What do/would you do with £1k spare each month?

Zerforax

Previously I would've said more money into my pension. I've been paying in for about 10 years now so there is a decent amount saved but there is currently 0% growth on the amount actually contributed. I think some people who are expecting big growth may be sorely disappointed in 10-20-30 years time.

Woolsery

Zerforax said:

Previously I would've said more money into my pension. I've been paying in for about 10 years now so there is a decent amount saved but there is currently 0% growth on the amount actually contributed. I think some people who are expecting big growth may be sorely disappointed in 10-20-30 years time.

With the exponential increase in demand for scarce resources, I'll be surprised if people aren't disappointed about quite a few other things in 20 years time!

eskbanker

MrkHghs said:

Follow the flowchart. Currently, it would be £500 into a sinking fund for an upcoming holiday and £500 into my Vanguard. 

For anyone else baffled by the vague reference to 'the flowchart', this presumably relates to:

https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

Dave_5150

I now use the £1,000+ a month that clearing my mortgage freed up to pay for home improvements as the costs for those types of work are all increasing at a faster rate than fix rate savings can cover.

As an example soffits, fascias and gutters increased by 31% between my best quote in July 2020 and this month (£1,900 to £2,500)

Olinda99

Extra £1k a month? I'd turn my fridge-freezer back on.

enthusiasticsaver

Nebulous2 said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

In our current circumstances I would keep it in our cash buffer account to avoid us needing to draw on investments to supplement pensions at the moment.

Is it spare if you need it to supplement your pension? 

I'm probably in that position. I'm paying £500 (£400 net) into a pension and £200 each into 2 regular savers and £100 into another account.  

This is the first month since retiring 15 months ago that I've needed to dig into my reserves by selling some premium bonds to fund our lifestyle. I didn't get anything from my premium bonds last month, so it seemed a better option than raiding one of the regular savers. I don't see myself as having £1k spare a month however, I simply see it as you described it as a buffer. 

We only withdraw from investments or our cash buffer  to pay for long haul holidays, new cars, home improvements or gift to family so it is not needed to supplement pensions as such just used for extraordinary expenditure. We haven’t withdrawn since investing in 2017 but we are of the opinion that at some point we will lean more towards spending than saving. To do that it is better to leave in cash. 

We do have £1000 spare each month after bills and usual monthly costs but I don’t want to invest simply because we will spend it within the next 3-5 years.