Secondment for a year - pay increase of approximately 30% before tax- WWYD

[Acunningruse]

I am in line for a year's secondment which comes with a pay increase of approximately 30%. I am wondering how best to make use of this increase. The secondment is for one year (the role itself is maternity cover and whilst there could be the possibility of another role coming up in the same team due to retirement, I am not sure it is a job I could do long-term) and I don't want to "get used" to spending the extra each month to then return to a lower salary.

We have a small amount of debt on a credit card so this will be a priority as will ordering mounjaro but other than this how would you handle it? Just work out how much extra Im getting each month and bung that in an existing savings account?

TIA

I’d probably salary sacrifice it into pension once the debt is paid, assuming I had the allowance available

Yes, I'd also agree with pension. Particularly if the increase moves you over a tax threshold.

Clear your debt, if you don't have emergency savings, save and then pension.

Other posters have great suggestions. Only other suggestion I have is to move it on payday before you mentally register it. Otherwise, it's too tempting to "this month buy that extra thing for the house", "this month we need to book a holiday" and before you know it you've spent a good proportion of it.

Thank you everyone. Never even thought about my pension! Im in local government as is DH with good pensions but I presume I can still do this, I don’t know how would need to speak to Employee Services. Yes @CheeseNcrackerz definitely this! I can already catch myself looking around the kitchen thinking “we could do with a new one of those…”

I don't think it's necessarily a problem to spend it on house stuff and holidays as long as you psychologically remind yourself these are a one off. And only if you desperately need a new kitchen or whatever not just because you fancy a refresh.

It would be more problematic to incorporate it into your daily life like always going out for dinner on a Friday night - that is just wasting it and making it harder to go back down again.