The cost of meeting 'life goals'

From starting a family to enjoying a secure retirement, how much will your life goals cost you?

The average couple need to stump up the best part of £900,000 in order to meet their ‘life goals’ according to a new report from Lloyds Bank.

The bank’s Family Savings report breaks down the total costs for four key lifetime events: getting married, buying a house, having children and enjoying a comfortable retirement.

Here’s how the costs of these life goals vary by region. All of the figures below are an average according to Lloyds’ research.

Region	Cost of getting married	Cost of a three-bed semi-detached house	Cost of two babies (first-year costs only)	Retirement fund for average standard of living	Total cost
London	£18,209	£371,812	£7,483	£837,054	£1,234,560
South East	£14,063	£258,333	£7,054	£785,221	£1,064,671
East of England	£12,429	£221,970	£6,455	£723,778	£964,631
South West	£9,243	£189,700	£6,227	£698,734	£903,904
Northern Ireland	£8,912	£104,550	£6,395	£712,566	£832,425
North West	£9,192	£141722	£5,790	£646,464	£803,169
East Midlands	£9,796	£136,143	£5,842	£650,686	£802,468
Scotland	£8,736	£146,430	£5,766	£641,514	£802,446
West Midlands	£12,011	£149,625	£5,512	£618,218	£785,366
Yorks & The Humber	£10,174	£132,583	£5,330	£597,106	£745,194
Wales	£10,119	£130,836	£5,171	£579,779	£725,905
North East	£7,177	£130,291	£5,039	£559,395	£701,902
UK	£11,168	£174,429	£6,138	£685,339	£877,074

Source: Lloyds

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How we fund these life goals

The Lloyds report suggests the average couple has to borrow exactly half of the money they spend on their wedding, though 43% manage to fund the wedding entirely from savings. Almost one in ten borrow all of the money spent on the wedding.

Almost three quarters (73%) manage to avoid borrowing to help with baby costs entirely, with the average parent only needing to borrow 9% of the money spent in the first year.

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The importance of saving early

The Lloyds report makes clear how important saving early in life really is if you want to own your home outright or hold investments.

Financial history	Percentage currently owning home outright	Percentage currently owning non-cash investments (shares, unit trusts, etc)
Started saving seriously before 25	55%	60%
Started saving seriously between 26 and 33	48%	56%
Started saving seriously at 34 or later	35%	40%
Never saved regularly	18%	23%

Source: Lloyds

Planning to pay for your life goals

Whether it’s a wedding, starting a family, buying a home or ensuring you have a comfortable retirement, being prepared for the future and taking stock of your financial position regularly should help you cut the eventual cost of achieving your goals.

That means working out exactly what you are worth, how much money is coming in each month, where it’s going and if it's doing what you want it to do.

One way to do that is the new lovemoney.com Plans app. You can collect all of your financial information in a single place, helping you work out your current wealth and whether you’re on track to cover the cost of your most important life goals.

See your wealth at the touch of a button and make sure you're on track to hit your financial goals with Plans

More on household money:

Couples over 40 failing to make financial plans for retirement

Inflation falls in September: what it means for your pension and ISA

Why you must make a financial plan