How much can you save?

RebeccaAnn

Hey, can I join you all? We have decided to be more intentional with our money until last month we were saving but also spending lots on stuff we didn't really need. Our budget has been really easy to cut and luckily both I and the husband are on the same page.

We are saving for a long haul holiday next summer, putting some money away for a car as ours may need replacing in a few years time. We own a house (mortgage is in husbands name) but will possibly look at buying a house together in 5 years so I am not sure if I should open a HTB ISA? The savings we have at the moment are really just emergency fund amounts (we only had 1k but have added to that and we now have 6 months expenditure). This is kept in easy access savings/ISAs and some put through regular saving accounts yearly. All additional money has until now been paid into the mortgage.

I have been spreadsheeting our finances and I am shocked at how much we have been able to save this month so far. It's not as much as some of you and won't be as high next month as we have sold some furniture etc but I am feeling really motivated now. If we stick to it we should be able to keep the emergency fund untouched, pay for the holiday and have money for half of a nice second-hand car. I am now wondering if we should max out the overpayments on the mortgage (we are limited to10pc) or if we should be splitting the remainder and invest some? The interest rate on the mortgage isn't great, around 3.5pc I believe and we have about 18 months left on the fixed rate.

poppy10_2

RebeccaAnn wrote: »

. I am now wondering if we should max out the overpayments on the mortgage (we are limited to10pc) or if we should be splitting the remainder and invest some? The interest rate on the mortgage isn't great, around 3.5pc I believe .

3.5% is more than you would earn from any standard savings account. Better to overpay the mortgage, unless you think you can get a higher than 3.5% return from the stock market

tara747

September payday update: I've hit another milestone!

I saved £1,070 in September, that's £9,189 so far in 2018 and *drumroll* £130,922 overall.

:beer:

I'm going to treat myself to a little something to celebrate

excelwizard

Hello - checking in with what my current state of affairs are. I've just turned 26 years old and what I'm listing is all my worldly wealth

Marcus (Goldman Sachs) easy access: £9,375 @ 1.5%
Nationwide Current Account: £245.28 @ 1%
Nationwide Joint Account: £508.56 @ 1%
Nationwide Credit Card: £0
Skipton LISA: £10,343.72 @ 1%

Total: £20,472.56 - note this is before all of October's bills are due. I'm expecting to be around the £19,600 mark at the end of October. Edited to say I currently save between £500-550 a month. I'm hoping for my salary to increase in April 2019 but there's no guarantees.

I'm not really saving for anything specific. It used to be for a house deposit however my partner and I have agreed to wait for a few more years now (at least) so I'll carry on adding to my accounts in the meantime.

I'd love to get more savvy at investing etc. as none of my accounts are performing great with their interest rates (obviously an issue for the whole of the UK and not just me) however I am always concerned that I might not be ready to invest for long enough...

Anyone have any stories to share on when they felt like it was the right time for them to start investing?

RebeccaAnn

poppy10 wrote: »

3.5% is more than you would earn from any standard savings account. Better to overpay the mortgage, unless you think you can get a higher than 3.5% return from the stock market

Thank you. Yes that was my thinking, I am overly cautious unfortunately. I have been researching for years and have a good grasp on what I want to do (I have previously studied finance to a certain extent too). Might just go for it with a couple of hundred that is sat losing money each month :eek:

RebeccaAnn

excelwizard wrote: »

I'd love to get more savvy at investing etc. as none of my accounts are performing great with their interest rates (obviously an issue for the whole of the UK and not just me) however I am always concerned that I might not be ready to invest for long enough...

Anyone have any stories to share on when they felt like it was the right time for them to start investing?

Hello, As I have posted above no investing stories from me. There are some really good free courses and resources on the internet to get you going. I have been putting it off for years because of the same reasons you have mentioned. I was always worried that would need the money for something else so I couldn't tie it up long term. And at times we have, we got married, bought a house and have been on quitea few expensive holidays. I think only you can know how much you will need short/medium term. We are now in a position that we are overpaying the mortgage and have a good chunk of money as an emergency fund plus good amount in pensions etc. I think I am now ready to start playing about but I am only going to put in money we can afford to lose.

excelwizard

RebeccaAnn wrote: »

Hello, As I have posted above no investing stories from me. There are some really good free courses and resources on the internet to get you going. I have been putting it off for years because of the same reasons you have mentioned. I was always worried that would need the money for something else so I couldn't tie it up long term. And at times we have, we got married, bought a house and have been on quitea few expensive holidays. I think only you can know how much you will need short/medium term. We are now in a position that we are overpaying the mortgage and have a good chunk of money as an emergency fund plus good amount in pensions etc. I think I am now ready to start playing about but I am only going to put in money we can afford to lose.

RebeccaAnn I completely agree about reading up on it and will definitely do that before I make any decisions! A family friend invests quite regularly so I will probably end up speaking to him too - as great as books and the threads on this site are you get a lot more questions answered when someone's face to face with you. Also completely agree about only using money you can accept will be lost!

excelwizard

End of the week update to keep myself motivated - I'm really determined to push myself this month and see how much I can really save if I put my mind to it. It's impossible to keep it up all year round however it's *fun to test yourself once in a while.

I've been doing some surveys on prolific, walking home from town (45 minute walk) rather than the bus which is a saving of £1.20 each time, been making sure to eat what's in the cupboards rather than any takeaways, working extra hours this month as 8 hours a day isn't enough to get everything done (which does have the added bonus of putting an extra £120 in my pocket next month) and this is also my first paycheck after my yearly increment. The goal is to save £600 this month - for reference that's about 44% of my take home pay :j

*my idea of fun anyway...

I'm also dealing with the possibility that I may need to loan my sister 5K interest free next year due to her personal circumstance. I will get the money back at some point and what is money for if you can't help your closest family members out but the thought of 5K 'disappearing' from my bank account makes me sweat! It's not a certainty yet so I'm trying not to worry about something that may never happen

jjmmww1

Update


H2B is now at 4321 This is now in a 2.5% interest as i managed to switch it last month

Savings up to 2100 as I had work bonus last month


new goal is to try and save £200 extra every month to pay for a drip to Disneyland in June

Thrugelmir

excelwizard wrote: »

Anyone have any stories to share on when they felt like it was the right time for them to start investing?

If a house deposit is your aim in the short term. Suggest you avoid investing the money in the hope of a better return. At least the LISA gives you a guaranteed 25%.

Better deposit rates are available if you fix your money for a year to two years.