Im worried about money :(

I seriously wouldn't worry mate, you're not in a bad place at all.

Even if your job never stepped up at all, you stayed at that wage + inflation forever, you'd get by just fine. You wouldn't be rich but you'd be fine. Your debts will be clear in no time at all, relatively speaking.
 
Thanks for the comments guys, im going to seriously crack down this year i think, learn more about my job,aim for some qualifications and better advertise my private work. Any money from that goes sraight into into its own account and not touched if i can help it
 
goldilocks said:
what do you think you need savings for? If it's money that is just intended to sit in the bank, rates are so bad at the moment - it's hardly worth it!
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Just because the rates are bad doesn't mean that saving is not a good idea, for one it acts as a buffer if anything serious turns up further down the line, and secondly, to quote the cartoon version of Bill Gates in The Simpsons: "I didn't get rich by writing a lot of cheques you know!".

To the Original Poster: You sound like you know where you are, where you want to be, how long it'll take and exactly what it'll take to get there....****** brill mate. :D

All I can offer are regurgitations of the usual suspects:
Don't buy magazines or papers, read the news,reviews and insider gossip regarding your chosen topics online.

If you have a bit of money left in your pocket, don't blow it on a chinese *every time*, tuck it away somewhere, a treat is something you give yourself in return for a good deed done well, not something you do because you have a few quid spare.

Resist the sales as hard as you can, they do not exist in this economic climate, it is just a last ditch attempt to get you to part with your cash, you will not save money by spending it, regardless of what they try to make you think (75% of the RRP? look closely and you'll find the RRP is unrealistic nonsense and the reduced price is actually what the item would have sold for before the so called "sale")

Here's to a prosperous 2010 for you. :)
 
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As others have said, you seem on the right path. However, never underestimate the power of what you're already earning. To quote myself...

PMKeates said:
I suspect you could probably save a fair amount each month by doing a few simple things:

1. Ensure that any vendor you purchase services from has you on the best rate. That includes things like gas and electricity, mobile phones or any other regular payment. In some cases you may have to threaten to leave, but in almost all circumstances you can reduce your costs by switching to a cheaper provider or demonstrating an intention to leave to your current provider.

2. Refrain from impulse buying. If you see something you like in a shop, go home first and think about it. If you still want it, go online and you'll likely find it cheaper, even with a delivery charge. If you don't really need or want it, you'll save a fortune! :p

3. If you spend a fair amount of money on fuel, sign up to petrolprices.com. You can check for the nearest and cheapest prices. You won't save more than a fiver or so a month, but every little helps!

4. Do as much purchasing as possible using a credit card with cashback. Again, you won't make millions, but it's free money. If you earn over £30,000/yr and spend a fair amount, get an American Express card, if not then use an Egg Money card.

5. Ensure that your debts are in the cheapest place possible, and that ANY savings you have go towards paying these off. Saving rates are far far less than debt rates, and you'll be just burning money in most circumstances. You can balance transfer credit card debts to a 0% card for a small fee, but you won't be charged any interest for a year or more. If you are paying minimums, then most of your payment will be interest, so you can then start paying it off rather than perpetuating the debt. If you have a lot of credit card debt that you don't think you can easily repay, consider a consolidation loan. A personal loan interest rate will be much much lower than a credit card, and your payments will go towards paying it off rather than the bank's money chest.

Lots of useful information here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com

I'd be surprised if doing the above you couldn't save net gain than £100 a month, unless you have things very well set up as it is.
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:)
 
Just don't worry about money, it's really not worth the stress (unless you're facing homelessness or something). Sorted.
 
I'm guessing you are living at your parents? I'm on 18k having come out of uni 6 months ago and I couldnt possibly put £400-£500 aside each month like you hope to. I'm lucky if i can put £100, what with rent, bills, council tax etc.

Also (just to add another concern) at 25 you should really be thinking about your Pension. Sounds daft i know but the sooner you start, the better off you'll be. The general rule of thumb is to put aside your age as a percentage of your earnings. So if you're 20 when you start, you put 20% of your earnings aside every paycheck till retirement, if you are 30 when you decide to start saving for your retirement, then 30%. (and so on).

Pain in the arse I know, but it's one of those things you think "wish i had started sooner". If this is what you mean by 'savings' however then great, you are thinking about it now.
 
doozer said:
Op sounds like nothing to worry about he's better off than half the people I know hehe.

Out of interest what do you do for a secondary job edscdk.

I've often thought of doing general IT fixing of pc's in my area. But the local rags seem to be full of pc experts already.
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I fix PC's locally in my spare time, all those people advertising are probably crap, I live in a small ish town (town + villages = about 15k houses) there are 2 - 5 other people who advertise in the local paper, and probably 8/9 people who do the same thing locally...

I jsut got some nice leaflets posted and stuck an ad in the local postal advertiser..

I do a good job and probably get 50% of my work via referrals it was a very fast snowball effect, did 1 year half hearted then last year started posting more leaflets and stuck ad in local paper...

my leaflets were about 5p each like post cards, a lot of people have kept them for months jsut cos they looked good and they kept them 'just in case' they had a problem.
 
edscdk said:
I fix PC's locally in my spare time, all those people advertising are probably crap, I live in a small ish town (town + villages = about 15k houses) there are 2 - 5 other people who advertise in the local paper, and probably 8/9 people who do the same thing locally...

I jsut got some nice leaflets posted and stuck an ad in the local postal advertiser..

I do a good job and probably get 50% of my work via referrals it was a very fast snowball effect, did 1 year half hearted then last year started posting more leaflets and stuck ad in local paper...

my leaflets were about 5p each like post cards, a lot of people have kept them for months jsut cos they looked good and they kept them 'just in case' they had a problem.
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This is what im doing although im in the stage of batches of leaflets being posted, referrals, just about to start out with the adverting in local directories, papers etc.
 
A lot of people I know in their early 20s already are about 20k in debt. This is mainly due to going to uni, travelling/holidays, cars, credit cards. It's pretty unusual not to be in debt these days.
 
Meh... I only call it debt if its un-serviceable. If I manage to pay everything each month when or before its due then it aint debt. Not technically correct but its how I see it.

If I lose my job/cant pay it then, yes, it becomes debt :(
 
You have nothing to worry about! In fact you are in a better financial position that most of the UK!

Since the age of 18 (24 now) I got myself in debt by around £15k, only paying off a loan the rest was minimum payments.

Feb '09 enough was enough so I decided I will pay off all my debts by the end of the year.

Managed to pay off in December, wiped out all I had saved but god did it feel good!

I gave up a fair bit though, only giving myself £50 a week to spend on fuel & going out.

I have no cash behind me, however I am keeping on a strict weekly budget of £70 and saving around £200 a week. Me and the gf are looking to buy a house this year so all steam ahead!

You are doing the right thing, dont worry about it!!

Good luck!
 
Richie said:
Meh... I only call it debt if its un-serviceable. If I manage to pay everything each month when or before its due then it aint debt. Not technically correct but its how I see it.

If I lose my job/cant pay it then, yes, it becomes debt :(
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Thats got to be the dumbest approach i've seen!

I bet you'd get a shock if you calculated all the interest you've paid on this 'non-debt'. Remember that's money you havent spent, money you haven't seen any return from, just given to the bank/card company etc, like a thank you gift for letting you borrow money.

I wonder how long (not long given you approach to debt, i bet) it'll be before you've paid more in interest than the actual debt totals!

In other words there will be a point when you would have spent (say) £1000 on stuff, and paid another £1000 just for the privilege (in interest), and STILL owe the original £1000!!!
 
I said being savings-less is fine at 25 because clearly it's transient as he's working on it.

Sometimes people have a few hiccups on getting settled into the world of work (I've got another planned hiccup coming up, so I'm saving now but it might yet get wiped out again), and it takes a while to find oneself in that nice settled position where saving is routinely possible.


A couple of things:

* There is no point 'saving' when you have debts, as it's likely the interest on the debt exceeds the savings interest by a large margin..

* EXCEPT if that debt is a student loan. This is supposed to only gain interest at the rate of inflation so that it remains the same amount in 'real' terms. This is the cheapest loan you will EVER get, there's no point struggling to pay it off, only to borrow that money again in a few years at a much worse interest rate (say, for a mortgage).
 
TruffleShuffle said:
Thats got to be the dumbest approach i've seen!

I bet you'd get a shock if you calculated all the interest you've paid on this 'non-debt'. Remember that's money you havent spent, money you haven't seen any return from, just given to the bank/card company etc, like a thank you gift for letting you borrow money.

I wonder how long (not long given you approach to debt, i bet) it'll be before you've paid more in interest than the actual debt totals!

In other words there will be a point when you would have spent (say) £1000 on stuff, and paid another £1000 just for the privilege (in interest), and STILL owe the original £1000!!!
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Oh please, before you slate me, at least ask what my "debt" consists of.

Mortgage
Car
small amount on 0% card till Oct 2010

Thats it... Hardly thousands on a high interest credit card FFS

I have a small amount of savings which is my "buffer" if I lose job etc. I could put this into mortgage but it would make litte difference ATM and I would rather have some backup cash just now...


So please dont sit there and say how "dumb" I am when you dont know my circumstances and dont have the courtesy to ask before making such blinkered comments about me.... mmkay ? :rolleyes:
 
My apologies.

A mortgage and car are the two exceptions i would definitely make to my previous comments, there's very few who could afford either without looking for finance.

However there is a difference between 'servicing' this debt and actually paying it off. If you are, as you stated, just 'servicing' this debt (just paying minimum payments and effectively just paying off the accrued interest) then you will never be debt free and i would expect that the car has already depreciated enough that if you sold it, you'd still owe money on it.

Again, you are right i dont know your specific circumstance, i'm just trying to point out to the OP and others that simply 'servicing' your debt is a road to troubles furth down the line.
 
When people say servicing the debt, they usually mean they are repaying capital and interest (such as on a typical loan or repayment mortgage), even though you are right that technically 'servicing' merely means paying the interest only.

As far as being in debt goes, net worth is a more useful indicator of someone's financial health and there is nothing inherently wrong with owing £200k on a house, if you can comfortably afford the repayments and that house is worth equal to or greater than your outstanding debts.
 
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