Age: 30
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 29
Annual gross income from employment or profession: Between 50k and 65k before expenses, 42k to 52k after expenses
Annual gross income of spouse: Around 20k
Monthly take-home pay: Tough to tell. Very variable
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Self employed. A career in the arts hobbled together from lots of different sources. Mostly self employed but I am on the payroll of around 5 or 6 employers as well (mostly colleges where they'll register you as an employee even if you teach there one day a year).
Partner teaches performing arts 3 days a week in various after school places
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Probably saving, but just had a big wedding.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: No debts
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes, but hardly ever use it
Savings and investments: around €25k, another 8k or so in another account but that's for the tax bill
Do you have a pension scheme? No
Do you own any investment or other property? Equipment I use for my work. Worth at least 50k
Ages of children: none
Life insurance: none
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We are both self employed and work in the arts. In particular, I earn what might be a very averayge amount compared to what I've seen lurking on these forums, but it's a fortune compared to what most of my colleagues make. I feel very lucky in that if I won the lotto, I'd still show up for work in the morning but unlike many others I know, haven't had to trade this for financial hardship. Don't get me wrong, I have had to work hard and I'd be one of the best in the country at what I do, but simply put, there isn't money in the arts to demand raises. As I get older I will probably get more into teaching.
We recently got married and would like to eventually do some "normal person" things, like get our own home, save for retirement, etc. Thing is, most of my friends and colleagues would be a lot more clueless than even myself about these things, so decided to ask here.
- Mortgage
I'm a bit scared of this. Is it even possible with our working situation? Nervous about approaching any financial institution where "conventional wisdom" seems to be a given. I know it will be a long road getting a mortgage as a self employed couple, even worse that our work is pretty unconventional and most people wouldn't associate "financially prudent" with my profession. What would be the best way to go about this? Best things we could do in say, one or two years, bar getting a real job, to make things look good for anyone we approach?
As for earning more money, I could probably hustle a bit more. Partner could take on extra hours too. For myself I already work quite a lot and am away from home a fair bit too. It would probably just be diminishing returns to do more.
- Saving and budgeting
What has served me well so far is to have a small reserve fund so that we can dip into in dry periods. Then I would do a rough budget for 6 months, overestimate every expense and underestimate income. Meant I always had more than I thought I would and never went into trouble if something like a holiday went over budget. If we're to get more bang for our buck, I presume there's a better way to do this.
As for saving, yes our wedding was expensive (in fact, advice I would give is whatever you think you will spend, multiply by 2!), but we saved a lot over the last year and a half and paid it all ourselves. We now have 25k in the bank, mostly from presents and will not be touching it until we need it for a deposit (one day). Will begin adding more from next month. Any advice on how much we should aim for?
- Pension
Neither of us have anything. Haven't a clue here. Should we start one? I presume yes and asap?
Thanks for reading
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 29
Annual gross income from employment or profession: Between 50k and 65k before expenses, 42k to 52k after expenses
Annual gross income of spouse: Around 20k
Monthly take-home pay: Tough to tell. Very variable
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Self employed. A career in the arts hobbled together from lots of different sources. Mostly self employed but I am on the payroll of around 5 or 6 employers as well (mostly colleges where they'll register you as an employee even if you teach there one day a year).
Partner teaches performing arts 3 days a week in various after school places
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Probably saving, but just had a big wedding.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: No debts
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes, but hardly ever use it
Savings and investments: around €25k, another 8k or so in another account but that's for the tax bill
Do you have a pension scheme? No
Do you own any investment or other property? Equipment I use for my work. Worth at least 50k
Ages of children: none
Life insurance: none
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We are both self employed and work in the arts. In particular, I earn what might be a very averayge amount compared to what I've seen lurking on these forums, but it's a fortune compared to what most of my colleagues make. I feel very lucky in that if I won the lotto, I'd still show up for work in the morning but unlike many others I know, haven't had to trade this for financial hardship. Don't get me wrong, I have had to work hard and I'd be one of the best in the country at what I do, but simply put, there isn't money in the arts to demand raises. As I get older I will probably get more into teaching.
We recently got married and would like to eventually do some "normal person" things, like get our own home, save for retirement, etc. Thing is, most of my friends and colleagues would be a lot more clueless than even myself about these things, so decided to ask here.
- Mortgage
I'm a bit scared of this. Is it even possible with our working situation? Nervous about approaching any financial institution where "conventional wisdom" seems to be a given. I know it will be a long road getting a mortgage as a self employed couple, even worse that our work is pretty unconventional and most people wouldn't associate "financially prudent" with my profession. What would be the best way to go about this? Best things we could do in say, one or two years, bar getting a real job, to make things look good for anyone we approach?
As for earning more money, I could probably hustle a bit more. Partner could take on extra hours too. For myself I already work quite a lot and am away from home a fair bit too. It would probably just be diminishing returns to do more.
- Saving and budgeting
What has served me well so far is to have a small reserve fund so that we can dip into in dry periods. Then I would do a rough budget for 6 months, overestimate every expense and underestimate income. Meant I always had more than I thought I would and never went into trouble if something like a holiday went over budget. If we're to get more bang for our buck, I presume there's a better way to do this.
As for saving, yes our wedding was expensive (in fact, advice I would give is whatever you think you will spend, multiply by 2!), but we saved a lot over the last year and a half and paid it all ourselves. We now have 25k in the bank, mostly from presents and will not be touching it until we need it for a deposit (one day). Will begin adding more from next month. Any advice on how much we should aim for?
- Pension
Neither of us have anything. Haven't a clue here. Should we start one? I presume yes and asap?
Thanks for reading