How much do you have left a month?

[BLOCK F]

I am retired and my wife works part-time and is self -employed.
Luckily,we are comfortably off and can afford to help out our 3 children,two of whom are at uni.
I am appalled by the obscene price of property in this country and the difficulty faced by young people in good jobs trying to buy a house of their own.The obsession with property prices and easy credit has really created a huge divide amongst the generations and now we have the Government adding fuel to the fire with their 'Help To Buy' scheme.This may sound helpful to those who can't afford a deposit,but what we really need is for house prices to fall to affordable levels.This hasn't really happened;in part due to very low interest rates.I would be very wary of borrowing more and buying an over priced asset that may well fall in value once interest rates start to rise.A real dilema for first timers.
Despite being a red blooded capitalist,I can't help but feel the 'buy to letting' phenomenon has quite a lot to answer for and, as yet, has had a pretty easy ride from successive Governments.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Everyone is an expert in hindsight, but I'm SO annoyed at my 21 year old self for not saving more money. I was working in Brighton and my only cost in life was the monthly bus travel of around £40. I didn't even pay rent, yet I only saved a few thousand pounds and drank it all away. Fast forward to buying a house and we scraped together a 10% deposit with a little help from family also.

That means we've been paying a high mortgage and DD's back to people who helped us out. Luckily we've just finished the 2 yr fixed rate so can save a fair chunk on our next deal.

My in-depth spreadhseet always suggests I should have X amount left after the bills are paid and spending money is accounted for. Sadly there is always something unsuspected that arises and I've not really saved a penny for months.

We, being naive, thought it would be best to literally chuck all the money we earned into one account where all our dd's and subsequent spending came from. It just didnt work as jealousy sets in when I buy something expensive but then shirk when SHE wants to do the same. Finally decided to leave enough in there for DD's, leave £150 in our personal accounts for "spending money" and all the rest goes straight into the savings where its not touched. Hopefully we can start saving now. It's difficult though. It seems obvious but no one warns (or warned enough to get into my thick skull) that a house ownership (especially a first one) is a non-stop stream of financial outlay.

Still, when I sit there and see the £0 in my savings I also think of the money I've got tied in the property and it makes it a little easier.

 

[Gullys Cats]

****all

 

[Badger]

I am now finally in a position where I save a decent amount of money each month for a deposit. The only way I've been able to do that is to take a contracting job in London and subject myself to the daily commute, not something I particularly enjoy especially given the work I do is no different to what I was doing in Brighton. I'm lucky that I have the option, I honestly don't know how anyone who earns the average salary (or even a fair bit above it) manages to save up a deposit.

What really annoys me is that my three older brothers all bought houses 10-15 years ago without having to save up huge amounts of money. A prime example is a 2 bedroom flat with off-street parking, fairly central in Brighton, I believe cost under £60k 15 odd years ago, is now worth about £250k. It's RIDICULOUS.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

I honestly don't know how anyone who earns the average salary (or even a fair bit above it) manages to save up a deposit.

.

This is what annoys me further about my time working in Brighton when I literally took and office job after uni. I was being paid by the hour about £7.50 or something. So about £1000 after tax.

Outgoings? £40 so I had £1160 left. Even if I allocated £300 spending money I should have put away £800 a month or £9600 in the one year I worked there.

Actual savings? About £2500.

Idiot.

 

[Cian]

I honestly don't know how anyone who earns the average salary (or even a fair bit above it) manages to save up a deposit.

I only managed by getting a house-sit for two years rent-free - my sister was away for work for two years and needed her house occupied for insurance but also needed to be able to use the spare room at random so renting it out wasn't an option.

According to budgets I should have €800-1000 a month left after the mortgage and bills - including for multiroom cable and 200mbit BB so there's non-essentials there. Reality of it - do I bollox have €800.

 

[smeg]

I spend all of my spare cash on scratch cards and class A's

The rest I just squander.

haha, sounds perfect

 

[nwgull]

I had considered it. But I don't want to live abroad. I like it here, and the missus wasn't keen on it either.

I reckon I could save £300 a month, but that is overtime earnings, so not guaranteed, i do about 13 hours a week extra. 7am-7pm mon-thurs and 7am-1.30pm on a Friday. That's a 55 hour week and it hurts come Thursday when I'm knackered. I'm also studying at college part time to get some qualifications as I don't officially have any. You could call me a time served apprenticeship but I want the bits of paper so I can move up in the world. I don't want to be on shop floor all my life.

If rents were so high it would help. I've had to move to Burgess Hill, nearer to work and cheaper than Brighton. But with baby due in the summer we will have to move into a 2 bed place. And anything half decent around here is circa £850pm. So that eat any and all extra cash, and if my overtime dries up I'm screwed as I rely on it to live.

It doesn't help that I have 1k tied up in the deposit for the current flat, so I need to save for another deposit (normally 6weeks rent) and the credit reference checks, one letting agent charges £150 PER REFERENCE. We need 3 done as I need a guarantor so that's £450 before I even start.

Letting Agents are ********s, artificially inflating the market, to make the property owners more money. To them it's a business, but this is my ****ing life they're profiteering from.

It makes me sick to bottom of my stomach and very depressed and angry that I won't be able to offer my child at least a comparable upbringing that I was given.

Letting agents really are wankers of the highest order. It costs £30 to do a reference, and there's very little admin to do.

The problem is that most people who let their properties are naive and use a letting agent. I pass of the saving I make by doing this stuff myself to the tenant. As a result my flat is about £80-100 a month cheaper than similar properties and I never have problems getting a new tenant as soon as the old one moves out. Everyone's happy.

 

[OzMike]

It isn't a third of my monthly outgoings though.

650 divided by 3 equals 216.67 not quite a third but pretty damned close

 

[danish seagull]

I am just a removal man so was never able to get above £300 ish left over in England and even when I had saved £10k the bank told me to do one.

I moved to Denmark a couple of years ago (full time job since Feb) and now I can save between £700-£1500 a month if I'm careful. Obviously with overtime. Got a mortgage after 8 months of full time work and saving and loving it. Shame the Amex is so far away though!!