So now what?

debtfreeoneday

We cleared debt of £ 64,346.53.  We cleared a mortgage of £118k. So now what?

We need to get saving and making the most of our money. Half of us is retired. The other isn’t working but may well have to (and possibly wants to) return to work in two years time. 

I find posting here keeps me super focussed so I am going to be more present next year and set some goals. 

Emmia

What's your pension provision like? Savings? Those are the areas I'd work on next. 

KajiKita

I’m here 😊👋

You haven’t mentioned an emergency fund, so I would start there. Work out what your typical monthly outgoings are and aim for six months worth?

Might be worth doing a full SOA review and see if there are any areas that you could cut down on?

KK

seventh88

Huge congratulations on meeting you first two goals of clearing the debt and wiping the mortgage. That’s amazing! I look forward to hearing more about your journey to increasing your savings and making the most of your money 

debtfreeoneday

Emmia said:

What's your pension provision like? Savings? Those are the areas I'd work on next. 

So pension provision is ok. It replaces the salary that was being earnt. Savings are ok but absolutely the area I need to work on in 2025. Currently about £7000 in the emergency fund with a fair few sinking funds in place as well. 

debtfreeoneday

KajiKita said:

I’m here 😊👋

You haven’t mentioned an emergency fund, so I would start there. Work out what your typical monthly outgoings are and aim for six months worth?

Might be worth doing a full SOA review and see if there are any areas that you could cut down on?

KK

Yes I agree. I will work on SOA in the new year. Just waiting for the final pension provision to kick in so I know exactly what figures we are dealing with. Thanks for following over here. 

debtfreeoneday

seventh88 said:

Huge congratulations on meeting you first two goals of clearing the debt and wiping the mortgage. That’s amazing! I look forward to hearing more about your journey to increasing your savings and making the most of your money 

Thank you. It hasn’t been easy at times and it’s taken us 16 years to get to the point and a few bits of good luck along with a lot of hard work but I’m looking forward to the next bit. 

debtfreeoneday

Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas Day. Quietish one here but super relaxed and chilled. Kids were happy with their gifts. 

Did succumb to some sale shopping yesterday on The Body Shop but it is two products we use regularly so spent £40. But through TCB got £3.11 cashback and bought a gift card to fund it so got another £3.25 cashback as well as getting my whole order at half price and free delivery so feel at peace with that spend. 

As much as I love Christmas I start to feel the need to start cleaning and decluttering for the new year so will take the chance today to do some cleaning. Fridge could do with a clean and the cutlery drawer I noticed was a bit grubby.  

Apart from that looking forward to another quiet day with the family. 

ElmoR

Congratulations on reaching your goals!!

Once you get into the driven/focused spreadsheet headspace it is hard to think any other way? At least, that is what I found once we arrived at the happy place of being MF a couple of years ago. As others have suggested to you, it was savings and pension that I decided to focus on, reading lots and lots of sites about FIRE. I was set on FIRE at 60. Monevator has lots of excellent articles on it. 

But in the end, or at least for now, I kicked the spreadsheet habit

Life kept derailing plans and to some extent still do. The biggies were the change to the pension scheme and cost of living changes. And DH being made redundant. They were not always negative derails though - I finally left a job/employer where I was very unhappy. Just over one year later and the benefits of that move are still being felt. There's occasional periods of dare I say ' happiness' in the new job. DH also has a new job. We moved to a house with a large garden (still saving for the greenhouse...but no new mortgage). That's made me think that FIRE at 60 is not something I want to live frugally for any longer. Maybe working to 67 is something that would be OK?! Or maybe work part time at some point? This has been a big change in thinking for me but then I always wondered how I would keep my brain busy if I threw myself into gardening full time at retirement? Maybe I like imagination

So this may sound a bit radical from a die hard spreadsheeter, but what I'm try to say is that a bit of free wheeling seems to be not that bad...maybe I've only discovered the mysterious concept of 'balance' that others mention. Maybe take a break from the spreadsheet/goal setting and see what happens? I hope this doesn't sound too much like heresy! It's still possible to be MSW in everyday life, just less driven/focused.

ElmoR

(screams of heresy heard...) 

debtfreeoneday

That’s all true ElmoR. Old habits die hard though I guess. We have other goals to achieve and they keep me focussed. 

debtfreeoneday

All the Christmas is packed away for another year and the house feels huge again.

Quiet home day today and looking forward to having a normal hot dinner instead of sweet stuff or leftovers. 

Had two unexpected things happen in respect of pennies in the last two days so feeling very grateful for that. Our income is still variable at the moment as we wait for one pension to start paying out so any spare money gets put away until I can do a proper budget with concrete figures.