Road To Financial Recovery

FootyFanDan

It has been a lovely chilled Saturday. I needed to go get a few bits for my work lunches that I never got yesterday but other than that I have spent most of the day catching up on some youtube stuff that I like to watch, and caught up on some podcasts. I have also started to put together a new spreadsheet, but also started the process of trying to get all my old jobs work place pensions into one place. I want to get a better understanding of pensions and long term financial savings stuff.

Tonight I am going to finish the spreadsheet whilst I have tv on in background with football. The girls are having a girlie pamper night. Tomorrow we will have our evening taken up by watching stranger things with snacks, I am determined that if it isn't too cold I am going to go for a small walk just to get some air.

Hope everyone has had a good Saturday

Rhyddid2026

Ooooooo keep us posted on the pensions stuff. I've asked @LzzyIsGod to keep me posted too. I'm planning on learning later in the year.

FootyFanDan

I will probably be learning along the way too @Rhyddid2026 . My first real aim was to try find out where all my current pensions from old jobs were, luckily I don't move around to often so was pretty easy. I do need to make a phone call to the one I had at a job a long time ago as my login wasn't working. My next goal after that is seeing what current pension contribution percents my work will match and trying to maximise that. Honestly pensions is something I have never really thought too much about, but I figure I might as well start actually seeing what I can do to maximise it.

I think I am going to keep my current work one in place, then I will have a seperate one to combine all my old ones but I need to do some research,as I read that some pensions might have charges to transfer out and stuff. So maybe if that is the case if I can at least have access to see the amounts that is a start.

Rhyddid2026

I've found most of my old ones and saved all the details to a word document for future reference. Just a potential nhs one I need to find. I wasn't there long though so it won't be much. I've increased my pension contributions at work with my payrise, even though they won't match it. It's just to do something for now, with a plan to learn more and do better later in the year.

FootyFanDan

This morning has started with a bit of online retail therapy, which is a bit unusual for me. I have been building up a bit of a list on the famous site named after the rainforest 😂 and I have had the personal funds but always end up just wasting them. So today I decided I was going to buy the things whilst I had the funds to do so, they are only stuff to make my desk/games area a little better but still nice to be able to have some little rewards. On that note I also got a next gift card for xmas that I totally forgot about until I was clearing drawers yesterday, so I have £40 to spend, which is basically free money right…

On the pension front, I have successfully located and put the details safe in my notes app (thanks @Rhyddid2026 ) as i know i would end up losing them. I have also gone through my employment contract to locate my current contributions, mine are 4.5% while employer gives me 3.5% - I have seen there is a place where I can set up a direct debit to fund my account myself but i guess if I want to increase my contributions I am better doing it via my salary sacrifice to feel the full benefits. As my wage goes up the percentages mean naturally the amount increases but I wonder if I can maybe find in our budget to be able to allow me increase my contribution slightly to get the overall contribution to 10% for now. A 2 % increase from my side doesn't seem too extreme or is it not that simple lol.

Whilst I was scrolling you tube this morning I fond something that just amazed me. This tech savy person has managed to set up her iphone to log a transaction in a spreadsheet automatically, every time she used apple pay or took a photo of a receipt! I know we can do that ourselves but i found it amazing that could be done ha. AI is just insane with what it can do.

Time to have a brew and catch up on some diaries and admin…and probably online shopping 😂.

MillQueen

I am enjoying all this pensions talk and I think that sounds like a really good move to increase your contributions slightly. Future you will thank you for that. I’d like to do that myself in the long run, but I’m currently not at that point to be able to prioritise that. I do make automatic contributions, so I am just leaving that for now to look after itself. I am glad to hear that you have treated yourself to a few things. What are you going to spend your free £40 on?

FootyFanDan

I always struggle with spending the personal spends or trying to justify it but then it is there and meant to be guilt free so I need to utilise it better, we have to have little joys too ha.

Pensions / investing as never really been something I have properly looked into or even gave much thought to if I am being honest and will it even matter in the future who knows. I have always just set up the automatic funding through my employer and my salary has never been enough to consider increasing but I am in a fortunate position I can consider it now, so it makes sense to do so.

I got myself a new hoodie 😊 - I really need some new jeans to be honest but didn't find any I liked. I slowly want to get new clothes and get rid of a lot of the stuff I have had for many years, but it isn't a priority right now. Me and my missus were having a laugh the other day, we went into the Levi shop and she said you should treat yourself and I was like nah I can't justify that at all, but we reminisced about how the younger me once spent £130 on a pair without blinking… 🫣oh how times have changed

Rhyddid2026

I've been getting my levi's from Vntd, I've bought 3 pairs now and the most I've paid for a pair is £11. You have to have a bit of patience, find the style you know you like and then hunt for the right sizes (annoying because vntd doesn't list by the same sizes), but a pair of black jeans for work turned up yesterday that look brand new and cost me £7.

daisy_1571

First time we went to florida the levis shop was selling levi jeans for $12.

And the exchange rate was €1.98 to the pound !

Happy days !

Dxx

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81885859#Comment_81885859

Wow that is crazy, I am hoping to still pick up some bargains over there.