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Cash Rich

How much did you owe when you were a student?  I was able to get a full grant when I was studying for my degree but even then I still worked every holiday.  That meant that even though I was given free money I still learnt the value of it.  Then how much did you scrimp and save to get on the housing ladder?  I saved up for a couple of years and then got a break with a low deposit new house.  Now I am renting so I have no mortgage and the endowments are still getting paid.

So one great thing about getting to this stage of life is that, for most of us, we have more disposable cash than when we were younger.  However of course that's a massive generalisation and I know that you may be now paying university fees, baling out grandchildren, coping with suddenly becoming single again, trying to finance a new business, trading up to a larger house - all of which will leave you not quite cash rich.  However despite that we know that we've been through the finance doldrums and we know that we can survive.  As a good friend of mine said "We know that we can live on beans for a year if we have to, whereas the younger generation thinks that tightening the belt means eating fewer burgers".

What have you learned about money now that you've got to this age?  How much of that learning are you putting to good use?  Whats you financial plan for the future?

Losing control

One of the things that a lot of us fear about getting older is being short of cash maybe when we eventually retire. I am no different from anyone else and regularly fret about not putting enough into my pension or not being on the property ladder.  Am I saving enough (or anything at all).  I often get a serious talking to from Tim my ex-boyfriend from 20 odd years ago now turned financial advisor.  How much will all that be worth when I want to go off and climb and ski around the world if work ever begins to pale.

Well its all very well to worry about that but a lot of us are even neglecting the day to day finances.  I had a pile of bank statements on my table going back nearly a year and a half. As a result of this I ended up paying more charges than I should have done by going over my overdraft limit accidentally (honest guv). As we are all now adults we should be more organsied about all our finances, not just those that are there to support us later in life. If we don't look after our finances today how can we possibly hope to make an impression on our future-pot.  The trick for me is to be systematic about it, file things properly and then make sure that I read stuff when it comes in so I can see what is going on.

So how are you looking after your money today and how does that reflect your financial aspirations for the future?  How much should you be saving and where?  Who is looking after your interests today?  Where are you spending too much?  Where are you not spending enough?