The Senior Wonder Years!

helensbiggestfan

Morning everyone.  

Organgrinder . Thanks for sharing.  You sound like you've got a handle on things. It looks as if you are on  track for a comfortable retirement.  

Enjoy your bike ride.  No sun here today. 😟 lol. 

I think it's great that people who would never meet in real life but, thanks to the internet and sites such as this, get the opportunity to discuss financial matters and learn from each other.  I enjoy Barons  threads, they are always interesting.  

I always joke that if the internet had been around when I was younger I would have been a millionaire today. I would have been a lot more savvy and made fewer financial blunders.  I come from a generation and background where it wasn't the done thing to talk about money and it certainly wasn't taught in schools so I wallowed in ignorance. 

Thankfully times have changed and thanks to the work of people such as Martin "ordinary people" now have more access to good financial advice.  I was lucky I did have an Aunt who was a bit of an entrepreneur who became something of a role model and mentor. 

I am 73. I left paid employment in 2006 and have never looked back.  I can throughly recommend retirement. I hope mine is a looooong one and that I can continue to learn and grow for some time yet. 

Have a great weekend y'all.  

[Deleted User]

Well after some prolonged  ‘should I’ or should I not ‘ discussion with myself yesterday I decided to pay off the car loan in full after just one payment, some 35 months early! In the end I just couldn’t get used to the idea of having a personal loan owing amount showing on my online banking page and app lol!

I guess @helensbiggestfan that is why I am not a millionaire lol!

I had spent ages working out various overpayment scenarios for 6 months, a year and so on, but in the end thought just pay the loan off! I like knowing that my income is mine alone to spend and save!

Anyway, although it was late Saturday afternoon, I received a settlement figure via a web chat quite speedily, moved money from savings to my main current account, and paid it off.

This morning the personal loan entry shows a satisfying £0.00 and I have cancelled the direct debit. I have also saved myself from having to pay £934.76 interest if the loan had run its full term.

However my savings are now at a new low  . 

I will now concentrate on replenishing savings and the annual expenses pots! For the time being, starting this month, £500 a month will go to my cash ISA and £700 a month to my annual expenses savings account. The savings account has pots for everything car related, house and garden, Christmas, clothes and shoes, annual house insurance, subscriptions, TV licence , new spectacles every two years as well as holiday and travel costs. Hence the fairly large monthly amount. I will review these amounts when my pension income increases next April/ May, as it is all index linked.

I will now also enjoy driving my newer car even more, knowing that I do not owe anyone a penny when doing so! 😀

helensbiggestfan

Well done.  Sounds like a good decision.  From what I have gleaned about you I'm sure you will be able to replenish your savings easily enough. 

It's a nice feeling knowing you don't owe money or have outstanding debts.  My car isn't anything fancy but it's all paid for. It was my fathers car so there's a bit of sentimental value, plus it's only done 30,000 miles, so I'll just hang on to it until it's ready to go to the big car park in the sky.  😂. 

[Deleted User]

Following on from my previous post…..

At the moment shared monthly household and my personal monthly bills amount to £769. This amount includes all food, laundry, charity payments, window cleaner as well as all the utility bills.

I also allocate £400 a month to personal spends in a separate current account. The balance of the account is divided into pots. These include, birthdays, dentist, chiropodist, petrol, hair and beauty and general personal spends. 

I have an unallocated amount of about £70 a month to allow some flexibility and overspends 😳.

So quite a simple allocation of funds to spending and saving accounts.

Would be interested to read how others divide up their pension incomes.

Best Wishes.

helensbiggestfan

You are soooo well organised.  By comparison my budgeting system is rather more casual. Lol. 

As you know I'm currently renting. The interest on the house money pretty much covers my rent, And of course I'm saving on repairs/maintenance/buildings insurance. So actual housing expenses are practically negligible/cost neutral. 

DDs are set up for council tax, utilities, broadband and the usual. I've just fixed my energy payments for 12 months. I'm currently around £300 plus in credit so there shouldn't be any nasty shocks.  No loans or debts. Credit card is cleared in full each month.  So whats left is mine, some spends, some savings. 

I don't have separate "pots" as such for the car, holidays, clothes.  I like to leave around £500 in my current account just in case although it's not really necessary because it's just as easy to pay using a credit card as a debit card in most shops or outlets. And I do like to keep a small amount of real cash in reserve.  One never knows when systems might crash.  The rest gets chucked into an easy access savings account which I draw down as required.  If that gets too high then I transfer to long term savings. It might sound a bit haphazard but it works for me. I can do transfers etc online. 

Wherever possible I pay in full and in advance rather than paying monthly. Eg car tax, insurance etc.  same with my chiropractor/physio. I bulk buy a course of treatments in advance rather than paying as I go in order to get a discount.  As far as possible I like to be ahead of myself ifyswim.  

Have just finished having some dental implants.  I did have the money sat in my account but they offered me 10 months interest free monthly payments so I took advantage, earning interest on the money.   Implants do require extra care, check ups, more frequent hygienist visits, regular x rays etc. My dentist has advised me it would be worth while setting up Denplan again so that's my task for this week.  

Organgrinder

I don't have pots either. I don't see the point in dividing money up and setting it aside for x or y. I do plan for all spends but my spending is fluid. If I save or don't spend on something I either put it in my ISA or spend on something I want.

I also keep a balance of approx £500 in my bank account but in reality I probably don't need to. All my spending is on an interest free credit card. So far have stoozed about £12k, on course to stooze £24k. The interest pays for a holiday. I have sufficient funds in savings accounts to pay them all off if need be.

Of course I'm not yet retired but plan on doing this sort of thing when I am. Purely because it's very little effort for a nice reward. The reward will get even nicer once retired as the amount of interest from stoozing will buy a two week all inc in Cancun outside of school holidays!

[Deleted User]

@Organgrinder, you probably don't mean it, but I always feel you are being somewhat scornful of how I approach my financial affairs.

Surely If you plan for spends you must have some budget in mind which is similar to having a pot.

You have thousands and thousands of pounds more in savings and investments than I will ever have, especially now after paying off my car loan lol. I have no issue with that at all. As I have said before, I have no real interest in always having to maximise my financial return. How much do you really need?

I have enough money for my lifestyle.

I am not in position to travel far and wide as I my elderly relative is not as mobile as she once was and I need to ensure that her needs are covered before I do most things.

Having said that, I have no interest in all inclusive holidays, especially to somewhere like Mexico.
I prefer holidays where I can rent my own place and decide whether to mix or not.
I tried a cruise nearly two years ago and totally disliked most things about it.

I get the point that you like to stooze. You have mentioned it several times along with the holidays lol!
 

Somebody

My monthly pension income goes into a savings account, upon which I transfer an amount to another account to cover the annual insurance renewals - the recent Virgin Money regular saver at 10% is ideal for this (although limited to £250pm).  

Other than direct debits for gas and electricity, I put all regular spending on cashback/reward credit cards (including council tax at the beginning of each month), and settle the monthly bills from the pension income account, transferring from the insurance account when necessary.  

Durban

[Deleted User] said:

@Organgrinder, you probably don't mean it, but I always feel you are being somewhat scornful of how I approach my financial affairs.

Surely If you plan for spends you must have some budget in mind which is similar to having a pot.

You have thousands and thousands of pounds more in savings and investments than I will ever have, especially now after paying off my car loan lol. I have no issue with that at all. As I have said before, I have no real interest in always having to maximise my financial return. How much do you really need?

I have enough money for my lifestyle.

I am not in position to travel far and wide as I my elderly relative is not as mobile as she once was and I need to ensure that her needs are covered before I do most things.

Having said that, I have no interest in all inclusive holidays, especially to somewhere like Mexico.
I prefer holidays where I can rent my own place and decide whether to mix or not.
I tried a cruise nearly two years ago and totally disliked most things about it.

I get the point that you like to stooze. You have mentioned it several times along with the holidays lol!
 

I doubt Organgrinder was being scornful and certainly wouldn't have meant it.  I have actually found both yours and Organgrinder's posts fascinating.

I love your approach to organisation and structure and am similar to you in that respect but I also love Organgrinder's approach with stoozing and free money and am similar to them in that way as well.

It's great to see everybody's approach and take the bits that work for us from each 

Organgrinder

@[Deleted User]. I do not have thousands and thousands more at all. Your pension is almost £35k and you have savings. Mine will be the same pension but maybe with more savings but not a huge amount. I have children I wish to leave to. 

I simply said I don't split it into several pots. I don't feel the need to.

I have repeatedly said we all have our own circumstances and spending habits.  

To answer your question as to how much do we really need. As much as we need for the lifestyle we want.

You yourself once made a statement that you could not afford several holidays a year. I contended that you could. But clearly only if you decided to add to your income as I do, or cut your outgoings on items that I would consider commodities.

It's your choice that you have no interest in doing that. And of course that is fine, as we all live in a manner we are comfortable with.