Making a start - can we afford to do it?

libertino

My girlfriend and I are in our final year at university. We don't really know what we want to do for a living, we just know that we want to move away together when we finish our degrees in May. We want to move to an exciting city, and have our sights set on Manchester, where there's a company I have a chance of getting work at (but no promises as yet). We don't particularly want to go back to either of our home cities (Hull & Oxford), and don't want to stay in Lincoln where we've been at uni for the last three years. We're also sick of houseshares after living the student life long enough now.

Would it be naive to up sticks without a guarantee of well paid jobs? Is it worth eating into our savings for a few months doing low paid/short term work while we look for permanent employment in jobs we want? How much of our wages will go on income tax, council tax, and other costs of living before we can think about treating ourselves to going shopping, the pub, going out etc.? Are we going to have to put up with housesharing for a while longer to save on rent? Should we move to one of our parents' homes while we find job security? (preferably not, seems like a step back when we want to move forwards)

Would greatly appreciate any advice, or to hear from anyone else in a similar situation.

PS. I hope I've posted this on the right board as it's about our relationship and our future together, and it is money related although not money 'saving'.

Welshlassie

I say go for it, especially if you have savings at the moment, how many students can say that. You would obviously need to do your homework, eg checking out where you want to live there, how much rent is and therefore how much you can afford. If you don't really know what you want to do for a living then you are better off living in a city where there are plenty of other jobs to keep you in money until you make the decision. If you budget properly and are both committed to making it work you should still be able to go to the pub and have a social life even if you don't have the job of your dreams initially.

You are only young once and if you really want to do this now then you will regret it in the future if you don't.

Good luck and follow your dreams.

ftbworried

Hiya! lots of queations so i'll go one by one! These are just my opinions- they're obviously not the 'right' answer- there IS no right answer for your situation!

Would it be naive to up sticks without a guarantee of well paid jobs?

Possibly, yes. I don't mean its a risk without a well-paid job, i mean its a risk without the guarentee of ANY job. You should be starting to apply for grad schemes or grad jobs NOW anyway (some of the best schemes will have already closed). Apply for grad jobs in manchester and if you have no luck apply for ANY job and if you really want to move then make sure you have a job before you go.

Is it worth eating into our savings for a few months doing low paid/short term work while we look for permanent employment in jobs we want?

IMHO you'd be better finding a job before you go rather than eat into savings- who knows, if things are serious or you really like it in Manchester then you might need those savings for a wedding/house deposit.

How much of our wages will go on income tax, council tax, and other costs of living before we can think about treating ourselves to going shopping, the pub, going out etc.?

Well, have a think about some of the expenses you'll have;

Rent: £500-600 a month at least if you want a city centre 1 bedroomed apartment in Manchester
Gas/Elec&water: Usually around £100/month for the three utilities
Council Tax: ~£90-100 a month
Groceries: ~£150 a month
Phone: £15 a month- basic

Obviously these are the absolute essentials (i may have missed things off) and they total about £850-£950 a month. Then you may have other committments such as gym/mobiles etc to add on. So yeah, maybe a £1000 a month to spend on essentials. If you have an unfurnished place you may also have to think about buying furniture or getting some free 2nd hand stuff and saving up a reserve incase they need replacing. Anything you earn over your monthly commitments can be used how you wish! If you want to know how much incometax you'll pay on a given salary then go to https://www.listentotaxman.com and enter the salary and tax code (usually 503L for most people).

Should we move to one of our parents' homes while we find job security? (preferably not, seems like a step back when we want to move forwards

Do NOT discount this so quickly! It is not a step back. My (now husband, then boyfriend) and I used to live together in a rented house for 15 months, then we decided that we wanted to buy our own and get married so we moved back to our respective parents houses in different towns so that we could save up to do these things. It was only 7 months and a very short term pain for a big gain.

As a last note, you mentioned that you like Manchester as it is exciting and lively. I went to uni in Manchester and it is a fabulous city and i had some of the best years of my life there BUT even the greatest place on the earth (wherever that is!) wouldn't be much more fun than your average town if you have no money to take advantage of it. You can pick locations that would suit a certain lifestyle (e.g. certain cities) but you can fail to realise that with the costs involved in funding that location you forfeit some of the money which you need to actually LIVE the lifestyle that you wanted the location to give you in the first place- if it makes sense.

In my opinion if you take too much risk and have to scrimp and use savings to relocate and live together then you may not achieve the kind of lifestyle that was your reason for moving.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Tondella

I say go for it, I lived in manchester for 3 years and loved it. You and your girlf could rent a room in a share house with other young professionals. There's a thriving business community with large law and accountancy firms, and the university who employ hundreds of temps while you find your feet. In my mind savings are specifically for this sort of opportunity, if you stay at home you might get too comfortable and never give it a try out. good luck!

libertino

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate the advice and discussion.

ftbworried:
We have looked at jobs in Manchester, just to get an idea for what's out there. Can't really apply for any yet though as companies want someone now for the jobs they advertise, not in May(onwards). Graduate schemes is something we need to look into as we don't really know much about them, and pretty much everything we've managed to find is working for recruitment agencies which we don't want to do.

We're definitely not looking at getting married or having kids until later in life, and don't see the point in putting down money for a house until we've got the money to do so.

Interesting reference to your situation... how did you come to the decision that you wanted to get married and buy a house? (if you don't mind me asking)

The point of having the money to live the lifestyle in the city we want to live in is that of this thread really... What are the smallest compromises we could make in order to live out our dream?

welshlassie/tondella:
We saw there's lots of temping jobs, admin jobs etc. which we'd be happy to do, even if just while looking for something more permanent. Should we make sure we've got them before we go, or find them while we're there? Surely we'll need to go for interviews, so it would be better to be based there in the first place?

As for savings, my girlfriend has all of her student loan in a high interest account untouched (good money saving!), and I have some savings though am technically in debt to my student loan which I haven't saved.

Tondella

Libertino I know that you are probably under a lot of time pressure with your finals but call in at your careers office as they can be brilliant sources of info and help, particularly for graduate schemes which recruit using assessment centres and have aptitude-based application forms. If you're new to them (like i was) they can be completely baffling, but careers office can help you understand what they are after.
alot of the main graduate employers are already filling places with applicants from autumn term but there are always offices that do not fill their quota and will take on later applicants. Or you could try for a summer internship or placement which might lead to you getting on the graduate scheme in the autumn.

libertino

Tondella: Thanks for the suggestions. Going to the careers service at our uni is something we're planning to do, just not got round to yet, but I will make a point of going. We're also going to a careers day next month, at Manchester Uni funnily enough, which will hopefully give us a few more options.

ftbworried

Tondella wrote:

Or you could try for a summer internship or placement which might lead to you getting on the graduate scheme in the autumn.

:T Great advice- I hadn't thought of that.

Grad schemes are really competitive nowadays and some work experience or foot-in-the-door really helps. Try company websites to check out their grad schemes, there are some big companies in manchester like CIS insurance and ExxonMobil http://www.exxonmobil.com/UK-English/HR/Jobs/UK_HR_graduate_schemes_v1.asp

What is your area of study and I could perhaps point you to a few companies?

libertino wrote:

Interesting reference to your situation... how did you come to the decision that you wanted to get married and buy a house? (if you don't mind me asking)

I was out on an industry placement and was trying to save up £6000 so that i could pay for my rent/bills without going back to my part-time job in my final year. Then one day it dawned on me that if i just moved home to my parents in my final year then I could use that £6000 towards a deposit for a house when i graduate instead of paying for something i will never own. (Incidentally I had to carry on with the PT job in my final year to bump up the savings for the rest of the wedding/house costs anyway:rolleyes: ). We ended up buying the house in the April of my final year, 6 months before we'd planned to.

As for the marraige thing- well, i didn't exactly 'come to that decision', he asked me out of the blue

libertino

We're both studying Media degrees, though we don't want to limit our options to just working in the media.

I know what you mean about wasting rent on something you will never own, but can't it work out less financially effective to be paying more interest on a mortgage? (I'm sure Martin MSE's got guides for me to read about this!)

Alan50

Lived here all my life, and read all the post, which are good advice.
I would find somewhere to live first then look for work, there are plenty jobs
'BUT' have you any experiance in what ever job you go for...I have a son and daughter (23,20) @ home, who left uni/college, due to lack of experiance it took a while to find work.

Its a great place to live if you have the money

Good luck

Alan

puffinmuffin

I did my degree in Manchester and stayed here afterwards (10 years since the 18 year old me arrived). I have lived here as a student, as someone doing various jobs until the right one came along, a young prof and a mortgaged person!) I have never been out of work or short of a place to live. there is huge range of accomodation to suit every budget. there is alot of rental accomodation in the city centre and in the suburbs, chorlton, withington, didsbury are all popular with young professionals. there is loads of temp and call centre work while you find your feet, have a wonder round town when you come. they have confirmed today that the BBC is definitely coming too. I am very fond of this city...