What's a lesson you learn the hard way in regards to money and finances

[Cupcakeicecream]

What's a lesson you learn the hard way in regards to money and finances.

When mum was organising grandma's funeral, she was told that you're better off paying money into a savings account instead of paying for one of those funeral plans that are advertised.

I'd say 'Never lend anyone money' - which is why I've never loaned anyone money. I'll outright give money if I can when someone's in need, but I won't lend.

Neither a borrower nor lender be
Live below your means
Get a job with a good pension, even if it isn't 'glamourous' or your 'dream'
Live below your means
Don't use credit other than for a home, a car, or absolutely necessary repairs
If you DO charge frivolous/unnecessary things, pay it off in 3 mos or do without
Live below your means
Save as much as you can
Live below your means

Some was learnt the hard way. Some was learnt from my parents. Some was learnt by watching friends financially fall on their faces.

Don't take out a loan to buy something that won't outlast the loan period.

Agree 💯

Don't get married!

Hell yeah !! I’ll add joint savings account as well and credit cards.

Be very aware that when most people ask you to "lend" money they actually mean "give" and will be huffy and indignant if you ask for it back, then not pay you back, then ask to "borrow" more. Bitter experience, oh yes.

If you do have a joint account and split up, remember to clear it out before he gets the chance to. Lesson learnt the hard way!
Shop around every year for car and house insurance renewals, and then try negotiating with your current company before switching.

@Iamboredandgoingforatwix not sure I agree with this re; housing.

You need a home. A mortgage payment is roughly the same as rent. Even if the market crashes you will still own a bigger percentage of the house. I accept the the house may now be worth less than you paid for it but I still think this better than renting.

If you have rented you will have nothing to show for the years of rent you have paid.

I accept this comes from a position of privilege.

Are you kidding?!!! I am sure ours is all in....😱

scuttles off to check...

I've reported OP for consistently starting threads seeking opinions and never returning to them. I'd suggest people stop feeding the OP. If she wants to publish hints and tips then she needs to use her own brain rather than getting MN to do the work for her.

There's been a lot of this lately.

That may be the case, but some posters will be getting some helpful information from this.

Don't to about money to strangers on the internet.

@WuTangGran thanks for that. At the bottom of the article it refers to paying regular monthly payments from your salary into ISAs or SIPPs which is a bit different to having cash in the bank and feeding it in monthly/weekly. And that's what I meant by drip feeding.

I would be wary about investing a big lump sum in one go unless it was into a very diversified fund. If you're investing a big lump sum into individual shares in one go you definitely need to do lots and lots of research beforehand and that takes time which not everyone has. I don't have the confidence to do this and would have the "paralysis" so I do the monthly drip!

Don't be too frugal in your later years if you have the money. The number of people I see who could massively improve their quality of life if they spent even a tiny fraction of their 'savings' , but refuse to because of some ingrained principle.

You enter this world with nowt and you leave it with nowt !

Well what little she had in her savings was used to pay off the credit card debt she’d racked up buying shit off QVC so in my situation, a funeral plan would have been better.

Roommates can and will screw up over. They see rent as optional. It’s better to live alone and struggle to eat then to live with a roommate and worry if you will have a roof over your head next month.

Don't be complacent about your earnings potential.

You don't have to have a big career, but you must, at least, have the skills to be able to do another role - because you never know when you'll need to. Learn IT skills especially, because it will be a thousand times easier to learn everything else if you can do that.

There are SO many online courses that you can take that could get you into a job earning 5k more. Keep doing that every couple of years, and before you know it, you're on a decent whack.

David Ramsey’s baby steps actually work. I used to have credit card debt and a car loan as well as the mortgage and just felt like it was part of normal life. Never had any spare money. Never had any idea where money was going. I read about the baby steps and thought they were a load of tosh and wouldn’t work for us and our situation. About two extra loans and one year later I read it again and decided to just give it a try. We’ve since paid off all our debts, have six months of expenses in savings and are on track to clear our mortgage in July 2024. There’s no way on earth I thought I’d be mortgage free before my 39th birthday. It hasn’t always been easy but my god I’m thankful. Still no real idea who Dave Ramsey is though haha!

I sound like an ad or a book review when reading that back, I promise I'm not. The baby steps are all online for free and have changed our life so much so I do tell anyone and everyone

Don't remortgage to release equity unless you know you plan on staying in your house forever/many, many years and don't rely on a recent hike in prices as the 'equity'

My parents were terrible with money. As a small child I can remember being scared that someone was coming to the house, though didn’t know what they were going to do, just knew they were owed money. All my clothes, shoes, presents, everything was bought on credit. As a13 year old I offered my record player to my mother to sell as she and my father were constantly talking about money they owed. ( I got yelled at and called ungrateful for that) so I learnt young to never have debt.
I’ve never had a credit card, a loan or overdraft. I’ve lived in a tiny house and driven older cars, never owned a designer anything, but I’ve never owed a penny.
Not sure if my way is the right way but the fear of those childhood days has stayed with me.

Don't lend money to anyone. You end up begging for your own money back and become the monster in this process.