Obsolete

Jon

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Very very interesting

Am someone that is vey much against reducing costs and instead earning more passively to allow you to do more each month without worrying about money this has really caught my eye as ive never seen monthly costs broken down like this into pie chart form

7% in fees / charges is quite high - what do you think you could do to get that down?
 

The Reverend

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everyone loves a graph!

I've not seen anyone budget based on % before.

In my experience increases in income do lead to increases in outgoings however there is no reason why they need to. I think it is because you decide your income is greater so you spend more, but it doesn't have to be that way.
 

Cas

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Interesting post , look forward to seeing updates
 

my side hustle

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I completely understand your theory on reducing costs. I try to find a balance between both reducing costs and earning more. Those pie charts look like they are from the Money Lover app? £24 a week on groceries is very low, I'm impressed.
 

my side hustle

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Many thanks for your kind words. In all honesty, I thought to be one of very few approaching life from this angle ;) I have a colleague in accounting who claims to have done it for 9 years (expenditure monitoring), but he does not want to share much and seldom talks about it.

For me it is fascinating to go back to previous months and think how to increase the delta (money in vs money saved), but also to see what happened in my life and why. How about you, are you focusing on costs?

It is MoneyLover, indeed. Need to find another app to be able to retrieve data in Excel for free, though (pro version is $5). What would you suggest?

9 years is a very long time. The longest I tracked my spending for was a year a few years ago and I learnt a lot from it, I realised how much I was actually spending on clothes and makeup. I got a new job with a better salary last year and with the increased income my spending has gone up so I started tracking again this July just to check where my money is going. At the minute I'm trying to reduce expenses but mainly making sure I'm not spending much on material possessions.

I just use the free version, I don't export to Excel so I'm not sure. I just use it to check which categories are my hughest expenses and try to reduce those.
 

Jon

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P.S. I am struggling to find my own diary. The list is displayed in the thread creation order, mine is from September but is nowhere to be found. Any advise?

View attachment 102
You are in the wrong subforum that's why

This diary is in
Money Saving Tips - Money Saving Diaries
 

my side hustle

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My expenditure won't be comparable to yours, I live with my parents so have no household bills to pay! My biggest expenses are travel to work and socialising.

What's the reason you don't believe in mortgage based relationships? I think they have their place especially since interest rates are so low at the minute.
 

my side hustle

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I save 60-65% of my income into a stocks and shares ISA, I could easily afford to move out if I wanted to. I am very lucky, my parents are fantastic and in my culture it's normal to live with parents. Saying that I am in a serious relationship so will probably move out in the next year or two.
 

Jon

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I fully agree that money is cheap to borrow. The part that I don't like is the length of commitment. For example, I put money aside from early on and only then bought my first property. (I own everything outright.) It took me 16 years of very hard work; with that money I went to a private law school, owned two cars, bought a small non-residential property (that generated rent), kick started my own business, and only then bought my first home. I could have taken mortgage for 16 years, perhaps? I doubt I would have achieved the same, just worried a lot not to lose my paid job. The feeling of anxiety about mortgage payments would have destroyed me (or at least significantly limited my freedom of choice).

See I used to worry about that sort of stuff BEFORE we got our house and the reason I Don't anymore is because you get mortgage protection so that if you ever become sick of lost your job your mortgage would continue to be paid
 
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Jon

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Well done both of you. If the protection works it is something to consider. What Dr Internet tells me is that it would typically cover up to 2yrs, and up to 65% of your monthly income. (It still comes with a cost as no insurance cover is free.)
I suppose as well I can't imagine a situation where I wouldn't get paid from my main job to cover my mortgage if I became ill as I would presumably be on long term sick at work which would still pay me

On top of that I also can't imagine a situation where this site doesn't bring in passive income which would cover the mortgage.

And this is just me, let alone the money the wife brings in from her job.

After a while you just end up viewing a mortgage payment the same as a utility bill really...
 

taffynoel

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I see what you mean. My motivation is slightly different, I am trying to figure out my absolute minimum needs to see if I could stop working full time. The idea is to save the difference and invest it, and live (at some point only) from the savings/investments made. I've been saving for years, but never quite calculated precisely how much it actually costs to run my life. (It's needed when no pay is coming in.)

Setting a spending ceiling allows me to count on the total amount that I can invest. If you want to acquire assets without banks, this kind of reverse planning can tell you how many years you'll need to save money in order to own something outright. If too many, you'll need to increase income or change your plan.

You will see from August stats how managing assests can also be costly (cashflow sensitive). Luckily it happens once every five to seven years, in my case.

(7% for fees were mostly government services related, a one off charge. I was happy to pay it, as it could have been a much higher rate. Later on I recorded postal, banking and membership subscription services there as well.)

Hope I am making sense ;) Thank you for your kind comments, I enjoyed reading them. You have kept this site up and running for a long time. Well done.
Is it best to declare love outright or just say this is right up my street! Good work, I could dig out my own breakdown, which was very similar in structure. My categories were tax, personal investments (pensions,NI,real estate capital), overheads (interest aspect of mortgage, bills, insurance), motoring (sub divided, of course), food, living (everyday spending, gifts, holidays and hobbies) etc.

Before I lived on about 20% of my wage, saw 20% lost to the system and saved/invested over half.

Now I add 'baby' on to the list and just wince.
 

taffynoel

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Ps did you ever work out a retirement age? It's quite simple to look at what cash you live on now to project pension income (spread out to the same level of income) so as to continue infinitum. In my case my private pension kicks in at 60 and later at 68(ish) my state pension. By the time I am 55 I'll be fully up on NI and my LISA will be nearly ready to mature paying me the shortfall from age 60-68.

It's also reassuring to see what my pensionable income is likely to be, having contributed 15 years and counting into a final salary scheme.

All in all I recon I can work 4 days a week from age 40, 3 from 50 then quit at 55. Or find a job I love and go it for fun (halving my salary will be a real option), once the mortgage noose has gone in a few years.

Or the wife wants a bigger place.

Or the daughter goes to uni (I'll probably retire then just to avoid the fees)

Or, I'll get mowed down looking at the Roamler app whilst crossing the road to enter Morissons next week,
 
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Andrew

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Ps did you ever work out a retirement age? It's quite simple to look at what cash you live on now to project pension income (spread out to the same level of income) so as to continue infinitum. In my case my private pension kicks in at 60 and later at 68(ish) my state pension. By the time I am 55 I'll be fully up on NI and my LISA will be nearly ready to mature paying me the shortfall from age 60-68.

It's also reassuring to see what my pensionable income is likely to be, having contributed 15 years and counting into a final salary scheme.

All in all I recon I can work 4 days a week from age 40, 3 from 50 then quit at 55. Or find a job I love and go it for fun (halving my salary will be a real option), once the mortgage noose has gone in a few years.

Or the wife wants a bigger place.

Or the daughter goes to uni (I'll probably retire then just to avoid the fees)

Or, I'll get mowed down looking at the Roamler app whilst crossing the road to enter Morissons next week,

Just before going to a ready meal check I assume? Haha
 

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