Ellie*

You aren't the only one.


So much emphasis is placed upon what people have got and how much, seriously what for?

I understand people taking responsibility for when they're older, but how do you know you're even going to get there?

All the superficial, materialistic stuff is worthless if your dead.

I bought an apartment because everyone said 'renting is a waste', but I still don't care if I never own a house, I don't care if I pay rent to line someone's else's pockets, what does it matter?

daviee

£1,350,000 in the bank + the rent to buy Portfolio and £1,000 a week tax free, spend spend spend spend and you have a 3 year old diesel honda ...............mmmmmmmmmmmmm

CharlySkunkWeed

iTrader: (7)

So you don't save anything ? What if you loose your job and can't pay rent ? Sleep in the street ? Claim benefits ? I don't think its too superficial or materialistic to have a few quid in the bank to keep me and my family comfortable and self sufficient for the foreseeable future. Its only wortless to me when I'M dead , but my wife and daughter will looked after , same as I was when my dad died at 55.

Justme103

iTrader: (2)

You cant take it with you so live for each day

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

At 25 i was renting. At 30 ive purchased my final house.
By 55 the morgage would be gone. Or me dead.

Matteeboy

Plenty of savings despite a rather expensive car buying habit but we still rent.
Waits for everyone to tell me how stupid we are.
In reality, it's great ;-)

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

House, two cars, two kids, limited savings, pretty much buy what I want (within reason) .. earning above average wage, 31 .. or am I 32? no 31 .. 5% pension per month.

billythekid

I want to retire as early as possible. That's my main reason for saving and hammering the mortgage down while rates are low.

RA Dunk

There simply can't be a set figure for a age group as you never know whats around the corner, it could pay pay offs or kids or a long term disability, all of which will eat your savings.

I do like to keep a healthy figure saved well enough to live on comfortably for months without a drop in living standards, once I've got my desired figure saved away it's game on with my spending after that!

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I'd say saving is a luxury for the vast majority, as I see it the best way for ordinary people to get ahead is property, because we all have to live somewhere.

If I have cash around me I always find ways of spending it, either on crap I don't need or something else always crops up, so knowing this about myself and life in general, I put my funds into something that past experience has taught me at some point if I so desire I can cash it in and get a reasonable return and sometimes an obscene profit.

Iv'e never earned a fortune, for a large proportion of my working life I was on less than £15k but company cars took some of the sting out of my wallet, if i'd not put that into buying property there is no way I'd be sat here on a big hill looking at the mountain from my farm house, with another 3 bed detached in the UK and i'm only 47 bought my first house at 30 for £50k with a bank loan for the deposit, until then I was of the live for today mind, which I still am to a degree, but I have a son that I want to pass something on to so he doesn't have to live how I had to and gets a better start than I had.

I always make my properties work for me, renting rooms as that was the "Family Business" my gran had a boarding house which my mum took over so I was brought up always with people living with me.

I hate working for and with self important **** holes and would probably have gone to jail by now for assault and battery of my boss or co-workers at vodafone had I not quit, being around idiots just really grinds my gears to the point of distraction, I found myself going everywhere with a furrowed brow wanting to cause serious harm to those around me, I consider myself to be a happy go lucky not easily ruffled, calm kind of guy. the main thing that enabled this was property.

Sold my house and went travelling, then ended up buying two more before I spent the money on fast cars, drugs and loose women now I'm worth considerably more than I earned in my entire working life.

If i'd have rented and tried to save money all my life i'd be lucky if I had £30k now and say £50k come retirement, bollax to that, i'd sooner top myself, don't get me wrong i'm by no means minted, in fact I live my daily life like a pauper and generally skint for cash, nothing fancy about my lifestyle and try to keep my outgoings to a minimum and just buy materials for this place but i'm happy and know it will pay off in a couple of years and when I pop my clogs my lad will be minted, the jammy sod.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

To me the basics are getting a house paid off before your 40/50 then life becomes easier after the kids have grown up and flown the nest
Morgage repayments weren't much more then rental when I bought my houses over the years and the property boom helped me
Houses are static now so very little money to be made in houses doing up and selling unless your a builder etc

Live for today atitude is more modern now
We were brought up as a different generation to save but I agree there is no point in investments now with the best at 3% or £45 per week for every 100 grand you have stashed away

The hardest part is when you get older and if you loose your job at 50 +
So that's why you need a bit of savings to prop you up job seekers at £71 a week means you struggel although there is plenty part time jobs that pay 80-£100 per week whic can give you £500/£600 a month if the misses has a job that will help too rather then dip into your savings

That's why you have to have a bit in the bank

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I quit work @ 40, never had more than £3k in the bank and that was usually because my wages had just been paid in, most of the time i'd be lucky to have £800 in the bank, and that's if i'd been making an effort to save for a few months, but it's to be expected if your only earning £10/12k with overtime, which I did until I was around 30 then it got slightly better at around £15k+ overtime, then started my own business which I managed to keep my head above water but there is only so much you can do as a one man band.

One day I was working on a car fitting a tracker at Vodafone local office and the engineering manager came over saw my work we had a chat and he offered me a job on the spot £24k and choice of a very nice list of motors plus 6 weeks holiday with final salary pension scheme, i'd not had a holiday for 5yrs at that point, so I bit his hand off.

It's a bloody struggle to save on that sort of income, then the washing machine packs up or the mrs car needs insuring tax and mot and it's back to square one, I really do feel for people in average jobs at sub £30k these days especially if your on your own, you need double that to have a "good life" with decent motors and holidays as well as paying the mortgage and bills on a modest 3 bed house.

If it wasn't for buying houses i'd still be doing something like that just ploding on existing trying to keep my head above water with a few hundred quid in the bank till next pay day and utterly depressed about the direction my life was heading in.

tony de wonderful

No offense, but it isn't the dole scroungers who are our only economic problem but people who like you - effectively now 'economically inactive' and living off house price inflation, or more to the point living off the sweat of young people entering the market or having to rent.

Many people like you almost risked nothing to achieve your position of privilege, through interest only 100% or 125% mortgages. It's not like you were risking your own money, but - in effect - someone else's; the banks, to be bailed out by the same mugs buying inflated houses and paying inflated rents, so they can stay inflated for you to benefit!

RA Dunk

lol Tony.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

And, it starts

john banks

Tdw, Ditch didn't know that at the time though, he took a risk and it paid off for him. Best wishes to him, he no longer needs luck financially and can worry about other things. Most would congratulate him unless they were envious or were redirecting their own failure.

davegtt

Don't see the point, Mum and Dad taught me to save a portion of my wages each month andin reality it was good, things like car insurance was paid in full instead of monthly payments etc but then I realised, whats the point. Theres no real return on savings and I want to live for now. Did the sensible thing and bought a house, bought a car. Everything elses is just material ****. No point in saving for that when you can be out having fun and living your life. I'm packing it all in this year and heading off on an adventure on a stupidly low £5 a day budget and I'm happy as one of the 7 Dwarfs (no, not Grumpy). Too much pressure is put on society to have this "normal" life.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Indeed JB, I had no idea what would happen and I paid the legal fees cash, then I worked my bollax off to pay the loan in the first year, spent 9yrs putting new roof, windows, kitchen, re-wire, new central heating, two bathrooms, extension on the back, replaced couple of joists, concreted and tiled the cellar.

Then I sold at the height of the market, for an obscene profit.

As they say "fortune favours the brave."

P.S, the only sweat I have ever lived off is my own,

In life I have learned something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it, these things are decided in different circles to the ones I frequent, so pointing the finger at me because you didn't have the ***** to get on the housing ladder sooner smacks of the old green eyed monster, your now trying to buy a house and your p!ssed that your going to pay a fortune for some grubby terrace, but i'm sure in 10/20yrs when the time comes to sell you won't be giving it away at the same price you paid for it will you.

Graz

Pretty much this. I'm 42, some savings for emergency purposes (~£15k), large chunk of mortgage paid but mostly in debt.

However I do have nearly £200k in a pension + few grand in the company share scheme. It's true the pension isn't growing at the rate it should but I expect things will pick up at some point in future. That and I need to be a bit more active in managing it.

tony de wonderful

Risked what though John, and for what? Risked his own money to build a factory to provide jobs and generate wealth, or risked practically nothing for a license to exploit other people? The bread he eats doesn't appear by magic.

The same people slagging off benefits claimants are the same eulogising the BTL landlords yet neither contribute to society positively.

DYK

Always been too much pressure to settle down early and follow that routine,some it suits and others it don't,for me it didn't,and yes I always get that surprised look from some when I say not married.Most of my mates settled down at an early age,kids,married etc,I knew from a young age I wasn't going to follow that routine and just wasn't in me to do it,I was happy being a free spirit.
Funnily I came into contact with a mate who hadn't seen in years,he said what you doing these days traveling the world,I said not quite but done most of Europe through work and holidays,I asked what about yourself,not done anything,got married had kids.

I'm early thirties now and still want to be out and about,have a GF and recently got a place in prague,20+ grand in savings,would of been much more if I hadn't stupidly wasted it when was younger
Have a pension through work.
Still not where I want to be in life but things are moving along ok..

tony de wonderful

Oh here we go; it's amazing the grandiosity and hubris which comes from being fortunate with the way the housing markets have gone; you'd think from the way you talk you were Warren Buffet, still if you want to imagine that narrative about yourself it is your choice. So brave, such *****!

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I'm a buy to live in, not a landlord who rents houses, although I shall be renting my first of 3 holiday apartments soon.

Do you have no idea how business funding works?

Business people take capital from investors, usually after presenting a business plan investors then decide whether or not they think this is a viable proposition, if they think it is then they invest for a specific return on their investment, if further capital is required for expansion the same thing happens again, plans are presented decisions made, business expands or not as the case may be.

If someone comes along and wants to buy that business then a valuation is made based upon the current market value etc,etc; then prospective purchaser decides if they accept the valuation and either walk away or buy it.

Please explain how this is different to what I did?

Do you not think that workers are exploited by there employers? employees are paid a pittance in most cases while their bosses and share holders reap huge profits?

I think you should change your user name to 'Citizen Smith'.

sti-04!!

Skint

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Oh dear you really have got it bad, just to recap.

I'm a council estate kid, did ok at school, could have done better or at least thats what all my school reports said, and they were right.

Lived in rented accommodation most of my life, dad was a miner/factory worker, mum was a nurse / boarding house landlady, nothing fancy or grandiose about my up bringing, but I had a good work ethic and a certain amount of entrepreneurial instinct instilled into me.

You may think I was fortunate and i'll agree to an extent, but I still had to put the hours in and do the work pay the mortgage and loan, my good fortune came from MY efforts and part of the "risk was mine because had I failed to do so I would have faced financial ruin and been homeless like you.

A commentator once said to Stephen Hendry "you were very lucky to win that game" his reply "yes the more I practice the luckier I get"

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Just this lunchtime my Dad asked why I need an "old" fast car (57 plate) which is expensive to run when I could buy a brand new Peugeot 208 1.4L for the same price and not have to worry about maintenance, things going wrong and expense. I used this thread as a perfect example and told him what's the point in having a boring car when I could die tomorrow and that I'd much rather enjoy driving a fast car that I love, compared to a plain dull car which will depreciate more anyway. That shut him up!

tony de wonderful

Renting out property isn't a genuine business, it is exploiting a sort of state backed license; charging a toll. It creates no wealth.

Almost all BTL's are funded by debt anyway.

Homeowners form a political agent in this country to. Not letting house prices slide is as much about politics as it is about economics; it's simple might is right, majority exploits the minority.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

OMG
TdW
Your hatred to landlords is Hugh
It's one of the only ways you could of made money in the last 20 years
I was so skint when I bought my first house 28 years ago for 18k with Interest
At 11% mortgage on £68 a week wages I had to get 2 lodgers in the back
Bedrooms to help with the bills for £40 a week
But one drank and the other smoked so I moved out and they paid off my first
Mortgage

They are both skint today

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I think Richard Branson might disagree with you.

your mental, where do you get this from? please explain your eerm reasoning for want of a better word.


Like I said, I bought all my houses to live in, and generate a small income to help with the costs from allowing those less "fortunate" to share my humble abode.

Very philanthropic of me, I think.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

A fellow philanthropist.