Your financial rules.

[Emanresu]

Spend, spend, spend you can’t take it with you.

Economists are saying we save too much as a nation and should be spending more! Velocity of money etc.

So go to your OH and tell her/him you are being patriotic by getting a new bike to save the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_money

 

[FrankCrank]

Yes, the value drops 20% when you drive it out of the show room.

I'm on my 5th new car now, and have heard this statement, or similar, made many times.
What happens when you buy a new TV, or washing machine, or laptop, do you leave the shop saying 'oh no what have I done'?
Had many years owning clapped out old clunkers, now all that hassle is a distant memory, time to enjoy a few things in life.

 

[Drago]

Me and Mrs D bought a new car at sphincter puckering expense earlier this year, but as we plan to keep it until the wheels fall or Mrs D quits driving, whichever comes first, depreciation is irrelevant.

Over its envisaged lifespan that'll cost us far far less than leasing or renting one on PCP. Indeed, by my calculations 5.5 years will be the break even point in that regard, so we'll have 10 or 15 years "free" motoring after that.

 

[All uphill]

All this talk about cars!

You've got a bicycle haven't you?

 

[VinSumRox]

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

Are these paupers allowed on the forum?

 

[Drago]

Are these paupers allowed on the forum?

Someone has to empty the bedpan and clean the chimney!

 

[fossyant]

All this talk about cars!

You've got a bicycle haven't you?

Thing is, they are a massive financial drain, and many folk need the biggest and latest car. If you keep it, look after it, even a big maintenance bill is only one or two month's loan/lease payments.

As I'm starting to plan retirement I've changed my outlook now - i.e. no debt, mortgage free, keep the cars (not intending to move and get another mortgage) and I am now the only working adult in the house - wife has packed in work (recent poor employers with bad HR) and daughter just finishing Uni we manage OK on one wage.

I'm not intending on getting another bike - I do keep looking, but looking at it sensibly, I'd not ride it enough - out of the five I have, two see regular use and they cover my needs. That might change when I retire though.

Plan is to stay debt free, get a rainy day pot saved up, possibly work another 5 years to get my pension where it looks good enough to go early, and manage on it until state pension kicks in, where we'd be very comfortable. If someone waved redundancy at me, I'd consider going early, and getting a part time job ! Even if I went early I may find a part time job to keep my mind active.

Having seen too many people retire 'later' then see their plans ruined through some bad health, I'm now planning to go early. That said, my folks are in their 80's and although slowing down quite a bit, are still out and about. BIL is knackered and hasn't retired yet, and can't do much with his dodgy ticker. Seen mates drop dead.

 

[mistyoptic]

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.

I agree with @Pat "5mph" about using an instant access account. I have one with Zopa which is currently paying about 3% (there may be better rates) but I can switch the money in and out of my current account with First Direct within minutes as needed.

Well worth the minimal effort required to set something up

 

[wafter]

My Dad used to say “buy a house you can’t afford and buy a car you can afford to throw away”

My parents owned a huge rambling house in Northampton and ran old bangers.

This always seems to be a marker for old money versus new. I sometimes pass a lovely old detached red brick house in Boar's Hill that has to be worth multiple millions, yet parked outside is always a 20+yr old Astra. Those people know and appreciate the value of money and what it can buy.

At the other end of the scale you have tiny, mediocre, overpriced new-builds with tens of thousands of pounds of likely finance-"owned", brand new depreciation magnets parked on the driveway

 

[T4tomo]

A good financial rule is not to splurge your money on cars

...or yachts and planes...

Isnt the saying If it flys, floats or farks it will cost you a fortune. I think for latter was a reference to divorce costs

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

We have no rules, we just try to spend whatever comes in. The trouble is, being brought up in working class Birmingham, I have very inexpensive tastes.

 

[Drago]

...or yachts and planes...

Isnt the saying If it flys, floats or farks it will cost you a fortune. I think for latter was a reference to divorce costs

Unusually for a feller, I did quite well out of my divorce. Bejng a director for a large high street electronics retailer she was much wealthier than I, and being a copper I knew how to quietly gather evidence and had been doing so formsome time before I finally walked. I basically hung her out to dry.

I ended up with enough, just, to buy a two bedroom cottage outright, which saw me in good stead for a few years. Imalso managed to keep the new 7 series she'd bought me, which was quickly sold to buy a Peugeot 406 diesel and the change got banked.

Just to twist the knife I wrote almost daily letters to her solicitor, knowing full well she'd be charged a hundred quid just for receiving each one. I deliberately held on until quite late before getting lawyered up to stok her doing the same. That'll teach her to get gang banged while Im at work.

 

[All uphill]

Thing is, they are a massive financial drain, and many folk need the biggest and latest car. If you keep it, look after it, even a big maintenance bill is only one or two month's loan/lease payments.

As I'm starting to plan retirement I've changed my outlook now - i.e. no debt, mortgage free, keep the cars (not intending to move and get another mortgage) and I am now the only working adult in the house - wife has packed in work (recent poor employers with bad HR) and daughter just finishing Uni we manage OK on one wage.

I'm not intending on getting another bike - I do keep looking, but looking at it sensibly, I'd not ride it enough - out of the five I have, two see regular use and they cover my needs. That might change when I retire though.

Plan is to stay debt free, get a rainy day pot saved up, possibly work another 5 years to get my pension where it looks good enough to go early, and manage on it until state pension kicks in, where we'd be very comfortable. If someone waved redundancy at me, I'd consider going early, and getting a part time job ! Even if I went early I may find a part time job to keep my mind active.

Having seen too many people retire 'later' then see their plans ruined through some bad health, I'm now planning to go early. That said, my folks are in their 80's and although slowing down quite a bit, are still out and about. BIL is knackered and hasn't retired yet, and can't do much with his dodgy ticker. Seen mates drop dead.

Sounds like a good plan Fossy

 

[ColinJ]

Having seen too many people retire 'later' then see their plans ruined through some bad health, I'm now planning to go early.

Graham, my best mate from childhood, developed kidney problems in his 40s. They got worse and eventually he had to have a transplant. He did make a good recovery but was told that the organ wouldn't last for ever. Maybe he would need to have a second transplant after about 15 years?

He had no partner or children. His mortgage was paid off, he wanted to stop driving, and he had money in the bank. He had come to dislike his job! He could have retired early on the grounds of ill health but kept resisting it because his private pension would have suffered. I had worked out that he would have had £10,000+ a year to live on until he got his state pension. This was about 12 years ago when that would have been ample in his circumstances.

I kept suggesting that he should take early retirement and finally persuaded him one Christmas Eve, when I was on a visit back to Coventry. He would sort it out in the New Year. Hooray for common sense!

I came back to Yorkshire a few days after Christmas. In the first week of the New Year I got a tearful phonecall from my sister. Graham's transplant had failed, and he had died suddenly in his sleep...

I have lost three other friends and two family members in their sixties in the past decade. My advice to anyone who doesn't enjoy their job (and doesn't want to have to find another): If you can afford to, retire as early as you can and get on with enjoying your life - you never know how long you have left!

 

[FishFright]

...or yachts and planes...

Isnt the saying If it flys, floats or farks it will cost you a fortune. I think for latter was a reference to divorce costs

I remember that as " If it flys, floats or farks .. rent it "