Free of debt or poor?

faizal_2

Hi,

I just start my career, I am at the cross road here. Either I save my money and live poorly before buying thing or I buy lot of thing by taking loan.

Which is better, save the best for last or live while you can?

lynzpower

Taking out a loan to buy stuff is a prety bad idea. Ill tell you now it takes a hell of a long time to pay back as you accrue interest

Also please take the website out of your sig, its not allowed im afraid

dudleyboy

welcome. don't fall into the trap of thinking that you're wealthy by having lots of nice things around you. if you borrow money then you're MORE poor than you would be if you had borrowed none at all - because rather than having nothing you'll have less than nothing.

live while you can but within your means.

seraphina

You can be "poor" now by living within your means and being careful with money, or you can be poor and in debt 5 years down the line as you struggle to juggle loan payments etc. As you get older the stakes tend to get higher - you may have a mortgage, family etc so I know which way round I'd do it!

going2die_rich

Live within your means. Simply have a set percentage of your take home pay after all taxes and other deductions like pensions and rent and bills that you put into savings. The rest is yours to spend. You are only then spending what you can afford so not increasing any debt and are saving for tomorrow while living today.

If something you want or want to do doesn't fit in your months budget of what you have left to spend then you'll just have to save that to add to the following months till you do have enough to do it/get it. So never dipping into your savings or taking loans for things that are outside of your income.

It's a good mind set to be in that the money you take out for savings each month/week from your pay is off limits and even better if it's at the start of your career as you wont miss what you don't have.

Also by having it as a percentage of your left over pay after all other deductions, it'll grow at the same rate as salary goes. While also allowing your lifestyle costs to grow with your progress in you career, as you do need to reward yourself for your progress and thats soemthing you enjoy more when you are in your 20/30s before the children and settling down stages.

The percentage amount depends upon your future needs, if you need money for your own house then you'd obviously need to save more, but if you've already got a house then you can save less if you don't have anything else expensive you'd like.

But always have an intended goal for your savings and if needed break the % amounts up, such as 1/4 of savings for holiday, 1/4 for house deposit, 1/4 for emergency money. The reason I say have an intended purpose is because if you just generally save you are more likely to put your hand into it and say take a bigger chunk for holidays then regret it later when you see the amount left for a house deposit for example.

Hope this helps,

southernscouser

Don't take this the wrong way but my suspicion is that you are only posting here to get people to click on this link! :think:

Apologies if it's not but it's been reported!

Starry-eyed_surprise

Hi faizal
I agree with everything that has been said so far. Borrowing is really just backwards way round saving - and it costs you more for each item as you have to add on the cost of the interest which accumulates too. You could end up paying considerably more in the end for so called 'bargain' deals. Definitely better to have nothing than less than nothing:D

sultry33

southernscouser wrote:

Don't take this the wrong way but my suspicion is that you are only posting here to get people to click on this link! :think:

Apologies if it's not but it's been reported!

hi yea my thoughts were same, why pose that question on a debt free wannabe forum?

most on here are or have been in debt/ lived the high life or just had to live and im sure if most could turn clock back, then they would.

crazy question