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.

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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!

Adulting: Why didn’t school teach me THAT?

Do you remember sitting there in school, twiddling a pen between your fingers staring out of the window thinking ‘when the hell am I ever going to need this complicated algebraic formula’? When you were learning about laws of motion, or constructing pieces of (dreadful, untuneful) music in Sibelius, and just thinking this is not enriching my life what so ever? I sit in my everyday life now wondering idly, why on earth didn’t they teach me this in school?

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.

Adulting: Wage Slips

I’ve decided to blog about the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens, of going my own way, morphing from childhood to adultdom. So, every Monday I am going to welcome the week with a post all about Adulting. This week, my post is pretty much the reaction to receiving my pay slip last Friday. They should include reading a payslip at school, along with things like transitioning to adult calendars, and what to put in an adult packed lunch. (I think I have enough moans and groans about what was missing from the school curriculum to fill a future post….)