30yo - pay off mortgage or pension

[Fibo49]

As you had not mentioned it, I had assumed you were in your forever home and would not be trading up and that you just wanted to be mortgage-free at 35.

Brendan

Sorry about that.
Thanks again for all the recommendation

 

[peemac]

We live fairly frugally tbh but we do enjoy travelling, this year with covid we actually stayed in Ireland for the now famous "staycation".
@peemac , out of curiosity, did you have sort of a budget for "kids college" before realizing you didn't need one? Where do you spend this money now? (I know it's a bit intrusive but I'm quite curious about someone with a similar situation)

Never had a "college fund" and had recession issues in business. Only since a tracker redress 3 years ago have things really moved well on all fronts.

But my plan for retirement is to be a compere/ MC primarily for charity events. So that is taking some learning (toastmasters) and will be another 4-5 years before I can call myself professional. Would have liked to have done this 10 years ago as the little I've done has been really enjoyable.

Got involved in couple of other areas just to have interests well away from work and now looking at getting into hiking / walking more seriously.

Some interests are solely for myself, some are for both of us.

Hence, investment for your future is not always about finance.

As for spending - bought an escape pad without mortgage that is also rented from easter to September and should earn 10% net return.

 

[Marc]

Hi Fibo

It's very clear that you and your spouse should only contribute to a pension when you get 40% tax relief. The reason for this is as follows: As your career progresses, you will move into a higher tax bracket and you can contribute your money to your pension then and get 40% relief on it. There is no point in getting 20% relief when you can get 40% relief.

Brendan

There is a concept in retirement planning called cost of delay.

It is relatively simple to prove that a younger person making modest savings into a pension will have a larger pension fund at retirement than an older person who saves more and obtains higher tax relief simply because of the impact of compound interest.

pension planning is a function of

how much you save
When you start saving
Your tax rates pre and post retirement
How much risk you take
Less the costs you pay

it’s not just about getting 40% tax relief

Should I Overpay my Mortgage or Pay into a Pension? - Everlake

As with many things, the right course of action is going to be specific to your individual financial circumstances.

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