Have I saved enough money...

[413x]

How much life do you reckon is in the dog anyway? Just thinking you might be able to work a couple more years then maybe your job naturally ends and the dog is gone then the decision is easier?

He's a young boy. So he could go for a long time yet. Because it's a horrible degenerative disease it's just grim really projecting forward. Something I'm working on is taking it day by day.

He's the sweetest boy, and he's my ideal dog (apart from obviously his condition).

 

[413x]

I find it totally cringe and bizarre. My local facebook group often has posts like:

"just sharing agen coz are boy has been missin now fa 2 dayz" [sic]

What's this then...a missing person!? Enters post... *picture of a cat*
ffs!

I refer to my dog as my boy. Not my child. But my boy, yes.
I dont think this is unusual.

I wouldn't say "my boy" out of context.
For example. Someone asks "how's things at home".. "OK but my boy is feeling unwell".I would not say that.
But if it's clear I'm talking about my dog I'd say/write my boy.

 

[413x]

Its very hard to change gear when you have been in one gear for so long. I don't think its any easier than going the other way honestly. We all accept that some people are **** with money and spend it before they have it. We all accept that change for those people is hard. Its the same for savers. People who don't treat themselves. You get into the habit of never spending and eventually anything seems like a lot.

My partners dad did park and ride to drop his wife off at the Airport because he didn't want to pay for parking... think it was about £7 or something. Silly amount of money for what it was but fundamentally very little.... and his net worth is probably £3m plus...

This is us.
I hate waste.
I've written before it took a lot to make me accept getting a cleaner was. OK.

Was brought up "if you can do it yourself, do it yourself"

That's just one thing of many

 

[413x]

Because they didn't invest, left everything in cash. So the value has been heavily eroded and it's not generating enough income to provide a comfortable retirement. I'm helping where I can and a part is now invested, but on the whole they'll be scraping through until state pension age.

See this a lot.
People paying off their mortgage vs investing.
People not trusting banks etc and just holding literal cash.

I mean for years my pension was in its default fund. A terrible fund.

There's not the education or the will to learn for the average person to max out their life long earnings. And it's very very expensive.

Think how much time you put in working for that cash. Yet can't spend a few hours learning how to make better decisions. It can literally cost 100s of k across a life

 

[413x]

I've already done the moving abroad bit, you absolutely should if it's something that interests you. Just apply for some jobs in interesting places, get one with a relocation package, and ta-da, it's someone else's job to arrange and pay for the move.

I may have to look at Europe. Before I was looking (not properly) at jobs in NZ and almost all had "must be legally permitted to work here"

 

[413x]

I think as I have earned more money and had less time, the more willing I have been to spend money to save time. We have a cleaner for 3 hours every 2 weeks and I love her. House looks immaculate for about 10 minutes until the nippers ruin it but for a short while its lovely. Does the deep clean and prevents it from getting too grubby and stops us wasting time on the weekend.

The only thing I struggle to spend money on is the trades because I have had pretty much nothing but trouble with them. So many scumbags and con artists who do a **** job and overcharge you.

Same really. Cleaner was one of the best things. For cost of 36 a month I don't have to think about it. That's the biggest burden actually for me. The constant mental nag.. I need to clean.

 

[413x]

I am paying as I go but private pilots licence is around 10k all in. If I go commercial it will be 50k-60k all in but that will be dual licence as I have a European Passport.

38 now but I should be done by 40 which will give me 25 years career if I want it.

I have done 5 hours so far and doing take offs and taxing by myself. Still a way to go however. 45 is the min hours to pass but most take 50-60. Then after that it is the grind for commercial which is 200ish hours plus theory.

At the moment I am doing 1 lesson a week but after Christmas will be doing 2-3.

I was constantly in a battle to save and pay off my mortgage ASAP. We had a kid at 21 so have been grafting since an early age. Only now I realise how pointless paying my mortgage off is and why do we even need a big house when the kids are gone so have taken equity out to follow a dream job.

I have no incentive to retire early but to find a job that gives me great satisfaction but also pays well. Doing my HGV license after getting made redundant in 2021 kind of opened my eyes. I literally wasted 15 years of my life grifting up the corporate ladder only worrying about that pay rise to only get there and find out my day to day work life was terrible.

May message you over the weekend of that's OK on some details.

 

[413x]

Everything is a risk. I have always been very risk averse too but people change. Also it depends on how people live to how much they can get away with financially.

I could quite easily take a couple of years off with 50k and go back to work after. Then again I am a measly truck driver so can walk into a job anywhere in the country within 24 hours. It is a lot harder if you are in a dead man's shoes kind of job because getting back will obviously be difficult and you are effectively stuck.

I could take 2 years off as well with no work. 1000 a month for mortgage and living expenses.
That would eat up half the pot.
Obviously I don't want to do that. But more ice thought about it since this thread. If you can live 2 years without working any only use half your savings. Probably OK?

 

[413x]

The problem is you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

As morbid as it is, if you could genuinely know when you will die then it'd be easier to plan for. If you die young then little point saving into a pension for retirement. But on the other side if you're contributing the minimal amount to your retirement and then live till you're 100, you're going to be pretty miserable in your later life when you can barely afford any luxuries, worrying about having the heating on etc.

Especially when you don't have kids.
Even if you pop off early, at least if you have kids you can kind of get around the mental "I wasted my life" as they will inherit any cash.

When you don't it's literally a waste.

 

[413x]

I think you're contradicting yourself a bit here. Your savings would clearly allow you to retire early. If 50k is 4 years living expenses for you, that would easily be 6 or more after being invested for a decade or so. Save the same again, do it all via a pension scheme with tax relief and keep it all invested and you might be retiring 10 years earlier and with a lot more than 1k a month, especially if you keep not growing into your pay rises.
I know you've posted a lot about your reluctance to pay more into your pension. Sure, there are other things to think about - if spending this money or other extra cash earlier would truly make you happier in some way then OK. The problem with spending it now to increase free time is you never get the benefit of having it grow, so it's worth much more later in terms of the amount of free time it can buy.

Its 4 years living expenses on a shoe string.
I would basically be existing.
If I retired I'd have so much time and nothing to fill it with with. So that isn't really in my plan (early retirement). Certainly not at the expense of living for now.

 

[413x]

It’s all relative at the end of the day…
How much of that 50k is actually in cash?
How risky are the assets that you have it stored as?
How liquid are the asset?

In regards of your life itself;
How long will that 50k last if you had no income?
How’s the relationship between you and your partner?
How’s your partners income and job security?

Personally I like to have a year in cash, and the rest in the market and non liquid assets.. the market could take 2 years or more to recover.

Next year I have to pay for a new kitchen and possibly a different car, that will make a massive hit on my cash savings, but I should have to sell any shares, the real question is do I build up my cash savings again after, if it means putting less or nothing into the market. I’m certainly not lowering my pension contributions for it.

They are high risk investments.
But I could turn it into cash tomorrow

For me having 50k in cash is too much of a waste. But I could probably move some to safer investments.

50k would last me 4 years on a shoe string.

Relationship is stable.
Job safety? I've learnt this is never stable.


When I think it could last 4 years or does make it sound a lot actually



Having thought on this, I think i will start moving some of this to safer investments. Especially if I do decide 50 is enough.

Thought about it a bit over the weekend and I'm swinging more to "yes it is"

 

[413x]

I’m all for having an emergency pot and am aiming for between 50-100k, partly why I’ve taken on a bigger job for a few years. Nothing in particular I want to buy with it. Mortgage will be paid off many times over with trust funds eventually. Having seen an old school friend go through chemo recently, perhaps it’s encouraged me to save less and just buy what I want, as long as I’m not overly dipping into my savings. I think I’ve only had one month net negative out of twelve. Tbh if I lost my job I have enough savings for at least a year if I scaled things back.

You have guaranteed trust funds?
I would absolutely not be saving this much if I had guaranteed trust funds.

But absolutely agree seeing people go through horrible medical situations really changes a person's perspective

 

[413x]

OK, but you ignored that investment growth and pension relief would likely mean a lot more than 1k a month.

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to retire early, but I think you probably could with a decent income if you tried to and while maintaining your current lifestyle.

I doubt I'll fully stop saving. And definitely not into my pension. But I will cut back my isa/cash saving I think

I do contribute 8 pc (me) + 4pc (employer) and that will continue.

But anything could happen in next 20+ years.

As others have said. It's a balance of live now vs for save for later.

 

[413x]

Perhaps. That wasn't my point. My point was what benefits does 7 days a week of no "work" bring to you. I would get bored very quickly and my hobbies would be far too expensive to maintain on 21k a year.

£350k pension pot. Work a couple of days a week plus a state pension would be living a very good lifestyle.

Same

I plan to(ideally) so chunks of work as long as I can to give more in retirement.

I've said in other threads my worst nightmare is to retire but be to scared to spend and just sit around and fester all day.

If you don't value your time it's easy to waste it.

Obviously things may be different when I'm older. But as of now just stopping work forever in random day sounds like a mental health nightmare

 

[413x]

@413x

I've a plot of land you can stick a van on Dogs welcome

I'll have to get a fully kitted out one... I'll work for food!

 

[413x]

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That would absolutely not make it around the roads near Y Fenni!