Could I be better with my money?

natlie

Hi


I think you should be saving at least £100 per month for your daughter, it would be a responsible thing to do I was saving £20 each for my 3 children last year and I was only earning £30k per year (with unemployed hubby). I think you should have at least a years salary put away - which would be easy if you committed to being better with your money - you need to look at what this £1400 is being spent on and how important this spending is compared to your future needs? I also think that as an emergency fund £1000 is quite low and you need to set aside a bit more than this.


HTH
Nat

ViolaLass

natlie wrote: »

I think you should be saving at least £100 per month for your daughter, it would be a responsible thing to do.

I think that's entirely subjective - putting savings aside for children to gave later is a nice thing to do but not vital.

jimjames

ViolaLass wrote: »

I think that's entirely subjective - putting savings aside for children to gave later is a nice thing to do but not vital.

Absolutely. Personally I think building up an emergency fund to a decent level is more important. It isn't much use having some money for kids at university if you have to borrow to fix a boiler now.

bowlhead99

ViolaLass wrote: »

I think that's entirely subjective - putting savings aside for children to gave later is a nice thing to do but not vital.

Absolutely, there is no hard and fast maximum or minimum.

Basically you and your family will need some money, generally, in the future. Aside from some potential tax advantages, it doesn't matter whose name it's in.

I never had £100 or £50 or £20 put away for me in a dedicated account every month of my childhood, and I turned out just fine. To be honest I don't think I would have wanted to get a £20k bank account at age 18 and be told that a portion of it needed to be spent on care home costs to support my parents in their old age. Neither would I have wanted to go my entire childhood in a frugal upbringing without ever taking a family holiday, abroad, just so that £1200 a year could be put away to help me pay for a wedding or give me cash so I didn't need to bother saving very much myself towards a home purchase in my 20s or 30s.

natlie

Not to take over the OP's post but I am sure than many of our parent didn't have £1400 surplus every month, especially not £1400 a month that they couldn't account for. It is important that we put money away for our children and teach them about money as we put them on this earth. With the average deposit for a house currently sitting at £20k isn't it a good idea while you have the opportunity to help them out?

ViolaLass

natlie wrote: »

It is important that we put money away for our children and teach them about money as we put them on this earth.

These two things do not have to be connected. The latter is responsible parenting (and should be done regardless of parental income), the former is optional. You're not being a bad parent if your children have to save their own house deposit.

katejo

joeyvicks wrote: »

Hi,
I'm just wondering if I'm being as good with my money as I think I am and would like to know your thoughts so I can consider changing things if need be.

I currently earn 42k a year. After house/car and usual bills etc I'm left with circa 1,400 a month. I'm usually also putting some away for future holidays/trips etc so say I'm left with 1,100. I have a 3.5 year old daughter that I put 25 a month in an isa for and I have 1k set aside for a rainy day. The rest goes on a month by month basis and we are soon going to be greeting baby no2 into the world so I've had a few bits to buy but nothing major.

The fact that I'm going month on month without adding to any savings or emergency fund or overpayment on mortgage is starting to bother me. Do I need to start being a bit more sensible and putting some more aside? I have an employers pension for which they put 6% in and I put 4% which I think is ok. It's everything else that bothers me.

Be honest with me please.

It sounds as though you could save more. I don't have kids to pay for but I live alone so have the whole cost of house maintenance, gas, electricity council tax etc. My salary is only 30K. After pension deductions (final salary) I take home just over £1650. Bills reduce this by about half. I am trying to save more myself and have just started using the YNAB software. Too early to write a review but I am favourably impressed so far because it allows me to see where the money is going.
I currently save £100 a month but I am trying to increase this. I am also overpaying the mortgage so a third of my take home pay goes on that.

davenport151

joeyvicks wrote: »

Just tracked my last months spending; starting at 1400
200 extra to house/bills as gf hours were short of normal
400 for a weekend away next weekend
150 aside for something I can't mention!
200 credit card spends from previous month
125 for new baby bits and couple of bits for little girl
65 New trainers
Leaves me with circa 350 from last months wages

What was the reason behind this? Is it an occasional occourance? I have monthly contract hours that fall short on some months - hence I plan ahead and anticipate these.
Also in regards to your mortgage do check the paperwork on the redundancy payment plan. Make sure it will cover all the payment. Also how long it will pay out for. Does this also cover long term sick?

LXdaddy

As last months hours were down for gf you needed to pay more of houshold bills.

What happens when ofspring number 2 arrives - gf's earnings will be down for a while. How will you cope with that drop. Children are great but a double whammy on finances - income falls as expenditure rises

joeyvicks

davenport151 wrote: »

What was the reason behind this? Is it an occasional occourance? I have monthly contract hours that fall short on some months - hence I plan ahead and anticipate these.
Also in regards to your mortgage do check the paperwork on the redundancy payment plan. Make sure it will cover all the payment. Also how long it will pay out for. Does this also cover long term sick?

Her hours have been reduced because it's summer holidays and she works at a nursery so they've been down for the last 2 months.

I also had to save up for a trip to Canada for my gf's brothers wedding for which I had to save 3k in 10 months so I've not been frittering it all away...