Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

Okay so it's been a) 4 years in the house and b) I'm about to have a massive employment transition so it feels like a good place to do a financial round up.

For the purposes of this all my net worth is excluding the value of the house because I have no control over it and I don't track it. It'll be relevant when I remortgage next year and only then.

Broadly, financially, in Sept 22 YNAB gave me a net worth of £-207,500. At the end of this month it's sitting at £-54,000 so I've improved by £153,500 in that time (was I secretly hoping that pensions would go up enough that I would crack that 50k mark yes but exploding oil pipes say no).

Pensions (1x SIPP 1x work) are sitting at £130,000. They say that you should have 2-3x annual salary in there by 40 (January) so I'm on track for a normal retirement plan (do I want a normal retirement plan, no, but we're making good progress)

I'm definitely going to have to jiggle those around because the work pension will be switched over fairly rapidly (I assume) so I'll be moving the NEST pension into my SIPP as soon as I can.

Student loan, paid off last year. 🥳

Mortgage - I was anticipating a £250 OP every single month. Almost immediately after I bought the house, Liz Truss happened and my student loan interest went from 1% to 6.5% and never really dipped below 4% again - it was absolutely the right decision to pivot and throw those OPs at the student loan. And then I threw that extra cash into a pot for the car because mine is now 15 and I'm eyeing it warily.

I think both of those were the right decision at the time, however, I might get access to a green car scheme soon, so it might be better to salary sacrifice and loan a hybrid if available, which means I have a massive pot of money that I will put to one side in case I end up moving jobs and need a car in a hurry.

At the minute it's not worth pulling those OPs out because I can get more in an ISA than the mortgage interest is. However. It would have been £3750 at the mortgage and I might keep track and throw a lump sum in just before remortgage when I'm assuming my rate will rocket up (I'm at about 2.3% at the minute).

Pension match will increase when I sign a new contract so that might also mean I want to jiggle around what i save where. I do have a S&S LISA that has a nominal £125 in it that will be my next port of call - it might be a good time to think about diversifying out of just pensions for long term planning.

Merlin's_Beard

In terms of the house and where it is well.

I thought it'd take a year or two but that wildly underestimated the finances involved and the time and energy I have available.

But in terms of the big things:

Garden - DONE (as much as a garden can be, there's always bits and pieces)

Kitchen/diner - DONE (maybe some paint and at some point I need to sort the naked light at one end but not a priority)

Study - DONE (ish. If I had a million pounds I'd get a new desk and sort out bookshelves a bit more but I don't)

Loft - DONE

Main bathroom - just needs paint-hopefully in the next few weeks-but otherwise DONE

Still to go:

Main bedroom: everything (paint, built in wardrobe, making decisions about furniture)

Ensuite: paint, storage.

Then I move into there.

Which means I can then deal with:

Spare bedroom: paint, decorate

Then I can deal with:

Living room.

If I can deal with the main bedroom and the ensuite that will mean I've made a lot of decisions about the other two rooms as well and they should all follow on, but my goal for the next twelve months is just to get moved into that main bedroom.

KajiKita

You’ve made a LOT of progress both in your finances and on the house and all on your own and when working in a job that has taken almost everything from you at times! 👏 You should be very proud of yourself.

What are your bigger dreams for the next four or five years?

KK

rtandon27

@Merlin's_Beard - what a fabulous round-up hunny - you have come so far in those 4 years!

Merlin's_Beard

Thanks guys!

@KajiKita - the next 4-5 years is going to depend a lot on the remortgage next september I reckon. That'll dictate a lot of my finances.

In my head maybe what I would like to do is take a 6 week sabbatical to New Zealand. That's not something I would do until the cat is gone because I wouldn't ask someone to look after her for that long at her age (she's 15 at the end of this year), but the idea of getting a small motorhome and driving around and seeing everything sounds amazing. Maybe something to aim for for my 45th? 50th? There's a lot of variables, including things like parent health!

In the house it would be nice to get the rooms finished. Build towards something more sustainable energy-wise? (hybrid/EV possibly in the next year, then maybe think about solar/batteries? Trying to future-proof my life.)

Throw as much as possible into the pension now so I can think about working less later!

Merlin's_Beard

Paint samples acquired. Have I put them on the walls? Absolutely not.

I've pulled my carrots and swedes out of the ground (and then googled and realised I probably should be pulling them up one by one as I need them) but they are now bagged and in the fridge and I'm hoping that the internet is right and that will be okay.

Getting a food delivery on Tuesday that involves many, many carrot recipes.

Work remains chaos with no one really knowing who is in charge of what because we are in effect a headless chicken.

I've started the higher dose of HRT and despite all of the above maybe it's helping? Maybe on the second patch that's actually just placebo. who knows. there's so much second guessing about all of this.

I have ONE more week of work and then I am off for a week, hoping to get through a list of jobs as long as my arm.

Merlin's_Beard

Okay, week off, jobs time:

• Tidy/sort/throw away
  • Living room
  • study
  • bedroom
  • kitchen
• Deep clean
  • bathroom
  • kitchen
  • bedroom
• Hoover everywhere
• Dust everywhere
• Clean filters on
  • Washing machine
  • Tumble dryer
  • Dishwasher
• Sort through all clothes into keep/throw away/resell
• Decide what extra clothes I need for:
  • Jan holiday
  • in general
• Decide which samples I want to buy paint for
  • Bathrooms
  • Bedroom
• Tidy up the garden
• Put up wires for a climbing rose
• Sort through the big pile of Stuff in the main bedroom
• Sort door hooks for the backs of doors
• Sort through holiday photos and store them on the computer
• complete the photography lessons I've slacked on over the last month
• pitch a short story to an anthology
• Arrange someone to come out for a quote for an electric car charger
• Make a list of everything else I might need for Jan holiday
• Rest and recover

South_coast

Very glad to see the final item on the list!

Merlin's_Beard

• ✅ Tidy/sort/throw away
  • ✅Living room
  • ✅study
  • ✅bedroom
  • ✅kitchen
• ✅Deep clean
  • ✅bathroom
  • ✅kitchen
  • ✅bedroom
• ✅Hoover everywhere
• ✅Dust everywhere
• ✅Clean filters on
  • ✅Washing machine
  • ✅Tumble dryer
  • ✅Dishwasher
• ✅Sort through all clothes into keep/throw away/resell
• ✅Decide what extra clothes I need for:
  • ✅Jan holiday
  • ✅in general
• Decide which samples I want to buy paint for
  • Bathrooms
  • Bedroom
• Tidy up the garden
• Put up wires for a climbing rose
• ✅Sort through the big pile of Stuff in the main bedroom
• Sort door hooks for the backs of doors
• ✅Sort through holiday photos and store them on the computer
• complete the photography lessons I've slacked on over the last month
• pitch a short story to an anthology
• Arrange someone to come out for a quote for an electric car charger
• ✅Make a list of everything else I might need for Jan holiday
• Rest and recover

Paint samples are on the wall, and I am staring at them. So that one's in progress.

Clothes are in a pile. I have photos to put up on vinted at some point. Recycling clothes are in a bag waiting for me to go out.

Extra clothes have been ordered from Vinted for holidays (and in general) and debs sale very handy for underwear after realising that having 12 wearable pairs for a 12 night holiday was probably not going to fly.

The pile of junk that has been sat in the main bedroom since I moved in 4 years ago is sorted, put away, stored, or thrown out. Which then leaves the bedroom clear to paint.

I need it to stop raining for the garden stuff!

After a lot of research on the door hooks and ordering plasplugs and different sized screws I've now ordered some ones that fix with command strips because I'm too scared of ripping my flimsy hollow doors up. The extra stuff is definitely an MSE fail.

Ordered a bunch of unexciting stuff for January holiday (blister plasters, insect repellent, antihistamines, antacids and electrolytes).

Dentist visited and next round of 1nvisalign started. I should (please, fingers crossed) be finished on the 22nd December if all goes to plan. Which would mean much less stress while I'm away in January.

beanielou

That was some list.