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.

They can ask for whatever they'd like....it doesn't mean it'll be handed to them. Not sure what you mean by £4 a meal.... Although I wouldn't say it's easy, it's certainly not impossible or even all that difficult as an average

You’re worried about having too much?
if you’re happy are you here to brag? What’s the point in the post?
personally I’d rather do more while younger and have energy to make memories than wait for a future that might not happen.

It's a balance and I think we've seen that with the comments on here. It's certainly not to brag. For some, sadly due to illness they had alot saved and couldn't use it. For others, they were glad they had the money as they really needed it. It's finding your own balance and I was just interested on where others set their balance point and if some who are maybe more qualified that I am felt I was on the right track.

OP, sorry if you've already covered this (not trft) but are you putting your baby in nursery? I was paying more than £3k a month for my two sons go to nursery (in England) and it basically bled us dry. You sound extremely switched on though so I don't doubt you've factored in childcare!

Havn’t read all the thread but apologies if someone mentioned this already. Money saving expert forum has a brilliant thread going at the moment that talks about this how much you would need in retirement. Think you might get more responses that you want there.

Can you explain more about the annual leave your wife has accrued? This is not a thing for teachers in England/wales so I’m fascinated. I’d also like to know about the pay scale only being 5 years as where I am on the upper pay scale each step takes two years to pass and I’ve spoken to many teachers who have been denied the chance to enter upper pay scale at all.
I’d like to reassure readers that part time, fairly inexperienced teachers are not actually on 50k.

My parents both died young so I’m very much spend it while you have it. My ex was financially abusive as well so I struggle with money and I haven’t got any savings or pension and I’m a similar age to you. I definitely need to plan 2024 as a better financial year.

I’d like to reassure readers that part time, fairly inexperienced teachers are not actually on 50k.

My husband is, and he's only in his 5th year of teaching. Private school through, and full time.

personally I’d rather do more while younger and have energy to make memories than wait for a future that might not happen.

My personal sentiment too! And that's coming from a financial adviser

In all seriousness though, £76k Pa plus 2x state pension and £300k equity is far more than you're ever likely to spend in retirement - unless of course you start getting a taste for expensive coffees and Yeezys in your 70s.

If you take your mortgage and savings off of your current outgoings, you're probably not even spending that amount now? So what makes you think you'll suddenly start spending that when you're older?

I'd suggest a link to a cash flow modelling tool so you could work out your likely income in retirement vs predicted outgoings but doesn't sound like you need it.

In the meantime my professional financial advice is to treat yourself and enjoy life (within reason of course )

You clearly have more than enough for retirement.

In terms of everyday life, there's a balance to be struck. Not blowing lots of cash on frivolous stuff is fine, but considering that you 'can't afford' to do things which would bring joy when you're in a very comfortable financial situation is silly and limiting. You said you would feel 'horrifically guilty' if you spent £60 on dinner. Why 'guilty'? That's a bit weird. I wonder how you are around your friends? Are you frugal, or a tight arse, as there is a difference. It's cringey and awkward being around people who won't buy a round or put the heating on...! It very much sounds like you need to loosen up a bit. Also, the family holiday as a present for your wife 'because you arranged it' is not a fucking present. I'm sure she does loads of admin stuff for you and doesn't do it in lieu of a present. I'm raging on her behalf. Go and buy her a necklace or something.

Wow that is a huge amount!
It would be approx £60 a day in Scotland for childcare up til the age of 3 and then it become (more or less) free. As a teacher, we only need term time and so the free nursery hours become more condensed and we may only have to pay a very small amount.

We have some help so DC will only go to childcare 2 days a week and with childcare vouchers (I think that open to everyone?) it'll bring it down to about £400 a month which I still felt was eye watering. I can totally understand why people saying they're cheaper not working though if you're paying £3k a month 😱

But @Rafting2022 - 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?

This is not what he is saying though - expensive trainers are simply not something he wants or needs. Presumeably when/if the child does ask he will say no?

I say no to expensive trainers all the time! Mine would be perfectly happy to bankrupt the family for trainers! :)

Re expensive hobbies - if you cannot afford them as a family the kids cannot do them right? Unless of course they work in order to do them. Mine have sunmmer jobs - any school trips, expensive "label" clothings or extras they pay for.

I thought it was a good thing to do for young people.

Ditto eating out - very rare for my crew.

As a teen I was crazy about a very expensive sport. I had to work to buy all the kit and finance lessons. DM comitted to doing the driving. I did it and was so proud of myself - that was from age 13/14 to 17.

And the op does go on trips. 😄

Thank you for seeing the funny side of this...and who's to say I won't be running about in my Yeezys at 80 😂.

Will take a look at the cash flow modelling and thank you for the professional advice 👌 here's to teaching more about pensions etc in school!

Where I am in Scotland it's easily £1k per month per child in full time nursery

You say £60 per day where you are. So if they were in full time that would be £300 per week. So at least £1,300 pm for one child. PP has 2 dc so if it would be £2,600(ish) in Scotland then it's easy to see how it's £3k pm for 2x DC FT down south

The childcare voucher scheme has been closed to new applicants for years now in Scotland, it’s now tax free childcare which is nowhere near as generous.

You should definitely accrue your holidays...is that not something that happens in every job during maternity leave? https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave

I'd be the first to buy a round, first to offer to pay for anything and certainly first to tell someone that whatever it is is on me. 👌 I might be frugal but colleagues get birthday gifts, cleaners, office staff, janitors get Christmas gifts 👌

If you are happy with your life then continue.

However from the sounds of it, it would appear naturally you are frugal, so I can't see how much this will dramatically change when you retire and suddenly go wild ie eating out everyday? 🤷🏼‍♀️
A bit similar to a PP you never know what is in store for retirement, I've known a few people to save and wait for retirement and be disappointed due to circumstances unforeseen (their health / family-partners health etc)

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the name change or the previous scheme sorry

OP - come join us on MrMoneyMustache.

Like minded people that you will enjoy.

I remember going on a trip with the owner of a business I worked in. She hired me because I was a money saver. The business made >£500k a year (not sure what salary she took). We went into a shop to ask for change because she was not up for paying the admin fee for Ringo parking (probably around 20p?). I admired that 👌

See you there. 😂

Nursery are unlikely to just charge you for term time only. To keep the space it will charge you 52 weeks a year.

That's really eye opening. I don't want to sound out of touch, but it has to be reasonably rare in Scotland to have 2 children in full time nursery at the same time and paying for both?

If 3 and over get it for free (realise it's not completely free) then I'd have thought -
Child 1 - maternity leave of maybe 9 months? Again might be out of touch...then paying nursery.
If for child 2 you also take 9 months mat leave then it doesn't leave a huge amount of time for 2 kids to be under 3 and you not being on mat leave?

There's certainly a few near me that do term time only...or at worst, 50% during school holidays.