Planning for Retirement

Martynt74 said:
To be fair, you bought a taxi :p



It's different in our house i guess as i earn more, but then i also spend more on crap. I worked out our money and then set up the following system which has worked really well for us (i guess it's different for @413x above as i don't get the impression he's married so would want to keep things separate)

Money into Pot 1 (Income etc)
Money from Pot 1 to Pot 2 for Bills (Generally fixed each month)
Money from pot 1 into Pot 3 & 4 for Individual Spends (This way i can save and buy stupid expensive stuff without it coming from a "joint" pot)
Remainer drops into Pot 5 which is for other spending. Meals out, holidays etc
Anything left from Pot 5 goes into Savings

Seems to work well as it keeps things separate for individual spending, so i can go buy a paddleboard/xbox etc but there's no keeping stuff separate to have the whole "i paid for the meal last week, you should pay tonight" nonsense
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We put money into a pooled account to cover house bills, house bills and emergencies,genuine house purchases.
Everything else is separate.
 
Uther said:
We just pool all our money, maybe because we've been married for 27 years and together for over 30. The seemingly modern way of keeping everything totally seperate is a bit strange to me.
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For me keeping separate is because if relationship break down are common. I don't want to be taken for a ride if that happens.
No kids involved either. If that were the case things would be different. But with me doing most of everything. It seems unfair and leaves me vulnerable
 
413x said:
Bit similar. Her purchases for the house are apparently needed. Mine aren't, or less so. And I have to point out I organised and paid for invisible things like plastering etc.

Generally she's really good. And she's never stopped me buying stuff. But I said if you want anything that's not essential (a new sofa) and I don't want it. You have to buy it.

She's worried our earnings are diverging us. And she won't be able to keep up. I told her we will always keep it fair (I always have) and if I want to go to Mexico I will help her out with money. Ie I'll pay more than half. Because I want it. But I'm not paying for her.

But if she wants to go somewhere same goes in reverse.

I also pointed out, if you do take a salary decrease this is one of those ramifications I told you about before. Yes you'll have an easier work life. But that new car you wanted is a no go. That holiday to Africa is a no go. Just be aware of the ramifications

And yes we have been struggling. I think if it wasn't for her 'condition' it would be OK. Worst thing is it's not her fault. I feel so bad for her. But it's causing a strain.

When I told her about my solo holiday she was sad , but understood. I had to say I can't stop doing things I love. I'd love you to come. But if you can't, I'm not missing out.
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Honestly, if this is your mentality towards a partnership with your GF then you need to separate now and not later. Give her a chance to find a partner who can actually support her medical condition. No ifs or buts, but you're being a selfish **** to someone whom you're supposed to love the most in the world.

She deserves to be with someone who will treat has as an equal. Of course she's damn scared of your earnings diverging. She has a medical condition that means her lifestyle will never be able to match yours any more and you've made it VERY clear that you're willing to leave her behind. You really need to get some maturity about money. Me me me doesn't work as a family. You fight the battles together, you pay the bills together and that includes luxuries like holidays.
 
Kreeeee said:
To be able to withdraw 70% of my estimated final salary while taking no more than 3.5% out of my investments per year.

I’m doing it all manually in a spreadsheet with medium expected returns.
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Crikey, nice work. I'll be living on a fraction of my salary but then I won't need to spend a lot with no mortgage etc.

I've just ramped up my S&S ISA payments.
 
Uther said:
We just pool all our money, maybe because we've been married for 27 years and together for over 30. The seemingly modern way of keeping everything totally seperate is a bit strange to me.
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Is that modern? Seems wrong to me. I don't want my wife to have a different lifestyle to me because I earn more money...that seems absolutely nuts. I'm 31...we pool all our money and take an equal amount out for unquestioned spending.

I went back to my FIRE calculations and it's saying I will achieve FIRE at 65 with our current rate of expenses, saving, and salary. I think that will shift but I just know that the savings will not continue as they are now.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Is that modern? Seems wrong to me. I don't want my wife to have a different lifestyle to me because I earn more money...that seems absolutely nuts. I'm 31...we pool all our money and take an equal amount out for unquestioned spending.
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Pretty much same here. I earn like double what she does and even if you did a split on outgoings, I'd still be well up on her disposable and that would suck.
 
413x said:
It's a shame.
If I get a new job at salary I'm pitching for I believe I could take on the mortgage myself as well. Which is something I've always wanted. But no way I can support someone like I may have to
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Why couldn't you do that now if you wanted/had to?

Even at the lower end of being a higher rate taxpayer you must be taking home £3k ish every month and the mortgage on your £260k house (with a big deposit) is what, £1k/month?
 
Kreeeee said:
We pool everything then we both get £XXX per month pocket money. Mine goes on motorcycles and video games, and hers goes on tat for the garden and books.

I spend a lot more than her so every now and then she treats the MIL to a nice girls holiday for them both to take together.
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randomshenans said:
Pretty much same here. I earn like double what she does and even if you did a split on outgoings, I'd still be well up on her disposable and that would suck.
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Exactly, you're supposed to be a team
 
Surveyor said:
Why couldn't you do that now if you wanted/had to?

Even at the lower end of being a higher rate taxpayer you must be taking home £3k ish every month and the mortgage on your £260k house (with a big deposit) is what, £1k/month?
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It turns out I'm not in higher rate tax. I thought it started at 40 not 50. I just checked this after this post.
Sorry for the misleading. I genuinely didn't realise it was 50.

I take home 2200 after tax, student loan, pension, share scheme.

Bills come to 1500 ppm. Food etc comes in at 100-200. Car costs, garden other commitments pretty much bring everything up to where I would pretty much have 0 left.

Which leaves me vulnerable to mortgage rate increases, surprise bills etc.
 
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ci_newman said:
Honestly, if this is your mentality towards a partnership with your GF then you need to separate now and not later. Give her a chance to find a partner who can actually support her medical condition. No ifs or buts, but you're being a selfish **** to someone whom you're supposed to love the most in the world.

She deserves to be with someone who will treat has as an equal. Of course she's damn scared of your earnings diverging. She has a medical condition that means her lifestyle will never be able to match yours any more and you've made it VERY clear that you're willing to leave her behind. You really need to get some maturity about money. Me me me doesn't work as a family. You fight the battles together, you pay the bills together and that includes luxuries like holidays.
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It's hard. I found it very hard to handle my mental health and hers and her condition and my condition at the same time. But I do agree with you on a base level. I think I've found that most important thing t up hold back depression for me is 'activities'. Which I already feel guilty about doing. It's hard to keep it all together.
My step dad has to handle my mum who has severe depression. And I don't know how he does it. They have no money worries which is nice. But living with someone with issues is hard when you have issues too.

But yeah I totally get where you're coming from.
 
My wife and I have separate bank accounts, a joint current account and a joint credit card.

All of the Direct Debits (mortgage, utilities etc) come out of the joint current account, all joint spending (food shop, petrol etc) goes on the joint credit card.

We each pay a monthly standing order into the joint account which (in theory) covers all of our regular outgoings plus a little bit for contingency.

Every couple of months we go through the credit card statement, work out if either of us put something on there that was just for them, and otherwise split it 50:50 — the CC is paid off in full every month from the joint current account, so we just top up the joint account to cover the CC spending.

Anything left over in our personal accounts is ours to do with as we please — we both put aside some money into savings each month, and we have a separate savings account for our daughter that we pay into monthly.

It's worked well for us so far.
 
I have a woeful amount in my pension. At the current rate ill have something like £14,000 a year to live on.

This year i will be mortgage free (32 years old), i also have no debt. The plan is to simply transfer the amount paid on the mortgage circa £1500 a month into a pot. Hopefully, that is going put me in reasonable place to retire around 55.
 
kai said:
I have a woeful amount in my pension. At the current rate ill have something like £14,000 a year to live on.

This year i will be mortgage free (32 years old), i also have no debt. The plan is to simply transfer the amount paid on the mortgage circa £1500 a month into a pot. Hopefully, that is going put me in reasonable place to retire around 55.
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14k a year for how long?
 
I
kai said:
I have a woeful amount in my pension. At the current rate ill have something like £14,000 a year to live on.

This year i will be mortgage free (32 years old), i also have no debt. The plan is to simply transfer the amount paid on the mortgage circa £1500 a month into a pot. Hopefully, that is going put me in reasonable place to retire around 55.
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Amazing!
 
kai said:
I have a woeful amount in my pension. At the current rate ill have something like £14,000 a year to live on.

This year i will be mortgage free (32 years old), i also have no debt. The plan is to simply transfer the amount paid on the mortgage circa £1500 a month into a pot. Hopefully, that is going put me in reasonable place to retire around 55.
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Well by my quick calc that will give you £414000 at 55, and that's without any growth, so I don't think you'll have too much to worry about...
 
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