Future Finances: Time vs Money
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Apologies to Shy for flagrant Plagiarism
Spending - an impulse buy on Sunday, knew we should have taken the dogs then would not have gone into large shoe shop! Shoes are a weakness unfortunately and were not needed!
Saving - very tempted to lunch out after Saturday morning walk went home instead so saved £15.
Sorting - contacted the Government Pension Tracing Service https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details regarding three employers from early 1980's and 1990's. There were able to provide two contact numbers for the pensions scheme administrators for two of them. I contacted them and provided NINO, Name and DOB and they were able to confirm I did not contribute to their schemes during my employments. However, I only worked for each employer for 12 months on each occasion, and I think back then you had to work a minimum of 12 months to qualify. Of course back then when young and not thrifty minded I drifted from job to job (of which there were plenty). Still it was a useful exercise and will repeat for OH.
Simple Pleasures: a lovely walk with the dogs on Saturday morning seeing lots of wild flowers and watching the dogs enjoying paddling and fetching sticks and stones in river. A delicious gnocchi veggie recipe for dinner on Sunday. Seeing the garden revive after the recent showers and new flowering of roses.0 -
Beware the "Dead" hour over 50's posters. QUOTE Doctors say the body!!!8217;s at low tide then. The soul is out. The blood moves slow. You!!!8217;re the nearest to dead you!!!8217;ll ever be save dying. Sleep is a patch of death, but three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death!!!8230; QUOTEHi S&R,
Glad I'm not the only one who lurks about in the middle of the night! Sounds like you've had a busy time and still not overspent. There is something satisfying about growing and picking your own fruit and veg. Our hens seem to have settled in, now getting daily eggs here. I've even managed to get a couple of no spend days in and busy sorting work stuff out!
Mrs CRV has been very busy, I came home kitchen sorted top to bottom, new homemade curtains up there - 3 windows, along with all her dressmaking stuff sorted. So we're both working hard along our path to retirement.
Only a few weeks left and off to my new role!
Good luck sleeping, I'm up for the day now, one dog by my side, cat on my lap purring loudly! No chance of going back to sleep to get up at 5 am!0 -
humptydumptybits wrote: »Do you have any nieces or nephews you might want to include. I think it is lovely to help young members of the family as it is so hard for them to get started now.
My brothers wife is quite comfortably off and they are getting quite a bit of help anyway. One of them owns their own home already - despite being single/early 20s/dear area. Chances are they'll go into the(ir) family firm too.
I want my money to go where I want it to go and, if I had that Lottery win we all hope for, then my best friend would be out house-hunting and I'd be paying for it. But, for other sizeable amounts of money, it gives me pleasure to know "good causes" will benefit.
My money probably would end up going to them (rather than my brother) if I didnt make out a Will. Hence I've made out a Will.0 -
The importance of making a will was made really clear to me when my father died 'intestate'. Had my brother and I decided to take the money to which we were legally entitled, our poor mother would have really struggled financially. I dread to think what happens in some families when situations like that arise!0
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Hi CRV, you night owl you!Hi S&R,
Glad I'm not the only one who lurks about in the middle of the night! Sounds like you've had a busy time and still not overspent. There is something satisfying about growing and picking your own fruit and veg. Our hens seem to have settled in, now getting daily eggs here. I've even managed to get a couple of no spend days in and busy sorting work stuff out!
Mrs CRV has been very busy, I came home kitchen sorted top to bottom, new homemade curtains up there - 3 windows, along with all her dressmaking stuff sorted. So we're both working hard along our path to retirement.
:T All sounds very productive chez CRV! Great that the path to retirement is a shared path of plotting and planning, being on the same page with the big ideas isn't always a given in relationships, so it's great to be working together.
Only a few weeks left and off to my new role!
Not long at all, got all your ducks in a row?
Good luck sleeping, I'm up for the day now, one dog by my side, cat on my lap purring loudly! No chance of going back to sleep to get up at 5 am!
Sounds pretty relaxing even if you should be sleeping! :rotfl: Hope you've not been too tired today.~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0 -
Hi Joansgirl, thanks for stopping by and sharing your experiences ....When my husband died in 2010 neither of us had a will. While he was ill I was constantly being told I should get him to make one but it seemed to me that by suggesting that to him it would make it appear I'd given up all hope for him (even though I knew he was dying). So the will didn't get made.
I can understand how that must have felt, impossibly difficult to approach in that situation, so sorry to hear about your husband.
Fortunately we were married and had no children of our own (I have 3 from my first marriage) so everything came to me anyway.
One of the first things I did after he died was to get my will sorted. If I hadn't made one then everything would go to my 3 kids, and they aren't having it all. We're estranged so although they're in the will they're only getting 1/6th share each. The other 3 shares are going to 3 members of my husbands family.
Yes, it's been quite a topic of conversation on here that a Will's important for ensuring that what you leave behind gets to who you want it to, and in the right proportion. Sorry to hear about the estrangement, that must be tough.
I went from full time work to part time in April 2016 as I'd got to the point when I wanted time and not money but was too nervous of the unknown to take that final step of retiring. It took a further 16 months before I decided I didn't want to do it anymore.
I am very, very lucky. I am financially secure (thanks to my late husband and my own careful investing). I'm not rich by any means but comfortable.
All in all I have no regrets about retiring early and time (for me) really is more precious than money
^^^ Yes, all of this ^^^ is exactly what this thread's all about, weighing up the importance between the two and knowing when enough is enough to live on, in the context of additional time that jumping off the work treadmill brings. Comfortable is what we're aiming for too, don't need lots, just enough.
Love to hear more about the transition from full time to part time, to retirement at some stage if you have any insights there? It's definitely one of the scenarios we're looking at, although to be fair we're both in the part-time work phase as it is, but more by circumstance than deliberate transition to early retirement!
.~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0 -
Hi ThriftyTraceythriftytracey wrote: »Apologies to Shy for flagrant Plagiarism
:rotfl: Apology accepted, plagiarise away ~ organised (and disorganised) thoughts are always welcome!
Spending - an impulse buy on Sunday, knew we should have taken the dogs then would not have gone into large shoe shop! Shoes are a weakness unfortunately and were not needed!
Oooh, maybe try to class it as forward-planning for your Autumn / Winter wardrobe?
Saving - very tempted to lunch out after Saturday morning walk went home instead so saved £15.
Good result, easier to do when you know you have stuff to use up at home, but the willingness to cook it can sometimes be a downfall. Well done for not giving in to temptation!
Sorting - contacted the Government Pension Tracing Service https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details regarding three employers from early 1980's and 1990's. There were able to provide two contact numbers for the pensions scheme administrators for two of them. I contacted them and provided NINO, Name and DOB and they were able to confirm I did not contribute to their schemes during my employments. However, I only worked for each employer for 12 months on each occasion, and I think back then you had to work a minimum of 12 months to qualify. Of course back then when young and not thrifty minded I drifted from job to job (of which there were plenty). Still it was a useful exercise and will repeat for OH.
That's really interesting, and the link is very useful, thanks for sharing Thrifty. I don't think I need to do this but as you say is a useful exercise.
Simple Pleasures: a lovely walk with the dogs on Saturday morning seeing lots of wild flowers and watching the dogs enjoying paddling and fetching sticks and stones in river. A delicious gnocchi veggie recipe for dinner on Sunday. Seeing the garden revive after the recent showers and new flowering of roses.
Ahh yes, seeing green coming back after all that yellow-brown is a simple pleasure indeed!thriftytracey wrote: »Beware the "Dead" hour over 50's posters. QUOTE Doctors say the body's at low tide then. The soul is out. The blood moves slow. You're the nearest to dead you'll ever be save dying. Sleep is a patch of death, but three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! QUOTE
:eek: Bloomin' heck Thrifty, this and all the Wills talk - I'm frightened to go to sleep at all now! :rotfl:~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0 -
The importance of making a will was made really clear to me when my father died 'intestate'. Had my brother and I decided to take the money to which we were legally entitled, our poor mother would have really struggled financially. I dread to think what happens in some families when situations like that arise!
Mr APJ, lovely to 'see' you and thanks for sharing. It's true that it's those kind of situations which really show people's priorities and personalities in their true light.
So how are your house plans moving along, all going well I hope? ~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0 -
:wave: Hope everyone's had a lovely day!
Busy worky one here, so not much extra achieved at the moment. Scores on the doors are pretty much the same ...
* Spending
#1): No FleaBay spending - continued success, total 15 / 31.
#2) No food spending today - had a fridge use up day as it's market day for OH tomorrow, so useful to make some space and save waste. Food spends so far = £ 76 / £165.
* Saving
# 1) Need to get the weekend over before I find out if I can add any more in, so still at £ 50 / £75.
# 2) No miraculous cash injections today, still at £ 75 / £120.
* Sorting
# 1) Bored Meeting and mid-term planning progress post to follow.
#2) Will: Solicitors did not call back today as promised (some faff to do with diaries :mad: honestly) so will phone them when I finish work tomorrow if they haven't called by then. Simple Pleasures
* Rescuing a bumble bee from the dogs' outside water bowl. I happened to notice it in a very beleaguered breast-stroke state, so found a big leaf to scoop it out. Left it on garden table to dry out and it was soon up and off.
* Needed to pop up the garden a short while ago and had that lovely moment of being down the dark garden and looking back to experience the warm, cosy glow of the living room from the outside-in. Housing is such an issue for so many that I really don't take this sense of comfort and good fortune for granted, feel very fortunate indeed.
* Interesting, unexpected opportunities.
So that's today, now to get that Sorting update sorted ... SaRx~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0 -
Extra post here separately so I can copy / find it as needed later and so I can separate out my thoughts a bit.
So, as has been pointed out by insightful visitors, the mid-term part of our long-term plan could do with a bit of extra thought. It has a lot of work to do after all, to allow us not only to head for early retirement but to also fund the 'enough' side of the money so we can take the extra time we'd love to have.
What follows is based on thoughts shared at Bored Meeting and extra conversations / ideas. I know I have a slightly weird logic and methodology but the way I've laid out our thoughts is the way it helps me to think about it all. Basic premise behind it all is strengthening the mid-term plan because:
* In the long-term we could be much better off than we are currently as both pensions, lump sums for both of us and state pensions (if still in existence) should all be part of income.
* But the lump sums still being intact and SPs still being in existence can't necessarily be taken for granted so we need to be responsive to life situations in ways which will also support our LTP / LT income.
* Assumption that basic income (after tax) will need to be £1 k a month in order to maintain a comfortable and simple lifestyle / budget.
So we've started to 'test' our mid-term plan by identifying those what-if scenarios and working out contingencies which will allow us to keep on doing what we're doing and heading for that early retirement time together. Scenarios explored as follows:
* IF (situation)
* THEN (problem)
* DOT (danger of this = implications for LTP - long-term plan)
* AID (action in defence = what we could do to try and fix the situation)
* FFT (food for thought = other thoughts relating to this, likely to be random ponderances, not necessarily sensible ideas)!
#1: My £ planning
IF - I am in a position to take early retirement at Xmas 2023, just before my 58th birthday, there will be a glaring gap between me taking early retirement and accessing my primary work pension at 60.
THEN - The gap is about 25 months and will need to be funded from a float pot (as in keeping me afloat pot)!
DOT - It'll be enough to do to make up this shortfall over those 25 months, without also needing to add to the long-term retirement pot.
OH's pension is around £600 a month so there will be an income gap of £400 a month (assuming he's not going to be working then either as of course the plan is to be retiring early together).
AID - I've done some more projections in the NEST pension calculator (current work pension). If I can put around £200 extra into there each month until the DRD, then I should be able to take the lump sum on my 58th birthday and draw down from this at the rate of £400 a month to fund the gap. Any extra I also add will help ensure that I can still save during this gap period.
FFT
* If I can earn more and bank / pension pot any raises and extra income, then this would be adequately covered and we can still retire early.
* Changing my job is real FFT here, influenced by CRV1963's 'five year' plan / limit for his new job, which has really set me thinking (thanks CRV)!
#2: OH's health / job
IF - OH has enough of his job (antisocial, excessive tiredness etc) or his health takes a dip again.
THEN - His part-time job will have to go and he'll be retired extra early!
DOT - OH does not have full NI contributions as he worked abroad for years in his previous life (his 1st marriage). He has no chance of making up to full contributions but every month he pays NI the better off he'll be, particularly if I die first accidentally taking my full state pension with me
AID - Will look at creating a self-employed opportunity and paying his NI through self-assessment. Lump sum shouldn't need to be accessed to meet income needs, so long as I'm still working.
Or scenario #4 AID could come into play to help here (see below).
FFT
Not sure. What am I missing?
#3: My health / job
IF - My own health takes a downturn (relapse of long-term condition, cheeky arrival of anything else which has a horrible impact on ability to do my job) ...
THEN - We'd lose my income (higher income currently).
DOT - My income's important as I need another 5 years on my NI for full SP, and also to keep us where we want to be for early retirement.
If I can't earn then the LTP goes a bit belly up as we'd have to start drawing down from OH's lump sum, to use as income in the intervening years before official early retirement, rather than for later on in actual retirement.
AID - I've always reverted to self-employment during recovery phases, so I would do this even at minimal hours in order to pay my NI.
Could also look into accessing my primary pension at 55 but this too has implications for LTP?
FFT
* The more I can put into the pot (as in #1) now, whilst well will really help off-set problems arising from the above. Even if I got ill again 2 years down the line, we'd be in a much better position.
Hmmm, need to not get sick, obviously.
#4: Carer role
IF - My mum or stepdad start to not be able to cope, or their health (collectively or individually) starts to deteriorate (both have medical conditions, mum's is a chronic condition).
THEN - Myself and / or OH are the obvious ones in the family to take up a role in caring for them.
DOT - One of us would have to give up work to do so. We live approx 40 min drive away so the round trip alone makes the whole thing unwieldy around working as well.
This of course means that all of the DOT issues that come from loss of income would then come into play - particularly SP.
OH feels he is the one who would be the obvious choice to stop work and start caring as his job pays less than mine, is unsocial hours and feels (to him) easier to step away from than mine.
He also feels that his own physical fitness to support someone else who's ill might be better than mine.
AID - Could look into claiming Carers Allowance to get NI credit and minimal income injection. This would mean we'd still be within the £1k needed to keep us afloat, whichever one of us stopped work to do this.
FFT
Claiming Carers Allowance has implications for parental household's income, so needs careful looking into if / when the situation arises.
#5: Major emergency / expenses with house
IF - A major problem occurs with the house: roof blows away, flooding etc (we live in a high-risk location for this).
THEN - It's likely we'd have to access the lump sum to pay for repairs.
DOT - Reduced lump sum means reduced income in retirement.
AID - Have started house emergency fund (around £1100 at the moment); robust buildings and contents insurance is in place, regularly renewed. The £1 k monthly budget now allows £50 a month into the house EF so this can continue all the time we're working and even when we're not so long as we're covered by the £1 k income.
All the time we're working we can also top up any lump sum money we have to use in the event of a big emergency, on a 'borrow and pay back' basis with ourselves!
FFT
* Key phrase there is 'all the time we're working' ... so does that mean this plan should be more robust or is it actually one of those scenarios you can get too caught up in planning for (at the expense of everything else you're trying to do) and then it never happens!
So this is where we are so far. Clearly at any given time there could be a combination of these things going on, almost too many variants to consider, so just taking the stance that the contingencies we sort out for some main (more likely) scenarios could well be applied to those we haven't thought of yet.
Speaking of which, I know we've touched on health / jobs and loss of income but there's an obvious scenario missing here which is the loss of one or other of us. We're going to come back to that one alongside the Will doings, so I'll bring that one in later.
This is all work in progress, hence it's own post because I know we're going to need to keep coming back to this. So if anyone wants to chip in there thoughts / ideas across those AID and FFT sections particularly, it would be great to have some fresh thoughts on it all.
In the meantime, I'm off to try for a better night's sleep! Night, night all S&R x~ * ~ "A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint Expuery ~ * ~0
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