Advice Please.

BostonR

My wife and I are mid 50's both working with a joint monthly net income of £7,500.
Annual bonus payments of £40K
I plan to continue working until 60 (final salary scheme pension) so worth staying on and I want to work. My wife may retire in a few years time.
No mortgage and house valued at £1.5M.
No major monthly outgoings.
We normally keep a balance of £5K in our Santander 123 account.
We have savings in Santander of £70K.
We have company vested share options currently valued at £100K.
We have two grown up children who we obviously will look after but we are not sure what to do with the £70K savings in the bank. We cover holidays and other luxuries with our salaries. Should we consider some form of investment?

chockydavid1983

If you're mid 50s and higher rate tax payers, paying more into pension is probably best as you get 20% tax relief added and can claim an extra 20% back from HMRC.
Have you worked out how much income you'll need in retirement?
Will you want to help your kids out with any financial goals?

BostonR

We have not given a huge amount of thought to how much we need on retirement. My wife will want to retire in a few years time whilst I would like to work on, perhaps in a consultancy capacity as retirement is not for me. We have thought about making sure we can take care of each other as we get older and maybe the equity in the house could cover care costs but you never know when your health will fail. Right now we are very healthy and fit mid 50's couple. We would liek to help our twin 21yr old boy's get on the property ladder when they are ready.

kidmugsy

BostonR wrote: »

We would liek to help our twin 21yr old boy's get on the property ladder when they are ready.

You could start by funding LISAs for them this tax year.

AndyT678

BostonR wrote: »

Should we consider some form of investment?

You already have quite a large investment...

BostonR wrote: »

We have company vested share options currently valued at £100K.

I assume this is your employer? If so I would question the wisdom of keeping vested options in the same company that you work for. You might think that they are a solid, established, reliable business with a great future but there were probably 180,000+ Toshiba employees who thought the same until quite recently.

Even if you're not an employee it's still more risk than I would want.

BostonR

It's a triple AAA stock so I am reluctant to do anything with the vested pot at this time.

jimjames

AndyT678 wrote: »

You already have quite a large investment...

Even if you're not an employee it's still more risk than I would want.

Totally agree that it's a very risky, undiversified option. I'd be looking to at least have invested some of the other cash. You can each put £20k into S&S ISAs this year

Audaxer

BostonR wrote: »

My wife and I are mid 50's both working with a joint monthly net income of £7,500.
Annual bonus payments of £40K
I plan to continue working until 60 (final salary scheme pension) so worth staying on and I want to work. My wife may retire in a few years time.
No mortgage and house valued at £1.5M.
No major monthly outgoings.
We normally keep a balance of £5K in our Santander 123 account.
We have savings in Santander of £70K.
We have company vested share options currently valued at £100K.
We have two grown up children who we obviously will look after but we are not sure what to do with the £70K savings in the bank. We cover holidays and other luxuries with our salaries. Should we consider some form of investment?

I would say yes, definitely consider a S&S ISA as I would think you would need to add to your final salary pension and share options if you want to maintain your current standard of living when retired.

If I was in your position I would to keep a good amount of cash savings but be investing £20k per annum each (for myself and my wife) in S&S ISAs from the £40k annual bonus.

Apodemus

BostonR wrote: »

It's a triple AAA stock so I am reluctant to do anything with the vested pot at this time.

Which is what a lot of RBS staff would have said a few years ago...

Apodemus

I'm not sure if you have given us all the info, but you make no mention of any pension for your wife? If she wants to retire early, it might be worth considering piling as much as possible into a SIPP in her name.

point5clue

Until a few years ago I was in your position - I didn't consider myself invested in the stock market but actaully have a fair chunk of my net worth in a single stock of the company I have worked for half my career. Looking back at its performance compared to the S&P500 (its a US company) it was basically the same over multiple year periods - with really big safe companies the price tends to go up and down with the index more than its own performance.

In the end I decided I would move a small proportion into more diversified investments partly to learn about investing - as I have learned more I am progressively moving more and more - certainly consider filling up your ISA allowance from the options pot - as you learn more I suspect you will see the wisdom of it.

I have learned so much from this forum - even though the comments can be slightly abrasive at times they are well argued.