[Masterplan]

I'm not sure of your age mate, but I live very much for the moment and owning a good car and nice holidays keep me smiling day to day, and in a world where pretty much everything else is a downer, to me it's worth it.

Just the same as watches, designer clothing, electronics etc, if it makes me happy at the time and doesn't break the bank.....then quite frankly I don't care. I'm saving for a house too, but as long as I own that relatively soon, and it doesn't become a hassle living at home, I'm in no rush to give up a lifestyle many people older than me probably wish they had.

I always ask myself, if I was to die tomorrow would I die happy? If the answers no, I'm doing something wrong.

[phil200tdi]

^

If its your own money then fine.. Spend it however you like.

BUT too many people spend way beyond their means on credit and get into serious financial difficulty (sometimes long term) as a result of this attitude.

I heard a silly statistic yesterday that the average debt (unsecured loans and credit cards) is over £20k per person. This whole attitude towards spending money is why we are in the current financial crisis/recession.

It's always good to have a financial cushion. If you earn enough to afford it, then why are you buying on credit? Just throwing money away on interest...

[Masterplan]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

^

If its your own money then fine.. Spend it however you like.

BUT too many people spend way beyond their means on credit and get into serious financial difficulty (sometimes long term) as a result of this attitude.

I heard a silly statistic yesterday that the average debt (unsecured loans and credit cards) is over £20k per person. This whole attitude towards spending money is why we are in the current financial crisis/recession.

It's always good to have a financial cushion. If you earn enough to afford it, then why are you buying on credit? Just throwing money away on interest...

Absolutely agree. I think credit is fine if used correctly, however spending on credit cards to purchase luxuries can be a very risky scenario if you don't have good financial planning.

However, much like mega, I have a good salary at a relatively young age. The bad thing is, the only lessons in money management young people learn seems to come from the parents. Which in my opinion isn't always great.

If there's ever going to be a time where you can spend cash and have little worry, it's going to be in your early/mid 20's in my opinion!

[mowflow]

Originally Posted by Masterplan

..... and it doesn't become a hassle living at home, I'm in no rush to give up a lifestyle many people older than me probably wish they had.

What about the hassle to your parents? My eldest isn't even in school yet and I'm already dreaming of the day they move out

Not saying this is your case and i know it's not the case with Mega but I have seen the younger siblings of friends kick the arse out of living with mummy and daddy. They spend on flash cars, holidays, silly clothes and hair products but give their parents little or nothing towards their own upkeep. They are also famous for saying "I'm saving for a flat", pretty clear they aren't saving as much as they could given the way they piss money on cars, clothes and other useless crap.

I dare say many adults do wish they had your lifestyle but i can sure as hell tell you none of them wish they still lived with mum and dad.

[Masterplan]

Originally Posted by mowflow

What about the hassle to your parents? My eldest isn't even in school yet and I'm already dreaming of the day they move out

Not saying this is your case and i know it's not the case with Mega but I have seen the younger siblings of friends kick the arse out of living with mummy and daddy. They spend on flash cars, holidays, silly clothes and hair products but give their parents little or nothing towards their own upkeep. They are also famous for saying "I'm saving for a flat", pretty clear they aren't saving as much as they could given the way they piss money on cars, clothes and other useless crap.

I dare say many adults do wish they had your lifestyle but i can sure as hell tell you none of them wish they still lived with mum and dad.

Very true, I know many a few years older in that very position. In my case, I'm 22, left school at 18 and got an apprenticeship in IT. Four years of that meant starting on crappy wages, and working my way to what I earn now once I completed my apprenticeship. I planned on one year of pissing about, and enjoying what I worked hard to earn, before aiming to have a house by Q1 of 2013.

Saving for your first property ain't easy either! Minimum of 10% deposit, plus everything else along with it means saving quite a wedge of cash. I want to enjoy the experience opposed to scrimping by once I've bought a place.

That's just my opinion on it though, I'm sure everyone else has other views.

[parapaul]

Loan to pay for it, fuel, insurance, servicing, tyres and tax...

Just touching 25% of my take home pay - and that's before any mods

That's a lot, but that's how I choose to spend my money. I don't drink, I rarely go out, I don't gamble, I don't smoke. I bet a lot of others spend a frightening chunk of their take home pay on those things without realising...

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by Masterplan

Very true, I know many a few years older in that very position. In my case, I'm 22, left school at 18 and got an apprenticeship in IT. Four years of that meant starting on crappy wages, and working my way to what I earn now once I completed my apprenticeship. I planned on one year of pissing about, and enjoying what I worked hard to earn, before aiming to have a house by Q1 of 2013.

Saving for your first property ain't easy either! Minimum of 10% deposit, plus everything else along with it means saving quite a wedge of cash. I want to enjoy the experience opposed to scrimping by once I've bought a place.

That's just my opinion on it though, I'm sure everyone else has other views.

At 22 it's time to enjoy life!! At 22 I went through 3 cars in 8 months, and spent anything I had left chasing after girls. As long as your sensible and have a vague long term plan (which it sounds like you do) things will fine.

Getting a mortgage really changed my spending habits though, it's painful to read to my monthly mortagage statement....pay £700 and £550 of that is interest...and you have to pay it for the next 25 years!! Hence these days my main priority is pay the bugger off ASAP, currently on track to clear the lot in 8 years

[rabble]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Getting a mortgage really changed my spending habits though, it's painful to read to my monthly mortagage statement....pay £700 and £550 of that is interest...and you have to pay it for the next 25 years!! Hence these days my main priority is pay the bugger off ASAP, currently on track to clear the lot in 8 years

apologies for being off topic but what are the best ways to clear mortgage faster? i found that if shaved off say £30k of the overall mortgage, the monthly repayments have hardly been reduced

[Moh]

Originally Posted by rabble

apologies for being off topic but what are the best ways to clear mortgage faster? i found that if shaved off say £30k of the overall mortgage, the monthly repayments have hardly been reduced

Depends on the type and amount of mortgage I'd expect.

[BGM]

Originally Posted by rabble

apologies for being off topic but what are the best ways to clear mortgage faster? i found that if shaved off say £30k of the overall mortgage, the monthly repayments have hardly been reduced

pay more than you need to each month, thereby reducing the amount interest is calculated on

[mowflow]

Originally Posted by BGM

pay more than you need to each month, thereby reducing the amount interest is calculated on

Surely there will be some hidden charge or clause in the agreement to ensure that the bastards get their ounce of flash no matter what happens? It can't be as easy as that.

[xenon]

Originally Posted by mowflow

Surely there will be some hidden charge or clause in the agreement to ensure that the bastards get their ounce of flash no matter what happens? It can't be as easy as that.

It's exactly as easy as that.

[NickP]

Originally Posted by mowflow

Surely there will be some hidden charge or clause in the agreement to ensure that the bastards get their ounce of flash no matter what happens? It can't be as easy as that.

It's as easy as that, although you may be limited to the amount extra you can pay - mine is £500 a month whilst I'm on my fixed rate deal.....

[mowflow]

I was kind of joking. Being a tight git and therefor going through my mortgage agreement with a fine toothed comb I already knew that my mortgage only allows me to pay over by £500 a month and that there is an early repayment change that funnily enough equates to almost the exact amount that I will have paid off when the fixed rate ends.... which is next month...... mortgages are a bad subject with me right now.

[xenon]

When the fixed-rate ends you can pay back at a higher rate without penalty.

[BGM]

which reminds me i need to ring the halifax and get my overpayment sorted out again because the cheeky buggers 'automatically lowered' it when the interest rate repriced

annoying!

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by rabble

apologies for being off topic but what are the best ways to clear mortgage faster? i found that if shaved off say £30k of the overall mortgage, the monthly repayments have hardly been reduced

Depends on how big your mortgage is to start off...we bought our current house when the builders were desperate to shift anything, put in a offer 30% below the asking price..got laughed out of the show home by the sales team, than 3 weeks latter got a txt saying they were willing to accept if I upped the offer by a few Ks

Since buying the house we've paid an extra 10% every year as a lump sum (max allowed under fixed term). Than was able to pay another fair amount off recently when the fix term finished, and now that we've got a very good LTV ratio just fixed again with a very good rate for 5 years.....only this time I've changed the mortgage terms from 25years to 14 years....this obviously has doubled what my monthly payment is, but since our house was so cheap to start off with can manage the increase fine...plan on continuing to overpay by 10% per year, and hopefully by the end of the 5 years term most of the mortgage will be gone

Hence I these days I find it hard to justify spending £300-400/months on car finance...yeaph I'm defiantly getting old

[BGM]

i think i might get a cheaper car next year.. could do with a few more holidays, gadgets etc

st lucia is looks pretty nice at the mo

[rabble]

thanks for the comments guys. will look into the overpayment thing...cant imagine paying this much for the next 20 years

[woodyuk]

I'm on about 40+% and I only have a 182 cup!!, time for a new job I think lol!

[DarkAnt335i]

Ours roughly works out to

Car 1.
£3300 pa Payments
£3500 pa Fuel
£2000 pa Tyres/maintenance/Mods (more this year)
£800ish pa Insurane
£460 pa Tax

£10k ish

Car 2
£4000 pa Payments
£3500 pa Fuel
£500 pa Maintenance
£500 pa Insurance
£30 pa Tax

£8500 ish

£18.5k Total pa on cars

Equates to about 25% total income. We are both 26 with mortgage but no children and the usual 2-3 holidays per year and i don't think that is too much to pay out for cars we both love. Better than sitting in the Bank waiting for that rainy day to come in my opinion.

[DarkAnt335i]

On the mortgage thing. We had a 3yr fixed starting May 2008 @ 6.45% which was just above average for the time of taking out our mortgage.... but it then went onto a tracker of 1% above BOE base..... so now we are free to pay as much as we want above our monthly amount with no penalty