How much can you save?

guitarman001

Renting is NOT dead money. Right now while the housing market tanks many are better off renting! Think off the money you're saving up while prices come down - you'll be able to pay more off the capital and hence less interest over the term. That mortgage interest is a KILLER.

I'm taking a winter holiday which will cost ~£600 tops hopefully, so knock that off the £1040 I saved to make approx £440 this month. Ach well. Oh and I've Florida next year, also! It's great to be living at home right now! ;D

Southernman

First time poster in here.

I bought my own flat back in March so since then I've been building up emergency funds and a holiday fund.

Managed to save £360 this month due to overtime!

My next payday is Friday and with my bonus i plan on putting away around £800, it would be around £1000 but alas Christmas is coming and presents need to be bought!

Does anyone else put a fixed amount away at the beginning of the month and anything left over by the end pop that into savings too?

I tend to save about £200 in a normal month with no bonus or overtime, but with bills, food and general living (plus mortgage overpayments) i don't think i can save much more. I do want to enjoy myself too so going out pocket money is a must! I'm 22 and don't want to be at home scrimping constantly!

guitarman001

Hope you didn't pay over the odds for your flat!
Well done on managing savings as well at just 22 years old!!!

Peonie

It's my first time posting in this thread. I do have a diary on the MFW board but soon after starting it we decided to concentrate on building up a rainy day pot instead.

As the people on this thread are focussed on saving money I thought you may be able to help me by answering a question. I have a couple of savings accounts including a monthly saver and an ISA. Ever since I started the ISA (maybe 4 years ago) I have never debited any money from it. I was wondering, would you take money out of your ISA and put it into a higher rate savings account?

RyanEzio

guitarman001 wrote: »

Renting is NOT dead money. Right now while the housing market tanks many are better off renting! Think off the money you're saving up while prices come down - you'll be able to pay more off the capital and hence less interest over the term. That mortgage interest is a KILLER.

I'm taking a winter holiday which will cost ~£600 tops hopefully, so knock that off the £1040 I saved to make approx £440 this month. Ach well. Oh and I've Florida next year, also! It's great to be living at home right now! ;D

I must admit i'll have to disagree with you there. You could live in a rented flat for 4 years, pay £500 a month, which will add up to a massive 24k. Renting will get you NOTHING for your money.

RyanEzio

once you start renting, it’s a lot more difficult to save for a mortgage

guitarman001

I'd rather rent and be free to move around at my leisure, getting the landlord to fix this and that, than be shackled down to a mahoosive mortgage when the price of my house is more than likely to dive in the next 5 years. Rents can be lower than £500 if sharing, surely - depends on where you live. I fully admit that I stay at home for the moment, but I had two cases 4 years ago where I nearly bought, and BOY am I insanely glad that I never went through with it. It would have been financial suicide, (a) because the price of the flats are now 20% down, and (b) I left my job and luckily found another in a different area!
(a) shouldn't matter but at the time I was somewhat rampant about 'getting on the ladder', as it was seen as the done thing. How stupid I was. It should have been viewed as a home rather than a money-making scheme, and I would have been WAY overstretched.

I may be planning to live in Europe for several years, and the norm there is to rent. To be honest I don't give it a second moment's thought - the property obsession in this country has been so damaging (to the economy and now to the detriment of youngsters who can't afford anything) that I don't see how anybody can be happy to jump on without serious forethought. If you're wasting serious money renting then go ahead and buy... but personally... if you can get away with sharing a rented flat (lower retns) and keep saving, then your savings will grow as prices come down and you'll have less mortgage interest to pay off.

Right now with the Eurozone crisis and the UK housing market tanking - I wouldn't be touching property with a bargepole!
(My girlfriend has paid her flat off so I can see the benefit of paying a place off - the outgoings massively decrease - but she bought yonks ago when it was affordable. No chance of that today).

tara747

RyanEzio wrote: »

once you [STRIKE]start renting[/STRIKE] buy a massively overpriced house, it’s a lot more difficult to [STRIKE]save for a[/STRIKE] ever pay off your mortgage

Fixed that for you.

Suarez

tara747 wrote: »

Fixed that for you.

Load of rubbish. Anyone in their right mind would be buying instead of renting.

You will have your own house at the end of it all and can do as you please to the property.

tara747

Who says we won't buy? We will buy... at the right time.

We would not have wanted to buy in the last few years and thank goodness we didn't. At this rate, with our savings going up and house prices going down, we will buy low, have a *very* small mortgage and have it all paid off within a decade at the most. Whereas our friends who bought at the peak will be paying theirs off for 30-35 years. :eek:

Buying = good. Buying at the wrong time = very, very bad.