Age: 43
Spouse age: 44 (married)
Annual Gross Income from Employment: 92,100, bonus average 10%
Annual Gross Income for spouse: 81,000, no bonus
Type of employment: Both private sector PAYE, solid enough industries and skills remain in demand outside of our current employers and industries so I believe we will almost always be in employment.
Rough estimate of value of home: 550-580k, renovated in recent years. Suits our needs now and into the future, can make small improvements that we could fund from savings if needed. Would not be adverse to downsizing as we age.
Mortgage on home: 0 happily, bought at a reasonable price with a large deposit saved back when you could rent & save and paid off early.
Other borrowings: None, reasonably new car, should last another 6-8 years
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, paying in 7%, employer 7%. Spouse 10%, employer 15%. Mine are rolled into three different schemes (total 148k), spouse has two (total 178k). All plans are DC schemes.
Do you own any investment or property: No
Ages of children: 2 under ten, school going. Secondary will be non-fee paying. Live in a college town so they won’t need to leave home to study at third level. Possibly we will be funding some time doing study abroad or masters, but expectation will be set that they self-fund once education is finished.
Life assurance: Me 2.5 times salary, spouse 4 times salary, both have disability cover through work. We had a mortgage protection plan and might start a new one again. We are also covered for health insurance through work.
Spending patterns: We have a good handle on where our money goes but are able to do as we please in terms of kids activities, socialising, holidays etc. Childcare costs are minimal due to our circumstances now but I wouldn't like to calculate how much we did spend up until recently! Having come from very modest backgrounds I think we always have the fear of it all coming undone. Hence the focus on paying the mortgage off. We are diligent about switching suppliers for all utilities and are on top of tax credits and reclaims etc.
Savings: Almost none right now as we have focused on paying off the mortgage and also are splurging on a nice holiday this year. We can knuckle down and save when required or cut back on the holiday. We will build up 3 months living expenses as we are both employed and our cost base is now low enough.
Key issues:
I am very conscious that our good fortune is mostly down to the way the economy was falling or rising at the life stages we are at, so we do count ourselves lucky. However we do have a few thoughts or knowledge gaps:
Are our pensions well enough funded for our age/stage? Goal is a retirement or big step down ie work part time/seasonal/freelance at 60. At that point we would like to do a few long haul trips – we have seen our parents slow down after 65 so there’s a window! We will have several pension funds so could potentially release a lump sum from one of them to cover the travel.
Is now the time to go very high risk in pension plans or is it too late? I think all our plans are in mid risk plans.
Now that we will have excess cash, we can focus on AVCs including backdating 2021. But apart from that, we don't know of another good home for our money. We can afford to take a bit of a risk I guess at this point?
College is not free even if you don’t need to pay rent, so we will build up some savings out of salary for that closer to the time to cover transport, registration etc. If our kids want to move out they will need to self fund. We might like to assist them with a deposit for a place once they start working but that’s all up in the air as who knows where their lives will take them. So we don't have a fund. I don't think we need one but please correct me if I am wrong!
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!
Spouse age: 44 (married)
Annual Gross Income from Employment: 92,100, bonus average 10%
Annual Gross Income for spouse: 81,000, no bonus
Type of employment: Both private sector PAYE, solid enough industries and skills remain in demand outside of our current employers and industries so I believe we will almost always be in employment.
Rough estimate of value of home: 550-580k, renovated in recent years. Suits our needs now and into the future, can make small improvements that we could fund from savings if needed. Would not be adverse to downsizing as we age.
Mortgage on home: 0 happily, bought at a reasonable price with a large deposit saved back when you could rent & save and paid off early.
Other borrowings: None, reasonably new car, should last another 6-8 years
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, paying in 7%, employer 7%. Spouse 10%, employer 15%. Mine are rolled into three different schemes (total 148k), spouse has two (total 178k). All plans are DC schemes.
Do you own any investment or property: No
Ages of children: 2 under ten, school going. Secondary will be non-fee paying. Live in a college town so they won’t need to leave home to study at third level. Possibly we will be funding some time doing study abroad or masters, but expectation will be set that they self-fund once education is finished.
Life assurance: Me 2.5 times salary, spouse 4 times salary, both have disability cover through work. We had a mortgage protection plan and might start a new one again. We are also covered for health insurance through work.
Spending patterns: We have a good handle on where our money goes but are able to do as we please in terms of kids activities, socialising, holidays etc. Childcare costs are minimal due to our circumstances now but I wouldn't like to calculate how much we did spend up until recently! Having come from very modest backgrounds I think we always have the fear of it all coming undone. Hence the focus on paying the mortgage off. We are diligent about switching suppliers for all utilities and are on top of tax credits and reclaims etc.
Savings: Almost none right now as we have focused on paying off the mortgage and also are splurging on a nice holiday this year. We can knuckle down and save when required or cut back on the holiday. We will build up 3 months living expenses as we are both employed and our cost base is now low enough.
Key issues:
I am very conscious that our good fortune is mostly down to the way the economy was falling or rising at the life stages we are at, so we do count ourselves lucky. However we do have a few thoughts or knowledge gaps:
Are our pensions well enough funded for our age/stage? Goal is a retirement or big step down ie work part time/seasonal/freelance at 60. At that point we would like to do a few long haul trips – we have seen our parents slow down after 65 so there’s a window! We will have several pension funds so could potentially release a lump sum from one of them to cover the travel.
Is now the time to go very high risk in pension plans or is it too late? I think all our plans are in mid risk plans.
Now that we will have excess cash, we can focus on AVCs including backdating 2021. But apart from that, we don't know of another good home for our money. We can afford to take a bit of a risk I guess at this point?
College is not free even if you don’t need to pay rent, so we will build up some savings out of salary for that closer to the time to cover transport, registration etc. If our kids want to move out they will need to self fund. We might like to assist them with a deposit for a place once they start working but that’s all up in the air as who knows where their lives will take them. So we don't have a fund. I don't think we need one but please correct me if I am wrong!
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!
