Your Financial Setup

shaz77_2

Hi,

Out of interest, how does everyone's balance sheet look?

I'm interested in the overall breakdown, mortages, loans, income, savings, investments and pensions etc.

Mine is as follows

Loans

£35,000 to pay on a £100,000 mortage. House was £120k and seems to have kept its value.
£4000 - Car Loan.

Investments/Savings

£3000 Premium Bonds
£6000 ISA
£1000 - Current Account

Income

Salary - £22000

ChesterDog

I am 51 and retired early.

I have about 30% in property (my house) and what I would call fixed assets: cars, chattels.
25% in managed pension funds.
25% in cash/savings products.
20% in investments, of which half is in equities and similar.

No borrowings.

Edit: I have a high cash holding while I await the effects of ending of QE on equities and bonds.

wavygravy60

Assets

ISA £70,000
Main home £450,000
Buy to Let £165,000
SIPP £75,000

Liabilities

Mortgages £190,000
Credit Card £3,000

Not sure whether I should include a SIPP in a balance sheet, as it's not very liquid. Age 46.

IronWolf

I'm only 27, no mortgage but a fair bit of savings

I have in terms of wealth:
22% of wealth saved for house deposit
13% in emergency/business savings
65% invested in stock market
-6% on 0% credit cards
6% savings to cover the credit cards

Pension is defined benefit, so very hard to put a value on, but have 5 years accrued which will deliver about a £3k (increased for inflation) annual pension so far, so thats what, £60k in todays money?

Doshwaster

41 year old, single, £41k salary

House: worth £160,000 with £88,000 left on mortgage
Pensions: £62,000
Cash ISA: £7,000 (rainy day fund)
S&S ISA: £12,000 (long term investments)
Other Shares: £5,000
Other cash: £2,000

No credit card debt or other loans.

I'd consider myself as being relatively comfortable.

Cotta

Doshwaster wrote: »

41 year old, single, £41k salary

House: worth £160,000 with £88,000 left on mortgage
Pensions: £62,000
Cash ISA: £7,000 (rainy day fund)
S&S ISA: £12,000 (long term investments)
Other Shares: £5,000
Other cash: £2,000

No credit card debt or other loans.

I'd consider myself as being relatively comfortable.

With £88,000 left on your mortgage, would you not be better off using some of your savings to make overpayments?

BarleyGB

Cotta wrote: »

With £88,000 left on your mortgage, would you not be better off using some of your savings to make overpayments?

Im in a similar, if slightly better off position, with enough savings/investments to pay off my mortgage should I choose.

The answer to your question is No (not for me anyway)

100k mortgage @ 3.79%, 100k investments grown at least 25% in the last 12 months. Id like to think ill return more than 3.79% a year on my portfolio even before counting dividends. Theoretically, anything above 3.79% gets compounded year on year. Who knows, another 2 years at 25% growth and ill have enough to pay off my mortgage twice over?

I never understand the pay off your mortgage brigade, or maybe its because im risk aDverse. I see the 100k investment as 'mortgage paid off', just that its held in a different place.

Doshwaster

Cotta wrote: »

With £88,000 left on your mortgage, would you not be better off using some of your savings to make overpayments?

I am making overpayments. Maybe I should consider increasing the amount as it would be great to get the mortgage paid off before I'm 50 but I wouldn't want to reduce my savings cushion too much. I'm hoping for a significant pay rise soon (about 10%). If I get that then most of the increase would go on mortgage overpayments.

Cotta

Doshwaster wrote: »

I am making overpayments. Maybe I should consider increasing the amount as it would be great to get the mortgage paid off before I'm 50 but I wouldn't want to reduce my savings cushion too much. I'm hoping for a significant pay rise soon (about 10%). If I get that then most of the increase would go on mortgage overpayments.

I think the mortgage overpayment brigade concentrate on the fact that mortgage rates are 3.5% while saving's rates are 1.5% so it makes sense to pay off your mortgage. From reading other sections shares were deemed too risky with too poor of returns a lot of time to consider.

BarleyGB

You have to know what you are doing with shares, its not for the nieve, ive had 5k wiped off in a day before. Im in it for the long terms though, and learning from my mistakes as I go. Above 3.79% gains are by no means certain but on balance I feel 10%, even 15%+ is quite achieveable.

You need to spread balance your risk, its certainly not for the faint hearted. For some people the security of a paid off mortgage is worth more than making their assets work for them and the risk this entails.

A good way to start investing is via a stocks and shares ISA, buy some well rated funds, maybe 4 or 5 with say £1000 in each or a couple of regular saver funds (say £100 per month). Do your reasearch, I started with a fund sold over the counter at a bank, swapped it a year later for one thats since ourperformed it 2 fold. You also need to investigate fund charges.

Doshwaster

BarleyGB wrote: »

You have to know what you are doing with shares, its not for the nieve, ive had 5k wiped off in a day before. Im in it for the long terms though, and learning from my mistakes as I go. Above 3.79% gains are by no means certain but on balance I feel 10%, even 15%+ is quite achieveable..

I would say that, long term, 10-15% should be achievable. You just have to be prepared to ride out the bad years and not to get too carried away in the very good years. The "miracle" of compound interest means that that average long term growth of 10% adds up to big gains.

I started out with a £50 a month index tracker inside an ISA then when I was a little more confident, I diversified into a range of 10 funds. One is down 30% this year but the others are all doing fairly well.