Hello,
I don’t know where to start with this one so wondering what the hive mind has to offer.
The missus and I are about 1/3 of the way through our working lives and I want to start thinking seriously about the remaining 2/3 and how to make it count.
Really its pretty simple: I just want to make sure I’ll have enough to pay us through our old age, support kids at uni and making a start in life, and hopefully having enough to hand over to them when we bin it for the final time.
What we’ve got at present is I expect fairly typical. Couple of pensions from various work places, house with mortgage, a bit of cash stashed away here and there.

To whom should I go, to speak with for advice? Considered independent financial adviser but to be honest I am concerned about conflict of interest/ them just trying to sell me stuff. I wouldn’t object to paying for advice from someone who really knows their shizzle.

Any clues on where to start or what to look at/ research?

Try and get a personal recommendation. You can do a lot of the research and reading yourself so you don’t feel like you are having the wool pulled over your eyes.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en

Definitely worth speaking with an independent adviser. Rules have changed now, so you will pay a fee, rather than the old days of high commissions.

You can start by looking at https://www.unbiased.co.uk/ to find an adviser local to you.

Alternatively, if you want a chat over the phone contact Marc: http://www.timelinewealth.com/ (Note that I am connected to this firm 🙂 – third down on the list of Key people).

Good luck with that perfect scenario. I’m gonna push my kids into work place learning if they can as the debt they come out with is nuts getting and then I’m gonna push te outlaws over a cliff by accident of course and hope they’ve not spunked it all on cruises.

Try hacking Talk Talk and then selling on all their customer’s details. It’s so easy a 15 year could do it…..

Forget advisers – educate yourself and manage your own money. No MASSIVE fees to pay and you’ll probably do better than the so called experts anyway.

Forget advisers – educate yourself and manage your own money. No MASSIVE fees to pay and you’ll probably do better than the so called experts anyway.

this in spades.

Screw down your outgoings. Every year you can save 50% of your take home pay buys you and extra year of retirement. that’s been a great motivation for me.

take your existing stashes, diversify, use tax breaks (ISAs, pension contributions etc) add some sensible investment returns and you should be able to buy yourself a few more years of retirement.

Amusingly, there’s nothing at all unbiased about unbiased.co.uk. It promotes IFAs that pay, to the exclusion of others (unless you untick the oh-so-subtle box). And the “testimonies” are rarely if ever validated.

And anyone consciously calling themselves a “wealth manager” needs to be avoided like your life depended on it, which it does sort of.

DIY… it’s not hard, “they” just want you to think that it is.

Plan; live fast, die young. Done.

The sooner you pay off your mortgage the better.

We’re considering moving out of London to do this – if I have my sums right we’ll be living in the same sized house with more land for a mortgage paid off in 5 years instead of 15.

Paying off your mortgage. NO NO NO

Why would you as it is the lowest loan you will get as it is secured. Use the money you would overpay with to invest in tax breaks such as ISA’s or get money back from the government by putting more in your pension. Instant 20/40% gain with strings though)

Depends on what your mortgage rate is and how much debt you have, borrowing to invest is a tricky decision plus upsetting if you lose money on your investments!

Why would you as it is the lowest loan you will get as it is secured. Use the money you would overpay with to invest in tax breaks such as ISA’s or get money back from the government by putting more in your pension. Instant 20/40% gain with strings though)

We won’t be in a low-interest environment for the next 20 years (I remember parents mortgage ballooning overnight in the 80s).

Even now, my mortgage rate is approx 3%. What conditions come with an ISA at that rate at the moment?

I think you are right to be concerned about advisers. I’ve just bailed out of following the ‘advice’ of an adviser / company. They recommended a transfer of existing funds (of course!). The initial ‘fee’ was a percentage (2% in my case) of existing funds transferred and then an ongoing annual ‘fee’ percentage (0.75%) of total fund value. (I think these fees fall in the ‘reasonable’ as I saw larger fees when I looked around). The ongoing part was described as optional…well optional except the recommended funds were to be on an ‘adviser platform’ which requires an associated adviser. So I’d have to find another adviser to then be associated to the fund (and/or start the cycle again of % total fee and ‘recommended’ fund transfer, and annual fees).

I’m wiser for the experience and I may try another adviser as funds do want transferring / consolidating but this time I want to know the charging structure before I spend time in meetings with them and I’ll be clear that I do not want an ongoing (fee paying) ‘relationship’ (until they’ve proved their worth anyhow). That or DIY !

[recommendations for an adviser near to Rochdale welcomed]

go to an independent financial advisor. What area are you in? I could recommend a few good ones.

I have a friend who recently was told, has he invested his money and pension better, he would now be £250k better off than he is, on not a massive amount of money.

Managing your money is very important. and pay as much into your pension as possible. the longer it’s in there, the more it earns

mj27
Paying off your mortgage. NO NO NO
Why would you as it is the lowest loan you will get as it is secured

Does your crystal ball see very far into the future?

I have a friend who recently was told, has he invested his money and pension better, he would now be £250k better off than he is

There’s a surprise! We all would!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing…

I have a friend who is very evangelical about this site http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

It’s American so it won’t be directly applicable but the basic idea is to give you an idea of how much you should be aiming to save. The trick, if it is a trick, is to look just as hard at what you send as getting be cash in. We find that we were burning lots of cash just to support busy lives and the trick was to work less rather than more

Sorry I can’t advise you on particular places or ways to save bit I believe that is also covered in the blog

Nobody can see into the future, even the experts but while I am paying 0.99% above base for the life of my mortgage I know I can do better than giving my capital to the bank to lend out to others and make more off the back of me.

My own investment figures show that I have easily outperformed the 1.49% my mortgage costs me, all within a range of products; SIPP’s, ISA’s, Junior ISA’s, peer to peer lending, shares, Premium Bonds….

I have a friend who recently was told, has he invested his money and pension better, he would now be £250k better off than he is

is that all?

I lost over £250k on one share sale decision at the height of the dot com boom! Admittedly the money was never really mine, I put in a sell at $210 a share and the stock peaked at $209.75. Within a week the stock was in single figures and 3 months later the company folded.

Cheers all, I’ll take a look at those links. I’m in Leeds if anyone has recommendations for people who aregood are good.

I am pretty sure we are doing the basics right, no debt other than mortgage, no big outgoings. Pension contributions maxed. Some cash savings some stocks and shares, isas. This said I could probably make a better job of investing though.

Anyway, really the thing I want to know is – are we on track? Do we need to save more? Also on the flip side, are we saving too hard? Should we enjoy more of the cash having fun (would spend it on travel /holidays rather than pissing up wall on cars etc) while we can?

Spend less, save more 😉 OP you can do your own calculations in terms of savings, a few different rates of return on investments. Uni costs the kids these days circa £50k, you don’t have to pay for it all, just give them a top up.

Having no debt reduces risk but may also reduce your return, who is to say a buy-to-let might not be a good idea. A “wealth management” advisor’s job is to sell you products, you probably don’t need that

BTL has and can still work very well if you can put the time in to buy in the right area, renovate and pick good tenants.
I buy property that most people won’t touch, spend up to 6 months gutting and renovating to very high standards, then charge very reasonable rates for the area. My tenants stay years, never have any problems.
Mine all make 7 to 10%, are in an area that doesn’t seem to have large house price fluctuations. Next year, if you are a higher rate tax payer you will lose some interest relief but it could still work out well.
It’s very much a long term plan.

This is my plan for retirement – I’m just banking on it getting built first:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKmKLZOAT38[/video]

Euthanasia Coaster

I am pretty sure we are doing the basics right, no debt other than mortgage, no big outgoings. Pension contributions maxed.

That’s basically all you need to do.

It might be worth looking into reducing the costs of your pension as best you can and making sure you have a reasonably diversified portfolio, but the main thing is to put as much away as you can….

the thing I want to know is – are we on track? Do we need to save more? Also on the flip side, are we saving too hard? Should we enjoy more of the cash having fun (would spend it on travel /holidays rather than pissing up wall on cars etc) while we can?

This sounds similar to my agenda with the adviser but the advice came down to ‘save as much as you can afford’ (in the suggested pension funds & associated fees) and that was about as much as ‘advice’ was available before signing on the dotted line agreeing to the fees. I’ve set abut answering the questions myself e.g. how much is enough. This tool is useful for a quick illustration and play with some variables :- http://www.aviva.co.uk/savings-and-retirement/tools-and-calculators/my-retirement-planner/

Given you don’t know what you’ll be earning in the future, you may as well save all you can now. Plus, it’s the early contributions which make the biggest difference through compound interest. The contributions in the last few years before you retire won’t accrue much interest so will effectively just have their cash value.

Plus another few years of the Tories and there won’t be an NHS left, so we’ll all be paying cash to private medical companies for our medical needs in retirement.

My own investment figures show that I have easily outperformed the 1.49% my mortgage costs me

Me too but not every year, some years I’ve lost a load but overall up – my rate is 0.75% over base. So your borrowing rate is 1.49%, how much are you willing to borrow at that rate to invest? What if your rate was 3%? How much would have have invested as a ratio with the value of your property and salary? Would you only invest when benefiting from tax savings? How do you choose when to invest?

Read Robbie Burns’ ‘Naked Trader’ and manage your own affairs. If ‘wealth managers’ were any good they’d not be doing that job, they just tax your wealth.