How to spend disposable income?

[Renovatingourhome]

Really looking for some advice please. I have worked really hard to get to where I am today and I'm really proud of myself. I had a hard childhood, we were very poor. I'm at a stage in my life now where I have £1200 leftover after mortgage, all bills, food, petrol etc and I want to spend my money wisely. I have small savings pot as we're renovating and everything we save, we seem to spend on the house but we're almost finished so ultimately each month from now my emergency funds will be going up. I'm thinking of spreading £1000 five ways - emergency savings, SIPP (self employed), LISA, S&S ISA and overpaying the mortgage. So, that's £200 per month to those five places leaving £200 a month for treats. We have 28 years left on the house. I'm almost 40 with two secondary school DDs.

After laying off debt and making good contributions to pension and savings I would spend the money on anything that protects your health and your peace, and makes your life easier.

my disposable income goes on a cleaner, Pilates, better quality food - organic etc, a tutor for the kids, hobbies. Things that actually improve the quality of your life and get rid of stress points in your day to day life.

If you are a basic rate tax payer the 20% tax relief in the lisa is better than the 20% tax relief in the pension as you will also be able to withdraw from it tax free in retirement. It may all change in the budget though.

This is poor advice. The OP has no pension

It's answering the question asked, which was what to do with the £200pm the op has allocated for treats, after she has set aside £1k for savings.

I think £200pm is a pretty small amount for discretionary spending so considering what to use it for is a good idea. If the op wants to send that, it's up to her. She didn't ask for advice on investing, pensions etc.

Why the sarcasm?

I'm very boring so I would overpay the mortgage as much as possible.

She asked what to do with the £1200 a month

This is not financial advice, just my opinion, blah blah blah .....
Save the max into a LISA (£4k/yr). Get the 25% gvmnt bonus, and it'll be tax free withdrawl. Go with a low cost provider (Dodl by AJ Bell), and put it in a stocks and share global tracker / index fund / etf, or USA index fund (ETF).

Put £6k/yr in a SIPP pension, again, go for low cost provider, and global index fund (LGGG for example) (Invest Engine App for example is free SIPP).
Put £2k/yr in ISA stocks and shares, again, low fee, global index ETF (LGGG for example).

Spend £2k/yr on making memories with family.

Take the LISA pot at 60 yrs of age worth £120k at 6% returns and contributions from 40 - 50.

Maybe Take ISA £88k at 60 ish.

At that time, see if you can retire / clear mortgage etc. SIPP will be ~£350k after your LISA / ISA spending , and you'll soon get the state pension.

^ something along those lines :)

Pension but make sure you have plenty of fun too. You might die next year.

She asked "how to spend disposable income", that's the thread title. You don't "spend" on investing.

She then said she was going to split £1000 five ways, leaving £200 for treats:

I'm thinking of spreading £1000 five ways - emergency savings, SIPP (self employed), LISA, S&S ISA and overpaying the mortgage. So, that's £200 per month to those five places leaving £200 a month for treats.

The "investing", pension etc, was already covered.

So, to me, the question was clearly what to do with the £200. Especially as she was clear earlier in the post that she's never really had that sort of money at her disposal so wanted ideas.

Don’t set up a savings plan that’s too strict or you’ll be tempted to break your resolve. The best is the one you actually stick to.

OK whatever but if you'd read the rest of the OPs posts you would see that she clearly is posting in the Money forum to ask about investments/savings.

Anyway.