Are you not impacted by the tapered thresholds? One of my biggest pet peeves with the U.K. system is the tapered nature of pension contributions (vs the US where everyone has access to the same cap).
Kipling's Journal
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ take2 - yes, I am heavily impacted by the tapering. You can normally get a tax deduction for putting up to 60,000 a year (in 2023/24) into your pension fund if you are unaffected by tapering. I am affected by tapering so I could only get a tax deduction for about the first 20,000 in tax year 2023/24. I will only get a tax deduction for the minimum 10,000 in tax year 2024/25 because my income is rising. The UK taxes high earners very heavily - I pay about 47% net.
Re: Kipling's Journal
I'm struck by something whitebelt wrote in biscuits & gravy's journal:
Compartmentalizing in the moment is great to get through something in the short term, but disastrous over the long term if you don't ever dedicate time to process all of the things that you pushed aside during those times. If one doesn't ever process that, then life just becomes about chaining along distractions or doing everything you can to not think about those things. Similarly, relationships struggle when you can't process your emotions because you're so accustomed to pushing anything emotional to the side in order to focus on the present moment.
There's a lot in there for me to think about.
I am absolutely exhausted and really need a break. I am packing for a week-long trip to Pennsylvania. I am looking forward to a long plane ride when no one can email me and I can lose myself in couple of good operas.
Compartmentalizing in the moment is great to get through something in the short term, but disastrous over the long term if you don't ever dedicate time to process all of the things that you pushed aside during those times. If one doesn't ever process that, then life just becomes about chaining along distractions or doing everything you can to not think about those things. Similarly, relationships struggle when you can't process your emotions because you're so accustomed to pushing anything emotional to the side in order to focus on the present moment.
There's a lot in there for me to think about.
I am absolutely exhausted and really need a break. I am packing for a week-long trip to Pennsylvania. I am looking forward to a long plane ride when no one can email me and I can lose myself in couple of good operas.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Enjoy the time off. But…why PA..?
Re: Kipling's Journal
@ take2 - visiting an old friend who read ERE, retired at the age of 49, got married, and moved here.
Did a tour of Fallingwater which I’ve wanted to do for thirty years. Went to a car cruise. Took a road trip to see some other friends in Grand Rapids. Experienced the standard American diet.
Now packing for return to UK, and salad.
Did a tour of Fallingwater which I’ve wanted to do for thirty years. Went to a car cruise. Took a road trip to see some other friends in Grand Rapids. Experienced the standard American diet.
Now packing for return to UK, and salad.
Re: Kipling's Journal
Assets and liabilities check 02/05/24
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £961,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £138,000
Professional assets - £260,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £4,000
Gross assets- £2,502,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Loans - £30,000
Mortgage - £578,000
Professional loans - £260,000
Gross liabilities- £875,000
Net - £1,627,000.
Solid month. NW went down very slightly, as pension fund went down, but at least I didn’t spend everything I earned.
Pension fund 1 down £9k despite £2k additional contributions. It's just market chatter, I'm entirely happy with my asset allocation.
Pension fund 2 is unchanged, net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 (state pension, also bond equivalent) is unchanged, but I miscalculated its NPV last month. I need to make another four years of contributions to max it out.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
I am chipping away at loans and mortgage.
April: 12,432 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,077 spent, with the big spending being some wine futures I had contracted for months ago and now had to pay for (£1,134) replacing some worn out clothes and having other repaired (£1,111), having my hi-fi speakers refurbished (£900), mortgage interest (£834), several dinners out mainly while abroad (£564), and driving lessons (£390). Didn’t buy any new wine in the month but drank some really lovely wines with lovely people. I am very lucky to have generous friends in that regard.
Had a week in Pennsylvania. Was good to see an old friend from the UK happily settled in the US, and was sociologically interesting, but the sheer volume of food was terrifying.
I am helping my mother with the logistics of buying a second, smaller, property in the centre of a town, that is less challenging for her to live in and allows for her to walk more and to have more social interaction without driving. The family home is a bit isolating for her; I guess she will sell it eventually, but she is not yet ready to let it go – which is fine, it's her money and her choice.
Have been through year end – a great year for me and for my team – so probably some more money for me next year – but I've been working way too hard and so my life has been short of enjoyment; am now instead working hard at institutional changes that will mean I don’t have to work so many hours, and that therefore enable me to carve out the time for exercise, and for serendipitous fun.
Assets
Property - £992,000
Saleable collections - £42,000
Car - £10,000
Pension 1 - £961,000
Pension 2 - £95,000
Pension 3 - £138,000
Professional assets - £260,000
ISAs - £0
NS&I - £0
Cash - £4,000
Gross assets- £2,502,000
Liabilities
Credit cards - £7,000
Loans - £30,000
Mortgage - £578,000
Professional loans - £260,000
Gross liabilities- £875,000
Net - £1,627,000.
Solid month. NW went down very slightly, as pension fund went down, but at least I didn’t spend everything I earned.
Pension fund 1 down £9k despite £2k additional contributions. It's just market chatter, I'm entirely happy with my asset allocation.
Pension fund 2 is unchanged, net present value of a small final salary pension (bond equivalent).
Pension fund 3 (state pension, also bond equivalent) is unchanged, but I miscalculated its NPV last month. I need to make another four years of contributions to max it out.
Credit card debt is just a revolving balance paid off each month.
I am chipping away at loans and mortgage.
April: 12,432 steps average, 9 exercise sessions, 0 yoga sessions, £8,077 spent, with the big spending being some wine futures I had contracted for months ago and now had to pay for (£1,134) replacing some worn out clothes and having other repaired (£1,111), having my hi-fi speakers refurbished (£900), mortgage interest (£834), several dinners out mainly while abroad (£564), and driving lessons (£390). Didn’t buy any new wine in the month but drank some really lovely wines with lovely people. I am very lucky to have generous friends in that regard.
Had a week in Pennsylvania. Was good to see an old friend from the UK happily settled in the US, and was sociologically interesting, but the sheer volume of food was terrifying.
I am helping my mother with the logistics of buying a second, smaller, property in the centre of a town, that is less challenging for her to live in and allows for her to walk more and to have more social interaction without driving. The family home is a bit isolating for her; I guess she will sell it eventually, but she is not yet ready to let it go – which is fine, it's her money and her choice.
Have been through year end – a great year for me and for my team – so probably some more money for me next year – but I've been working way too hard and so my life has been short of enjoyment; am now instead working hard at institutional changes that will mean I don’t have to work so many hours, and that therefore enable me to carve out the time for exercise, and for serendipitous fun.