To ask you to talk frankly about money !

[Moneyexpose]

I don't understand why on this site , and even in rl, people are so shy to talk about money. Including myself, hence the name change !

So I'm inviting everyone to talk money. Feel free to name change if you feel uncomfortable. I feel knowing where other people stand and how they live (e.g. budgets, priorities) can be helpful for everyone. I'll start ;

Have a bf, no children, 24 years old
Earn £48k a year
Live at home with my parents whilst I save up, so no rent. No car either.
Spend £330 a month on transport
Save £2.2k a month for deposit (the £200 may sometimes get spent so im not strict on that)
Have £300 disposable income
Priority order; a home, holidays, shopping, eating out (if im honest, this is probably first )

I know I can't police it, but can this thread please be free from negative comments. Feel free to ask questions so people can also get ideas on how to maximise income, savings etc. And mainly, to satisfy our nosiness (I know I'm not alone !)

OP - you are incredibly lucky, so don't you EVER moan about how many years it will take to save up for your own house -£48k pa at your age - you've won the effing lottery.
I am 63, own my own business & have a hugely complicated financial situation so that I pay -legitimately, mind you, as little tax as possible. Mind you, I still pay a Huge amount of tax! I clear around £40 k, a combination of business dividend ( at my age I no longer need to pay NIC as I have now maxed out), pension draw down & pension crystallisation.
What I would say is that it is super-important to educate yourself about finance, or a lot of your money ( which is your fundamental security) will be mis-spent or not optimised.

I'm on the YANBU side. I think secrecy around money causes bigger problems than openness - being honest only creates issues where the relationships are problematic to begin with, imo.

Me, I'm borderline poverty. On ESA 'work capability' rate, I get £102 a week. I also have a private pension paying £91 a month. I live alone in a one-bed sheltered flat; my rent's covered by housing benefit and I only pay 25% council tax (about £25 a month). Other bills are not subsidised for benefit recipients, so mine are normal. I have no TV due to the licence fee. I've been awarded £140 towards my electricity this winter because of my illness.

Apart from the very precarious budgeting and heavy life limitations, my worst problem is fear. I had to live on £70/wk JSA for fourteen months while my last appeal was processed, and it was awful. Knowing the government actively wants to not give me anything induces a constant high level of anxiety.

Before things went tits-up, I was earning decent money in media sales. An average year's pay would be around £75k in today's terms, and expenses were generous. I had a two-bedroom flat in London with a garden. While I was insured up to the eyeballs, I soon found out that policies have caveats & get-out clauses meaning I couldn't keep up my mortgage payments for long. I sold the flat for the amount outstanding . One of my pensions was embezzled, another got eaten up by 'administration fees', so my backup plans came to nothing. I currently have £3.74 in the bank until Thursday.

If I were to try and pass on a lesson from this, it would go something like "have an unambitious plan B". It's normally safe to assume you will carry on earning and your investments will pay out - but it's not guaranteed. When this model fails, things go downhill at a terrifying rate. I was unprepared for the shock. Without a crystal ball it really isn't possible to know The Right Strategy, but I should have had clear ideas on what I'd do if this happened instead of trusting that I'd be covered.

For everyone relying on being able to keep paying the mortgage until it's finished - pay it down as much as you sensibly can. Interest rates are ridiculously low right now: my first mortgage was at 19%! Do not assume they will stay low. And don't trust long-term insurance policies.

DHakes around £43k a year, I think (dollars to pounds translation). I make less than £50 a week as a part time child minder. We have three children and own our own home. Things are fairly cheap in rural Midwestern America and we get by okay.

No one I know would have dreamed of living with their parents after the age of 20 at the max (and that was only if they were in school) unless absolutely desperate.

I personally find it I s people who have done very well from themselves who hold back, because they don't tend to want to brag. From those I know, anyway.

Exactly.

If some people were completely honest in answering the OP's questions they'd be pelted with rotten fruit for being smug and insensitive.

Well I'm skint, have been my whole life and think I alway probably will be. Happy tho.

I'm 29 married with kids. I earn less than 4 grand a year and hubby earns about 27. We have a rundown house that needs a lot doing but is liveable and a flat we can't get sold so rent it out. We have two cars, both bangers, a transit and a truck. We both have motocross bikes and quads that are in better nick than our road cars if I'm honest, we claim cb but not tc because we can't figure out how the f it works. I live in the same village I grew up in and have all my friends around me, the kind of place strangers are stared at and the local pub is the heart of the community but I love it. Life isn't about money it's about family and friends doing stupid shit together and having fun, fights fallouts and for better or worse.

Garrick, that's a sobering story. Sorry that happened to you.

48k? That depressed me
Emergency services here, top of band 3 so take home under £1600 a month

LittleLionMansMummy social conscience is better reserved for when you've set yourself up in life, not when the OP is in the middle of saving to buy a home. Five pounds here or there isn't going to make a difference to her savijng, but those posters suggesting she donate what she would be paying in rent, that's ridiculous.

First and foremost you have a duty to yourself and your own, the OP focussing on this now is likely to help provide much better stability and security for any future DC.

The bulk of our annual income (around 90% of it) goes into savings and investments all that should we fall on hard times, we will still be able to look after ourselves and all of the families who rely on us. I would never prioritise giving to a charity over ensuring future stability for those people.

Living at home with Mummy and not even paying rent?

You sound like a spoiled brat.

Yanbu I agree with openness.

Some friends we discuss wages and others they don't. I earn a pretty average wage these days, but I work part time and outside London now.

When I was your age I was traveling the world and pocketing a fortune especially with expenses in order to buy a house with cash in my 20s and take it easy for the rest of my life.

There is are some real green eyed monsters on this thread...

"How can I boast when you don't know me. And I don't even have a home (not likely to soon either) hmm"

Oh please. You're on a huge salary for a young woman and living at home rent free!!!

I have a friend who openly boasts about money and the things they have bought. It makes me uncomfortable.

We feel skint although we are pretty lucky. I'm 27, 3 kids. Sahm. Dh earns £32,000 a year. We have debt and massive overdrafts. It sucks and I can't see how we will ever get out of it but there we go, we only have ourselves to blame!

Garrick That is a sobering story.

I was on a course last week. We were all in our 40s, 50s and 60s. All highly skilled and qualified, just upping our technical knowledge of something. Every single one of us had recently been affected by redundancy and/or serious health issues. Redundancies in local government especially are affecting lawyers, planners, engineers, administrators, accountants, ICT specialists... All of them said they couldn't now even get an interview because of their ages. That's sobering as well. A scrapheap for qualified, experienced 40-somethings.

Living at home with Mummy and not even paying rent? You sound like a spoiled brat

What a horrible, mean minded comment. When they get to that age my DC are welcome to stay at home rent free (if I'm financially well off enough not to need it) if they're sensible enough to be saving their money for a house deposit. If they're partying it all away that's another matter but how supporting your children to make sensible financial choices is spoiling them is beyond me.

My advice OP is based on what I would have done differently if I had my time again. I was like you aged early 20's on 40+K.Do not move in /buy somewhere with bf especially if you are the higher earner. Do not have a baby with him without being married. Do max out on your mortgage whilst your outgoings are low, the multiples are much more conservative these days.Don't sit around on piles of cash waiting for house prices to fall/stabilise. Oh and turn your pounds in to dollars in the summer of 2007 (maybe not quite so relevant that one)

Young woman earning a good salary.
You are saving to buy (at the same age I bought btw).
You're not on here whining that BTL/LL's have ruined your chance of ever owning a house.
Well done you.

We started budgeting early and it pays off in the long run. We still had lots of great holidays/times as well.
Paying extra off your mortgage is the best advice I can give you.

Perhaps it's a job I'd consider moving into spectre.

My money, my problem
yanbu to ask though. Its a free world.

Good for you OP, sounds like you have a good job and are being sensible.

I live abroad, earn 93K a year (tax free) so 7750 a month. Rent is 1600 per month, and bills about 130. I drive to work each day and fuel and road tolls probably come to about 120 a month. So that's about 5,900 a month left over.

I'm 28, so doing pretty well. Also trying to save for a house. But my circumstances are a bit special as I'm supporting my husband (he is studying for a degree and not working) and his elderly parents.

I didn't always earn that much though, and I know what it's like to struggle financially - although I can't imagine how it must feel to know that your situation will never change for the better, like some of the posters on this thread .

maxing out on your mortgage is not really sensible if you want to have a safety net.

Why would you commit yourself to (say) an extra £700 per month in mortgage payment, and then be unable to rebuild your savings up or actually live life or have security.
What happens when you have an unexpected large expense? You have nothing to fall back on if for some reason you lost your job, or no money when you need to find £3000 to replace a boiler etc.

Many friends I know have borrowed the maximum they can, because they wanted that nice house, and then find they can't actually go out and enjoy themselves. One friend eventually realised he wasn't happy, despite a beautiful 3 bed house, sold up, moved to a one-bed, and now actually goes out and enjoys himself - He has an extra £1000 a month, still has an investment and isn't miserable.

Maxing out on a mortgage is not sensible, imo, if you're buying on 5% deposits, you're interest rates are huge. Where as if you save a bit more and have lower expectations (e.g. 2 bed instead of 3) you're going to be more secure and happy.

OP - I bought at 27 when I was single. DH and I bought together when I was 34. I hung on to the other property and let it out as it's in a popular area with high demand. I didn't need a btl mortgage at first but when that rate expired I needed to remortgage as btl and that can be challenging and more expensive. I have massive outgoings on 2 mortgages but they are manageable, I see it as a long-term investment and feel very fortunate that I'm able to do it.

Agree with PPs - if you buy with your OH go for tenants in common arrangement so you can protect your investment and try and keep something back in savings in case it all goes tits up.

You are in a v fortunate position.

Do we know what op actually does yet?

hampster it's irrelevant what she does.

Advice from me

At 24, I had graduated with little debt (nearly 40 so not same as these days), lived with bf who went back to Uni so I moved home.
I didn't pay rent but my parents were divorcing so nobody cared.

I earned £19k which in two years rose to £35k. I still do the same job and I still earn £35k so factor in whether your profession will continue to give rises.

I bought my first property because my folks sold up so had little choice. I bought with a friend as that was affordable. She bailed after 8 months and I had to borrow £2.5k to give her back her half of our deposit.
But the property now has £120k equity and though I'm paying a btl on interest only, it is all mine. My rainy day pension plan.

I married the bf. We earned £80k between us. 2DC. He had an affair and left when youngest was barely 3.
I worked part time since having children so I can just about manage. And stbxh does pay maintenance etc but life isn't so nice.

My advice?
Get your own place. Get somewhere later with Bf. If you get married then attempt to get some form of pre nup. I know they aren't enforceable but I would be mightily pissed if my stbxh tried to stake a claim on my other property which he never paid a bean for.
We have settled that he is giving me the marital home instead of spousal maintenance. Thank goodness that whilst he can't keep his dick in his pants, he does pay for his DC.

Get your own place. Always try to work even when children come along and get a legal something to protect your assets.

If you turn your property into a btl then you can get another property with bf rather than moving into one or each other's place.
I don't want to be all never trust a man but..... 18 years later.... I'd never trust a man again to the extent I would make myself financially weak. You have the same ability to never need to rely on a man financially so don't.