31st Jan 2011
Money, money, money
In the old days a man who saved money was a miser; nowadays he’s a wonder. (Author Unknown)
Ever since my early childhood I have liked saving and counting money (Scrooge McDuck was my hero) – I guess I have never been saving for a particular thing I was just saving for the joy of saving itself.
About three years ago before we headed for our UK adventure both me and Iva have written down a list of our hopes and expectations. On both our lists (among other things) there was a bullet point about saving up some money. I was wondering how much it would probably be so I made a little calculation.
Naivety has always been one of my biggest strengths (although it’s not what it used to be nowadays), so it doesn’t surprise me how far from reality my expectations were. Firstly I underestimated the costs of living in UK but not too badly. But then my plan that my salary would increase by 20 thousand pounds every year has not been fulfilled either (only because of the financial crisis, of course 
) but that still wasn’t all – I also forgot that we have to pay taxes.
Later on I recalculated the plan with a more realistic look … and then we flew over to New Zealand. The flights weren’t very cheap on their own but the biggest impact for the saving plan came from a loss of income for the few months between leaving the UK and finding a new job in New Zealand. On top of that, Stuart Rose – back then executive chairman of M&S – laughed right in my face when few weeks after I had bought the flights to NZ he announced that bonuses were to be paid three months earlier than usually. I would have probably stayed for 3 more months to get extra 15% of my annual salary but it was too late then. But surprisingly it did not bother me that much – maybe it’s because of my unwavering naive belief that there will always be more money. Anyway, that’s the explanation why the second saving plan did not work out either.
After returning from Zealand, I started to think about the financial plan again. But this time I decided not only to come up with the plan, but also to monitor and adjust it regularly. Basically I just copied methods used in commercial companies. I created an excel spreadsheet and began to watch closely how we are doing moneywise on a montly basis – what we spend money for and where we could potentially save some. During the first few months, we have already discovered a couple of holes through which the money leaked unnecessarily and patched them.
Not only such a habit can improve your financial situation, it is also an excellent preparation for the working life. And it’s great fun too – setting goals and trying to hit them, celebrate when you are successful and trying harder next time if not – wonderful!
However the best thing about this is the feeling it gives you – the feeling that you have a control over your own live.
Do you do something similar? Please share your tips with me. Cheers.
In the old days a man who saved money was a miser; nowadays he’s a wonder. (Author Unknown)
Ever since my early childhood I have liked saving and counting money (Scrooge McDuck was my hero) – I guess I have never been saving for a particular thing I was just saving for the joy of saving itself.
About three years ago before we headed for our UK adventure both me and Iva have written down a list of our hopes and expectations. On both our lists (among other things) there was a bullet point about saving up some money. I was wondering how much it would probably be so I made a little calculation.
Naivety has always been one of my biggest strengths (although it’s not what it used to be nowadays), so it doesn’t surprise me how far from reality my expectations were. Firstly I underestimated the costs of living in UK but not too badly. But then my plan that my salary would increase by 20 thousand pounds every year has not been fulfilled either (only because of the financial crisis, of course ) but that still wasn’t all – I also forgot that we have to pay taxes.
Later on I recalculated the plan with a more realistic look … and then we flew over to New Zealand. The flights weren’t very cheap on their own but the biggest impact for the saving plan came from a loss of income for the few months between leaving the UK and finding a new job in New Zealand. On top of that, Stuart Rose – back then executive chairman of M&S – laughed right in my face when few weeks after I had bought the flights to NZ he announced that bonuses were to be paid three months earlier than usually. I would have probably stayed for 3 more months to get extra 15% of my annual salary but it was too late then. But surprisingly it did not bother me that much – maybe it’s because of my unwavering naive belief that there will always be more money. Anyway, that’s the explanation why the second saving plan did not work out either.
After returning from Zealand, I started to think about the financial plan again. But this time I decided not only to come up with the plan, but also to monitor and adjust it regularly. Basically I just copied methods used in commercial companies. I created an excel spreadsheet and began to watch closely how we are doing moneywise on a montly basis – what we spend money for and where we could potentially save some. During the first few months, we have already discovered a couple of holes through which the money leaked unnecessarily and patched them.
Not only such a habit can improve your financial situation, it is also an excellent preparation for the working life. And it’s great fun too – setting goals and trying to hit them, celebrate when you are successful and trying harder next time if not – wonderful!
However the best thing about this is the feeling it gives you – the feeling that you have a control over your own live.
Do you do something similar? Please share your tips with me. Cheers.
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