How hard are you stacking? ...and are you worried for the future?

[vand]

Hopefully not too nosey a question.. How hard are you stacking/saving/investing, and into what vehicles (if not just into metals)?

I am in my late 30s and have always been a saver, nearly always putting aside about 30-50% of my monthly income. Sometimes it has been in shares, in housing, and at present it is into metals. Sometimes it is a bit more, sometimes a bit less, and I will be the first to admit sometimes it has been highly speculative and have taken losses along the way.

At the moment I'm in "maximum saving" mode - I spend about a third of my income for everyday expenses, and split the rest between overpaying the mortgage and buying physical precious metals. I am not quite an upper rate tax payer and live in London, so just your regular middle-income type trying to get by. However I keep our living costs low by-

- doing our own cooking as much as possible and eating out only occasionally (also healthier for you imo)

- foregoing a car, cycling as much as possible

- taking care of our health - I am very much into fitness and believe financial fitness and physical fitness are entirely complimentary lifestyle choices

- doing without the highlife living that we typically see.. Ski-trip, holidays, weekend breaks, sky TV, ps4 games on-release (wait 3 months and you can buy them 2nd hand for a fraction) etc etc.

I appreciate that not everyone is in such a position where they could take a 50% paycut and not have it materially affect their lifestyle, but for me I worry a lot about the future and want to secure it as much as possible while still able to do so, which is why I'm saving so much. I feel very uneasy about the state of the world at the moment and feel that chickens will come home to roost, maybe sooner than anyone thinks, but definitely within a few years. The more I see people extend themselves to try to attain a particular lifestyle and drinking the kool aid, the harder it makes me bunker down as you know there will be hell to pay.

[Kman]

Rather than looking how I can save money, my focus is more on how I can make money

The more money I make, the more money I can invest & save.

You read stories in the paper about people saving £x,xxx a year cutting out coupons religiously, not using toilet paper, buying out of date products.. It's like cool, you have fun with that while I make £x,xxx off of a investment and live without worrying about spending an extra 20p on organic produce etc 

.  

 

[SilverPirate]

Not stacking very hard at the moment, i go through phases of it.Putting as much as i can spare in an ISA.

Got two weddings to pay for,taking up most of my spare dosh.

I would like 10k a year in my retirement to survive with plus state pension,till it runs out.or i do.

[Pipers]

When you say upper tax you mean £150,000? Obviously  you are taking advantage of all the legal tax breaks?

 , Gifting to your family (children) etc, if you need help get an accountant to have a look.

You can invest in metals through a sipp if you are a high tax payer Goldmoney or bullionvault.  If you want the coins in your hand then its the same as everyone one else.

I don't know about @Kman s comment about not using toilet paper, you'ed get a sore ASS    

I always ask myself do I need the product, do I want the product, is it cost effective, where is is cheapest, will i miss it if I did not have it.  Then i make the decision whether to buy it.  This has saved me lots of money over the years.  Also knowing what time of year to buy a product will save you money too.   

[vand]

@Pipers 150k I wish... Lol. no, I mean the 40% band @43k or whatever it is now.

[vand]

1 hour ago, SilverPirate said:

Not stacking very hard at the moment, i go through phases of it.Putting as much as i can spare in an ISA.

Got two weddings to pay for,taking up most of my spare dosh.

I would like 10k a year in my retirement to survive with plus state pension,till it runs out.or i do.

That's totally understandable, especially if you have already been stacking for a while and feel you are holding enough that you are happy to divert your income to more immediate matters. No point in savings if you can't take your foot off the gas when life events call for it. 

[ApisMellifera]

Fairly new to stacking and my main goal for the year is to clear the nasty credit card. Yeah. I know. I've learned my lesson the hard way but should be cleared in August!! Once the credit-card is cleared the fiats are going towards PM/Investments and PM will be the main focus.

This is my monthly budget goal.
10% PM / savings account pot; 'Pay Yourself First rule'
25-30% credit card repayment
10% Investing pot, I will use this pot to save up investment opportunities, i.e stocks, real estate, or other biz.

7.5% is taken out of my salary before tax towards my pension fund at the moment. I had that setup when I started working and will keep that going for now until I learn more about things.

The rest for bills/expenses etc.

Yep. I also cycle to work when I can, not only to save but also to keep the my fitness level up and it's great way to learn and explore the city.

I'm currently renting and lucky to have a great landlord. They are not in the property investment game, so we are pretty fortunate to have affordable rent price in a nice area London!

I'm with Kman. Although I'm still learning/researching where to invest my cash.
I'm also working towards to earn more money to invest and save. I'm learning stocks, business and real estate at the moment.

I've worked out when my local Sainsbury and Tesco's do their daily price reductions which usually around 20:00 and 21:00…  I don't do that often, only when I'm passing there around that time. It's handy to pick up some good fruit and veg for £0.20 / £0.50! My local bakery also do reductions at the end of the day or the next morning and can get really nice loafs for a quid or so. I'm not a cheap skate when it comes to food, I love good food! It's just handy to know where to get some good deals

Just want to say thanks and show some appreciation to u guys/gals on here… Really enjoy the topics on the forum and banter, to keep my mind sharp about my finances! aaaannywayss… cheers!

ow.. yah…
Worried about the future?

No not really.... I think, the key is in preparation. I'm making sure that I'm prepared for the changes in the seasons and understand when they come or at least be prepared for unforeseen circumstances.

[KDave]

Save/Invest approximately 30%-50% income depending on monthly commitments. Worst month so far has been Feb, spreadsheet says I paid myself 33% so doing ok so far this year. Missus works part time, two kids so can't really do more some months without starvation/threats of divorce setting in 

Of that, approx 40% goes towards the house fund (cash). At the moment that mostly goes into a 123 account paying 3% gross and two HTB ISA's. Don't need to put any more towards that for now as it will be a couple of years before we can buy for work location reasons.

The remaining 60% goes either into gold and silver or dividend stocks. I am looking to stack some more paper gold at the moment, looking at stocks, although I am not sure if we are seeing the start of the next leg up, or if this is some kind of top. I have decided I do not know and so I am going to take a position to either average up or average down from lol. I have it on the list to research silver mining companies but have no ideas yet. 

I am not worried about the future, I am taking steps to ensure that should both my private pension and the state pension be unavailable when I need them I will have other wealth to see me out. I am counting on there not being a pension when I retire in fact, so if there is that is an added bonus. Pessimism is the safest option 

 

[Roy]

Great plans chaps! 

Two points, if I may...

Apis, I'd put it all into the credit card. Never invest when you have debt.

KDave, is 60% too much? I know you're a clever guy but it sounds a lot? 

And finally, I used to worry a lot. But now I understand that realising there is a problem is step one. Preparing is step two. I'm still concerned, mainly about my family. but I've done my best. Knowledge is everything.

[pho]

For me my monthly income is divided more or less as follows:
~20% goes into the savings account
~10% goes to pension saving plans/insurance
~25% pays off the mortgage for my apartment
~20% goes to the joint bank account to pay for household expenses/groceries/living
That leaves about 25% of my income to spend on personal "stuff"
This last part of the budget is the one that includes all of my PM purchases; I'm more of a collector, so I don't consider my silver/gold to be an investment or insurance but something I can enjoy and possibly hand on to possible future iterations of my genepool.

I'm intrigued by the stackers on youtube showing off their 1000s of ounces of silver. It's undeniably cool and I wish I had the disposable income to justify owning those kinds of stacks, but to me it would be more like owning a Ferrari, albeit one that keeps its value, instead of a real investment. For real investments and long term security, I personally think there's better options... Unless the apocalypse really comes AND humanity decides that silver and gold is the true form of money again.

[KDave]

Wrong about the clever guy bit, but right you are Roy, 60% into just PM's and stocks will be too much if I continue do this for the foreseeable.

I am looking for ways to get past my prejudice towards bonds and also to find alternative diversification. I would very much like to be more diversified, but at the moment PM's and a selection of stocks is my preferred route to balance cash holdings. Just to be clear, it is approximately 60% of my saved income going into these assets, the remaining 40% of saved income is going into cash savings. I currently have 40% total in cash, but that will be diminishing over time as PM's (30% ish) and Stocks (25% ish) grow slightly faster, so yes I need to look elsewhere longer term. Had some good pointers from people on here, always open to more suggestions to research.

I have an adequate separate pension from this lot btw just in case the wheels don't come off in the next few decades. 

[jayboat]

10% of my weekly pay + 50% of overtime goes in the silver fund until there is enough to place a decent sized order at STG are goldsilver.be. 10% and 50% of overtime into savings and about 3% into a pension pot. From time to time i will throw £50-£100 into my ratesetter account and try to build that as well. The rest goes on house repayments, food, wife and kids. I dont have a big salary but my silver stack is building up nicely spread over 2 royal mint monster boxes  . 

I also do matched betting (bonus blagging) as a hobby and thats split 50-50 between silver fund and saving account. I dont do it as much as i used to but it still pulls in a few G'ezz every year for doing something i enjoy doing. 

 

[Silvergun]

Monthly is . 41.5% household and motoring costs , 30% pms , 18% savings , 5.5% shares and 5% pension

[vand]

Inspiring stuff, gentlemen (and ladies). It's great to know that I am not the only one who still believes in the virtue of savings and not doing the bidding of our overlords in going out and spunking all your money on useless tat every month. 

@jayboat Very interesting about the matched betting. I will have to look into it. It's guerilla style income-generating strategies like this that would go quite some way to removing my worries about the future on a personal level.

[Shinus73]

60% of monthly income goes into the joint account for mortgage/bills, 10% for spending, 30% for pm's. I currently have no faith/interest in other saving or investment vehicles, although I do have various work pensions with stocks/bonds.

[jayboat]

6 hours ago, vand said:

Inspiring stuff, gentlemen (and ladies). It's great to know that I am not the only one who still believes in the virtue of savings and not doing the bidding of our overlords in going out and spunking all your money on useless tat every month. 

@jayboat Very interesting about the matched betting. I will have to look into it. It's guerilla style income-generating strategies like this that would go quite some way to removing my worries about the future on a personal level.

Dont let the title put you off buddy. Read through this a few times to get your head about it. I also think there is a section on this site somewhere. 

http://www.free-easy-money.com/

[sovereignsteve]

I haven't been there for a few years but there was a thriving match-betting forum on MSE and for the big  boys, thegamblingtimes.com

[Panicbuying]

Are you worried about the future... think this cartoon says it all

[Nugget]

Mine is split approx:

38% household bills and mortgage, 26% insurance, kids savings, joint savings and family spending funds.  20% personal saving/investments and pension and 16% pleasure money.  Only debts are mortgage which is low compared to averages and our age group and a business loan (for when I brought into business) which I have the money to clear, but get Income Tax break so it benefits me to keep it currently.  

I aim to put about £3,000 pa into PMs at the most just to add some diversification to existing assets. We are not heavy spenders and live within our means, no credit cards etc.  We are about to spend a small fortune doing the house up (kitchen, windows, loft conversion, conservatory) but we have 2/3 of the costs held in cash as things stand as I dont want to put more money on the mortgage if we can help it. 

 

 

 

[Frost]

what's the point of worrying, it's always better just live your life and stack 10-15% from each income to feel safe

[richo]

At the moment am only buying a few coins. I just feel like diversifying a little from savings in the bank. Don't plan to get loads of stuff, but we shall see. I do sometimes wonder what the real value is of the paper money system we all have most of our money and savings in! The euro in particular looks like a very fragile currency to me.

[vand]

I think "put 10% into precious metals and hope it does badly" is a good rule for mom-&-pop investing. The fact that most people now "put 300% into housing and hope it does well" means I put considerably more than 10% into my PMs.

[Oldun]

I put enough in as I think I want to as a store of my effort and for fun combined. The rest (of my energy thus far - for that is what earned wealth actually represents unless you are lucky enough to have benefited from someone else's efforts via inheritance etc) is put into loving breathing and enjoying the fruits of my effort and participating in the lives of those around me as we  wend our merry way towards our inevitable demise. Any questions ? And no matter what, always own outright your own bit of land as Nelson Mandela advocated. Every man or woman must own their own land (doesn't say house but land). You will know if you live in a free country if the government respects your right to own your own land.

 

 

[Roy]

But isn't it $1000 per square inch in Tokyo? 

Good advice though, from both of you.

Have you picked up any parcels of land in Asia?

[Oldun]

Bought and owned No debt.

 

Super cheap outside Tokyo - and if you are sensible not too crazy in the nicer parts of Tokyo...

 

there are 300,000 less people alive in japan than this time last year....can you say that anywhere else in the world ?

 

and the trend will continue for the next 30 years at least....less people, more land cheaper. Peaceful society and this...