What advice would you give to the younger you?

Murphy_The_Cat

Contribute to your SIPP from your first wage packet (how old school is that !) and then make sure you increase your contributions every year afterwards. 

& listen closely to your parents when you are looking to enter the world of work !

XRAT

Spend more time with your children.

I worked hard, saved hard and "financially independent, retired early." Just in time to find my children had already grown up and were moving out.

stephenadarglas

Keep away from sex, drugs and rock & roll.  Then again, what's the point?

MrsH3

My advice would be - don't just follow the crowd - I officially retired 3 years ago and claimed my state pension, & a work pension BUT as I have since continued to work 2 or 3 days per week, I'm really losing out to the tax man

PParka

1.  Invest rather than save.
2.  Don't try and pay the mortgage off too soon. Especially when interest rates are low.
3.  Make sure your partner has a good pension as well.
4.  Don't stick to the default fund in your company pension.
5.  Don't keep buying cars

astroL

The problem is that governments change the rules so that financial decisions made eg., in 1970s - 1980s are then overtaken by governments changing the rules.  I was promised a free tv licence from age 75 - but that life-long promise was broken by this government. Similarly, if you save carefully, they then introduce low limits to prevent you qualifying for help regardless of circumstances.  In other words, you cannot give your younger self advice unless you realise that by the time you reach retirement age, the government will have changed the rules to stop you taking advantage.  This is easily demonstrated now by realising that anyone that spent, spent, spent it all can now at least qualify for a level of financial help......  Why did we bother?

[Deleted User]

I would have told myself not to take out a student loan to cover living costs as a student. I very much thought of it as free money, spent it mostly on nonsense I didn't need, and here I am still paying for it twenty years later. 

Ibrahim5

I am not sure if that advice is currently the best. The fees are currently so high that you would normally pay the same however much you borrow for living costs. 83% won't pay it off. So borrowing the Max and saving it for a house deposit may make a lot of sense. Avoiding student loan debt totally is nice but very expensive.

Anonymous101

Better to avoid incurring the debt in the first place. In my opinion a high proportion of people going to University would be better off (financially speaking) not taking the traditional full time 3-4 year course route. I was certainly one of those.

Langtang

Pay into a pension early. I did, but it was a paltry sum to begin with. That has shown itself now. 

Saving is quite often for long term. Try not to dip into it.