We want to be wealthy! A thread to share ideas on how to achieve financial independence

[ilyana]

I asked a question in another forum about how to get wealthier and improve my lifestyle and financial situation in my late thirties, and I got some really helpful advice.

Several posters were keen to set up a thread to talk about topics we don't get taught about at school, such as investing in stocks and shares, lucrative side gig ideas, and air miles on credit cards, and so here we are!

This is a positive thread about encouraging other women to aim high and reach their goals, so please only contribute with positive, relevant advice. Of course, questions are very welcome too!

I think barbers seville posted something on charts about what money should go where.

I'm not financially savvy at all but I've learned how to invest and in still learning.

Barbara's link however made me stop my dd into the isa and re direct it temporary into premium bonds.

I ve decoded that's the best place to to build up 5 grand of savings and once I've done that, another 2 somewhere then back to isa!

Do you happen to know where the chart would be?

I have an Amex code if anyone is interested? You get a bonus of 30,000 Avios when you spend £3000 in the first 3 months (& I get a bonus of £14,000 Avios)
https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/nICOLHpIR2?CPID=100514345

Found a good website to actually book the Avios fllights as well, finally! Off to Iceland at Easter next year for just £100 for 4 of us during school holidays

https://www.seatspy.com/index

I have S&S ISA and SIPP with Vanguard. Pay myself first, at the beginning of the month, with a Direct Debit set up for both. Also have small amount in Premium Bonds as emergency fund and just set up 4.5% instant access saver with CHIP. About to cancel the £250 overpayment to my 10yr fixed mortgage (2.49% runs out in 5 yrs) to regularly pay the £250 into CHIP and the small excess in interest will be a bonus and use the chunk saved to pay off half of the remainder of the mortgage. Hope to be mortgage free in 7 or 8 years time. Which will mean we have serviced our mortgage over 30 years...had about 10 yrs 'off' when babies were small and we changed mortgage to interest only.

@ChocolateHelps that one seems to be for the gold card not BA Amex for flights? Just checking - with this card you don't get the companion voucher do you?

www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/referral/prospect/sTEPHHGPh9?XL=MIMNS

Above link for anyone interested. 26,000 points when you spend £3,000 in the first three months (we will also get 9,000 points). This card is fee paying, £250 a year but your companion voucher can be used to fly business class as opposed to the free card which you can't do that with. You need to spend £10k a year to get the companion voucher. You get an extra 1,000 points for using the link ☺️

That is not a good offer
wait until there is a general offer and then get a referral

you will get st least double that in sign up avios

I don't get a companion voucher but do get priority lounge passes, 4 i think. We move between the Amex gold and the BA barclaycard...which comes with the companion vouchers...we have a family account and pool our avios together which helps build the avios faster.

honestly follow headforpoints (i have no links but the owner rob is raffles on ba flyertalk )

Hi have been following the points discussion.

It's always more beneficial to use referral codes as they will offer more sign up points than if you just sign up on the website. For example with the Gold card the current offer is 25k points (up from 20k) whereas if you sign up using a invitation code it's 30k. If the referral wasn't more beneficial they'd be no point for a referral scheme.

Headforpoints is excellent though in terms of detailing the different cards and benefits.

Before everyone gets too excited about these credit card offers, don't forget you need to be very self disciplined when you use them. Banks love credit cards because they make billions in profits from them..

referrals can be used alongside bonus sign ups sometimes which is what i what i said to look for. A referral is vey often much worse than a sign up offer - the good offers are well advertised when they come. No one just signs up with s standard website offer unless they need a card now/ they wait

30,000 is a really poor offer
you will get double that if you wait and watch for a decent offer
it was 600000 without any referral a couple of months ago

Hi great thread!

Has anyone mentioned using a LISA to get the £1000 gov bonus?

You can only access the money for a deposit for your first property or when you reach 60 and have to be under 40 to open one.

I just got in before I was 40.

We do a bit of everything - save a bit, splurge a bit, overpay on the mortgage.

I'm not sure we'll ever be wealthy but DD will!

I use Hargreaves Lansdowne for my ISA's - it's a mix of funds and individual shares.

Place marking, need money for DDs.

I would add that we have 3 unused companion vouchers and 750,000 odd avios as redemptions are a total pita post covid

we used to do 2x1st redemptions year but cabin size cut and - st removed from many routes

i have tokyo and Singapore booked in club (always done 1st before) but generally redemptions are not s good as they were and ‘taxes’ about £700 per person.

plus redemptions dont earn tier points and ba status is more useful than avios flights

My idea of wealthy is just to be debt free.

I don't have stocks, savings, shares, investments, nothing.

I earn £1300 a month and so does DH.

We have crippling debt from going part time and paying nursery fees twice over in the last 5 years and buying a car.

ATM we pay £700 a month as a loan repayment. That's the lowest I could get, with two consolidation loans.

We own our house on a mortgage and it has £60k ish equity in it.

I've been told I can't release it unless I'm in my 50's?

I'm early 30's.

If I could somehow get rid of that £700 payment a month we could honestly live rather comfortably.

Any ideas on what I can do as a side hustle that could earn £700 a month?

Most of these posts won’t make one wealthy, but by implementing some of these strategies may allow you to shop in Sainsbury's rather than Lidl 😂 Although the definition of wealthy is subjective.
If you truly want to build wealth you need to be very financially literate. You need to understand money, the way it works, economics. I’d start with reading How to Own the World. Understand compounding, asset classes.
I started investing in stocks aged 18. By 35 I bought my house in cash in the Home Counties just from selling 3 stocks that I held. Time in the market is vital. Understanding financial markets is key. It’s a lifestyle, with the need to read into this on a weekly basis, not a research once and that’s it.

@stars345 are you full time now? Your post suggests that you and your partner are both PT? The obvious point is to start there if you are not both working the equivalent of FT. Then you both need to look at taking on additional work. Do you have any skills you could utilise as an income stream such as tutoring? ‘Equity release’ doesn’t just refer to the schemes advertised on TV for retiring people, it can also mean remortgaging your home for a larger amount and taking out a lump sum to fund something else - a BTL/Car/school fees/investments/home improvements etc. that said, with a £700pcm loan on a £2600pcm income stream, it’s unlikely that a bank is going to increase your LTV and thus your monthly payments. So you both need to focus on removing the debt. £700pcm is very doable if you both contribute from a second income stream. No so much if it is falling on your shoulders only. You both need to accept that for a while focusing on removing the debt will be tiring, you’ll have less free time but you will be better off in the longer term. If we know your skill set we might be able to suggest a few ideas.

Starting point would be to have a robust household budget. Check every payment, make sure you are on the best deals. How long will the £700pcm loan last? Head over to the debt threads on here. Lots of practical advice on reducing debt and strategies to pay off debt more quickly.

Great thread.

Here’s a few things we do, by no means “Rich” but we are comfortable.

• save monthly into an S&S ISA (we use the the Vanguard life strategy products) we save for me, my DH and a small amount for my DS1.
• overpay into our pensions. We are both higher rate tax payers, we benefit by overpaying a % into our pensions.
• emergency Fund in premium bonds
• ALL day to day spending is on the Barclaycard Avios plus credit card. It’s accepted everywhere (unlike Amex) and is really working for us
• Pay down debt, we have a couple of car loans (personal loans, not car finance) which we overpay each month.
• save monthly into pots for known spending. Eg. Holidays, car mot/insurance, house annual bills.
• priortise getting extra income, make the scary career moves and don’t get too comfortable in a role - always look for the next step. Focus on keeping and improving your skills

hope this helps!

So to those with good advice / very savvy, as there seem to be a lot of you here!, if you had say £15k (no debt, and an additional £15k emergency fund in place) but unfortunately not enough income to do any regular saving or investing, what would you do with that 15k to try and maximise? Currently sat in PBs where we have been extremely unlucky despite the prize fund increasing. Dave Ramsey approach doesn't work for us beyond the first few as we don't have 15% spare income to invest. Currently nothing left after the bills (we are and probably always will be relatively low earners)

I use the Moneybox app; it rounds up my spending plus takes a set amount each week and on payday and puts into a S&S ISA.

I have had it for about 4 years now and the return so far has been 14%

How much are you paying in interest on your debt each month?

Sorry noticed you have no debt, I would stick the £15k in a stocks and shares ISA.

@carlottacandle it depends very much on your objectives for the money. Eg if it is to fund retirement or you are nearly at that age, and you won’t need to access it before (55-57) as you have another emergency fund, you could funnel it into pensions to get the tax relief (and instantly add an extra £3750 before any investment growth.)

If the money is for something shorter term best not shut it away into pensions.

Yes, consider what you might want to do with the money. If you don't expect to touch it for more than about 5 years, S&S ISA, maybe put £5k each into three different index tracker funds.

But think about whether you might need the money for something like a new car, windows or roof.

Investing is likely to beat cash over time, but is volatile so you want to avoid needing to access the money when the market is down.

You might plan to transfer into cash later on and the advantage of having different funds is that if any have dropped in value you can leave those alone and take money from the other ones.

I have a mortgage which is part repayment and part interest only. If I over pay, which is it better to hit?

I assumed repayment, but someone who is pretty financially savvy told me to hit the interest only part, but I can't recall why and am now questioning the advice!

Anyone know ?