Hello! About me, then. I'm a 40-something woman from northwest UK and I'm finally ready (I think) to do something about my harmful relationship with money.
I'm starting this blog in spring of 2024 when my situation is a bit like this:
- I have no pension and I'm not currently paying into a pension.
- At time of writing I have £1,680.05 in credit card debt and £1,451.42 in unsecured loans. That's £3131.47 total in debt.
- I work full time and I earn a pretty decent wage.
- I pay £925 per month in rent. I want to work towards buying a property of my own.
- I have an elderly rescue dog who just turned 12. She has some benign liver issues that require 6-monthly blood tests, and a grade 4 of 6 heart murmur with no significant symptoms yet. My insurance rate and vet care plan costs are fairly high, but I'm locked in. (I claimed around £4.5k in the last 18 months so I'm not complaining.)
- I have some modest savings (£2.2k) in a savings account with a decent rate of interest that I try to add to whilst I'm paying down debt. The reason I'm not using it wholesale to pay down debt is because it was a gift with the purpose of supporting a house move.
My priorities are:
- Pay fixed monthly expenses (I don't struggle with this thankfully).
- Put adequate money to one side for true expenses/sinking funds so that non-monthly expenses don't derail me.
- Clear debt!
- Once debt is cleared, put maximum savings into savings account.
- Create an emergency fund of one month's wages.
- At this stage, start contributing to a pension fund at as high a rate as I can manage.
The tools I'm using are:
- Online spaces for accountability! Links over there on the right hand side.
- Books! I'll log these here and on my socials.
- Monzo for banking. I was with a building society for ~20 years, but the Monzo dashboard and tools are so helpful to me, so I switched. (I used the free current account switch service and it was seamless.)
- YNAB! You Need A Budget. A budgeting app that changed my relationship with money. I'll talk about it from time to time. Here's an intro to YNAB.
- Undebt.it! I paid a modest fee (just a couple of $) for an account I can link to YNAB. I'm using the avalanche method and hope to be debt free by January 2025.
My referral links:
This is a financially non-judgmental space. Welcome.
