The Senior Wonder Years!

louby40

Have a look at the How Much to Live on board. Lots of people with normal pension amounts and not millions suggesting ways to manage their retirement. 

louby40

Have a look at the How Much to Live on board. Lots of people with normal pension amounts and not millions suggesting ways to manage their retirement. 

[Deleted User]

@collins74. Welcome to the thread and thank you for your contribution. Do feel free to discuss your plans and progress on this thread.  As a couple with two defined benefit pensions and your state pensions to look forward to you have a solid foundation for your future retirement income. Best wishes. 

[Deleted User]

Well another week has flown by! Not too much to report.

Planning meetings for utility and cloakroom upgrades have taken place. I am meeting my 'renovate' man on Thursday in a store to choose the tiles and accessories for the cloakroom and also the new radiator. Utility area materials already discussed and sorted by my 'renovate' man lol!
Hopefully, work will be completed in the next few months.

The annual clean of the house exterior plus a deep clean and re-sanding of the paved drive and courtyard areas have also been arranged for late April/early May.

I had a very pleasant family lunch out for Mother's Day.
 
In the garden the lawn has had its first cut. I was a good boy and only took off the top third as advised. I have also dug over a couple of flower beds and started work on making alterations to my small rockery!
I still need to paint one fence and the decking but at the moment the weather is not on my side.

Finances are chugging along ok. I have decided to allocate £4000 to the renovations.

I have also paid my road tax for the next 12 months beginning 1st April 2024.

Car Service and MOT as well as House Insurance all payable in a couple of weeks. (The last of the major annual bills!)

I also have the dental hygienist on Thursday.

Swimming is going well. I have increased to to 3 times a week. Twice was not enough to keep  the momentum and improvement going.

When the financial year finishes in April I will contact HMRC to see exactly how much Voluntary NI I have to pay for 2023/2024. I really want to get it sorted before applying for my sate pension that should begin in July. As I worked for 3 months this financial year the amount required shouldn't be excessive. I have put aside £700 and hopefully it will be a bit less.

As I have said before I will have paid in 47 years and will get the full new state pension bar a few pence. Considering I was contracted out for so many years I am happy with this outcome.

Well that's it for now. If I think of anything else before the day's end I will return and post!

Best wishes.

badmemory

I am sure you already know this but it can be several months into the new tax year before HMRC can tell you the status of this current tax year's NI.  But if you earned approaching £7k for those 3 months then you should have made it.  I believe it is when you earn it all in one month there can be problem.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately I probably only earned about £3000 in that time.
So if I am unable to make the payment until later will they back date the additional pension to my July start date? This seems fair as I am willing to make the payment before my state pension start date.

badmemory

At the moment you can buy back any as far as 2016 when the pension changed.  I think that is until April 25.  Normally you can only go back 5 years.  Have you checked that the last tax year is there, 22-23.  Sometimes it takes them months.  Why not contact the Pension Service, it is sort of between the DWP & HMRC.  If you look on the pensions bit on here there are people who know an awful lot more than me.

ETA  Look out for silvertabby, molerat & dazed & confused (who definitely isn't!)

[Deleted User]

Yes, all my years are full. I just need to top up this final year(Year 47 ) for me to receive the full new state pension bar a few pence from this July. Ideally I would like it sorted by July. My question really is if they don't sort it out by July will they make up the amount I should have received from July if it was all sorted by then?

badmemory

I would speak to the Future Pension Centre, they can give you the loooooong code you need to then pay the HMRC for the missing bit.  I don't know though how much they would know about the current year.  I do think it will count, you could however defer claiming until you are sure it has.  Defer for 9 weeks and add 1% to your pension so that's a win.

[Deleted User]

badmemory said:

I would speak to the Future Pension Centre, they can give you the loooooong code you need to then pay the HMRC for the missing bit.  I don't know though how much they would know about the current year.  I do think it will count, you could however defer claiming until you are sure it has.  Defer for 9 weeks and add 1% to your pension so that's a win.

 I have considered that too.