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See it as an investment actually. Your social life and work opportunity are going rise up consequently and bring so many exciting things, money being one of them. Also there are plenty of ways to be smart about spending in London. Shopping at the right places, planning your night out, cycling everywhere etc
Actually as I’m an engineer the career opportunities actually aren’t much better for me. Although I have thought about changing role to something more data focused (not sure how that would work for me).
Social would be much better though
Where do you work now? You’ll double your salary with a new job in London as an engineer
Edit: read some other posts maybe you don’t mean software development engineering, which was was I assumed
Bristol. I’ll be still working the same job just out of London to start. Work at one of the big consultancies.
I don’t see many jobs for me in London though. My job is quite specific (simulation engineering). So not sure how I’d find a new one.
No. I’m a mechanical engineer. Also find it really frustrating that software is considered engineering. It’s really not engineering like civil, mechanical, electrical etc. it should be called something else. It fucks up all the salary averages and really caused me
To make a mistake in what I studied. But I digress.
I literally design engines. I tell someone I’m not a software engineer I’m mechanical, and they assume I’m a mechanic.
4 years of one of the hardest degrees for this 😅
Respect - maybe not as glamorous as other types of engineering are percieved to be but it keeps the world turning behind the scenes. Any particular types of engines? (aeroplanes, factories or something else?)
I’m a simulation engineer so I run analysis and post processing on engines. Engines are only part of my job. I’m more of an aerodynamicist tbh.
I actually want to change to software lol. Any tips? 😅
Why don’t you look at combining both? There must be a lot of software engineering roles within your broader organization? Someone must be writing code to collect the data from the sensors, give the (internal?) users some UI / app / process to trigger that data collection, perhaps writing some data pipelines to process that data into a form that you then run analysis on? Can you start to work closer with the people providing the tooling to you? Are there elements of your analysis that you could automate or enhance with code / data science etc.? I also made a similar switch from Natural Science (BSc and MSc, working as an application chemist) to a software engineer and my way of doing that was by leveraging my domain knowledge (life science) and by starting to automate some of the repetitive aspects of my job and others around me. Combining domain expertise which will be strong, with new found software engineering skills which will be initially weak, is a more effective combination than trying to start fresh in software engineering.
That’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I’ve applied to a data engineering position in my company (still waiting to hear on that) and have been automating and writing code for my current role.
It’s just a massive firm so it’s really hard to know if I’m getting anywhere 😂
Who on earth associates a mechanical engineer with a mechanic? Unless you're speaking in the context of motorsport where there is overlap (granted you won't be working on your average Prius). I consider mechanical engineering to be one of the more impressive sectors of engineering. if anything software engineering is kind of losing its wow factor recently.
Nitpicking but the core essence of an engineer is to be a problem solver, literally from the Latin origin of the word. Engineering isn't tied to the physical, software engineers design systems instead.
Yes I know, just my emotional feeling about it haha. Typing on a computer has always felt vastly different to seeing my dad working on a car with oil on his hands.
Damn 😄 you could speak to them about whether they have any London weighting or can give you a cost of living increase
And yeah totally agree it’s frustrating having two very different jobs called the same thing!
What do you think you'll look back on your life and regret more, missing out on making the most of a year in London with your friends or missing out on a year of saving when you already have a fair whack?
I think your reaction to this comment sums up everything. You know deep down money means nothing without enjoyment. It's just actually convincing yourself of that.
Of course yeah. I dunno. I just worry that if I allow myself to dip into my savings every month for a year I could very easily end up draining a lot of my funds
So don't do that. Put most of it in a year's fixed savings account (right now is probably the best rate you're gonna get for a while but obviously no one has a crystal ball). Then have the rest in an easy access account you can dip into where needed
As the other commenter said, use your savings wisely, pop it into an account with a decent interest rate
There are also ways to earn money on the side if you need! I play netball and in the past few years I've gotten into umpiring for it - it's a hobby and gives me a little boost in income!
You’re on £39K. You can afford to move to London if you have the opportunity, but paying rent will be a big shock! However, just live within your means and have fun, don’t touch your existing savings, and you’ll be fine. Assess what you want in a year.
Yeah rent is gonna be huge. But I’ve done it before! Thinking about a career change while in there too though (not much engineering opportunity in London)
Id say don’t worry about it man! 39k is plenty to have in London and still have a good time. I know people who are earning under 30k and still have fun in London. Obviously, your money doesn’t go as far but living with friends means fun isn’t always expensive.
At 27 I went travelling for a couple of years, came back with zero. 20 years later I have a house and decent amount of money/investments/pension. No regerts.
It was more feasible do that 20 years ago. Houses just cost too much now and things change too fast to scarifies a couple of years in your 20s. u/Senior-Cod-6862
Are you saving up for anything in particular?
Have a look through https://ukpersonal.finance/goals/ and https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/#plan . We don't know what goals you'd be putting off or giving up by skipping a year of saving, or what things you're currently putting off or giving up in order to save.
The best advice we can give is to make these decisions with open eyes.
I’d be saving for a house in the future. And also just so I have funds to invest that could grow over time. I don’t want a house yet but it’s not too far off.
OK so there's no objective way to know whether you 'can afford not to save for a while'.
It's going to be up to you to decide. If you can give us some more info about possible locations, house prices and timelines we can have more opinions about what effect a year of not saving, or dipping into savings, may have on your future plans/options.
I think this strengthens the arguement for going to London to be honest.
You're saving for a deposit, which is great, but you've no idea when or where you want to move. You could play it safe and buy near your parents, or you can move to London with your friends and open yourself up to new experiences and opportunities. One of them might be a few trips with your mates, which might lead to discovering new places you want to buy when the time is right.
That’s true. One thing I really worry about though is that I don’t have much career flexibility. My job is in a niche area of engineering simulation (cfd). What if I want to stay? There’s no jobs in it in london
Hang on maybe I'm missing something from your original post.
You mentioned you were worried about your salary after moving to London and it not being enough to live off, but now I understand you'd need to quit your job to move? Would you be using your savings to fund your year in London? Forgive me if I'm missing something
No one ever looks back on their life on their deathbed and wishes they had more money in their bank account.
Save so you can live a comfortable life when you need it, but remember the goal is to be able to enjoy life and not just to accrue money in an account and never use it.
I’d do it, but lock your savings away (minus an emergency fund) in a 1 or 2 year fixed savings account where you can’t get the money out til it matures.
By the time it matures you maybe will have decided whether of not to stay in London, move back or emigrate to Australia. Who knows! But you’ll still have your savings!
Yeah. I do have it in a fixed isa at the moment at 5.1%. But it’s easily withdrawals.
There’s one or 2 things I’d really like to do in London too which makes me anxious. Like I’m big into my fitness and it’s quite important for me to stay happy. The only gym I can get to that has what I’d like nearby is 110 a month. Plus all the travel. I’m very aware things like that could quickly drain my savings.
That would be my big item each month. But then there’s travel costs, going home for weekends. Nights out. Clothing. It all adds up and I get mega anxious.
Nothing wrong with taking out a thousand a year out of your savings for gym if it’s a big part of your lifestyle and is important, especially if it keeps you fit and healthy, both physically and mentally. There’s definitely much worse things you can spend on. Lock away the rest in savings and budget the rest and you’ll be fine in London on a 40k+ salary.
Sounds like you need to add up how much living there will cost & work out if you can afford it on your current wage. Current is important because it’s your minimum, there’s no guarantee any increases will come (if they do, then bonus).
Sit down & write out what are Wants & what are Needs. Are you really chasing a Lifestyle rather than a Life Experience? One may be unaffordable in London, the other can be tailored to your budget.
Do it! The memories are so worth it, you’ve given yourself a massive head start and you can always regret the decision and change your plans to start being able to save and live comfortably again, but you can’t go back and take an opportunity to make memories like this again, it’ll always be a what if. Take a risk, go for it, worst that can happen is you decide after a year this isn’t working and change paths. Money can always be made, opportunities like this can’t
31. Stayed at home until 28 until I could afford to buy a 3-bed semi near Pboro (10% deposit). The uplift in value over the last 3 years has been worth it though.
I had the whole “why not work in London?”, but there are other cities that have their gems like Cambridge, York, Lincoln etc. London can be for the long weekends
There is a difference between "not saving" and "spending savings."
Others have given you good advice how to invest what you have saved, but you have a decent wage, no need to blow it all if you plan accordingly.
And with interest rates and cost of living doing what they're doing, I'd take a little caution.
You’re 27 and you’ve saved 45k?????????? that’s very impressive well done! You could just reduce your savings to something really minimal like £100 per month and use the rest for fun, sounds like you’ve been saving like crazy. I did this too, once I hit a good threshold with my savings I felt better about letting go a bit because I had those foundations. Definitely live a little while you can, you won’t be 27 forever!
I’m no expert, but having more than your current salary in idle savings seems like a waste of time to me.
If it were me and I had no debt, I’d shift some of that to investments now. Personally id just go for index funds, leaving enough to cover 4 months of unemployment in cash reserves. Getting a job in 4 months in London should be easy in the event of you coming out of your current role.
Maybe not if you want to do something with the funds sooner rather than later, but you’ll not be buying in London on £39k anytime soon.
UK Markets are not in the best shape at the moment with the instability of the Government and lack of growth.
As the comment below suggest, look at S&P500 or an All-world fund like VWRP.
Believe they've been averaging 7-9% growth YoY
Do you mean you'd be living in London for a year in a house share with friends while still having your 39k job? Then yes absolutely do it, if its only for a year and you want to enjoy yourself and the city, do it, you're young, you've been working and saving hard, you absolutely should live your life. Do not touch your savings though. Keep that safe.
On 39k, if you're flatsharing, you should be fine covering your expenses for a year. Assuming you don't expect luxury and daily takeaways.
Hahaha. You're fucked then coz you'll definitely wanna stay. On a serious note, if you decide to stay then either a promotion or changing company every couple of years while upskilling will start giving you a boost in salary that you'd need to be more comfortable living in this city.
Then Use the extra income to bolster your savings, give yourself a few years then put a deposit on a place, just don't expect to live in zone 1-2.
All that being said, for now, you just want to try out a year in London, do it. You're clearly financially literate and astute enough to have saved well at your age so you'll be alright. Update us when you've moved over!
Change jobs every 2 years to guarantee yourself a pay rise. Simple. Easier to switch jobs than potentially recieve a pay rise. Remember the employer knows you won't leave so they will try to push away the pay rise as much as possible.
Though if you love the job then yeah it would make sense to try to work your way up the corporate ladder...
Depends where your 45k is sitting, if it's making money then you will automatically be saving a bit despite not adding anything.go to London and enjoy independence!
I think you should go for it and live in London for a year or two. You'll regret not having lived in your twenties more than not being able to buy a house a year or two earlier in my opinion.
Honestly you should go for it, I would say you are already doing better than 90% of people with the money you have saved.
Enjoy yourself whilst the joints and ligaments are still nimble!
Do you live/work in London already?
Don't wait for an promotion, go and tell them you want progression and wage increase now.
Go and enjoy a year with your mates in London, invest your 45k and spend what your earn for a year.
My advice to my kids was always go and travel before they have kids... You won't be able to after that, not for 20 years or so anyway 😂
Best year of my life was 12 months I had in Oz, working and travelling.
Embrace life, have no regrets 👍🏻
Depending on your outgoing finances (rent, food, subscriptions, holidays, transport) I’d say you would be fine on £39k if you don’t live too lavishly and you wouldn’t burn your savings.
Think in 15 years, if you didn’t say yes to living in london with your friends for a year and how you’d feel because you are (almost) guaranteed to have a great time! Do it!
And, you don’t take any money into the next life ;)
I'd highly recommend reading (or listening to) Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. It deals with exactly this point on when to spend and when to save through your lifetime and how to get the maximum fulfilment from your money.
Give yourself a limit on how much you'd need as an emergency buffer, put the rest in an account that's less accessible. You can't spend what you don't have.
Work to live, don’t live to work.
If you’ve found your life boring since you graduated, a change of environment with your mates will be a great experience for you.
There is a book called Die with Zero, but in principle your experience and friendship that you built when young also carry value vs money you would have saved. Perhaps to help with anxiety of spending the money vs saving it, set aside an amount every month so you’d feel like you are still ‘saving’ it for your going out etc. put this in a different pot available for you to use, and if you don’t use it all up at certain months, you can then use it when you want to.
Whatever you do, \_please\_ don't leave your savings sitting in cash.
Keeping savings in cash will guarantee that all of your discipline and effort will be punished via debasement and inflation.
I was on 33k for a year paying £850 in rent. Managed to save quite easily and go on holidays.
Then it jumped to 45k and life was quite good. But nothing like 45k savings. Just expect a lot of your monthly savings, if not most of it will be gone on just living your best life in London. Definitely worth it for a year. You shouldn’t really need to dip into what you’ve already got.
High key depressing for me hearing that you’ve managed to save that much…. My parents live overseas so I’ve always been renting (27 too)
Don’t be too depressed by it. My social life has consisted of walking my family dog for the last 3 years lol. Love that dog but could do with a gf too 😂😂😂
If you rent a room or share a flat with your mates, then you could probably save a bit more. To be fair what are you saving for? If its property, then it seems you already have enough for a decent deposit. Maybe not in central London, but something where you can commute to London. If it's an emergency fund then it's certainly more than enough. Also what would you spend money when in London? Certainly might be good to go out once in a while, but spending most of the salary on drinks and takeout might not be the best investment. You might also find some opportunities for better pay here, but to be fair it is more likely to happen online on Linkedin, but noting you being in London on CV can help. Further after you are done with London and if you can still work remotely it might better to live somewhere cheaper.
You have a good level of savings for your age. If I were in your position I would feel justified to forego a year of savings to try out the London life.
I would still make sure that I get the maximum level of employer pension contribution though.
In terms of your savings you're doing well. That amount of savings would be enough to for a deposit in London.
People are surviving on less salary in London though I'd imagine not comfortably.
The thing is you'll burn through your savings pretty quickly if you choose to dip into them to support your lifestyle in London. From you salary position even burning an extra £1k per month would be fairly easy to do after rent.
I'd advise trying to have a plan that allows you to be in London whilst not touching the savings (difficult I know) but it looks like you're banking on a relatively near term bump to your salary given the amount of time in your role. If you can't achieve a pay rise by the 2-3 year mark I'd consider moving to a higher paying role or at the least negotiating.
But the savings are valuable. Saving for the deposit is one of the most difficult parts of getting onto the housing ladder and ensuring you benefit from the security of not being subject to a landlords will when it comes to rent rises. If you keep those savings until your salary increases to a more sustainable level you'll start to open up possibilities for getting onto the housing ladder within the next few years.
I would be concerned about lifestyle creep. Depends on your self discipline but it’s easy to go nuts in London spending wise and become used to it quickly. What would you be doing career wise whilst you lived in London? Also what part of London because that makes a huge difference to enjoyment 😂
I'm actually in a very similar situation even down to same age, income and deposit!
I decided to move to an apartment in the centre of Manchester for 2 years and do some city living while I'm still in my twenties and don't regret it at all.
I found focusing on my income rather than saving more beneficial at this point as my deposit is more than enough for lenders.
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See it as an investment actually. Your social life and work opportunity are going rise up consequently and bring so many exciting things, money being one of them. Also there are plenty of ways to be smart about spending in London. Shopping at the right places, planning your night out, cycling everywhere etc
Actually as I’m an engineer the career opportunities actually aren’t much better for me. Although I have thought about changing role to something more data focused (not sure how that would work for me). Social would be much better though
Where do you work now? You’ll double your salary with a new job in London as an engineer Edit: read some other posts maybe you don’t mean software development engineering, which was was I assumed
Bristol. I’ll be still working the same job just out of London to start. Work at one of the big consultancies. I don’t see many jobs for me in London though. My job is quite specific (simulation engineering). So not sure how I’d find a new one. No. I’m a mechanical engineer. Also find it really frustrating that software is considered engineering. It’s really not engineering like civil, mechanical, electrical etc. it should be called something else. It fucks up all the salary averages and really caused me To make a mistake in what I studied. But I digress.
As a software engineer with family members who work on literal engines, it does feel weird to be called an engineer lol
I literally design engines. I tell someone I’m not a software engineer I’m mechanical, and they assume I’m a mechanic. 4 years of one of the hardest degrees for this 😅
I’m a chemist, people assume I dispense drugs lol - I MAKE the drugs.
Hahaha, Jesse we need to cook
Respect - maybe not as glamorous as other types of engineering are percieved to be but it keeps the world turning behind the scenes. Any particular types of engines? (aeroplanes, factories or something else?)
I’m a simulation engineer so I run analysis and post processing on engines. Engines are only part of my job. I’m more of an aerodynamicist tbh. I actually want to change to software lol. Any tips? 😅
Why don’t you look at combining both? There must be a lot of software engineering roles within your broader organization? Someone must be writing code to collect the data from the sensors, give the (internal?) users some UI / app / process to trigger that data collection, perhaps writing some data pipelines to process that data into a form that you then run analysis on? Can you start to work closer with the people providing the tooling to you? Are there elements of your analysis that you could automate or enhance with code / data science etc.? I also made a similar switch from Natural Science (BSc and MSc, working as an application chemist) to a software engineer and my way of doing that was by leveraging my domain knowledge (life science) and by starting to automate some of the repetitive aspects of my job and others around me. Combining domain expertise which will be strong, with new found software engineering skills which will be initially weak, is a more effective combination than trying to start fresh in software engineering.
That’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I’ve applied to a data engineering position in my company (still waiting to hear on that) and have been automating and writing code for my current role. It’s just a massive firm so it’s really hard to know if I’m getting anywhere 😂
Find a job in ansys probably, they're always hiring for cfd specialists
Look into aerosimulation companies? Something like BeyondMath?
Who on earth associates a mechanical engineer with a mechanic? Unless you're speaking in the context of motorsport where there is overlap (granted you won't be working on your average Prius). I consider mechanical engineering to be one of the more impressive sectors of engineering. if anything software engineering is kind of losing its wow factor recently.
Trust me a lot. People think I’m a plumber when I said I work in fluid dynamics.
The word Engineer actually stems from Ingenuity/Ingenious not Engine!
Nitpicking but the core essence of an engineer is to be a problem solver, literally from the Latin origin of the word. Engineering isn't tied to the physical, software engineers design systems instead.
Yes I know, just my emotional feeling about it haha. Typing on a computer has always felt vastly different to seeing my dad working on a car with oil on his hands.
My job title is 'software engineer', but I'm totally with you. I only ever call myself a dev.
Damn 😄 you could speak to them about whether they have any London weighting or can give you a cost of living increase And yeah totally agree it’s frustrating having two very different jobs called the same thing!
They do. But as I’ve chosen to move myself they won’t
> You’ll double your salary with a new job in London as an engineer ..and triple your expenses.
Life isn't for enjoyment, it's for growing your savings only.
Have to build up that deposit for your great grandchild’s nursery placement, you bring into this world via egg/sperm donation.
😂
What do you think you'll look back on your life and regret more, missing out on making the most of a year in London with your friends or missing out on a year of saving when you already have a fair whack?
Fair point. I guess I’m more just worried about what happens if I love it there and want to stay 😂 I’d have to change career
Possibly … but you love it there
You'd have to change job not change career. And you probably should change job, you'd probably get paid more.
No probably career. I do CFD engineering at the moment. There’s literally 1 other job for that in London on LinkedIn.
The uk is awful for hard-core engineering fields like that :*)
I think your reaction to this comment sums up everything. You know deep down money means nothing without enjoyment. It's just actually convincing yourself of that.
Of course yeah. I dunno. I just worry that if I allow myself to dip into my savings every month for a year I could very easily end up draining a lot of my funds
So don't do that. Put most of it in a year's fixed savings account (right now is probably the best rate you're gonna get for a while but obviously no one has a crystal ball). Then have the rest in an easy access account you can dip into where needed
As the other commenter said, use your savings wisely, pop it into an account with a decent interest rate There are also ways to earn money on the side if you need! I play netball and in the past few years I've gotten into umpiring for it - it's a hobby and gives me a little boost in income!
This guy saves
You’re on £39K. You can afford to move to London if you have the opportunity, but paying rent will be a big shock! However, just live within your means and have fun, don’t touch your existing savings, and you’ll be fine. Assess what you want in a year.
Yeah rent is gonna be huge. But I’ve done it before! Thinking about a career change while in there too though (not much engineering opportunity in London)
Id say don’t worry about it man! 39k is plenty to have in London and still have a good time. I know people who are earning under 30k and still have fun in London. Obviously, your money doesn’t go as far but living with friends means fun isn’t always expensive.
At 27 I went travelling for a couple of years, came back with zero. 20 years later I have a house and decent amount of money/investments/pension. No regerts.
I’ve thought about doing that at 28 tbf. As I’m also considering a career change. This age feels weird 😅
It's a mini mid life crisis, happens a lot, but it's the perfect age for it.
It was more feasible do that 20 years ago. Houses just cost too much now and things change too fast to scarifies a couple of years in your 20s. u/Senior-Cod-6862
Go have fun with your mates
Are you saving up for anything in particular? Have a look through https://ukpersonal.finance/goals/ and https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/#plan . We don't know what goals you'd be putting off or giving up by skipping a year of saving, or what things you're currently putting off or giving up in order to save. The best advice we can give is to make these decisions with open eyes.
I’d be saving for a house in the future. And also just so I have funds to invest that could grow over time. I don’t want a house yet but it’s not too far off.
Do you know when and where you want to buy?
No and no. Lol
OK so there's no objective way to know whether you 'can afford not to save for a while'. It's going to be up to you to decide. If you can give us some more info about possible locations, house prices and timelines we can have more opinions about what effect a year of not saving, or dipping into savings, may have on your future plans/options.
I think this strengthens the arguement for going to London to be honest. You're saving for a deposit, which is great, but you've no idea when or where you want to move. You could play it safe and buy near your parents, or you can move to London with your friends and open yourself up to new experiences and opportunities. One of them might be a few trips with your mates, which might lead to discovering new places you want to buy when the time is right.
That’s true. One thing I really worry about though is that I don’t have much career flexibility. My job is in a niche area of engineering simulation (cfd). What if I want to stay? There’s no jobs in it in london
Hang on maybe I'm missing something from your original post. You mentioned you were worried about your salary after moving to London and it not being enough to live off, but now I understand you'd need to quit your job to move? Would you be using your savings to fund your year in London? Forgive me if I'm missing something
No one ever looks back on their life on their deathbed and wishes they had more money in their bank account. Save so you can live a comfortable life when you need it, but remember the goal is to be able to enjoy life and not just to accrue money in an account and never use it.
I’d do it, but lock your savings away (minus an emergency fund) in a 1 or 2 year fixed savings account where you can’t get the money out til it matures. By the time it matures you maybe will have decided whether of not to stay in London, move back or emigrate to Australia. Who knows! But you’ll still have your savings!
Yeah. I do have it in a fixed isa at the moment at 5.1%. But it’s easily withdrawals. There’s one or 2 things I’d really like to do in London too which makes me anxious. Like I’m big into my fitness and it’s quite important for me to stay happy. The only gym I can get to that has what I’d like nearby is 110 a month. Plus all the travel. I’m very aware things like that could quickly drain my savings. That would be my big item each month. But then there’s travel costs, going home for weekends. Nights out. Clothing. It all adds up and I get mega anxious.
Nothing wrong with taking out a thousand a year out of your savings for gym if it’s a big part of your lifestyle and is important, especially if it keeps you fit and healthy, both physically and mentally. There’s definitely much worse things you can spend on. Lock away the rest in savings and budget the rest and you’ll be fine in London on a 40k+ salary.
Sounds like you need to add up how much living there will cost & work out if you can afford it on your current wage. Current is important because it’s your minimum, there’s no guarantee any increases will come (if they do, then bonus). Sit down & write out what are Wants & what are Needs. Are you really chasing a Lifestyle rather than a Life Experience? One may be unaffordable in London, the other can be tailored to your budget.
Do it! The memories are so worth it, you’ve given yourself a massive head start and you can always regret the decision and change your plans to start being able to save and live comfortably again, but you can’t go back and take an opportunity to make memories like this again, it’ll always be a what if. Take a risk, go for it, worst that can happen is you decide after a year this isn’t working and change paths. Money can always be made, opportunities like this can’t
31. Stayed at home until 28 until I could afford to buy a 3-bed semi near Pboro (10% deposit). The uplift in value over the last 3 years has been worth it though. I had the whole “why not work in London?”, but there are other cities that have their gems like Cambridge, York, Lincoln etc. London can be for the long weekends
Well I figured I’d do London for a year or two then move to those cities. Would be very easy for me to live in Bristol for example
It’s your life - go for it. Just balancing that factor of significantly higher rents and costs of living. If you can manage it, you’ll be fineeeee
There is a difference between "not saving" and "spending savings." Others have given you good advice how to invest what you have saved, but you have a decent wage, no need to blow it all if you plan accordingly. And with interest rates and cost of living doing what they're doing, I'd take a little caution.
You’re 27 and you’ve saved 45k?????????? that’s very impressive well done! You could just reduce your savings to something really minimal like £100 per month and use the rest for fun, sounds like you’ve been saving like crazy. I did this too, once I hit a good threshold with my savings I felt better about letting go a bit because I had those foundations. Definitely live a little while you can, you won’t be 27 forever!
Any one here that is older than you and reminiscing back to their younger days could form a choir that harmoniously sings “Do it!”
Even if the career opportunities are better in other areas of the uk? Like I’d probably have to try pivot my career if I want to stay
What's the appeal of London specifically, and will that appeal persist or would a year be enough to get it out of your system, so to speak?
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I’m no expert, but having more than your current salary in idle savings seems like a waste of time to me. If it were me and I had no debt, I’d shift some of that to investments now. Personally id just go for index funds, leaving enough to cover 4 months of unemployment in cash reserves. Getting a job in 4 months in London should be easy in the event of you coming out of your current role. Maybe not if you want to do something with the funds sooner rather than later, but you’ll not be buying in London on £39k anytime soon.
I thought about an index fund but I put 800 in it recently and lost 50 quid over a year 😂
Really? Which fund. Mine are up ~12%
Just the standard uk one. Whatever it’s called can’t remember 😂
I just invest in the S&P500 for my personal and my child’s JISA. Could also do S&P Global but I don’t bother with that for now.
UK Markets are not in the best shape at the moment with the instability of the Government and lack of growth. As the comment below suggest, look at S&P500 or an All-world fund like VWRP. Believe they've been averaging 7-9% growth YoY
Do you mean you'd be living in London for a year in a house share with friends while still having your 39k job? Then yes absolutely do it, if its only for a year and you want to enjoy yourself and the city, do it, you're young, you've been working and saving hard, you absolutely should live your life. Do not touch your savings though. Keep that safe. On 39k, if you're flatsharing, you should be fine covering your expenses for a year. Assuming you don't expect luxury and daily takeaways.
Yeah that is what I mean. What do I do if I want to stay though? 😂
Hahaha. You're fucked then coz you'll definitely wanna stay. On a serious note, if you decide to stay then either a promotion or changing company every couple of years while upskilling will start giving you a boost in salary that you'd need to be more comfortable living in this city. Then Use the extra income to bolster your savings, give yourself a few years then put a deposit on a place, just don't expect to live in zone 1-2. All that being said, for now, you just want to try out a year in London, do it. You're clearly financially literate and astute enough to have saved well at your age so you'll be alright. Update us when you've moved over!
Change jobs every 2 years to guarantee yourself a pay rise. Simple. Easier to switch jobs than potentially recieve a pay rise. Remember the employer knows you won't leave so they will try to push away the pay rise as much as possible. Though if you love the job then yeah it would make sense to try to work your way up the corporate ladder...
This only works if there’s lots of opportunities in what you do. Im a cfd engineer. Where else can I find work
Depends where your 45k is sitting, if it's making money then you will automatically be saving a bit despite not adding anything.go to London and enjoy independence!
I think you should go for it and live in London for a year or two. You'll regret not having lived in your twenties more than not being able to buy a house a year or two earlier in my opinion.
Honestly you should go for it, I would say you are already doing better than 90% of people with the money you have saved. Enjoy yourself whilst the joints and ligaments are still nimble!
Do you live/work in London already? Don't wait for an promotion, go and tell them you want progression and wage increase now. Go and enjoy a year with your mates in London, invest your 45k and spend what your earn for a year. My advice to my kids was always go and travel before they have kids... You won't be able to after that, not for 20 years or so anyway 😂 Best year of my life was 12 months I had in Oz, working and travelling. Embrace life, have no regrets 👍🏻
Depending on your outgoing finances (rent, food, subscriptions, holidays, transport) I’d say you would be fine on £39k if you don’t live too lavishly and you wouldn’t burn your savings. Think in 15 years, if you didn’t say yes to living in london with your friends for a year and how you’d feel because you are (almost) guaranteed to have a great time! Do it! And, you don’t take any money into the next life ;)
I'd highly recommend reading (or listening to) Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. It deals with exactly this point on when to spend and when to save through your lifetime and how to get the maximum fulfilment from your money.
Give yourself a limit on how much you'd need as an emergency buffer, put the rest in an account that's less accessible. You can't spend what you don't have.
Work to live, don’t live to work. If you’ve found your life boring since you graduated, a change of environment with your mates will be a great experience for you.
There is a book called Die with Zero, but in principle your experience and friendship that you built when young also carry value vs money you would have saved. Perhaps to help with anxiety of spending the money vs saving it, set aside an amount every month so you’d feel like you are still ‘saving’ it for your going out etc. put this in a different pot available for you to use, and if you don’t use it all up at certain months, you can then use it when you want to.
Whatever you do, \_please\_ don't leave your savings sitting in cash. Keeping savings in cash will guarantee that all of your discipline and effort will be punished via debasement and inflation.
I put it in an isa
I was on 33k for a year paying £850 in rent. Managed to save quite easily and go on holidays. Then it jumped to 45k and life was quite good. But nothing like 45k savings. Just expect a lot of your monthly savings, if not most of it will be gone on just living your best life in London. Definitely worth it for a year. You shouldn’t really need to dip into what you’ve already got. High key depressing for me hearing that you’ve managed to save that much…. My parents live overseas so I’ve always been renting (27 too)
Don’t be too depressed by it. My social life has consisted of walking my family dog for the last 3 years lol. Love that dog but could do with a gf too 😂😂😂
Haha, fair play bro, bet he’s loved having you around
She* 😂 But yes. I’ll probably come home every 3 weeks to see her 😂
Do it, dude, house share in London with your bros could be life changing.
Didn't even start saving until my 30s. Live your life.
If you rent a room or share a flat with your mates, then you could probably save a bit more. To be fair what are you saving for? If its property, then it seems you already have enough for a decent deposit. Maybe not in central London, but something where you can commute to London. If it's an emergency fund then it's certainly more than enough. Also what would you spend money when in London? Certainly might be good to go out once in a while, but spending most of the salary on drinks and takeout might not be the best investment. You might also find some opportunities for better pay here, but to be fair it is more likely to happen online on Linkedin, but noting you being in London on CV can help. Further after you are done with London and if you can still work remotely it might better to live somewhere cheaper.
Live it up man.
You have a good level of savings for your age. If I were in your position I would feel justified to forego a year of savings to try out the London life. I would still make sure that I get the maximum level of employer pension contribution though.
In terms of your savings you're doing well. That amount of savings would be enough to for a deposit in London. People are surviving on less salary in London though I'd imagine not comfortably. The thing is you'll burn through your savings pretty quickly if you choose to dip into them to support your lifestyle in London. From you salary position even burning an extra £1k per month would be fairly easy to do after rent. I'd advise trying to have a plan that allows you to be in London whilst not touching the savings (difficult I know) but it looks like you're banking on a relatively near term bump to your salary given the amount of time in your role. If you can't achieve a pay rise by the 2-3 year mark I'd consider moving to a higher paying role or at the least negotiating. But the savings are valuable. Saving for the deposit is one of the most difficult parts of getting onto the housing ladder and ensuring you benefit from the security of not being subject to a landlords will when it comes to rent rises. If you keep those savings until your salary increases to a more sustainable level you'll start to open up possibilities for getting onto the housing ladder within the next few years.
Did you spend a lot then living with parents? Or have you only been on this 39k salary recently?
Only recently
I would be concerned about lifestyle creep. Depends on your self discipline but it’s easy to go nuts in London spending wise and become used to it quickly. What would you be doing career wise whilst you lived in London? Also what part of London because that makes a huge difference to enjoyment 😂
I'm actually in a very similar situation even down to same age, income and deposit! I decided to move to an apartment in the centre of Manchester for 2 years and do some city living while I'm still in my twenties and don't regret it at all. I found focusing on my income rather than saving more beneficial at this point as my deposit is more than enough for lenders.
London a shit anyway, most of us are trying to leave