People in their 30's - future financial plans?

Alexland

My wife and I were both lodgers when we started our careers (maybe I did it too long as after 4.5 years had a £60k deposit but I had been so busy developing my career) and having bought our first properties took lodgers for around 5 years to help overpay the mortgages. Living without housemates is a big luxury when saving a deposit. It wasn't convenient but we have no regrets now. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for long term gain?

Nitram29

At 29 I had just started my mortgage, scraped by on interest only for the first few years and pension was bare minimum my company paid in 3% from me and 6% from employer, forget about savings at that point.

Managed to eventually get a not bad job with good overtime, things were going along fine for the first half of my 30's then at 35 I had a life changing event and ended up in hospital. Since most of my earnings were overtime my income dropped before i could reel back the commitments and I ended up 45K in the red, got very close to folding.

6 major surgeries later and a few years later I got back to work and only really started to earn a good base salary in my 40's. Now with a new found attitude to money, life and living I changed my priorities and I will be debt free by early 50 at the latest (46 now)

I just had to pick myself up no matter how many times I got knocked on my backside, you have no idea what is down the road for you (both good and bad) so only thing you can do is to try to live a bit now but plan for tomorrow as best you can. Some things you just cannot anticipate but if you are willing to cut your cloth to suit and keep moving forward with a positive attitude things will usually work out.

Wealth is relative, I have a loving family and that is worth more than any amount of money. Financially I am getting there now but if I look back to my early 30's I would never have guessed at what twist and turns were ahead.

economic

Nitram29 wrote: »

At 29 I had just started my mortgage, scraped by on interest only for the first few years and pension was bare minimum my company paid in 3% from me and 6% from employer, forget about savings at that point.

Managed to eventually get a not bad job with good overtime, things were going along fine for the first half of my 30's then at 35 I had a life changing event and ended up in hospital. Since most of my earnings were overtime my income dropped before i could reel back the commitments and I ended up 45K in the red, got very close to folding.

6 major surgeries later and a few years later I got back to work and only really started to earn a good base salary in my 40's. Now with a new found attitude to money, life and living I changed my priorities and I will be debt free by early 50 at the latest (46 now)

I just had to pick myself up no matter how many times I got knocked on my backside, you have no idea what is down the road for you (both good and bad) so only thing you can do is to try to live a bit now but plan for tomorrow as best you can. Some things you just cannot anticipate but if you are willing to cut your cloth to suit and keep moving forward with a positive attitude things will usually work out.

Wealth is relative, I have a loving family and that is worth more than any amount of money. Financially I am getting there now but if I look back to my early 30's I would never have guessed at what twist and turns were ahead.

glad you are fine now. well done on your achievements.

justme111

MB, in my area houses go up at about 3% a year - roughly inflation rate. savings would about keep up with it specially if some "spice " added to them - p2p or investment even without adding to them. what is gouse prices growth in your area?

maxie014

Spent my 30s and 40s overpaying my mortgage,got scammed with an endowment mortgage as well.
Kind of wished id not overpaid it but when interest rates during the erm fiasco were so high it kind of scares you!
Even got stuck with a fixed deal at the time which i couldnt get out of for 2 or 3 years!
Cashed a 10k f&c it i had to pay a lump off the mortgage when i got compensation for the endowment.
I definitely should have left this going as it would have been worth a fair bit of coin now!!!!!
Houseprices are ludicrous down south now feel sorry for anyone trying to get in on that lot,bit cheaper up here in cumbria,still highish £100-£175k for a semi but nothing like down the country.
Seems like a lot of 20-30s up this way dont want any old house now though,after the 20k plus wedding and flash honeymoon,its got to be a newbuild,with all new furniture throughout,and a new car on the drive on a pcp,no wonder a lot struggle for cash?

SamSam17

I'm 27 on a £33k salary in London. No savings but trying to get out of debt soon and focus savings afterwards. Sadly, I have not made any plans for retirement as I'm planning on saving for house/deposit. I cannot do 2 things at the same time so will focus on the near future rather than retirement (who knows whether I'll live to see it..)

Lokolo

SamSam17 wrote: »

I'm 27 on a £33k salary in London. No savings but trying to get out of debt soon and focus savings afterwards. Sadly, I have not made any plans for retirement as I'm planning on saving for house/deposit. I cannot do 2 things at the same time so will focus on the near future rather than retirement (who knows whether I'll live to see it..)

Why can you not do 2 things at once? Your company should be offering a pension and if they offer matching you should really be taking full advantage of this.

I understand saving for a property deposit may be a priority, and its well worth keeping that as a priority, but that doesn't mean you completely forgot everything else.

SamSam17

Lokolo wrote: »

Why can you not do 2 things at once? Your company should be offering a pension and if they offer matching you should really be taking full advantage of this.

I understand saving for a property deposit may be a priority, and its well worth keeping that as a priority, but that doesn't mean you completely forgot everything else.

I'm actually contributing to a company pension but its 1% which unless I start making significant contribution to it won't be worth much by the time I retire. Even with annual increases, I can't imagine there would ever be a world where my workplace pension would be good enough to retire.

stoozie1

SamSam17 wrote: »

Even with annual increases, I can't imagine there would ever be a world where my workplace pension would be good enough to retire.

With 20% tax relief and employer contributions, surely it outperforms any other method of saving for your retirement?

SamSam17

stoozie1 wrote: »

With 20% tax relief and employer contributions, surely it outperforms any other method of saving for your retirement?

It is (and I plan to continue making the minimum contribution). My initial point was just that retirement isn't my main goal at the moment and would rather focus on getting on the property ladder first.