My brother the Natural MSE'er!!!!!!!

themaccas · 25 May 2006 at 4:36PM

My 'baby' brother who is in his early mid 20's came over for lunch today and we spent a few hours chatting about everything and anything. To cut a long story short he left home and came to stay with us 5 years ago for about 6 months. I left home under very difficult circumstances when I was 16, he was only 6 then and my family refused to have anything more to do with me. I was amazed when about 15 years later he tracked me down and got in contact with me, I hadn't seen him in all this time. Anyhow we are now great friends and we get on very well. The thing that amazed me when he left and came to stay was his finances. He was very financially secure and had thousands saved in high interest accounts, he had a fairly good job and, as he had not paid our parents any 'keep', he had saved almost all his salary every month. 6 months after staying with us he put a 50% deposit down on a 2 bed house, he had no debts whatsoever but decided to buy all his white goods on 0% deals. He also got a credit card for the first time. I worried about him at this time because we were really in the poop with our finances and ignoring all the bank letters at the time and I could see how easy it would be for him to go the same way when he had started off so well.

Anyhow 5 years on he paid all his white goods off well within the term and told me today he cut up his credit card after a year as he had used a a couple of times and had seen how quickly the bank raised his credit limit and was afraid he might be tempted to go a bit mad with it. He bought a 2 year old car 18 months ago with a bank loan for 50% of the cost over 5 years. He did have the money to pay for it outright but did not want to use his savings (ok this is not MSE and I have told him that!). He does wear trendy clothes but has very few designer clothes and as for gadgets well as long as they work that is enough for him. Why he is so good with money and I have been so rubbish, I have no idea. He earns around £1200 take home a month and manages to save 25%, I am so proud of him, I really worried when he bought his house he would go on a continuous spending spree but that has not happened, instead he has concentrated on securing his financial future - he even has a pension! I'm so pleased for him, envious but definately mostly proud:j