Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

savingholmes

beanielou said:

I think you need the holiday more than ever.

Thanks Beanie. Love that vote!!

KajiKita said:

I think the holiday is important and as you’ve said the garage is on hold for now. 

Sorry to hear about the further stress of a family member needing an op - it all seems to come at once doesn’t it ….
Perhaps you could ask the art teacher not to give you public correction in future but do it one to one? 

KK

As you say KK - my EF even after my recent spending should last over a year even ignoring any redundancy £ if I get in that situation.

Hate operations - even for others - feels scary. 

On the art teacher - I specifically told her my conditions yesterday and how important it was for me to feel I was set up for success not failure. But yes I need to give her more feedback. 

Orangetoes

Another yes to the holiday! 

WelshmansDaughter

It sounds like you’re in worst case scenario mode. 

I vote for the holiday as it will encourage positive feeling which will be built up to keep you motivated.

savingholmes

CCW007 said:

Agree that you need the holiday more than ever to look forward to and you do have the EF for emergency reasons.

Thanks CCW007, Orangetoes, WD and BC for the votes in favour of the holiday - they do make me feel better about going ahead.

Blackcats said:

Is it worth checking the exact terms of your pension if you are made redundant post age 55.  Does your employer make up your pension to retirement age?  Just wondering whether putting more into AVC's is of benefit in that situation or whether during the uncertain times it is better to focus on more cash based savings.  

Might be a good idea to chat to the art class teacher to explain how you prefer to receive feedback.
Agree that your holiday is a worthwhile investment in yourself! 

HI BC - I have read all the related policies I can find. It's not that they make it up but they don't reduce it for taking it early - which would otherwise by c40+%. Even if they change the redundancy terms - I don't believe they can change the pension element - but hope I'm not wrong on that.

The AVCs are separate to the main pension. They are my tax free lump sum without me having to give up any guaranteed (DB) pension to create it. For easy maths - If my main AVC and pension combined were worth £300K - the most I could take as a tax free lump sum in AVCs would be £75K. I'm nowhere near that. I'm may be around the £16K mark by age 55 unless I do something more radical between now and then. This route offers the best tax benefits. If my job was at serious risk - increasing AVCs could be a really quick return on investment - providing I get past age 55 because of the tax benefit on the sums invested and it being tax free on the way out. 

So if I was made redundant 'immediately'
£26K existing savings (after CC taken off)
Worst case £14K if statutory only redundancy pay
£40K savings & redundancy combined (plus upto 3 months pay in lieu if applicable)

But if made redundant after age 55
I'd have the above plus my pension unreduced so - around £15-16K a year.
One off AVC amount say £16K (or any higher amount I manage to get it up to)
So £56K savings, AVCs & redundancy combined (plus upto 3 months pay in lieu if applicable) & on-going income

After age 55 I could also access a SIPP (pension) that has a one off figure of £4K in it but it would be better to leave it and try and grow it - unless I moved it into an ISA. It is currently inheritable unlike my other pensions (other than AVC).

Worst case (if made redundant ahead of 55th birthday) I could access my current pension early  - but would lose close to £6K a year so it would be better to delay that as long as possible. At 60 - I'd lose closer to £4K a year instead.

From age 60 I have a different pension that would kick in unreduced of around £5K a year.

From age 67 I should get full state pension - around £11.5K a year.

I need about £23K a year net to fund a basic lifestyle in this house. For holidays or big purchases I'd need more. If I keep P1p that takes me a chunk towards that - however if I don't keep P1p or it changes form significantly I'd have far more to find - but savings would keep me going for a while.

WD - I'm someone who works back from worst case scenario and then usually anything else is better and comes as a relief even if not idea. There is a huge piece of work that is due to come my way and keep me very busy for a couple of years - but it's not quite landed and I'm panicking in case out of organisational politics they allocate it to someone else.

jwil

Sorry everything is so tough at the moment.  I hope the holiday will help you relax and recover temporarily from all the stress.

I'm like you, I always look at the worst case scenario and then anything better is a bonus.

KajiKita

“ I'm someone who works back from worst case scenario and then usually anything else is better and comes as a relief even if not idea. There is a huge piece of work that is due to come my way and keep me very busy for a couple of years - but it's not quite landed and I'm panicking in case out of organisational politics they allocate it to someone else.”

Is there any way of anticipating the organisational politics and ‘being in the right place, at the right time, in the right way’? 

KK

WelshmansDaughter

Ha yes, my original comment was going to be how you think in a spectrum way where you go from worst case and gradually create a scenario for each potential option. But language was not working for me yesterday lol.
Pattern seeking 🤷

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil, KK and WD

KK sent you a PM as don't want to be too explicit on a public diary.

Glad I'm not the only one who works back from worst case. 

The good thing is I have two weeks off come up in a month's time, plus at least another day before then... Just having to take things day by day.

savingholmes

I updated my spreadsheet - and I'd double counted a couple of CC spends - so £120 better off than I thought.

KajiKita

I’m glad you’ve got some time off coming up 😊 and yaay for the ‘free’ £120 😉😊

KK