Need a kind and honest friend

eskbanker

OnlineAlex said:

Albermarle said:

 I earn £31000 and he earns £42000.

Hopefully you are both enrolled in your respective employers workplace pensions?

Although your questions ( and the answers) mainly relate to short to medium term plans, you also need to be building up money for later in life and a workplace pension is a good way of doing that.

We are, thank you so much for asking the question though. We're both putting in the maximum. 

What do you mean by 'the maximum' though?  Do you mean 'up to your annual income' or 'enough to secure the maximum employer contribution', as they're quite different things and only one is literally the maximum?

In terms of the wider picture about what best to do with your money, you might consider the structured approach at The Flowchart - UKPersonalFinance Wiki

kempiejon

I earn £31000 and he earns £42000.

Hopefully you are both enrolled in your respective employers workplace pensions?

Although your questions ( and the answers) mainly relate to short to medium term plans, you also need to be building up money for later in life and a workplace pension is a good way of doing that.

We are, thank you so much for asking the question though. We're both putting in the maximum. 

You know the maximum is £31000 and £42000 probably - relevant earnings being the technical phrase though there are some limits. When I was in my 40s I was, for a couple of years, able to add my total income for the year to my pension, not only was this tax efficient, now, some years down the line, those big chunks extra in my pension obviously boosted the returns and so allowed me to think plan early retirement. Lump summing into the pension really paid of for me 10 years later.