What do you wish you’d known when you first became financially independent? Tell Lloyds Bank for a chance to win a £300 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Lloyds Bank have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters wish they had known about personal finances when they first became financially independent.

So, what do you wish you'd known? Maybe you didn't quite appreciate how expensive buying a house would be. Maybe you didn't think about saving when you were younger. Perhaps you wish you'd known how best to invest your savings. Or did you find it all quite easy? We'd love to hear your stories!

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks
MNHQ

I wish I'd know just how much of an investment buying a flat in London would have been when I first moved to the capital as a student. I would have borrowed money from my Grandma for the deposit and paid her her rent until I could afford to take over the mortgage. If I had done that I would be a homeowner with a property worth many times what I paid for it instead of still renting twenty years on.

The one thing I wish I had known as a teenager was not to use store cards & credit cards.

To start a pension much much sooner than I did. And to put extra in, especially after having babies and going part time. Destroyed my pension :(

I wish I knew how important it was to build a good credit history starting from when you leave home. An overdraft is not free money, neither is a credit card. It's the first chance you get to demonstrate that you can be sensible with money and start building up a good credit rating ready for being properly financially independent. I am 29 years old and only just digging myself out of a huge and embarrassing financial hole.

That money is hard to save but easy to spend.
Save even a little bit each month for what you need but also if you can, what you want.

We're off to Florida next year and I've been saving since our little one was born nearly 6 ago.

I wish I had had the advice and confidence to a) buy a property in a run down area of London as an investment and b) paid into a pension from the get go. I'll be doing that for my daughter as soon as she starts work.

Saving as many have said too. Pensions too from an early age.

don't give the student loans company your parents address. i was a financially independent student of 21 yet they managed to con it out of me. silly girl.

Not so much didn't know, but didn't want to listen... Save as much as you can each month.
Material things really are just stuff, but having savings behind you can mean the difference between being able to move on and be happy or being stuck in a situation because you don't have the money to leave.

Start saving 10% of your earnings from your very first job, even if it's just a teenagers paper round. No one ever thinks they can afford to save but make it an automatic standing order each month so it seems like just another tax and you won't know any different.

As soon as you get a proper FT job, save 10% or just £50 a month in an index tracker fund every month. After a few years you'll be amazed how much it accumulates.

I have to say I found it relatively easy. I had had an allowance for all my clothes, socialising transport et cetera since I was 14. It was only £15 which in the early 90s wasn't a much money. So are used by all my close second hand, have lots of different jobs and ways to make money. Made made me a bit too tight at some points!

That you're only a few missed payments from eviction. Luckily I haven't been in this position but I've heard it before and sort of put the frighteners up me.
My mum also said if you can't afford it, you don't have it. A lot of people I know have put themselves in debt due to wanting things they had no means to pay for.

Becoming financially independent came at the same time as moving to my own home. I set up DD's for everything, but completely forgot about the TV license!! Few months down the line came a visit followed by a court appearance and a large fine. Was gutted as I'd never been in trouble before (not even at school!!) and it felt like a huge issue.

Also wished I had earned enough to save something.

that it's ok to spend money, i was a bit too serious and squirreled away every spare penny when i'd'ce been better off with sligtly less aavings and a bit more fun

Save save save but remember it is ok to spend. It's not a crime.

Take time to work out what is important to you. Whether it's holidays, clothes, having a house etc. Not everyone wants the same thing so work out what works for you.

My parents always taught me to not go into debt so I never used credit card or store cards but I wish they'd encouraged me to save.
I also had an opportunity to buy in london in my early 20's but everyone advised me against it.
I'm still annoyed I didn't follow my instincts or get better advice.

To save 10% of post tax income each and every month regardless. To put money for bills aside into separate account to build up 'excess' for me not for energy companies. That I don't need the latest gadgets and that financial security is more important than a neither pair of shoes...

I wish I'd had the maturity to save. Sadly that can't be taught.

I wish I'd known more about interest rates and APRs and pensions.

I wish I'd had the foresight not to spend on a credit card and treat it like free money thinking because I was young I had all the time in the world to deal with it.

As a student money is thrown at you. I just wig if known what to accept and what to wisely turn down. Instead of spending it all. In the student union.

I wish I had saved money. When i think of how much disposable income I had before I had DD which I just wasted away, I want to weep.

Sadly my father was mentally ill and my mother only left him when we were grown. As a result I left home as soon as I could and we had no stability growing up finacially. He was either loaded or broke and going bankrupt. I then had a child at 18 to escape hell and had no idea about money....
As a result life has been a rollercoaster. I wish I had saved, not thought bad holidays and fun days out made me a good mum nor expensive clothes. Its only in the last few years I have got myself today, have a good job and paid off nearly 80,000 in debt. I could have gone bankrupt but paid it off bit by bit instead.
I just wish I had a better start. Can't be helped though....

Big holidays
Together....
Bloody auto correct

I wish I had known:

• how hard it is to earn Money, but how easy it is to spend!!
• just the sheer volume of payments associated with independent living rent, electricity, gas, phone line & calls, tv licence, council tax, insurance, fuel, food etc. it would have been useful to have a tool input salary and visually see the proportion of costs you could afford for one thing if you increased or decreased other outgoings.
• to make my money work for me, like getting the right type account, checking fluctuating interest rates, saving in ISA's etc.
• to invest in property early, rather than throwing money away on high rental.
• to ask questions. If you are not sure what you are doing, go to your bank and work through ways to cut back outgoings, like switching accounts, changing your mortgage, avoiding bank charges abroad, anything. It will save you money in the long run.

Don't take out loads of catalogues and credit cards just because you can.

I wish I'd known that I could have got a mortgage back then. That I could have got a loan from my bank for a car. That I didn't have to rent. That I didn't have to use a horrific apr car finance place.

As an 18 year old you feel all of that is for your parents age. I made some awful money decisions as a late teen :-(