Where does your income go?

[kiethton]

Again, very refreshing, changes slightly month from month, have taken an average (all rounded to nearest £10):

Basic pay: £5,930
Tax: -£1830
NI: -£420
Student Loan: -£390
Other: -£100
Net: £3200

Mortgage: -£980
Utilities: - £45
Water: -£30
Tv/Internet: -£45
Mobile: -£25
Service charge: -£100

Car HP payment: -£450
Car insurance: -£60
Car Tax: -£20
Car Service/repairs/tyres: -£50
Car petrol: -£60

Motorbike insurance: -£30
Motorbike tax: -£5
Motorbike petrol: -£80

Clothes: -£100
Going out/eating out: -£200
Booze: -£150
Lunches/breakfast/coffee: -£140
Other: -£30

Remainder: £600

Minimum credit card repayment: -£350
Remainder: credit card repayment: -£250

Balance: £0

All debt repayments are interest free which helps, sees debt balances (ex-mortgage) go down by about £1k a month, lumped further with a chunky bonus once a year. In reality holiday costs are a good £2k a year that’s not included above...paid for on plastic....

My fiancé also lives with me but earns substantially less, she generally gets the food bill, runs her car and spends the rest of “hers”.

Remaining debt (ex-mortgages) is now down to below 50% it base salary should be clear within 18 months hopefully. Currently 28 with a wedding a year away so my plan may end up going a bit Pete Tong.

Edited by kiethton on Friday 21st September 16:26

[EddieSteadyGo]

Jossman said:

Hi all,

I'm 23 and last month I completed my house purchase with SWMBO.

I've been lurking on P/H for a long time now and always see discussions on how people are overpaying mortgages by 100%, or maximizing pension payments, investment portfolios, etc.

It all seems so far fetched to me at the moment, being able to distribute one's income into so many different places whilst seemingly having plenty left for everything else that comes with every day living.

Whilst I can appreciate my wages are low and I'm a 'youth' - I feel as though I'm far, far away from others in a similar age group and similar stages of their careers.

So this thread, really, is kind of a sanity check for me in all honesty that I'm not doing something wrong at this stage in life, and probably a bit of a reassurance to others in a similar position to me that P/H isn't all powerfully built directors with diverse investment portfolios and overflowing pension pots.

There are two factors at play.

Firstly, lots of people who are a similar age to you will be using finance to live far beyond their means. People are often not honest about this, preferring to present a rose-tinted picture that looks good on Instagram stories. But it all comes home to roost at the end of the day so, in that sense, the only thing you are missing out on is future problems.

Secondly, many people posting on this forum will be 2, 3 or even 4 decades older than you. That is why they are in a completely different financial position.

It is a facetious example, but you mention you are currently 23 - imagine yourself one decade or even two decades ago. It wouldn't be realistic to compare yourself at that age to how you are now. And so you will find as you go forward and build your career and grow your experience, your options will improve too.

[Google [bot]]

Last 2 weeks:

Rent $2000
Driving my car with the oil filler cap off $800 (inc service)
Ubers due to the above $45
Ubers $20
Food $200
Clothes while waiting for my washing machine to be fixed: $90
Kill my own cat $520
Petrol $85.50
Booze $10000

[romeogolf]

hyphen said:

Plus another £4-8 quid you end up spending in the service station? As if they take a while to charge you will be wanting to do something whilst you wait.

Yes, although generally as it has a 150+ mile range by the time you've driven for 2 hours you're ready for a short break. Even when we took the diesel car we'd stop somewhere for a bite to eat or a coffee.

As a guide a half-hour break on a rapid charger can get you another 40 or so miles and it's rare we'd make a single journey in the electric car which is more than 200 miles, so a single stop is sufficient.

[Jossman]

Thanks everyone for their replies, some really interesting scenarios being illustrated. Everyone seems relatively in control though so that's a good thing to see.

Any goals? Debt clearing, savings targets, mortgage overpayment targets? I think it's healthy to have targets so I'm going to try and create some for myself as I mentioned in the OP, clearing debt will be target #1.

[coffeebreath]

1700 pcm after tax

450 rent + bills
35 mobile
60 tax on 3 cars
350 loan
80 savings
100 food
40 hygiene
80 car insurance
13 breakdown cover
15 dental plan
25 adobe subscription
22 charity

430pcm to waste on everything else. don't pay for haircuts, rarely buy clothes or shoes, don't have friends, housing deposit is taken care of thanks to my partner even though neither of us particularly wants the noose of a 25 yr mortgage.

[pmanson]

50% on the essentials:

• Mortgage
• Council tax
• Gas, Electric, Water
• General insurances inc. income protection
• Food bill

28% on discretionary:

• Boiler cover
• Pet insurance
• TV & Sky
• mobile phone bill(s)
• Car payment

22% on savings (excl. pension):

• Long term savings - 34% of the amount saved each month (likely for retirement)
• Christmas - 6%
• Holiday - 8%
• House - 34% of the amount saved each month (3-5 year plan for home improvements)
• General savings (eg. for car insurance, service etc) - 18%

This excludes bonuses which either go into the house or another savings pot

[The Selfish Gene]

I'm not putting details here - but cars, motorbikes, racing and going out (dates also which is mad expensive in London). Also doing the house up.

[Drumroll]

Where your income goes is only relevant to you.

Note so far no one has posted that they earn £3000 a month but there out goings are regularly £3500.

To me you live within your means as best as you can. If that includes going out for a decent meal every week then so be it. But if that decent meal means you go overdrawn then you don't go for the meal.

[number2]

Google [bot] said:

Last 2 weeks:

Booze $10000

[ashleyman]

Jossman said:

Any goals? Debt clearing, savings targets, mortgage overpayment targets? I think it's healthy to have targets so I'm going to try and create some for myself as I mentioned in the OP, clearing debt will be target #1.

My goal is clear my debt asap and then start saving for a deposit.
Already got a little pot started but it would be nice to start to make a proper dent in saving what I need.

[Terminator X]

Imho when you buy a house life gets tough money wise as a big %age of income goes there. After a few years it gets easier as wages go up and normally mortgage payment stays the same eg if fixed rate or interest rates unchanged etc. I'm about 8x higher salary today vs when I started work out of Uni at 23 so my advice is to hang in there as it does get better / easier generally as the years roll by.

Perhaps a generalisation but the "youngsters" seem to want it all now vs reality which is you need to / should gradually grow in to it.

TX.

[Prohibiting]

Me and wife have a spreadsheet of all our costs and we're 28 years old.

For the "essential list" we both put in £720 each to cover this with a little left over in this joint fund for the odd meal out/day out activity etc:

"ESSENTIALS" per month:
£15 Spotify Family
£31 Virgin Media 100mb
£35 Severn Trent Water
£13 TV License
£129 Council Tax
£74 E-On (Gas and Electricity)
£16 Sim cards x 2
£33 Insurance Home & Contents
£21 Insurance Dog
£35 Dog Food
£200 (£50/week) Food shop & house things
=
£601.50 TOTAL (exclude mortg.)
+
£520 Mortgage
=
£1,121.50 TOTAL (with mortg.)


ME personal per month:
£33 Mobile Handset
£19 Gym
£27 Car Insurance
£25 Car Tax
£80 Car fund savings (for repairs/servicing etc)
£500 ISA stocks and shares savings portfolio
£200 holiday pot
=
£890 TOTAL


MY WIFE personal per month:
£19 Gym
£21 Teachers Union
£34 Car Insurance
£27 Car Tax
£28 Kung Fu
£18 Spec Savers
£200 holiday pot
=
£350 TOTAL


....So as you can see, £720 each into our joint account for essentials, then we have our own personal payments. So for me, my outgoings are the £720 + £890 = £1610. I usually have £700-1k disposable income after I've made those payments which will go towards petrol and then whatever else I want.

My goal is to try to stick £500 each month into my savings account. If money was mega tight I would dial back the savings and holiday pot by a couple of hundred. Other than that (and Spotify), I can't really see how you could do it any cheaper.

TIPS:
Renegotiate all bills come renewal time which saves a lot.
Pack lunch every day to work.
Only buy decent clothes when I need them (buy cheap buy twice).
Limit regular eating out- dine once a month somewhere classier/nicer.
We both own 10 year old cars outright.
Shop at Aldi/Lidil.

Edited by Prohibiting on Friday 21st September 19:19

[FredClogs]

fk knows... I mean I've got a spreadsheet and that suggests I should have about £200 a month left after bills and savings are taken out, wife similarly, yet every month... fk all... Teetering around the edge of overdraft this time of the month, every month...

To the guy up the thread who's spending £80 a month on his cat...! For reals? It better not be the one that sts on my lawn, I hope that's insured because if I find the fker it's going to need time with a vet!

[condor]

I'll bring down the income levels a tad
Self employed and semi-retired, so only a rough estimate but is about £500/month.

Pay annual bills in full ie home and car insurances/ car tax/ tv licence so don't budget monthly for them.
No mortgage - paid off many years ago.
New car in 2017, paid in full.


Council tax £85 ( get 25% discount as single occupancy)
Gym £60
Tv/internet/phone £55 ( as of next month)
Utilities c.£70 - pay quarterly so that's a rough estimate.
Food/drink/pub/clothes/petrol make up the rest.

I don't do spreadsheets - if I need extra money, I'll dip into the savings account.
The savings have been in place since 2010 and are a back up source till my pensions kick in I haven't really needed to use them - outside of new car purchase last year.

[Simpo Two]

Still interested to know how a £150.50pa TV licence costs £35pcm.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

No income (living off savings)

Biggest expenditure

Petrol &

[33q]

Like some not giving details out but everything is spreadsheeted and broken down Into individual budgets per month and annual budgets split into 12.

This allows me to project forward income and expenditure to help work out where I will be in say 12 months time.

If you remain positive over 12 months you are living within your means. Simple.

We are retired and rank our end of month ‘wealth’ . If the current months rank is lower than or equal to the number of months we have been retired this also indicates we are on track to survive financially.

.....I do like spreadsheets!

[mcg_]

OP you're doing well.

You're young and a have a house. You've made the same decisions about 0% finance as most young people.

Things may be tight now but hopefully you're in a career where you salary will increase and once you debt goes down things will be more comfortable. Although then you'll probably buy a new car and get in debt again! (usual what I like to do)

[thebraketester]

Coke and hookers.