advice needed

scottygees

we have finally got ourselves straight.Still have a mortgage,but are credit card free,no loans etc.

We have also got £30000 in the bank.

I know this sounds a strange request,but as someone who has had debt problems previously.Have had DMP with Payplan and CCCS in the past.I don't ever want to fall into the same trap.

We bring in about £1900 a month wages and have outgoings in the region of about £600 a month before food and petrol etc.I know £1300 a month sounds a lot to live on,but have had this amount before and blown it. So any budgetig advice would be appreciated.

Many Thanks

Mrs_pbradley936

Well I like to sort out wants from needs, and pay for the needs first. Then before to go for a want ask yourself Martin's questions which are Do I want it? Can I afford it? Can I get it cheaper somewhere else?

angchris

hiya scottygees, congratulations on making it out and off of the debt treadmill, take 5 minutes and remember what it was like at its worst:eek: you are in the fortunate position now to be bringing home decent money each month and being able to stash some away :j i personally would write out a soa, include money for nights out and holidays and all that jazz and give yourself enough slack to enjoy life and stash the rest away where you cant get at it easily(ask in the savings and investments board for advice) i would guesstimate that you could easily put £400/£500/£600 or even £700 away each month.:beer: put it away and forget about it untill the time is right to utilise it by paying off your mortgage. have a great xmas

hbl_2

Kudos bro, kudos.

You're right - it does sound like a lot to have expendible! I would suggest that now would be the time to save/invest. You've overcome the debt, so now that spare cash should be made to work for you.

Attack it twofold. 1. Set up a spending budget. You'll be surprised how far it will go. 2. Save/invest the rest.

I opened a second bank account with my bank with cashcard/chequebook which is my 'spending account'. Each saturday I deposit my personal spending allowance into it (currently £50 a week, not much I know, but needs must) and that is mine. Spend it on whatever I want guilt free because I know that all my outgoings are already met and I cannot overspend, because when it's gone it's gone. Want to do something big next week? This week's gotta be lean... It's a real incentive to watch what I spend. My main account (where my salary goes) - the only money that comes out is direct debits, standing orders, transfers to my spending account and transfers to my savings. I've 'lost' the card to this one, so there's no cheating on the spending budget. Try it out, it really worked for me.

As for savings/investments I read an interesting rule the other day. Subtract your age from 110. This is then the percentage of your assets which should be in stocks, with the rest in bonds/savings. So me, I'm 26, which means my assets should be 84/16 stocks/bonds split. The reason being, the longer you have to invest (read, "before retirement") the better you can weather the ups and downs of stock investment. The closer you are to retirement, the less risk you should expose yourself to. Seems straightforward advice.

I would say, if you have £30,000 sitting in an account, it should be invested. Speak to a FINANCIAL ADVISOR - a good one - and make sure you know your options. Remember, never invest in something you couldn't explain in simple english to your mum.

So well done, you're through the debtfreewannabe and out the other side. You're on the savings/invest side of the coin! MSE doesn't really give investment advice, but there's plenty of reading out there in bookstores, libraries and the web that does, so get bitten by the bug and figure out how you're going to maximise your gains and make the money work for you for a change.

Laters.