Retirement planning post mortgage free

carboot_karaoke

Congratulations 🎉🎉

V3cash

thanks, it’s a strange feeling, hasn’t sunk in just yet.

V3cash

well good news and bad this week, getting paid but they taxed me £1000 because when I gave them my p45 they put last years pays as total from April so it looks like I’ve earned over 25k in 1 mth, I WISH 😀

Anyway I’ve sent a email to payroll advising them of their mistake so that should be sorted, at least i get something this month but nice to know next mth will have a little bonus 😊

So i think i might need a new diary now, might need to look see what other people do once mortgage free.???

V3cash

just changed title of my post as i didn’t really want to start a new one, this is just a continuation really of mortgage free journey.

So my new job is going well but the commute is a b…ch! of a journey so I’ve dropped my hrs to 3 x 10hrs and that’s plenty for now.

Liking not taking home my work and i think the 3 day week will work well.

I have not been paid properly yet but hopefully this month will see it sorted.

So financially things feel better due to being mortgage free but have not been able to save much as got taxed £1000 last mth, obviously I’ll get it back at some point but not this mth as no reply from payroll, think i might need to call HMRC at some point.

So looking at financial aspects

We have cash ISA’s and I’ve just started a H&L shares ac and have set up D/D of £500/mth, will transfer to isa in April as both my hubby and I have maxed out ISA this yr.

We also have £28k in savings accounts shared between us.

I should get a modest nhs pension at 60 then a small pension at 67 and hubby has a private pension. He has 9 yrs until retirement and I have 11 but we would like to retire together.

so we are just trying to save a couple years £ so i can retire with my hubby and not go into ISA savings.

In 4 years i will take my 1995 nhs pension which is not enough to retire on but I’ll get a cash lump sum and enough to supplement wages so I could potentially drop to 22.5 hrs at that point. I aim to save that lump sum to offset part of the gap in between 65-67.

So the plan is to keep cash ISA’s and then build s&s ISA’s up now.

We are still working on making our house really sellable and aim to downsize in 6-7 years before retiring, I’m not expecting it to free up to much cash as moving is expensive and we would need to move closer to transportation links. However the move will ultimately be cheaper as we will be able to get rid of a car and have cheaper council tax.

I have also set up a dedicated holiday fund fun so we get to enjoy being mortgage free as I think it’s really important to also live in the now.

So that’s our plan

Have used chat gpt and it says we should be ok in retirement but i don’t really think it takes inflation into account, my nhs pension does to a certain level but husbands pension doesn’t really

so hopefully we avoid too many curb balls along the way😬

carboot_karaoke

Glad work is going well (apart from commute)

Post mortgage, sounds like a good plan.

Love that you have a "Holiday Fund" so you can enjoy some of that hard earned money😊 .

edinburgher

AI is only as good as the prompts we feed it - you can ask it to consider inflation in its calculations (although you will have to tell it what percentage to assume). It can be a sobering exercise, I very much agree that it's so much easier with public sector pensions as they are inflation adjusted each year and you can effectively ignore it 😊

julicorn

I'm a little late but your new title just caught my eye so I thought I'd stop by :)
3x10 hours is exactly what I'm doing at the moment, it's great. Although sounds like long days if you've got a long commute on top of that - make sure you look after yourself! Really looking forward to seeing how you get on after paying off your mortgage, and working towards your retirement.

V3cash

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049932#Comment_82049932

thanks, I’ve only just started my new hours this week due to admin delays, worked out well as they paid me a full month so I won’t have to repay as much as I started on 29th.

I’m trying to find the days that work best, I did Monday this week then I’ll do Thursday, Friday but not keen on that too much as I’m now In Holiday mode.Dont fancy going back now whereas after Monday I was ready to do another day, you get in a Rhythm.

In some ways I’d rather do mon, wed Friday as I get the week broken up or work mon, tue Friday. Just figuring it out at moment.

What do you find best?

This week i have changed mobile provider to id mobile £10/mth so saved £5/mth and hubby is swapping this week, although now there seems to be even cheaper deal of £6?

Not sure why I stayed with mobile provider as long as I did as they drop the eu roaming which was a pain but now I’ll be able to use phone abroad again, woop woop!

Have also just swapped internet but realised im still in contract 😢 so will pay to get out, just calculating wether its worth it as plusnet give gift card of £120 which would offset part of fee?? I’m also factoring in cheaper broadband plus the hikes the old provider will keep doing!

I can always cancel but of course that means a phone call as no option on website, typical!

At last we bought another freezer for garage last week and I have filled it with homemade scones, rolls and soda bread. I also bought local sausage's & burgers so bar b ready ☀️☀️

I have also been making ice with lemon chunks and mint from garden for bar b q days.so i have a few bags made up of ice chucks with various added extras. I wonder what other things i could add that freeze well. Mind you it’s nearly full now!!

Today I’m painting a small ceiling and our weekend job plan will be painting of the wall up stairs.ive learned if I keep it small, say 2-3 hrs max , my hubby is ok with that so we split it up a bit.i will also buy a new light to match others.

I was tempted to ask painter who was working at neighbours but i just kept thinking of how much it would add to holiday fund if we do it ourselves. 🤣

I’m really proud of all we’ve achieved this year with house and just got 2 bedrooms and lounge to do after we do stairs, we have 4 flights of half stairs so it’s a job but we are near the top of house now( hardest bit to do as it’s a higher ceiling so will require ladders and 2 people) but we are getting there! Had a week off decorating last week as it was 🥵

julicorn

Looking forward to seeing what works out best for you! I do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all in one go, so that I have a nice long weekend every week. I don't think the broken up style would work for me because most days off would end up being both a day after work and a day before work if that makes any sense? I find that with the long weekends I get a good amount of time for relaxation and also don't end up feeling too stressed before I start work again for the week.

And well done for sorting out the contracts and all that cooking and painting :)

South_coast

Plusnet will increase the bill every year as well, but they do usually offer a new lower fix once you're getting to the end of the contract - which then increases back up to what you were paying before 🤦‍♀️🤣