Savings & Investments Attitude

[Samilktray]

To be honest I havent got the foggiest about anything like this. I do think schools should do more to educate you on stuff like this that actually help you with real life.

[Vicki Vixen]

It's a long shot they'll even be there by the time most of us get there anyway.

Another Labour government will be along the way soon enough and a raid of the private pension pot would be almost inenvitable.

Rubbish. No British government has ever raided pensions saved up in the past. Yes they can change the rules for the future, but what you have already saved is protected by legislation.

[James.]

Across your whole portfolio you've averaged higher than 15% every year since 2008? There were some serious gains to be had after the crash but again, 15% per annum is a better return than almost all professionals.

 

Professionals will generally be investing billions whereas I'm guessing Babylon had a few grand. As a professional you would never invest all of your fund into equities (particularly in only a handful as Babylon probably did), you would need to split across cash, fixed income, etc to reduce risk. If you extrapolated Babylon's investment strategy into a billion dollar fund the risk would be insane.

 

Just by getting a little lucky with the house I bought in 2011 I think I've averaged over 20% per year. I have some cash in the bank at the minute but wary of putting it into anything as it stands. If anyone knows how to get a low - medium risk return better than 3% let me know...

[MooseBreath]

Professionals will generally be investing billions whereas I'm guessing Babylon had a few grand. As a professional you would never invest all of your fund into equities (particularly in only a handful as Babylon probably did), you would need to split across cash, fixed income, etc to reduce risk. If you extrapolated Babylon's investment strategy into a billion dollar fund the risk would be insane.

Just by getting a little lucky with the house I bought in 2011 I think I've averaged over 20% per year. I have some cash in the bank at the minute but wary of putting it into anything as it stands. If anyone knows how to get a low - medium risk return better than 3% let me know...

Even so more than 15% per annum over six years smashes the performance of the average independent investor, who long term studies suggest averages just 2% after fees.

What about peer to peer lending? 4%-5% medium risk.

[James.]

Even so more than 15% per annum over six years smashes the performance of the average independent investor, who long term studies suggest averages just 2% after fees.

What about peer to peer lending? 4%-5% medium risk.

 

Maybe I should just give all my money to Babylon.

[Grandad.]

I've got 6 years before I start all the serious money stuff. 

[Babylon]

Even so more than 15% per annum over six years smashes the performance of the average independent investor, who long term studies suggest averages just 2% after fees.

What about peer to peer lending? 4%-5% medium risk.

Way in advance of 15%... beginners luck I suppose, it's flattened out over the last twelve months and I'd probably be only around 4%.

 

Some were punts like Taylor Wimpey which could have easily gone to the toilet and lost all my money. As it is I bought at 5p and it now sits at £1.15. Another was a mining company (I forget the name), it had tanked and sat at about 7p. I punted and got a load of them and they sky rocketed on news of a takeover, It got bought out a few times and I kept getting shares in the new companies, they ended up as Petropavlovsk plc sat on about £25 a share. (obviously the number of shares reduced after each takeover as I got one share for say 10 old shares, but they were still up massively).

 

Whetherspoons shares I bought after sitting in the wigston pub talking to my mates about it being rammed in there and all the other pubs closing down. Seemed obvious to me there were starting to corner the market a bit so I bought them. Now they are about £8 a share.

 

Like I said I either bought shares of companies I had personal good dealings with, or took a punt on them because the price had crashed. Sainsbury tanked a bit the other week after all the Tesco bad news which dragged all the supermarkets down, I figured they we just reacting to Tesco so bought some of them. They are up 16% in the space of about a month.

 

I rarely walk out of anything with a loss as I put a stop loss on that moves with the share price.

[Babylon]

Professionals will generally be investing billions whereas I'm guessing Babylon had a few grand. As a professional you would never invest all of your fund into equities (particularly in only a handful as Babylon probably did), you would need to split across cash, fixed income, etc to reduce risk. If you extrapolated Babylon's investment strategy into a billion dollar fund the risk would be insane.

 

Just by getting a little lucky with the house I bought in 2011 I think I've averaged over 20% per year. I have some cash in the bank at the minute but wary of putting it into anything as it stands. If anyone knows how to get a low - medium risk return better than 3% let me know...

Yes was just a few grand... I wouldn't be taking some of the punts I did with big money.

[Jon the Hat]

You are mad not take whatever pension is on offer.  You wouldn't turn down a tax free 1% payrise would you?  Opt in and forget about it.  It makes a big difference later. Do it!!!

[Leicester_Loyal]

Even though I'm only young, as soon as I'm finished with university I shall be putting money away for a house right from the off. It's my biggest goal in life to own a house, while also having a nice motor and going abroad with my mates once or twice a year.

 

My other hobbies include football and motorbikes, so that's where all my current money goes (I'm only working part time while at university)

[jonthefox]

Saved ever since I was a little kid. I put it down to having parents who didn't have a great amount of money when we were growing up, we could see how important money was and if anyone wanted anything we had to save for it.

 

Every month I put £300 into a 6% regular saver, I over pay my mortgage monthly as well as paying off lump sums now and again, £200 into a pension, £100 into a stocks and shares ISA, with the odd flutter on other shares that take my fancy. Anything that's left at the end of the month gets put into my standard ISA.

 

Growing up a saver enabled to buy a house 5 years ago with pretty much a 50% deposit, which at the current rate of paying off will mean I'll be mortgage free come next December... which at the age of 36 will be a massive weight off my mind knowing nobody can ever take it off me and that if I lost my job I wouldn't be under any pressure.

 

At the moment paying off the mortgage is better than saving really, put I like to spread it all about in different places just in case.

 

 

Who's that with.

[Babylon]

Who's that with.

First direct, you can only put in £300 a month for 12 months. When that 12 months is up the £3600 + interest will either have to go into another account on a lower rate or probably be used to overpay the mortgage.

 

Would love the days of 6% interest to come back, felt like free money every month with my house deposit sat in the bank... until Icesave went bust and I nearly lost it all.  

[VLC86]

First direct, you can only put in £300 a month for 12 months. When that 12 months is up the £3600 + interest will either have to go into another account on a lower rate or probably be used to overpay the mortgage.

 

Would love the days of 6% interest to come back, felt like free money every month with my house deposit sat in the bank... until Icesave went bust and I nearly lost it all.  

 

Thing is with them regular savers people think they will get 6% of the whole balance back where as in reality you get 6% on £300, then 6% on £600 and so on so in reality if you are putting a lump sum away you are better putting it in another account.

 

That said, its a great account to save into. I have had 3, only one survived the distance thanks for getting trigger happy when booking ridiculous holidays .

[lavrentis]

I do plan to save now actually.

 

Always thought it was pointless before. £50 a week over a year isn't that much. Probably more inclined to just put big lump sums in

[Spiritwalker]

I have a personal stakeholder pension with an aggressive portfolio (why not with 20-30 years left),

I save into some simple index trackers in an isa each month (cash Isas are a waste of time). They are up approx 10% this year.

Other than that I have a bunch of standard savings accounts with nationwide that you can rename to whatever you want. When I want to save for something I rename the account to the goal - house deposit, travel etc.

If you think paying off the mortgage is better than investing you're deluded! Fill an ISA first.

I'm sure you're right that there are better returns to be had from investments rather than paying lumps

off your mortgage, however if like me you hate being in debt it is very satisfying when you can knock

a bit off now and then.

[VLC86]

I'm sure you're right that there are better returns to be had from investments rather than paying lumps

off your mortgage, however if like me you hate being in debt it is very satisfying when you can knock

a bit off now and then.

I agree, love knocking a bit off.

[Spiritwalker]

I spend 40% of my wages on taxes that pay for the workshy to sit on their arses all day.

The rest is:

mortgage

pension

bills; gas, electricity, council tax, mobile phone, landline, television, car breakdown, water

insurances; home, travel, car(s)

regular home maintenance costs; e.g. boiler service plan

irregular home maintence; painting, decorating, garden etc.

petrol

food

clothes

things that I know I might need to save for; moving house costs, wedding, holidays

gifts for peoples birthdays / christmas

the mrs

and what I have left I spend on stuff I like, which in my case is my bike, or save for unplanned events, which isn't as much as I'd like. Some I save, some I invest.

You need to contact your tax office, you should only be paying 40% on earnings over 41k.

Then contact your local MP to find out why they are using your tax solely to pay for people

to sit on their arses, maybe he can arrange for your tax to go back into the general pot where

it can be used for health,education,defence,social care etc...

[FoxesAreBlue]

I struggle to save, every time I get anywhere something comes up like the car breaking down or the deposit on the flat when I bought it last year (in Leicesrer) Now I have fvck all saved up, but have rented the flat out and lodge in a house in Hampshire with my new job.

My thinking is paying less rent than I'm receiving in rent and also less bills means I have the opportunity to actually save up a bit or make overpayments on my mortgage, not sure which tbh

I did auto-enrol on the pensions thing but I do t understand it and I believe in paying the minimum.

[lavrentis]

paying off debts now I would say is more important then saving.

 

Saving with debt is pointless with the current interest rates

[Raj]

the way some on here make money im sure the rest of us mere mortals are doing it all wrong!!!!!

[Rob1742]

Some golden rules that people should not deviate from:

1. Overpay your mortgage payments wherever possible to get your debt cleared off as soon as possible.

2. Clear your debts off before you start saving (apart from a small pot), as debt is more costly than savings are beneficial.

3. Savings in general are reducing every day in real terms as inflation is higher than any interest rate, so savings apart from an emergency pot or to save for something specific are not a good idea.

4. Pensions are good news as they are tax free, so this is by far the best way of saving.

5. Financial advisors are just salesmen of their products, they have little interest in you and cannot be trusted. Talk a good game, but too many examples of them lining their own pockets at your expense. Avoid them as much as you possibly can. I have real horror stories here.

6. Any spare money, buy a property and rent it out. You should get 5/6% yield at worse and your investment should grow too.

[notnow john]

My best investment was P.P.I.

I've claimed enough for an extension,new car and a small Caribbean Island.

[leicsmac]

Some golden rules that people should not deviate from:

1. Overpay your mortgage payments wherever possible to get your debt cleared off as soon as possible.

2. Clear your debts off before you start saving (apart from a small pot), as debt is more costly than savings are beneficial.

3. Savings in general are reducing every day in real terms as inflation is higher than any interest rate, so savings apart from an emergency pot or to save for something specific are not a good idea.

4. Pensions are good news as they are tax free, so this is by far the best way of saving.

5. Financial advisors are just salesmen of their products, they have little interest in you and cannot be trusted. Talk a good game, but too many examples of them lining their own pockets at your expense. Avoid them as much as you possibly can. I have real horror stories here.

6. Any spare money, buy a property and rent it out. You should get 5/6% yield at worse and your investment should grow too.

 

I intensely dislike this idea. Don't treat an essential for living as a straight-up commodity like this. It's the reason house prices are so high in the first place.

 

Invest in gilt, stocks and shares, whatever - but buying-to-let causes problems that reach way beyond the financial markets. There are much less objectionable ways of making your money grow.

[ADK]

I was going to say that too, but thought I wouldn't bring politics into it and at the end of the day it's a legitimate way of making yourself rich. (read somewhere that the vast majority of uk millionaires made their money through property).

[leicsmac]

I was going to say that too, but thought I wouldn't bring politics into it and at the end of the day it's a legitimate way of making yourself rich. (read somewhere that the vast majority of uk millionaires made their money through property).

 

It is indeed. But it is wrong.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people making money through property development (building, redeveloping, selling on for a profit etc). But buying a house and then getting someone else to pay off the mortgage for you just for the privilege of having a roof over your head is objectionable to me.

 

And as I said, it perpetuates itself by keeping the prices high and making getting on the property ladder insanely difficult for anyone who is single and not made of money.