As a contractor do you sometimes lose perspective when it comes to money?!

[ChimpMaster]

When I started out my tactic was to, as quick as I could:

1. Be debt free
2. Save 12 months warchest
3. Upgrade my banger is it is at the embarrassing stage
4. Keep bills below £1.5k a month

19 months in - all done

No matter what the rate no.4 is really important for me. My aim is to have financial freedom, not increase my financial commitments. Years of student debt and worrying, its so nice to not be in that position anymore.

The challenge really starts when you:
Get married.
Buy your first real family home.
Have a kid.
Have another kid.
Possibly have another kid.

[Kelstar]

The challenge really starts when you:
Get married.
Buy your first real family home.
Have a kid.
Have another kid.
Possibly have another kid.

Ha ha, agreed! Unfortunately I haven't been blessed in that department. But hats off to my mummy (and daddy) friends!

[MyUserName]

Yeah ... having two young children is hardly making me better off ... that is where the ruddy money is going!!!

[MarillionFan]

Yeah ... having two young children is hardly making me better off ... that is where the ruddy money is going!!!

Build a spreadsheet. I have one going back to 1997. Every year in Jan I add a prediction for the next 12 months. Contracting, investments, Ebay, rental, interest, shares etc with outgoings. I then add 20% Pareto to the outgoings and I work out how many days I need to work for breakeven. I know exactly what I need to do.

I then calculate a best case, land and worst case for the year. I aim for the best case but always seem to hit the land number. That is normally 2k per month above my outgoings, which is my worst case. If I find over the year that I am exceeding my land rate, I normally increase my outgoings. Ie. holiday, gadgets etc

According to my spreadsheet in 1997, kid free, first mortgage, perm my outgoings where £1500 per month. I left a job at £28k and my first year as a contractor was £58k. Year 2 £79k. Year 15. My outgoings with missus, kids and responsibilities are now £3500 per month. I only wish the takehome had gone up the same percentage and that 'Ill be a millionaire in 5 years never seemed to come true' ;-)

[AtW]

I only wish the takehome had gone up the same percentage and that 'Ill be a millionaire in 5 years never seemed to come true' ;-)

A few more rounds of QE and we'll all be millionaires this time next year...

[Butcheroo]

As a contractor do you sometimes lose perspective when it comes to money?!

I always planned to have at least six months money on the bank but as my wide doesn't work it's more tax advantageous to take most of it out and split in divs between us.

I love contracting but everytime I get offered a high paid Permy role I get twitchy. Problem is I have not had a single day off sick in 9 years doing this or been out of work so I think going perm and losing 30% of my money is not needed yet. One day maybe when I'm 50.

I like spending on holidays most as that's what the kids will really remember You have you balance your spending with saving but you only live once and enjoy your time with young kids now.

Off to Disney USA for 3 weeks this year. First time ever I have taken more than 10 days off in a year. Got to do it.

[No2politics]

As a contractor do you sometimes lose perspective when it comes to money?!

Just had a call from Santander fraud department querying a few transactions. Unfortunately they were all mine- a possible reminder to rein in the spending

[d000hg]

A few more rounds of QE and we'll all be millionaires this time next year...

So you've been saying the last 5 years, I guess like the Linux desktop it's going to be 'next year'.

[ChimpMaster]

<snip>
According to my spreadsheet in 1997, kid free, first mortgage, perm my outgoings where £1500 per month. I left a job at £28k and my first year as a contractor was £58k. Year 2 £79k. Year 15. My outgoings with missus, kids and responsibilities are now £3500 per month. I only wish the takehome had gone up the same percentage and that 'Ill be a millionaire in 5 years never seemed to come true' ;-)

I was going to ask how the heck you can have outgoings of £3500 but then I realised that a £2k mortgage is not unusual these days.

[mudskipper]

I was going to ask how the heck you can have outgoings of £3500 but then I realised that a £2k mortgage is not unusual these days.

I was going to ask how the heck he could have outgoings of only £3500.