Do you save money every month?

[taB]

It's always interesting to see the varying personal circumstances.

In 3 years we've gone from mortgage free and a chunk of savings to saving nothing monthly apart from the children's ISAs (£50 ea), burning through what we have saved, and a mortgage that is fine to manage but I'm not totally comfortable with.

I'm definitely in the debt averse, get rid of the mortgage, category despite understanding that investing (or the like) may get me more money one day. It's worked well for us once and am aiming to do so again once we've stopped this place falling apart.

 

[Bunko]

I've learnt the hard way about money, last 3 years I've been paying off massive amounts of debt that I built up over 15+ years whilst I buried my head in the sand. The banks and credit cards just kept on giving and I never thought about the future as that was always years and years away and I expected it to sort itself out by the time I was older. All of a sudden I'm late 30's with nothing to show for it so I gave myself a massive kick up the rear. I'm on the home stretch now (5k left), at the rate I'm going it'll be 6 months until I am debt free for the first time since I can't remember when.

I have been saving a bit at the same time to help with mental clarity and to get used to being debt free and it's a great feeling watching savings grow every month, it's really changed my attitude in regards to money so a good lesson learned, albeit an expensive one!

 

[taB]

I've learnt the hard way about money, last 3 years I've been paying off massive amounts of debt that I built up over 15+ years whilst I buried my head in the sand. The banks and credit cards just kept on giving and I never thought about the future as that was always years and years away and I expected it to sort itself out by the time I was older. All of a sudden I'm late 30's with nothing to show for it so I gave myself a massive kick up the rear. I'm on the home stretch now (5k left), at the rate I'm going it'll be 6 months until I am debt free for the first time since I can't remember when.

I have been saving a bit at the same time to help with mental clarity and to get used to being debt free and it's a great feeling watching savings grow every month, it's really changed my attitude in regards to money so a good lesson learned, albeit an expensive one!

Well done.

 

[LabR@t]

20% of my wages to a pension and 10% into saving, which I regularly dip into

 

[Kill_Phil]

@taB what happened mind asking? Upsize?

 

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

Pay the bills and hope to **** a cat doesn’t need the vets.

 

[RobHu]

Yes, currently invest about 12% of take home into S&S ISA and save 35-45% as cash depending on how disciplined I've been. My partner saves 30-50% cash. Eventually once we sell our flat to buy a house those percentages will roughly flip, although likely the investment amount will be less than the cash I save now due to a bigger mortgage. Should probably fill up a premium bonds account now that I think about it, there's at least a chance of getting something back against inflation that way.

 

[Andreworex]

I've learnt the hard way about money, last 3 years I've been paying off massive amounts of debt that I built up over 15+ years whilst I buried my head in the sand. The banks and credit cards just kept on giving and I never thought about the future as that was always years and years away and I expected it to sort itself out by the time I was older. All of a sudden I'm late 30's with nothing to show for it so I gave myself a massive kick up the rear. I'm on the home stretch now (5k left), at the rate I'm going it'll be 6 months until I am debt free for the first time since I can't remember when.

I have been saving a bit at the same time to help with mental clarity and to get used to being debt free and it's a great feeling watching savings grow every month, it's really changed my attitude in regards to money so a good lesson learned, albeit an expensive one!

See my previous post on what I am saving now, this wasn't always the case and I was very much in a similar position to you, I made some terrible mistakes with partner choice and having kids at 17 (!) spent my entire 20s and early 30s building a debt mountain and raising kids, kids now left home and career has just lifted off this past few years and got my debts paid off with bonuses and pay rises at work (and working 2 jobs) set myself back with equity share buy out etc but, all came good in the end.

Don't give up and well done, its funny with money, you don't really share these details in this thread anywhere so its actually hard to talk about the difficulties along with your situation, doesn't help that everyone appears to be doing really well - often on debt and/or inheritance but they never say it so it appears you are behind and not achieved what you should have etc which is all relative.

 

[taB]

@taB what happened mind asking? Upsize?

Exactly that. We've gone from a nice 3 bed place that would keep anyone, except my wife, happy to a 4 bed place. This is a shouldn't need to move (over my dead body) again place. Square metre wise it's more than double where we were before; we're 260 ish here. Cost is mitigated a bit by moving 30 miles further away from London. Similar places where we were before would have been £200k more than we paid I reckon .

 

[Kill_Phil]

Exactly that. We've gone from a nice 3 bed place that would keep anyone, except my wife, happy to a 4 bed place. This is a shouldn't need to move (over my dead body) again place. Square metre wise it's more than double where we were before; we're 260 ish here. Cost is mitigated a bit by moving 30 miles further away from London. Similar places where we were before would have been £200k more than we paid I reckon .

When the wife speaks...

Similar to myself with the move. It's also the ongoing upkeep Inc heating bills as I've just found out.. oh well. Happy wife, happy life n all that

 

[squerble]

20% of my wages to a pension and 10% into saving, which I regularly dip into

Is that 20% to pension coming out of your take-home (i.e. an additional pension) or is that out of your gross pay? I'm putting 6.5% into my workplace pension which is matched by the employer. I'm considering AVCs but not sure yet.

Me and partner have budgeted well for when we finally get in our house, but I honestly don't see how we'd ever afford kids. I don't know how people do it.

 

[DanTheMan]

We save roughly 12% of net income each month in cash. 5% goes into a stocks and shares ISA with a few index linked funds.

We're definitely quite lazy when it comes to savings and definitely not as disciplined as I would like. We did recently reduce the term of our mortgage and we've got quite decent pensions so I always have that underlying feeling of 'we'll be ok' by the time we are mid 40s.

 

[Simon0001]

Is that 20% to pension coming out of your take-home (i.e. an additional pension) or is that out of your gross pay? I'm putting 6.5% into my workplace pension which is matched by the employer. I'm considering AVCs but not sure yet.

Me and partner have budgeted well for when we finally get in our house, but I honestly don't see how we'd ever afford kids. I don't know how people do it.

Benefits from the government

 

[LabR@t]

Is that 20% to pension coming out of your take-home (i.e. an additional pension) or is that out of your gross pay? I'm putting 6.5% into my workplace pension which is matched by the employer. I'm considering AVCs but not sure yet.

Me and partner have budgeted well for when we finally get in our house, but I honestly don't see how we'd ever afford kids. I don't know how people do it.

Salary sacrifice

 

[Bunko]

See my previous post on what I am saving now, this wasn't always the case and I was very much in a similar position to you, I made some terrible mistakes with partner choice and having kids at 17 (!) spent my entire 20s and early 30s building a debt mountain and raising kids, kids now left home and career has just lifted off this past few years and got my debts paid off with bonuses and pay rises at work (and working 2 jobs) set myself back with equity share buy out etc but, all came good in the end.

Don't give up and well done, its funny with money, you don't really share these details in this thread anywhere so its actually hard to talk about the difficulties along with your situation, doesn't help that everyone appears to be doing really well - often on debt and/or inheritance but they never say it so it appears you are behind and not achieved what you should have etc which is all relative.

Thank you and yes I agree completely with what you are saying, I was actually debating whether or not to post as this is a thread primarily about saving but this thread hit home a little. It's great to hear so many positive stories about people doing so well but also if my situation happens to help anyone who is having financial difficulty that there is a way out of it. Although it hasn't been easy and I have worked a lot of extra hours on top of having to live a very frugal life to make it happen.

I was so close to speaking to a debt charity and figuring out a solution with them but in the end I just started attacking it plain and simple. A plus side is I have never missed a payment and my Experian credit score surprisingly stands at 981. I know this figure doesn't mean much but at least it'll help when I finally try to get on the property ladder hopefully.

 

[AndyCr15]

Rent or mortgage is simply another cost.

While usually ownership is cheaper than renting, this id not always the case. It highly depends on rental rates, maintainence costs, investment opportunities, market conditions.

If you live somewhere with proper rental controls, then rental csn often be cheaper than ownership, but the biggest fctor is that it is nore predictable with less unknowns.

I just don't see the two as the same thing. They both provide a roof over your head, but one has a set term and will finish at some point, leaving you with an asset at the end. The other is just money leaving your account with no other gain in return?

 

[D.P.]

I just don't see the two as the same thing. They both provide a roof over your head, but one has a set term and will finish at some point, leaving you with an asset at the end. The other is just money leaving your account with no other gain in return?

that is like saying you don't see the point in buying food or paying for electricity because at the end you hsve nothing to show for it.

The gain from paying rent is a roof over your head.

 

[Andreworex]

that is like saying you don't see the point in buying food or paying for electricity because at the end you hsve nothing to show for it.

The gain from paying rent is a roof over your head.

In my 50s 60s and into retirement, I would much prefer to not have to continue paying rent and have an asset to pass to my children or family.

 

[D.P.]

In my 50s 60s and into retirement, I would much prefer to not have to continue paying rent and have an asset to pass to my children or family.

But then the argument is simply economics. You don't get the house for free with a mortgage, there are lost opportunity costs. Between the down payment, interest payments and simply paying off the loan, plus maintain costs - all of that money can instead be invested. The returns on a simple tracker fund is about 7%. The returns on real estate are around 2%. Which is best depends on a lot of factors but it copuld very well be that renting while investing will make you far richer and provide your children with something much more valuable. Your children might not want a house where they don;t want to live, and it will probably have to be sold anyway to dive between children. And while you can start retirement in your house, there is a good chance you will downsize anyway, and depending on your health eventually you will have to move out in to a retirement home.

 

[Raymond Lin]

The mindset in getting a mortgage is simple. IMO...It's not about investment, it's not about what else i could have done with that money. That is not the mindset. The mindset is having a place to live when I am not working anymore. 4 walls that they can't kick me out of.

(wait for someone to find reasons for how they can kick me out of my home that i own outright which has nothing to do with rent/mortgage payments)