Mortgage Free - What Now?!

wysiwyg_online

Finally got there - and of next month mortgage free! :j

So question is - what next? Where do I put that £750 I'm saving each a month?

My wife and myself are 44, have our own business (just the two of us) and two little girls (10 and 8).

So looking to the future we don't have a great pension or any other properties. That said we also have savings of around £50k.

Any advice on what to do next, invest in, buy a rental property etc then please pile in. Would love to retire at 55 - but is that realistic?

Feedback or thoughts are more than welcome!

NorthernMonkey1

Retiring at 55 depends on lots of factors, but the most important 2 are the ratio of savings to expenditure, and the amount of savings, in pensions and in post-tax funds you have.

If you've not got much of a pension, then taking advantage of the tax breaks available is frequently a good starting point. If you post in the savings and pensions board with a lot more detail, someone will be able to advise.

fresh_cotton

Congratulations! And good question!

I'm going through the same debate myself. Only difference is that we don't have any significant savings so we are going to build that up for a few years and then possibly buy a second home.

Iv not fully made by mind up on pensions

wysiwyg_online

Thanks NorthernMonkey I'll reach out on a thread over there and see what they advise.

Fresh Cotton - nice to see we are not alone! So what advice have you been given? We are just here to see what others have done and what's work/not worked for them. Looking to put a plan together based on other peoples experienced and recommendations! So where are your thoughts at the moment?

fresh_cotton

We are aged 34+39, My partner is a teacher and has been paying into a teachers pension from the start so we will always have that.

Once the mortgage is paid off, I want to put away £1100 away each month for retirement (which is a third of our take home pay).

Much of the advice I have been given is that I should be putting money into a pension, and of course the tax relief is attractive.

My initial thought was to put £700 each month into a private pension and £400 into a stock and shares ISA. The advantage is that I can then just let them run over the years without having to think about it or worry too much. I think this is also a low risk option (but I might be wrong)

I then thought it would be pretty nice to have a second home, which I could use and which could be a clever investment. However tax wise, this has drawbacks (CGT, Stamp Duty etc).

What puts me off a second home is the hassle of it. For example, dealing with possible tenants and having two properties were the boilers can bust in the middle of winter. A second property also means a second mortgage and the 'overpaying bug' that would kick back in.

So as it stands, my plans change almost everyday. My mortgage however doesn't end until December so I have 6 months to make final plans.



Have you any more ideas?

want_to_save

Congratulations, when we went mortgage free we split the monies between pensions and S&S ISA