Saving half my salary!
Bravepants
Posts: 1,502 Forumite
Hello,
I'm 48 years old, in full time employment, with no mortgage. I work for the Civil Service, and have recently moved over to a Career Average scheme called Alpha.
I have been paying 10% of my salary into AVCs with Scottish Widows for about 8 years and have built up £45k or so in there. I also have a S&S ISA with Fidelity, which currently stands at about £26k. I'd love to retire at 55, so I am busy doing sums!
I am also considering boosting my ISA by paying the maximum I can, which is £1270 per month, which is about half my take home salary. I have a long term partner, and our outgoings are fairly low; we pay £500 each per month into our joint account for household costs, we have two cars. This leaves me with about £800 per month for running MY life; car, fuel, clothes, going out etc.
Here is a breakdown of my ISA portfolio. This includes current percentages and the last column is my current monthly contribution. - comments would be welcome! I'm trying to build VLS 60 as my core holding, and slowly shift things over to that as time goes on.
Fidelity MoneyBuilder Growth Y Inc - 23.74 £100
Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity Fund A Acc - 20.66 £670
M&G Index-Linked Bond Fund Sterling I Inc - 12.31 £100
Fidelity Asia Fund W Acc - 10.23 £100
AXA Framlington Biotech Fund GBP Z Acc - 9.16 £100
Fidelity China Consumer Y Acc - 6.42 £100
Fidelity China Consumer Fund W-Accumulation - 6.00 £0
Fidelity Index World Fund P Accumulation - 5.90 £100
Aviva Investors Property Trust 2 GBP Acc - 5.58 £0
I just wondered whether anyone else was stashing half their take home salary away for their future and how their plans are going?
I'm 48 years old, in full time employment, with no mortgage. I work for the Civil Service, and have recently moved over to a Career Average scheme called Alpha.
I have been paying 10% of my salary into AVCs with Scottish Widows for about 8 years and have built up £45k or so in there. I also have a S&S ISA with Fidelity, which currently stands at about £26k. I'd love to retire at 55, so I am busy doing sums!
I am also considering boosting my ISA by paying the maximum I can, which is £1270 per month, which is about half my take home salary. I have a long term partner, and our outgoings are fairly low; we pay £500 each per month into our joint account for household costs, we have two cars. This leaves me with about £800 per month for running MY life; car, fuel, clothes, going out etc.
Here is a breakdown of my ISA portfolio. This includes current percentages and the last column is my current monthly contribution. - comments would be welcome! I'm trying to build VLS 60 as my core holding, and slowly shift things over to that as time goes on.
Fidelity MoneyBuilder Growth Y Inc - 23.74 £100
Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity Fund A Acc - 20.66 £670
M&G Index-Linked Bond Fund Sterling I Inc - 12.31 £100
Fidelity Asia Fund W Acc - 10.23 £100
AXA Framlington Biotech Fund GBP Z Acc - 9.16 £100
Fidelity China Consumer Y Acc - 6.42 £100
Fidelity China Consumer Fund W-Accumulation - 6.00 £0
Fidelity Index World Fund P Accumulation - 5.90 £100
Aviva Investors Property Trust 2 GBP Acc - 5.58 £0
I just wondered whether anyone else was stashing half their take home salary away for their future and how their plans are going?
If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich.
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Comments
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That's pretty much what I'm doing, although I'm 60 and work in the private sector. I have no plans to retire though, can't really think what I would do if I did and my job is not really hard most of the time.“And all shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be exceeding well.”
― Julian of Norwich
In other words, Don't Panic!0 -
Yes, I'm trying to make up for a late start to my working life...I spent far too much time at University, and then didn't really pick up a decent salary until I got out of academic research! That and silly spending didn't help!
I'm trying to adopt a minimalist and intentional life these days to figure out what's really important.If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich.0 -
intentional life
Not planning to end it all?:eek:0 -
Well done you Brave Pants! Keep up the good work. Are you on the "Save £12k in 2016" list at all? (See the thread.)“And all shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be exceeding well.”
― Julian of Norwich
In other words, Don't Panic!0 -
Haha! That would be "intentional death" surely?! :rotfl:
What I mean is being careful and mindful about what I do, for example frivolous spending!If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich.0 -
lisa110rry wrote: »Well done you Brave Pants! Keep up the good work. Are you on the "Save £12k in 2016" list at all? (See the thread.)
Well I registered for it at the start of the year, but didn't carry on. Maybe I will next year.If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich.0 -
Bravepants wrote: »I just wondered whether anyone else was stashing half their take home salary away for their future and how their plans are going?
Yes, but like bravepants I'm also desperately trying to make up for a late start to working after 7 years of being a student. Having been in a real job for just under a year I currently have no pension, no mortgage, £6 350 in cash and a hefty but pretty painless student loan.
I'm currently stashing everything that's left after my fairly modest expenses are accounted for (I give myself £600 a month - includes rent, council tax, bills and living, but not the yearly MOT, car tax, car insurance). But even then, my take home pay level means that things are going pretty slowly!Save 12K in 2018 #20 - £20,890/£18,000 (116%) November £1950
Save 12K in 2017 #46 - £13,184/£12,000 (109.87%):D
Save 12K in 2016 #184 - £4,608/£4500 (102.4%)
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What I mean is being careful and mindful about what I do, for example frivolous spending!
You spend frivolously but you're careful that it's mindfully? That's the way to do it!:)0 -
Life is about being really good looking, and have lots of freebies because people want to sleep with you. The moment you think in terms of paying for your own swimming pool, you start paying for everything.
I still haven't got my own swimming pool yet, but if I did, I am not inviting these !!!!!es, who won't sleep with me anyway: not even if I let them use my swimming pool.
Life: A summary
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If you have to save for anything, you are just not good looking enough.0 -
I'm a year younger than you Bravepants and whilst my goal is to save on average 50% of my take home salary, it's usually around 40-45%.
My 'extreme' plan is to be able to call it a day (if I wish) at age 56. This does depend on my investments doing well though so a slightly more conservative aim is by age 60 - the extra few years seem to make a difference on my spreadsheet!
Also got a bit of an obstacle to overcome (impending redundancy) but hopefully, I'll be able to secure a decent job fairly quickly and invest most of my severance pay.0
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