saving my future self from debt

enthusiasticsaver · 3 May 2018 at 8:09AM

Your ex is right that markets are taking a beating at the moment. Our investments are down but we don't depend on them for rent as you are. I question the wisdom of this considering investments are volatile but I know how expensive London and the south east is to live in. We moved from Surrey to Cornwall 30 years ago simply because housing costs were extortionate and my husband was luckily offered a job in the same company. He was an engineer so could work anywhere. Are you invested in a monthly income fund and is it well diversified? Ideally it should be spread across several asset classes, equities, bonds, commodities and property to minimise volatility especially if you are drawing on it now when the markets are quite low.

beanielou · 3 May 2018 at 4:09PM

Happy Thursday

pennyforthepot · 3 May 2018 at 4:12PM

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

I have struggled and struggled with the eco angle of money saving too. I'm not sure where you're up to in my diary, but the short version is that I compromised entirely on that side of things for more or less a year, then just couldn't do it any more and introduced some of my old standards (plastic free food shopping as far as possible, organic dairy and meat where practical - ie not cream because it goes off in about 7.3 seconds, and not cheese because the price difference is unsustainable for us and we don't eat loads of it). I now do a hugely involved food shop, which means going to Lidl/Aldi and getting what I can plastic free there, then Sainsburys and getting the next tranche of stuff plastic free, then the zero waste shop and grocers in town for anything remaining. Some things I just cannot, for all intents and purposes, get plastic free (dairy, I'm looking at you again), and I have experimented with cutting them out but it's just not worth it and I have reconciled myself to a vastly reduced level of plastic rather than plastic free.

I'm not sure what the lesson is there, just wanted to let you know I have struggled enormously with it too! I mainly console myself with the knowledge that compared to the vast majority of people we know, we are treading incredibly lightly anyway - we don't fly, we buy very few clothes, we don't eat fast food, we eat seasonal local fruit and veg most of the time. We're not doing appallingly.

Ahghh SPOILER ALERT :eek: SPOILER ALERT :eek::rotfl:

In all seriousness TOPM I agree with all of you, though it's hard to take sometimes but I have to console myself with ensuring I'm not impacting in other areas of my life like you say clothes, travel (if only!) etc.

pennyforthepot · 3 May 2018 at 4:22PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Your ex is right that markets are taking a beating at the moment. Our investments are down but we don't depend on them for rent as you are. I question the wisdom of this considering investments are volatile but I know how expensive London and the south east is to live in. We moved from Surrey to Cornwall 30 years ago simply because housing costs were extortionate and my husband was luckily offered a job in the same company. He was an engineer so could work anywhere. Are you invested in a monthly income fund and is it well diversified? Ideally it should be spread across several asset classes, equities, bonds, commodities and property to minimise volatility especially if you are drawing on it now when the markets are quite low.

TBH Enthusiastic Saver, embarrassingly I have absolutely no idea! My ex is part of that world and he arranged it all, I didn't really have much say in it all. It's performed as required for the last 6 years ups and downs but nothing anywhere near as massive a drop as the last couple of months having been slow for the prior 12 months. I have been going round and round with it in my head and am going to ask him to help me make up some of the shortfall I foresee it dropping further over the next few months and it was part of our financial agreement to cover the rent until the kids are off to uni. I just don't see why I should be scrimping and scrounging to try and claw back the shortfall when they are his chicdren too. I will endeavour to find out a little more about the fund as I must educate myself for the future.

pennyforthepot · 3 May 2018 at 4:25PM

beanielou wrote: »

Happy Thursday

Aww thanks Beanielou - and back to you too

pennyforthepot · 3 May 2018 at 4:35PM

Bluurrgh - tired again. Waking in the early hours and running things over and over in my head

I had a bit of win last night. DD is due to be at her dads this weekend but as has been the case most of the weekends and holidays her and DS have hardly been over, for about 4 years now. So emailed my EX and said that I could no longer bare the financial cost of this and will be charging him £30 for every weekend they stay here. It should cover food and other costs and also covers her boyfriend who stays with her most times. He has agreed.

Scores on the Doors Today:

£4.32 food spend (picked up some YS berries amongst other stuff)
£3.59 - vitamins from miscellaneous pot. £29.49'left
£352 - left in cash pot
£12.57 daily available spend for tomorrow. Up 16p
£1.26 electricity. £6.85 for the month
9p OP - £1.14 for the month
1x free coffee at work
2.5 additional hours worked
1 X past the Tesco Taster table - disappointingly grapes!

beanielou · 3 May 2018 at 4:36PM

Agree with you that you should try to claw back part of the shortfall.
AS you say they are his children too.

enthusiasticsaver · 3 May 2018 at 5:57PM

pennyforthepot wrote: »

TBH Enthusiastic Saver, embarrassingly I have absolutely no idea! My ex is part of that world and he arranged it all, I didn't really have much say in it all. It's performed as required for the last 6 years ups and downs but nothing anywhere near as massive a drop as the last couple of months having been slow for the prior 12 months. I have been going round and round with it in my head and am going to ask him to help me make up some of the shortfall I foresee it dropping further over the next few months and it was part of our financial agreement to cover the rent until the kids are off to uni. I just don't see why I should be scrimping and scrounging to try and claw back the shortfall when they are his chicdren too. I will endeavour to find out a little more about the fund as I must educate myself for the future.

Yes, ideally you should not be drawing from the investment pot at the moment due to the downturn. Even relatively safe investments like bonds are down in value. I would definitely speak to your ex and get him to help cover the shortfall as I would not have thought this sort of arrangement to cover essentials like rent would have been the best way to manage your financial agreement. The mantra is that you don't withdraw when the market is low.

I would find out which funds the money is invested in first as a starting point. Then you can investigate which assets the funds are invested in and across which sectors and geographical areas.

pennyforthepot · 4 May 2018 at 6:15AM

Yay Brighton Weekend

Blugh - woke at 4am again

However the sun is said to be shining this weekend and I cannot ask for more than sea and sun (and DH of course) to lift the spirit.

I am such a spreadsheet sucker. I calculated my daily lunch cost down to the last gram in the early hours of this morning (eat the same every day) £1.15 for a nutritionally rich meal - good or bad?

£2.77 Daily electricity spend - had to put the emersion heater on yesterday :eek:

£40 Brighton weekend kitty

Happy Days
PFTPx

beanielou · 4 May 2018 at 7:46PM

£1.15 sounds good to me.
Enjoy your weekend

saving my future self from debt

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