Paperwork, finances, and all that grown up stuff.

[MMMarmite]

Would anyone like to join me in a support thread? I've had my head in the sand about life-admin, and at 32, and just gone through a breakup, I've realised I need to grow up.

I'm lucky to have a well paid career, and I'm not a big spender, so I have a fair bit money saved. But it just sits in my account at basically 0% interest. I'm still renting, I've not sorted a pension, embarrassingly I can't even find the password to some of my accounts. My insurance etc is all in a mess.

Thinking about money makes me feel ashamed and panicky. I know some of it stems from childhood - my mum was emotionally abusive. So part of the task is gaining skills and knowledge, and part is facing my emotions.

My plan is to sit down at least once a week and tackle a little bit of it. Would anyone like to join?

Ok so first things first you need to sort a pension. Your workplace should have one, task one if I were you would be to enroll in it at whatever level maxes out your employer contributions. If you're self employed then you DEFINITELY need a pension.

The money board on Mumsnet is where I really started learning about personal finance, there's a really interesting thread at the moment on pensions at the moment on there (sounds like an oxymoron) but this stuff is important .

I'd also head over to reddit and look at the UK Personal Finance subreddit. It has a useful flowchart to work through that should help out if you're trying to sort out your finances.

Watching with interest. I'm quite embarrassed that I know so little about how to manage my finances. I want to get a mortgage so I need to learn.

I love all this stuff.

Password manager is the first thing I'd recommend. I use Dashlane but there are lots of others.

Pension as others have said set up one with your employer. I have a private one too and I would set up a LISA, this can be used for retirement or towards a house. The govt adds 25% to the account.

Finances I prefer to have separated into spends/ direct debits/ savings. It makes it very clear what I have to spend.
Example: payday £2000 into spending account, transfer £1000 to cover DDs and transfer £500 to savings, leaves £500 to spend, anything left can go into savings at next payday.
I've simplified this further by spending everything on a cashback credit card which comes out of the DD account so I only have to pay into the DD account and the rest goes into savings.

Insurance renewal dates go on to the calendar. I look for quotes around 6 weeks before renewal. I use GoCompare and Quidco. It's only car and house once a year, not that bad.

Make other appointments before you leave dentist / hairdresser etc saves having to book again.

Paperwork, I don't keep much. I try to save as much as I can to Google drive.

• I have a couple of small concertina files for paperwork like insurance, mortgage, pensions, TV/ utility/ council tax/ mobile contracts etc. Keeping only the latest statements/ renewals. 1 in/ 1 out type of thing.
• Birth/ marriage/ qualification certificates are in a plastic wallet book thing.
• Payslips in a popper wallet until p60 is received then the payslips are destroyed.
• A box file for the appliance manuals and booklets. I go through this once a year to see if they are still relevant.

@LongIslandIcedT

I love all this stuff.

Password manager is the first thing I'd recommend. I use Dashlane but there are lots of others.

Pension as others have said set up one with your employer. I have a private one too and I would set up a LISA, this can be used for retirement or towards a house. The govt adds 25% to the account.

Finances I prefer to have separated into spends/ direct debits/ savings. It makes it very clear what I have to spend.
Example: payday £2000 into spending account, transfer £1000 to cover DDs and transfer £500 to savings, leaves £500 to spend, anything left can go into savings at next payday.
I've simplified this further by spending everything on a cashback credit card which comes out of the DD account so I only have to pay into the DD account and the rest goes into savings.

Insurance renewal dates go on to the calendar. I look for quotes around 6 weeks before renewal. I use GoCompare and Quidco. It's only car and house once a year, not that bad.

Make other appointments before you leave dentist / hairdresser etc saves having to book again.

I follow similar advice to this poster, a LISA is great as you put in £4000 a year, the govt puts in £1000 and you can only have it back at 60 or to buy a house. It feels like you're actually saving for the future. I use AJ Bell although there are lots of other options.

In terms of pension, I'm self employed and lazy about my options, and not really willing to learn (sounds awful, I know). I use Nest, which is a govt backed option for auto enrollment, the fees are high when you pay in compared to some of the others, but ongoing costs are reasonable and I can just choose high risk, ethical, cash etc as my investment options rather than individual stock options. Their dashboard is easy to use, and v easy to do regular payments or one offs.

Definitely get used to using comparison sites for insurance, you'll save a fortune and once you've done it once, most of the info is saved so it doesn't take as long next year, I promise!

Ooooh yes, I'm in!

Really Useful Box 35 Clear + 10 x Suspension Files www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M5GQWFS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_QG3QABQ6RS141BKK3BAC?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Ordr this. Absolute game changer. It sits under my desk and I spent an afternoon setting up a system last week. I leave it open and try and spend an hour a week filing stuff and have also written the usernames and passwords on a blank sheet of paper for each relevant thing, and slipped it in there too (yes, yes, I know I’m stuffed if I’m burgled! But if said burglar took the time to read my bank statement, guilt would get the better of him I’m sure and he’d scarper 😂).

Then take one thing at a time. DO sort a pension asap. DO re broker your insurances. Then make a plan of where you’d like to be in 3 and 5 years. I’m so sorry you had a break up but use it!

Listening to the meaningful money podcast really helped me too, he's got a huge back catalogue covering all sorts of personal finance topics and makes things really simple to understand.

Sign up to Money Saving Expert newsletter :)
Don't pay more than 15 p/m for your mobile
Cancel subscriptions you don't use
Make a budget spreadsheet

What do you mean by "insurance" in a mess? Please don't drive uninsured. If it's that it must be the top of the urgent list.

@LunaHeather

What do you mean by "insurance" in a mess? Please don't drive uninsured. If it's that it must be the top of the urgent list.

Thanks for the judgement I'm not driving uninsured, not sure why you'd leap to illegal activity.

@CarolinaWeeper

Listening to the meaningful money podcast really helped me too, he's got a huge back catalogue covering all sorts of personal finance topics and makes things really simple to understand.

That sounds good, I like a podcast while I do the washing up.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be judgey

My friend forgot to renew her insurance when she was stressed, that's all

I love organising this stuff so thought maybe l could help.

Free personal finance course with Money Saving Expert & Open University

Welcome, to everyone else in the same boat!

Thanks for all the advice. It's a bit overwhelming, but it's good to start talking about it. I'll aim to tackle it a small bit at a time.

So today I've messaged a financial advisor, to see how much it would cost to get some help. I'm self employed which makes pensions more complicated. If the advice not too pricy, it would be worth making sure I'm setting off in the right direction.

@LunaHeather

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be judgey

My friend forgot to renew her insurance when she was stressed, that's all

I love organising this stuff so thought maybe l could help.

Ah, no worries LunaHeather. Sorry I'm being a bit touchy, am embarrassed by the whole situation. I meant that I don't know where all my insurance paperwork is, and that I don't have contents insurance in my current house.

Good to get advice re things like investments and pension, but the first thing they will ask you is how much you have to invest, so you need to make sure you have sorted out your budget and be clear what "spare" money you have each month.

How do I find the mumsnet money Board please?

So, get contents insurance. If you need hand holding, follow the MSE guide. Simple :)

Set yourself achievable goals, is my best advice. I don't do filing - I have grand ideas but I don't do it. So instead, I have a box file next to my front door. When important papers (bank/mortgage statements, insurance renewals, Council tax bill, water bill, etc) I put them into the box. At the end of the financial year I tie some string around it and put it away. I keep paperwork for 6 years and I know that if I need something from (for example) 2018-19, I just go to that box.

Make it easy - set up direct debits. Do a budget and move your spends into a different account so you know how much you have to play with. Save at the start of the month rather than the end; if you try to save 'what's left' you'll save nothing!

It doesn't have to be difficult. Baby steps!

Make sure the financial adviser is an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) as by law they have to be impartial and cannot recommend or sell you one policy over another based on how much commission they get.

Many of them will advise you for a flat fee instead.

If you are self-employed, then you need to keep your paperwork for 7 years, and it has to be in an accessible format (ie not held as computer files which may become obsolete or inaccessible). You need to make sure that files held that way are in a readable format.

My advice would be to keep paper copies of work-related paperwork rather than save them online. If you change your bank for instance, you will not be able to access statements for the account at the previous bank. All you need is a box or folder for each tax year and chuck everything in. Then sling it at the back of the wardrobe or wherever. Once 7 years are up you can shred the lot, and re-use the file for the coming year in rotation.

You also need to make sure that you are claiming all the expenses you can against your income. If you use part of your home for work purposes, then you can offset some of your household utility bills, rates, insurance etc against tax.

Make doing paperwork part of your business day.

@LBOCS2

So, get contents insurance. If you need hand holding, follow the MSE guide. Simple :)

Set yourself achievable goals, is my best advice. I don't do filing - I have grand ideas but I don't do it. So instead, I have a box file next to my front door. When important papers (bank/mortgage statements, insurance renewals, Council tax bill, water bill, etc) I put them into the box. At the end of the financial year I tie some string around it and put it away. I keep paperwork for 6 years and I know that if I need something from (for example) 2018-19, I just go to that box.

Make it easy - set up direct debits. Do a budget and move your spends into a different account so you know how much you have to play with. Save at the start of the month rather than the end; if you try to save 'what's left' you'll save nothing!

It doesn't have to be difficult. Baby steps!

I love this filing strategy! I might actually be able to keep that one up

Are you sure you don't have a pension? A few years ago they created a new rule for employers and you are auto enrolled so must have one unless you opted out?

Thanks endlesswicker - have just checked, they are an IFA.

@AyyMacarena

Are you sure you don't have a pension? A few years ago they created a new rule for employers and you are auto enrolled so must have one unless you opted out?

I had one from my old employer, but I'm now self employed and have not set one up.