Finances Question

BlackDragon · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:32

Hi all,

I'm due to graduate in July, and hopefully I'll have a job by then.

I'm trying to figure out my finances if I had a particular salary, but I don't know what all the outgoings are as this is the first time I will have to start paying all sorts of taxes.

Say I have a salary of £25K, how much money might I have at the end of a month for myself to do whatever? I know it all depends on where I live, if I own a car (which I don't yet, but may in the future), etc.

Much appreciated if you can help!

Energize · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:33

You pay 9% over £15,000 towards student loan, 20% over £6k for tax, and 11% over £6k for NI. Then of course there's the extortionate council tax which starts at about £1k a year for a terrace.

After all those you'd have about £17.2k net.

BlackDragon · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:36

£10,000 lost to tax already? :eek:

Fortunately I don't have much of a student loan to pay off.

mjer1984 · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:37

£25k will give you about £1.5k a month in your hand.

I spend
£600 on bills
£160 on food
£300 on savings
£60 on car (excluding insurance)

that would leave me £380 a month to burn on eletronics.

csmager · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:39

www.listentotaxman.com will tell you what you'd be earning this year after income tax, national insurance and student loan contributions.

After that, you'll have rent, council tax, water, electricity/gas at the least.

On top of that, you'll probably have phone, internet, mobile, tv license, sky etc.

Then you'll have the rest left over to hope you can afford some food.

BlackDragon · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:39

mjer1984 said:
£25k will give you about £1.5k a month in your hand.

I spend
£600 on bills
£160 on food
£300 on savings
£60 on car (excluding insurance)

that would leave me £380 a month to burn on eletronics.

Do the bills include tax as well?

latercomer2 · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:39

Dont forget you may/will probably have pension contributions to take off as well.

SlyReaper · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:39

If it helps, I can give you my numbers. I graduated last year and am earning 23.5k. I've already paid off my loan and am paying £280 a month rent, all bills included, and don't have a car. I'm left with about £500 a month after food, household supplies, random DVD purchases, computer parts, going out etc. It's all going towards saving up for a car.

BlackDragon · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:42

SlyReaper said:
If it helps, I can give you my numbers. I graduated last year and am earning 23.5k. I've already paid off my loan and am paying £280 a month rent, all bills included, and don't have a car. I'm left with about £500 a month after food, household supplies, random DVD purchases, computer parts, going out etc. It's all going towards saving up for a car.

Aah that's good

I take it you live with other people with rent that low?

SlyReaper · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:45

BlackDragon said:
Aah that's good

I take it you live with other people with rent that low?

It's a houseshare, yes. It's in a pretty skanky part of Bristol too - I don't think I'd get rent this low if I were living in Clifton.

csmager · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:45

At the other extreme, I graduated last year, earn £30k, pay no rent, and at the end of every month I'm left with bugger all or less (into overdraft). Not really got a clue where it goes - but London's expensive.

SlyReaper · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:46

csmager said:
At the other extreme, I graduated last year, earn £30k, pay no rent, and at the end of every month I'm left with bugger all or less (into overdraft). Not really got a clue where it goes - but London's expensive.

Cut back on the rent boys.

mjer1984 · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:47

BlackDragon said:
Do the bills include tax as well?

No £25000 gives £2083 before tax, £1500 will be put into your account. Close to £1600 until you start paying back your student loan.

My bills include rent, insurance, electric, council tax.

Last year my percentages went like this

Food 6% of take home
Bill 37%
Petty Cash 24%
Electronic 9%
Car 8%
Saving 13%

give or take a few percent.

csmager · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:49

SlyReaper said:
Cut back on the rent boys.

- Seriously, I look at my credit card bills and wonder... Still, could be worse. I'm not in any debt!

As of this month, I've stopped ordering takeaways, stopped going out for dinner more than once a week, stopped buying stupid things I almost certainly don't need. Surprisingly, that's about done it. My c/c bills are looking around the £200 mark for April. That'll leave me some cash to build up my savings a bit!

SlyReaper · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:52

I think that's your problem right there. Credit cards. It's far too easy to overspend with them.

What I do is withdraw 100 or 150 pounds from a cash machine. Then I just live on that, quite lavishly actually.

It's nice to not have any responsibilities other than turning up for work and keeping myself fed.

csmager · 18 Mar 2009 at 11:56

SlyReaper said:
I think that's your problem right there. Credit cards. It's far too easy to overspend with them.

It is - because what you spend is never reflected until the next month - I always pay the balance in full. It causes a rather bizarre cycle. Month 1 you have loads of money, so you buy lots of stuff on your credit card. Month 2, you get the bill. You still have loads of money - probably spend more. Then in Month 3, Month 1's bill cripples you. You cut back on stuff. Month 4, you're crippled again by Month 2's bill. You cut back even more. Then Month's 5 and 6, you're back to having loads of cash again. Repeat.

Need to stop that now I've worked it out!