How to fall in love with saving money

Eco_Miser

115K wrote: »

I keep going back and forth on next year's targets.:mad: I wonder whether I should save less and overpay mortgage more.

I see three questions here:

• Will you have enough cash to meet any foreseeable emergency purchases / cover a period without salary? If not, keep saving.
• Will you earn more in interest on the extra savings than you could save by overpaying your mortgage?
• Can you make a large lump sum overpayment if interest rates change, or are you limited to a small monthly overpayment? If the latter, you may wish to overpay as much as you can, while you can.

115K wrote: »

Someone needs to get a working crystal ball to see what will happen with the interest rates.;)

They will go up, after a period of stable rates. Is that clear enough for you?

Please note this prediction does not deal with timescales.

Eco_Miser

cathybird wrote: »

So you haven't seen the ghosts of Marley or Christmas Past? ...

My dad always quotes Micawber at me.

"Something will turn up"?;) For Micawber, it did. He became Mayor of an Australian town.

No Marley, and I'd rather not have a visit from Christmas Past.

115K

Eco_Miser wrote: »

They will go up, after a period of stable rates. Is that clear enough for you?

That seemed patronising and !!!!!y.:( I admit I don't really know much about financial matters but I'm just trying to improve our situation.

Just ignore my posts if they annoy you.

cathybird

I thought "clear enough" was a pun on "crystal clear" but I may have missed Eco Miser's point. I think he's just trying to be helpful. I think

(crystal clear, as in crystal balls.)

Eco_Miser

115K wrote: »

That seemed patronising and !!!!!y.:( I admit I don't really know much about financial matters but I'm just trying to improve our situation.

I don't understand your problem. You asked for a prediction, i gave you one, It was both accurate and a joke. Sorry you missed the joke, even though I wrote the puch-line in blue.

115K wrote: »

Just ignore my posts if they annoy you.

I do ignore posts that annoy me, except occasionally when they are perpetuating myths,

cathybird wrote: »

I thought "clear enough" was a pun on "crystal clear" but I may have missed Eco Miser's point. I think he's just trying to be helpful. I think

(crystal clear, as in crystal balls.)

Yes, Base rate has been stuck at half a percent for over four years now, the only way they will move is up, but there's no telling when,

gallygirl

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Yes, Base rate has been stuck at half a percent for over four years now, the only way they will move is up, but there's no telling when,

Preferably round about the time my savings are greater than my mortgage debt .

[Deleted User]

I have yet to read the whole thread but I will. Our savings habit started at age 4, 61 years ago, when we were taken to put a small amount of money into our post office books. Suffice to say that money saving became ingrained. When times were very tough then I used dedicated envelopes and cash, so that bills were paid. On and on it went and savings absolutely took off when the children left home. Now we are retired and comfy and it is hard to get out of the savings habit. We have enough for surprise bills, to help the children and grandchildren and for care if needed

I have broken free and am spending but only on stuff that has a purpose like books and crafting equipment and new furniture. Dh has retained his cautious approach but I am helping him to break free

If you have a spare penny, then yes you can save and it becomes very easy if every single outgoing and incoming is written down, in fact it is eye opening and I know that

oh and it helps to be on the ball eg the bulk of our savings is in fixed rate 5% accounts, which have seen us nicely through the low /zero interest rate years at present

cathybird

kittie wrote: »

I have yet to read the whole thread but I will. Our savings habit started at age 4, 61 years ago, when we were taken to put a small amount of money into our post office books. Suffice to say that money saving became ingrained. When times were very tough then I used dedicated envelopes and cash, so that bills were paid. On and on it went and savings absolutely took off when the children left home. Now we are retired and comfy and it is hard to get out of the savings habit. We have enough for surprise bills, to help the children and grandchildren and for care if needed

I have broken free and am spending but only on stuff that has a purpose like books and crafting equipment and new furniture. Dh has retained his cautious approach but I am helping him to break free

If you have a spare penny, then yes you can save and it becomes very easy if every single outgoing and incoming is written down, in fact it is eye opening and I know that

oh and it helps to be on the ball eg the bulk of our savings is in fixed rate 5% accounts, which have seen us nicely through the low /zero interest rate years at present

kittie, do you have any investments? Or is it all in cash? Just curious - you don't have to tell me.

I do wish now that my parents had tried to ingrain a savings habit in me. They both saved like mad themselves and were good at it but, looking back, never talked about it or tried to pass their awareness of money management on. Maybe I should have spotted it anyway, but, being a typical oblivious teenager, I didn't. My dad asked me after I'd left my first (proper) job in my twenties how much I'd saved from my income there. He was surprised to hear I hadn't saved anything. I was surprised to hear he thought saving was a good idea.

Not blaming them obviously, since I've had a lifetime to learn, and suspect it was partly that generation, which only seemed to discuss certain things with the kids and kept a good deal private, but I think now that it might have helped me start a little earlier.

cathybird

Eco Miser, I confess to not spotting your joke either, even though, as you say, the punchline was in blue, and also thought that you were just being rather caustic (taking your cue from Scrooge?).

I meant to add re the "money in literature" piece that you posted, I love Dickens, and have read absolutely everything he wrote. There is a lot about money in his books - in fact in a great deal of 19th-century literature. Dickens became very rich and successful in later life, but never forgot that his father had ended up in debtor's prison when he was 12 - it left a permanent scar.

I had forgotten that Micawber ended up in Oz.

atush

I have to say, I got the joke so was surprised at the reply.

savings absolutely took off when the children left home.

Kittie, please tell me it is true. with twins at Uni burning my savings daily I really hope we can bung in savings at a huge rate once they are done. I know the food bill is cheaper when they are gone (but the food money I send them is more than I spend with them at home as they aren't eating with us).