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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:
PenisBeakerIsMyFavouriteMuppet · 26/03/2021 21:16

@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.
Win-win Grin
OxanaVorontsova · 26/03/2021 21:17

remortgaging at base rate + 0.5% lifetime tracker

AnneElliott · 26/03/2021 21:20

Buying a flat (with DH) young - I was 19

Buying our current house which has nearly doubled in value in 8 years.

Overpaying the mortgage - the last two promotions I have had all the extra money goes straight into the mortgage.

Joining the civil service after Uni as it's a really good pension.

MixedUpFiles · 26/03/2021 21:21

Move to an area with cheaper housing but excellent free schools. If we had stayed in our old area we would have had a large mortgage and tuition costs. Also when our salaries and equity increased, stay in our house, even though we could afford to trade up.

harknesswitch · 26/03/2021 21:21

Paying extra into a final salary pension for 10 years when I was in my 20s.

Not buying an expensive house and concentrating on overpaying on my mortgage

Inaquandry19 · 26/03/2021 21:27

Renting out spare rooms when I split from my partner. It was great having company, my lodgers were fab and it covered my mortgage payments completely which allowed me to basically save what I would have spent.

magicstar1 · 26/03/2021 21:33

Starting my pension aged 22. My dad nagged me into it and I’m so glad I did. My brother wouldn’t listen and now we’re in our 40s. He has nothing and I’ve a couple of hundred thousand in mine.

Cornishclio · 26/03/2021 21:37

Resisting taking on debt wherever possible and budgeting sensibly and saving for the future. Our best decision by far though was moving away from London in the late 1980s and selling our 3 bed semi in a dodgy area to buy a 4 bed detached house in the West Country. Much more affordable and for us a better way of life and thankfully DH was able to get a job transfer and I found work relatively easily too.

BackforGood · 26/03/2021 21:39
  1. From my first FT salary, set up a standing order, on payday to put some money into savings. I'd never had that kind of money before, so never got used to having it.
Even when we were really broke, I still put money into savings on payday and we had to make a considered decision to take the money out of savings, so didn't do it lightly, whereas if it had been in our current account it would be easy to 'just spend' on 'wants' rather than 'needs'.
  1. Taking out - and, importantly understanding - an endowment mortgage
  1. Overpaying the mortgage whenever we could. When I started, mortgage interest rates were 13%, and went up before they went down. When they did start coming down, we kept our payments at the higher rate we'd been used to, and had been living with, so the extra money was paying down little bits of the mortgage every month.
  1. Regularly comparing prices and switching things like Utilities, broadband, but also getting best deals when you need to buy anything new - a car, a washing machine, some wardrobes, a holiday , etc etc etc.
  1. Realising there is nothing wrong with second hand. Cars, clothes, furniture, whatever. I don't understand paying for new when someone is offering you something for free or for a donation to a good cause.
  1. "Looking after the pennies". Make sure I'm not wasting money on things that I can get cheaper elsewhere - even things like buying sweets in the supermarket to take into the cinema / theatre rather than buying a snack there..... taking a picnic / flask rather than trying to buy lunch on a day out, etc. etc.
RosesAndHellebores · 26/03/2021 21:53

Bought property very early at the expense of a social life and discretionary spending for five years
Pension from age 24 (earliest possible in 1984 with my employer)
At 25 I took out a MIP at £50 pcm for 10 years; another at 26 and another at 27. They all paid out about £10k for three years running when DC were babies.

Married DH
Chardonnay tastes/champagne money

BootsScootsAndToots · 26/03/2021 21:56

"Looking after the pennies"

This mindset definitely.

And buying a house in London 10 years ago, and staying put even though I was so homesick, struggling with a newborn, new area of London and probably PND.

We sold up 2.5 years ago and moved home to Australia and now we're mortgage free.

RandomMess · 26/03/2021 22:20

Took out a student loan when they were new, invested it in buying a house before the house prices took off mid 90s. Student loan has just been written off.

Just luck of timing, also worked my way through uni so didn't need to spend the loan. Life was cheaper then!

Dashel · 26/03/2021 22:31

A few things really

Realising that I didn’t need to spend everything I earned that month.

Realising it’s ok to be tight and that keeping up with the Joneses is stupid.

Finding money saving expert when I was young, stupid, single and in debt

Finding Mr Money Mustache when I was older, less stupid, married and mortgage free

Marrying someone who has excellent DIY skills and is a perfectionist. Don’t be afraid of trying something new. We once put a roof on the new garage ourselves, not to save cash actually, but because the roofer kept letting us down- still was a good saving though!

Asking yourself whether you really need something, rather than impulse buying more crap and excess stuff

earsup · 26/03/2021 22:32

I bought a half share in a house my mum had inherited, her sister lived in it, rent free of course as was her home all her life, covenants attached meant i could not sell it etc....aunt passed away and left me her share and i have paid off my loan on it a few years ago from wages...have a small teacher pension...now let out house for £1700 a month so its nice income and will sell in a few years to travel and buy something smaller to let out for income...this method also gave my mum some cash as she never had any pension etc and her sister remained in her home .

supadupapupascupa · 26/03/2021 22:54

Probably qualifying part time whilst full time employed. No student debt.

Buying a house at 19. No years wasted on renting. I needed lodgers for most of it to help afford it! Deposit was cash back.

Marrying DH. I chose wisely and he has provided for us very well.

hellywelly3 · 26/03/2021 22:55

Buying the first house we could afford at 21 rather than saving for our dream home. We’ve never been good with money but owning our own house has really been the best decision we made.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 26/03/2021 22:55

Me and dh moved into my mums box room for 1 year. So small we had to take turns standing up. We saved hard for 1 year. It meant we bought our first home at 23.

KeyboardWorriers · 26/03/2021 22:57

paying into a pension even when in part time low paid jobs

Renting tiny flats until we could afford to buy

Overpaying the mortgage

Not feeling like frugality is the be all and end all - always making sure we also enjoy life and have adventures together as a family ... I have watched my son fight for his life several times, I know that saving /making money has to be balanced with enjoying life now

JackieWeaverFever · 26/03/2021 23:14

When salary increased, living to the same basic standard of living, but putting the extra money into paying off mortgage, adding to pension and building up savings.

This is great advice.
And it's something we do. It means we save a lot every month now.

May17th · 26/03/2021 23:15

@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.
Happy ending that’s lovely!
blue25 · 26/03/2021 23:18

Paying extra into my work pension. It means I’ll be able to retire early on a very comfortable pension.

Overpaying mortgage every month has made a huge difference as well.

silverbubbles · 26/03/2021 23:19

Always working and not taking time off work through out pregnancy and early years of children.

AnnaSW1 · 26/03/2021 23:24

Buying property young and getting £100s of thousands in equity in a short time (London)

Trekkerbabe · 26/03/2021 23:29

Great question and great reading the replies. For those with a pension what do you consider a good pot? I'm single with two children and have no idea whether I'm paying in enough to my work pension. Any thoughts welcome!

Hotelhelp · 26/03/2021 23:35

Since we bought our house we’ve overpaid the mortgage by almost 50% per month and spent most of our spare cash on it too so we should hopefully have a decent chunk of equity when we go to move.

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