Mortgage free by 2025

Mickyh-s

Thanks @savingholmes and @LadyWithAPlan it's these forums that keep me motivated. We wouldn't be where we are without them!

savingholmes

Perhaps check out The Simple Path to Wealth book

savingholmes

and The £ or your life book. 

The first basically suggests index tracker funds.

The second explores your relationship with £ and getting it to work for you.

Mickyh-s

Will have a look at those - thanks @savingholmes (I was hoping you would reply - you seem to know what you are doing with all that stuff!)

LadyWithAPlan

Mickyh-s said:

Once the mortgage and loan are cleared, I need to  pay more into my personal pension (I also have a work pension). I have just received a small pay rise so I am putting the extra into it but I would like to maybe put another £150 in.

I also need to do some serious saving and investing. Because we have never had much in the way of savings, it's something I need to look into - I don't really know where to start! 

@edinburgher has a great Fire thread to check out

This mse is good as well https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/investment-beginners/

On investing  - its a good thing to start slowly and learn. Vanguard sipp and isa are both great starting places as low fees and trustworthy and you cant buy anything too high risk . Plus you can only invest in their funds which are all low fee and index etc so a great start place plus free to buy funds and also to move if you want to go elsewhere.


Start with index funds or ETFs (in Vanguard- the other platforms charge you same as shares for buying ETF)
Vanguard funds like Global Cap, Global Small Cap, V3am - all diversify risk
L+G international index fund is also low mgt charge and diverse.

I have accounts with Fideli (ISA) , Hargr L (ISA - now moved and Sipp) and Vanguard (isa and sipp) and the platform costs on the others compared to Vanguard are super high.
Unless you have a load of savings I would start with Vanguard

Mickyh-s

Thank you @LadyWithAPlan will have a look at all that!

I have not got my purse out of my bag all week - going to see is I can get to the end of the week without spending anything

I have the week off next week which I am really looking forward to. We have a two night break booked for our 26th year wedding anniversary and will spend a couple of days pottering at home and locally.

My boss is currently in Sicily this week and trying to work remotely on his phone! It is not going well and all the s**t ends up on me - we will be having words with him on his return as he is also away for a week at the end of September and once again I will be left alone to hold the fort and pick up the pieces.

savingholmes

You can find the books I recommended if you search on you tube too - you could get a talk by one of the authors. 

What @LadyWithAPlan put makes sense too. I have gone with a Vanguard tracker fund via my organisation's pension provider for my AVCs when I eventually get them...

LadyWithAPlan

I used to work in as a dealer on a trading floor of a very big bank and next to the Forex and Stocks and shares dealers/traders.. so I do know my stuff - and I know enough to say as I am no longer in the market full time and choose not to focus on having to read company accounts etc daily then picking  Vanguard at low cost, diversified is a great choice for most including me and you can also do a % mix of equity and bonds as you get older .. 

Dont run before you can walk and most people cant outpick a tracker fund that tracks the main companies shares in the world.

I do buy other stuff  - shares etc but such  low cost diverse index funds are the core of any investing strategy for sipps and long term isas.

I personally wouldn't be buying bonds at present for my own situation  but lots of people on MSE here like the Vanguard  LifeStrategy  and also Vanguard  Target retirement ones where you buy the one nearest your retirement age eg 20 years so 2040 etc  so they move into a higher bond % 

greent

Another vote for Vanguard here - we have our silos and isa there. I've got both lifestrategy and retirement funds - and do have lower weighted ones with more bonds - but we are looking to retire in 5-7 years, so not that far away in reality. 

Mickyh-s

Thanks again everyone! I have a lot or reading and researching to do to get my head around it all. Luckily I have time as I will not have the spare funds till nearer Christmas so this will give me the time I need to make sure I make the correct choices for me.