I'm addicted to pension saving and it's leaving me short.

Bluebell1000

Workerdrone said:

Well, Ive done it. Ive spoken with my wife and she is fully supportive. Ive dropped my persona contribution down to 5% from 33.6 and I still get the employers match. It was easier than I thought once I'd rationalised it (And with great thanks to all the supportive people on here) A quick tax calculation shows I should have around £900 extra a month to enjoy in, October and November and December (I was too late for it to take effect for the September pay). So now, I can start and plan things to do. I think the first thing is to take my son out for a "boy day", A nice brunch, then a trip to the Turkish barbers, he can have a haircut and I'll have one of those shaves where they set fire to your ears, then perhaps a bit shopping. He likes to dress smartly even though he's 12 so maybe some new threads and a trip to the toy shop. Then a few family trips to the ice cream parlour, pizza, cinema, crazy golf etc. I have three months to relearn how to take pleasure in things in life. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy! Though the setting fire to ears thing sounds terrifying 😂

bluenose1

I’ve been saving the max I can for last couple of years, though have always kept enough back for a couple of holidays per year, so can’t say been deprived. Got to an age where I am trying to declutter and don’t take much pleasure in buying new things. Saying that have recently ordered new sofas from a local independent company to replace our 20 year old sofas. There was no discount for cash so got the interest free so I can get more interest on my savings. My issue is deciding when to go, definitely suffering from one more yeat syndrome.

Nebulous2

I've liked the way this thread has developed.

For most people, after retirement their horizons slowly but surely shrink. Even with reduced income people often continue to accumulate, rather than spending money. You may well get to retirement age and decide that that £118k toy no longer has any attraction. Or, even worse, buy it, get limited satisfaction from having it, and sell it for £60k. I admire your ambition however. I thought buying a £2k camera and a titanium bike was being bold. 

I'd say anyone planning to have more net income in retirement than they do during the heavy lifting years in their 40s, with mortgages and child related expenses, should consider whether they have their balance right. 

We were a single income household with several children. Had a lot of juggling to get to France on holiday and to get a lot of camping holidays and days away at home. We had two advantages, a public sector pension, and we overstretched to buy a house in the early 90s. I made a snap decision to retire two years ago. We expected to draw heavily on our capital, but we have managed to acquire more over the last two years. While we had a great time bringing up our children, we still spend our lives now reluctant to spend more than we think something is 'worth' to us. 

RogerPensionGuy

A view from inside my head.

I saw DB pensions getting reduced, reduced and closed for years and in me late 40s I contributed to DB, AVCs and a DB scheme until it was closed about 7 years ago. 

I have a pretty nice life financially and not always being too well paid, but I'm good at controlling spending and tend to avoid debts as far as possible and any debts I used always opted for the most best and/or efficient way to get debts gone.

Some friends say I don't spend enough, but I've never gone without houses, cars, holidays etc etc.

I just decided in my 20s I didn't want to be too skint when I'm older if still alive and if I could take sensible care and work and avoid silly costs than bring only tiny value to family/me I would endeavour to do this.

I really don't want to be old and worried about life and cash flows and was just sensible with much stuff I've done over the years.

Reference a previous post about having more net income after working than before, I always like the phrase disposable Income and just take all the various needs and cash flows into account. 

Money sure cannot make people happy, but having sufficient cash flows normally allows much more choices and for my family and me its been a plesent 🚆 ride so far. 

Workerdrone

I thought I would resurrect and old thread from 2 years ago. A lot has happened, I now say about half of what I was doing, I have much more spare cash. I live a fuller life now, buy clothes, take myself to the cinema, look after myself better. But the main reason for resurrecting the thread was that I was looking for a comparison on where I am at.

Back in August 2023, I was lamenting that, my fund seemed stuck at 240k.
Today it's at 365k.

Im quite happy with that :-)

Mr_Benn

Workerdrone  - Try not to keep beating yourself up about it. You are doing a good thing saving for the future (wish I had started earlier !) . But as others have said, its getting the balance right between having a good life now whilst saving some money for the future. 

Also, you earn a very good wage (to me £45k is a massive amount), as does your wife, so again give yourself some praise. 

Ibrahim5

One of the problems with living off investments is that you are forever swinging between feast and famine. Stock markets are on a high at the moment and I was just discussing with the wife that we will never be able to spend all this. She has agreed to help.

Cobbler_tone

Ibrahim5 said:

One of the problems with living off investments is that you are forever swinging between feast and famine. Stock markets are on a high at the moment and I was just discussing with the wife that we will never be able to spend all this. She has agreed to help.

Sounds like they could do with a IFA, worth their weight in gold. 

Ibrahim5

It's permanent famine if you have an IFA taking all the profit.