Age: 38
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 35
Annual gross income from employment or profession: Gross inc annual bonus €135k
Annual gross income of spouse: €0 currently. At home with the kids right now but will probably return to work part time in a few years
Monthly take-home pay €4,850
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: PAYE employee, private sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? Saving
Rough estimate of value of home €300k
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €225k
What interest rate are you paying? AIB Variable Rate 3.15%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc None right now, but we do plan to change one of our cars in next six months.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?
Savings and investments:
Cash Savings & Current Account €25k
Pension: Total current value across two pensions of €102k
Directly held Shares & ETFs: €170k (€19k ETF’s, balance individual stocks)
Employer Stock Options & RSU’s: €38k, of which €11k is available for exercise
P2P lending: €7.5k
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Paying in 11% monthly. Employer match at 10%. Last year and this year topping up with bonus plus one-time contribution for prior year at tax return time to bring up to 20% threshold for tax benefit
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 4 & 2
Life insurance: 4x Salary from employer
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I feel like we’re doing ok financially. Honestly though, this is more through working on growing income and then being a bit mindful around spending rather than having a well thought out plan on growing wealth, or knowing even how to properly build a plan.
We are not particularly big spenders, but do manage to live a reasonably comfortable lifestyle. I enjoy my job to an extent, but do not want to have to keep working at the pace I am right now until I’m in my 60’s or beyond. I would like to get to a point of being able to dial back to reduced hours or maybe to a totally different industry / career maybe by early to mid 50’s. I’ve no real desire for total early-retirement cause I think I’d go nuts. I know two boys will get pretty expensive over the next few years and need to balance that into the mix too.
Looking for actionable thoughts on how to move towards a plan where I could reasonably expect inside the next 15 years to start to phase back towards working part time or maybe start a small lifestyle business. All thoughts or suggestions are welcome!