Savings Log of a 26yr old on low pay

MoneySaverLog

MoneyWaster2007 wrote: »

Don't think I can move up the ladder where I am currently working because my immediate boss is a useless !!!!!! and we do not get on.

Had the same problem, one way round it is to move out, sideways move to another dept for example, to move up.

Just an idea.

MoneyWaster2007

tushingham - thanks for that!! I didn't fully understand the rules of ISA's up until now. Cheers for the link aswell. My plan is now to withdraw approximately £500 from my ISA the day before the end of the tax year, then wait until the interest is added to the ISA...then...tranfer all of that to a 2 year fixed rate ISA...and use the £500 as 'new money' to open up a new instant access ISA, where the interest is lower but I can easily access my money, with £500 being a decent amount to start with, should I experience any car problems etc.

Was thinking today that it would be wise to pay my car insurance in full this year, even if that means dipping into my ISA in order to do so. Because in the long run it will save me cash as opposed to paying in installments, agreed??

And going to do the same type of thing with car tax as it's cheaper to get 12 months worth rather than 6 :cool:

MoneySaverLog - it's a smallish company where I work, so the fact that I don't get on with my boss is not something I can 'go around.' Nice idea though! Thanks. Just keep checking the job centre website daily now in the hope of finding something

ViolaLass

You don't need to wait until the end of the year for the interest to be added - if you transfer, the interest you have earned up to that point will be added to your money.

MoneyWaster2007

When will the interest be added? As soon as the transfer is complete or as soon as it's the new tax year?

ViolaLass

MoneyWaster2007 wrote: »

When will the interest be added? As soon as the transfer is complete or as soon as it's the new tax year?

When the old bank works out how much money it's transferring to the new bank - it will arrive in the new ISA all in one.

minis121

Dude, you haven't posted in over a month and a half. I think everyone who watches this thread with interest wants to know how your doing! :j

MoneyWaster2007

Sorry about the huge delay in posting...I was having a think and wondered if anyone I know was reading this thread and if so, that would mean they know my financial status to the penny...so it's put me off sharing too much info about my finances...

Got a question though: I used to put 'x' amount of cash into various different accounts to cover annual expenses such as car tax. So for example if my car tax is £130, i'd put £10.83 aside each month (£130 divided by 12 months).

But now I've adopted a different method, wherein I just put ALL of my surplus into one pot (my ISA) as this pays the highest interest and when an expense comes up I draw on the ISA. So this means my ISA balance is constantly fluctuating and it's difficult to predict how my savings will grow with time.

So the question is: is this new method the best way of dealing with 'larger annual expenses?'

ViolaLass

You could try using a spreadsheet - my savings are only in one or two accounts but my spreadsheet covers around 8 'pots', which means that I know how much of my money is really savings.

Primrose

I think interest rates are so low at the moment that even using an instant access ISA you will probably find that their interest rates are not much better than ordinary savings accounts unless you can tie money up for several years, which obviously you can't as you will be drawing it out regularly to pay off your later bills. It rather depends on how much money you want or are able to put aside for the longer term as "savings" rather than putting cash aside to pay future bills. Once you take money out of an ISA it's difficult to replace it and you'll never know how much you've got put aside for long term savings. In your position I'd try to keep my ISA long term savings separately, even if they're fairly small, to give myself some motivation for the future and to keep your tax allowance status intact every year. Then all the other savings for shorter term projects like settling car tax & insurance, etc. I'd keep together in a separate savings account. If you don't have a spreadsheet, get an exercise book and divide it into columns such as car tax, car insurance, holidays, clothes, or whatever and note monthly what you're paying in, and keep accumulative totals. That way you'll still have a grip on where your savings, long & short term are, and can keep track of them.

MoneyWaster2007

Thanks for both suggestions. I've moved to a slightly better place which costs more each month, hence my decision to pay things off annually as opposed to monthly in order to free up month to month surplus income. But the knock on effect of this is that if I were to go back to the old method of setting aside monthly amounts to meet annual expenditures, I'd be using more income and reducing surplus, which is already depleted with the higher rent...which would make saving my 10%'s into my ISA difficult and negatively impact my lifestyle as a result. That said, I do think that method is the best and clearest way to see progress in terms of the savings...but how to juggle it is another question, hmmm :eek: