How good with money do you think you are?

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

Reply 1

NX172

1. Saving money isn't too hard generally. I'm a sucker for buying on impulse and being an early adopter which I often find to be a waste of money. I've been having to keep cashflow statements to keep an eye on spending, as I fall victim to money traps. But otherwise I use the zero budgeting technique every month to control my spending.

2. I have 2 mortgages

3. I maximised my earnings by first getting a steady day job. The linear income is what got me going and funded my first investment. Further investments were gained through a process called leverage and lets say "adding value" to the asset. I am also an eBay reseller. I import goods from foreign countries that can be hard to find in the UK and get a decent profit from the sale.

It's just been a case of creating as many income sources as I could.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

Armadillo

Original post by NX172

What were those income sources, if there were any you didn't list? :smile:

Reply 3

NX172

Original post by Armadillo

What were those income sources, if there were any you didn't list? :smile:

Real estate. / Rental income

Adding value = Renovating + refurbishment. Fitting new bathrooms, floors, kitchens,etc and selling for profit.

Reply 4

Alfissti

Original post by Armadillo

- How easy do you find saving money.

I have problems spending money as a whole. Been that way since young as I always opted to save it for a rainy day as in my younger days in the back of my head I always had it in my head that someday my parents might kick me out and I wanted to have enough money when I moved to America. Yah in the 80s if you were from an Asian country generally America was where one wanted to head to.

These days I do spend on myself and my children but I always tend to look for the best value and I often tell them that they should always look for the best value for themselves too.

Original post by Armadillo

- Do you have any personal debts?

None that I cannot afford :smile:

Now I have a mortgage on the house I live in and my holiday cabin, I owe 40% of the value and mortgaged for 10 years. That is actually the only thing that I own personally in my name.

I do have other assets but it is held through a company so technically though I own the company I don't own those assets. Absolutely everything owned by the company has a mortgage or loan tied to it as we never pay cash for anything.

Original post by Armadillo

- How have you maximised your earnings?

I don't draw a salary these days, main income comes from a trust fund, investments and some rental income. I tend to take how much I need and let the rest go back into my investments.

Reply 5

Alarae

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

1) Hm, I save a set amount every konth without fail. I take it out of my salary every month and anything else leftover after expenses also wiggles into my savings. So I don't really need to think about it.

2) I channel all expenses through my credit card for the cashback, which I pay off each month. My only other personal debt would be student loans, which I begin to pay off next year, and a credit card I let my sister transfer to as it was 0%, but she is paying that off.

3) My earnings are all over the place to maximise interest.

I have a 6% regular saver with First Direct.
Two 5% Tsb accounts.
Two Halifax Reward accounts (free £5 each month)

I don't have enough to need any other places to house my savings but I'll get to that when I need to!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6

Numberwang

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

Better than you Armadillo :wink:

For me, it's simple: Don't spend what you haven't got. Everyone has to give up the luxuries on the odd month a year. As Charlie Cotton said on EastEnders last night, "bad choices lead to more bad choices". It pays off further down the line if you save now.

- Yes
- No
- By planning a few months ahead so I never get in any trouble and by following my old Nan's advice: 'Spend half, save half'.

Reply 7

Jakeh

How easy do you find saving money. - Very.
- Do you have any personal debts? Student Loan, Credit Cards.
- How have you maximised your earnings? Yes

Reply 8

Welsh_insomniac

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

1) Yeah I'm pretty good at saving money. I average about 33% monthly savings. 25% is automatic from the day after I get paid. Some months I do really good and save about 60%.

2) No personal debts

3) I haven't quite got enough yet but I'm just about finishing off my 6 month emergency fund. After that I'll have 15% going into retirement and then about 20% going into a Stocks & Shares ISA hopefully to earn some for a deposit for a house. I try to earn some passive income through Blog advertising revenue. Always try and hit the yearly bonus targets in work. I may try investing in peer to peer lending to get some good returns.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 9

Add!ction

I am great with money

.......until I see shoes.

Reply 10

Rakas21

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

I tend to spend money but I can save well when I really wish to do so. I have no savings right now though.

I have debts with 4 companies from 2009 amounting to 2400. I don't pay them and have since moved, I may settle them in the future.

N/A.

Reply 11

Fullofsurprises

Original post by Add!ction

I am great with money

.......until I see shoes.

Totally know that one. :frown:

Reply 12

Fullofsurprises

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

Good questions. :yep:

1/ Not that easy, I really have to work at it and it matters, so it's something I want to get on top of in my life. I read that it's much harder to save when you're young though.

2/ I try not to have any, or much. I owe about £500 - £1000 sometimes on my credit card, but I always seek to pay that off before buying anything else with it.

3/ Mainly by doing paid jobs whenever I can. I worked summers and holidays whilst at college (I graduated last year), mostly in supermarkets and then in a paid internship. I also do some trading on Amazon and Ebay, mostly in books, my Dad got me started though with a small collection to sell. I also do jobs for people I know such as babysitting or helping with DIY, I learned how to do quite a few house repair/decorating things. I try to keep my cash coming in even if I'm not working full-time, as at present, when I am 'between jobs'.

Reply 13

Stanley Winchest

I saved £3k for uni living expenses earlier this year. I'm now £9k in debt. So pretty bad.

edit: by debt I mean actual debt where they come round and take your cat. Not student debt.

Reply 14

a729

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

1)
Very good- I always have a voucher or 2 somewhere.

I always save where I can. I have TSB,Santander,Lloyds accounts where I'm earning 5,3 &4% respectively on my savings! Which apparently beats inflation, but sadly not beating London housing cost rises though!

2) Some credit card debt at 0% that inflation is eroding away the real cost of paying it back :smile:

Whilst having the equivalent cash earning me interest- aka stoozing

3) I almost always work when I can

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 15

Runninground

Original post by Armadillo

Judge yourself on these qualities
- How easy do you find saving money.
- Do you have any personal debts?
- How have you maximised your earnings?

1) Very easy. My earning just go into my bank account and I spend if I need to. I don't go out partying or drinking though so hardly spend anything.

2) Just a credit card, which I only use to build my credit rating and earn a bit of cash back.

3) I have a load of interest paying accounts. I also have some investments so get dividends every now and then from them. I follow the idea of earning interest on interest. With TSB, you can only earn interest on balances under £2k, so when I earn the interest that takes it over £2k, I move the interest to a different interest earning account.

Original post by Alarae

Two 5% Tsb accounts.

How did you get your second? I logged in and it said 'Sorry we cannot offer you a secondary current account'. Did you get this?

Reply 16

wannabeaca

Original post by Runninground

1)

How did you get your second? I logged in and it said 'Sorry we cannot offer you a secondary current account'. Did you get this?

Probably one current account is joint. You can open a joint account with someone else

Reply 17

Runninground

Original post by wannabeaca

Probably one current account is joint. You can open a joint account with someone else

With TSB? I thought they said you could have two of the 5% ones?

It says on their website:

Open an additional Classic Plus Account
You can apply for an additional Classic Plus Account online - perfect for budgeting or making into a joint account.

Makes it sound like you can have two to yourself?