Personal Finance

[Will]

I follow the general strategies of FIRE but haven’t yet started to think about when I might want to pull the trigger on anything. We haven’t really decided where we want to end up yet which will have quite an impact on the amount of money we need to have available to us.

7 minutes ago, Mr_Odwin said:

Each month I'm saving about a third of my net income via a company pension scheme, and an ISA. I'm lucky that the company I work for have a decent pension scheme - they double my contribution up to a 5%/10% split. I'm currently at 12.5% from me, and 10% from them.

That’s a really nice match scheme. The big problem here is that state and private pensions are basically linked together as one and only available to residents. On the upside income tax is basically zero so you gain in that area to make up for it. I’ve been thinking about getting permanent residency here as it would mean my employer has to pay 17% of the first $6,000 I earn per month towards my pension - which is a pretty nice amount of money for not doing anything.

[Mr_Odwin]

It's something I appreciate, but they've actually stopped offering it to new hires and gone down to the government mandated minimum because we mainly employ new graduates and it wasn't something that was swaying them. They give it low importance when comparing job offers. A shame really because it's just pay that you'll get later, but i can understand that it's low importance when all you really want to do is earn enough to save for a deposit and buy a house.

[Will]

I’m not at all surprised, seems more and more companies are pulling back benefits like this to the minimum.

I was exactly the same when I first graduated. It didn’t help that at the meeting they basically described it as if you give up 5% of your salary you’ll get 200 quid a month when you retire. Seemed I was better off keeping that money in my pocket than have them look after it.

[bob]

I think my current employer matches 3%, while I'm paying in 15%

I could easily afford to raise that to 25%, but I think I'd rather put that extra money towards housing improvements right now.

We have about £60k saved up in ISAs, which was going to pay for the attic conversion. But Impending Baby may have torpedoed that idea.

[nightwolf]

1 hour ago, will' said:

I’m not at all surprised, seems more and more companies are pulling back benefits like this to the minimum.

I was exactly the same when I first graduated. It didn’t help that at the meeting they basically described it as if you give up 5% of your salary you’ll get 200 quid a month when you retire. Seemed I was better off keeping that money in my pocket than have them look after it.

This is why sometimes its a benefit to go from a small company to a large one. Or in some cases vice versa. 

My old company was a team of 70. I now don't even know how many people work at my "new" organisation. My benefits have tripled rather than declined which includes my pension. 

For some context, I didn't get health/dental at my old company and only got 13 days paid sick leave at any given time. If they had done this for us instead of just the executives, I could have had my surgery privately.

...I'm not bitter. 

Tangent aside, I currently put in 4% and they match with 5%. I want to go up to the max which is currently 8% with them matching 10% eventually. 

[Will]

10 minutes ago, nightwolf said:

My old company was a team of 70. I now don't even know how many people work at my "new" organisation. My benefits have tripled rather than declined which includes my pension. 

I can imagine! The economies of scale really ramp up for bigger companies and allow them to do a lot of great stuff. My last company was about 12 people and benefits were basically non-existant. My new company is 18,000 and they have a benefit for just about anything you can think of.

Edited July 15, 2020 by will'

[Eenuh]

Jealous of all the benefits and pension schemes you guys have! My employer's pension contribution is only £35 per month haha. 

I've looked at FIRE a few times but I don't feel I earn enough to ever really achieve any of it. I'm only on 20k annual pay and there isn't an awful lot left at the end of the month to save/invest after paying for all the bills and necessities or (house) repairs. We generally don't spend much on things like going out or luxury stuff either (our holiday is usually just visiting my family in Belgium, where we only pay for Eurostar tickets and sleep over at my mom's hahaha). 

I've thought about looking for jobs with more pay, but there doesn't really seem to be much going around in this area in the creative sector. 

[Mr_Odwin]

On 15/07/2020 at 5:24 PM, Eenuh said:

Jealous of all the benefits and pension schemes you guys have! My employer's pension contribution is only £35 per month haha. 

I've looked at FIRE a few times but I don't feel I earn enough to ever really achieve any of it. I'm only on 20k annual pay and there isn't an awful lot left at the end of the month to save/invest after paying for all the bills and necessities or (house) repairs. We generally don't spend much on things like going out or luxury stuff either (our holiday is usually just visiting my family in Belgium, where we only pay for Eurostar tickets and sleep over at my mom's hahaha). 

I've thought about looking for jobs with more pay, but there doesn't really seem to be much going around in this area in the creative sector. 

I hate it when people make assumptions about others finances so feel free to ignore this entirely. But in the future your circumstances might change. You'll not be saving/paying for a wedding anymore, or a honeymoon.

Contributing, say, an extra £50 to a pension or savings pot, could make a big difference in 30 years time.

Or maybe if you or Jim get a payrise you funnel all of that towards savings?

Like I said, I don't know the intricacies of your finances so this could be way off. But maybe things might change. 🙂

 

[nightwolf]

@will' I forgot to show you my sheet, which frankly is very simple compared to your own. 

 

The numbers are irrelvant so I've removed them or fudged them if need be

This sheet also changes depending on the month, some months I'll track other things i might need and I may also keep an eye on financial things I need to track, such as random one of payments in another table underneath. The idea isn't too be too constricting whilst keeping an overview of bills and things I need to do. 

I also have another sheet that tracks my savings accounts, as well as my pension and student loan. But its simply just tables and a graph with the amounts invested/paid off over time. 

[Will]

Simple is good so long as it works for you! Mine definitely takes more time to manage so really isn’t for everyone.

[nightwolf]

23 minutes ago, will' said:

Simple is good so long as it works for you! Mine definitely takes more time to manage so really isn’t for everyone.

A friend has a similar spreadsheet to yourself, so we regularly trade what works and doesn't. He prefers having it "all in one place". Whereas I turn into a hoarding dragon and won't spend anything if I do it that. Its rather interesting. 

[Will]

Yeah it’s funny how people are like that. I have the opposite problem, if it’s not tracked and allocated I’ll quite happily spend it if the money is there. My wife is similar to you, even her money in our free spending budgets she seems to never use.

[Ashley]

One thing I need to do but keep putting off is setting up a limited company. So many things to do, can't I just declare it out loud and be done? I'm sure there's templates for the paperwork I need to do, but I'm working late a lot at the moment, going home on Saturdays and then exhausted on Sundays. 

[Mr_Odwin]

Can you get an accountant to do it for you? I have a few friends that are ltd companies and they get accountants to do their accounts. Can they do the initial setting up too?

(But I get the feeling you're far too independent for that!)

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Mr_Odwin said:

Can you get an accountant to do it for you? I have a few friends that are ltd companies and they get accountants to do their accounts. Can they do the initial setting up too?

(But I get the feeling you're far too independent for that!)

I'm sure I can but finding one feels as much effort as setting up a LLC. 

[Ashley]

I finally did it!

Did start trying on Sunday though by setting up a Tide account which does it at the same time but you need to scan your passport and the software doesn't work well with Android and you can't not do it so I eventually had to give up with that and register myself and I'll set up a different bank account somewhere else.