After advice for investing.

Prism

barnstar2077 said:

DiggerUK said:

loken152, I have had a look over your history. You seem capable of acquiring debt, but also know you need to clear those debts. 

I'm not sure if you did indeed buy your house, but if you did, then that debt needs treating with the priority you applied to your other debts. 

Your finances seem manageable if not overabundant, I'd recommend you only keep a small cash fund to hand. You can deal with increasing retirement funds in time.

Concentrate on killing the mortgage, the feeling of clearing that debt will be greater than the debts you have already binned. Then your increased cash flow will allow you to put extra by for retirement.
Best of fortune..._

The feeling of clearing a mortgage does not always make it financially the correct thing to do.  Most people have sub 2% rates at the moment after all.  Everyones situation is different, but bad debt, like credit cards, are normally the priority, followed by pensions and other investments.  It really depends on how unwieldy the mortgage is, and how reliable peoples wages are.  If neither of those are an issue then why prioritise a debt that will cost you lost opportunity to pay off quickly. 

I agree with that. We could have paid of the mortgage several years ago but decided it would not make any financial sense nor do we have any emotional issue paying it off each month. I know a few people who have switched to interest only payments over recent years.

Albermarle

 when I had a quick look on My phone earlier, whilst the kids where playing.

When making investment decisions, probably better to give yourself some more time and space to make decisions .

loken152

Albermarle said:

 when I had a quick look on My phone earlier, whilst the kids where playing.

When making investment decisions, probably better to give yourself some more time and space to make decisions .

100% agree.  This isn’t a decision to be made after a quick google search.  I just happened to start my research again, the other day and at the time was just on phone.  Then I decided I would start thread, on here.

Old_Lifer

I agree with  Albermarle,  there is never any hurry to invest.    If you act in haste you may regret it later if the price falls. 

loken152

DiggerUK said:

loken152, I have had a look over your history. You seem capable of acquiring debt, but also know you need to clear those debts. 

I'm not sure if you did indeed buy your house, but if you did, then that debt needs treating with the priority you applied to your other debts. 

Your finances seem manageable if not overabundant, I'd recommend you only keep a small cash fund to hand. You can deal with increasing retirement funds in time.

Concentrate on killing the mortgage, the feeling of clearing that debt will be greater than the debts you have already binned. Then your increased cash flow will allow you to put extra by for retirement.
Best of fortune..._

Years ago we certainly did manage acquire debt, we learned the hard way as many young people do.  We managed to clear all our debt and have managed to stay debt free ever sense.   We also have a sensible emergency fund, cash savings and a account that we use for saving towards car purchases in future so don’t need to have car finance.   We are more than happy with our house payments.  So in my mind investing is a sensible choice as we can afford to.  

Albermarle

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

loken152

Albermarle said:

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

My pension situation, is that I am paying into my works pension the maximum amount that they will match.  I must admit I have a couple of older pensions that I need move into my current one.

Albermarle

loken152 said:

Albermarle said:

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

My pension situation, is that I am paying into my works pension the maximum amount that they will match.  I must admit I have a couple of older pensions that I need move into my current one.

So as an alternative to investing outside the pension , you could just increase your pension contributions .
You would gain a minimum 6.25% tax advantage , although the money would be inaccessible until your mid /late fifties.
Even if you decide not to do this, you need to align your investment strategy between pension investments and non pension investments. Often people concentrate on their S&S ISA's and do not give much thought to their often much larger pension investments. Not saying you do but its a common theme on here.

BananaRepublic

loken152 said:

Albermarle said:

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

My pension situation, is that I am paying into my works pension the maximum amount that they will match.  I must admit I have a couple of older pensions that I need move into my current one.

Many work pensions have appalling or mediocre performance, assuming they are defined contribution, and often the charges are a bit high. It might be wise to move older pensions into a SIPP, and distribute the money over several funds. This has the advantage of a wider range of funds available, easy management from one web site and reduced fund charges.

Paying extra into a SIPP, once you’ve paid the max into your work pension that your employer will match, makes sense. A LISA would be sensible, depending on your age of course. 

Alexland

BananaRepublic said:
Paying extra into a SIPP, once you’ve paid the max into your work pension that your employer will match, makes sense.

Depends if the employer operates salary sacrifice to also save national insurance on workplace pension contributions. Our SIPPs are the result of doing partial lump sum transfers out of our salary sacrifice workplace pensions. It wouldn't be efficient to contribute directly.
Also as you say a LISA might be better than additional pension contributions depending on circumstances.