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Balancing Saving and Spending

1 reply

concretejungle · 26/02/2017 16:00

Wise mumsnetters, looking for your views on how to get the balance between saving and spending right...

Two late 30s working parents with decent incomes, two young kids in early stages of private primary school. Sizeable mortgage (for non Londoners!), and we run two cars. This combination means we have significant long term financial committments.

So, how do I get the right balance of spending v's saving in the short / medium term? I put money into both our pensions, ISAs and kids savings accounts every month and hold a smallish amount accessible.

I think we are a fairly frugal family - the Tesco bill is not cheap, but we don't often eat out, we go to the cinema once every 3 months (approx), don't buy a lot of clothes (and no designer stuff!) or other things, and have nice but not extravagant holidays twice a year.

How do you know if you've got the right balance between spending and saving? I could save less and increase the lifestyle spend, or could be more frugal and save more. But how do I know how much savings are enough?

Wise words appreciated :)

PS - I'm comfortable with my investment choices, the split between cash / stock, and have private medical cover, life cover etc in place.

OP posts:
YouMeddlingKids · 27/02/2017 12:06

Depends what you're saving for. I think it's always good to aim for 6-12 months outgoings in case of job loss or illness. After that, are you likely to need a bigger house, new car, etc etc in the future? How secure are in industries you work in? I like to feel I have reasonable savings to deal with anything life might throw at us in the next year, once that's covered there's nothing wrong with spending the rest. Mind you, if you're happy with your current lifestyle no need to spend for the sake of it! I'm sure once your kids are teenagers they'll find ways to spend any excess Grin

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