What financial advice would you give your younger self?

[JinksySaur]

What advice would you give your younger self?

I'd probably tell my 18 year old self to stop spaffing my year-out job money up the wall, and invest it instead 😂

I'd tell my early-20s self to open a pension and drip a bit in each month.

I'd tell my early-30s self to increase salary sacrifice.

Does anyone find themselves giving the advice to their kids that they wished they’d had when they were young?

I’d consider myself relatively fortunate in that a make a decent (not massive by any stretch) wage in a very cheap area of the uk (60k each for me and my husband), and we met young so could buy early. We then made a smart choice (while we were still young and quite poor) to buy a relative’s property after a redundancy had hit their income, so we take rent that covers the mortgage payment only.

Because of this good fortune, I do worry about whether my son can be as lucky with his choices. My big ones (some of which I haven’t done but wished I had) are:

1. while living at home, save as much of your salary as possible
2. 2 savings accounts - one is never ever touch which is for emergencies or house, and one is big stuff like holidays or a car.
3. Split your finances equally and fairly. As long as you both put in the same effort to work (or alternatively to provide the childcare etc), you should both live the same lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if one of you is a SAHP or one of you earns twice the other, if you are making a life together then you both deserve the same standard of living. That means shared (or separate but equal) savings, pooled finances, and equal (or free but reasonable access to) spending money for fun stuff.
4. pension and share portfolios - try to put the maximum tax free amounts into workplace share schemes and put a large portion of your salary into a pension young
5. don’t be afraid to enjoy the rest though - life is for living so still have the holiday, buy the new trainers, within reason
6. stretch when you are young, not when you are old. Buy that bigger house when you are young and before you have bills, don’t wait until you have too many kids and commitments and less years to spread the mortgage. I stretched to buy my large 3/4 bedroom detached (listed as 4 but one is downstairs so we don’t use as a 4th bedroom, it is extra living space) and haven’t had to move. I could move now, but the increase in the payments would be so much that I just cannot justify the change to my lifestyle to allow for the extra costs.

I think these are my biggest ones.

Stretching to buy a bigger house when young isn’t really possible today, most need help from family in some form just to get on the ladder

No debts. Save anything you can. Get a household budget.

Education, education so you can get an excellent job ideally one with perks like private healthcare. additional life insurance, stock options. excellent pension, etc. Marry someone in similar job ideally with family money particularly if you don’t have any.

Then you will have plenty to enjoy a nice life & save/invest repeat with your dc etc

Start investing at 18

Stay single
Don't have kids
Only buy used cars

Invest in any company share schemes and a stocks and shares ISA. Just a small amount each month will add up.

Also spend money enjoying yourself while you can! If you want to take that trip just put it on an interest free card as long as you have a job and can sensibly pay it back. Might sound irresponsible but when you settle down and have kids it’s not so easy to go travelling. I wouldn’t have gone to some amazing places had I not done that!

Stay single......

Ask a different relative to go guarantor on the student mortgage you wanted. He would have said yes. The flat you wanted sold for £25,000 when you were looking and is now selling for 10 times that!

Don’t waste money on stuff when the DC are babies. You were generally quite sensible but tiredness did kick in and lead to some daft decisions.

Everything else you were fairly sensible with.

Don’t buy horses , ever .

Don't have kids ! I'm sure I would be minted childless ( only joking ) . Have a different career one that paid better

You don’t need it…invest the money instead.

Start a pension as soon as you are earning. Prioritise this over everything else.

Pension, pension, pension. Squirrel away even small amounts, even when young.
Don't take on debt, and if you do, get rid of it as quickly as possible.
Don't smoke, and if you start, stop as quickly as possible.
Pay yourself first into a savings account, even small amounts, even when young.
Do something meaningful with pay rises, even small ones. Put half aside. Always keep some for yourself to enjoy now, Balance is crucial.
Avoid, avoid, avoid, boyfriends who are crap with money, and those who don't have the same values as you about money.
Stay single, and if you don't, try to marry someone who has the same values as you about money, and stay married for a very long time.
Be careful who you speak to about your finances, even family members, particularly those who always need to 'borrow'.
Try to get to grips with investing over the long term, rather than saving. There is more information out there than ever about this, and many more of us are investing than we think if we have a workplace pension.
Whatever you're doing with money: small amounts, all the time. Look up the power of compounding and how it starts to do the heavy lifting,
Pension, pension, pension, even small amounts.

Avoid getting into relationships with financially unstable men, even if they seem really nice. I really wish someone had told me this

Take packed lunches to work and don’t ever turn down a freebie.

Save as much as you can (while still having fun) and buy a house /flat young before settling down. side advice...Learn how to drive...

this is excellent

This is still me in my 40s. I can't seem to build up the confidence to open a S&S ISA! I'm too risk averse!

I made all the right decisions.

My one bit of advice would be to draw your weekly spends in cash - easier to stop it slipping away when you can see it physically leaving your purse.

Health insurance for your DC. It's as cheap as chips up to 18. Notwithstanding grommets and post fracture physio, it was worth its weight in gold when dd was unwell (eating, anxiety, depression) and CAMHS refused support. BUPA stumped about £10k. If we'd relied on CAMHs, she'd have dropped out of school, her confidence would never have recovered and she'd probably be on min wage now.

Learn to budget and to plan. For short, medium and long term. No one in my family ever did that, and I was never taught. (Still don't know how to do it properly)

Buy the flat. £60k may seem like a lot now but trust me, it'll be worth it. Take out a pension.

When your newly-married husband tells you he’s going to buy a sports car/motorbike outright, without even checking that it’s what you want as well, walk away…

…though if I had, I wouldn’t have my lovely DC…

…but you get the point: if it’s clear that he’s not on your team, run!

Otherwise, I’m happy with my choices: have fun, have DC, but invest in your pension EVERY MONTH, be financially independent, use debt strategically, monitor cash flow to the last penny, never pause your career, maximise income, minimise expenditure.

Stop buying unnecessary self care products, makeup perfumes, clothes, shoes, bags. Buy less, buy good quality. Youngsters are heavily influenced to be consumers & none of the excess makes them any more attractive or respected. It’s all such a waste of money, especially when you look back on wish you could’ve saved. Focus on priorities.

I made all the right decisions

What background did you have @RosesAndHellebores? Ime people who make all the right decisions come from fairly privileged backgrounds & have a big step up in life.