The 5 year plan to £50k
- Thread starter FoxEye
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(I posted this a couple of posts up) Hello again
If your parent want you to stay and you want to stay - stay. Win win, it makes saving easier.
Take it easy, carry on saving, by the time you are 40 you have a lump sum. You can do what you like then, however you feel when you get there.
Hi, and thanks
Mum has said she likes me being at home but...I do tend to agree with others that it's past time for me to move out tho. If I can at least maintain my current income level (27k) that should be possible.
@Jez, OK thanks, I'll look into that. I keep hearing "IT contracting" mentioned but I have no idea what this entails, so I'll check it out.
Oh absolutely agreed, generally however property is not expensive on average in Cornwall in comparison to other southern counties (especially the south east). That £50k example just goes to show that, you would barely get a garage in my village for £50k.
Re the north FACT).
Commutable to London is a huge negative. People return to the sticks with London all over them
FoxEye - have you seen the Secret Life of Walter Mitty? If not, you should. I thought it was a pretty inspiring film
Break it down into small steps. Research on moving out and new job separately. Once you have a better understanding of both then you can start linking the two together. You shouldn't let a job dictate where you should live, but at the same time don't let your location restrict where you should find a job. Do you drive? Are you willing to commute?
Jobs - first of all, have you updated your CV? Sign up to linkedin - update your profile as if it's a CV and really sell yourself on there. Sell yourself well and you will get headhunted. Job sites - the ones I've been on are reed, indeed and totaljobs. Sign yourself up to recruitment agencies. Try and build relationships (no, not lovey dovey ones) with recruitment consultants. Having contacts and good relationship with people really does get you places.
Houses - do all your research on how much you can borrow and cost of living before you even start to look at properties. No point finding a place you really like, only to find out that you can't get the mortgage for it. Go see a mortgage advisor - it is a free service up to the point of submitting a mortgage application. They will tell you how much you can borrow and a good indication of the fees/cost involved in buying a house. There are also plenty of online tools out there to help you work this out.
Btw - I think I read somewhere that you need to have been in a permanent job for at least 6 months before you can get a mortgage. So finding a new job and buying a house at the same time won't be such a great idea unless you buy a house/get a mortgage before changing jobs.
Thanks again, MisChief (and everyone else).
Useful advice there. I'll look into linkedin and see a mortgage advisor.
Commutable to London is a huge negative. People return to the sticks with London all over them
Oh i agree mate, i live in the middle of nowhere as far away as it is feasible for me to be (West Oxfordshire - Cotswold, i have plenty of land and open fields all around me). I feel dirty every time i come home. Where else can i earn a (decent) wage though? The reality of the UK (IT) economy is that everything is Thames Valley/London
If I were you, FoxEye, I would apply for volunteer work somewhere far away from home, help the needy, save the whales or the cats, join the peace corps, whatever. I've read some bits and pieces of this thread and it sounds like you need to broaden your horizon.
Your current contract will expire soonish, correct? It's the perfect chance to pack your bags and go on an adventure. Commit to it and stop making excuses. You don't need 50k per year as I doubt it will make you feel better, you need a dramatic life style change.
Your current contract will expire soonish, correct? It's the perfect chance to pack your bags and go on an adventure. Commit to it and stop making excuses. You don't need 50k per year as I doubt it will make you feel better, you need a dramatic life style change.
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"Useful advice there. I'll look into linkedin and see a mortgage advisor."
Why in gods name would you go see a mortgage advisor?
You dont just find a house in a different part of the country and buy it without having actually lived in the area first. That would be so stupid. You are going to NEED to rent to get a feel for a place.
Why in gods name would you go see a mortgage advisor?
You dont just find a house in a different part of the country and buy it without having actually lived in the area first. That would be so stupid. You are going to NEED to rent to get a feel for a place.
Yup, ends in March.
Well, I have no ties, no commitments, no responsibilities; I'm a free agent. I could do this.
Look at it this way, let's say you somehow land a 50k job, then what? You've doubled your current wage but your life won't change much. As others have mentioned, you already earn enough to be living on your own.
It's not quite that straightforward. Up until March this year I'd been earning 15k/year. That's more like the normal wage in Cornwall.
But I am saving a good amount now. I guess I could have rented since March this year but I never had positive view of renting. That was until I saw the interest payments on a mortgage, which is either the same or more per month than your typical rent.
So I ruled out moving out and staying in Cornwall completely. If I moved out it would be to go somewhere else.
But as you say, owning my own home with no lifestyle change might not "fix" me, so it looks like other things need changing too.
What? No it doesn't. IT contracting may be one of the few ways he can earn the sort of money he's after in that short of a time frame. Plus, with contracting you are effectively self-employed and can use various tax shenanigans (e.g. pay yourself minimum wage salary but take a dividend from the company - dividends are taxed lower than income) to reduce your tax level and increase your effective income.
To do this properly though you need to have good skills in a specialised area - something like Oracle Databases, MS System Centre suite, VMWare, SAP, etc etc. If you have the right skills it's much easier to get a contracting position because the barriers to entry are much lower than full-time permanent positions. Plenty of positions come up for 6-18 month positions at day rates of anywhere between £400-1000 with these skill sets, if you can blag your way on to one of the lower paid opportunities that gets you the experience to earn more for your next position.
See here's a plan for you OP:
1. Skill up in a specialist area of IT. This may include buying yourself some kit to practice on, and will definitely include paying to get the relevant qualifications which will be a requirement for some positions.
2. If possible get some practical experience as a full-time in your chosen specialisation - get a job as a low-level VMWare guy if that's an area you fancy. Gain experience and contacts.
3. Set yourself up as a self employed contractor
4. Apply for as many contract positions in your area of expertise as possible until you get something. There are shortages in many of the areas I listed, hence why people are willing to pay contractor day rates. Be prepared to travel for the right contracts, definitely to London, maybe abroad - UAE/Qatar/Saudi are red-hot for IT at the moment if you can stomach it. Many contracts will include expense allowances for travel/hotels.
5. Get the experience, finish your contract, move on to the next. It's not fun job hunting every 6 months but the high rates can give you flexibility to take months off between contracts if you want.
I went from a general IT dogsbody to a specialist area which I had no experience, within 5 years I was easily in a position to go as an independent contractor - I haven't given up my perm job yet but I have moonlighted on short 5-10 day contract projects at £500+/day during my leave periods.
I was working in a school as an IT tech, moved into contracting and how am a technical manager for a large organisation. All happened in about 3 years including being made redundant from 2 jobs.
Been doing what I do now for 3 years.
Nice, thanks. What did you specialise in if you don't mind telling us?
You've saved two years worth of your post-tax salary, and there's some debate about moving out? For the love of God...
Get on rightmove or down to a local letting agent TODAY, find somewhere small and cheap to rent near where you currently live and work, and get out of your parents' house. You don't need to commit to this forever; just take the opportunity to learn some lessons about living on your own, and figure out what's most important in your life, career, location, future, etc.
And, if it's a deciding factor, it's perfectly possible to find cat-friendly rental properties - just ask. Sometimes there'll be a small extra deposit, or you'll need to agree to have carpets etc. professionally cleaned when you leave. Not exactly a hardship.
You need to take action; there is literally nothing stopping you except fear of change at this point.
Oracle IDM (Identity Management), with some experience in Microsoft. My previous job was IT technician at a secondary school, when I left there I was on sub-£14k - looking back I wonder how I could afford to live on that kind of money.
Do a job search on cwjobs.co.uk or similar and restrict it to contract positions. Look especially at the large banks, many of them have large projects but no budget for permanent hires so they have lots of contract positions open. Some places are even looking for generic Linux admins in London at around £300-400/day, which extrapolated to a year is, what, £60k assuming 200 working days a year? At 25% tax if you do the self-employed dividend trick.
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