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.

That's true!
I sat in a restaurant not that long ago and watched a family leave and their kids hadn't touched their food (or at least 95% of it) and I just felt incredibly wowed that the family saw that as normal. I know that'll maybe sound judgey, I just couldnt allow that kind of waste. But maybe it's not waste to some

What age do you want to retire? If before state pension age, the pension prediction drops by approximately 5% per year. Or you can pay extra per month to have same pension as prediction and leave two years before SPA (I think that's right without checking too much).

Your life seems a bit "old before your time". You say you've never updated the kitchen or bathroom - which is fine if they don't need to be. But are you more concerned about not spending that you'll put up with discomfort? 17.5 degrees is not comfortable.

@Pensionpot123 taking the holidays out of the equation, and a few odd days out per year, how do you actually spend your time as a family?

I'm not dis-sing all the free activities and free things you can do with children. If someone was struggling financially I'd absolutely get it. However, with the amount of spare money you have I can't imagine choosing to spend my time doing "nothing" in order to be loaded at age 70? Will you splash out on a £3 coffee then??

As much as I'm laughing I'm genuinely intrigued:

1. how do you spend a typical weekend? (I'm also west of Scotland so know you're unlikely to spend the whole winter doing free activities outdoors);
2. what is your weekly food budget?

Glad to learn teachers' salaries in Scotland are so good. I have no idea how far your pension will go by the time you retire but I know that we live comfortably on less (2 pensioners, West of Scotland, no mortgage)

We have lovely treats in terms of holidays. I personally can't see me spending money on expensive trainers... It wouldn't even come into my thinking to be honest

You go on the holidays as well though. They're not presents for your wife as you'd be having a holiday anyway. Fine if she feels exactly the same way as you.

Life has certainly changed and please remember DC is only 6 months so we're not really in a set routine... Normally my wife and I would have hobbies that would cover a good bit of the weekend. If we've got spare time we'd have friends round to ours, or get out a walk. I'm sure life will change on that front in the coming year or 2!

Do interesting that you bring up food budget. For dinners each night I'd loosely budget £4. To be completely honest, I have no idea about breakfast or lunches but certainly not expensive. I would guess a daily food budget or £6-7 would more than cover it.

It feels like you’re being deliberately obtuse now. You really don’t envisage a time when your child asks for an expensive item of clothing? Or has an expensive hobby? How do you fill your free time and school holidays with spending zero cash and expect your children to also live this austere lifestyle?

That's a fair point. I think the gift came with the planning, the booking, the time. Genuinely think if you were to ask my wife what would she want for Christmas she would say time with me and DC. And I don't say that arrogantly...we live quite a busy wee life so enjoy the opportunity we get to spend together

I don't think the op has said anything wrong and in the replies to some very judging comments has given full and honest answers. I think you're on the right track op and I admire your financial restraint. Maybe a few more treats here and there and an extra holiday a year would be great (and within your budget). However if you want to continue as you are, that is also fine. I didn't find the post goady at all, it seemed to come from a genuine place. The level of financial planning outlined by the op could be useful to MNers, similar to Martin Lewis who has a lot of fans.

I can't believe this conversation 🤦‍♂️ I feel like the first half I had people telling me I was showing off. Now I say I wouldn't think about paying more than £30 for trainers and people say I'm rude for not spending more.

How do you know if you'll still be teaching at pension age ? Still Married ? How many Children ? £76k is a very good pension ,

@Pensionpot123 if you and your wife are genuinely happy with the arrangement (and she's not just appeasing you/feeling under pressure to not spend) then good on you. You're incredibly lucky to have met such a compatible match!!

Well done on the food budget too! It's easily £4 for 2 chicken breasts for a meal without all the other ingredients so pretty impressive to do that without a concertive (or obsessive?) effort!

I think you need a massive reality check if you think that you’ll never have to spend more than £30 on trainers for your kids (taking that as an isolated example) and further emphasises my point that your faux naïveté doesn’t wash.

No matter how the thread is going (weirdly!) I would say keep saving.

Both my FIL and my DM had big medical issues this year and need help extra help at home. Their savings are covering it and it adds enormously to their comfort.

It is especially as neither one wants to go into a home.

The expenses of old age are eye watering, and how nice to have a little to draw on?

Thank you, that is very kind. I love helping others with finance/planning...whether that's family, friends or colleagues and most call me Martin Lewis 🤦‍♂️ if only!
Daft things like changing bank accounts to earn some £££'s comes in handy and the post was mainly about how we balance our lives with one eye on the here and now and one eye on the future. At the end of the day, there are thousands upon thousands of teachers in Scotland who receive exactly the same pay packet as me every month and teaching is probably a middle of the road job (completely understand to some I'm very lucky and to others they would never imagine taking a huge pay cut to go into teaching) so I'm not trying to show off with how much I earn...it was more a discussion about what we do with the £££'s that goes into our banks.

Thank you for your contribution!

This is getting laughable now! £4 per meal? Time spent together is a treat when you have all those holidays (not taking away from the fact of how hard you work during term time)?

That's ok 👌I'm glad you have enough money to pay more than £30 on trainers.

It's not quite going as I planned...I'll be honest 😂 maybe some more future planning on my posts is required as well as future planning in life.

Sorry to hear about the issues you've faced this year, it takes a massive toll and thanks for sharing

My advice to you (and any expensive teacher tbh) is to save hard while the ‘good times’ roll. All top of the grades teachers have a target on their back to get budgets to balance.
If your current HT/SLT/Board of Governors haven’t made that obvious yet, you could have a new HT this time next year who certainly will.

It's definitely a flexible £4. Some nights we're in a huge rush and a quick slice of toast and away we go...other times we'd spend £6 or £7. There are ways to help with that...there's saving schemes that give 20% off M&S or smaller amounts of Asda/Morrisons etc

Following this thread with fascination. I’m baffled that a teacher (so, a well-educated person) who - by his own admission - is 'very good with finance', and has his financial future minutely mapped out to the last tiny detail (right down to the cost of every meal) in his mid-30s, needs to start a thread to ask whether an annual retirement income of £76,000 will be 'too much'.

You’re extremely fortunate to be in the situation you are, but can you really not see why this sounds like a weirdly naive question? I have no idea why you’d need to seek validation on here as you seem to have it all so totally worked out.

Thank you - it is very different in Scotland but I can completely appreciate your comments when it comes to elsewhere

It’s got nothing to do with being lucky enough to pay more than £30 on trainers! You really think your child will enjoy this kind of lifestyle and never ask for expensive things?

You’re pulling our legs with your £4 meals and refusal to put the heating on!

If you’re mid 30’s then you both must be in management positions to be on £100k joint income in the West of Scotland. If you’re in a £600k house on those salaries you must have had either a large inheritance or a windfall to afford a house that price on a teachers salary. You also have a huge pension pot already being mid 30s so something isn’t adding up here being on teachers salaries

Not true - my husband and I are both teachers and own a £600k + house, no inheritance.