Nationalisation Of Bank Debts!

The goverments around the world have just taken on the debts of banks with a balance sheet bigger than the total GDP in most cases. Has anyone seen Iceland lately - they had this same great idea over a fortnight ago!

Mid-Month Update

Have just banked all the cheques and paper money I received for my birthday, adding another £260 to the grand total! Happy days!

When Is It Okay To Say No?

First of all, my savings now amount to £1700 with the money I added from this month's salary. It's nice to see four figures on the bank balance!

Secondly, I have already met with my first major dilema. At the beginning of the month my sister decided that I was going to lend her the £800 she needs to take a dental assistant training course and then my wonderful brother added that he also needed to borrow money for a deposit on his new home. Now my sister I am happy and willing to help as she is good with money, makes an effort to save and doesn't splash out on ridiculous items as soon as the pay cheque comes in. She has lent me money in the past and vice versa and it is always paid back in full by the agreed date. The money is being put to good use and £800 I can afford to lend out for a few months. So I said yes.

My brother on the other hand is a natural gambler. He earns considerably more money than I do at a younger age and spends everything he has - and anything he can get from other people! He wastes thousands on the stock market, casinos, holidays abroad with his girlfriend and his insane money making schemes. He has borrowed money from me in the past and has never managed to pay me back on time. I have had to constantly remind him to get the money back at all! I learnt very quickly not to feed his habit. Aside from that, he wanted to borrow several thousand pounds in order to buy a house miles and miles away from anywhere at the worst time possible (if you follow the housing market). He couldn't be bothered to wait another year to save up some money himself. He wanted a house right there and then damn the consequences! So I said no to him.

Now I love both my brother and sister dearly and have a pretty good relationship with both of them and naturally I felt bad refusing my brother. But at the back of my mind I know I am doing the right thing. He is barely in his 20's and is so used to hearing 'yes' from my parents that he has no financial discipline whatsoever. He has already maxed out his credit cards and is currently trying to pay back a loan he took out to pay for a holiday. He is going to have to make himself (and probably his girlfriend) bankrupt before he really learns a lesson and that is going to be a hard thing to watch. I only hope he gets it over and done with at a young age so he can move on with his life!

The Only Way Is Up!

It's only half past August, but I had to make a mini announcement - I managed to get a raise! Woooo! Yours truly is very excited and now moving at a slightly faster pace towards the finishing line!

New Beginnings

Well... one month and one pay day down and things are going pretty well. July's rent was already paid off, so I had the majority of this month's salary to put into savings. I put £900 away in a cash ISA and opened up a high interest savings account with HSBC. The ISA limit is £3600 per financial year, so I will need a good home for the rest of my savings.

I've had to make several changes to my lifestyle in order to save as much money as possible. Firstly, I sat down and drew up a list of income and expenditure for the year and then broke that down into a monthly list. The main thing to go was clothes shopping. I can easily blow £200 in one trip if I'm having a bad day - brings a smile to my face, but a makes a huge dent in my wallet! Next to go was online shopping for DVDs and books. Another £50-£100 gone! Takeaway meals are out too. I've dusted off all the cook books laying around the house and decided to teach myself to use an oven. It's about time I learnt to cook for myself anyway! Other than that, I'm now walking to and from work instead of getting a bus or taxi, taking my own lunch instead of visiting Starbuck's every day and money previously spent on after work drinking is now going into my savings account! I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself and it doesn't even feel like hard work!

I should point out the new 'motivational feature' I've added to this blog - the 'Fortunometer'. I find it helps having something visual to measure my ongoing progress, so I've created this little bar to track how much money I have saved and how far I have to go to reach my ultimate goal. Each month I will update the Fortunometer as a new post is added.

I'm sure my motivation won't last forever and there will be times when I'm tempted to go on a spending binge, but for now life is good, the sun is shining and that million isn't looking so scary after all!

Enjoy the summer and save hard!

Route To Riches

Can you save up a million pounds? Can you save up a million pounds without a well paid job, rich relatives, a lucky break on the stock market or winning the lottery? What about during an economic downturn? How long would it take? How much would you have to sacrifice in order to achieve such a goal? Would inflation decrease the amount so much to make it no longer worthwhile? Is there really a simple, easy method of making a million pound fortune that anyone and everyone could follow?

I am going to find out. I'm going to attempt to do what so may of us dream of and so few accomplish. I want to be a self made millionaire. And I want to do it by the relatively young age of 35!

I have heard stories of 'a friend of a friend of someone who knew this guy who saved all of his dinner money forever and made a million pounds', but I have yet to personally meet anyone who became rich through anything but luck and extraordinarily good business skill. I've known many individuals who have tried the hard work route - slaving away to run their own business, spending every spare second analysing the stock market. Others have tried their hand with property. There were a few minor success stories, but no one who reached that magic six figure mark without some kind of outside help or a lucky break. What about the rest of us? The cleaner, the office slave, the low paid and overworked proletariat. Is the task of saving a million pounds so far out of reach?

I believe it can be done. I believe that anyone, regardless of salary, education, background or contacts can realistically save a million pounds if they really focus. I also believe that it can be done at a relatively young age. Although a million pounds isn't what it used to be, it's a pretty good first stepping stone to have. 'Millionaire' also has a nice ring to it! I am 23 now and my goal is a million pounds in the bank by the age of 35. This has to be pure liquid cash, not assets like cars, property or a company. £1,000,000 in my bank account!

To set the record, I am currently earning £15,000 a year (£12,100 after tax!), owe £4700 in a student loan and £5700 to my parents from college fees. I have no degree and no rich relatives. I do not own any property and do not have my own company. I have a low level office job, which doesn't appear to be going anywhere fast!

I have decided to break up this seemingly mammoth task into smaller goals to make things easier. My first mini goal is to save £5,000 and pay back all of my student loan (£4700) by the end of 2008. Not easy for a university drop out on practically minimum wage, but it can be done. I'm feeling positive! With that I am off to work, to begin my first day as a potential millionaire.

Best of luck to anyone who is thinking of joining me! To everyone else, I hope you are happy, healthy and content.