Anyone have any advice on a £250k salary at 44 but no savings or pension?

Posted by ElleJayVee@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 28 comments

Hi all. To cut a long story short, bad decisions have led to a salary of £250k but no savings or pension to date (approx £40k in a workplace pension) at the age of 43. This is due to overspending and having no clear financial plan or budget. Currently have £250k equity in our home and £300k left on a mortgage. Current term is 17 years but I’m pretty sure I can get this paid off quicker than this. Payment is currently £1,500. I also have twins starting private education next September with fees being £17k each per year. Looking for some advice on my situation really - where would be best to start saving money? I only contribute 4% into a pension (the max that my employer will match). Am I stretching myself with the school fees? We were looking at moving house (into a property circa £850k but I’ve started to think this is now too much of a stretch due to needing to start saving for retirement). We wouldn’t want to have to sell up after retirement. Any advice would be hugely welcomed!

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28 Comments

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ukbot-nicolabot@reddit

**Your post from /r/AskUK has been removed by a human moderator.** While your question has been removed, it would probably be allowed with a bit of tweaking. Repost ensuring you've not asked; * Basic throwaway questions which put most of the effort on our readers to figure out by parsing the body or having to ask you questions themselves (i.e. "What do I do?" - be more specific in the title). * Closed questions that prompt people to answer with a simple yes/no response (i.e, "Are you saving into a pension?". Instead ask "How much do you save into a pension, and why?") * Anything which is overtly obvious or is basically a survey (i.e. "How much do you earn?" or "Are trains free?"). * For reviews/recommendations of a product/service without sufficiently detailing what you've already found and discounted. Use Google Reviews and Trustpilot first. Then if you still need help, come back with something specific and the research you've done so far. As well as being interesting and unique, questions must - * Have a genuine, clear, and concise question in their title - including a question mark. * Ensure you can say your question title to someone at a bus stop and have them understand what you mean. So for example, no "Overseas Territories?", instead it should be "What Overseas Territories have you been to?". * Enough information in the body of your post to allow users to give good answers. Specifically, don't just repeat the question in the body. Provide an elucidation, example, or explanation. If this still confuses you, contact modmail, and we will try to help! *If you believe this post should not have been removed, [first read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/about/rules/) before [messaging the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK&subject=Post Removal Appeal)*. See our guide on [common issues with posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/wiki/postremoved) and how to overcome them!

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HoggingHedges@reddit

Well you’ve aged badly in two years. [Previous post stating 29yrs](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHDUK/s/Iy0tekW8Gv) and now 43..?

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ElleJayVee@reddit (OP)

I’ve posted from the perspective of my husband.

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Curiousinsomeways@reddit

Give over, you got caught out.

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ElleJayVee@reddit (OP)

Caught out?! Why would I come onto Reddit to make a fake post about fake stuff 😂?

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Curiousinsomeways@reddit

People do it all the time. Perhaps you just want attention, perhaps after karma for commercial or political reasons. Your post history shows this tale to be bollocks and it makes no sense.

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Used_Promotion_5008@reddit

6yrs ago you were 25 when you were posting about being a QS and retraining to be a teacher. Less than a year ago you were pregnant at 28 You aged only 3yrs in 6yrs. Your credibility is therefore suspect. Your post never explained that you were posting about your husband and it makes not a lot of sense. Genuine £250k earners are financially savvy, they are clearly at the very top of their tree profession wise (earning more than the PM) so you would expect that they would at least have a grasp on pensions and savings and tax traps and allowances and so on. You’ve also posted that you have ADHD which would explain a lot. On the internet we can be anything we want to be, a lot on Reddit is nonsense made up by fantasists, it happens. When we come across posts that are a WTAF that makes no sense then quite rightly people go delving deeper.

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draenog_@reddit

You'll get better quality help at /r/ukpersonalfinance. My gut reaction is that while £250k is a *really* high salary, it's not "spend whatever the fuck you like" rich. After tax, it's roughly £118,000, which is about what you'd get from a couple that was both earning ~£90k. If your partner doesn't work then you haven't just been skimping on a pension for yourself, but for them too. A rough rule of thumb is that if you can afford it you should half the age that you start saving for retirement, and then contribute that amount as a percentage for the rest of your working life. 4% is alright for just you if it's matched by your employer and if you started saving aged 16. But given you're also saving for your partner, there's a strong likelihood you're behind where you want to be. Your best move, given the circumstances, may be to pay a financial advisor to work out how much you'll need to save and what your best gameplan would be. If your monthly income is about £7500, you're paying £1500 towards your mortgage, and you're about to start paying £2833/month on school fees, you'll be left with about £2000 a month for everything else. That needs to cover any planned increases to your pension, your bills, and your day to day discretionary spending. That's not impossible, but given that I often spend about £1000 to £1500ish a month in discretionary spending and I'm *not* on a £250k salary, I suspect the two of you might find that a bit tight. Especially if you're also considering moving from your £550k house to an £850k house.

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Raregan@reddit

/r/HenryUK have a lot of good resources. You'll get nothing but anger from this place. We hate success stories in this Country.

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O_C_Demon@reddit

Unsurprising when people post rage bait. Quaternary of a million pound salary and kids in private school but no pension. My heart fucking bleeds.

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FamSender@reddit

Comments indicate that you’re wrong.

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JellyLast8833@reddit

That's a bit excessive. Tbh I'd love to charge a 1% fee to manage that income stream.

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Mobile-Stomach719@reddit

I hear you but surely success would have seen him have much better financial planning than this….

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Used_Promotion_5008@reddit

This is a troll post, check the OP’s previous posts lol

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FamSender@reddit

Post history is a bit suspect. Age seems to change up and down.

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ElleJayVee@reddit (OP)

I’ve posted from the perspective of my husband.

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Used_Promotion_5008@reddit

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Altruistic_Cress_700@reddit

Can't remember when you begin to lose your pension allowance. But I'd put more in. You get 45% extra on that plus employees NI compared to Net salary if you aren't losing it. You don't mention your partner. Do they work? Your plan should be joint not just yours. If they don't work, they can still pay into a pension and get some tax benefit. Are you maxing out your ISA allowances? You have income tax savings to be made there. Your information is relatively sparse. But if you are literally doing nothing, then start with the low hanging fruit.

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ElleJayVee@reddit (OP)

Partner doesn’t work. I don’t actually know anything about pension allowance or why it would benefit us to be paying into a pension in my partners name. I’ve just been kicking the can down the road really as I don’t know what to do for the best.

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Altruistic_Cress_700@reddit

You both have a personal allowance so you need income in their name. Your maximise your income over the long term by having it spread as evenly between you as possible to use the lower rate tax bands. They can put 2.8k grossed up to 3.6k by the tax back even if not working. Over 20 years that might make a £100k pension pot with growth. You need to read this for yourself. https://www.saltus.co.uk/the-financial-planning-blog/what-is-the-annual-allowance-and-how-does-it-affect-high-earners Id say maximise your pension contributions taking into account the above blog. If your partner isn't working, get them on Excel crunching the numbers. Then maximise ISA contributions in both names. But if partner doesn't work (and has no plan to), you can also save into regular savings products which often have higher returns because they have under utilised lower rate tax bands. Decide in whose names assets are in order to maximise usage of their lower rate bands and allowances. E.g. Even the rainy day cash fund should be in their name not joint to avoid 45% tax on any interest. All this basic stuff will save you thousands

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Slartitartfast@reddit

Wish my bad decisions looked like that.

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811545b2-4ff7-4041@reddit

So.. £12K post-tax income (if not paying into pension) with 2 x £17K in fees (£2833pm) and mortgage of £1500pm... well, I'm guessing you have some other expenses, like a car? Otherwise, you've got something like £8.5K pm to work with. I'd go with. You can put £60K per year max into a pension. If you did that, your take home would reduce to £9200pm (then minus 4333) and then leaving you with £4,867 to live on. You've just got to run the numbers. You've got 'left' plenty of money in your current circumstances.

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_DG____@reddit

Have you checked what your predicted pension will be? 40k plus another 20 years with mortgage paid off should do. Especially if you downsize.

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FamSender@reddit

Start maxing out your pension now. No idea what percentage your employer will match but say you put in 15% and your employer matches it you’ll have a massive pension pot in no time.

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Significant_Return_2@reddit

Pension. Savings. Rainy day fund. Check out the flowchart.

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Ulver__@reddit

Get yourself over to henryuk before you get lynched. It’s a safe space.

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robster9090@reddit

Yes start saving and paying into a pension

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