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.

It's strange as it's unlike a private pension - the "calculator" predicts how much will be in your pot given 2%, 3% and 4% increase every year.
For the figures I've given, I've quoted the lowest (2% increase each year until retirement at 65)

😂 I think my wife would say she is now used to it...and she sees massive benefits too which she appreciates too.

If you enjoy living that frugally it's fine. I personally wouldn't. 6 months ago I was so unwell in hospital I thought I was going to die at 38. It puts things into perspective. Life can be short and fragile so should be enjoyed.

Sorry to hear that - but what you say is extremely important. There will be some who get to 70 and wished they saved more, others get to 50, have a big bank balance and become very ill and wish they spent more.

Hope you're doing better now!

Realise this has went off on so many tangents. Thankfully I think the main points have been addressed. I have a friend who has a seriously good job, with a very high household income (compared to me). He's early 50's and saw a financial advisor who told him he should have started planning much younger and it was only then he realised he was spending £200 on coffee. That (in some respects) is what got me wondering and wanted to discuss it.

Same.

are you happy? I think it's great to save so much. Why worry about it?

Attention to detail is hopefully not fully representative of Scottish Education

This sounds like the start of a really shit joke.... Two teachers walk into a bar, one says to the other "Hey, do you think we have too much money....?"

Does that imply that your pay increases by inflation plus 2% a year? Seems an unusual way of presenting the information. May be one to check on Scottish teachers forums and hope someone has a relative who is an actuary who can clarify!

Is this the scheme:

https://pensions.gov.scot/teachers/about-teachers-pensions/how-your-pension-works

a 1/57 scheme - interesting as benefits on past contributions increase by CPI plus 1.6%.

This is where my knowledge is poor. I'd class myself as being very good with finance in terms of savings accounts/ISA's/money saving etc but never fully understood pensions to be honest. The 2% is stated as "annual pay increase assumption".

Childcare seems very cheap at £400 per month with two people working so perhaps you have free help?

You might want to give your child a deposit for a home or fund them to some extent at Uni?

There will be many uses for your money in the coming years.
If you never take the child out to eat it seems unreasonable to me. How will they learn how to behave in a restaurant or cafe?

DC will have 2 days childcare (£60 per day, and tax free child care vouchers is how I came to my approx figure)

I agree about restaurant etiquette etc but it certainly wouldn't be regular. I could be wrong here but I also think that kids eating out regularly is a fairly new thing? I don't seem to remember it growing up but maybe that was just me

That's also the part that no-one teaches you about... The cost of a teenage/young adult child. My hope would be to help them onto the housing ladder - who knows where life will go - but perhaps by that point my own mortgage will be under control and it'll help.

This is the most tone deaf post I’ve read in a long time.

Intrigued to know what subject you teach…

That's the correct scheme. I believe its reasonably good. Ask a teacher who has taught for 30 years and they'll tell you it's horrific because it used to be better. Ask most private sector workers and I'm sure they'll tell you it's really good

It sounds like you could afford to loosen the purse strings a bit OP! The comments about the heating/ coffee make me think of stingey housemates I’ve had. Personally I love coffee & buying it out is a pleasure. I also like to not be freezing at home! Each to their own but you don’t need to be too hair shirt about it.

I'm not sure what you mean? Just to be clear.... The purpose of this forum is "Find financial and money saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum" ... literally came to have a financial discussion and pension chat and it seems to have been booted out by some 🧐

What do you enjoy most about life?

What are your hobbies?

What do you do when not working?

Say you have a day out - what would it be? And what would you do if you wanted to stop for coffee (or dare I say it, lunch)? Or do you not really have days out?

The heating was a wee bit of a joke... It makes me sick putting the heating on, but I do put it on 😂. The coffee part... Well, not so much of a joke!

If you never take the child out to eat it seems unreasonable to me. How will they learn how to behave in a restaurant or cafe?

Not to downplay the importance of table manners of course but what about going out for dinner just because -and purely for the joy of it? My little ones love going out to restaurants with us, and doing so many things which cost money - sometimes a lot but mostly a little bit of money here and there. I appreciate this adds up but I know they will look back on some incredible experiences during their childhood. I also know a good childhood doesn’t have to cost a penny but surely it’s nice to take them somewhere other than the park every so often.

Will contemplate - is the standard retirement age 68? Do you have any pensions savings outside of the teachers scheme - possibly to help fund an early retirement?

I would love to hear your wife's side of this too!
Did you treat her to anything nice at Christmas?

😂 can't believe you even suggested lunch!

We have good hobbies that we do on a very regular basis. We love our holidays...I'm sure we could have more nights away but I just think we've bought a home, why pay for a room somewhere else 😱. We enjoy a few days out a year but certainly not big spenders on it....put it this way, I couldn't go in and spend £60 on dinner and not feel horrific guilt.

A cruise that she wasn't expecting 👌 that would not be every year though!
I normally book us a trip away....Budapest, Vienna, anything like that 👍 in terms of "material stuff" I wouldn't really go for it in all honesty

I would have thought it was obvious what tone deaf means in the current economic climate. A bit like complaining your diamond-encrusted shoes are too tight.

Do you really envisage living the rest of your life like this, no treats, no gaming console for your child, no expensive trainers, no weekend break as a family to a European Christmas market just because?

That's for retirement at 65. I have a very small pension pot (£20k) from before teaching. Most of the money is tied into the house which if we downsize would help at that point.