6 months in London from a MONEY perspective #transparency
**UPDATE** — Check out this Guardian series about the divide between London and the rest of the UK 👇
We’re open with our Flux business finances. Why not be open with my personal finances?
I recently moved back to London and thought it’d be interesting to share what’s been happening with my money. I’ve not lived in London for a while and I assumed that it’d be super expensive moving back here.
So, I’m sharing what I’ve earned, what I’ve saved, and what I’ve spent in the last 6 months. If you feel like sharing yours too, go for it! I’d love to compare what living and working is like (from a money perspective) in different places or for different people.
All figures are for the period 10/10/2018 to 10/04/2019.
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Income
- Salary — £5,345.77
- Dividends — £15,668.83
- Bonus — £10,000.00
- TOTAL — £31,014.60
Money coming in has been great! Me and Jon pay ourselves around £40k per year, which is definitely enough to live well on and have some left for holidays and savings. I also had a Christmas bonus after working my arse off for a lot of 2018. It felt nice to be rewarded with money, and that’s gone straight into my savings.
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Savings
- LISA — £5,106.00
- ISA — £9,034.00
- Monzo Pot — £2,532.66
- Taxes — £2,653.08
- TOTAL — £19,325.75
Also super happy about the savings that I’ve got squirrelled away now. I’ve never really had savings, so at 33 it feels awesome to have the start of what will eventually a nice big chunk that can buy some land, or a boat, or a year without working.
The LISA is an investment/savings account that can only be used for a first home or pension. Whilst the ISA is a classic tax-free investment/savings account.
My Monzo pot is just a holding space where I keep money before it’s transferred to a longer term account. I wait until that hits £4k then move £2k into the ISA.
Also for the first time ever, I’m proactively saving for next year’s taxes! 10 years as a freelancer and I’m only just getting the hang of it. What an idiot. Hopefully, I’ll have too much in this pot by the end of the year and that will be a nice little bonus for me.
Expenses
Here we go. The juicy bits. What did I spend all that money I’ve worked so hard to earn, on?
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Rent + Bills— £4,200.00 + £808.58
This is pretty standard for London I reckon. I live in Peckham, in a shared house with 3 other people. It’s also a lot of money! £10k per year is 1/4 of my earnings just going on rent and bills. Is that a lot? I don’t know. It feels pretty normal here.
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Clothes — £456.95
I didn’t think I’d bought many clothes. In fact, I hadn’t, as the quantity isn’t very high, but the cost-per-item is. This was a jacket, a hoodie, a vest, two pairs of shoes, and some fancy underpants. This amount feels pretty good. Like an investment in some objects that should last many years.
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Morning Coffee —£202.00
Every morning we take the dog for a walk in Peckham Rye park. There’s a lovely little cafe in there that does tasty coffee and buttery croissants. It’s hard to resist. Just £3 for a little coffee every day adds up.
I’m actually alright with this number. It’s become a really nice ritual that sets me up for a better day. If I’m on my own then I’ll sit with the coffee and read a book. If I’m with Ellie then we’ll sit and drink and dip our pastries in the coffee and chat about life and plans and people.
£200 well spent.
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Pubs — £593.26
This one is a surprise. I genuinely don’t consider myself to be a big pub drinker. I would not have guessed that I’d spent so much on drinking out. But clearly, I did.
What’s that though? About 100 pints? 4 per week. Actually not so bad when you break it down.
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Eating Out — £1,242.92
Hmm. What do I think about this? Well, it’s mostly for two people eating out, as I tend to pay for most of the little treats like this. So really that’s only £600 which is £100/month which is pretty damn good considering I live in London!
It’s still a lot though. I’m curious to benchmark this against other people in London.
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Groceries — £1,256.05
Really chuffed with this one. It averages out to about £50 per week on food for the home. Which feels about right, especially when I consider that Ellie is eating some of that too.
- General supermarkets — £376.59
- Oddbox (veg box) — £299.32
- Ken’s (local corner shop)— £580.14
I try not to shop in normal supermarkets, but I guess the little bits here and there add up. Our local little corner shop is doing pretty well out of me though! I guess their prices are generally higher than supermarkets, but so they should be. I’d rather support them than the Tesco shareholders any day.
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Biscuit — £757.04
So this is how much it costs to have a dog. That’s for food, treats, leads, harnesses, poo bags, toys, vets bills, insurance, bowls, etc.
I mean, he’s worth every penny of course.
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Van — £ 1,550.36
I guess the van is a bit of a hangover from our pre-London life. From when travelling out into the countryside was a bit more common. From trips to Germany, Italy, France, and Scandinavia, finding random spots to camp and swim and hang out.
With insurance, tax, the AA, fuel, and repairs, it adds up to just over£3k per year. That’s 7.5% of my total income. Not insignificant.
But for now, I reckon the van brings enough joy compared to the effort I put into work to pay for it.
In summary. Not so bad. I went on 2 skiing holidays which took a massive chunk out of my money. So without those, I’d have more savings, but fewer memories.
I would love to move towards a life where I spend less so I feel like I need to earn less. It’s interesting to be in a city like London, where a lot of the fun to be had (certainly in the social groups I’m part of) demands money of me.
What do you spend your money on?
I’m suuuuuuuper curious to hear about other people’s money lives. You don’t have to share as much as this. But anything you feel like sharing would be interesting.
Comment below or contact me on Twitter @jimrali or jim@flux.am or LinkedIn.
