How much can you save?

tara747

Final payday update for 2018 (slightly late)!

I saved £3,540 in December (including interest from a bond). That's £14,832 in 2018 and £136,565 overall.

Delighted to have surpassed my £12k savings goal for the year

jjmmww1

Right now I have switched over to monthly pay might be a bit easier to keep track


RS 5% 500
H2B 2.5% 4921.16
Savings Builder 1.5% 706.46 (to be transferred to H2B and RS 1st of month)
TSB 5% 1500


Savings looking better I think not looking forward to march got 1100 coming out to pay for the rest of our holiday in June

little_green

not read all 352 pag (obviously!) but I want to add I think the title questions needs to take into consideration how much a person earns. perhaps we should talk about how much we save as a percentage of our income as opposed to accurate figures to get an accurate reflection of whether we are are doing well (i mean doing well at saving & being financially in control).
Someone may say "I am to save 2.4k/month" however they may be earning (clearing) 3.2k/month.
this may leave person 2 feeling bad as they "only" save £1k , however their take home is 1.6k

just sayin'

jjmmww1

Last month of nice looking figures before the holiday payment comes out

RS 5% 750
H2B 2.5% 5121.16
Savings Builder 1.5% 981 (to be transferred to H2B and RS 1st of month)
TSB 5% 1500

Mnd

One way over that is to not count the holiday money as savings, we've got our savings money and if we book a holiday I immediately count that as a debt, even if we don't have to pay it at the time.

I realise it's the same in the long run, but you have the excitement of booking your holiday against the downer of paying for it!,

jjmmww1

RS 5% 1250
H2B 2.5% 5521.16
Savings Builder 1.5% 0 (to be transferred to H2B and RS 1st of month)
TSB 5% 1265.63


Will be a slow build back up to the 1500 in the TSB account but hope to be there by July or August time

jjmmww1

Missed a Month New updated below

RS 5% 1750 (this will be to pay off my credit card mostly)
H2B 2.5% 5921.16
Savings Builder 1.5% 0.02
TSB 5% 683 with about 60 to be paid back in this month

From now the money should slowly build again with Disney all paid for shouldn't have anything else unexpected coming

jjmmww1

RS 5% 2000
H2B 2.5% 6121.16
Savings Builder 1.5% 0.02
TSB 3% 801.96

OliverNW3

Hi guys,

Newbie, would like to join in.

I started saving aggressively last year after meeting two American guys in a bar in Spain who were retired early. I bought some drinks, left my receipt on the counter, returned to my table. One of them came over to me and said the receipt is also a voucher for your next drink free - that was his first bit of financial advice. I was 32, had basically about 1000 euro to my name and was blowing a lot of it on this holiday. They chatted to me, and when I asked how they retired so early, they said they saved. Simple as.

He advised me to go home and open an account with a different bank that I would never use, and just pay into it every month like a bill, and that was when I really started saving. That was January 2018.

July 2019, and I have around 26k, in GBP. I have saved really aggressively, but also moved to England from Ireland and got a big hike in my pay (i earn around 55k now) which allowed me to save more.

I have a Cash ISA, H2B ISA, a regular savings account with just a few hundred in it for short term things that I can dip into. I found that writing things down in a journal made a huge difference, my financial goals, what I was spending day to day, what I hoped to save, and what I had saved. It made me very mindful at every turn about trying to do anything I could to make that savings balance increase, bit by bit.

Now, I don't necessarily think I have a lot, especially for my age, but it's a good turnaround that I feel proud of. I have paid off my credit card debt, and I'm lucky that I don't have any kids, don't drive, no house (sadly), so no real dependencies, and I'm able to try to save 50% of my salary, so I know I'm lucky.

For me, personal finances were always such a taboo topic, I feel like trying to break that down is really important. I don't have a lot but my aims are the same as most of you here I guess, to keep increasing what I have, and try to make sense of saving and investment strategies.

My one piece of advice would definitely be keeping a journal. Helped me so much. I'm 34 now, still feel like I don't have enough as I should so it's always a race against time. But again, nobody talks about their situations, so I often find myself worrying about my situation when I could have more than my friends, I have no idea basically.

Alexland

OliverNW3 wrote: »

I'm lucky that I don't have any kids.

Although children are a financial and time burden it is an amazing experience helping them to develop, understand life and hopefully be successful. Also a good excuse to get back into Lego, climb around in soft play centres and mop up bodily fluids and occasionally lumpy solids.

Having said that I am glad we were financially secure before we had them.

Alex