Do you save money every month?

[Telecaster]

I do but I often wonder why I bother as it seems like a useless pot of money, neither enough to afford a house deposit or buy a nice car, or do anything useful with at all. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't give it away but it just seems completely useless.

I can understand it if you maybe earn a decent wage and have a good portion left over that can go towards something nice, but what if it's not, why bother?

 

[Telecaster]

Is this cheesefests alt?

Also yes I do. I like to have a pot of money if I want to treat myself to stuff. If it’s in a dedicated account I consider my pointless purchases a bit more. I also have a separate account for ‘spends’ every month.

When you say 'treat' are we talking occasional/big one off kind of stuff or just small regular purchases? I've never really got this multiple accounts for different things, I just use one current account as I find it easier to keep track of everything.

 

[Telecaster]

A house deposit or a car are on the upper end of nice things to buy with leftover cash, there's about a billion things you could do...

When I was living at home and earning mostly disposable it all went on holidays and hobbies, had a buffer account too that was left untouched. Always find it baffling when people don't know what to do with spare money, complete opposite of a problem.

Well it's not enough to buy the stuff I want, I wasn't boasting I have tons of cash lying around, quite the opposite. It was more what is the point of saving when you save an amount that there's nothing really to do with it? The only two things I'd save for are a nice house and/or a nice car, and at the rate they're going they outstrip what I can save ha!

I get the emergency fund thing, thankfully I don't own anything that will break down, all the appliances and stuff in the flat aren't mine.

 

[Telecaster]

I also don't see renting as an option personally, I see it like this at retirement my house will be paid for and I'll just have the running costs. If I were renting I'd still have those running costs plus rent.
Obviously with renting you don't have the expense of things like boilers and plumbing, bit those are a fraction of the extra it costs to rent. Round my way renting typically is at least double a mortgage for the same property.

That's assuming renting isn't a choice. I can't afford to buy, at least anywhere I'd want to live. I could probably buy a scummy flat above a kebab shop but what is the point of that?

 

[Telecaster]

Why not if the monthly payments are half what renting in the same area is, were paying about 450 a month mortgage, same size house at the bottom of the street is renting for £700+ a month.

Gee why didn't I think of that. Just the small matter of the huge deposit and house prices way over my mortgage lending rate to over come.

 

[Telecaster]

I've never understood why renting is the same, or in some cases, more expensive than buying!

But people still pay those prices because they have to, I guess!

If renting was half the price of buying then I can why it might be worthwhile but when it's the same price it just doesn't make sense.

I know it's difficult to get the deposit together if you're stuck in a renting hole but that should be a 100% focus instead of paying for Sky and holidays etc. Buy a second hand Nokia instead of a fancy iPhone etc and get your own place ASAP.

Yeah just cut the lattes and avocado on toast and you'll have your £50k soon enough lol

 

[Telecaster]

£1,000,000 house at a not hard to find 5% deposit mortgage, nice definitely your typical house price.
Bit more realistic £12,500 deposit for a £250,000 house.
Or just get a 0% mortgage if you're really struggling.

And what is the cap on lending, 4-4.25x salary? 5% deposit is nothing.