People in their 30's - future financial plans?

adonis10

It is very easy to spend that much, to be honest. Between us we burn through circa £2,700/month (£3,711 combined net income) and we don't do anything extravagant. However, £750/month of that is paying off an interest free credit card (essential house repairs) and car finance. We have 1 and 2 years remaining, respectively.


Of the remaining 2k, circa £950 is on mortgage and essential bills (CT, elec, gas, water) which leaves around £1k which sounds a lot but once you deduct gym memberships, phones, cat insurance, contact lenses, food, cleaning, fuel etc. you can see where it goes!

fiisch

£787 on mortgage, and £950 on car payments..... I know, how's that for balance! Mind you, you can live in a car, but you can't race a house.......


We do have an eight-month old, but I can't really blame our outgoings on her - my extravagance in the past on cars has meant our monthly outgoings are extremely high. Our current driveway is quite new, so we'd take a hit if we sold either car, although if truth be told we don't need two cars (nor do we need one that struggles to give 25mpg!!).


I've worked out it should be possibly to get by on £2,500 per month (including food/petrol and other non-regular bills), plus another few hundred for spending money.


Definitely want to take advantage of married tax allowance (and actually get to keep Child Benefit too), so AVCs of 20%+ would absolutely make sense for us in our current situation. However, as I currently have a student loan, doing that now would bring our monthly income down too much and we'd have nothing for any extras whatsoever.

Jaguar_Skills

I am 31 (making £135k) and OH is 34 currently not working as looking after our 16 week old. Her plan is to go back in between 1st and 2nd to get some maternity then have 3/4 years off

Assets:

180K equity in house (currently valued @ £450k)
approx 120k equity in second property (currently valued at £240k)
30k in private pension pot (contribute £600 per month) although about to make an additional £10k deposit
small amount in company pension - not even sure what as only started auto enrolment last year.
30k cash - some of which will be spread into S&S ISA or my pension.


I get six monthly bonuses which equates to around £25k after tax so I am going to try and use that as a lump sum deposit moving forward.

rachlikeswinter

This thread is making me so depressed now ha.

Reue

rachlikeswinter wrote: »

This thread is making me so depressed now ha.

As others have pointed out; human nature is for those doing 'well' to post about their success while those doing 'poorly' are less likely to do so.

That's not to say that someone earning £20k, 30k, 40k, 50k etc are doing poorly at all... they may just perceive themselves to be doing so against the 100k+ posters and not want to contribute. This then means the replies become more and more artificially leaned towards the minority earning larger amounts.

It's more important to look at your savings % rate rather than actual value. Someone earning £120k but only saving 10k is going to struggle to retire compared to someone earning £20k but saving £5k.

Jaguar_Skills

Reue wrote: »

As others have pointed out; human nature is for those doing 'well' to post about their success while those doing 'poorly' are less likely to do so.

That's not to say that someone earning £20k, 30k, 40k, 50k etc are doing poorly at all... they may just perceive themselves to be doing so against the 100k+ posters and not want to contribute. This then means the replies become more and more artificially leaned towards the minority earning larger amounts.

It's more important to look at your savings % rate rather than actual value. Someone earning £120k but only saving 10k is going to struggle to retire compared to someone earning £20k but saving £5k.

this is true and partly why I was reluctant to post as I didn't want the post to seem arrogant.

I think it is also necessary to look at location. £50k in London is very different to £50k in other parts of the country.

Same with houses. It is all monopoly money until someone downsizes or you receive inheritance.

Anonymous101

Reue wrote: »

As others have pointed out; human nature is for those doing 'well' to post about their success while those doing 'poorly' are less likely to do so.

That's not to say that someone earning £20k, 30k, 40k, 50k etc are doing poorly at all... they may just perceive themselves to be doing so against the 100k+ posters and not want to contribute. This then means the replies become more and more artificially leaned towards the minority earning larger amounts.

It's more important to look at your savings % rate rather than actual value. Someone earning £120k but only saving 10k is going to struggle to retire compared to someone earning £20k but saving £5k.

Agreed. Its meaningless to compare yourself to others. There's always people much better off than you and also much worse off. Chances are there's many more worse off but you won't hear from them.

rachlikeswinter

Reue wrote: »

As others have pointed out; human nature is for those doing 'well' to post about their success while those doing 'poorly' are less likely to do so.

That's not to say that someone earning £20k, 30k, 40k, 50k etc are doing poorly at all... they may just perceive themselves to be doing so against the 100k+ posters and not want to contribute. This then means the replies become more and more artificially leaned towards the minority earning larger amounts.

It's more important to look at your savings % rate rather than actual value. Someone earning £120k but only saving 10k is going to struggle to retire compared to someone earning £20k but saving £5k.

Yes, you are right of course. And I know life isn't really about comparisons.

On the flip side I had a really excellent time in my 20s and I wouldn't change it for the world so, you know. Experiences vs Having money I guess. At least I'm not in debt.

justme111

you do not need to antagonise having money and experiences either as people who have more money may start analising where they failed on experiences and other aspects of life , surely find those and either get upset or start stating either how they were right in prioritising one thing over the other or how both of them can be done at the same time.
If I could thank Reue's post twice I would.
Lets remember original intention of this thread - discussing how those in their 30s map their life financially as they face different challenges to the older ones who seem to be most of frequent posters.
At some point in my 30s I had a big fat 0 - renting and 0 savings. It turned out that I happened to have a good career - lucky me but the luck may run out and career end.( I hope it does not happen of course)

Alexland

Yeah the risk our careers 'run out of puff' is one of the reasons we spend a small proportion of our income. If you are onto a good thing the fear is the music will end and you will be found without a chair.

My big extravagant spend for this week was £5.99 on a stuffed owl for my son which he has been playing with all afternoon and just took to bed with him. My wife thinks it was expensive (his other owl was £3.60 a few months ago) but agrees it's well made and makes him happy. Simple treats don't really cost much.

Alex.