Feel very stressed about future and money

[whyohhi]

I don't know if I am worrying unnecessarily or if I am right to be worried.

I am 37, husband is 43. We have one son, 2.5. Thinking about having another because we have a frozen embryo. We are very on the fence though.

My husband is not great with money, despite working quite a number of years before me, he didn't save much. We now have £400,000 in savings. Half in a SIPP pension, half in ISAs. We don't own a house. We don't rent at the moment because this year my job came with a house. I earn 50k, my husband is part time and earns 20k. I feel worried we aren't going to have enough money when we retire. We have worked in different countries. I don't know if we will have enough qualifying years/contributions for a state pension in any country. We might move again and stay in another country for 10 years or more. I need to look at the state pension in more depth, but currently feeling overwhelmed and thinking we won't be able to save enough.

Not sure what the point of this is. My husband doesn't seem to want to think about this and thinks it will all be fine. 😬

You have 400,000 in savings? Is that a typo? If you have that much in savings, surely you'll be OK.

£400,000 in savings?

This.

Personally I would use that to buy a house somewhere.

You are far better off than the vast majority of people.

If that much in savings why are you worrying? If you want to use the embryo then use it especially if you are going to regret not doing so. We have a lot less money and used one of our embryos to have a sibling. We might use our last one too. I think you are over worrying about things.

Wow. You could have bought my house in cash with that and had most leftover.
Oh dear

You two have done well savings! But I understand why your worried.
you need to find out how that translates into XYZ, monthly income, and if that amount is satisfactory for you three. Equally if you qualify for any government pension, that’s just admin work (I’ve had to do this for USA/CA) time spent on hold but important to know.
Don’t put this off, get the reassurance you need asap.

If you look, half of that is in a pension. Not just a savings account. They won't be able to touch it for decades.

I think a lot of previous posters are focusing too much on the £400k figure. Half of that is pension savings which I would view as completely separate from all other savings. You don't own a house and you don't know if you're eligible for state pension.

I'd investigate your entitlement to state pension first, this might put your mind at rest or at least help in your future planning.

How long will you have a free house? It's great you're not paying rent because it allows you to save that money instead, you've done really well to save £200k already! Do you plan to buy?

You're still quite young OP and not in a bad position at all, I think the uncertainty around your state pension is your big issue so try and figure that out and you'll be doing well!

You can check how many years you have in a state pension online. It's very easy
I would focus on buying a property so that when you do retire you aren't having to pay out for rent or mortgage
On a joint income of £70k and no rent to pay you would think you'd be able to save quite a substantial amount

Is this a joke or a typo on the 400k?

wtaf

Im really fed up with clicking on threads about money where the poster has loads of savings or equity or a massive wage.

Are people really that tone deaf they post shite like this???

This forum is for everyone no matter their finances .
A headline figure of £400k seems a lot but it's not as OP has no property. £400k in this country is not sufficient to buy a property and provide a pension , it'll be one or the other .

I mean, put your savings in a few high interest accounts (to ensure you're covered if the bank goes bust) and that's basically over 12k a year with zero effort or input from you.

You can get up to 3.7% interest at the moment.

I think you need to buy a house, so you have somewhere to live in retirement.

Then worry about the rest later.

Wow OP. I'm not far off your age and we have 10% of what you have in personal savings and about the same in a pension and a lovely 25 year mortgage.

I'm pretty sure you will be okay...

If you make a plan I think you’ll feel much more in control.

First, check your entitlement to state pension here: https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

That will help you understand how many years you have, and if it’s worth topping up any past years (Note you only need 35 years to get full state pension, so don’t bother topping up previous years if you’re going to get there anyway).

Next, do a budget and list out all your income and expenses - including stuff that may come annually (insurance etc) - divide by 12 to make sure you’re accounting for stuff like that, plus a reasonable budget for presents, Christmas etc.

Figure out what you have left over and decide what’s a reasonable amount for spends vs savings - and then with savings have short term (holidays etc) can long term savings. Treat your savings/investments like any other expense and prioritise it. I’d be tempted to take out the “rent” you would usually pay and put it straight into a savings pot so you don’t fritter it away.

How secure is your job? Do you need to save up a safety net in case you lose it and need to find housing etc at short notice?

Is your husband contributing fairly? If he’s not contributing financially I’m assuming he’s taking on the bulk of the childcare/household stuff at a fair percentage?

On paper you’re in a good position, you just need to be more organised about it so you don’t fritter or overspend.

Thank you.

I think my problem with buying a house is that it costs a lot to maintain it, I won't be able to live in it now (I live in a very expensive area of the U.K., and would not buy here for that reason. South East), and in the next 2/3 years, we are thinking of moving abroad.

Saying that, the house situation also stresses me out, and I don't know what to do there either.

Thank you for the advice to check my state pension. It looks like I may be able to have 35 qualifying years from what I already have, and perhaps future years. My husbands is more complicated as he worked in Ireland for a long time and doesn't seem to be able to access anything online to check. He's going to look into it though....he tells me....

He definitely contributes fairly financially and with childcare. I took almost two years off to look after my daughter and he worked, and although he's worked part time this year for the first time, he's probably going back to full time in a few months.

You sound like you are looking for things to worry about. You don’t even need to scrimp. Just enjoy your life. You are in a better position than the majority.

@whyohhi we ended up buying land. no maintenance, no renters. the idea was to build our future home on it. in the end a developer traded us our lot for one we liked much better and built on it. the land had gone up in value several times over (bought for 34K, sold for 129K or there abouts).

Buy a house
check both your state pensions
carry on doing what you are doing
stop worrying

You are doing well, I would stop worrying so much. Even if you dumped all that into a house being mortgage free at your age would be quite an achievement. Check you husband’s pension and look into additional pensions and top them up to the max, if you leave the UK you may not be able to contribute to a private pension later so look into that too.

Also I came from a household with little money and even now we are quite comfortable (not rich by any means) I still worry about it. Ingrained habit from growing up with money troubles. Don’t let it become obsessive, take some control and plan.

It really doesn't need to cost a lot to maintain a house. Ours costs very little (large, 5 bed, 1990s built)

Thanks for the comments. I'm overwhelmed with houses. It wouldn't be a house we'd live in so where, what do we buy? We'd have to pay someone to manage it. I don't like the idea of that and the hassle of tenants.

The money is in stocks and shares Isa and pension.