How much can you save?

guitarman001

I got free tuition, also! I did need a loan... £3k a year or so to get by. To be honest I could have cut it down a tad, I did buy a guitar or two...
Very well done, I'm still envious lol!
What do you think is 'well paid' for a job nowadays?

YoungSaver20

What do you think is 'well paid' for a job nowadays?

I guess well paid would be maybe around 17,000 per year, it's above minimum wage and you still have enough to go on holiday, pay your rent for the year, socialise and you still might have some money left over, depending on how well you can save.

The most I have earned is £15,000 per annum which I thought was good at the time because I had very little outgoings but I don't think it would be as good if I was living independently.

I earn £6.41 per hour, which would be maybe around 12 - 13,000 (which is what I would call a modest-paid job) for the year, if I worked full-time, because there is some overtime work on Sunday which pays time and a half. However, I work on average 10 hours per week, so it's not much to live on.

Then I would say £26,000 and above is a high-paid job. It's just my perspective right now, because I am used to such low-paid/minimum wage jobs.

guitarman001

Even more impressed now!

I think your perspective would change.. I'm over £30k living at home and although I'm saving, if I were to move out, I'd have trouble I think. For AGES I used to think £40k would be a great target salary, but I know people earning £45k+ easily (and some IT programmers getting £100k+). Cost of living IMO is ridiculous (mostly property). It SHOULD be that £26k and above is well-off but not anymore I don't think. People on low salary and claiming maximum benefit can have a very large effective gross salary - I should know, my girlfriend used to work in the tax office and some of the stories.....

homebrl

you are not sure? but I am sure.

davefromkent_2

Thought I would join in on this discussion

I left university in 2005 with £2000 debt (not including student loan). By 2006 and a wild lifestyle I was £4000 in debt.

I decided to keep my head down for a few years and work to pay it off, then went traveling around the world in 2008. I came back with £1000 debt which I paid off in 4 months.

I saved £2000 in 2009 which then gradually disappeared when I rented a house and did 30 hours a week on minimum wage. Two years ago to the day I was basically on £0.

Fast forward to today - I'm much more disciplined and have managed to get a job that comes with accommodation. I've cut back on the nights out, put my money in ISAs/savings and got £1200 back on a tax rebate from the previous three years. I now have £14500 saved and am continually saving around £600 per month!

Great to hear everyone else's success stories too

Julio18

I personally think that people have the chance to either withdraw their pension (if possible) and/or invest in some commodities. Continuing saving money for the long-term does not have sense at all. Government will continue printing more and more money and that reason life savings can be wipe out. Continue learning more and more from successful people. FINANCIAL EDUCATION is always a MUST.

tinkerbel

I need to work out my Savings because my Bankings all over the place an I keep havin to move it around for the best deals I struggle to see how much I've actually saved!

Elmiee_2

I have 3 seperate things I'm saving for in the next year or two:

Bestival Tickets: £560.
Holiday abroad (hopefully Egypt if prices stay down!) - £1000
Backpacking in Australia - £12,000 Minimum

Will have the bestival tickets next month, just sold clothes on ebay and made £200 + payday Friday and a possible bonus Monday so might even be this month! Australia will be next year, once paid for the holiday it'll be no more treats and knuckle down saving!

JoVal

YoungSaver20 wrote: »

I have saved approximately £45,000 and I am 23. Unfortunately I won't be able to save that much more to it anytime soon as I don't have a full-time job at the moment, I'm just working part-time.

I do have 20,000 in my ISA, then 3,000 in my Stocks and Shares ISA. The rest is just in a current account. Any suggestions for what I can do with the rest? I'm with Bank of Scotland and I was thinking of setting up a Fixed rate bond.

Hi young saver - I have been so impressed reading about your situation and how well you have managed to save. I hope that you are looking for the best rates for your savings as leaving all that money in the Bank of Scotland current account presumably means that you are earning very little interest on that.

What interest are you earning on your cash ISA at the moment? You can get over 3% at the moment on a transfer.

And with the rest of the money that hasn't gone into a fixed rate bond, you could earn over 3% before tax. If you want to know specifics, just let me know.

YoungSaver20

Hi young saver - I have been so impressed reading about your situation and how well you have managed to save. I hope that you are looking for the best rates for your savings as leaving all that money in the Bank of Scotland current account presumably means that you are earning very little interest on that.

What interest are you earning on your cash ISA at the moment? You can get over 3% at the moment on a transfer.

And with the rest of the money that hasn't gone into a fixed rate bond, you could earn over 3% before tax. If you want to know specifics, just let me know.

Thank you, JoVal. I have an appointment with the bank on Saturday about this. I have about £46,000 now as I won some money from gambling. So far I have:

ISA: 21,400 (earning 2.75 % but I will upgrade to the fixed-rate of 3.15 %)

Fixed-rate bond: 15,000 (earning 3.15 % - It should be registered as gross interest but I'll need to check)

S & S ISA: ~£3,000

For the meeting, I'll be increasing the direct debit for the Stocks and Shares ISA to maybe £450 each month, so by April 2013 there will be around £8,000.

Then I have an Internet Saver which has £7,500 (£1,200 is from a student loan but I have that loan interest-free until September so I thought I might aswell earn some interest from it, even if it is only £10 :rotfl:). The Internet Saver is 2.80 % interest rate.

Finally, I have maybe an extra £200 in my current account, I think that earns 0.1 %.


I know, that is a lot of accounts and a bit confusing. Just about an average of 3 % interest from all the accounts, ahhh if only it was back to the 5 - 6 % interest rates from 2008.