Value of money

Matthew1892

I have worked in the same company since I left school at 16 and now 27 and never really have been good understanding the value of money. I mainly think this is due to having such a good regular salary at a young age and the use of online banking (numbers on a screen). 

I was wondering if anybody had any tips or suggestions to gain a better understanding of money and not be so impulsive with spending etc

I have also moved from a salary of 16k to 50k in the last 10 years. 

I have racked up 15 k debt in the past which I have luckily paid off and I don’t know if this is a factor also.

Ballard

I do know what you mean. I still don’t value money that much and I’m twice your age. I do, however, like to save and have a rough plan of what I want to do financially between now and retirement.

My suggestion is that you take some time to work out what you’d like financially in the next 10/15 years. Think about your home, whether you rent or buy/want to buy. What do you want out of your pension? Paying in extra might suit you, particularly if your employer matches it.

You’ll need to consider all expensive outgoings such as cars and holidays.

Once you’ve made notes of everything you can look at the numbers and see what works for you. You need to enjoy the now so I wouldn’t suggest budgeting to extreme levels in your situation but at the same time it wouldn’t hurt to have more control of your outgoings.

Others may well have a different take on it and they’ll all be valid so you should take it all on board and see what works for you. 

Zanderman

I think the main way to appreciate money and its value to you is budgeting - as suggested by Ballard above.

Your thread from last year about budgeting had some good advice - most of which probably still applies.  

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6283190/general-budgeting

Matthew1892

Thank you guys!

B0bbyEwing

Do you feel any different post debt clearance to how you did pre-debt clearance?

For me it took eroding what I'd saved to wake me up. Wont necessarily work for everyone. Some people will forever be spenders as they love the feeling. 
In laws are classic example, in a way. They struggle to get by, have very little money so when they get a cash injection (say wills or lotto wins or whatever) it's like they don't want it - they're in a rush to spend it ASAP on stuff they probably don't need but want, rather than using it to give themselves a bit of breathing space. Then they're back to square 1.

Some people are just like that & will forever be like that.

Sisters fella is like how you describe. As he gets 3.0-3.5k after tax each month, he just thinks he has an endless supply ... then complains when it's gone. Where's it gone? Gucci bloody flip flops or whatever other "essential" things he buys. 

If you earn like you earn then for me you need pots (house deposit would be a pot, emergency savings would be a pot, retirement would be a pot etc) & you need to allocate them so that you don't just spend 100% after bills on nonsense stuff you look back at & say well that was a waste.
Then it's down to willpower. So you've put £500 in to your emergency savings this month (as well as covering all the other pots), but your disposable income has gone on a nice shiny shell suit. Can you resist dipping in to your pots to buy more junk or not? If so then no big deal. You should be able to spend on yourself, but you need important areas of your life covering before that & not if there's anything left once you've bought a load of stuff that'll sit in a drawer forever.

daveyjp

Treat saving as you would a priority debt such as a mortgage,  It simply has to be paid every month.  You may wish to split saving across long term, short term, holidays, emergency etc.  Keep a spreadsheet of your total savings and update monthly.

The savings will grow, you will get used to seeing them grow and be happy in the knoweldge that when you need to spend big you can 'borrow' the money off yourself.

Once your saving 'debt' is paid you can spend the rest.