Anyone planning how to meet their big life dreams in 2019 take note: the best things in life are very much not free. That’s if your aspirations are on the conventional side, anyway.
Royal London, the mutual insurer has calculated that the main life goals of going to university, buying a house, getting married, having two children then retiring comfortably add up, on average, to an eye-watering £566,659 over the course of a lifetime.
On a median UK annual graduate net salary of £22,421, if you were spending your salary only on the fulfilment of your dreams, the insurer calculates these goals would take 25 years to pay for.
That figure includes typical mortgage interest but is without any interest from loans, credit cards or overdrafts added – and assuming you stay in the first home you buy. Adding a second property purchase and associated stamp duty into the mix – as well as saving for your children’s futures on top – could push up the total bill for a dream life to more than £1 million. They suggest that a mixture of long-term planning, regular saving and cost-cutting where possible to manage the cost of your dreams.
Royal London took the typical cost of the big six traditional life goals, as follows, before dividing the total by £22,421. Going to university will cost you approximately £23,000, buying a house with a 10% deposit and paying it off, the average cost of a first-time buyer property is £250,148, the average cost of a wedding, is £30,111 and having two children could cost £150,000.
Then, to retire comfortably: the pension pot most people would need to be £300,000, which would require a total personal contribution of £113,400 between the ages of 25 and 67, according to Royal London.
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