There is something about being a parent and being pregnant that makes me want to plan for the future. Thanks to me having a series of job moves and finally self employment as well as G’s work history as a contractor neither of us have currently have a great pension and when I was working I was opted out of a serps pension. We have a small amount of savings for a rainy day, but the last couple of months with G being out of work has shown how quickly they disappear. The one thing I am grateful for is our house. Even after living here only 2 years it has gone up £40’000 in value according to this calculator so it provides me with some reassurance for our future. I appreciate property values go down as well as up, but I still have more confidence in house prices than the interest rate on my savings account.

I’ve been thinking about what we would love to do when the children have flown the nest, despite my expectation that it will be a long time off. With my youngest yet to be born it means it's over 18 years off at least so G and I will be in our late 50s/ early 60s before we have time and space.  Then consider that I moved back home after University and my Dad even moved back with his parents when my sister and I were small. We lived with my grandparents for over 10 years because as a single Dad with 2 young children the financial pressures and lack of family support nearby had become too much of a challenge. When my Dad finally came to moving out of his parent’s house he had very limited options because of London house prices, a single income in a “normal” job and retirement in the not to distant future. He ended up buying a shared ownership property, generally thought of for young people just getting on the property ladder. It’s part of the reason owning my own home has always been really important to me.

I don’t know what G and I will do when we retire, but I would love to go travelling. G went to many amazing places when he was younger including Ecuador, the Galapagos islands and a road trip in America. It beats my knowledge of some of the best bars in Bruges, Brussels and Paris. Of course we can go to amazing places with our children, but I’m under no illusion how expensive it will be to travel with 3 children and how the holiday will rotate around their needs; no one is going to be happy with sulking grumpy children.

Some of the places G and I would love to travel to are: Iceland, the Caribbean (although G claims this would have to be when there is cricket on), a tour of Italy, maybe a road trip around more of the US and we would love to go on Safari and see the Rainforest too. 

I’m in no rush, I am happy to wait, but it’s nice to know that we have the option to travel in the future.

***Disclosure: This is a collaborative post***