1 year No Saving but I have responsibilities ?!

[Peachh]

I will be 30 in 2 years, I have a 7 year old and I am SP.
I want to buy a house but in London it’s very hard obviously and I only have £10k saved. Am I being irresponsible and delusional to want to have 1 year of no saving, just spending freely, buying whatever, going on holidays and treating DC. I have £5k in debt, tone of Student loans which I will be paying back for forever but now earn good money.

Convince me not to (I have some what already started as we went on holiday for the first time since the pandemic and I spent like there was no limit).

Ah thank you. I’m 46! So I do still have time to pay a mortgage and I can maybe go for another promotion in 2-3yrs, just had one so can’t go up the ladder for a little while. Well I could, but I want to settle into this role first. I could buy a flat now but I was originally going to return to Wales and buy a house but I decided to do it pre pandemic. Since then things have changed, I’m enjoying everything london has to offer and don’t want to leave the south east!

3yrs ago I was in the minus. I’ve still had some holidays and plenty of trips to theatres / restaurants etc so I haven’t deprived myself. I started saving in Jan 2020 so the first year wasn’t hard as everything closed for covid! Also our work ended up with a lot of work due to covid and other reasons so I started doing overtime - and it got addictive. So I saved a lot then (did it all working at home too)

Thanks @FrozenGhost and @Soonenough I have some the 10K invested in the S&P500 as it is a LISA, I put aside money for DC in accumulating funds each month and have a small sum in Cryptocurrency (this market is obviously risky so don’t consider this as viable investment yet). I think as the other PP’s noted it’s about balance and I have not quite mastered that yet. Are they any specific fund you would recommend. Thanks again!

Why would you invest in a single index, and why in one so narrow and so uncorrelated to the UK economy?

Are you sure that you work in finance?

Paying off your debt is the priority and best for your child. Have a few cheap treats sure but keep them in your budget and sort out your finances- emergency fund etc. If you really are going to be earning loads in the future then surely that is the time to save for a deposit, then splurge on a good holiday or two.

This is crazy. You've only been saving for one year and you are sick of it already!

If you are on the sort of money that allows you to easily save up to £20k then you will definitely be able to get a house somewhere within the commuter belt of London within a few years. If you aren't ready to save then don't. But the longer you leave it the harder it will be.

Could you find a partner to share the financial burden of life with OP?

I have seen you on another post today also being very condescending and cynical. Are you ok? you are very invested in criticising people on MN.
Second of all you have no idea what area of finance I work in and to make the wild assumption that to work in finance you would have good personal financial acumen is ridiculous. But to settle your worries I will be doing my homework.

I am OK, yes, thanks.

I work in finance too, and just don’t think that your story adds up, so I’ll leave you to it.

consider you can save 20K a year, and your high income, 80-100K now I guess?
I don't see why can't you treat yourself and DC better, good holiday, just for 1 year.
life lives once.
and you can easily buy a house in London in a few years' time.
when you have a 150K income, you can have a 600K mortgage.
(not mean you should borrow that much)

My daily wish lol sadly I don’t get out much. Again this is somewhat part of why I want to get out there and live life.

@TaraRhu I will be looking at the commuter belt / M25 area and yes I am sick of saving already which is not good at all.

Sometimes people get so concerned about their future they forget to live now.

Thanks this was my line of thinking and I would not need super large mortgage considering what type of home I want to buy maybe 40-50K. Bigger issue may be stopping such spending once I have started.

Lovely to hear! I also WFH so saves an arm and leg in childcare cost. I feel we have a very similar set up in regard to work so you can definitely do, again keep going. You have the balance I wish for!

I would recommend going for some ratios system, like 40% rent&bills, 30% food, 15%savings, 15%fun. You know your necessary costs, percentage is just an example.

It has the advantage that when you start earning more, you have some system in place, so you actually see the extra both in your spending and in your saving.

I mean no one can tell you what to do but you aren’t seriously saving for a house if you have 10k in savings and 5k debt, therefore 5k in savings.
If you ‘could’ save 20k a year at the minute and you actually only have 5k total then aren’t you just free spending at the minute really?
If your savings are in a HTB isn’t that limited to £200 a month? So you aren’t saving anywhere near your free £1650 at the minute anyway.

Thanks so much, you too! We will get there. It’s not easy trying to buy as a single parent in the South East! I’m near J6 of M25, 30 mins into Victoria, not quite as expensive as some places surrounding London. Good luck

What do you mean you would only take a mortgage on of 40k to buy a London home? How is that possible?!

You want to buy inside the M25 with a £10k deposit and a £40-50k mortgage?!

How is the S&P so narrow? It’s the benchmark of us stock that we have today

and compared to the ftse it’s been growing year on year in value at 12%

even bank of Dave advises investing in it for that reason!

even if you disagree with oP investing in it why would should that discredit Op

Ridiculous comment

*best benchmark

It is only five hundred companies all listed in only one country, an incredibly narrow and biased choice for a UK investor. A decent starting default if you want to be 100% in equities would be the Vanguard Lifestrategy 100.

Life is for living, that's for sure, and I would hope you and your child would be able to afford to have some nice experiences sometimes.

But you chose to have a child when you were very young, so you need to accept that it isn't just about you, and it wouldn't be responsible of you to go wild and spend a ton of money while you have a child you need to consider.

By the time you are in your early 40's, your child will be in their early 20's and (assuming no special needs) able to take care of themselves. That's when you can worry a little less about saving and enjoy your life more.

@luxxlisbon I don’t know why people have such cynical responses with the aim of picking stories apart. I mentioned above we went on holiday recently I spent freely, this took money out of my available funds. The 10k I listed as savings as I can not access it, it is in Lifetime ISA which has an allowance of 20k each year.

@PinkArt @Namechanger355 I live in the commuter belt, a maisonette in my area and other similar areas would be 375-475k. I saw similar properties last year 2 bed with a lovely additional loft room but was closer to 500k. With my earnings, affordability, and credit score I have access to better interest rates. With an income of 75k+ some lenders would allow even a 5% deposit based on circumstances, I am aiming for 10%.

@PinkArt @Namechanger355 to clarify I mean a deposit of 40-50k.