Renewed focus: the (less-than?) five-year plan to move

themadvix

Morning all,

With the arrival of September (always a good month for a fresh start) and our newly formulated medium-term plan to move, it feels like a new diary is in order. I fear we have been living too much of the 'good life' - not that we can't afford it, but feelings about where we live have crystallised and we don't want to be here forever.

Unfortunately, moving to somewhere that ticks the key boxes for us (double garage, decent sized garden (not huge, at all) and nicer area, while remaining in the same expensive area is going to cost us a lot of money. At a guess, our house is worth about £330k at the moment. The likely budget to get what we want is going to be double that. This does not fill us with joy - at all. In addition, Mr MV doesn't want to be working to state retirement age if he can avoid it - and this is one of the reasons we've stuck here so long - it gives us options, rather than having a massive mortgage round our neck. But… the little niggles that come up time again about our current location are not ones we want to put up with forever, and unfortunately they are unlikely to go away (in particular the chain-smoking but otherwise lovely neighbours or man over the road who is always either drunk or high and has unruly dogs - they are all council tenants and going nowhere). Parking is also an issue that is not going to improve. It's vastly better now that we don't have to park a car on the road, but it's still tricky and frustrating.

So the plan is to move within the next 5 years. Not immediately - we want to save as much as we can first, while also trying to retain some of the quality of life that we've had these past couple of years (sans mortgage). Depressingly, even if we aim for £50k in savings, these will only cover stamp duty (assuming this isn't reformed) and moving costs. We'd also have to factor in a possible car for me (depending on where the move is to) and solar/heat pump renovations to the new house - things we would definitely want to do fairly quickly on moving in (as we are hugely reaping the benefits of these in terms of lower costs currently). Therefore, rather a lot of money is needed (or a knock tomorrow from Agent Million - we can dream, right?!).

In good news, Mr MV has a new job and negotiated well on salary, meaning that in theory my loss of earnings from Cambridge redundancy are covered (albeit, we'd be better off if I was earning it, him being an HR tax payer). What I'll do to replace them is still up for debate - but currently I am busy with cat sitting and expect the next month or so to be very busy for main client, so I will see how things go. There's also a slim possibility that Cambridge may need me (they've been told the restructure may still take months - and in the meantime there's no resource to do what I was doing 🙄) - we'll see.

In terms of retirement savings, we're doing well (I think we technically have enough for a 'moderate retirement' already saved). Mr MV could reduce his contributions, but equally, it might be worth keeping them up and using the TFLS to pay off the mortgage (a lightbulb moment that I had as I was typing this - if I've missed something, please shout!). We're also not intending to touch our S&S ISAs for the move, given we've saved them with the intention of using them for retirement.

In any case, such decisions will come in the new year. Mr MV wants to ensure his pay is being sorted properly before making any changes (he didn't get paid anything on Friday - eventually someone sorted something out but he has no payslip nor apology as yet - disgraceful given it's not a new company, just a new division), plus we're still dealing with one (possibly two) ill cats and are out of insurance money until January. In the meantime the focus is on renewed discipline (especially after a stressful and financially lax summer): meal plans, surveys, making the most of things (and not spending a fortune on pastries!).

That is the plan, then. As always, life may happen and usual caveats apply, but for now, this is where we're heading.

Greying_Pilgrim

Sounds like you've great plans in place tmv.

Fab new diary and here's to achieving your goals, whilst enjoying life along the way!

Greying X

themadvix

Thanks GP - I think finding a balance is going to be key. We enjoyed going relatively hard at our first mortgage, but this time around I don't want to be in a position of 'waiting until the mortgage is gone until we do x' - it will just feel too risky to put things off until we're nearly 60. Here's hoping that wouldn't be a problem, but having lost a friend a few years ago who didn't get that chance (and had done all the right stuff - financially and healthwise), I don't want to take it.

We have systems in place to allow for 'fun' money now, which, while I think we'll use for more things than we have done recently, won't be cut back in terms of amount, so that we can still have guilt-free fun and adventures. And for the time being, I'm not sure the holiday fund is going to be much use, so that might be another form of saving.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.

ladybird1106

Good luck

Love 💜

TallGirl

Happy new diary sounds exciting and very sensible. As a long time reader I know how much the neighbours have annoying you and as you say they are not going away sadly. Sending hugs to B/W cat hope he likes his new food.

edinburgher

Using a pension lump sum to pay off the remainder of a mortgage prior to retirement is quite a common strategy and I don't think there are any significant pitfalls beyond making sure that a) you won't need the lump sum for general living expenses and b) having an awareness of how this will impact on your future tax because subsequent payments won't have a tax-free element. I have an embryonic AVC pot for the same purpose, although it's currently £6.5k vs £184k 😅

themadvix

Thanks @beanielou, @ladybird1106, @TallGirl and @edinburgher.

Thanks Ed, although I'm not entirely sure I understand - would there be a TF element to payments if you don't take a TFLS? Clearly I need to do more reading. It feels like this might be a good option - rather than reducing Mr MV's pension payments to free up cash before retirement, given it'll be worth less.

So a quick rough assessment showed that we actually have nearly £25k towards our target already, so that's a good start! 🤣 We've both been saving for a few years - it's just that I hadn't appreciated quite how much Mr MV is able to save each month (mine is the far smaller portion of that figure).

South_coast

Purely by coincidence (probably!) Monevator published an article on this very question just yesterday: https://monevator.com/

P.S. Nearly £25k is a cracking start 👍!

themadvix

So, September. It should be a relatively cheap month.

We're out for dinner tomorrow with some ex-work colleagues of Mr MV, unfortunately not at a cheap restaurant, but I get the feeling all parties might be quite inclined to keep it cheap (Mr MV spoke to one of them yesterday and I think he'd like to be frugal about it) - nothing to be done about it in any case, as it was already booked and it'll be nice to see them.

Saturday is the allotment show, but that should only be a literal couple of £s on some tea and cake. Mr MV is away with work Sun-Tues (he'll get a day in lieu for Sunday), so this should reduce costs (no chemo for the cat, if nothing else!). I don't have any plans for the time he's away - likely will pop and see Mum at some point (and hopefully have some work).

I'm out for lunch on the 11th, but that should be relatively cheap. And we're going to a mini show in the middle of the month - tickets and probably food for that will be purchased (we're meeting friends, so a picnic might be awkward, although maybe Mr MV could enquire…).

Later in the month, it's Mr MV's dad's birthday, but there's nothing happening for that as yet, and we have no other plans, so 🤞🏼we can make some savings from our personal spends. If the caravan gets finished, we might book a night away (unlikely it's going to happen this month tbh - it will need testing too), but it won't be far or fancy (not least because we'll have to get back to see B&W Cat).

themadvix

And now today's post…

Afternoon all,

Totally missed posting yesterday when it was the shiny new start of the month, but thoughts of money saving were front and centre of my mind.

Frustratingly, the work project we're expecting has been delayed again, which means I'm twiddling my thumbs. I did have two cats to look after yesterday and did as many surveys as were available. I also did my invoicing for August, which was shocking. I'm not sure when I last earned so little in a month 😲 However, fortunately I am a month in hand in my business current account, plus I have earnings from Feb/March stashed away (for a couple of earmarked things, but it's there if I need it). Things should pick up soon from main client in any case - even without this project there are some outstanding items that will come back my way.

Sadly Agent Million didn't come knocking, but between us we did win £100 in the draw, so that's something.

In the category of 'less MSE', I collected another month's chemo for B&W Cat - another £73 😭 I really, really need him to eat properly, so we can start reducing the meds (today has been marginally better; still waiting to hear from vet - she wasn't working yesterday).

MS things:
* Baked bread, granola and (inspired by Foxgloves) some Twinks hobnobs
* Mr MV took lunch to work yesterday and today
* Dinner last night used up some cabbage (in coleslaw - so cheese and coleslaw sandwiches for lunch today too)
* RM survey stuff posted
* £100 PB win
* Picked a large courgette (actually really annoyed by this as if I'd picked it two days before, I'd've been in with a chance in the courgette category at the allotment show this weekend, but you have to have two of the same size…. and it's now much bigger than the one I picked before), peppers, several varieties of bean at the allotment
* 1P (£12.63), PA (c. £10) and YG (£23) surveys done

Gratitudes:
* A walk with friend and her baby
* Sunshine
* Mr MV fitted the first door to the caravan - so close to being finished now!