So, this is a real zombie thread but I thought I should come back and update it. I can see that I posted this message almost exactly 2 years ago. I haven't exactly been playing the markets or doing some full-time course on finance or investments in the meantime but thanks to the excellent advice of carol decker and tricot39 in particular and a fair bit of reading around and doing my own research, I do feel a lot more savvy about how to manage our money a bit more handily than I did two years ago. Which is nice and actually rather empowering.
Judging by the current top threads in this section it looks like lots of other people have the same question and given I'm not an IFA I can only share a few handy links of how to educate yourself in investments and the like and to urge you to go through the same journey.
It's made a huge difference as rather than leaving it all to my husband like a 19th century housewife we are now much more equal in being able to manage our finances. If either one of is should be run over the proverbial bus tomorrow it will not be such a struggle to make ends meet or even simply work out what is where.
I have a couple of observations, particularly relevant here:
Firstly, there seems to be a tendency in the UK in general to overfocus on property, make sure you don't put all your eggs in this basket, diversify.
Secondly, there is a tonne of dodgy advice on the internet (and also frankly and disappointingly from some credited financial advisers). Make sure you educate yourself (the books I listed above were really helpful in this respect) to be able to distinguish between those who know what they are talking about and those who don't.
Thirdly, investing makes no sense until your debts are paid off, but that does not necessarily mean you should have your mortgage paid off first before you start, it depends on your own circumstances. Make sure you know how much you earn, how much you spend and how much you have saved. Get a pension. Cut unnecessary costs and reduce your bills where possible
Finally, start as soon as you can understanding saving and investment on your own (and your family's terms). And then, and this is actually the really difficult step, start doing something about it.
I have actually found it really fun learning about personal finance. Watching money grow (and sometimes shrink) is much more interesting than I had ever thought.
In addition to the above links (the FT guides, the motley fool and the money pages of our newspaper) I also found good old Martin Lewis excellent:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/
and I discovered this blog:
monevator.com/
which really demystified passive versus active investing and has tonnes of helpful practical advice on getting started.
This one is American but rather entertainingly written and focused very much on the FI (financial independence) route.
www.mrmoneymustache.com/
It's not something I'm aiming for but there's lots of helpful advice on cutting costs and how to track investments so worth a browse.
My plan next is to watch some of the HMRC webinars for guidance on paying the correct amount of tax.
In case anyone is interested in what we actually did (details deliberately vague here!):
We paid off mortgage on my old flat that I was renting out and also bought and renovated a new one. We deliberately chose a good location in a university city and bought in a historic centre rather than a new build a little way out as the prices seem to hold up better for these. We're in it for the long haul, I am more interested in getting and keeping good tenants than squeezing every last penny out so we have set the rent to a more reasonable level than the agent advised! The renovations/purchases etc were however handled by an agent as we have neither time nor expertise to do it ourselves. This may have cost us more than doing it ourselves, but the actual "doing something more than having cash sitting in an account" has already more than outweighed the extra costs, plus the speed and quality of the work was very good. We are using the income from these to invest in a fund (an OEIC if you want the detail) based on index trackers with some balancing by gilts (government bonds), bonds etc.
In the process of revising this we did a thorough analysis of our spending and cut more than 20% off our bills as well as reducing a lot of our other household expenses by working out where we are wasting energy + money.
We still have a way to go, some investments inherited last year need to be consolidated in some more efficient way and we still have a small mortgage (though at a very low interest rate) on our family home but
we now both feel better off than ever which is just as well as it's possible my husband may lose his job this year, fortunately we're much more able to cope with it financially than a few years ago.
It means the time we've taken (and it has been tough to carve it out between work and kids) to shore up our financial situation has in the long run taken quite a lot of pressure out of what is still a rather stressful work situation.
As I already said, if you are at all in doubt about this stuff, start today.
Hope this is helpful and not too ranty, there is a taboo of sorts in discussing money, especially among women and especially in the UK and it does none of us any good at all. Being able to openly discuss money and our joint finances actually felt bizarrely awkward at first but it's now become much more a normal part of our everyday conversation which has really helped.
Maybe Mumsnet would like to put together a decent guide or at least gather some helpful weblinks on how to handle money and investments to try and narrow the gender gap in income and wealth?
