Saving money ! Help

wally1990

Hi all,

I am 24yo, and earning €34k P/year starting this year.up to this point I haven't really saved any money. I currently have a college loan which only has about €1000 left and monthly bills of €550(total) and own my car(pain In full)

I will be earning €2,200 net pay average p/month and planning on really starting to save from next month. The girlfriend and I plan on buying a house and getting married In a few years so gotta get the head down:)

How much do you save on a month v your income? Do you save anything? What advice would you have for me? Should I invest? How do you budget?
Any advice is welcome?

I'm planning on saving €700.00 -€1000 p/month (hopefully) but sort out silly spending ha it's eg eating out and canteen at work and so on

homer911

OP, open a regular saver accoount, check out bonkers.ie for the best rates. most will allow up to €1000 per month

If you can save €1000 a month out of a net pay of €2200 you will be doing very well - allow yourself the occasional treat

Good Luck!

fits

Pay yourself first.

Id recommend opening two savings accounts. One which you can raid for the odd bigger expense or purchase and then another with restricted access for the longer term saving.

Try and figure out how much you need for daily expenses and groceries as well as your fixed costs, and work from there.

650Ginge

Does you company have any share saving or bonus schemes? They are usually very tax efficient make returns very good but are usually 3 years. Do these first if they exist.

Rabodirect.ie offer easy access into and out of a large number of funds.

You need to look at you budget see what you can actually afford after essentials and anything else you need. Then every month as some else said 'pay yourself first'. Transfer the money to your savings account on payday and try not to go near it. If you need to go at it you got the budget wrong. Redo and reduce the amount you transfer. Ideally you should be desperately looking for payday at the end of each month.

Once get the balance right over a few months it's easier?

You will have to do the leg work on savings accounts yourself I don't use them.

dRNk SAnTA

OP you're in an enviable position, and you're sensible to be thinking about budgeting and saving, it's a very important skill to have.

The advice so far is good. The only thing I'd add is that if you're a very disciplined type of person, and if you care to follow it, I've always found the following two websites provided me with a lot of sensible advice:

www.mrmoneymustache.com
www.monevator.com

Some of it is very relevant to people working in their early 20s, as theoretically the effort you make now can potentially pay good dividends in the future (the power of compounding).

On the other hand, if you want to keep it very simple, start a savings account. Just remember that any interest you receive will be taxed at more than 40%, so don't bank on any big returns.