Pension or House Deposit?
Options
Comments
-
Without fully digging through your cost base I just don't understand why a couple on £66k cannot afford to pay rent, pension contributions, cover childcare, transport, livings costs and save for a house deposit in parallel. Even if there is some debt there are many good ways to manage the situation and mostly avoid paying interest until it is repaid. As such my only conclusion is that you are not sufficiently motivated or willing to make the lifestyle sacrifices to get what you want. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
Alex.0 -
..OMG..!!!!! "giving up NHS pensions"....must be one of the definitions of insanity. Short term gain for a retirement life of pain, and here's me thinking that in general people who worked in the NHS were supposed to have some intelligence!!...."It's everybody's fault but mine...."0
-
I think we are being harsh on the op, he is the one who has done a spreadsheet that shows that the impact on total lifetime housing costs of renting forever rather than owning (in theory only the mortgage interest should be counted as capital payments are a form of saving and generate an asset) are approximately equal to the value of the pension benefit he would accrue by putting the same funds towards a pension rather than a house purchase. Unless we see the spreadsheet with all the calcs and assumptions we are only guessing as to whether they are correctly modelling the two scenarios.I think....0
-
..OMG..!!!!! "giving up NHS pensions"....must be one of the definitions of insanity. Short term gain for a retirement life of pain, and here's me thinking that in general people who worked in the NHS were supposed to have some intelligence!!..
You would be surprised at the number of bright, well educated clinical and managerial staff that I have come across during my NHS career who have come out of it "just a short break while I pay off this...." or "it's not worth the money I'd rather live for now".
Almost all re-joined usually making extra percentage contributions to other savings or buying back missed years all of which cost for more in the long run than sticking with the standard percent payment.
Recent changes make some think well I now have to work to SP age so it's not worth it. Not realising they can go earlier- at a reduced pension if they wish, can save elsewhere to fund a "gap period" between retiring and taking pensions or can have a PP and the NHS pension.
I think the temptation to live for now and worry about tomorrow is a cultural shift that has entered group thinking and endless tinkering and media reports of doom and gloom colour thinking.
I had a conversation with someone last week who lives in Stockton and she actually said "Newspapers are full of reports that I'm only likely to live to 64 so I think I'll have to move, or stop paying into the pension because I won't live long enough to enjoy it", after I picked myself up, I pointed out that she's a qualified health care professional who eats healthily, runs every day a minimum of 5k, doesn't smoke and only drinks at weekends, a couple of drinks only at that!
What was most worrying is that she knows facts, does research into her speciality and still believes what she reads in the broadsheets!CRV1963- Light bulb moment Sept 15- Planning the great escape- aka retirement!0 -
Will rejoin the pension after I've saved for the house deposit, i.e. around 5 years.
Have you read post 11?0 -
Well if I as the widow, and there was an accident- i'd be suing the employer.
He was "at work" in the sense that he was an Environmental Health Officer out on call - my recollection is that another vehicle struck a bollard which flew up and through the window of his vehicle - injuries sustained resulted in his death.0 -
My sister in law joined the NHS a number of years ago and didn't join the pension scheme, first because she was buying a house, then she was paying off debt related to buying the house, then she needed to get a new bathroom ... meantime she was having regular long-haul holidays, getting her nails done etc . At a year or so off forty she still hadn't joined, and her husband had no significant pension provision either.0
-
You would be surprised at the number of bright, well educated clinical and managerial staff that I have come across during my NHS career who have come out of it "just a short break while I pay off this...." or "it's not worth the money I'd rather live for now".
Almost all re-joined usually making extra percentage contributions to other savings or buying back missed years all of which cost for more in the long run than sticking with the standard percent payment.
Recent changes make some think well I now have to work to SP age so it's not worth it. Not realising they can go earlier- at a reduced pension if they wish, can save elsewhere to fund a "gap period" between retiring and taking pensions or can have a PP and the NHS pension.
I think the temptation to live for now and worry about tomorrow is a cultural shift that has entered group thinking and endless tinkering and media reports of doom and gloom colour thinking.
I had a conversation with someone last week who lives in Stockton and she actually said "Newspapers are full of reports that I'm only likely to live to 64 so I think I'll have to move, or stop paying into the pension because I won't live long enough to enjoy it", after I picked myself up, I pointed out that she's a qualified health care professional who eats healthily, runs every day a minimum of 5k, doesn't smoke and only drinks at weekends, a couple of drinks only at that!
What was most worrying is that she knows facts, does research into her speciality and still believes what she reads in the broadsheets!
I do think you have to strike a balance, and there's a definite bias in this forum towards what I would I characterise as penny pinching. If you want to save every penny for your retirement fine, but are you going to regret not living your life when you were young? I'm not saying jack-in your pension and buy a Mercedes, but there seems to be this assumption that if you cut Sky and Netflix your debt will go away and you'll retire quids in.
I totally agree, not paying in at all is madness, but that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm going to have the money freed up in 9 months time. Do I use it for the pension, or save for a house?
There seems to be a consensus around the pension, but I don't think the benefits of owning a house outright by retirement have been fully explored.
I think what I'll do, probably tomorrow, is re-do my figures with the latest assumptions and post them so you can see how the finances in retirement balance out, and people can tell me if there's anything I haven't considered.0 -
-
The problem with the 'but its only for a short while, I will have the money once 'X' is out of the way' Is there is always a Y and then a Z that turn up that then has you kicking the can further down the road.
Why at 35 do you already have "virtually no existing pension between us" ? Is it because you have always been delaying Pension contributions for some other excuse?
Sorry to be harsh but you are robbing from your future self , and you can bet your future self will be furious with you when its comes to living in retirement.
Besides if its only 9 months, can't you cut some things on your budget for only those 9 months that will allow you to keep the pension. Unless you are down to the bare living essentials (in which case there's no way you would get a mortgage) then there's nothing you could do without for 9 months that would affect you as much as losing pension.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards