Viewing 33 posts - 41 through 73 (of 73 total)
  • How financially secure are you?
  • Kevevs
    Free Member

    46p. Payday tomorrow. whoo.

    lowey
    Full Member

    140K mortgage. No debt. No credit card. 2 Personal pensions which hopefully will let me retire at 60. CSA payments. Company has been teetering on the edge of going under for over two years… (sometimes wish it would so I could move on).

    Could be a lot worse.. but could be better.. I never have anything left after spending on the necessities.

    Good luck all…

    wingnuts
    Full Member

    I spent all my working career in public service. Teaching, Whitehall, Local government. Well paid final salary pension etc. Bought two houses for women I didn’t like so had f all 10 years ago.

    Made redundant a year ago with no savings and £200k mortgage. Lived on redundancy and odd jobs/consultancy/joke seekers. Nightmare as am 55. Felt forced to take pension early. That meant I lost 20% of its value but days after I did it I got a contact to provide services to a consortium of schools (cause they can’t get it of councils anymore). That combined with the pension means I’m on far more than I was before and have a nice lump sum to cushion the unexpected.

    I feel much more secure than I have done for years.

    Sod all to do with money. My Mrs hasn’t once complained about not being able to buy handbags or other shite. For the 8 years we’ve been together the mutual support has been the defining factor in feeling secure.

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    samuri
    Free Member

    We own our house, we own both our cars, I have pensions running back twenty odd years. Some savings but not much. I have a credit card with a about a grand on it which is coming down quickly, no other debts.

    Yeah, OK I guess. We don’t do lavish holidays or fancy eating, our house is a bit crap and both cars are 5-6 years old. It’s ok.

    Saying that, looking back, I’d have done the money side of things differently now. I’d have given IT a miss. It’s really interesting but you very quickly realise you’re supporting other people while they get rich and the vast majority of them can’t tie their own shoelaces.

    It’s actually quite funny.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    I’m 58 and we’re still a bit broke.

    But to put it into perspective, approximately 5 billion people would swap their lifestyle for mine in a flash.

    And I wake up some days and my hair is all over the place – but about 3 billion people would love to have that problem too.

    And there’s only one Mrs BigJohn and she’s mine, and she’s smashing. So nobody can have her either (I think)

    bamboo
    Free Member

    I’m surprised at how many people on this thread say ‘I’ve got a mortgage of £x00,000, and no debt’……

    andy7t2
    Free Member

    i have some rich life experiences that no bank can take away, apart from that i’m ****

    Philby
    Full Member

    Was doing OK till end of May this year but haven’t had any paid work since – freelance consultant in public / charity sector for last 10 years – due to the impact of the Condem’s spending cuts which are now showing through. Cash is slowly running out and all my savings are in shares, ISA’s or PEP’s which have taken a real hit.

    Have 4 years left on my (smallish) mortgage, paid up car (11 years old), no debts, a smallish pension pot, but have put on hold a holiday this year, getting my kitchen sorted and am economising on a few other areas such as mid-week drinking and new clothes.

    All in all I’m in a better position than most people, but the current lack of work is frustrating, especially when you spend several days on a tender proposal which comes to nothing. If it continues for much longer it could get a bit scary. I hate feeling unproductive, although I do quite a lot of voluntary work.

    NZCol
    Full Member

    Took a punt 10 yrs ago and put my knackers on the block starting a company, worked hard, lost hair, built it then sold it. Did it all over again, just sold that. Those that know what the ‘start’ was like i.e. my friends don’t comment on how well we are doing because they were the ones that fed me when i was skint ! Strangely for all we are in a great position the missus and I live like students sometimes – it’s bizarre. I work with guys who are on 6 figure and 7 figure (i jest not) incomes yet are ‘skint’ because they flash it up. Somehow we don’t and while we have a nice house, nice cars, eat well and money saved we live the same as we used to. What I am poor in is time and that is something I am woefully aware of. I do confess to buying nice bikes though, and riding them.

    I think it’s funny that I left school at 14 with no qualifications, yet I have got more disposable income than almost anyone I know.
    I bought my shed in the forest 25 years ago for £5500.
    I bought my 21 year old Land Rover 12 years ago for £4000.
    I work full time, plus a bit of overtime, in a reasonably well paid job.
    No CSA payments.
    No mortgage.
    No big garage bills.
    No status symbols.
    I wear Tesco £4 jeans and 2 for £5 T shirts.
    Total annual expenditure on “going out” (pubs, restaurants, gigs) = £0
    If I wanted a new bike or a new Land Rover, I’d go out and buy one.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I think it’s funny that I left school at 14 with no qualifications, yet I have got more disposable income hippy lifestyle than almost anyone I know.

    FTFY 😉

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    25 – have 2 years into a pension – more than alot of folk my age that i know esp those that went into trades from school.

    have a decent deposit for a house sitting waiting on my mrs to get some job security. – currently only has 2 days a week on a 1 year contract as a teacher – next year could all change or the job could become perminant ….more to keep her sane than anything else 😀

    all i really could wish for was more time – plan is not to flash it up and make a hefty hefty dent if not pay off the mortgage and bail on this game before it kills me or i have kids – which ever comes first ….

    “its day 8 in the big brother house” – we came on the rig at the same time they went in ……

    flip
    Free Member

    I’m 42 got no mortgage, house is paid for, and no debt. And a chunk of inheritance in the bank. I have never had a credit card.

    I have my own business, i don’t make huge money but i don’t have to.

    I have been paying my pension since i was 17.

    I don’t live a flash lifestyle.

    If i want something i buy it (within reason) 😉

    crispo
    Free Member

    Im a bit too young to know at the moment.

    I finished uni last year, have been working 1 year on alright pay and have been making pension contributions since I started. I guess its a good start and I havent had the chance to start racking up the debts yet!

    I’ll tell you again in 20 years.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    as a freelancer my income can be exceptionally lumpy. Summer is always quiet and I get a little nervous about when the next big job is coming. At least once a year every year I calculate how many months expenditure we can cover with cash/ISA savings. As long as it doesnt fall below at least 12 months then we’re OK. If it got to 6 months Id have to seriously consider looking for a salaried job again – and Id hate that.

    “you cant buy time”

    You can, and I do. You cant buy it at the end of your life, but you can buy it back from your working life by earning less and working less when you have the ability to earn more from working more but choose not to.

    maxray
    Free Member

    You can, and I do. You cant buy it at the end of your life, but you can buy it back from your working life by earning less and working less when you have the ability to earn more from working more but choose not to.

    That is more using your time wisely rather than buying time isn’t it? 🙂

    There is definitely more to life than having your nose to the grindstone for the whole of it!

    pedalhead
    Free Member

    Some of you lot clearly need a couple of children to spend all of that money you’ve snaffled away 😀

    peterfile
    Free Member

    “Financial security” is an oxymoron unless you have a significant amount of varied and non corrolated investments.

    It could all change tomorrow.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    its not an oxymoron since “financial” and “security” are not contradictory.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    🙄

    Ro5ey
    Free Member

    “I’m surprised at how many people on this thread say ‘I’ve got a mortgage of £x00,000, and no debt’…… “

    Debt management isn’t it.

    Mortgages rates are stupidly cheap at the the moment silly NOT to take advantage if you can.

    emsz
    Free Member

    I’m on placement ATM and saving like mad! Can’t see me ever owning a house in the near future though

    aracer
    Free Member

    You can, and I do. You cant buy it at the end of your life, but you can buy it back from your working life by earning less and working less when you have the ability to earn more from working more but choose not to

    This. And it is very much “buying time”, as when they introduced a scheme in work for buying more holidays people looked at how much it would cost them to have an extra day off and mostly decided it was far too expensive (for somebody on the median salary, a day off would cost £100 – though actually only ~£70 after tax). For most salaried people it’s rather more difficult than it is for Stoner – though personally I considered reducing my working week from 4 days to 3, before (very wisely) deciding it was a bad idea given the current climate as I was risking losing a significant amount of redundancy money.

    aracer
    Free Member

    “Financial security” is an oxymoron unless you have a significant amount of varied and non corrolated investments.

    Only if you’re either extremely paranoid, or really do have all your eggs in one basket (note to self – I really must offload some more of my ex-company shares – though happily they’re bucking the market and currently worth more than when I left – I’d like to think the two things aren’t related 😉 )

    monkey_boy
    Free Member

    were on a very thin line virtually hand to mouth each week with very little left over after bills, food and fuel, we have debt (not including mortgage) which will take about another 3 years to pay off.

    i will if all things work out have a very big inheritance, but i block this out and will never rely on it.

    i do worry about the future especially with a 14 month old, no pension.

    but i know alot more people far worse off than me.

    tadeuszkrieger
    Free Member

    1 flat, 1 house , no mortgages, no credit card debt,lots of kids, cars, guitars and bikes, relatively large income,more than happy ta.

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    i will if all things work out have a very big inheritance

    😕

    iDave
    Free Member

    Due to a few unfortunate occurrences in the last 5 years I have been reduced to sweet FA in terms of investments or assets but I put myself in position to ‘stumble over’ a wide range of opportunities and I have some transferable skills. So despite lack of ‘security’ I lead a very rich life. My time is my own. When I want to work there is work to be done and I can do it from a cafe in Geneva or a forest in Ireland. If I had lots of cash in the bank it would be spent on interesting experiences now, not saved for the future. I see retirement as something to be done often for short periods, rather than when I’m too old to enjoy free time. I choose to have free time now. Not for everyone I know, but thankfully we all have a choice in these things. The random events you think you have no control over are rarely either.

    uplink
    Free Member

    Spent pretty much all of my adult life so far with only what I earned each month a mixture of lean times and fat times – no real savings at any time

    In my 50s now and a couple of things have come my way, like an endowment that we originally had to pay a mortgage off but was swapped to a repayment and a couple on inheritances
    We now have our own house, an apartment in Lanzarote and a quarter share in another apartment in that London [which is let out]- we don’t have any mortgages or loans now
    We live on my [very average] salary alone and I like to think we live quite simply, no fancy cars, only go out once a week etc.

    So to answer the OP
    Secure now?, yes – for the preceding 35 years?, probably not

    dee66
    Free Member

    Two part time jobs, one of which is minimum wage. Bank loan for car, two credit cards, saving deposit for carbon race bike which I really don’t need. Pension **** that!
    Capatilisms broken and when the markets go down the pan I’ll be opening the champange!

    totalshell
    Full Member

    money money money.. as mr Jobs has found out there is unfortunately one thing you cant buy, i’d rather be skint healthy and smiling than ill .. good luck to him.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    “Financial security” is an oxymoron unless you have a significant amount of varied and non corrolated investments.

    Only if you’re either extremely paranoid, or really do have all your eggs in one basket

    The point I was making is that the vast majority of people rely on their income from employment as their source of cash and ability to service debts and pay bills.

    Once that goes, so does their “financial security”.

    For most, financial security means job security.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Well I’m allrite Jack.

    Mid 20’s, about 6-8 months sallary in savings, paying rent on 2 houses and own two cars, credit card used purely for fraud protection/credit rateing building and clears every month.

Viewing 33 posts - 41 through 73 (of 73 total)

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