Am I On Track?

JoeCrystal

1813 said:

Yes I am a member of the NHS scheme. I have been a member for two years. No I don't have savings really but I have investments that I could sell, maybe make 10k plus.
I live at home - I cannot really afford living costs when I worked for the civil service but it is possible I may be one day able to rent a very modest property as I do not own a home. It is too expensive. I am single. 

A studio flat around my area goes for £600-£700 per month. A single full-time person on the National Living Wage can afford it although there would not be a much room for luxury though. What about now? Are you earning enough money now that enable you to save up a deposit? Cash savings is the most important thing since it is your emergency fund. 
As you are living at home, you are likely to be better off jumping over the renting part and get a mortgage on a property? It is a lot cheaper than renting

(And you can always move to a cheaper town as well).

german_keeper

I lived at home with my mum for about 9 years after I started work, coincidentally in the Civil Service. Usually I went down the pub for a few pints of a Friday night, played footy Saturday afternoon, then into the clubhouse at the football club, home for an hour to get some tea and then out till 2am "disco dancing". Footy Sunday morning and a few pints in the boozer after. Out with my non footy mates for a few on Sunday night. Monday night at home with mum, Tuesday and Thursday night footy training, Wednesday night flexible. Might occasionally even take a young lady out!! Couple of weeks in the sun once a year with the lads.

After 6 years of this routine I met my wife and we had 3 years of a similar routine although the Saturday night "disco dancing" was replaced by a nice meal out with the other lads and their WAGs! At this point neither of us had a penny in savings. Fortunately I received a rather nice redundancy payment got another job and there was the deposit for a house. I would venture that my experience was reasonably normal and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. And yes, of course I was paying board money to my mum.   

1813

ZeroSum said:

You've been in gainful employment for 20 years, still live with parents but only have £10k in savings/investments

What on earth have you been doing? 

I worked in the civil service for 11 years, had illness from 2013 to 2018 and now work in the NHS. I see no shame in living at home at 38 to be honest. I could have done things better but it could be much worse.

1813

barnstar2077 said:

ZeroSum said:

You've been in gainful employment for 20 years, still live with parents but only have £10k in savings/investments

What on earth have you been doing? 

I though the same thing, but I assume they have been contributing to the home bills, and possibly working part time?

I did contribute to rent for a while but I have had a brutal, honest chat to my parents and they are not too concerned about it - the way I see it, I would rather succeed off my own back financially at least, as my parents needs come before my own and they are well off and over the course of 17 years, building what i have is certainly nothing to be sniffed at. Also, I would like to point out whilst in the CS, I started on a wage of £789 a month and finished on a rather modest monthly income so I have never been a high earner.

1813

ZeroSum said:

barnstar2077 said:

ZeroSum said:

You've been in gainful employment for 20 years, still live with parents but only have £10k in savings/investments

What on earth have you been doing? 

I though the same thing, but I assume they have been contributing to the home bills, and possibly working part time?

Even still, it equates to about £40 a month. Think I make more than that alone from playing the banks with cashback & stoozing

The £4k pa in civil service pension (from 16 years?) to me would suggest an income of more than FT NMW in their final year (I reckon about £20k) (unless parents absolutely taking the mick with bills) 

I worked for just over 11 years in the CS. I am not sure what you mean with parents taking mick with bills but I did pay my parents rent initially but I do regret not paying them more and have had a frank discussion with them to try and sort this issue but they said they did not want to pursue the matter further - as far as I am concerned, I did have an honest conversation as to sort this - some folk wouldn't even do that. Its not been an easy time for me but I am doing my best.

El_Torro

To try to get this thread back on track, I would say it's difficult to say whether your pension is on track or not. If you're going to work for the NHS for the next 30 years and continue to pay into the pension scheme during this time, then you'll probably have decent DB pension provision to have an OK retirement. It doesn't hurt to look at other investments though, like a DC pension or Stocks & Shares ISAs. 

What I would be more concerned about is that you don't plan to buy a property This is not only economically sub optimal, it also leads to insecurity in the future. Do you really want your landlord to be free to kick you out when you're 80 years old? At this stage I would be more concerned about this than your pension.

Of course if you do plan to rent forever you'll need to ensure that your income in retirement is enough to pay the rent. 

1813

JoeCrystal said:

1813 said:

Yes I am a member of the NHS scheme. I have been a member for two years. No I don't have savings really but I have investments that I could sell, maybe make 10k plus.
I live at home - I cannot really afford living costs when I worked for the civil service but it is possible I may be one day able to rent a very modest property as I do not own a home. It is too expensive. I am single. 

A studio flat around my area goes for £600-£700 per month. A single full-time person on the National Living Wage can afford it although there would not be a much room for luxury though. What about now? Are you earning enough money now that enable you to save up a deposit? Cash savings is the most important thing since it is your emergency fund. 
As you are living at home, you are likely to be better off jumping over the renting part and get a mortgage on a property? It is a lot cheaper than renting

(And you can always move to a cheaper town as well).

Definitely something to consider - but I would worry about being able to hold down the job and if I lost the job. Also properties down here are not cheap. I could move I suppose, yes. I see on sites like Zoopla if it is even possible to buy a property between £10-20k because I think its possible I might be able to raise funds through that means. I think its best to know what is the most feasible solution for my savings to try and get my future on track.

1813

german_keeper said:

I lived at home with my mum for about 9 years after I started work, coincidentally in the Civil Service. Usually I went down the pub for a few pints of a Friday night, played footy Saturday afternoon, then into the clubhouse at the football club, home for an hour to get some tea and then out till 2am "disco dancing". Footy Sunday morning and a few pints in the boozer after. Out with my non footy mates for a few on Sunday night. Monday night at home with mum, Tuesday and Thursday night footy training, Wednesday night flexible. Might occasionally even take a young lady out!! Couple of weeks in the sun once a year with the lads.

After 6 years of this routine I met my wife and we had 3 years of a similar routine although the Saturday night "disco dancing" was replaced by a nice meal out with the other lads and their WAGs! At this point neither of us had a penny in savings. Fortunately I received a rather nice redundancy payment got another job and there was the deposit for a house. I would venture that my experience was reasonably normal and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. And yes, of course I was paying board money to my mum.   

A very good account - I just need to try and take control of my life!

ZeroSum

I never said there was anything shameful living with parents nor did I say you shouldn't pay your way. 

I'm only a couple of years older & my first FT job was about a similar amount to yours. Even on that I could still save a couple of hundred a month living at home.

As your civil service, service is only 11 years which means your last job was circa £30k, on that you should be able to save nearly £10k a year alone.

What you pay parents for keep needs to be realistic to both costs incurred & your level of income. If you can't save much then either they're asking too much or you're spending too much.

The harsh reality is, unless your plan is just to live at home forever until you inherited the house, you're absolutely miles off track in terms of retirement (or meet someone who has their own house) as rent will eat up a good chunk of your pension & not be able to retire until 68/70

1813

ZeroSum said:

I never said there was anything shameful living with parents nor did I say you shouldn't pay your way. 

I'm only a couple of years older & my first FT job was about a similar amount to yours. Even on that I could still save a couple of hundred a month living at home.

As your civil service, service is only 11 years which means your last job was circa £30k, on that you should be able to save nearly £10k a year alone.

What you pay parents for keep needs to be realistic to both costs incurred & your level of income. If you can't save much then either they're asking too much or you're spending too much.

The harsh reality is, unless your plan is just to live at home forever until you inherited the house, you're absolutely miles off track in terms of retirement (or meet someone who has their own house) as rent will eat up a good chunk of your pension & not be able to retire until 68/70

Sorry Zerosum yes what you say is very fair here! Yes I appreciate I could have saved more but I don't feel I have done that badly so far and there is still quite some time to go - relying on SP is risky in itself. I was not on a high wage yearly, at its best, it was £13200 per year. I spoke to my parents and they are OK with rent - I did offer to sort it but they declined, I have been man enough to approach the issue but they were not too concerned. To be honest, retiring at 68/70 is not unusual as, for example, my dad still works on and off and he is nearly 73 years old. I was hoping to retire earlier but I had 68 as a figure anyhow so its not a major concern. Thank you for your honest input, ZeroSum!