How much can you save?

Saver-Rob

jbennett wrote: »

I've been with my girlfriend for about 3 and a half years (whether that's considered a long time is arguable) but forgot to mention that detail. For the first 2 and a half years we where together we didn't save anything and went on holiday and went out drinking all the time.

We only switched on the sensible part of our brains after last christmas and said to each other that it was about time we started saving.

The % is 50/50 because we save roughly the same amount which is nice and simple and money can only be taken out if we both consent with a signature. I find it quite motivating to save in a joint account but each to their own I suppose.

I will admit that I have saved more overall through the year though as I earn a little more than my girlfriend and i'm more determined than her. She wants the same out of life though but most the time she takes my advice that we are doing the right thing so I ensure she has a bit of pocket money when necessary to keep her happy :-)


p.s. Good job with your savings saver-rob. I hope we can be in your position one of these fine days. Just got to keep working hard at it.

Thanks for the post. I understand what you mean about joint savings - as long as you are both protected. I have alot more savings than my girlfriend, as you can see from my signature. She has around £10,000 while I have just under £40,000 but we see it as 'our' money rather than splitting it. Of course if anything went wrong in the meantime we would go our seperate ways with our own pots.

She is @ Uni and therefore wont be saving anything substantial for another 2 years. I am just earning and working as much as possible to give us a good head start.

You will be in my position oneday if you carry on with what you are doing. I didnt always have this amount and very soon wont have anywhere near it when its all spent. Also you have to think of the differences in price around the country for property. £50,000 would be a huge amount in some areas but in others wouldnt even scratch the surface. I hope you arent in too an expensive area!!!!!!

jbennett_2

Hi,
I live in Weymouth and you can get a basic 2 bedroom at the current time for about £130,000 (hopefully will drop some more next year) but that's roughly the sort of thing me and my girlfriend are looking at buying. Some of the larger 3 bedroom houses are about £160,000.

Ideally I would like to save 40k so we can put down a fair deposit. Plus a little extra for all the other expenses. I'm keeping my hopes up at the moment that house prices will drop some more as that would be really useful. I just find it nice that we are not chasing a dream and prices are not getting further and further away from us as it enables us to clearly see a target.

Only problem I have now is where to put the money we currently have as it's in a rubbish joint account that pays bad interest. Will have to sort that out soon.

Lokolo

Yeh luckily for me I have another 5 years before I buy a house (ideally). Its quite hard to plan my future with my gf. I'm 20, she's 19. Suprisingly; marriage, kids, a house are waaaaaaaay out of her head - if I mention anything like that she gets a little stressy lol.

But that doesn't mean I can't make a headstart!

I will be working from June for a year for my placement, ideally I would be able to work out how much I could save... but I can't hehe, wait until I get my first payslip.

dazcouz

Hi everyone,

Currently I have £17,500 saved up and am 22. If I hadn't of been such an idiot in the past I could potentially have £30,000 saved up. Basically, I still live at home with my mum and pasy £40 rent each week and on average take home £1,160 a month. It would be great if I could have £28,000 saved up by the end of 2009. I think this is a realistic goal as I have all the material goods I need and am very good with my money, also I'm still single:o so don't have to shower my partner with gifts etc. Ultimately I would like enough cash so I could put down a deposit on a house

Lokolo

So you want to save £10,000 when you take home just over £1,160?

Thats going to be quite difficult!!!!

Pretty much you have £4k to spend over the whole year..... good luck!!!

briona

dazcouz wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Currently I have £17,500 saved up and am 22. If I hadn't of been such an idiot in the past I could potentially have £30,000 saved up. Basically, I still live at home with my mum and pasy £40 rent each week and on average take home £1,160 a month. It would be great if I could have £28,000 saved up by the end of 2009. I think this is a realistic goal as I have all the material goods I need and am very good with my money, also I'm still single:o so don't have to shower my partner with gifts etc. Ultimately I would like enough cash so I could put down a deposit on a house

Wow! Those savings are pretty impressive! :T

If you save like you are doing, you'll get your house deposit quickly enough!

jbennett_2

Lokolo wrote: »

So you want to save £10,000 when you take home just over £1,160?

Thats going to be quite difficult!!!!

Pretty much you have £4k to spend over the whole year..... good luck!!!

I earn roughly the same amount and managed to save £9,600 last year from my calculations of our overall savings and the fact I saved a little more than my girlfriend. Taking into consideration that I had to pay £48 a month for my course and managed to obtain a couple of hours over time per month.

I think it's possible but you end up feeling crap at the end of the year when you realise you've done nothing for a year (then again the fact you have actually saved money makes it all worth while I think but it's not something I would recommend for the long term). I remember at my works christmas do this year and all I talked about was money and saving and it drives people mad haha.

Saver-Rob

jbennett wrote: »

Hi,
I live in Weymouth and you can get a basic 2 bedroom at the current time for about £130,000 (hopefully will drop some more next year) but that's roughly the sort of thing me and my girlfriend are looking at buying. Some of the larger 3 bedroom houses are about £160,000.

Ideally I would like to save 40k so we can put down a fair deposit. Plus a little extra for all the other expenses. I'm keeping my hopes up at the moment that house prices will drop some more as that would be really useful. I just find it nice that we are not chasing a dream and prices are not getting further and further away from us as it enables us to clearly see a target.

Only problem I have now is where to put the money we currently have as it's in a rubbish joint account that pays bad interest. Will have to sort that out soon.

Those prices are similar to my area. They ARE coming down in price and with your savings growing you are getting closer daily

Saver-Rob

jbennett wrote: »

all I talked about was money and saving and it drives people mad haha.

Jealousy

TurnaroundSue

In 2008 we finally got ourselves out of debt, made repayments of 5% (that's all we are allowed without penalities) to our mortgage amount to just over £2100 and started saving. My OH bought a motorbike cash for £6500 :mad: (but's that another story) and have now set up stos on a monthly basis.

We have 2 stos of £250 each to Barclays Saver which is at 7.75% pm, so next year this should see us with £6k plus interest by this time. We have around £300 each in our ISA'S (hoping to use our allowances before April 2009), £750 in a Sainsburys account and this year will be able to save ALL the overtime my OH can earn. Hoping that by the time I report next December should have saved around £10k mark, as well as paying off another £2k off mortgage.

We also have around 3500 shares in a major Bank but last time I looked they were only around £1.50 so have lost mega bucks in 2008 from this source. It was only around 18 months ago that they were worth around £20k - not so now, but hopefully in time when we are in retirement they would have caught back up and we can use them then - one can only ever live in hope!!:D