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Original poster

What is the best financial decision you have made?

224 replies

Flyingfish111 · 26/03/2021 18:24

What is the best financial decision you have made and why?

If appropriate, has it helped you save for anything in particular?

Trying to rain in my spends and save as much as possible for a house deposit.. both myself and dp have a LISA and have done now for a few years!

I'm not so sure I have a best financial decision but one that stands out is staying at home during my time at university (of course there are downsides to this outside the financial remit) which means I will have paid off my student debt by the age of 35/36+ although I admit I wasn't as savvy as I wished I was in my 20s going on regular holidays and going out drinking etc!

Both myself and DP have also kept our savings in premium bonds and have worked out that we have won more than we would have gained interest, not a significant amount or a life changing amount but a small win all the same!

On the downside, DP is in a bit of a career rut at the moment, stuck in a particular 'specific' field in the civil service (his role is business support for a specific team with some project assistance work) and struggling to move upwards!!! Any other job in his field elsewhere is paid about 5k less. I know that this is something that is holding us back financially, something for my dp (with my support) to think about this year!

OP posts:
Dazedandconfused28 · 26/03/2021 19:52

Mine would be:

As a low earner, saving £5 per week in a stocks & shares ISA, it really built up over time.

Using any pay rises towards savings

Sorting out my pension (still not quite on top of it!)

Overpaying the mortgage - the reduction in interest each time we remortgage saves us between £100 - £200 a month.

Waiting a couple of years to have a baby - and saving the difference between my salary & mat pay beforehand

JustNotFunAnymore · 26/03/2021 19:56

Drawing most of my wage out in one go, separating it into envelopes and budgeting what I had.
Managed to save a fair bit but using money and not my card.

HerBigChance · 26/03/2021 20:04

Paying into decent work pensions for 26 years and paying additional amounts for a few years now
Getting rid of debt and learning to live within my means
Saving into a SIPP and S&S ISA for the last few years

The second of these has allowed me to accrue a secure level of savings if I need to call on them.

cptartapp · 26/03/2021 20:06

Paying into my pension from age 18
Saving, from age 18
Going back to work when DC were four and five months respectively -(thinking long term)
Sticking to two DC
I've also won quite a bit in Premium Bonds.

MeanMrMustardSeed · 26/03/2021 20:11

Overpaying our mortgage for first 5 years by 20% (maximum we could), before children. Did it from day one so never missed it. Had less money to spend, obviously, but meant we could buy a large family home (not crazy large, just good size 4 bed semi) when we left London for new job in Wiltshire. We’ll probably never move again, which is a saving in itself.

sammythesweetcorn · 26/03/2021 20:17

Starting to use YNAB (You Need A Budget). Totally revolutionised my money mindset.

Second best decision was to follow the Dave Ramsey baby steps.

Trinacham · 26/03/2021 20:20

@AlexaShutUp

Overpaying my mortgage at every possible opportunity.
was going to say this. We pay the maximum every year that we can. Can't feel the freedom yet (other than paying out less every month when we came out of our initial fix) but to be mortgage free so young (we're 28 and 30 and plan to be rid of it in the next 2 years!) will be amazing.
AnaofBroceliande · 26/03/2021 20:23

Having private health insurance. Not marrying a lazy person.

Original poster
Flyingfish111 · 26/03/2021 20:25

@Lostinthewilderness ooooh I have a flexible job, hadn't really realised how much this would benefit me with childcare in the future. Sorry if a stupid question, how do you manage it so you can save costs with childcare? Do you start late/finish early and then wfh? Or do you do compressed hours and maybe work less days a week?

I am contracted to 35 hours, I dont have fixed hours as long as I meet my hours for the whole week, although I do regular site visits so sometimes I have no choice but to work certain hours!

OP posts:
Mumblechum0 · 26/03/2021 20:26

Paying our £750k mortgage off over 10 years 20 years ago. It was v v tough but worth it.

Starting my own small but v successful Will writing firm after 20years lining the pockets of the partners in the Solicitors firms I worked in.

ParkheadParadise · 26/03/2021 20:30

Getting Married 😆

DareIask · 26/03/2021 20:34

Taking a pension without a lumps sum. Meant earlier retirement was possible as the monthly sum was bigger.

Original poster
Flyingfish111 · 26/03/2021 20:36

@Trinacham wow I am seriously impressed! You are younger than me and we havent even got on the ladder yet! How have you done this, any tips? Are you both high earners? You must both be very proud of yourselves, you've done fantastic!

OP posts:
PenisBeakerIsMyFavouriteMuppet · 26/03/2021 20:39

Marrying an only child Grin

But seriously-

Bought my first property as early as I could so I didn’t have to deal with rising rents eating into my deposit.

Every payday, savings come out and into their respective accounts- I don’t miss it because it’s gone before I can see it.

Several years ago, we did a budget and have stuck to it. We have a set amount each for personal spends, a set amount into different savings accounts, and then the rest for bills. As our salaries increased, the increases went into savings and pensions. We are now in a position where we save 100% of one salary, 20% of the other, and the rest is for bills and fun money.

LookAChicken · 26/03/2021 20:43

Long term frugality.

Nothing exciting.

Calculating interest payments on mortgage.
After getting over the shock, paying down mortgage whenever possible.

EssentialHummus · 26/03/2021 20:45

I bought a small ex-council flat in a nice part of London and it doubled in value in 4 years.

This for me too. I bloody love that flat, I remember the sacrifices I made to buy it.

APurpleSquirrel · 26/03/2021 20:49

Made a very cheeky offer on a new-build house. Was advised by the agent that the house builders (Redrow) wanted to sell as many houses before the end of their financial year (June), that three houses weren't shifting as they had north-facing gardens & if we made an offer on one it would likely be accepted.
We were first-time buyers & had a small deposit but we asked the house builders to reduce the price of the house & give us a 5% deposit which on top of our cash deposit allowed us to get into the 80% LTV mortgage range.
We also had to complete before end of June. We couldn't choose our kitchen but could choose our flooring.
They accepted the offer & it meant we paid £15k less than anyone else on our estate for our house type.

Elsiebear90 · 26/03/2021 20:55

Buying when we did, house has increased in value by 20% in two years

Having our initial mortgage fixed for only two years, have now remortgaged and saved ourselves £170 a month

Having a budget

KikoMiko · 26/03/2021 20:56

Taking out critical illness cover as an invincible 20 something. It had got to the point at 48 where it was costing quite a bit each month but I was too scared to stop the policy. Got diagnosed with cancer last year and it paid out. I now have a pretty decent deposit to hopefully put towards our own home at long last. Luckily, I'm also now cancer free too.

Macarena1990 · 26/03/2021 21:03

Buying a tiny little flat 20 years ago in a not very desirable part of London that doubled in value in 2 years, which then meant that I could buy a bigger, nicer one in a more desirable part!

Conditionconditioncondition · 26/03/2021 21:04

@KikoMiko

Taking out critical illness cover as an invincible 20 something. It had got to the point at 48 where it was costing quite a bit each month but I was too scared to stop the policy. Got diagnosed with cancer last year and it paid out. I now have a pretty decent deposit to hopefully put towards our own home at long last. Luckily, I'm also now cancer free too.
This makes me so happy
Trinacham · 26/03/2021 21:08

[quote Flyingfish111]@Trinacham wow I am seriously impressed! You are younger than me and we havent even got on the ladder yet! How have you done this, any tips? Are you both high earners? You must both be very proud of yourselves, you've done fantastic![/quote]
Smile
We aren't high earners - base salaries of just over 20k. We do a lot of regular overtime though, which equates to salaries of more like 26-27k. I guess it is easy for us to squirrel this away at the minute as we are pre-kids! We are frugal but do live a little as well. It helps that we are colleagues as well as husband and wife, so we commute together, running only one car.
Our mortgage was originally 150k, 6 years ago, now currently £67k left. Does feel very good to have got it down this low! We may get another mortgage one day if we outgrow this house, but it is nice to think of the interest we've saved on this one!

notapizzaeater · 26/03/2021 21:09

Paying the maximum into my pension as soon as I was 18 so I never noticed it, means even though I was a SAHM for 12 years my pot is currently worth > £200k and I've another 13/14 years working.

minniemoocher · 26/03/2021 21:14

I bought a flat in 1995, friends thought I was mad, why not house share and go on lots of city breaks they said, then house prices in London went crazy, I sold for 3x the value 8 years later (if I had kept it would have been 12 fold but we relocated elsewhere)

SplendidSuns1000 · 26/03/2021 21:15

I married very well Grin

Also save as much as possible whilst still living comfortably. Dh was very financially savvy before we met and invested a small inheritance into a business and now owns multiple buildings and his own business. We put most of our money into savings and if we haven't used them by a certain point we'll likely invest in other properties too.