Savings for rainy day / retirement / happiness

BOBS

I read lots of diaries on here about people who struggle with debt and admire how they approach it with such positiveity !!
I always seem to be worrying about money but really don't know if I need to be when I compare our household.

Family of 5 - 2 adults (both mid 40's) 3 kids, with joint income around £35k
ISA savings between us of about £25k and we jointly put around £700 a month in unless something big crops up.
We have a mortgage of around £12,000 left (house worth £150,000) so really no big deal, and car loan of around £6,000 and enough money to usually pay off what we put on credit cards here and there.

DH has work pension of about 4 years running, I am S/E and dont pay pension - more for personal reasons than anything. I prefer to have easy access to what money we have available. Though on the back of this we still want to have some money put by for retirement funds.
I did pay into a pension about 15+ years ago for about 5 years but dont really have any info on this, and DH has another 2 or 3 smallish pensions from other places he worked.

After typing this I know it looks good on paper but I still cant stop doing spread sheets and forecasts. Is this a normal set of circumstances ??
Any words of wisdom or do I just need a good kick up the !!!!

Thrugelmir

BOBS wrote: »

I am S/E and dont pay pension - more for personal reasons than anything. I prefer to have easy access to what money we have available.

Not sure what personal reasons you can have for contributing absolutely nothing into a pension scheme for yourself. When do you hope to stop working?

BOBS

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Not sure what personal reasons you can have for contributing absolutely nothing into a pension scheme for yourself. When do you hope to stop working?

Basically my close family members have not lived long enough if at all to enjoy what pensions they may have slogged long and hard for. I am well aware that this may not happen me but if push came to shove with a diagnosis I would like to have access to my ££. Probably sounds totally stupid to most but its how I deal with it.

xylophone

After typing this I know it looks good on paper

I'm afraid that from the point of view of retirement provision it really doesn't.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/eligibility

I did pay into a pension about 15+ years ago for about 5 years but dont really have any info on this,

You might consider checking on this.

and DH has another 2 or 3 smallish pensions from other places he worked.

What type of pensions?

kidmugsy

BOBS wrote: »

Basically my close family members have not lived long enough if at all to enjoy what pensions they may have slogged long and hard for. I am well aware that this may not happen me but if push came to shove with a diagnosis I would like to have access to my ££. Probably sounds totally stupid to most but its how I deal with it.

Your husband and children might be grateful if you paid into a pension even if you were to die early.

if you think that waiting about ten years before the money becomes available is too long, at least promise yourself to look at the matter again in five years time.

P.S. Do get an estimate of your eventual State Retirement Pensions.

Apodemus

BOBS wrote: »

Family of 5 - 2 adults (both mid 40's) 4 kids...

I think there is something wrong with the "sum" function in your spreadsheet!

BOBS

Apodemus wrote: »

I think there is something wrong with the "sum" function in your spreadsheet!

haha , no butterfingers - 3 kids, maybe my heading adding in our mutley dog !!

Kidmugsy - I did get state pension forecast - somewhere around £160 mark -all NI payments made.

Xylophone - I have no idea how to go about even checking my work pension. It was through admin work in an NHS department which is no longer there. Husbands gets pension updates from his previous companies - they dont add up to an awful lot - around £6k in one and £5k in another.... but will still be therefore for some treats I expect.

ChesterDog

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems/making-a-complaint/common-concerns/lost-pensions

Linton

When do you think you will retire?
How much income will you need in retirement to have a reasonable standard of living?
Where is the income going to come from?

I suggest you use your apreadsheets to help you answer these questions.

Information to guide your thoughts from ONS data:
- a woman of average health aged 45 thius year is be expected to live until her early 90's. A man a couple of years less.
- Once you reach 65 you are more likely to live to 100 than die by 75.

DiggerUK

If you cleared the two big debts you mention, you would still have a rainy day fund left.
That would leave you with far more than the £700 a month to plan what to do with, and a secured roof over your heads to boot..._

badger09

OP

In addition to what others have said about pension provision, can I ask whether you are saving in Cash ISAs or S&S ISAs?

Cash ISAs are paying very low rates these days but you could both be achieving up to 6% on your savings by using current accounts and regular savers. You and your husband can earn interest up to £1k tax free, so no need to use Cash ISAs.

However, once you have your emergency fund in cash savings, it makes sense to invest, rather than save. Investments in a pension tax wrapper attract tax relief - ie free money:) Investments in S&S ISAs give tax free returns and over the long term are likely to give you much better returns than simple cash savings.