How is everyone saving for retirement without sacrificing a ridiculous amount of paycheque?

Posted by Tildatots@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 184 comments

Saving for retirement is so depressing I have been trying to get serious about my pensions, and I’ve worked out for me to retire at 67 with about 30k a year I probably need to be saving an additional 400-500 a month For context I currently have about 15k in pensions at 31, earning nearly 70k a year, contribute about 10% me/6%. That extra 4-500 a month is about a third of my current savings but will go down to over half when I buy a house next year and will probably be wiped out if I have kids in the next 5-6 years. I know obviously my salary will probably increase but considering I’ve just changed jobs and I work in a slow moving sector I will probably hit the ceiling in the next couple of years before the six figure mark. Obviously it’s doable for me saving that extra £500, but that doesn’t allow me much wiggle room for home improvements, having an emergency fund and also to be honest generally just enjoying what life has to offer whilst I can whilst I’m young, instead I have to put all this money a way for an ‘average’ retirement I feel like I’m being dumb and missing a trick but how do people do this, let alone things like FIRE? It just seems completely unachievable.