Advice thread

northernrower said:
What gerneral life advice would the older members of the board pass on to those younger than them now that they have hindsight in their corner?

Finance, health, relationships, etc, I'm interested to hear 👍
Click to expand...
Don't ask the older lot for financial advice. They lived in a completely different time and the things that allowed them to prosper are not available to the younger generations.

Debt is essential but it has to be affordable. You can't buy a house without a mortgage and a mortgage is debt. Interest-free credit cards are a great way to pay for things up front without having to pay the premium of paying monthly but saving still beats them. Prioritise big goals like saving for a house ahead of getting things like a car on finance.

Pension is probably the best investment you can make but make sure you look into it and don't be afraid to manage it yourself if the default option isn't good enough. They are quite often high fee and too conservative which reduces growth. The earlier you get on board with it the better.

Learn all aspects of personal finance. There are hundreds of resources available. There can be a lot to learn but it's not really complex. Build an emergency fund before anything else. Low cost index trackers are good long-term investments. Don't go chasing quick wins gambling on day trading. Avoid gambling altogether even but if you do it (either actual gambling, day trading, crypto etc then do it with money you can afford t lose, not the money you need to pay your bills and feed yourself with).

I didn't start learning personal finance until I was in my 30s. I wasted years when I could have started saving better and I naively didn't join my pension scheme when I first started work thinking I needed the money then but that was a bad decision.
 
All of this I wish I had cottoned on to earlier.

Budget, and don't spend more than you need to, but still enjoy yourself and don't miss out on having a laugh or doing things you will remember forever.

FIRE doesn't make sense if you're wasting nor not almost making the most of your best years.

Don't go shopping when you're hungry.

If you lend people stuff, write it down.

Investing in learning, especially something which has a demand and gets compensated accordingly, will be the best investment you ever make.

Pick a career in something which has a future, but also don't be afraid to switch careers if you can see yours having a dead end.

Ideally work for yourself as soon as you can, if you're cut out for it. Make profits from yourself, don't let some other clown take them from you. If you do work for someone else, don't be afraid to ask for more money each year, if they're getting more out of you each year. If your pay matches inflation, then your boss is getting a good deal, as he's getting a more experienced version of you for the same cost he got the inexperienced version.

Invest in something diversified, as soon as possible, every £1 you put in will be worth 3 to 5x after 2% inflation in 20 years or 10-20 x after inflation after 40 years.
1712148287787.png

Still go on your nights out, but spending £30 on a night out, rather than £50, will save you £200-£400 for in 40 years time, this scales accordingly. Buy the £600 phone, rather than the £1000 phone, and invest the difference, if you have it. If you don't have the difference, then don't buy the more expensive item, you don't need that version and the ROI is terrible.

The hours between midnight and 4am are an expensive time to be drinking, as you drink more expensive drinks, more of them, and you won't remember anyway, and you'll feel worse the next day. Girls you meet between midnight and 4am might be fun for half an hour, but you'll probably not want to be with them long term!

Take debt/ loans when it's <5% even if you can afford to pay outright or pay it off sooner, as long as you can actually afford what you're buying with some left over, as the return on you investing the difference instead will save/ make you money.

Don't take debt more than 5% if you can avoid it, and certainly try and avoid credit card interest, so don't invest with a 10% return, when you're shelling out 10-18% interest on a car or CC, just pay the car or CC off first.

Taking 3-5% mortgages over longer terms, to free up more money to pay off car loans and CC's faster will save you a fortune.

If property prices are not booming, or not expected to boom, and if you can rent or house share cheaply, just rent/ house share, and don't buy, and invest the difference. There's no point taking on a 5% mortgage if house values are not going up 5% a year and if you can rent much cheaper. Use the opportunity that you're renting to move around where the money is and get up the promotion ladder by moving jobs faster if possible, but not too much where you're seen to be disloyal. The time saved through promotions and earning more money quicker will make things so much easier long term. The money saved by renting will buy you the house outright in 20-30 years and the extra money you make by climbing the ladder faster will get you a better house or more holidays.

You won't retain all the friends you have in your teens, 20's, 30's, 40's even if you stick around in the same place, but no matter where you are or what you do, you'll make new friends along the way, they might even be "better" than your old mates.
 
If you smoke, pack in immediately.
Don’t even finish the pack. Destroy it and the cigarettes in it and throw it away. If you are a bit of a tightwad like me then this may encourage you not to buy any more.

Packing cigarettes in will certainly lengthen your life. It has given me years longer.
 
A phone for £600 no never ,theres plenty around £200. Designer wear ,there having your eyes out. If you follow the crowd your a sheep.
 
Nano said:
Pension is probably the best investment you can make but make sure you look into it and don't be afraid to manage it yourself if the default option isn't good enough. They are quite often high fee and too conservative which reduces growth. The earlier you get on board with it the better.
Click to expand...

Private pensions are probably the best for most, because most don't figure out the investing till later, so miss out decades of compounding, which is the key to anything financial.

Thing is, if you get a decent job, you are switched on and start investing early, then you could effectively end up loaded long before you're 55, so may want or be able to retire long before then. The wait until 55 to get at your money might be a pain in the ****, and you're also getting taxed on that when you get it out.

If you can dodge higher taxes by tax putting it in to a pension and get away with lower tax when you get it out it will almost certainly make sense. But if you're earning enough to be dodging higher tax then chances are you're going to end up loaded anyway, so might get hammered when you take that money back out, if you're planning on living it up when you're older. Although saying that, you do get a 25% tax free lump so if the pension pot is massive that will make up for it, but you still need to wait until 55 to get at it. People can also sell their houses and start living in rented which will free up cash too.

Probably a mixture of both would make sense if people are doing well, but deffo private pensions for most people.
 
hobblewobble said:
A phone for £600 no never ,theres plenty around £200. Designer wear ,there having your eyes out. If you follow the crowd your a sheep.
Click to expand...

Yeah sure, if people are happy with the £200 phone, certainly do that, even better than the £600. But people still like to be "in with the crowd", might want better functionality or it to last longer etc. If someone was even a medium to heavy user, and keeping the phone 2 years then it's only costing 50p more per day, that may be well worth it to them. This would apply much more if it saves them time and maybe even makes them slightly happier or less frustrated.

Horses for courses, but the ROI changes quickly no matter what spending/ budget bracket people are in.
 
Andy_W said:
Yeah sure, if people are happy with the £200 phone, certainly do that, even better than the £600. But people still like to be "in with the crowd", might want better functionality or it to last longer etc. If someone was even a medium to heavy user, and keeping the phone 2 years then it's only costing 50p more per day, that may be well worth it to them. This would apply much more if it saves them time and maybe even makes them slightly happier or less frustrated.

Horses for courses, but the ROI changes quickly no matter what spending/ budget bracket people are in.
Click to expand...
In with the crowd is sheep like
 
Be curious, learn how to ask questions and listen twice as much as you talk.

Helps with everything that: work, friendships, relationships.

People love to talk about themselves. If you can master it, you'll become more popular and people will find you more interesting, even if you don't actually have much interesting to say!
 
Take care of your self and don’t get hung up on what others think. You only live once, enjoy yourself it’s later than you think!
 
Was told by an old guy I worked with "enjoy life before you are 40 because after that it just flies by". Here I am at 70 and could not agree more. I have enjoyed my life since 40(and before) but the years are hurtling by now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top