Watchwang, autowang... what are you saving for?

racing_blue

Couple of threads recently about spending money on cars and watches.

Do you have a spending plan? A kind of saving and investment end game? Does this influence your saving rate and target?

I kind of have a plan. Currently have a mortgage for £X and investments of around £Y. I'm slowly repaying the mortgage while building the investments. At crossover, I no longer depend on regular work to keep the rather nice roof over my head. At Crossover plus £100k I can probably pay for my kids go through university. At Crossover plus £250K I'm good to leave my job, go on the hippy trail and begin my childhood with a woman 20 years younger (30 would be illegal).

At no point do I intend to wang 40G on a car or 10G on a watch, although I might possibly buy a new pair of Sauconies soon because the current ones are losing their bounce. And maybe one of those big bottles of Hoegaarden if I feel flush.

Anyone else got a spending plan?

Dan83

i don't really plan anything, I spend money and enjoy life, im the kind of person, if I want it, I buy it.

All my savings are from travel expenses from work.

I'd love to earn enough money to be able to have some investments (aswell as savings) but the truth is, if I earned £100k a year, I'd probably spend £100k a year.

colsten

racing_blue wrote: »

Anyone else got a spending plan?

Apart from having the usual emergency cash fund and money for know expenditures (holidays etc), I would strongly recommend pensionwang. Definitely not autowang or watchwang.

george4064

For me, the first big thing Im saving for is to buy a property (first time buyer, to live in).

Havent thought about what next after that.

bowlhead99

One of the popular ongoing threads (in sporadic bursts) on the pension / retirement board is the "Number" thread. What's your target number that means you can let go and get out of the rat race while making it through to the end of your days without being in more poverty than you want.

How you get there is different for everyone.

No point saving up for a dream holiday of a trek up Aconcagua or Kilimanjaro but only saving for it after the bulk of your retirement fund... so that by the time you've got the cash ready, you no longer have the stamina to make it to the top.

No point saving for a nice shiny F-type but by the time you've got the £30-50k for a nice second-hand one, you hate the idea of driving with the wind in your hair because it blows out your blue rinse and the cool air in winter penetrates your OAP cliche quilted winter jacket.

No point getting your annuity ready to support an expensive habit of dining in Michelin star restaurants, and wishing you'd done it before your taste buds were shot.

Blow your pension commencement lump sum on a beautiful tourbillon but have to get out your reading glasses to admire the hand carved duplex swan neck fine adjustment? Hardly ideal.

Holidays, cars, fine dining, art/engineering fusion as jewellery? All hold some interest for me along with other hobbies people like to spend money on. So my savings and investment plans include affording them as well as being able to retire before my earning capacity has fallen through the floor.

But what I don't do is say I need X for retirement necessities plus, if i get it, Y for the 'wants'. I have to set my objective as Y+X and plan to get both. And I'll be spending the Y before I've finished saving all the X, so it's going to have to work. I haven't got time to save the X and then start saving the Y and only be able to spend the Y at the very end. The Y would be useless to me at that point.

So generally the way it works is I have different pots being saved for / invested for concurrently. I bought a nice car before paying off my house. I've been on a holiday without having maxed my pension fund even though i pay 40%+ tax on what doesn't go in the pension. I've made investments while owing money. It can make sense to owe £20k at low rates with a £20k emergency fund in the bank, instead of owing nothing and having diddly squat for emergencies.

The debt reduction / savings accumulation waterfall based on the interest rates of each pot might maximise the absolute cash you can save in the long term but i haven't always followed it religiously and you don't have to just because MSE Martin says it works for most people.

jimjames

I'm saving for "the future", whatever that may be or entail.

mollycat

Not watchwang or autowang; but can be partial to holidaywang and bevvywang.

Mostly dont spendwang though, I'm into savingswang and investmentwangs.

Never understood people who feel compelled to spend all their moneywang.

redux

beware of Zugzwang

nicknameless

Financial and life independence. More time with the people that matter the most as a result.

Freedomwang rather than consumerwang.

richy999

Dan83 wrote: »

I'd love to earn enough money to be able to have some investments (aswell as savings) but the truth is, if I earned £100k a year, I'd probably spend £100k a year.

With that rationale, you will never be able to earn enough money to invest any of it.
You will have a lot of stuff & experiences, but will have to work till you drop.

richy999

george4064 wrote: »

For me, the first big thing Im saving for is to buy a property (first time buyer, to live in).

Havent thought about what next after that.

Just don't commit to too much propertywang at the expense of pensionwang, holidaywang or working till I’m 80wang :beer: