Your Financial Setup

System

I am enjoying this thread for two reasons.

1) It satisfies my natural curiosity about how others are doing!

2) Most of the posts are by average everyday people that gives us all hope!

I say the latter because sometimes the huge assets of some posters on here make me feel a failure!! Its not envy I assure you.
In some cases,amazement that some quite young people have amassed a great deal on fairly average salaries. Best of luck to them but I can't help wondering, How do they do it?

I guess some maybe through inheritance. I may be left a little by my mother, hopefully a long way in the future, but my father has made it clear that he will leave us little if anything,as it is his money to spend and not to leave. His choice and not for me to question.

Have a good day everyone.

Excelpaul.

115K

excelpaul wrote: »

In some cases,amazement that some quite young people have amassed a great deal on fairly average salaries. Best of luck to them but I can't help wondering, How do they do it?

I guess some maybe through inheritance.

I thought the same, as some people have amazing savings.

I wish I had started saving a lot earlier in life, instead of only the last year or so. :oBetter late than never I suppose.:D

ChesterDog

I agree, it's interesting information.

I suppose my assets are one of the biggest, at about £1.3m jointly with my wife, so a little background info might be nice. Things are seldom as clear cut as they seem.

My wife and I bought a business thirty years ago that was struggling but had potential. We worked very, very, very hard (far too hard, with hindsight) for twenty years and during that time, we grew its turnover by twenty fold. For the first five years we did not take a single day off and yet we skirted financial ruin because investment in the business was paramount, as was paying the staff, the bills, and keeping the customers happy.

In spite of all this, we never did fantastically well from it. Even after twenty years of it, we were just doing okay financially.

Then my wife became very ill and I am sure this was triggered by the stress of putting so much into work for so long. It was very common for her to sit on the stairs and cry when we got home, just becuase it was such a demanding, stressful business. In the end, she became too ill to struggle on (due to physical ailments, not mental, I should add) and it was clear my health was beginning to suffer too.

As luck would have it, almost ten years ago now, and having bought the run-down business at the bottom of the market, we sold it at the top of the market. Our really hard work meant that we had buyers falling over themselves. So we sold it, having calculated we could live on the proceeds, with me being my wife's carer.

Soon after that came the financial crisis, and falling interest rates meant I had to get back to work again, but this time managing our investments.

Nowadays, even with a big asset base, life is very much about being careful to live within our income and preserve that capital. Future likelihoods for extensive care mean it is still a careful lifestyle that we live.

I hope the perspective is interesting for you.

Edit: A final thought. The success of our business was based entirely on having a happy, valued staff (of six or seven), well-treated customers (many of whom became friends) and generally trying to generate goodwill and always exceeding customers' expectations. People know when they are being ripped off - young entrepreneurs take note: generosity and doing the right thing can pay dividends. I am not a proud person and I know that luck played a big part in our being able to retire early, but I will admit to being pleased when I think of the value we generated for our business because everybody knew we put others first and ourselves last.

A couple of further thoughts: the moment she was diagnosed, our priority became paying off the mortgage. We have both always been quite frugal, only buying what we needed and could afford. Whatever we saved as we went along became effectively 'out of bounds' for spending except in an emergency.

Doshwaster

robatwork wrote: »

Interesting choice of asset. Did you actually measure yourself when making this?

(Or is it for someone else!)

A home made coffin is probably a good place to hide any cash in the house. What kind of burglar would look into a coffin during a break in?

cuthbertlilly

Single early 30's.
£79k cash savings, £13.5k student loan. salary £17k + £5k extras.

jimjames

cuthbertlilly wrote: »

Single early 30's.
£79k cash savings, £13.5k student loan. salary £17k + £5k extras.

That's very impressive cash savings to build up. Is the aim to use as deposit for a house?

racing_blue

I have been keeping a balance sheet like this for nearly 10 years but am a bit shy about sharing it

However for what it is worth I use a simple "traffic light" system to tell me if I'm on track. There are four parts to it, each flagged green, amber or red.

Two are to do with cashflow:

1) 1-2 months outgoings in current account. 1 = amber 2 = green.
2) savings > budgeted liabilities for the next year. Amber if involves using ISAs, green if not.

Two are to do with long range planning

3) Investments on track to repay mortgage by age 55 (it is an interest only mortgage)
4) Pension investments on track to allow retirement aged 55 with a minimum level income.

planteria

jimjames wrote: »

That's very impressive cash savings to build up. Is the aim to use as deposit for a house?

that's what i thought, jimjames

JustAnotherSaver

Loans: Began a £102k mortgage recently

Savings: Probably about £2000, although in actual fact less than £0 as we took a mini loan off my mum to bump the deposit & she needs paying back some day. Savings WERE £43k until the deposit.

Income: £18.5k

cuthbertlilly wrote: »

Single early 30's.
£79k cash savings, £13.5k student loan. salary £17k + £5k extras.

Very impressive. I've not long turned 30, i have no loan, my salary is slightly more than yours at £18.5k, i don't really spend money socialising, i'm a self confessed tightwad & in 12 years of savings (only the past few were when i was aware of making the most of my savings) i only amassed £43k.

cuthbertlilly

jimjames wrote: »

That's very impressive cash savings to build up. Is the aim to use as deposit for a house?

Tbh I haven't got a clue!! Just kept amassing it by matched betting and saving.
Open to suggestions as to how to manage it...
Already got 3 x Lloyds Vantage, 1 enhance, 1 Hal reward, cash Isa.