Plans for 2024?

[Pmax2020]

Each year in similar threads I’ve alluded to my desire to move house and get something ‘better’ for the family.

I think that ship is about to set sail unless prices really start to fall. We have a nice place, and I’ve started to think more about retirement now I’m in my 40s.

So what are your plans for 2024?

For me, I want to lose a little weight to get some fast race (running) times. Continue to overpay my mortgage and make decent additional pension contributions, and have a couple of nice family holidays somewhere hot…

[Former postman]

Hopefully will be starting a new job with my cousin as an electrician's mate in Jan, since I acquired my level 2+3 diploma in electrical installation this year. 

Working towards my NVQ level 3 and becoming a fully qualified electrician (but not necessarily completing it) is my main goal for next year. 

Also we are expecting our first child in June, so big life changes incoming. My main focus is on making as much money as possible and sticking it away.

Also our landlord has made it clear to us he would be open to sell us the house we rent off of him. He is aged, has multiple properties and no heirs. So one focus this year would be to continue to plant the psychological seeds of charity in his head.

 

[Stewy]

Keep going as I am.

If you need to make changes, do it now - don't wait until some arbitrary date... ✓✓✓

[HomeAlone2]

Has anyone actually struggled this year?

To quote scrooge I find myself a year older and not a penny richer. 

Yet I'm still thankful....there's always someone worse off and all that.

[Orb]

I'm looking to buy my first and possibly last home in 2024. It'll be a cash purchase, but at the very low end of the freehold local market. 

Then I'll be looking to reduce my work to 3 shifts per week - around 30 hrs - for at least a year or so as a mid-life break. 

The extra time will be spent on some other interests/hobbies/endeavours that I've been cultivating for some time. 

 

[MattW]

13 minutes ago, HomeAlone2 said:

Has anyone actually struggled this year?

I haven't struggled but I have certainly noticed the inflation in my food bills. 3 years ago it took some effort to get to the £25 minimum spend threshold for the Tesco 'Click and Collect' service but it takes no effort to get there now.

My plans for 2024: well I completed on a neglected 1980s build flat in August*. I have ordered new double glazed windows to replace the original single glazed units that suffer with bad condensation. Hopefully they will be fitted in January or February. Then I can crack on with some more redecoration. I also need to look at replacing the combi boiler. I'd also like to overpay on the mortgage but I also need to give consideration to extending the 88 year lease.

* Bought from a BTL Landlord. The Estate Agent told me that the one I have bought was seventh and final one to be disposed of. I like to think that I have played my part in reducing BTL. 

[scottbeard]

Plan is to try and do what I failed to do in Q4 2023 namely sell my house in the south east and buy a much bigger one for not much more money in the Midlands.

[Tony_Teacake]

2 hours ago, Postman said:

Hopefully will be starting a new job with my cousin as an electrician's mate in Jan, since I acquired my level 2+3 diploma in electrical installation this year. 

Working towards my NVQ level 3 and becoming a fully qualified electrician (but not necessarily completing it) is my main goal for next year. 

Also we are expecting our first child in June, so big life changes incoming. My main focus is on making as much money as possible and sticking it away.

Also our landlord has made it clear to us he would be open to sell us the house we rent off of him. He is aged, has multiple properties and no heirs. So one focus this year would be to continue to plant the psychological seeds of charity in his head.

 

Good luck in becoming a sparky as I would say you will be in demand once you have enough experience.

[reddog]

1 hour ago, HomeAlone2 said:

Has anyone actually struggled this year?

To quote scrooge I find myself a year older and not a penny richer. 

Yet I'm still thankful....there's always someone worse off and all that.

I wouldn't say I have struggled financially.  I am actually happier with my working situation than I have for a long time.  

 

I do see people struggling though, although maybe some of them just like to complain.

 

The Uber driver I used last weekend, said that it had been very quiet that weekend.

[Chunketh]

Quit the beer, lose a couple of stone. Same as ever. Extra emphasis this year as i have a big birthday and another promotion on the horizon. Works gonna be brutal, but very interesting.

[Tony_Teacake]

1 hour ago, HomeAlone2 said:

Has anyone actually struggled this year?

To quote scrooge I find myself a year older and not a penny richer. 

Yet I'm still thankful....there's always someone worse off and all that.

Personally, I haven't struggled financially as I am lucky I don't have any debt. In business I have seen a reduction of around 50% in turnover but unfortunately for many other people, their finances have gotten a lot worse.

[TenYearToGetMyMoneyBack]

Avoid paying higher rate tax. That might not be difficult since the £119 adjustment HMRC wrote to me about which I mentioned before looks as if it might be £119 a month !  I need to check my wage slip when I am back at work.

Personally I keep thinking I ought to get back into swimming. Until ten years ago I used to go every week but I haven't been since before the pandemic.

On that subject I was just reading a newsletter about Church services and it seems the lady who writes it has just had Covid.

Wishing everyone a healthy 2024. 

p.s. If the top part doesn't make sense I recently increased my AVC up another £600. I'm now paying more into my AVC than I have ever paid on a mortgage. However, it looks like I might be paying tax on money I won't owe it on. My take home pay is now less than half my gross salary. It is a good thing I have reserves.

Edited December 24, 2023 by TenYearToGetMyMoneyBack
typo and p.s.

[“Nasty Piece of work”]

A massive plus for me has been a generous pension (albeit being forced on me by health, rather than age).  It's provision has been a God send, I could not rely on the State "Benefit", which is awful.

[Pmax2020]

4 hours ago, Postman said:

Hopefully will be starting a new job with my cousin as an electrician's mate in Jan, since I acquired my level 2+3 diploma in electrical installation this year. 

Working towards my NVQ level 3 and becoming a fully qualified electrician (but not necessarily completing it) is my main goal for next year. 

Also we are expecting our first child in June, so big life changes incoming. My main focus is on making as much money as possible and sticking it away.

Also our landlord has made it clear to us he would be open to sell us the house we rent off of him. He is aged, has multiple properties and no heirs. So one focus this year would be to continue to plant the psychological seeds of charity in his head.

 

Congrats.

Mrs Pmax2020 and I did shifts with our newborns at night. Shift 1 was a back shift 20:00 to 03:00, then shift 2 (nightshift) was 03:00 till morning. Taking week about. 

Means you both feel like you had a chance to get half a nights sleep!  

My advice to any new parent is try not to stress. Every day you convince yourself there’s an issue with one of them but before you know it they’ve grown and changed by the following week or month anyway. 

[jiltedjen]

Improve the emergency fund.

Survive the next round of redundancies?

Humble Honeymoon. 

Try for a baby.

Start the long process of building up an S&S ISA as the retire early fund, for those lovely tax free dividends, as my DC pension is fine, but need that bridge so I’m not having to work until 70.

or to cover future periods of recessions/depressions. 

Perhaps the ability to work part time later in life. mid 30’s now, mortgage free, now 20-30 years to build up an income. 

I once had plans to start up a business, making bespoke niche things. I have the skills and talent, but as time has passed I realised that all my dreams are dead, and everything is stacked against you in life, better to take the less risky road, delay having or doing nice things, and maybe you don’t have to be stood with a manger screaming at you when your at work when you should be in ‘slipper and comfy chair’ time of life (seen this in real life). as a millennial I would be insane to take any risks. This is not a country for innovation or growth. 

adult life is no longer about progress, it’s about protecting and holding on to what you have. Consolidating, and holding firm against economic forces. 

as a millennial I realised that sometimes the game is set against you from the start. I have a perfectly nice humble 3 bed semi. and in theory at my age and situation is doing better than 95% of my generation, I have run out of energy to desire more from life. It’s already been ‘not worth it’ to have what I have, I wouldn’t go back and do it again. No way.

I don’t desire to take on a 6 bed detached house, the amount I paid for my humble house should of paid for something 3 times bigger, but it didn’t. Previous generations would have a hell of a lot more to show for the same amount of work and savings.

The game is broken. you play as you are forced to, but there comes a point when you don’t have to anymore. The work-reward ratio is worst as it’s ever been, and it’s getting worse. 

I just want to be able to provide for my little family, and let the world outside of us fall to bits. If I’m among the best of my generation, and I’m burn out with relatively little to show for it, then that does not bode well for those who do have those lovely 6 bed houses, they won’t have anyone to sell to. 

there won’t be any mass buyers for these boomer mansions and estates. it’s going to be chaos.

I’m going to live through the ‘great realisation’ and ‘the great correction’

the money is not there the very day it’s called upon on mass. 

i think every few generations the males in the family realise that their life was not their own, it was for others. a ‘filler generation’ if you like. my destiny is to protect my own kids from previous generations selfish mistakes, and to do that I have to understand my lot in life. and accept it. this life was never my own. my dreams were never going to happen. 

it’s funny as the achievements of a millennial in a humble house far surpass the achievements of a boomer in a huge house, yet perhaps my children will never realise that, will never realise what it took to give them even a reasonable childhood. 

my fate is for my efforts to go unrecognised, to be a faceless salaryman.

but that’s OK. 

the sun will still come up tomorrow. kids will still smile. can still have a warm cup of coffee in the morning. perhaps being ‘spiritual’ and learning to feel ‘complete’ in life with my humble lot, is worth a lot more than the endless meaningless search for happiness in consumerism or keeping up with the jones of previous generations. 

maybe the best way to ‘win’ a rigged game is not to aim for an outright win, but to find your own personal victories. and have as much fun as you can in the meantime. 

my generations fate is to be lost in history sandwiched between generations, never had the chance to achieve great things. 

history will say something along the lines of:

‘boomers really messed everything up, leading to a long stagnation and it took a generation to correct mistakes, but famous generation alpha did some great things, some incredible innovations’ 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by jiltedjen

[Stewy]

2 minutes ago, jiltedjen said:

 

history will say something along the lines of ‘boomers really messed everything up, and it took a generation to correct mistakes, but generation alpha did some great things’ 

 

Not convinced by this. They took us through seven decades of (mostly) peace and rebuilt the country. 

People can now work for an hour at minimum wage and feed themselves extremely well.

We all live like the kings of 100 years ago. ✓✓

Merry Christmas...

[jiltedjen]

1 minute ago, Stewy said:

Not convinced by this. They took us through seven decades of (mostly) peace and rebuilt the country. 

People can now work for an hour at minimum wage and feed themselves extremely well.

We all live like the kings of 100 years ago. ✓✓

Merry Christmas...

Greatest generation built most of the infrastructure the country still runs on to this days.

boomers damaged the economy, used up our resources, didn’t replace infrastructure, and the peace was stealing from the future with a one time 30 year finance boom while destroying our real wealth creating engines.

We have been living from the fall out of that one time debt binge, real wages are 35% lower than a decade ago. 

Boomers just ruled over decline and decay. 

just how history will write it. it will write it looking at the effects of the boomers as whole in a historical context, including their legacy. they won’t be writing about it before it’s all fully played out (like at this point in time) when we are yet to see the full extents of the car-crash of an economy they left for us. we have another 20 years for the effects to play out, of decline and rot. 

Equally following few generations won’t really be very memorable at all, the rebuild clawing slowly out of stagnation and decay generations. At best my generation will be forgotten. 

sun will still come up tomorrow, and after all it’s better to be forgotten about than remembered as a selfish horrible damaging wealth hoarding drain. 

[Huggy]

11 hours ago, Chunketh said:

Quit the beer, lose a couple of stone. Same as ever. Extra emphasis this year as i have a big birthday and another promotion on the horizon. Works gonna be brutal, but very interesting.

Great goals. Agree with cutting down on the sauce.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Huggy

[hughjass]

New kitchen , new windows get the garden looking nice, get some nice walks in. I keep getting told this year its going to hit the fan for those who over indulged on the debt frenzy in the last decade. I see some Wall street Guru is predicting a Tsunami of a recession . Lets see.

[Dazbo1983]

Primary 2024 Goals:  Personal financial consolidation.

We have a modest 3-bed semi which we bought (mortgage) in 2017 and have been working expediently to pay down the mortgage capital in that time in the expectation that rates would rise. 

Our fix ends in April ‘24 and we hope it will be our final fixed-rate deal (2-3 years 🤞). Although, we aren’t counting chickens as I fully expect a recession and economic deterioration in 2024. 

I am 40 and feel grateful to be in our current position, and I have zero appetite to extend our debt to get an extra bedroom or larger garden; the cost/risk just isn’t worth it. 

I desperately want the outlook to improve for the future generations, and for this to happen there will need to be pain. 
 

Wishing everybody the very best of health. Let’s see what 2024 brings. 

[MancTom]

On 24/12/2023 at 20:06, Tony_Teacake said:

Good luck in becoming a sparky as I would say you will be in demand once you have enough experience.

Based on our experience of plumbers…must be easy money if you are good. Even the idiots doing bodge jobs get many recommendations…most people don’t seem to know enough to realise.

[hotblack42]

Explore more of Sweden.

Go see daughter-in-law’s family in California.

Hiking in the Alps.

Ride bicycle & motorbike hugely more than this year.

Go see lots of old friends spread across England & Wales before more of them (or I) have serious health problems, or worse.  Alarming increase in friends & family having such problems since turning 60.

Take some more good photos & actually print & frame them.

Swim in the sea every week.

[Pmax2020]

5 minutes ago, hotblack42 said:

Explore more of Sweden.

Go see daughter-in-law’s family in California.

Hiking in the Alps.

Ride bicycle & motorbike hugely more than this year.

Go see lots of old friends spread across England & Wales before more of them (or I) have serious health problems, or worse.  Alarming increase in friends & family having such problems since turning 60.

Take some more good photos & actually print & frame them.

Swim in the sea every week.

There are a couple of great hiking channels on YouTube. Guys walking all over the UK and Europe on their own, or with their dogs!

God I’d love to say cheerio to the wife and kids for a few days and do something like that…

Im trying to convince the wife that a European city break would work with our young kids. Probably wouldn’t though. Guess its more beach holidays this year again… totally extortionate…

[Pmax2020]

5 minutes ago, hotblack42 said:

Explore more of Sweden.

Go see daughter-in-law’s family in California.

Hiking in the Alps.

Ride bicycle & motorbike hugely more than this year.

Go see lots of old friends spread across England & Wales before more of them (or I) have serious health problems, or worse.  Alarming increase in friends & family having such problems since turning 60.

Take some more good photos & actually print & frame them.

Swim in the sea every week.

There are a couple of great hiking channels on YouTube. Guys walking all over the UK and Europe on their own, or with their dogs!

God I’d love to say cheerio to the wife and kids for a few days and do something like that…

Im trying to convince the wife that a European city break would work with our young kids. Probably wouldn’t though. Guess its more beach holidays this year again… totally extortionate…

[17 Year Veteran]

Establishing a neurodiversity clinic. Let’s see how that goes. 
 

interestingly the oldest child’s “Gordon brown child trust fund” pays out soon (having returned 0% in 18 years). That’ll pay for a chunk of a property for them.
 

I know, I know… but the mortgage payments are so much less than the cost of university accommodation in my part of the world to the point where it will be paid off after four years even at today’s interest rates (Halls of residence are *very* expensive…~400-500UKP-a-week expensive. )