting them but not with critical details. 

Zero chance of Mr KK bulking up his pension … honestly. 

KK

Lusting or listing???   

re Mr KK I meant can he buy extra years on his state pension?  He'll see what gaps might be possible once he looks at the forecast.  I think it's about £900 currently to buy a full year that's missing but less if there's only a partial year required.  And, I think, it's about £6 per week extra that would be received for each year added up to the max possible.  Which makes the breakeven point about 2.3 years from starting to receive it.  

Hahaha …. I certainly lust after a decent pension! How one’s priorities change as you get older! 🤔😂😂

Ah, sorry, I was talking about his private pension he’s had since starting work. Hadn’t even thought about his state pension. I would imagine it’s fully funded as he’s being paying his stamp since he started work at 16 but it wouldn’t hurt to check. As and when the guberment website starts working again 🙄 I will give him a nudge 😊

KK

badmemory

It is always worth checking that everything re state pension is as it should be.  If only because some employers were somewhat less than accurate when entering employees NI Nos.  I also know of one years ago that never registered most of their employees as actual employees for about 20 years before they disappeared abroad.  Most of those employees never kept anything such as any payslips proving they had been employed.  It couldn't happen now as too many people access their own info & they would be too easy to catch out thankfully.

debtfreewannabe321

badmemory said:

It is always worth checking that everything re state pension is as it should be.  If only because some employers were somewhat less than accurate when entering employees NI Nos.  I also know of one years ago that never registered most of their employees as actual employees for about 20 years before they disappeared abroad.  Most of those employees never kept anything such as any payslips proving they had been employed.  It couldn't happen now as too many people access their own info & they would be too easy to catch out thankfully.

Hmm I have a few years missing on mine but I know I had a job in those years! I wonder if this is what happened to mine. 

badmemory

I have never been a very trusting person so I now have P60s going back almost 60 years.  I used to keep my pay slips & at the end of the year I used to check that they added up to my P60 before I got rid of them.

KajiKita

- Mr KK has grouted the verandah slabs - it looks amazing 🤩 
- He also did the summer pruning taking out all the new whippy growths of this year back to a spur of our cooker apple tree.  

- I topped up the washing liquid bottle for daily use from the monster one, which is now empty, and added washing up liquid to next week’s shopping list. 

- I also refilled the salt in the DW - not one of my favourite jobs as it’s so awkward to reach but it makes a big difference to how it functions, so worth doing. That has also been added to next week’s groceries list for replenishment. 

- Tried and failed to do a couple of surveys. Kept getting filtered out. I’ll try again tomorrow. 

- Wrangled Mr KK’s washing and all our towels. 

- Harvested 250g baby tomatoes - tasted fabulous, super zingy iykwim, had some on my lunch salad 😊 Need to add them to my produce tracker for the year 😊 Produce tracker has done ridiculously well this year, bolstered by so much fruit! 
- Suddenly ‘crashed’ so went to bed for an hour or so. Lots of short nights catching up on me I think. Felt a bit brighter after that and some lunch. 

- Made a fresh batch of mushroom nut loaf for my dinner tonight and the freezer 👏
- Harvested parsley and thyme for the loaf and mint for the spuds to accompany that and Mr KK’s trout 😊
- Neighbours we haven’t met before suddenly appeared having been told by a mutual friend neighbour that we have rocks to get rid of. They want to build a retaining wall (*all* the ground round here slopes!), we have spare rocks - match made in heaven! 😉😊

A good day 😊

KK

SandyShores

debtfreewannabe321 said:

badmemory said:

It is always worth checking that everything re state pension is as it should be.  If only because some employers were somewhat less than accurate when entering employees NI Nos.  I also know of one years ago that never registered most of their employees as actual employees for about 20 years before they disappeared abroad.  Most of those employees never kept anything such as any payslips proving they had been employed.  It couldn't happen now as too many people access their own info & they would be too easy to catch out thankfully.

Hmm I have a few years missing on mine but I know I had a job in those years! I wonder if this is what happened to mine. 

I think contracting out of SERPs had an effect on MrShores' state pension - I know he started his private pension when he was self employed - but there were other times, like when he was working for family or went travelling.

greenbee

KajiKita said:

greenbee said:

I've been ignoring pensions for a while now - I put quite a bit off effort in about 15 years' ago, but life has got in the way. I did consolidate some work pensions, but didn't consolidate the funds which really needs doing. So at the moment I have two 'big' personal pensions that I still pay into, my old SERPS opt-out pension, my last employer's pension and my current employer's pension. I'm seriously considering finding a financial advisor to help me sort it all out. 

I can send you the details of the chap I used if you like? He made it quite straightforward for me to understand. 

KK

Thanks - I'm going to try to find someone local (and ideally female), who is sympathetic to my ethical approach to investing. But if I can't find anyone I'll let you know!

greenbee

Brie said:

@greenbee
you might want to ask some questions over on the pension board.  there's an IFA that lives over that way and some others who know bits (I lurk too as a former scheme administrator).   But first thing I tell anyone is to drop it all in a spreadsheet complete with contact details & account numbers for everything.  Makes life so much easier.  

Thanks for the book title KK.  And get Mr KK to check his pension forecast and then see if he can plug any holes to bulk it up for retirement time.  

I'm FAR to scared of the pensions board. They'll expect me to know stuff I can't remember  

badmemory

They are nice over there but maybe a little more abrupt than most are used to over here.  If you don't want to ask at least read.  They seem sometimes to know more about what is what than someone can get from their provider or at least put it in words that the rest of us can understand.