Please give me one piece of advice that you wish you knew when you were 20!

kings981

If you do want a house, start saving something for a deposit now if you can.

I was lucky enough to be able to buy a house when I was 23 (with OH), and rather than throwing money away on rent, could put in on a mortgage.

Then pay as much off your mortgage you can afford each month. Even an extra £50 a month, it will soon help.

I was only discussing last night with my husband why we never seem to have nice things and our friends do (i.e fancy cars, clothes and holidays) - he pointed out we had sunk all our money into our house, and whilst it is small we do own at least 50%. Habits like this die hard and we still have fun - just manage it in different ways, perhaps to everyone else. And I like to think in about 10 years time we shall be mortgage free (although fingers crossed it will be sooner), and we will be able to enjoy any extra money we have, whilst our friends are only starting now - I am 28, which may not seem like much of a gap.

ebayqueen_2

I had very little at your age and I am in my forties now. I wanted so much and didnt have the money to pay for it. So overdraft after overdraft! It took a long time to learn but the advice I give my 19 year old now is. You dont buy it unless you have the money in your pocket to pay for it. Forget about a car ... not needed. Save if possible 1/3 of your salary. Buy clothes only at Sale times. buy second hand, I am selling my sons Levis on ebay at the moment as he has grown out of them and he will only get a fraction of what he paid for them. The buyer on the other hand gets a super pair of jeans at a great price. Also treat yourself now and again. Nothing more boring than being known for being TIGHT!!! my son has a friend that is so miserable, wouldn't spend a bean and is a horrible little SQUID, thought that was a better word than the one I wanted to use!!! At your age ..you have no big responsibilities, live your dreams. If you want to travel save and go all on budget of course. You sound like a lovely young fella, so enjoy your age and always remain as sensisble as you are now.

nikki1520

My tip would be - you have one life, live it!!

The caveats being - if you spend money that isn't yours, it will cost you. What goes around, comes around. And finally never, ever pay for something you can get for free. (Thinking particularly about claims management companies etc here)

If you remember these, then you will hopefully be healthy, wealthy and wise!!

pippitypip_2

I'd second all of the advice already given (sorry not enough time to thank or read them all).

Additionally, many posters have mentioned budgeting but not actually said DO a budget.

Do one now so you know where every penny is going - deduct every necessary spend, then savings, then give yourself an entertainment and clothing budget for the month so you CAN fritter that bit away and have a little fun - it's not all doom and gloom.

The key thing is having a budget that is calculated properly including annual spends and money for a rainy day etc - basically do an SOA like those of us in debt management have done but do it to stop debt management in the future LOL.

Also make the freebies and saving fun like the Mortgage Free Wannabes do, not everything fun costs money.

Good luck OP!
pippitypip

em2evol

I don't agree that credit cards are bad - if you manage them well then they are great - I have just got my first one (I am 21) and am spending only what I would normally be spending - spending more than you otherwsie would just because you have a credit card always seemed super daft to me, and so now my outgoings are staggered it means I am not going into my overdraft. Depends how you use it. Don't buy an expensive car though - that's what I did - took out a £12k loan in Dec 08 for 3 years and have had no money since but have got the amount down to £3k now at least :-) Save - I save £100 a month and am always glad to have it there in emergencies :-)

nakiwala123

davidhwdn wrote: »

NEVER have kids

I second this!!!:rotfl:

I dont have any, yet but the thought of having a kid the the related costs puts me off! I'm probably selfish for thinking so as I see a kid will impact on the lifestyle/wallet that im leading right now.

Silverbird

Save, save, save and you'll have a good headstart when you want to get a mortgage or if you have unexpected purchases, for deposits, etc.

I wouldn't agree with the comment about not entering into a relationship with anybody in debt though. This made me upset. My DH was in a large amount of debt when we met. He's now about 1 year away from becoming debt-free and he's never taken from me or expected anything. I admit I have supported him and us over the past few years (which unfortunately led to my own debt which I cleared in March), but that was entirely my choice. I chose to be with him and I knew what that would entail. When I think how happy I am now and how I would never have experienced that if I'd just given up on him at the start it makes me so sad.

The only thing I'd say is just don't enter into any joint things with somebody in large amounts of debt until they're debt-free. But other than that please don't let debt put you off a relationship.

If anything it's made us stronger and we've learned huge amounts. I know one thing - once he's debt-free we'll never have any debt between us again for sure.

On another note, we're now nearing 30 and have absolutely no savings towards a mortgage simply because we haven't been able to and we were only able to move out of our parents' home due to my years of savings when I was in my early 20's. DH says he wished he'd calmed down and knew what he was getting himself into before it all spiralled out of control. He's a changed man and ever so careful with money these days. It's sad to think we could have our own house and family by now (because that's been put on hold too due to the debt) if he'd only spent less and saved more.

joedenise

By the time I was 20 I was married, had my first child and no debt. I didn't get into debt until my kids were 13 & 10, this was mainly because we couldn't afford their school uniforms and had to use credit cards in order to pay for them. Of course once we started with a credit card it became difficult to live without using it because of the interest we'd been paying. I am now coming up for retirement age and have finally got rid of all debt and managed to put £5000 into an ISA. For the past year or so we have also been saving £50 per month into premium bonds (once you have bought a premium bond you can by £50 per month by Standing Order) - we don't really miss it, we've got a chance of winning somthing and it's there to cash if we ever need to. I know it's no interest but then interest rates are diabolical at the moment anyway so premium bonds give us that chance of a "big win".

I think what I'm saying is don't have credit cards, overdraft etc because you end up with even less to spend each month because of the interest. Also make sure you save as much as possible each month, enjoy life but don't go overboard.

Denise

tigger955

LEARN!
Learn how to fix your car or motorbike yourself. Garage costs are 60 to 90 quid an hour now!
Learn how to fix household items. Most things are fixable at a fraction of the cost of replacement. Claiming the broken item on your insurance will mean your premiums WILL go up next year to cover their costs.
Learn new trades. You NEVER get a decent pay rise staying in the same company. Move companies to get more money. Learn more to move companies and get better jobs.
Knowledge is power. The more you know the less likely you are to get stung.

Gefjun

I have a few nuggets to add to this:

• Remember that credit isn't free money - you do have to pay it back
• Research every big buy you make (say anything over £50) - once you've read the reviews, you might change your mind, plus it'll take the impulse purchase feeling away and give you time to think about whether you really need it.
• If you're still living at home and have a full time job, pay your parents a decent amount for bed and board. You're going to have to pay it if you move out, so you might as well get used to it whilst the going is fairly easy. Don't have them save it up for you and give it back to you for a car/house deposit (as I understand some do) - you have to stand on your own two feet and this isn't going to teach you how to do it!
• Get some willpower and a list of excuses ready so you don't crumple when your mates ask if you're going out AGAIN when you really can't afford it.
• Don't rely on luck, good fortune or a lottery win to dig you out of debt - it really doesn't happen.
• Don't help anyone out with debt, other than giving advice. They got themselves into the situation, they'll have to get themselves out of it.
• As everyone else has said, put aside some savings every payday by standing order - if you never see it, you never miss it.
• Remember that it's easy to look rich and people hide debt, so if your mates are always out on the lash or have the latest gadgets, it doesn't always mean that they have pots of cash. They could have a stack of debt. This mindset really helped me.
• If you buy second hand and feel ashamed, don't tell anyone :rotfl: - I've done tatty old furniture up with a lick of paint and had many admiring looks and people asking me where I bought it.
• Don't leave it too late to get financially educated - get on this site and start learning.

Finally, remember the Aesops Fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper - you might get the mick taken out of you if you start planning your financial future whilst you're young, but you will have the last laugh when those who mocked you are worse off than you in the future.....:rotfl: