Contracting for 20 years, should I have made enough to retire on?

[psychocandy]

I'm not asking for your current rate or anything crass like that, but can you tell me what you would call an good rate in today's market ?

Thanks,

Boo

In my area (skills and geographical), £350 is average, £400 is good.

In my other skill, its £100 less on avarage.

[Unix]

£175K savings, £200K in warchest. £750K house.
Pay off mortgage surely? Leaving 85K plus 200K in company. Plus £750K house.
Makes you a millionaire I reckon. Bugger me you're minted. Spend some dude.

I'm same age. £10K savings at mo, £0 in company. About £10K on credit cards (albeit 0%). £230K worth house with £120K outstanding. Not minted :-(

Never been flash with money but like holidays. Son is 10 and has been to Florida 9 times. All adds up I guess. And been able to let mrs work less hours to look after the kids.

And I probably spent too long as a permie bring home £2500 a month which wasn't great.

Why! Once is enough!

[MyUserName]

Why! Once is enough!

He kept escaping and running for it?

[lukemg]

You've got £175k personal saving and (assume) £200 retained profit, yet you're still paying out on a £90k mortgage! Why FFS?

Because there is no good reason why he wants a house that exceeds his and his missus IHT allowance in one illiquid lump. And, he can get a mortgage for 2% and close to 4% in dividends on a basic FTSE 100 tracker.

[TheFaQQer]

Why! Once is enough!

The choice is to stay in Wales...

[TheFaQQer]

After 20 years contracting, I'd expect either to be retired / semi-retired or to have lived the life of Riley and had long breaks, spent some family time, decent holidays, generally chilled...

[TheFaQQer]

You've got £175k personal saving and (assume) £200 retained profit, yet you're still paying out on a £90k mortgage! Why FFS?

If your return on investment exceeds the cost of borrowing, then it makes sense to keep the mortgage. for the same reason that companies borrow money / issue bonds while they have large piles of invested cash elsewhere.

[SussexSeagull]

Everything is relative but it doesn't sound like you are in too bad a position. How would you have done if you stayed permanent somewhere for 20 years?

[lukemg]

I wouldn't beat yourself up, you have been investing in property - your own house counts and is a good investment due to leverage and no tax on gains !
Only trouble I can see is lack of diversification. you could easily remortgage and free up 400k, and invest that, would that make you feel better about your reserves ?(dont do this, just to illustrate perception...)
Add up all your assets, including house. Is that 25x your current outgoings ? Then you are in a good position as this is somtimes used as 'can I pack in work' amount.
Or work out 4% of this total, can you live on this, this is considered a safe amount to take out of your pot forever and still not run out of cash or deplete reserves even if invested conservatively.
Or use this to consider how much you need - net (obv needs adjusting to your lifestyle)
1000/month - basic amount to live
2000/month - comfortable with holidays etc
3000/month - v. comfortable life, multiple holidays, able to assist kids etc.
So - you have 660k in the house, 175k stashed and 200k in the business (call this 165 to be safe).
Sounds like a cool million in assets to me, potential 40k a year ? Just make sure you don't end up asset rich and cash poor with a million pound house !
Clearly you have been enjoying yourself as well so you are doing ok I reckon !!

[BlasterBates]

To retire modestly you need an annuity that yields 40 grand index linked. That means you need million quid to retire at 55 in spare cash.

Contractors are just slightly better paid permies, not the Porsche driving, Bermuda holidaying "cats" you see in the adverts, and if you have travel expenses you're probably no better off.

Some contractors come from poorly paid jobs so they will notice being better off.