Am I saving too much?

[Pensionpot123]

Hi all,
I'm always a bit concerned that I don't splash out - I am very frugal....am I too frugal?

Household income ~£100k in West Scotland. Wife and I are mid 30's.
One DC - 6 months.
Value of house - £600k, mortgage £200k with £50k savings. Plan to pay mortgage off in 10 years.

At the moment our pension is looking to be approx £76k/yr combined exc. state pension.
Long term plan would be to downsize on retirement to house maximum half the value of current home (if nothing changes, profit £300k from sale).

Should I be spending more? Am I leaving myself too much for later life?

At the moment we -
Don't eat out
Go on 2 good holidays a year (Florida, cruise, New York etc)
Don't do hotel breaks
Get a takeaway every ~3 months
Change car every 2-3 years to a new-ish budget car (Ibiza, Fabia, Clio etc)
Keep all other outgoings to a real minimum

Any opinions or serious advice about pension is welcome!
Realise there may be people who earn a huge amount more or have a much bigger pension pot.

You need to consider what age you want to retire. Do you really want your go to 67...

IMO it's a high pension to live life on at that age, but if you want to take it early and/or gift some to DC then worthwhile

Are you consciously NOT doing anything you would like to at the moment? I would probably spend a few % more on doing stuff you want to do (which you may not be able to after 67)

Life isn't guaranteed and whilst you can't live every day as if it's your last, you have enough saved/in pension to do a bit more whilst you are fit and younger

Make a bucket list and divide into decades - makes your planning clearer

Whatever, if you're happy with want you spend your money on no point wasting it.

I'm a top scale teacher full time teacher and have been for years. The salary you are quoting is our next pay rise. You haven't been earning that every month as that doesn't come in till the end of this month. You've been earning 47565 since April's 5% increase.

Didn't want to give a huge amount of numbers and bore everyone but for full disclosure as feel people maybe feel like I'm lying?

Had deposit of £76k for first home, bought for £188k, sold 4 years later for £250k.
Purchased second home £510k and recently valued at £600k. Initial mortgage £308,500 (deposit of approx £200k).... £180k came from equity, £20k from savings.

We keep our outgoings very very minimal.
Virgin TV & Broadband - £20pm
Car - pay outright
Hobbies - £100pm
Phones - bought outright, SIM only £12pm combined

Our combined monthly gross income (don't quote me) is approx £5,400.

I’m confused by your pension calculation, it looks like you have stated your pension contributions of 32% each year but that’s not the same as what they will pay you.

I believe it’s a final salary pension scheme and it looks like in Scotland you get:
A pension calculated by multiplying your service by your average salary and then dividing by 60.

I don't think I said I was earning that every month up until now. It is my salary now?
I also had temp promotion last year so would have earned?
Not sure why I am having to prove every penny I earn here when it was a discussion about pension/saving/future.

Had deposit of £76k for first home

Makes more sense? How did you save that whilst renting?

This must be secondary school. Primary teachers at my school that are senior are on £44k max.

Oh please do make more effort to be plausible

Not sure why I am having to prove every penny I earn here when it was a discussion about pension/saving/future.

Because the numbers don't make sense. Loads of people here will have had 100k incomes for many years...

I guess teachers need to get up to Scotland! And they don’t pay uni fees.

Yep, happy to be corrected on this. I'm going by the calculator (attached)

Are you kidding? I literally get paid £48,516/12 every single month.

That's what you said.

I like this 👌 there's definitely things I look at and think I can't afford it.
Would love to do some expedition cruises that I just couldn't justify. Maybe I can though...

All teachers are on the same scale so a non promoted, full-time primary teacher is on £49k after 6 years.

I didn't rent...I stayed at home whilst earning a decent amount. Remember too (and possibly where a few of my friends down south would forget) in Scotland we don't pay uni tuition fees and I actually got paid approx £300pm to go to uni if I remember correctly.

Thank you...honestly can't believe I'm having to prove all of this 🤦‍♂️

Had deposit of £76k for first home, bought for £188k, sold 4 years later for £250k.
Purchased second home £510k and recently valued at £600k. Initial mortgage £308,500 (deposit of approx £200k).... £180k came from equity, £20k from savings.

But have you paid off 100k of your mortgage already from your 2nd house purchase particularly as you haven't been earning 50k for long?

That's because, as of now, I do. What the commenter was trying to say was that the salary of £48,516 was not what we actually receive and instead we receive a pro-rata salary based upon holidays.

No problem @Pensionpot123
I'm not sure the £76k is right though. I'm certainly not expecting a pension of £37k per year!

I didn't rent...I stayed at home whilst earning a decent amount

And didn't pay rent? So not just a huge sacrifice?

Clearly this thread hasn’t gone the way you expected it to OP so what did you want from it?

Mate. If you and the wife are happy doing what you're doing, keep doing it. You'll be rich old people if you both make it that far without accident, illness, divorce, death....

If you want a bit more life, you can afford it. Go out for the steak get a bottle of JD once a flood, take her to a club, get smashed, buy the flowers and the nice big television, tickets for that band you love and a hotel.

You've got more than most and not as much as some.

Just live as you enjoy.

Happy to provide my mortgage statements if this is really required....but pretty sure then someone will say they're fake or that my mobile isn't actually £6pm and I must be lying about that.

My mortgage is currently £1,200pm, I'm on 1.35% interest. I used to make huge overpayments, now these go into savings as I can get far better interest saving it.

There's potentially an issue with the calculator... Happy to put my hands up if that is the case. 👌