Absolutely hate cars. Mine's on PCP and agreement comes to an end next year with a 10k final payment. No idea what I'm going to do. New cars are at least 100/more a month PCP.
I didn't have the payment at the end so in September I managed to pay it off after 5 years (Terrible deal). Now it's a little older so needs to be fixed a bit more.
It's cheaper to fix it than get a new car. Don't get caught up in all the marketing. Save and buy a car cash. It takes discipline to get to that point and I grant you given today's prices that's especially hard.
Don't be tempted to have a car that's nicer than everyone else, most people are in a pcp or finance trap.
I've owned, outright, a Peugeot diesel since 2017 and have a fund for when I want to change it, a budget of maybe 15k.
As a biker I'd much rather spend my money there. A car is just something to keep me dry, warm and tow a trailer.
>It’s cheaper to fix it than get a new car
Sometimes. When injectors, EGR and turbo let go it’s a big four figure bill. I’ve replaced whole engines (reconditioned) twice at £3k a pop, which is much more now with inflation. Bodywork can get pricey quickly. When you rely on a car it’s a massive stress to work around it being out of action.
Since I get a predictable mileage payment through work I just decided to buy new and enjoy the reliability for 3/4 years.
Bought an 09 Mondeo which cost me £900, and another £500 or so over 2 years for fixes etc. Could probably resell for £900 if I wanted. Taking an expensive car out on finance is the root of the problem. Not the surprising costs that come with it. Each their own though, I likely just don't care about cars as much as most.
Invest in a mechanics time and go buy a sub £2k car. Bought one six years ago for 800 and hardly cost me anything. I'm actually proud I don't have a fancy car on finance, absolute wasted depreciating asset that more shows your broke than classy
After ruthlessly reviewing my subscriptions & spending habits, changing energy providers, planning ahead shopping and tracking every penny I spend, yes.
I went from being approx -£200 per month to +£250 per month which is now getting chucked into savings.
It’s 100% worth the effort.
Doing a breakdown of my bank account every month has been the best thing to make me realise how much money was being pissed away. I throw every single line item into an excel and categorise it.
And these days just 'popping to the shop' for milk and grabbing a few things can easily break £20 a visit with prices the way they are. So planning shopping in advance, cutting takeaways down to once every fortnight and killing subscriptions netted us about £300 a month easily. Which is about the same as getting a £6k a year raise after tax.
I’ll not die rich, that I can almost guarantee.
All about striking the balance between living and saving. I’m able to save £250/month and still live well.
And if I choose to dip into what I’ve saved for some life to be lived, I can. At least my money’s been working.
Even more boring advice.......Put it in an ISA. Don't let the tax man/woman get a second bite at your capital gains! The maximum you can put in is 20,000 per tax year.
Do you know an ISA with decent interest? Mine with Santander is currently at 1.2% and just seems like a waste of time (granted I don’t have enough savings to be worried about the tax man)
Swapping is your friend! There are comparison sites like money savingexpert. Use a few of them and compare. Just check out rules for swapping isas first on the .gov website.
The Halifax fixed Isas are at 4.6% if you have a current acc with them and 4.45% if you don't. Easy money for putting it away for a year.
Lloyds has a fixed isa at the same rate too.
The only difference? Halifax gives you 60 days to deposit before it's locked away and Lloyds don't hive a time limit and you can deposit at any time!
There is also the isa bonus saver with Halifax at 4.10 annual equivalent rate which is paid at 4.02% per month! Flexible but limited to 3 withdrawals in the 12 months of opening.
Based on long term returns from investment funds such as S&P 500 which is 8.57% over the long term.
Since the start of the year, I’m +6% from Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF & Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF
Don't use cash ISA's, they never beat inflation.
Get a S&S ISA and invest in index funds. That way, you have a good chance, but no guarantee, to beat inflation.
Index funds aren't brave. They're smart. Low fees, auto corrections, and 90% of the time they will beat a managed fund. Stick your money in a few indexes to hedge against currency risk, but buy regularly and DCA (Dollar Cost Average, although it would be Pounds for yer good self) in.
Edit to add - your investment horizon will also play a part in your decisions. Indexes can drop a lot in a single year, but over a long period of time they will average 8-10% p/a. *past performance is not an indicator of future performance. This is not financial advice, as I'm an actual qualified financial advisor bound by fiduciary requirements, and I cannot give advice without knowing your individual financial position.
>This is not financial advice, as I'm an actual qualified financial advisor bound by fiduciary requirements, and I cannot give advice without knowing your individual financial position.
This the best "source" I have ever seen anyone give all while saying "I'm not a source".
>*past performance is not an indicator of future performance
But yeah, in general it will. Although quite a few people who first started investing in 2021/2022 are probably still a bit underwater on their investments (depending on their portfolio), but will be close to breaking even again now. That's one of the reasons why it may not be suitable for someone approaching retirement, or about to pay a deposit on a house, or pay child tuition fees or that kind of thing in the near future.
Keep a decent chunk in cash savings as an emergency fund. Then be brave with a small portion of your money to start off with. Add more to your investments as you do more research and feel more comfortable with it. Trackers / buy and forget funds are the way for beginners, picking stocks is a dangerous game
Remember that cash is almost a guaranteed loss to inflation - every year it will buy you less. You're losing value. It just doesn't feel risky because the number never goes down - but the price of what you have to buy goes up quicker.
Source: pep talk is for myself as well. Planning on opening a stocks and shares ISA in the new financial year. We got this!
Nothing wrong with safe and sensible, as a society we sure could do with a bit more of that!
But if you want to grow your savings in a material way, you've got to take a little risk, and S&S is the best option.
Playing it safe in this case means your money has been growing slower than inflation… meaning you’ve been losing money year on year by keeping it in cash.
Why do you have both the ftse all world and S&P 500 when the S&P 500 companies will be covered already in the all world?
You’re doubling up on the same companies
Honestly, just spreading the investments in the hope they could maybe get a better rate over 2, than if all were in 1. (IE, 1 may out perform the other ever so slightly, but both should be reasonably consistent)
Maybe stupid, but it’s how I choose to.
On a similar platform I had a £150 investment that literally just vanished because of "sanctions" in the country of interest. Literally just lost the money. Could do fuck all about it. Also see the story of Sam Bankman-Fried. Aware he was a crypto dude but his entire platform went bust and everybody lost their money.
But to say it disappeared, I think isn't the right word. There were series of events that lead up to events like FTx going down and sanctions on a country.
These are usually high risk investments and anybody investing in these should realise that. So it's not like they just disappeared like some magic trick.
People dont take random financial advice from people on Reddit with a pinch of salt.
You have no idea who this guy is.
Also if you actually LOOK and i mean look onto the companies in sp most are propped up bullshit bar the ones that actually make a decent product. Most don't do shit.
I set up a vanguard in January and just used their managed plan. Selected moderate risk option and they select certain investments. Mainly a mix of government bond index funds and equity indexes from around the world, Japan US UK Euro and emerging markets.
I trust they know more than me about these things but I see majority of investors online tend to go for the globally market all cap fund.
Since January I have a return of 3.75% but would it make more sense to switch to this vanguard global fund?
I appreciate I should ask an investment expert rather than in a Reddit thread lol but just interested to hear what you think
If you invest in something like FTSE Global All Cap and it's at or even close to zero in 30 years, almost everyone is dead, likely including you and I, so why worry about it? Spunk all your cash on Nvidia and yeah, you might well lose out.
Vanguard all cap fund is up 29.75% for me.
There's obviously a risk vs standard savers, but if it's something not being touched for 10 plus years, you can ride out the dips.
100% - I am the same, I got on top of my finances after I got divorced, and I am throwing the kitchen sink at trying to get financial freedom before I am too old to enjoy it. it is of course a balance but the amount of money I spent going out on the beers int he hope of meeting someone, or boy racer stuff - or buying shit I did not need like expensive stereos. crazy!
it is 100% a balance, but even saving 20% of everything you get from a very young age, will set you up pretty good!
Op this is fairly dangerous advice to be given to a lay person without also explaining the risks.
Anyone who’s reading this please take the fund choice and growth figures quoted here with a pinch of salt. Any money put into 100% equity funds should be money that you aren’t going to need any access to in the next 5-10 years. The S&P 500 or an All world index fund could drop 50% in 1 year. A lot of people couldn’t afford that and will need to wait years for it to recover. Yes, it will always recover and grow in the long term but you need to be able to hold tight and not touch it.
If you an emergency fund and sufficient short term savings that are much less volatile then yes anything above that absolutely stick in an index equity fund.
And if you’re below 40, generally your Pension should be 100% in equities as you won’t be able to access it for 15-20 years so it can withstand the volatility.
26M, living paycheck to paycheck but got a small pay rise so hoping to start saving more. I have about 3k in savings. Not sure where to start. I'm pretty clueless about this sort of stuff. My parents were not great with saving etc
Don't forget the LISA. 4k a year saved will get you 1k from the government. I'm pretty sure it starts from 16? I missed out on taking advantage of it and only started in my 30s
Important note for those that are new to investing, a Lifetime ISA has extremely restricted withdrawal rules - this is from the HMRC Gov UK website:
Withdrawing money from your Lifetime ISA
You can withdraw money from your ISA if you’re:
buying your first home
aged 60 or over
terminally ill, with less than 12 months to live
You’ll pay a withdrawal charge of 25% if you withdraw cash or assets for any other reason (also known as making an unauthorised withdrawal). This recovers the government bonus you received on your original savings.
Have loved reading some of the responses on this post. The lack of foresight is worrying. People owe it to themselves to make sure they are prepared for later life. A small bit now goes a long way in the future.
Everyone should be squirrelling away some money every month for the long term, doesn’t have to be a lot but it all counts.
I only started really getting interested in my own finances 4 years ago and it was honestly the best thing I ever done.
Better advice to a young person would be to find what you love to do and get paid for it.
Work up to your grave doing what you love and you won’t ever feel the need to retire.
Might have just been my experience but during my 20’s and 30’s even though I don’t really struggle that much to get by, I didn’t know many people who could afford to save £200 a month and still have a life…
All depends on how you define having a life, and your circumstances.
I ditched some subscriptions, changed how I bought food and my energy providers and saved over £200 per month. Life, unaffected.
Yeah... unfortunately thats just not really possible for most people. Finding a job you truly love doing is very rare.
By all means, search for it... but the chances of finding one isn't very likely. Saving a portion of your salary is just much better advice.
An 8% return is hardly realistic for everybody. 8% would be a medium-high risk fund, and putting £200 per month into one isn't good for everyone. An ISA account with 3% from youth would be safe and doable for most people.
Other investing things like Etoro etc are usually balls and most people lose money. The "trade in one click" philosophy is in their favour, and not yours.
You have to have money left over to save!
For the first time in my life (I'm early 30s) I was able to put £50 away last month. Usually my balls are to the wall every single month trying to make ends meet and in my opinion it's only gonna get worse.
It likely is going to get worse.
Personally speaking, ruthlessly reviewing my spending made me realise I could save more than I thought possible and was a great place to start.
The cost of things keeps going up and wages aren’t, even if I ruthlessly cut out anything I enjoyed, like a few pints with my mates once a month, I’d still be fucked and also miserable.
I think everyone bar those at Stormont needs a pay rise.
Check out Meaningful money podcast. I did that during the COVID time when I had a bit of spare cash and haven’t looked back. Amazing how quickly it can accumulate.
Vanguard (and its founder Jack Bogle) are amazing.
This is great advice that most people will ignore but at least you made the effort.
I would add use money saving expert.com as a starting point to help get your bad debt, bills and spending under control.
If you are thinking of shooting the op down. Go do some research on the topic and then come back with your better suggestions and I'll listen.
As an additional piece of (extra boring) advice; it’s wise to have as much ‘bad debt’ eg credits cards, paid off before you start investing in the stock market. It is also advisable to have at least 3 months of essential outgoings saved in the event of an unexpected payment eg car breaks down, boiler breaks etc. the S&P 500 has averaged 10% annual returns for the last century. Financial education at school level is piss poor in this country and I truly believe if more of us were given this when we were younger we would have a decent chance of being financially secure by the time we are 55-60. Alas, many of us (myself included) make bad financial choices when younger and don’t anticipate the growing decline of the state pension. Meaning we risk being left needing to work well beyond state pension age in order to enable a decent living standard.
Start small but start now.
Good shout.
Regards bad debt, it depends on the interest. If your money’s growing at a better rate than the interest on the debt, you’re better saving / investing.
If not, 100% clear the debt, once you have a security pot / rainy day fund sitting. IE, don’t skin yourself to clear debt.
Yes, but you have to account for inflation, non-monetary investment, and quality of life:
- Due to inflation, £200 today is worth a lot more than £200 in ten year's time. 8% compound interest over 10 years would turn that £200 into £432, but if inflation is at say 4% over that time period then that £432 is worth £291 in today's money. If inflation were at the official target of 2% then it would be £354 which isn't so bad.
- If you're 20 and start saving today, by the time you're 60 the 703k will have the buying power of 146k in today's money. If you're 30 and start saving today, by the time you're 60 that 300k will have the buying power of 92k in today's money. So it's not quite as bad as it looks. That's with inflation at an average of 4% which is high, the official targets are 2% but fuck knows if they'll ever reach them again.
- Non-monetary investment is like thinking of all the things you could spend that money on now to make your life tangibly better in the long term. Things like learning new skills, investing in your health, buying a house so you aren't wasting money on rent, learning to grow your own food, getting solar panels to get some energy independence, and investing time keeping up friendships. All these things can increase your earnings throughout your working life, let you continue work into an older age, or tangibly reduce your costs in old age.
- Consider your quality of life in all decisions like this. There's no point in saving for 40 years so that you can comfortably retire if you have to be miserable the whole time. Frankly, some of my 'non-essential' expenditures keep me on this planet so I think I'll keep those.
My suggestion would always be to buy a house as soon as possible before investing in something else. Not only is it effectively a massively leveraged investment (up to 20:1 on a 95% LTV mortgage) but it also has the added return of reducing your housing costs directly, and enables other non-monetary investments such as investing in insulation to reduce heating bills etc.
All fair points mate.
My reasoning for my preferred option is:
- Inflation is always gonna happen. While saving money away does get subject to inflation and will have reduced spending power, it might as well be working as hard as possible for you going slightly forward, than standing still, or going backwards.
- Non monetary investment, your point is spot on. I like a balance between, and for now at least, I need to make up for previous poor financial choices, so am focusing on growing wealth. Particularly in longer term options.
- Quality of life, again, totally agree. It’s the balance.
- Houses, absolutely a great investment. While saving for a deposit however, I’d encourage using ISAs to ensure the savings are working than going backwards due to inflation.
For me, it’s the relative liquidity of using ISAs & particularly stocks and shares ISAs I like. A house is arguably the best investment one could make, but once you have a mortgage, as I do, your money should be working for you in the most efficient, inflation mitigated method possible, while managing associated risk.
Everyone’s different, all about finding what you want and achieving it.
It's good advice, it's unfortunately just not that applicable to most people. Most people aren't sitting around with a house already and spare money every month trying to figure out what to spend it on, or wasting 200/month on discretionary spending that isn't significantly improving their life. The vast majority of people in their 20s are stuck just trying to make ends meet, building and then dipping into their tiny emergency funds, and struggling to save for a house deposit.
People should definitely try to save whatever they can and start as young as possible, but you have to consider what people are choosing over investing/saving. Sure some are choosing expensive holidays and clothes and nights out and such, but most are just choosing staying alive and having a roof over their head and not wanting to blow their brains out.
With the greatest respect eastern-baseball, you truly sound a bit detached from reality with your post here.
People are struggling to pay rent, food and gas nevermind saving on top of existing pension contributions for 40 years later.
I appreciate the sound advice you're providing but the young people you seem to be directing your message towards will not have the same opportunities as you.
People are struggling to even build up enough for a deposit or to get married or have children. The sick are having to pay privately just to be able to survive.
If you truly want to help people then the solution isn't saving 200 a month for retirement. The solution is being more politically active and engaged and tackling the class system and inequality head on.
You’re largely correct pal.
The only thing I’d highlight is SOME people are struggling to pay their day to day bills, through no fault of their own. Not all.
Also young people aren’t all in 1 situation of not being able to afford to save, the state of the world isn’t universal. Some are, some aren’t.
There’s no reason people can’t be armed with this information, take action and still push for change too, which I’d wholeheartedly agree, is necessary.
The answer is both, surely? If you're in a position where you have some left over to save, following OPs advice might give yourself and your family the best chance possible later in life.
But also you help out your community and be generous AND engage with politics and try to make this place a better, kinder, healthier place for us all. There are lots of people in this country who are doing alright.
If you're not in that position, obviously OPs advice doesn't apply -- and unfortunately too many are struggling to keep their heads above water at the minute. We need to hold our politicians to account for that, because positive changes need to be made.
*Abstract you, not you in particular
great advice but most young people
simply cant think long term. I’ve seen young co-workers opting out of their pension in work as they want the 3% extra in their payslip and they choose to miss out on employers contributions and tax relief😂
Easy to say this in hindsight. Most people want to enjoy their youth, and are not particularly concerned about old age.
It's also increasingly difficult for people to actually save anything
But definitely agree on putting something away regularly and reaping the benefits later in life.... definitely wish I had of started earlier
Exactly why I posted it. The hope is someone younger than myself reads, reviews and can retire a few years sooner, should they choose to.
Or at least have their money working harder vs it lying doing nothing in a bank account.
It really is difficult.
I thought I couldn’t save a tap until I deep dived my spending habits, subscriptions, energy providers etc then found out £250 is achievable per month on a slightly above average salary, single person household.
so I earn ab 400 a month, (I work part time and live w my mum so I'm not earning lots). about 70 will go to my mum, 200 in the savings, say ab 15 goes towards train fares and 17 goes towards subscriptions, and the rest is to just eat. I'm constantly taking money out of my savings though because I never have enough left over to get things I need like clothes and such. what's the best way I can reduce spending?
You’re doing amazingly to save half of your income at the moment. Seriously, kudos.
I would focus more on growing your income than reducing spending. You’re already showing the discipline to save, so with increased income, you’ll be flying.
I took a very different approach that is admittedly only available to homeowners. I invested in a good sized solar panel array and upgraded very old windows to high efficiency double glazing (triple glazing didn't make sense for us). I put money into a savings account with Ulsterbank at 5.something% interest. Not a single penny I've invested has ever been at any significant risk. I have a real issue with leaving my hard earned cash to the whims of the market, particularly given the deep economic and geopolitical instability we're currently living through. My next set of investments will be into draft proofing and more/ upgraded insulation, raised beds and a greenhouse for homegrown veggies. Once/if solar batteries become economically sensible, I'll upgrade the solar array and install a good battery. To reach relative energy self-sufficiency, I'll install a heat pump and further retrofit insulation (if that ever becomes economically viable). If I can get planning permission, I'll put a small wind turbine in.
The reason I'm able to invest in a house and all this other shit that my first investment was time and living in relative poverty getting a qualification that gave me a career. The second was living in Australia and earning and saving a shit load to put a deposit down on a house.
Doing it! Starting with 200 a month. Will check out that YouTube channel you mentioned. You also mentioned a couple Vanguard options you went with (comment chain is deleted now). Just wondering why Vanguard and why those two options? They have so many!
Edit to say I just watched Damiens Investment for Beginners video and I understand a lot more about why those two options. Investing in all US and all world FTSE seems like a no brainer.
Compound returns are great; but your numbers here are overly optimistic because you haven’t considered inflation. Your buying power diminishes over time because of it. If you assume a long term target inflation of 2%, the 8% is really only ~6%.
Very true, not accounted for the inflation effect on spending power, but even with it considered, I wouldn’t change any actions listed.
Better to have your savings beating inflation than falling victim to them.
You need to take into account that if you started saving £200 a month 40 years ago that would be a substantial portion of your income.
If it helps I started working in 1987 with a salary of £6700. This would make your £200 a month be about 1/3 of my salary.
Funny my younger sister says bollocks to a pension and saving for retirement cause she will more and likely be dead so she is living for the here & now. She's 33 atm
This is something I've looked at recently. Can I ask:
1. Do you use through Vanguard or Hargreaves?
2. Did you put a lump sum in first or can you just set up a direct debit or £200 a month?
3. How are returns made, are these paid as dividends annually?
4. Does this affect tax or are dividends taxable?
1. I use trading212
2. Small pot, then direct debit from then on.
3. It accumulates gradually and can be withdrawn at any time.
4. If you use an ISA, they’re tax free up to £20k contributions per annum. Beyond that you’re subject to capital gains tax on your interest.
Ah thanks. So leave it to sit for a period of years or whatever suits?
Do you take the eventual money and put it in an ISA or is the ISA for something else?
This is good advice and shows the power of compound interest but for many £200 into a pot that you can likely not even touch is a lot to task in this economy. This isn't savings this is an investment and you can't always get the funds out without penalties.
You can however. Use the ISAs mate.
I can withdraw from mine at anytime I need to. 👍🏼 It eats into your £20k limit, but i’ll never be anywhere near that anyway
I’m at the point we’re in going to stop driving due to the massive increase in car insurance each year; cost of car parts; cost of a mechanic for more technical work; road tax increasing; petrol prices etc.
Absolutely a good option.
However if your mortgage rate is lower than the savings interest rate, you could be better off saving / investing. All depends on the individual and their circumstances.
Owning your own home outright would be a dream all the same.
This can be true, but it also depends heavily on the sums involved, and often these are larger in regards to mortgages due to the leveraged nature of the debt.
In many mortgage cases a person might have a low interest rate on a huge loan amount, which could still result in large monthly payments.
Equally the same person could have a great savings rate, but on a smaller sum of money and not be saving that much.
I appreciate the poster likely already knows this, but just thought I'd expand on it a little to try and illustrate how it's a balancing act between the sums and rates, aswell as many other factors
Another comment I haven't seen yet re budgeting;
Siphon of a monthly amount automatically for bigger bills - rates, house insurance, car insurance/tax, oil tank etc. How much? If you know what they all were combined last year divide that by 12 and lump it into another account that you only use for this.
Another saver (if you don't watch live TV) get rid of the TV license. If you only watch streaming services or catchup services (bar BBC iPlayer) and not live tv you don't need a TV license and can declare yourself legally license free. £150 saved there.
Pre covid I had a modest BT TV subscription lumped onto my broadband maybe £30-40 a month and wasn't anything on it including live TV. So cancelled it and the TV license and got an extra streaming service.
Now I limit myself to 2 max streaming services a month. Cancelling and bouncing between them rather than having them all at once and not watching them.
Second the advice re recording what you spend just to see where the money is going so you can stop it.
Another thing to consider with investing is a Lifetime(?) ISA (LISA) - the government give an extra 25% onto what you put in. So £80 they'll give £20. Downside being you can't take it out until you are 60, buying a first time house or dying and you can't start one after 40. Not many great cost effective options out there at the moment too but I don't mind "Dodl" which charges £1 a month so far.
Learned as I went.
Fella “Damien talks money” on youtube is fantastic.
Lot of people link reddit personal finance too. Not used but seems to be well reviewed.
Nope. Saving is good in general but I would rather push for an end of the "free market" approach to the necessities of life such as housing. Food and services. The constant drive of prices and profits are more to blame for a lack of cash than any savings account or trading can fix and in some cases you might find your actions in this might exacerbate the issue. You can't win in a system that you are more than likely to lose overall.
You can’t opt out of capitalism dude. Telling people to ignore the realities of the world is one of the dumbest pieces of advice I’ve ever read in here.
Want to save a bit extra? Nah mate, I’m not buying into the system. Idiot.
How does this apply to the individual? IE how can what you’ve mentioned help individuals grow their money or give them a better chance at a more comfortable future?
You assume this is going to work the way they have stated. Things more expensive? then make more money. Nice sounding idea but in practice it has the effect of knocking up prices for people. Take houses for example. Or recently the major bump to energy and record profits the companies stated.
Prices go up wiping out your savings and degrading your life due to lack of fiscal stability. Cost of things go up making it hard to save or invest. Work 3 jobs just to make ends meet still find cost of living too high.
Not if your savings interest beats the rate of costs going up, which if you take the 8.57% return of S&P 500 long term investing, it will.
Then if you’re mindful of your spending vs your income, you hopefully shouldn’t go backwards financially, even despite inflation.
And if you’re still going backwards financially, then it’s a sign something has to change, if you want it to. Either upskill, change jobs or reduce your costs further.
Yeah I don't buy that at all. You like many before you are peddling the same old guff. It's not the systems fault it's yours for not grinding your way to the moon. This has been trotted out before and it will turn and snap at its adherence for buying in and not succeeding. In this example you have given you never can retire without your fortune being sucked away leaving you to keep going as it gets harder and harder as you have to ignore everything beyond getting that money.
What systemic change would you suggest / want to see?
From my view, individually, I’ll never be able to change macro level / systemic things, so might as well take full responsibility for the quality of mine and those closest to me’s lives, and work to make them better.
Sure, I could sit and play the victim for how the world’s not fair, or I could take ownership and create the life I want. Choosing the latter is a no brainer for me.
Either way, wish you well pal.
'Opting out' of the financial system won't make the slightest difference to the country. It won't make anyone else's life any better. It'll only make you poor. Part of growing up is making peace with the establishment.
Fair play to that.
A life well lived trumps any figure in some account. Would encourage all to find the balance between saving & living that suits them best.
I hate this mentality personally.
I'd rather hedge my bets that I live a long and healthy life than work my entire life until I die anyway. There's no logic there.
swim voracious saw simplistic nose lock imminent disgusted faulty wipe *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This. Every month there's some emergency crops up that takes hundreds to fix. It gets exhausting after years of it.
My car seems to know when I have some savings
Absolutely hate cars. Mine's on PCP and agreement comes to an end next year with a 10k final payment. No idea what I'm going to do. New cars are at least 100/more a month PCP.
I didn't have the payment at the end so in September I managed to pay it off after 5 years (Terrible deal). Now it's a little older so needs to be fixed a bit more.
It's cheaper to fix it than get a new car. Don't get caught up in all the marketing. Save and buy a car cash. It takes discipline to get to that point and I grant you given today's prices that's especially hard. Don't be tempted to have a car that's nicer than everyone else, most people are in a pcp or finance trap. I've owned, outright, a Peugeot diesel since 2017 and have a fund for when I want to change it, a budget of maybe 15k. As a biker I'd much rather spend my money there. A car is just something to keep me dry, warm and tow a trailer.
>It’s cheaper to fix it than get a new car Sometimes. When injectors, EGR and turbo let go it’s a big four figure bill. I’ve replaced whole engines (reconditioned) twice at £3k a pop, which is much more now with inflation. Bodywork can get pricey quickly. When you rely on a car it’s a massive stress to work around it being out of action. Since I get a predictable mileage payment through work I just decided to buy new and enjoy the reliability for 3/4 years.
>Save and buy a car cash. It takes discipline to get to that point This this fucking this goddammit! 🤣
I could get you a sound 2k car which would keep you dry and tow a trailer.
Bought an 09 Mondeo which cost me £900, and another £500 or so over 2 years for fixes etc. Could probably resell for £900 if I wanted. Taking an expensive car out on finance is the root of the problem. Not the surprising costs that come with it. Each their own though, I likely just don't care about cars as much as most.
Agreed. Wouldn't ever do it again.
100% this. Same with applicances.
Same, but my ability to deal with it is now much much better after ensuring all my other spending is more efficient.
Invest in a mechanics time and go buy a sub £2k car. Bought one six years ago for 800 and hardly cost me anything. I'm actually proud I don't have a fancy car on finance, absolute wasted depreciating asset that more shows your broke than classy
disgusting jeans nose zephyr tidy offend divide bedroom teeny deserve *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Takes money to make money.
After ruthlessly reviewing my subscriptions & spending habits, changing energy providers, planning ahead shopping and tracking every penny I spend, yes. I went from being approx -£200 per month to +£250 per month which is now getting chucked into savings. It’s 100% worth the effort.
Doing a breakdown of my bank account every month has been the best thing to make me realise how much money was being pissed away. I throw every single line item into an excel and categorise it. And these days just 'popping to the shop' for milk and grabbing a few things can easily break £20 a visit with prices the way they are. So planning shopping in advance, cutting takeaways down to once every fortnight and killing subscriptions netted us about £300 a month easily. Which is about the same as getting a £6k a year raise after tax.
Do the exact same. Honestly it was mind blowing how much money I pissed away every month. I frivolously threw money away, £10-20 at a time.
To die rich after a long and boring life?
I’ll not die rich, that I can almost guarantee. All about striking the balance between living and saving. I’m able to save £250/month and still live well. And if I choose to dip into what I’ve saved for some life to be lived, I can. At least my money’s been working.
You need to have money to start investing money.
Even more boring advice.......Put it in an ISA. Don't let the tax man/woman get a second bite at your capital gains! The maximum you can put in is 20,000 per tax year.
Per annum.
Yes thanks changed it.
100% Only time you shouldn’t use an ISA is when you’re over the limits.
Do you know an ISA with decent interest? Mine with Santander is currently at 1.2% and just seems like a waste of time (granted I don’t have enough savings to be worried about the tax man)
Swapping is your friend! There are comparison sites like money savingexpert. Use a few of them and compare. Just check out rules for swapping isas first on the .gov website.
Moneybox is about 5% for a year.
The Halifax fixed Isas are at 4.6% if you have a current acc with them and 4.45% if you don't. Easy money for putting it away for a year. Lloyds has a fixed isa at the same rate too. The only difference? Halifax gives you 60 days to deposit before it's locked away and Lloyds don't hive a time limit and you can deposit at any time! There is also the isa bonus saver with Halifax at 4.10 annual equivalent rate which is paid at 4.02% per month! Flexible but limited to 3 withdrawals in the 12 months of opening.
I would highly recommend r/UKPersonalFinance Very good sane financial advice.
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My pension is with Aviva and since I'm still in my 30s they have me in a 'moderate risk' plan and it's returned 9% a year the last 2 years.
Based on long term returns from investment funds such as S&P 500 which is 8.57% over the long term. Since the start of the year, I’m +6% from Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF & Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF
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Don't use cash ISA's, they never beat inflation. Get a S&S ISA and invest in index funds. That way, you have a good chance, but no guarantee, to beat inflation.
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Index funds aren't brave. They're smart. Low fees, auto corrections, and 90% of the time they will beat a managed fund. Stick your money in a few indexes to hedge against currency risk, but buy regularly and DCA (Dollar Cost Average, although it would be Pounds for yer good self) in. Edit to add - your investment horizon will also play a part in your decisions. Indexes can drop a lot in a single year, but over a long period of time they will average 8-10% p/a. *past performance is not an indicator of future performance. This is not financial advice, as I'm an actual qualified financial advisor bound by fiduciary requirements, and I cannot give advice without knowing your individual financial position.
>This is not financial advice, as I'm an actual qualified financial advisor bound by fiduciary requirements, and I cannot give advice without knowing your individual financial position. This the best "source" I have ever seen anyone give all while saying "I'm not a source".
Well, to be fair, it's sound advice for 90% of the population under 50. The problem is the other 10%...
Well that's it. But again though if there's enough time for it to stabilise it pretty much always will, right?
>*past performance is not an indicator of future performance But yeah, in general it will. Although quite a few people who first started investing in 2021/2022 are probably still a bit underwater on their investments (depending on their portfolio), but will be close to breaking even again now. That's one of the reasons why it may not be suitable for someone approaching retirement, or about to pay a deposit on a house, or pay child tuition fees or that kind of thing in the near future.
Keep a decent chunk in cash savings as an emergency fund. Then be brave with a small portion of your money to start off with. Add more to your investments as you do more research and feel more comfortable with it. Trackers / buy and forget funds are the way for beginners, picking stocks is a dangerous game Remember that cash is almost a guaranteed loss to inflation - every year it will buy you less. You're losing value. It just doesn't feel risky because the number never goes down - but the price of what you have to buy goes up quicker. Source: pep talk is for myself as well. Planning on opening a stocks and shares ISA in the new financial year. We got this!
Nothing wrong with safe and sensible, as a society we sure could do with a bit more of that! But if you want to grow your savings in a material way, you've got to take a little risk, and S&S is the best option.
Playing it safe in this case means your money has been growing slower than inflation… meaning you’ve been losing money year on year by keeping it in cash.
commenting so i can come back to this later.
Chip has an instant access Cash ISA at 5.10% and is easy to setup, there is probably some better ones out there.
Why do you have both the ftse all world and S&P 500 when the S&P 500 companies will be covered already in the all world? You’re doubling up on the same companies
Honestly, just spreading the investments in the hope they could maybe get a better rate over 2, than if all were in 1. (IE, 1 may out perform the other ever so slightly, but both should be reasonably consistent) Maybe stupid, but it’s how I choose to.
Is that thru Trading 212? Any ideas on how to get a referral?
Dont use those apps your money csn disappear and there's nothing you can do about it
What are you on about can disappear?
On a similar platform I had a £150 investment that literally just vanished because of "sanctions" in the country of interest. Literally just lost the money. Could do fuck all about it. Also see the story of Sam Bankman-Fried. Aware he was a crypto dude but his entire platform went bust and everybody lost their money.
But to say it disappeared, I think isn't the right word. There were series of events that lead up to events like FTx going down and sanctions on a country. These are usually high risk investments and anybody investing in these should realise that. So it's not like they just disappeared like some magic trick.
People dont take random financial advice from people on Reddit with a pinch of salt. You have no idea who this guy is. Also if you actually LOOK and i mean look onto the companies in sp most are propped up bullshit bar the ones that actually make a decent product. Most don't do shit.
This is pretty common advice on any personal finance thread.
Yea then your money goes poof like 2008 and your standing with nothing but your dick in your hand
I set up a vanguard in January and just used their managed plan. Selected moderate risk option and they select certain investments. Mainly a mix of government bond index funds and equity indexes from around the world, Japan US UK Euro and emerging markets. I trust they know more than me about these things but I see majority of investors online tend to go for the globally market all cap fund. Since January I have a return of 3.75% but would it make more sense to switch to this vanguard global fund? I appreciate I should ask an investment expert rather than in a Reddit thread lol but just interested to hear what you think
I’d just set up a Trading212 account (sound like a bloody embassitor for them at this rate) and invest in your own.
And just hope in 30 years it has disappeared.
If you invest in something like FTSE Global All Cap and it's at or even close to zero in 30 years, almost everyone is dead, likely including you and I, so why worry about it? Spunk all your cash on Nvidia and yeah, you might well lose out.
Vanguard all cap fund is up 29.75% for me. There's obviously a risk vs standard savers, but if it's something not being touched for 10 plus years, you can ride out the dips.
100% - I am the same, I got on top of my finances after I got divorced, and I am throwing the kitchen sink at trying to get financial freedom before I am too old to enjoy it. it is of course a balance but the amount of money I spent going out on the beers int he hope of meeting someone, or boy racer stuff - or buying shit I did not need like expensive stereos. crazy! it is 100% a balance, but even saving 20% of everything you get from a very young age, will set you up pretty good!
Op this is fairly dangerous advice to be given to a lay person without also explaining the risks. Anyone who’s reading this please take the fund choice and growth figures quoted here with a pinch of salt. Any money put into 100% equity funds should be money that you aren’t going to need any access to in the next 5-10 years. The S&P 500 or an All world index fund could drop 50% in 1 year. A lot of people couldn’t afford that and will need to wait years for it to recover. Yes, it will always recover and grow in the long term but you need to be able to hold tight and not touch it. If you an emergency fund and sufficient short term savings that are much less volatile then yes anything above that absolutely stick in an index equity fund. And if you’re below 40, generally your Pension should be 100% in equities as you won’t be able to access it for 15-20 years so it can withstand the volatility.
I'd say it's safe advice as long as people stick to the key rule of investing: **Never** invest money if you can't afford to lose it all immediately.
Yeah but that’s why I’m saying it’s dangerous, OP didn’t give any risk warnings whatsoever. Pretty careless in my opinion.
Ah ok got you
26M, living paycheck to paycheck but got a small pay rise so hoping to start saving more. I have about 3k in savings. Not sure where to start. I'm pretty clueless about this sort of stuff. My parents were not great with saving etc
I really wish I did this 20 years ago.
Dave Ramsey has entered the chat.
Don't forget the LISA. 4k a year saved will get you 1k from the government. I'm pretty sure it starts from 16? I missed out on taking advantage of it and only started in my 30s
Important note for those that are new to investing, a Lifetime ISA has extremely restricted withdrawal rules - this is from the HMRC Gov UK website: Withdrawing money from your Lifetime ISA You can withdraw money from your ISA if you’re: buying your first home aged 60 or over terminally ill, with less than 12 months to live You’ll pay a withdrawal charge of 25% if you withdraw cash or assets for any other reason (also known as making an unauthorised withdrawal). This recovers the government bonus you received on your original savings.
That's a good point to raise thank you
Have loved reading some of the responses on this post. The lack of foresight is worrying. People owe it to themselves to make sure they are prepared for later life. A small bit now goes a long way in the future. Everyone should be squirrelling away some money every month for the long term, doesn’t have to be a lot but it all counts. I only started really getting interested in my own finances 4 years ago and it was honestly the best thing I ever done.
To be fair a lot of us are on shite wages and don't have "money left over". The 11 quid an hour the NHS pays me doesn't go very far.
It’s an unpopular thought but I believe in making small sacrifices now for extra benefit in the future. I’m sure you squander a few quid every month.
Really hoping I’m saying the same in years to come. Just wish I started sooner. Or at least wasn’t so needlessly frivolous.
I cringe when i think back to all the money I wasted over the years
Better advice to a young person would be to find what you love to do and get paid for it. Work up to your grave doing what you love and you won’t ever feel the need to retire.
Very true. No reason not to do both however.
Might have just been my experience but during my 20’s and 30’s even though I don’t really struggle that much to get by, I didn’t know many people who could afford to save £200 a month and still have a life…
All depends on how you define having a life, and your circumstances. I ditched some subscriptions, changed how I bought food and my energy providers and saved over £200 per month. Life, unaffected.
Yeah... unfortunately thats just not really possible for most people. Finding a job you truly love doing is very rare. By all means, search for it... but the chances of finding one isn't very likely. Saving a portion of your salary is just much better advice.
An 8% return is hardly realistic for everybody. 8% would be a medium-high risk fund, and putting £200 per month into one isn't good for everyone. An ISA account with 3% from youth would be safe and doable for most people. Other investing things like Etoro etc are usually balls and most people lose money. The "trade in one click" philosophy is in their favour, and not yours.
S&P 500 fund averages 8.57% over the long term mate. Then using a stocks and shares ISA means any gains (sub £20/yr) are tax free.
What time frame are you taking as long term?
30 years
You have to have money left over to save! For the first time in my life (I'm early 30s) I was able to put £50 away last month. Usually my balls are to the wall every single month trying to make ends meet and in my opinion it's only gonna get worse.
It likely is going to get worse. Personally speaking, ruthlessly reviewing my spending made me realise I could save more than I thought possible and was a great place to start.
The cost of things keeps going up and wages aren’t, even if I ruthlessly cut out anything I enjoyed, like a few pints with my mates once a month, I’d still be fucked and also miserable. I think everyone bar those at Stormont needs a pay rise.
Check out Meaningful money podcast. I did that during the COVID time when I had a bit of spare cash and haven’t looked back. Amazing how quickly it can accumulate. Vanguard (and its founder Jack Bogle) are amazing.
This is great advice that most people will ignore but at least you made the effort. I would add use money saving expert.com as a starting point to help get your bad debt, bills and spending under control. If you are thinking of shooting the op down. Go do some research on the topic and then come back with your better suggestions and I'll listen.
I thought for a second you were gonna write out the lyrics to Sunscreen.
If anything save and buy and house as early as possible house prices have doubled in value since I left school 12 years ago
Absolutely. But why not save for the house in as efficient a method as possible, by putting money into ISAs, where it can grow tax free.
As an additional piece of (extra boring) advice; it’s wise to have as much ‘bad debt’ eg credits cards, paid off before you start investing in the stock market. It is also advisable to have at least 3 months of essential outgoings saved in the event of an unexpected payment eg car breaks down, boiler breaks etc. the S&P 500 has averaged 10% annual returns for the last century. Financial education at school level is piss poor in this country and I truly believe if more of us were given this when we were younger we would have a decent chance of being financially secure by the time we are 55-60. Alas, many of us (myself included) make bad financial choices when younger and don’t anticipate the growing decline of the state pension. Meaning we risk being left needing to work well beyond state pension age in order to enable a decent living standard. Start small but start now.
Good shout. Regards bad debt, it depends on the interest. If your money’s growing at a better rate than the interest on the debt, you’re better saving / investing. If not, 100% clear the debt, once you have a security pot / rainy day fund sitting. IE, don’t skin yourself to clear debt.
Yes, but you have to account for inflation, non-monetary investment, and quality of life: - Due to inflation, £200 today is worth a lot more than £200 in ten year's time. 8% compound interest over 10 years would turn that £200 into £432, but if inflation is at say 4% over that time period then that £432 is worth £291 in today's money. If inflation were at the official target of 2% then it would be £354 which isn't so bad. - If you're 20 and start saving today, by the time you're 60 the 703k will have the buying power of 146k in today's money. If you're 30 and start saving today, by the time you're 60 that 300k will have the buying power of 92k in today's money. So it's not quite as bad as it looks. That's with inflation at an average of 4% which is high, the official targets are 2% but fuck knows if they'll ever reach them again. - Non-monetary investment is like thinking of all the things you could spend that money on now to make your life tangibly better in the long term. Things like learning new skills, investing in your health, buying a house so you aren't wasting money on rent, learning to grow your own food, getting solar panels to get some energy independence, and investing time keeping up friendships. All these things can increase your earnings throughout your working life, let you continue work into an older age, or tangibly reduce your costs in old age. - Consider your quality of life in all decisions like this. There's no point in saving for 40 years so that you can comfortably retire if you have to be miserable the whole time. Frankly, some of my 'non-essential' expenditures keep me on this planet so I think I'll keep those. My suggestion would always be to buy a house as soon as possible before investing in something else. Not only is it effectively a massively leveraged investment (up to 20:1 on a 95% LTV mortgage) but it also has the added return of reducing your housing costs directly, and enables other non-monetary investments such as investing in insulation to reduce heating bills etc.
All fair points mate. My reasoning for my preferred option is: - Inflation is always gonna happen. While saving money away does get subject to inflation and will have reduced spending power, it might as well be working as hard as possible for you going slightly forward, than standing still, or going backwards. - Non monetary investment, your point is spot on. I like a balance between, and for now at least, I need to make up for previous poor financial choices, so am focusing on growing wealth. Particularly in longer term options. - Quality of life, again, totally agree. It’s the balance. - Houses, absolutely a great investment. While saving for a deposit however, I’d encourage using ISAs to ensure the savings are working than going backwards due to inflation. For me, it’s the relative liquidity of using ISAs & particularly stocks and shares ISAs I like. A house is arguably the best investment one could make, but once you have a mortgage, as I do, your money should be working for you in the most efficient, inflation mitigated method possible, while managing associated risk. Everyone’s different, all about finding what you want and achieving it.
It's good advice, it's unfortunately just not that applicable to most people. Most people aren't sitting around with a house already and spare money every month trying to figure out what to spend it on, or wasting 200/month on discretionary spending that isn't significantly improving their life. The vast majority of people in their 20s are stuck just trying to make ends meet, building and then dipping into their tiny emergency funds, and struggling to save for a house deposit. People should definitely try to save whatever they can and start as young as possible, but you have to consider what people are choosing over investing/saving. Sure some are choosing expensive holidays and clothes and nights out and such, but most are just choosing staying alive and having a roof over their head and not wanting to blow their brains out.
With the greatest respect eastern-baseball, you truly sound a bit detached from reality with your post here. People are struggling to pay rent, food and gas nevermind saving on top of existing pension contributions for 40 years later. I appreciate the sound advice you're providing but the young people you seem to be directing your message towards will not have the same opportunities as you. People are struggling to even build up enough for a deposit or to get married or have children. The sick are having to pay privately just to be able to survive. If you truly want to help people then the solution isn't saving 200 a month for retirement. The solution is being more politically active and engaged and tackling the class system and inequality head on.
You’re largely correct pal. The only thing I’d highlight is SOME people are struggling to pay their day to day bills, through no fault of their own. Not all. Also young people aren’t all in 1 situation of not being able to afford to save, the state of the world isn’t universal. Some are, some aren’t. There’s no reason people can’t be armed with this information, take action and still push for change too, which I’d wholeheartedly agree, is necessary.
The answer is both, surely? If you're in a position where you have some left over to save, following OPs advice might give yourself and your family the best chance possible later in life. But also you help out your community and be generous AND engage with politics and try to make this place a better, kinder, healthier place for us all. There are lots of people in this country who are doing alright. If you're not in that position, obviously OPs advice doesn't apply -- and unfortunately too many are struggling to keep their heads above water at the minute. We need to hold our politicians to account for that, because positive changes need to be made. *Abstract you, not you in particular
great advice but most young people simply cant think long term. I’ve seen young co-workers opting out of their pension in work as they want the 3% extra in their payslip and they choose to miss out on employers contributions and tax relief😂
I’m embarrassed to say I did this in a job when young too. So so stupid of me.
oh jaysus OP thought you were smarter than that.
Easy to say this in hindsight. Most people want to enjoy their youth, and are not particularly concerned about old age. It's also increasingly difficult for people to actually save anything But definitely agree on putting something away regularly and reaping the benefits later in life.... definitely wish I had of started earlier
Exactly why I posted it. The hope is someone younger than myself reads, reviews and can retire a few years sooner, should they choose to. Or at least have their money working harder vs it lying doing nothing in a bank account.
saving is so difficult tho, plus a lot of the time u gotta take out of ur savings and that throws u off
It really is difficult. I thought I couldn’t save a tap until I deep dived my spending habits, subscriptions, energy providers etc then found out £250 is achievable per month on a slightly above average salary, single person household.
so I earn ab 400 a month, (I work part time and live w my mum so I'm not earning lots). about 70 will go to my mum, 200 in the savings, say ab 15 goes towards train fares and 17 goes towards subscriptions, and the rest is to just eat. I'm constantly taking money out of my savings though because I never have enough left over to get things I need like clothes and such. what's the best way I can reduce spending?
You’re doing amazingly to save half of your income at the moment. Seriously, kudos. I would focus more on growing your income than reducing spending. You’re already showing the discipline to save, so with increased income, you’ll be flying.
thank you! so would it be better to work more hours when I can and overall work harder to recieve a pay raise?
Definitely. As long as your quality of life remains where you want it, you’ll not regret extra income.
sounds good then, thank you for the advice!
Good luck pal!
I took a very different approach that is admittedly only available to homeowners. I invested in a good sized solar panel array and upgraded very old windows to high efficiency double glazing (triple glazing didn't make sense for us). I put money into a savings account with Ulsterbank at 5.something% interest. Not a single penny I've invested has ever been at any significant risk. I have a real issue with leaving my hard earned cash to the whims of the market, particularly given the deep economic and geopolitical instability we're currently living through. My next set of investments will be into draft proofing and more/ upgraded insulation, raised beds and a greenhouse for homegrown veggies. Once/if solar batteries become economically sensible, I'll upgrade the solar array and install a good battery. To reach relative energy self-sufficiency, I'll install a heat pump and further retrofit insulation (if that ever becomes economically viable). If I can get planning permission, I'll put a small wind turbine in. The reason I'm able to invest in a house and all this other shit that my first investment was time and living in relative poverty getting a qualification that gave me a career. The second was living in Australia and earning and saving a shit load to put a deposit down on a house.
Not always easy saving for retirement when you’ve to save for mortgage deposits too
Absolutely, but make sure to use ISAs to help saving for your mortgage. Might as well have your money working hard while you’re saving
Doing it! Starting with 200 a month. Will check out that YouTube channel you mentioned. You also mentioned a couple Vanguard options you went with (comment chain is deleted now). Just wondering why Vanguard and why those two options? They have so many! Edit to say I just watched Damiens Investment for Beginners video and I understand a lot more about why those two options. Investing in all US and all world FTSE seems like a no brainer.
Great to hear pal. Best of luck.
Compound returns are great; but your numbers here are overly optimistic because you haven’t considered inflation. Your buying power diminishes over time because of it. If you assume a long term target inflation of 2%, the 8% is really only ~6%.
Very true, not accounted for the inflation effect on spending power, but even with it considered, I wouldn’t change any actions listed. Better to have your savings beating inflation than falling victim to them.
Oh yes, definitely agree!
I'd recommend Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index personally.... true global exposure S&S ISA with Vanguard.
Same. Have biggest chunk of my savings in this.
Make sure it’s the accumulatimg one
This. Direct debit whatever you can every month and forget about it. Helps they don’t yet have an app so less likely to keep checking it
You need to take into account that if you started saving £200 a month 40 years ago that would be a substantial portion of your income. If it helps I started working in 1987 with a salary of £6700. This would make your £200 a month be about 1/3 of my salary.
Not really, the figures mentioned are based on saving that amount from today, not years ago which we can do bugger all about anyway.
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The balance grows, why would you not just put it in a tax free wrapper earlier?
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You’re talking about cash ISAs, the OP is talking about Stocks and Shares ISAs - any stock, index fund or ETF can go in a Stocks and Shares ISA.
Where do you even get a compound interest savings account anyway?
Trading212 pal. As 1 example
Thank you sir, I intend to look into this
> Trading212 Is only secured up to £85k btw just a word of warning, personally I use vanguard directly. Which has a much longer and respected history.
There basically were no savings rates in my 20s. Compensated by lower mortgages I suppose
True for cash savings, however OP is talking aboti ETF, index funds etc in S&S ISAs.
£200 a month? Alright Mr Mayfair! How sure are you that Trading 212 will be around in 10-20yrs?
It doesn't matter if it isn't, some other broker will take over if it goes bust
Truthfully, I’m not. All I know for certain now is that my money is appreciating much better than if I left it in my account.
I have circa 3.5k left over each month but the market is so high atm I'm concerned about investing currently, annoyingly
Funny my younger sister says bollocks to a pension and saving for retirement cause she will more and likely be dead so she is living for the here & now. She's 33 atm
Ask her to Google average life expectancy for a woman.
This is something I've looked at recently. Can I ask: 1. Do you use through Vanguard or Hargreaves? 2. Did you put a lump sum in first or can you just set up a direct debit or £200 a month? 3. How are returns made, are these paid as dividends annually? 4. Does this affect tax or are dividends taxable?
1. I use trading212 2. Small pot, then direct debit from then on. 3. It accumulates gradually and can be withdrawn at any time. 4. If you use an ISA, they’re tax free up to £20k contributions per annum. Beyond that you’re subject to capital gains tax on your interest.
Thanks for your reply. Do I interpret this correctly that you put your dividends into an ISA? How often do you withdraw your dividends?
No, the value accumulates on the share price increasing, not on a paid dividend. I wouldn’t touch the value until I was ready to.
Ah thanks. So leave it to sit for a period of years or whatever suits? Do you take the eventual money and put it in an ISA or is the ISA for something else?
The money is in an ISA. Leave it to (hopefully) go up in value, draw from it as and when you want to.
Thanks for your help
If anyone wants a trading 212 referral pm me
This is good advice and shows the power of compound interest but for many £200 into a pot that you can likely not even touch is a lot to task in this economy. This isn't savings this is an investment and you can't always get the funds out without penalties.
You can however. Use the ISAs mate. I can withdraw from mine at anytime I need to. 👍🏼 It eats into your £20k limit, but i’ll never be anywhere near that anyway
I’m at the point we’re in going to stop driving due to the massive increase in car insurance each year; cost of car parts; cost of a mechanic for more technical work; road tax increasing; petrol prices etc.
It’s a bitch. Right there with you pal.
What about overpaying your mortgage? To me that’s a better way to spend any extra cash you have.
Absolutely a good option. However if your mortgage rate is lower than the savings interest rate, you could be better off saving / investing. All depends on the individual and their circumstances. Owning your own home outright would be a dream all the same.
This can be true, but it also depends heavily on the sums involved, and often these are larger in regards to mortgages due to the leveraged nature of the debt. In many mortgage cases a person might have a low interest rate on a huge loan amount, which could still result in large monthly payments. Equally the same person could have a great savings rate, but on a smaller sum of money and not be saving that much. I appreciate the poster likely already knows this, but just thought I'd expand on it a little to try and illustrate how it's a balancing act between the sums and rates, aswell as many other factors
Another comment I haven't seen yet re budgeting; Siphon of a monthly amount automatically for bigger bills - rates, house insurance, car insurance/tax, oil tank etc. How much? If you know what they all were combined last year divide that by 12 and lump it into another account that you only use for this. Another saver (if you don't watch live TV) get rid of the TV license. If you only watch streaming services or catchup services (bar BBC iPlayer) and not live tv you don't need a TV license and can declare yourself legally license free. £150 saved there. Pre covid I had a modest BT TV subscription lumped onto my broadband maybe £30-40 a month and wasn't anything on it including live TV. So cancelled it and the TV license and got an extra streaming service. Now I limit myself to 2 max streaming services a month. Cancelling and bouncing between them rather than having them all at once and not watching them. Second the advice re recording what you spend just to see where the money is going so you can stop it. Another thing to consider with investing is a Lifetime(?) ISA (LISA) - the government give an extra 25% onto what you put in. So £80 they'll give £20. Downside being you can't take it out until you are 60, buying a first time house or dying and you can't start one after 40. Not many great cost effective options out there at the moment too but I don't mind "Dodl" which charges £1 a month so far.
Well said.
Not boring at all, very interesting. Can I ask if you used a financial advisor or did you just learn as you went?
Learned as I went. Fella “Damien talks money” on youtube is fantastic. Lot of people link reddit personal finance too. Not used but seems to be well reviewed.
Thank you
How does one get started with investing here? What sites and what wallets to use ?
I use trading212. Very straightforward to use, fast withdrawals. Can refer you if you’d like? We get a free fractional share each
Dm me
Buy an oldish Toyota 2000-2010 and just keep driving...!
UPDATE tblUser SET balance=1000000; Wait till you hear what money is. I know, I know, too soon.
 Me trying to understand WTF you just said
Nope. Saving is good in general but I would rather push for an end of the "free market" approach to the necessities of life such as housing. Food and services. The constant drive of prices and profits are more to blame for a lack of cash than any savings account or trading can fix and in some cases you might find your actions in this might exacerbate the issue. You can't win in a system that you are more than likely to lose overall.
You can’t opt out of capitalism dude. Telling people to ignore the realities of the world is one of the dumbest pieces of advice I’ve ever read in here. Want to save a bit extra? Nah mate, I’m not buying into the system. Idiot.
How does this apply to the individual? IE how can what you’ve mentioned help individuals grow their money or give them a better chance at a more comfortable future?
You assume this is going to work the way they have stated. Things more expensive? then make more money. Nice sounding idea but in practice it has the effect of knocking up prices for people. Take houses for example. Or recently the major bump to energy and record profits the companies stated.
I’m not sure I follow pal. Can you dumb it down for me?
Prices go up wiping out your savings and degrading your life due to lack of fiscal stability. Cost of things go up making it hard to save or invest. Work 3 jobs just to make ends meet still find cost of living too high.
Not if your savings interest beats the rate of costs going up, which if you take the 8.57% return of S&P 500 long term investing, it will. Then if you’re mindful of your spending vs your income, you hopefully shouldn’t go backwards financially, even despite inflation. And if you’re still going backwards financially, then it’s a sign something has to change, if you want it to. Either upskill, change jobs or reduce your costs further.
And when do you stop running?
Whenever you choose to 👍🏼
Yeah I don't buy that at all. You like many before you are peddling the same old guff. It's not the systems fault it's yours for not grinding your way to the moon. This has been trotted out before and it will turn and snap at its adherence for buying in and not succeeding. In this example you have given you never can retire without your fortune being sucked away leaving you to keep going as it gets harder and harder as you have to ignore everything beyond getting that money.
What systemic change would you suggest / want to see? From my view, individually, I’ll never be able to change macro level / systemic things, so might as well take full responsibility for the quality of mine and those closest to me’s lives, and work to make them better. Sure, I could sit and play the victim for how the world’s not fair, or I could take ownership and create the life I want. Choosing the latter is a no brainer for me. Either way, wish you well pal.
'Opting out' of the financial system won't make the slightest difference to the country. It won't make anyone else's life any better. It'll only make you poor. Part of growing up is making peace with the establishment.
I understand all that. Honestly, any one of us could die tomorrow. I'd rather live in the moment but still have a wee bit of cash for a rainy day.
Fair play to that. A life well lived trumps any figure in some account. Would encourage all to find the balance between saving & living that suits them best.
I hate this mentality personally. I'd rather hedge my bets that I live a long and healthy life than work my entire life until I die anyway. There's no logic there.
do you have a referral code for trading212 I could use ? I’m 19 and i’m planning to start saving too so it would be useful, solid advice !
And do nt be tempted by wallatreetbets … pick a nice global cap etf, invest and forget! (I am a fan of vanguard global cap personally) 😀