Just turned 40 need advice on being better with my money

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Lucashood2018

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I just turned 40 and I have been very bad with my earnings throughout the years, I basically just spend frivolously and have done so through the years. I'm embarrassed to admit I live from pay cheque to pay cheque despite earning very good money. At my age with my salary I should have a house nice car and plenty of savings and investments but I have nothing to my name.
My basic salary is quite modest at 35k gross but when you factor in shift bonus and on-call payments my salary is dramatically increased to 70k. Because I earn such a good wage I've been able to get away with no saving for things like holidays etc because 1 or 2 months wages will cover it anyway and I have very little fixed costs. I don't have a mortgage , no loans and I'm single with no dependents so I should really be in a good place financially. My bad habits are drinking expensive bottles of wine and going out for expensive meals regularly. Would appreciate some advice
 
You know where you're going wrong. Have a think about what your priority is and spend money on that. Spend less. Save more. It's not rocket science.
 
Simple, open a new bank account, transfer a set amount into that by standing order each payday.

No card on the new account, no cheque book, no online banking. Then just forget about it for a year.
 
Age: 40
Spouse’s/Partner's age: n/a

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 70k
Annual gross income of spouse:n/a

Monthly take-home pay :4k

Type of employment: Lab chemist

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn Spending more
(b) saving?

Rough estimate of value of home
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Not a home owner
What interest rate are you paying?

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? No credit card
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?

Savings and investments:

Do you have a pension scheme? With work yes

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: N/A

Life insurance: No


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? Savings advice
 
My first step would be to keep a spending diary for the month and see where your money is going.

Make a specific month a savings month and see how much you can save.

You'll have to be realistic, in that you can't go from living to high life to living like a pauper... find a happy medium.

Give up the take away coffee first!
 
Don't be too hard on yourself. You have good earnings, you enjoyed yourself and indulged, and now want to change to a different way of life, including saving etc. Don't ruminate and feel guilty for not saving, and what you "should have". The reality is what it is. while some people saved, and bought a house/car etc. , some of them are probably saying "why didn't I live it up when I had a chance? I can't do it now because I am saddled with a mortgage ,car payments etc."

They weren't bad habits, they were a way of life that you enjoyed. Now you want to change.

My point is that if you go on with the mind-set of regret, you will not be in a good place (mentally) to change and start saving, and are more likely to spend money to try and make yourself "happier". Which will only compound the problem.

As for the saving, it is pretty simple, and there is a wealth of information here and elsewhere on the net. Ones that worked for me was to set up a direct debit from my account/wages so I didn't see the money coming out. With that sort of salary you should have no problem setting some aside. For example, don't think of the on call payment as a windfall that you can blow on something, think of it as money that you can just lodge into another account and not think about again.

And use mental tricks, for example "once I have €5k in the bank, I can buy that <insert item you want but don't need e.g. pair of shoes>."

For me, it is all about the mental attitude to money/saving. Once that is in place, it's pretty easy. It's getting it in place is the hard part.

And in a month or two, look at how much money you have saved, which will be a good pat on the back.

Good luck.
 
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Thanks for the reply so far

I would like to buy a house within a year . Just say I managed to live very frugally for the next 6-9 months and managed to save 15-20k . Would the banks likely turn me down for a mortgage citing they would like to see me saving for a longer period of time
 
are you a first time buyer? with 15-20k the max value of house you can buy is 150-200k as youll need a 10% deposit. is that a reasonable price range for where you live?

Having a new car if you borrow will limit your ability to borrow for your mortgage so ideally you would sort the house first.
 
Yea I live in waterford , theres nice houses here in that price range. My current plan is to open a credit untion savings account and put 1000 into that every month and im also going to open a permanent TSB savings acount and put 1000 into that also . Ill have 2k left over to live on
 
Lucashood2018 said:
Id like to be able to buy a new car
Click to expand...

I'd buy a car that a few years old. Get the car of your dreams but don't pay new car prices for it.

Your priority should be saving for and buying a house. You'll need every cent you can lay your hands on for that.

You'll be living in the house not living in the car.
 
PaddyBloggit said:
I'd buy a car that a few years old. Get the car of your dreams but don't pay new car prices for it.

Your priority should be saving for and buying a house. You'll need every cent you can lay your hands on for that.

You'll be living in the house not living in the car.
Click to expand...

The thing is I could in theory have 15-20k for a mortgage within 6-9 months but wont the ptb or any financial also want to see you save over a longer period of time before they approve a mortage especially with my poor savings record
 
Another question

Would it matter to the PTSB if I put all my savings into the credit union or would my original idea of putting 1000 euro in with them and 1000 euro in with the CU be a better idea?
 
Lucashood2018 said:
Id like to be able to buy a new car aswell but would that be a bad idea if im trying to get a mortgage too?
Click to expand...

This is an example of my mindset - not necessarily yours, but just as an example of my thinking (which allows me to go on a couple of holidays a year, have no mortgage on a nice house, and pretty much afford anything I want (which is also the trick - I don't want a Ferrari)).

The last car I bought was a 09 Hyundai i10, for €7k, 4 years ago. I still have it and it costs me next to nothing, with no mechanical issues. Tax is 200, and insurance is 300, so for 500 plus petrol, I'm on the road. (OK, one service a year and tyres cost a couple of hundred more). This suits me as I travel 10kms to work and 10 back. 99% of the time it's only me in the car, so I don't need anything bigger (and I like small cars :) ). I could buy a new car, but to do so means I can't go on a holiday or something else that I want more than a new car.

(This isn't a post on "aren't I great - look at what I have", it is to try and explain a way of thinking about what you buy, to enable you to choose and afford what is important to you). To my mind, this is the thing you need to do to change your mindset from now on. Gone are the days of spending money because you have it, now it's time to save it for what you want to buy.

So for me, cars aren't an expense, or status symbol. To me it's all about opportunity cost. By not spending on a car, I can afford to spend on the things I do want to, like holidays etc. With a finite amount of money, I, and you, have to choose carefully. In your case it might be a choice between a nice car and a house.

As I read recently, happiness is wanting the things you have, not having the things you want.

Hope this helps.
 
Have a read of this article Lucashood2018:

What a difference a decade makes...Irish workers advised to get a head start on pension
 
Lucashood2018 said:
Another question

Would it matter to the PTSB if I put all my savings into the credit union or would my original idea of putting 1000 euro in with them and 1000 euro in with the CU be a better idea?
Click to expand...
My thoughts on this is to save the money in the hardest to withdraw spot. Don't activate online banking!
 
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