Is POYM the best strategy for everyone?

Dithering_Dad

exil wrote: »

What irritates me about this whole question is how zealous people can get about it, as if they'd had a religious conversion.

If you have a lot of spare income, it clearly makes sense to pay off debts. If not, then there is a question mark over whether you should live like Scrooge in order to pay off a mortgage in a very short time.

I'm not sure how I feel about being thought of as a zealot!!

I think most of this sort of sentiment was expressed in the "Don't POYM thread" instigated by Sloppy Saver. I obviously don't agree with that or I wouldn't be doing my POYM in 3 YRS. I think "making do" to reach a specific goal, regardless of whether this is to pay off a chunk of mortgage, pay for a "once in a lifetime" holiday, buy a holiday home is a laudable goal.

Just because people watch their pennies, doesn't mean they're deprived. One of the first money saving tips that people on the Debt Free thread give to newbies is to stop paying for lunch and take a packed one instead. Is it depriving yourself by consuming a packed lunch that you have prepared, that is probably better quality, more nutritious and serves the exact same purpose as a store bought one (filling you up) but at a fraction of the cost?

The same goes for buying a watch from Timex rather than from Rolex, buying jeans from ASDA rather than from Armani or flying to Amsterdam in economy rather than first class. The results are the same (you can tell the time, wear jeans and get to Amsterdam) but the costs are far different.

exil wrote: »

And we can't ALL work 100 hours a week running businesses doing Feng Shui or whatever, there is a limited market for these services - and it'll be even more limited if everyone else is saving like mad to pay off their mortgages!

Everyone who has a skill and who has the time available can run their own business. Hairdressers, bricklayers, taxi drivers, plumbers, electricians, propert developers, I.T. literates, payroll people (yours truly), teachers (doing supply), etc, etc. You just have to want to work for yourself rather than for someone else.

exil

"Everyone who has a skill and who has the time available can run their own business. Hairdressers, bricklayers, taxi drivers, plumbers, electricians, propert developers, I.T. literates, payroll people (yours truly), teachers (doing supply), etc, etc. You just have to want to work for yourself rather than for someone else."

Not really. There has to (a) be a demand for the service you provide that is (b) not already adequately supplied by existing suppliers. And even a succesful business (and most fail in a couple of years) can take a long time to show a profit. It really is unrealistic to expect to make 50k or more a year in the short term. The average self-employed person makes more or less the same per year as the average employee. There is something to be said for being a "wage-slave" - otherwise everyone would be self-employed.

Dithering_Dad

I guess it depends on what you do and what service you provide. I never said in my post that everyone could earn over 50k or more a year in the short term. I'm lucky in that there is a huge demand for my particular skills, whether that lasts into the longer-term who knows. That's another reason for me to "make hay while the sun shines" and salt away as much money into my mortgage/offset as I possibly can.

I've been a wage-slave for years, and still am in a sense because I pay myself a wage. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working for someone else and I truly hope I didn't give the impression that I thought there was. However, for my purposes (POYM) and with my skill set (Payroll) it made absolute sense.

tee_pee_2

i really want to pay my mort early as I feel it is a noose. However I have managed as I always do, to start too many things and struggle to keep everything up in the air.

I have remortgageed and I have a 15 yr mort and I overpay £100 a month on top, but I have a credit card for £3700 but it is interest free.

Should I cancel the overpayment and get rid of the cc debt and then throw myslef into the debt or cont as I am. I do try to make reasonable payments on my cc as well but feel that neither debt seems to move.

exil

Granted, in your case it makes sense. However the multitude of TV shows and some threads here seem to suggest that everyone has a moneymaking business inside them bursting to get out, which is not true.

Dithering_Dad

tee_pee wrote: »

i really want to pay my mort early as I feel it is a noose. However I have managed as I always do, to start too many things and struggle to keep everything up in the air.

I have remortgageed and I have a 15 yr mort and I overpay £100 a month on top, but I have a credit card for £3700 but it is interest free.

Should I cancel the overpayment and get rid of the cc debt and then throw myslef into the debt or cont as I am. I do try to make reasonable payments on my cc as well but feel that neither debt seems to move.

Hi tee pee, I would always pay off your short-term debts first. I know you have your CC debt on interest free at the moment, but that might not always be the case, plus you can actually see it go down significantly each month which unfortunately isn't the case with a mortgage

tee_pee_2

Yeah good idea as I feel quite miffed that every month I have little disposable income left as I try to overpay yet seem to have no rewards as both are more so very slowly.

Dithering_Dad

exil wrote: »

Granted, in your case it makes sense. However the multitude of TV shows and some threads here seem to suggest that everyone has a moneymaking business inside them bursting to get out, which is not true.

True. I especially dislike the property development programs where some bumbling fools make all the wrong judgement calls, go against all the expert advice and yet still manage to turn a profit. What the programs never seem to show is either that the film was produced when house prices were rising so dramatically that just leaving a house for 3 months and doing nothing to it would net the same gains or someone going bankrupt because of bad decisions (because who in their right mind would give permission that THAT to be shown on TV!)

gallygirl

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

True. I especially dislike the property development programs where some bumbling fools make all the wrong judgement calls, go against all the expert advice and yet still manage to turn a profit. What the programs never seem to show is either that the film was produced when house prices were rising so dramatically that just leaving a house for 3 months and doing nothing to it would net the same gains or someone going bankrupt because of bad decisions (because who in their right mind would give permission that THAT to be shown on TV!)

Disagree here DD - Property Ladder always made of point of saying how much it would have gone up anyway.