Saving big for three years - advice

colsten

bugsies wrote: »

The overdraft was all blown on stupid stuff, I treated it like the free money it is. It will be paid back probably within 8 months and I'll never have paid interest on it. Looking back I should have invested in shares but I was a naive young fresher . I help my parents with a lot and intend to do a few things for them to say thanks - solar panels.

You sound very sensible overall, seems you have absolutely the right sort financial attitude (though could do with a little bit more initiative on researching your options), and a fantastic job to go to. Future CEO perhaps?

But you got to seriously sort out a couple of fundamentals. If you can save £40K a year, then getting rid of your £1.5K 0% overdraft surely doesn't take until next February? Are you not going to start work until next February? Are you travelling between now and then?

bugsies

colsten wrote: »

You sound very sensible overall, seems you have absolutely the right sort financial attitude (though could do with a little bit more initiative on researching your options), and a fantastic job to go to. Future CEO perhaps?

But you got to seriously sort out a couple of fundamentals. If you can save £40K a year, then getting rid of your £1.5K 0% overdraft surely doesn't take until next February? Are you not going to start work until next February? Are you travelling between now and then?

Thanks and yes you are right. I don't start earning this yet, I have to wait till around May for the job. So it's basically I want to continue working part time where I am just now, simple job, £7/hr and then when I start earning good money in my first real job I can start with a clean debt free slate. I have always worked since I was 15 (22 now) in part time waitering while at school so I always understood the value of money, not too mention having a highly succesful chartered account & economist for a mother, so I have always been encouraged to work hard and I'm glad she instilled that ethic in me, too many rich kids just don't get it. I've actually not talked to her about this yet and just wanted to look into it first before speaking to her.
I hope to save a solid amount of money to start my own company later on after all this, mainly in fuel cells and control systems, so CEO is actually where I'd ideally love to end up - but I'm under no illusions. First step is finiancial security and stability. I hope to stay well away from debt my whole life as it just consumes people, it's why I won't even get a credit card simply out of principle and would rather get an Amex as I believe it's all to do with attitudes towards money. For me it's simple, plan, budget, minimise overhead, save and never touch debt. Well aside from a mortgage or business loan.

The reason I came here as I was a bit overwhelmed with all my options to save, first place I looked was Nationwide and they have dozens of different options. I've never done more than save a few grand in a current account before so it is new to me and I just want to get it right.