Your financial rules.

[SpokeyDokey]

Financial rules matter, imo. Unless you are mega-loaded to the extent that even the most profligate are immune to disaster, you need financial rules to ease your passage through life.

What is the key rule that you apply to the management of your finances? Just one, not a list...

Primary rule in chez moi, is to actively manage every aspect of our finances like a well run business. Domestic financial management is not a game it is a serious undertaking.

 

[Drago]

Keep an eye on the numbers. Apps make this easy now, anything unusual or unexpected can be spotted very quickly before it becomes troublesome.

No loans or finance.

Discipline - see a plan out to the end.

End each month with savings better off than you started (discretion prevents me naming the minimum numbers I work to with that rule.)

 

[wakemalcolm]

4% (with guardrails).

 

[wafter]

Since @ Drago has already shat comprehensively all over your rules in the very first reply I'll try to sneak in under the radar with a little bending..

I'd have to say it's a tie between keeping regular, detailed records of everything (I have a spreadsheet that's updated every month with the transactions for every account I hold so I know exactly what's coming in, going out and from / to where) and never paying for debt (mortgage notwithstanding, although my "investments" are currently earning at a comparable rate to what I'm paying on the mortgage).

 

[si_c]

Save little and often. I have a regular standing order and use roundups to top up each month (currently set at 5x which is the most I can do via the bank).

 

[DCLane]

Regular updated detailed records with the aim of not spending more than is coming in, together with a long-term plan and no debt.

Please note: bike-related purchases count as "investments", not "spending"

 

[Drago]

Please note: bike-related purchases count as "investments", not "spending"

I tried to class basses as "housekeeping", but my accounts department overruled me.

 

[sevenfourate]

Hopefully not too many years from retirement - and the simple financial goal here is to save, invest, pay extra into pension: multiple times more than we spend on ourselves or household bills.

Easily achieved with private pensions being on direct debit, government pension extras being taken from wages at source; and savings / investments etc being paid the minute my monthly wages appear.

I guess my one financial rule (And I’m a stickler / organiser / thinker) is Plan ahead ! Not much (And with savings behind you) can then phase you.

 

[slowmotion]

Avoid debt.
Avoid borrowing (except a mortgage).

 

[Gunk]

Everyone on an internet forum is mortgage free, buys their £40,000 car for cash and has £250,000 in a cash ISA

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Everyone on an internet forum is mortgage free, buys their £40,000 car for cash and has £250,000 in a cash ISA

Doable, imo, if you're in your 60's, always had a good salary, always managed your money wisely.
My main financial rule at my time of life is not to die with too much money in the bank.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

 

[ColinJ]

Avoid debt.
Avoid borrowing (except a mortgage).

I got in bad trouble with debt in the past... Never again!

Now no overdrafts, no credit cards, no paying by instalments. I buy premium bonds with spare cash, and fund expensive purchases by selling those as needed.

I try to keep enough money in my current account for 2+ months worth of regular bills.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

no credit cards, no paying by instalments.

I use 0% interest CC quite often, but I make sure they are paid off in full a months before the offer ends.
Meantime, I put that money in an interest bearing account.

I try to keep enough money in my current account for 2+ months worth of regular bills.

You would be better putting this safety egg nest into an instant access savings account.
The interest is not much, but much better than zero, which you get by leaving it in your current account.
A transfer via your banking app is instant, should you need the funds.

 

[ColinJ]

You would be better putting this safety egg nest into an instant access savings account.
The interest is not much, but much better than zero, which you get by leaving it in your current account.
A transfer via your banking app is instant, should you need the funds.

That's worth looking at, thanks.

There is usually about £1,000 kept in reserve. I don't put that in the premium bond pot because I can't get it out quickly enough.