Hello everyone.
What an amazing experience it has been of late…to go from musings of general disquiet and sadness that my life is just a long lonely drudge of work and sleep…to gradual awareness that actually, I am in an enviable position to be able to potentially step out of the rat race and become free.
I am going to try and keep this short (ish).
I am unexpectedly single. I lost my beloved just over a year ago. We weren’t married so technically not a widow but feel like one, none the less, just without the ring. I am in my early 40s. It was (and still is, to be honest) a huge shock after a relatively short illness. I mention this because I feel like it has (in a roundabout manner) lead me here. We ‘wasted’ so much time at work – like everyone does, I suppose, before the lightbulb moment. I now feel like I am doing a fine job of continuing that waste of time by working long hours for little pleasure.
I have 2 children – both currently at uni.
The good news…….
I have a small mortgage (through choice as I could/can pay it off but the interest rate is cheap…as it is tied to BoE and is currently 1.99% (it went up from 1.74% last Dec). About £8k left to pay over 10 years. This is my only debt apart from Student Finance.
The bad news……
My home ownership is complicated a tad and realistically (and emotionally) I won’t want move from here unless I have to for health reasons in my (hopefully) old age. It is worth roughly £140k.
I discovered this revelatory and wondrous idea of not being a full time wage hound too late to do two things that in now seem in flagrant opposition to the ethos of FIRE (hindsight being 20-20 and all that).
1 – I needed a new car in Feb….so bought one that seemed like a good punt (low depreciation and in for the long haul as expect to run it for ever)…but now seems a tad extravagant at just over £9k. In my defence…I have to travel 20 motorway miles each way for work and with occasional travel further afield. I also visit my children at Uni…both of which require a fair trek so wanted a safe and economical, reliable car….still…I can imagine some serious eye-rolling out there right now!
2 – I maxed out last years ISA allowance and this years, in first week of April. Both in a 5 yr fixed cash. This was me thinking how prudent it would be….now after further weeks of trawling through the various blogs and advice, I am thinking it perhaps wasn’t the best idea after all. In my defence, it was sat in a savings account doing nothing whilst I tried to get my head around the dramatic and depressing enforced change of circumstances. That, by the way, is still very much an ongoing process.
So – to my request!
If I can’t open a S&S ISA until next April, what do I do with my money? So much talk of investment and I am a literal virgin in all of that jazz.
I have £25k in premium bonds – put in about a month ago. Thinking it can sit there until next April.
I have an NS&I 3 yr bond for £3k bought earlier in the year.
I have a pension (workplace) that apparently I can pay into on top of what goes in from my pay (but not sure about the benefit of doing that). It currently only has about £11k in it and is with Aegon (I believe it is a SIPP). It is matched up to 6% and that is the current amount I am paying in.
I have £80k doing nothing, in a savings account.
My take home pay is roughly £1450 after all deductions. I am working about 45-50 hours a week and am salaried so this figure is static. I am potentially in line for a 12% of salary bonus (I got it this year…which went towards my car!) but they have tightened up the criteria this year so, combined with current business trends, I am not pinning any realistic hope of getting it next year.
My spending does need a bit of work (something I am just getting to grips with…micro managing my budget!) but isn’t massively flagrant. Roughly £800 or so a month. Think I could get it down to 6-700 and not suffer too much.
I am putting £250 a month in Halifax & Nationwide savers (and have maxed the Nationwide current @£2.5k)
I know it isn’t exactly lottery winnings but not only is it a daunting amount to me (never had a lot as a kid and was the epitome of a struggling broke young family only a few short years ago). Also, it goes without saying that I would swap every penny I own to have my beloved back with me….which also makes dealing with this and being rational about it quite challenging. But I have learned the hard way that we only get one go at this living malarkey … and don’t want to waste any more of my turn at it.
How would you very experienced people look at ensuring you can step out of daily toil and swap to a life of gardening, dog walking (would dearly love a hound but not until I can give it the company and time it deserves!), and general freedom. 58 seems a long way off at the moment but after losing my beloved at that exact age, I don’t want to wait that long.
Thanks for reading.
Your kindness in replying will be appreciated immeasurably.