Bookish Savings | 2019

Hello folks, how are you finding the January blues? I always think that January feels like the longest month of the year, and as much as I really don’t want to wish the time away, I am always pleased to see the back of it. I think we all suffer from either actual or perceived money problems in January. Christmas costs a lot, let’s be real, so January is all about saving the pennies and thinking about ways to put money away for the year ahead. Last year I decided to have a bookish savings jar that would help me save some extra money for my trip to Disney at the end of October. It worked a treat and I ended up having around £200 saved which was enough to make the effort worth it and for me to have a little extra pocket money to spend on holiday.

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Adulting: Savings Update

I don’t know if I have mentioned it over the past few months, but I am going to Disney at the end of the year. If you haven’t heard, I am going at the end of October, doing a couple of days in Universal (Harry Potter’s Wizarding World really) and then going on to Disney to get the best of the Hallowe’en and the Christmas decorations. I am anticipating wanting lots to of spending money to spend on souvenirs, knick knacks, and all round treat myself. The problem with this: Universal, Disney, Transatlantic flights, they are all expensive.

I’m super lucky that I work in travel, an industry that allows me to explore the world, and gives me an excuse to go on holiday. The “problem” with this is saving money for a trip that far in the future, when you have 3 international holidays planned before. I know I know, I shouldn’t complain, and I am 100% not actually moaning about this fact, I love travelling, but it means I have been sidetracked. I knew this would be an issue working in the job that I do, so as soon as I started, I opened a variety of savings accounts and began researching savings methods.

Adulting: Savings

Money. We all need it everyday, and yet lots of us are really bad at keeping some back for the harder times. I’ve been thinking about saving a lot over the past few years. First I saved to go to Kenya in 2010, then I saved at University to travel the world for a year, and for the last 2 1/2 years, my savings efforts have been split towards having a proper adult life and having enough money to see places. There’s so many different types of savings accounts, methods, not to mention pensions, that it’s been a couple of years of trying and testing different methods.

So, with that in mind, I have a set of 2018 Savings goals and some methods to try and help me achieve them!

30 before 30

It’s November. Halloween has been and gone, the shops are plastered from wall to wall, floor to ceiling with all things Christmas, and this month, it’s my birthday. If I’m honest, I didn’t accept my 21st birthday very well, or my 22nd, and certainly not my 25th. This year, I am once again face with a slight feeling of getting older with nothing to show for it, so, this year, I am going to try and make it my mission to change that. So, I decided to make a motivational list of things that I want to do between now and my next milestone birthday. Here’s my 30 before 30 list:

Adulting: Credit Scores

The last couple of Adulting posts I have done have focused mostly on finances, and the more I look into these posts and actually write them, the more I realise how little I know about the financial world, and my own financial records and health. After realising this, I decided to begin wading into the murky waters of credit scores.

* disclaimer: all thoughts in this post are my own, and have not been influenced or supported by mentioned companies, organisations, or adviser.

Adulting: The Financial Advisor

2016 was an interesting year to say the least. Personally, it was a fairly decent year for me, unlike the wider world. Despite turning 25, and feeling increasingly older, many things happened, or progressed, over the course of the year. That said, the changing face of home and work life has led to a changing view on the world, and has also led to a major change in finances. I make more money than I ever had, but I have more outgoings, and more things that are vital to survive to pay for. 

Adulting: Pensions

I turn 25 this year. That’s a quarter of a century. The average woman in the UK lives to 81, so I am nearly a third of the way through my life. Isn’t that a scary thought?! And not only that, the retirement age currently sits at 67 (and is forever rising) so I know I am likely to spend the next 40 years working. That means I have pretty much working years left of my life. Again, isn’t that a scary thought? And so with this dim outlook, I am constantly being told to plan ahead, start saving, and get a pension. Nothing screams ”hey you’re an adult now” that having a meeting with a financial planner and discussing pension options.

To Malaysia. And Beyond!

I’m not sure I have mentioned this enough yet, but I am going travelling around the world soon. In fact, I fly seven weeks yesterday. Now as it is August, I can say I fly next month. It’s so exciting, I literally can’t wait. I thought it was about time to think about packing and getting all my documents together. Probably a good thing right? I also decided, along with my travel partner, what the next leg of the journey should consist of.

We’ve already booked a (expensive) tour that takes us right through Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, and allows us to completely travel the North of Thailand, and see Bangkok. We have an orientation in Bangkok sorted for a few days, and then we have our teaching places all sorted (as much as they can be at this stage) until March. Then nothing. Meeting my parents in July in Florida has been in place as the final element of the journey for a while, but what we plan to do in between had remained unknown.

Let’s Go Here, There, and Everywhere!

Ever since I can  remember, I have loved maps. Yes it is a little bit nerdy, yes it is not a popular or cool thing these days, but I love them. I have multiple atlases, even more maps for my walls, and 1 globe (and my parents have suggested they are going to buy me a big one for my graduation present. Not gonna lie, I am excited!) I guess this is a lot of why I ended up doing a Geography degree. I’ve always been interested in places and maps and why things are where they are, how they formed etc.

I have been lucky enough to travel quite a lot throughout my life. My parents are quite into travelling and so have taken me places, or helped me afford opportunities, to go to new and exciting places. I have a little tab at the side of this blog called my travels (it shows a map of all the countries I have been to) and if you have looked at it, you will see that my bucket list features a lot of travel based ‘to-dos’. At the time of writing I have visited 20 countries: USA, Canada, Barbados, Iceland, Kenya, Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Italy, and Switzerland. I have had some awesome experiences, and it really has given me the travelling bug. The biggest problem, it makes you want to visit more places.

While at University, I realised something: I have absolutely no idea what I want to do career-wise. (Well no, I would love to become a writer of some sort, travel writer, film critic, author…but I don’t know how I would get into that, or that I am actually any good at writing.) So I thought, I have worked throughout my studies, I have saved money, lets take off travelling and put-off the real world  and the decision making process. And so, in September, I am going to do just that with my flatmate from second year University.