Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

savingholmes

I had a previous neighbour regularly mow my lawn for me as we didn't get to it regularly enough and he had a touch of OCD. 

Sorry you had a bad week. Sounds like you made the best of it you could. Hugs. Hope this week goes better.

rtandon27

We regularly take our mower over to a friend's place and tidy it up for her - just because she never gets around to it! - LOL - no strings attached

Merlin's_Beard

@KajiKita - most positions for my role are 40 hour weeks plus weekends plus unpaid overtime, so my 37.5 hour average week (with weekends rolled into that) is actually pretty good, especially when I mainly finish vaguely on time - but I do four longer days so any evening training on top of that (especially not-really-voluntary nd quite boring) just makes a really long day, especially if there's no lunch break, and especially if the day after is relentlessly hellish.

Any sidesteps at the minute would be either a) management (do not want, would not play to my strengths, would be an increase in stress) or moving to an industry-adjacent role which would be a massive paycut and take me away from the bits I do enjoy.

(I would like it better if I did it part time, but that's an issue I'll revisit in 10-15 years time)

KajiKita

Merlin's_Beard said:

@KajiKita - most positions for my role are 40 hour weeks plus weekends plus unpaid overtime, so my 37.5 hour average week (with weekends rolled into that) is actually pretty good, especially when I mainly finish vaguely on time - but I do four longer days so any evening training on top of that (especially not-really-voluntary nd quite boring) just makes a really long day, especially if there's no lunch break, and especially if the day after is relentlessly hellish.

Any sidesteps at the minute would be either a) management (do not want, would not play to my strengths, would be an increase in stress) or moving to an industry-adjacent role which would be a massive paycut and take me away from the bits I do enjoy.

(I would like it better if I did it part time, but that's an issue I'll revisit in 10-15 years time)

Fair enough. It sounds like you are clear eyed about the pros and cons of where you are. 😊

KK

savingholmes

They didn't put that on the career day / degree day brochure did they... 

Merlin's_Beard

savingholmes said:

They didn't put that on the career day / degree day brochure did they... 

Ah no the worst thing is everyone you speak to tells you this, but you ignore it because you don't think it'll matter because you're a clueless teenager....!

Better time generally this week. A discount supermarket has opened up in the village so hopefully my top up shops will get cheaper from now compared to the C00p option. Hopefully more productive shops than the first one though - going after work with no list was never going to go well!

Reached a YouGov £50 as well, an event rarer than hen's teeth.

Plan for this weekend is recovery and doing very little - the weather is dire, I am tired and to be honest the house needs a clean anyway.

KajiKita

Yaay for the YouGov!! 👏😊🎉🎊🤩

Good news about the local discount shop - that should help. I have to say, when the pressure is on its food / spending discipline that crashes first. Enjoy your quiet weekend. I’m doing much pottering here too …. 😊

KK

savingholmes

Hi Merlin I sympathise on that one. I had a similar experience in my previous career but it set me up for a sideways move into a more enjoyable one so can't complain too much.

Merlin's_Beard

I have a washing line! Only taken me 10 months, and just in time for it to be too rainy to use it as well.

Mini milestone - pensions have hit a grand total of £50,000 for the first time ever. I know it might not stay there and that's not in my control but it still feels a bit like the sacrifice is paying off.

Currently trying to have a think about what I'm going to do with my student loan. Originally (last September) the plan was to ignore it, let the £300 a month come out my salary, and pay it off in 5 years, because for 10 years it was a 1-2% interest loan and it didn't make sense to focus any attention on it. But now it's a 5.5 or 6% loan, and depending on what inflation does could stay high (interest rate is lower of base rate or RPI +1%).

So does it now make sense to devote funds to overpaying this? Excluding the risk of a debilitating injury or mental health breakdown that stops me working before I'm into my 40s, I am going to pay it back. It's over twice as expensive as my mortgage at the minute - I guess if inflation comes back under control in the next few years it might become cheaper, but what are the chances of it going back down to under 2.3% and getting cheaper than my mortgage?

I wouldn't be able (want to, I guess) spare a lot right now - there's still so much I need and want for the house and I don't really have any of the rooms in a state that I'd call finished (and that's including both the downstairs loo and the cupboard under the stairs!). And my laptop is showing early signs of death (screen occasionally stops working on the left side) and I need to think about saving to replace the 12 year old car at some point before mortgage renewal. (And I'd like to go on holiday at some point in my life as well.) But does it make sense to pay £75 a month towards the loan - the same as the interest that gets put on? That probably keeps the end date before my mortgage renewal depending on repayment threshold changes and any pay changes. Which spares £300 a month to absorb mortgage rate increases without affecting the rest of my budget (not necessarily worrying about it for bank affordability criteria).

Thoughts, opinions, tips on winning the lottery, all welcome.

KajiKita

Congratulations on the washing line (that’s a real quality of life thing for me, even so such a simple thing on the face of it 😊) and the pension pot value 👍👏

Re the student loan - if you start increasing your payment to it now would it be cleared by the time you get to the end of your current mortgage deal?
I think the advice is always to pay off your highest interest debts first, so atm that would be the student loan, but @s you say, you also need funds for the house and living too …. Fwiw, I would prioritise the loan over the mortgage, but leave some for the house, living etc. so it might look like:
- essentials covered (doing whatever possible to minimise those)
- remainder split:
— savings / house funds 
— living / treats 
— student loan

If you did the numbers on a split like that, how do they stack up?

KK