My Mortgage Reduction and Savings Diary

SmlSave

Wouldn't it be nice to retire early?

Need to work harder on Mortgage, Savings and Pension

This shall be all MSers mantra!

Retirement is a while away yet...the way you're going I think you'll be fine. Remeber its "every little helps" and "one step at a time"

SuiDreams

Well have made an early New Years resolution. NO MORE SPENDING. I'm buying one last thing on Monday then nothing except groceries till the middle of January. You can all shout at me if I spend on anything.

StuartGMC

SuiDreams wrote: »

Just been looking up a few things, my company pension age is 60, but my state pension (retirement age) is 67. Don't want to work till 60 never mind 67.

SuiDreams, company retirement at 60 is very good these days, so that is a positive point.

I think we all want to be able to retire early like our parents were able to in the 1980-90s but, it will be much more difficult for us due to the consideration of longer life expectancy and hence the impact on pension pot. I too don't want to work to 65 (my company scheme age), but for each year early I would lose 4%, ie retire at 60 and lose 20% of the pension.... I do have a small annuity from previous job (company went bust in last recession) which starts at 60 so this may help a little.

At the moment, those issues are a little way off (but getting closer far too quickly!) but our financial planning is focused on; clear mortgage in 2010, then save to 2016 when dd leaves basic education at 18, so we have something available to support her then (we'll be 51) and get ourselves in a good position in 2020 when we will be 55. I've run the numbers for when we are mortgage-free and it looks nice at the moment, but there are things to consider like replacement cars etc which eat into these savings along the way (I guess we also need a substantial sum aside in the event she gets married too?)

As SmlSave says, all efforts now will assist along the way.

SuiDreams

I've been told by HR that if I decide I need to work later I really need to do that before I'm 51 as my pension investment will start to change then ready for the 60 retirement age on the plan. The other problem is that the scheme I'm currently in has been closed for a few years now as the company got taken over in 2002 (I think) so all new starts are o the parent company scheme, by the sounds of it there will come a point where they will need to merge the scheme I'm on with the current one due to admin costs, but I have been led to believe that the two schemes are quite similar. Also I'm on a pension purchase scheme rather than final salary.

SuiDreams

Good News Letter from Building Society recieved today to state that my Interest rate will be 4% from 1st January (SVR 5%). Very happy menas I'm paying more off the mortgage without having to increase my payment. Bad news is ordered a new pair of glasses today and they are going to cost me £259, £50 of it is being paid for by money I'm getting for christmas. Paid 50% today and the rest when I pick them up hopefully will be able to pay them after my next statement date.

StuartGMC

SuiDreams
Good news on the interest rate, I've heard nothing from NatWest yet.

The costs for glasses are unfortunately high, I have an annual allowance now in the budgeting spreadsheet of £350 as both OH and I now need varifocals....

Best wishes for 2009

SuiDreams

Unfortunately due to high prescription I have to get expensive lenses. This is the first pair that I have bought in 4/5 years, as mainly wear contact lenses (£15 per month), but its gotten to the stage where I can no longer see out of my existing glasses, looking forward to them coming so I an give my eyes a bit of a rest from the lenses. I was actually quite shocked at how high my prescription is now.

SuiDreams

Just loked on the BBC news site and my Bank are passing on todays rate cut so just waiting for the letter to come in the post to confirm.

setmefree2

Good News

SuiDreams

Sorry haven't updated in ages, well current mortgage interest rate is 3.5% (still getting 1% discount). Savings are going well will have reached target by end of the tax year. Spending in previous months hasn't been good totally over spending. This month looks better so far, but have 3 birthdays this month and one next month. We are supposed to get our salary review letters before the end of the month, in January we were told they had been given a larger budget for these this year, but business has dropped of suddenly in the last few weeks and some contractors have been let go or had there hours reduced, so don't think there will be any staff pay rises now. Going to to tighten up budget for the rest of the year no more large spends for us.