Hi,
I do wish schools would provide some financial education for people.
Going to break things down for you i to arenas…. So yuu is can try to pick and choose…
The greasy pole…. Yep, even in the Nhs there are people on 6 digit salaries. You have to broaden your skills, go the extra mile, learn to play the game, suck up to idiots, look for sidesteps where one step of skills will compliment another sector and you can get new skills.
Side hustles…. I will stick to the more socially acceptable ones, but there are other options out there. If you are very pretty, or very engaging as a person, it’s a huge head start for social media channels, which although they can take a long time to become lucrative, when they do, it becomes an insane income source. But friends of mine do the less fanciful ones, take on second jobs, cleaning, bar work, restaurant work, etc.
Compromise…. You can’t have it all…. Having a partner who has the same shared goals is amazing, but be prepared for excess working hours, spending a lot less than you do normally, putting bits of your life on hold for the long term. Eating out, drinking out, dressing up, travel, children, sky tv, faster broadband, cigarettes or vaping, are all expensive. The fire community helps with their guide to be financially independant, so you may find usefull resources there. About a decade ago my family and I looked back at the orevioua decade and what was great about it - we came to the conclusion, the things we remembered best, was experiences, not stuff. Ice creams or chips by the seaside with favourite family members, trumped huge gifts, when we did go on holidays, we did houses in remote locations, had fabulous times playing games, stoking the fire, exploring a world far away from the routine.
Investments….. Such a minefield…. But a couple of basic bits of guidance i wish someone had given me in my twenties…. We are nearly all taxed to the point we can’t save, but what you can save, get it into a tax free wrapper, either a SIPP or a Stocks and Shares ISA. If you can’t trust yourself to not dip into it, go the SIPP route, but ideally do a bit of both. Once you have that, then learn about ETF’s, compare them using websites like Trustnet, focus on the Vanguard funds initially, don’t expect to make millions overnigh, but learn about the power of compounding and dollar cost averaging. Once you have some experience and confidence, willing to take a bit more risk, never gambling more than 5% of your saving on any one share, then you can take on more risk. It will be very slow to start with, but the more you save, the longer you save, the more you take advantage of the tax allowances, and invest, you’ll be surprised how quickly it begins to add up. I’ve seen complaints on Mumsnet about just how many millionaires were created during Covid, or became multimillionaires, but this strategy is how, and it’s just normal people who have made sacrifices to be investors, who achieved this. People don’t shout about it because there’s so much hate about making money online, but the reality is, that route is open to all, and families who are financially educating themselves and their kids eventually will be the winners.
You can do it. It just takes effort, compromise, and then knowing what to do with the proceeds of the above. I started in a small run down part of poverty stricken Scotland, with 1 outside loo in our tenement, shared with 3 other families. My first job i earnt 6k a year. I’ve never made money through property, indeed i don’t have a mortgage or a paid off home, so my route to wealth was uninspiring until i learnt about how to invest, using ISA’s and SiPPs. My family didn’t know this stuff either, so the best i can hope for from them was a very small portion of a small property in Scotland, which now, i would reject and pass onto my nieces via an investment account to help them.
Good luck to you and i hope you make good choices.