Atm, I'm clearing off my credit card finally as I've been screwing that around with the mimimum payments for the last 3 years which was like £11 p/m with £8.97 interest !! :eek: Should have paid it off years ago but wasn't a priority.
I've also been putting 50-60 quid a week into a new bank account. And I've made a conscience decision not to remember the pin number / check the bank balance till Christmas.
As soon as my credit card is paid off I'll put like 70-100 p/w into my savings.
I would not wish to deter you from saving but would you not be better off in the immediate future paying off as much on the CC as possible bar a few hundred in savings for an emergency.
Your savings will probably be making very little interest compared with the interest rate you are paying to the CC.
I remember being stunned a while ago when I read that 25% of the adult population have little or no savings and are either not making provision for a pension or not planning to in the future.
I remember when I was younger how hard it was to save on a low income but I do wonder how many of the 25% are able to save but making a lifestyle choice not to.
I suppose when you see how people who save are hammered when they have to go into care in their old age, compared to people who have pissed it up against a wall all their lives, you can see why more and more are choosing to take a leak.
Mortgage paid off, got a couple of share shave schemes going on through my employer, an investment ISA and then the surplus cash - we probably don't spend about £2k a month of our joint earnings nowadays so it goes into various places where it can be useful when we want it to be. The kids will go to uni in a few years, there's a bit of endowment shortfall to cover at about the same time etc so it's technically savings but most of it is earmarked for some use.
Once you stop p!ssing most of it up the wall on a Friday & Saturday night and realise that buying stuff for its own sake is a bit of a waste, it becomes easy not to be short of cash. Turning point for me years ago was an old boy in the pub pointing out that the landlord had gone off another nice holiday abroad leaving his Range Rover parked up at the airport, and we were paying for him to do it.
Nothing. I did have a few grand, but we needed to spend it on repairing our still broken boiler and a few other bits and bobs. I also had to add about £1k to my credit card. Currently paying off the credit card (now owe about £400) and when thats gone I will start saving again.
I am expecting £1k soon, so i will pay of the card and bank the rest.
However, I have a Bank Loan which ends next month, so I will be putting most of the money, that was paying the loan, into an ISA, and will be using that to pay for my insurance (home and car), MOT, Road Tax, Servicing, and a holiday each year.
I remember being stunned a while ago when I read that 25% of the adult population have little or no savings and are either not making provision for a pension or not planning to in the future.
The savings profile is actually very polarised. People tend to have either next-to-nothing or they have tens of thousands. Either they cannot afford to save at all or they take it very seriously.
There's a gap in the middle of those who could afford to save but decide not to.
and it has been that since about August
I cant see it rising for a while either as all of my spare money is taken up keeping my old shed on the road to get to work in.
any bored millionaires with a few grand spare annoying them in the glove box - all welcome
Ill look after it for you
2 houses 2k mortgage
a flat 40k mortgage
£250 per month employee sharesave
and two TR4's
£5k of hard to shift eBay stock
£2k of hornby trains
actual savings less than £1000
Nothing in savings at the moment but £300K equity in house. A couple of years ago I briefly had £70K savings, but decided to buy a house I'd be happy to grow old in while I still had time to pay off a smallish extra mortgage. It is a bit of a shock to have no savings, and I have rather struggled to get used to the more constricted income after the mortgage. But no regrets! I love my house, and would be happy to grow old there, only problem is I have also met a lovely new man (which I would not have done if I hadn't moved), who happens to live in another country ... so instead of fixing my future I seem to have opened it up. Good use of £70K I think.
I'm not considerably richer than most people, but I am better at saving than most.
Some people do seem to be better savers than others. For example ask Mrs Pep to save £100 per month and she can't do it. If she takes out a loan with repayments of £100 per month she'll never miss a payment!
I do - plenty of people have mortgages and are saving into pension schemes and the like.
I agree with you when it comes to credit card debts and the like though.
Pension savings are a bit different in my eyes.
Just some people have £20,000 in a savings account earning 1% interest and yet have £10,000 debt on a 17% apr card and paying for finance on a car.
If you have savings and you have a mortgage or any other debts whatever name they are, I don't consider that 'savings' to be frank.
Maybe not but in terms of debt there is a huge difference between having a secured loan (i.e. a Mortgage) and an unsecured one, i.e. credit card debt.
If you owe £20,000 on a house worth £300,000 you have an asset worth £280,000. If you have £20,000 on a credit card and no assets you are just heavily in debt.
Maybe not but in terms of debt there is a huge difference between having a secured loan (i.e. a Mortgage) and an unsecured one, i.e. credit card debt.
If you owe £20,000 on a house worth £300,000 you have an asset worth £280,000. If you have £20,000 on a credit card and no assets you are just heavily in debt.
If you have savings but at the same time you have a mortgage or any other debts whatever name they are, I don't consider that 'savings' to be frank.
So somebody who is paying off a mortgage over 25 years (or even more), is not allowed to put money aside to pay for things such as cars, holidays, rainy days, or to help their kids start out, or ...? Every spare penny should go towards reducing the outstanding mortgage amount?
If money is nevertheless put aside, what would you call those funds if not 'savings'?
Comments
I would not wish to deter you from saving but would you not be better off in the immediate future paying off as much on the CC as possible bar a few hundred in savings for an emergency.
Your savings will probably be making very little interest compared with the interest rate you are paying to the CC.
Do I win the internet?
I remember when I was younger how hard it was to save on a low income but I do wonder how many of the 25% are able to save but making a lifestyle choice not to.
I suppose when you see how people who save are hammered when they have to go into care in their old age, compared to people who have pissed it up against a wall all their lives, you can see why more and more are choosing to take a leak.
Once you stop p!ssing most of it up the wall on a Friday & Saturday night and realise that buying stuff for its own sake is a bit of a waste, it becomes easy not to be short of cash. Turning point for me years ago was an old boy in the pub pointing out that the landlord had gone off another nice holiday abroad leaving his Range Rover parked up at the airport, and we were paying for him to do it.
I am expecting £1k soon, so i will pay of the card and bank the rest.
This ^^^^^^^^^^
However, I have a Bank Loan which ends next month, so I will be putting most of the money, that was paying the loan, into an ISA, and will be using that to pay for my insurance (home and car), MOT, Road Tax, Servicing, and a holiday each year.
The savings profile is actually very polarised. People tend to have either next-to-nothing or they have tens of thousands. Either they cannot afford to save at all or they take it very seriously.
There's a gap in the middle of those who could afford to save but decide not to.
and it has been that since about August
I cant see it rising for a while either as all of my spare money is taken up keeping my old shed on the road to get to work in.
any bored millionaires with a few grand spare annoying them in the glove box - all welcome
Ill look after it for you
Wouldn't you be better off with a car
a flat 40k mortgage
£250 per month employee sharesave
and two TR4's
£5k of hard to shift eBay stock
£2k of hornby trains
actual savings less than £1000
I have around £7k in savings, expected to be £10k by the end of the year. I managed to save £200 a month when I was earning just £15.5k.
I know a couple with a net income of just over £20k between them who shop at Waitrose and bought ludicrously expensive presents.
I'm not considerably richer than most people, but I am better at saving than most.
Some people do seem to be better savers than others. For example ask Mrs Pep to save £100 per month and she can't do it. If she takes out a loan with repayments of £100 per month she'll never miss a payment!
I do - plenty of people have mortgages and are saving into pension schemes and the like.
I agree with you when it comes to credit card debts and the like though.
Pension savings are a bit different in my eyes.
Just some people have £20,000 in a savings account earning 1% interest and yet have £10,000 debt on a 17% apr card and paying for finance on a car.
Maybe not but in terms of debt there is a huge difference between having a secured loan (i.e. a Mortgage) and an unsecured one, i.e. credit card debt.
If you owe £20,000 on a house worth £300,000 you have an asset worth £280,000. If you have £20,000 on a credit card and no assets you are just heavily in debt.
True.
So somebody who is paying off a mortgage over 25 years (or even more), is not allowed to put money aside to pay for things such as cars, holidays, rainy days, or to help their kids start out, or ...? Every spare penny should go towards reducing the outstanding mortgage amount?
If money is nevertheless put aside, what would you call those funds if not 'savings'?