Getting the balance right

elantan

@savingholmes thanks 

Well today it's time to go home and get back to reality, I was sitting last night looking at how the new mini budget affects us, it barely does, a tiny bit more per month in our wages due to the change in NI but not till November. 


With the BOE interest base rate going up it has pushed up my Marcus savings account, not by a lot but a tiny wee change. 

This got me to thinking, over the last few months I have been reading various blogs, advice pages etc on what to do when you start getting to five or so years before retiring, they talk about having a years supply of money. 

Now I do have some emergency savings but I kept it at £1k cause that would cover car repairs, broken fridge etc and if we lost a job I could cash in some ISA's yeah I may lose some money bit we would get by. 

well as I'm sure most of us will be aware shares etc are tanking just now, the blogs and you tube advice advised a years money to smooth through any of these share situations. 

So last month I worked out we plan on having £2.5k a month to get by on, that works out at £500 a month for 5 years, so I stopped paying £500 into the ISA and started putting it into a cash account to start the process of being able to smooth any turbulence in future. 

last month I put in £500 plus the rate of inflation so £550 I will add in inflation again next April, it is just a work about to try and get the money for a year to smooth out issues. But this weeks news of higher interest rates make it more interesting, so I am going to have a look for easy access higher interest accounts, nationwide currently have 1 at 3% that I've seen, but there could be better ones out there. 

Well that was a long way to tell a quick story 🤣🤣🤣

elantan

Just saw I'm only allowed £50  a month into the Nationwide so that kicks that out.

badmemory

Some of the reason for needing large savings if going into retirement is if you have a SIPP.  If it loses value then rather than withdrawing you use savings until it recovers.  Another reason is that your borrowing power may reduce significantly.  Having said that I had a brand new car & bathroom within weeks of one another on 0% & no-one even asked how I was going to pay, at that time annual income about the same as the car cost.  I suspect however that things have changed in the last few years.  One of my cards did reduce my limit but that may have been because I wasn't really using it.

elantan

@badmemory I seem to be having that issue just now, it's been on going, when I try to access a decent loan rate I keep getting offered nearly 10%  where as others people i know get 2.9% and we are financially a good risk ( so are they btw) but i think if anything as we get closer to retirement our offers will get worse so deff something to keep in mind as we look at finances 

Karmacat

It's definitely a good idea to keep cash on hand - plus to have less money in stocks the further you get into retirement.  About 40% of mine is stocks now.  The cash is losing value now that the inflation rate's soared again, but it wasn't quite such an issue till this year.  

savingholmes

Regular savers tend to pay decent rates.

elantan

Hi all, 

Went to bed early last night I havnt been feeling too well, woke up today still not feeling great but hopefully that will change. 

Have had a wee quick look at accounts and savings rates, nothing jumping out at me just yet. 

Today will be spent tidying the house and the caravan trying to get back to normal 

elantan

The fire is on, the kettles are on the fire heating up the water so we can do the dishes, have managed not to put the heating on yet but it feels like it isnt too far round the corner 

savingholmes

Hope you feel better soon.

Chase and FD some of best for rates or new Nwide customer 

badmemory

elantan said:

The fire is on, the kettles are on the fire heating up the water so we can do the dishes, have managed not to put the heating on yet but it feels like it isnt too far round the corner 

It felt a lot cooler out this morning, I started thinking about where my gloves are!