Our finances, what next?

MX5huggy

Following the Critique my Finances thread from pat1976. I’m similar and not sure what to do next.
The choices I broadly see are pay off mortgage, increase pension pots, saving or investing outside a pension.

Married couple, early 40s, 2 primary children. 2 secure and stable jobs FT jobs, 

Income (gross)
FT    £46k  
FT    £27k plus overtime while the pandemic rages but not normally 

Assets
House Value   £500k with £140k mortgage, repayment 2.5 years into a 10 year fix at 2.79%  at the end of that would have 10 years still to run if I did nothing.  no intention to move, could down size in retirement as have annex where mum lives, or could rent that out. 

BTL
£170k ish property no mortgage, £8400 gross rent. Had it 15 plus years, new boiler anytime, new kitchen 3 to 4 years or if becomes void, new roof sometime soon ish. 

Savings
Premium Bonds    £21k
Shares           £1k gamble on an individual share.
1 Gold 1/10oz coin 

Pensions
Need to investigate this further but:-
Larger income has 15 years and counting in the NHS scheme.
Other has 4 years and counting in the Local Gov scheme plus is paying £500 per month in AVC’s probably pot is worth about £12k invested in global equities.
Both should get full state pensions, when or whatever that will be. 

No particular aims, except not to work to state retirement age, my Dad died at 61 from C, so that guides a bit although the other 3 parents are relatively well in their 70’s. 

Family car is long in the tooth, but little used ATM. All paid for. Next one is likely to be electric and expensive, let’s not make it a car debate (I know where I can go for that). But that’s an expense on the horizon. 

MovingForwards

What's your outgoings per month and how much disposable income do you have?

Has 'other' got any older pensions?

MX5huggy

I know it’s bad but we don’t have a true handle on the monthly finances, we pay off the credit card in full every month and have some left in the current account this used to just sit there in the Santander 123 account but now gets moved the PB’s. 

Other only had small old pension from about 4 years of low paid work for organisations that had pension schemes I think it was about £4K which was used to buy additional pension in the LG scheme. 

pat1976

Nice to see another one, I'd really like to see lots of these and get an idea of how other people manage their finances.

You're in a similar position to me really in terms of value but nearly all of yours is in property. I can't advise much but what did you have in mind? Presumably the Premium Bond cash is your emergency fund and to be used for upkeep of the BTL so maybe £10k from there could go elsewhere? Are you thinking of selling the BTL? 

How do the figures on the BTL stack up? Who gets the income? If it's the higher earner it'll push you into the 40% tax bracket 

vivster

I’d like to do one too. Had something of a change of financial mindset and approach last year and would be interested in views in how we could make our money work harder. There’s significantly more coming in in income than we need to meet our monthly expenses, and I’ve been putting a lot of surplus income into the mortgage, with the rest split into little pots for eg holidays, home improvements etc, but not sure if this is the best approach. I know zero about investing!