The other side of a flippant and immature mindset. First steps. Could be long.

BrotherUuurgh

HedgehogRulez said:

You really need to start upping your pension contributions to at least a a couple of thousand a month. As you say: time to put your big boy pants on.

A couple thousand? If you meant thousand, I'm not sure I need to comment. Hundred however, yes absolutely, and I will once I've paid off my debt. 

happymum37

Some of us don't earn a couple of thousand a month!!!
You are doing brilliantly paying off your debt and starting to save.  Look at saving the money you were paying towards the next to save towards a house deposit once you have paid it off. Then go from there.  You have plenty of time to keep chipping away at a mortgage and a pension if your wife works as well 

Cobbler_tone

Re your back issues. I had my first back op aged 18 and the consultant told me I'd be in a wheelchair by 40, different times! I've had two more since and countless procedures but nothing in the past 5 years other than a monthly sports massage. Now I am 55, walk 10,000 steps a day and rarely take a pain killer. Don't write yourself off.

Definitely up your pension contributions in line with net affordability but at 32 don't push yourself too hard, it's a long way away but it will save you some tax after clearing your debt.

QrizB

As a very rough idea of where to begin, there's a guide that, if you're starting on a pension from scratch, you should be saving a % of your income equal to half your age in years.

If you're 32, that's 16%. You're currently saving half of that.

LHW99

One thing with regard to debt is to prioritise the one(s) with the highest interest rate (and just maintain the others until its their turn).

Keep putting the basic into a pension as you are now - the funds you put in earliest will grow the most. Once you are debt free, reirect those payments into savings / pension and review in a couple of years.

Things always look surprisingly different without debt. Make yourself a countdown picture of some sort so you can see how you're doing

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/ways-to-visualize-debt/

BrotherUuurgh

@Cobbler_tone - nice to know that there actually might be another side to the back thing. It feels like it's completely controlling me especially over the last year or so. I'm not at all inactive as my job is very physically demanding, but I would like to get round to a bit more purposeful exercise. As said earlier though, I know me and if I start to make an effort with that, something else will suffer. I don't want that something else to be finances so will stick with the devil I know for now.

@QrizB - ahh yes I'd come across that rule of thumb before. That would be a 13% contribution which, with no debt, would be a walk in the park. I could do better for sure, but wouldn't want to sacrifice too much that I couldn't build up an 'early retirement fund' that I could access any time. That will be a balance I will start to think about when DF.

@LHW99 - when I had my LBM I had two credit cards at 39.9% & 49.9%, two loans at 34.9% & 48.9% and a couple family owings at 0%. With a bit of luck I've managed to get the cards over to 0% for 30 months and recently both loans consolidated to 29.9%, there wasn't even an arrangement fee on that so made good sense to do it. It's a better situation than a few months ago for sure. I can't change what I pay my family, I've a DD for the balance transfer at just over a tenner above minimum, and the loan receives the Lion's share of the money allocated to debt repayment. On paper it'll all be gone before Christmas, hopefully life doesn't have other ideas.

Thanks all for your advice and input. I feel like my thoughts are coming out and starting to make sense. 

QrizB

BrotherUuurgh said:

QrizB - ahh yes I'd come across that rule of thumb before. That would be a 13% contribution which, with no debt, would be a walk in the park. I could do better for sure, but wouldn't want to sacrifice too much that I couldn't build up an 'early retirement fund' that I could access any time. That will be a balance I will start to think about when DF.

Oh, absolutely. Deal with any expensive debt first, then boost your pension.

ouraggie

firstly, good on you for turning your ship round and getting stuff sorted.
Re home ownership, have you looked into shared ownership? Where you buy a part share ( usually 25%) in a house, usually a new-build, and pay rent on the rest. You can then buy further % as you can afford it, known as staircasing. My niece did this, saved £200 a month by no longer renting, put the £200 in an account and used it as emergency fund. No emergencies for 2 years, so she bought another 5% with some of what had accumulated.

BrotherUuurgh

Hadn't thought about shared ownership to be honest. If I was going to do it - buying a home - I'd only really want to do it 'outright' as it were. Even then, the question of house our pension arises again. The more I think about this, the more the pension option is starting to take the lead. 

barnstar2077

Did you mention if you had a partner that was working?

If you have then that would make buying a house a lot easier.  Especially as you can get much longer mortgage terms these days.  Which might sound counter productive, to pay so much interest, but will make retirement a breeze and still cheaper than renting (depending on local variables.)

You could both open LISAs after the debts are gone.

If there is no partner, then LISA is still a good idea as your situation may change at a later date and allow you to purchase a house with someone (or you just take the money at 60 and put it towards your retirement.)