How do I 'Adult' financially?

[Deleted User]

Every pound you spend is a pound you no longer have .


I was a real spend thrift, everyday it would be small little things a coffee ,a magazine, a chocolate bar , a takeaway sandwich and because they were small purchases I took no notice. That was until I tried a spending diary and was shocked those little things added up to £160 a month .

I put a budget together and arranged my accounts as simply as I could , one bank account has my income coming into it and I opened another just for bills / direct debits. Every month I trf from my salary account the amount needed for bills into the bills account and what's left is mine.

What also helped for me is not being too stingy for personal spending because I found I just bought what I wanted . Now with a reasonable sum I ask if it's a want or a need and if I really want it I buy it without feeling guilty.

I feel so much more in control now.

PS I treat savings and my investment ISA as a bill and they get paid as any other bill.

jackyann

lots of good advice here. I would not, at this very moment, worry about your pension. I know others would disagree, but here are my reasons:
I presume that you are studying in order to eventually get a better paid job
You have a lot of calls on your money at the moment
Your saving priority should be to have emergency savings (as with young children you never know what may be round the corner). I think that Credit Unions are ideal for this - I too pay in to my local one.

I think that you can afford to wait a year or two to consider a pension. When setting out your budget & priorities, table it in to consider at a future point (maybe when job situation changes)

You may well be the ideal person to consider the under 40s ISA that is coming in next year (Martin has written about this)

Also - depending on the type of life insurance you are getting - this may well contribute to your future planning.

And congratulations on being so organised!

justme111

Well done in not having debt. I agree with previous poster - some pension from your employer is already ticking and private pension is not exactly your concern. There is really nothing for you to do at this stage to adult apart from building so me savings in simple bank account or in some more specific ones for young people.

PeacefulWaters

Pension = get the maximum matching funds from your employed.

Find out what this is. Sort it. Job done until income rises.

ecgirl07

Justwe03 wrote: »

I will be graduating and looking for 1 full-time position or possibly going on to do my PGCE and still working part-time.

Put off worrying about a pension until you make this decision, the teaching pension is (but with no future guarantee) one of the best. My contributions are about9% of my wage (in scotland) so going into teaching would kill 2 birds with 1 stone.