Recently Married - Health Check

[Master_stamp]

Personal and Financial Details:​

• Your Age: 39
• Spouse's Age: 36
• Your Annual Gross Income: €85,000
• Spouse's Annual Gross Income: €47,500
• Your Monthly Take-Home Pay: Approximately €3,700 (after 20% employee pension contribution, taxes and other deductions)
• Spouse's Monthly Take-Home Pay: Approximately €2,800 (after 10% pension contribution and taxes)
• Your Pension Contribution: 20% employee, 7% employer
• Your Pension Fund: €250,000 current value
• Spouse's Pension Contribution: 10% employee, 3% employer
• Spouse's Pension Fund: €45,000
• Other:
  • Recently Married.
  • Completing new house build currently. Details below.
  • We've no other loans / debts outside of ones mentioned here and no particular expensive outlays bar a few holidays each year.

Employment:​

• Type: Both Private sector
• Equity: Shares worth €150,000 if I stay in my current job until November 2026

Housing:​

• Current Home Value: €290,000 (recent valuation)
• Current Home Mortgage Outstanding: €148,000
• New Build: 95% completed. We're using the funds in our joint saving account to complete off final pieces and do up the house and set to move in September).
• Property Value: €450,000 (There is no mortgage on this new build, this has all been paid for using previous savings and our plan is to sell current home, use proceeds from that current home sale to pay off the mortgage balance and then look to invest the balance (minus a portion which we'll use towards a honeymoon abroad next year).
• As moving from current home, which was my primary residence, to a new build within 12 months of build completion there should be no CGT owed on this.

Other Borrowings:​

• No other loans/debts
• Car: Both cars (2014 and 2017) are fully paid for. Plan is to upgrade each others on rotating basis every 5 years. So hers next year, mine in 5 years time etc..

Credit Card:​

• Balance Paid Monthly: Yes, always

Savings and Investments:​

• My Current Account: €6,000
• My Investments: €18,000 in Bitcoin
• My Stocks: €5,000
• Joint Savings Account: €80,000 (liquid currently as needed for the new build)
• We had capacity to save 2-3k a month.
• She has her own accounts also in addition to this.

Children: None​

Insurance:​

• Life insurance policy through work that pays 4x salary on death
• Serious illness cover through work
• Life cover for mortgage
• I've updated my penson fund nominee and my will to ensure she's my main beneficary.

What next:​

My own thoughts right now are:

• This year, Increase her pension contributions to 20% and use savings if needed to supplement her drop income but focus is on getting her pension pot size up.
• Next year increase my pension contributions to 25% (as I'll be 40 so take advantage of the increased age related limits)
• Look at investment options for funds left from house sale and that we can invest monthly savings into going forward.

Appreciate we're in a lucky position. My main reason for starting the thread is just to see if there's anything else to consider. In particular if anything else I should be doing to protect her.

 

[Clamball]

You seem to solidly setup with a fully paid off home, solid employment, excellent pension saving strategy. Great planned financial goals, short, med & long term.

You don’t say so I am assuming you and your spouse are not planning children in the future. They cost a lot, and you may need to reassess your plans if you have them.

Maybe consider joint savings/household accounts with your spouse, but I would encourage holding separate accounts too, but for long term savings, a joint approach may be more unifying.

 

[AAAContributor]

My Investments: €18,000 in Bitcoin

I've updated ....my will to ensure she's my main beneficary.

My main reason for starting the thread is just to see if there's anything else to consider. In particular if anything else I should be doing to protect her.

Is your wife / personal representative(s) aware of the existence of your crypto-asset?

Is there a risk the asset could be 'lost' in the administration of your estate?

Can your wife get legal title without much trouble in the event of your death?

Life insurance policy through work that pays 4x salary on death

Just worth confirming that this is paid in addition to the death-in-service lump sum entitlement limit of four times final remuneration (plus return of personal contributions/AVCs) from your pension pot (assuming you're in an occupational pension scheme).