Have you always been good at managing your money?
Or have you treated it like water?
Did you earn a good income?
Or did you earn the minimum wage?
How well have you managed your money over the years?
Did you always put a certain amount by each month?
Or maybe you didn’t earn enough to put by each month?
Always had to be cautious so learned to budget and I saved when I could . Later in life when my state pension finally arrived I saved and still worked 2 jobs . Having a bit of money behind me is a lifesaver . But I’m not a big spender . I have my home and my little car and dont need much materially .
Of course now and again I’ll have a spend up in the sales or treat myself .
Since my son bought me my car, I haven’t spent a penny on materialistic stuff, …like you I have everything in my home that I need, I can save more now than I’ve ever done…as my son tells me, all those little things you bought mum in the past add up at the end of the month…he’s my financial advisor,
He is excellent at managing his money.
I’ve always been good at managing my money - I had to be because I didn’t have much of it when my sons were young and I was bringing them up alone. When I earned more I still saved each month, and still do even on a pension. I have never bought anything I couldn’t afford to pay for outright except my home which originally was bought on a mortgage (paid off now due to my savings) My sons are the same - I suppose they ‘caught’ it from me! 
I used to be a terrible spender at one time, Margaret …completely irresponsible with money…my son picked up on that as he told me…and didn’t want to follow my path. he is incredibly sensible with his money…he’s nearly paid his mortgage off…he is now my money advisor,
1 = Yes
2 = Yes
3 = Complete control.
4 = Yes.
My younger son has spreadsheets for everything and can account for everything being spent. He often tells me to try using a spreadsheet but I’m afraid that is a skill too far for me! My little notebook has served me well all of these years so if it ain’t broke I ain’t mending it
Sounds like my son, both excellent with money, I too have a notebook, I must ask my son if he has a spreadsheet…
Yes, I’ve always been good at managing money - both my own and other people’s.
I used to do it for a living until I retired - now I do it as a volunteer for a charity.
Yes, in all modesty I’d say that I’m good at managing money otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am now. Can you imagine having worked for 17 years without virtually getting paid for it? I can because I had to live under Communist rule in a country that didn’t have a freely convertible currency for 33 years, where there was no capital market, the income generally low, and no living standard as such. No one was rich, the richest were craftsmen who could afford to spend 6ok on a car on the black market. The Bundesbank later told us that on average people were having 5000 “alloy chips”, as they were called, on their bank accounts.
What did I do? After the wall had come down in 1989 and I found myself in a completely new system, it was said that we should not rely on getting social security benefit exclusively but also provide for old age ourselves. I had no savings and I also knew that I would not inherit anything. Who from? I went to the library that had books from the West and informed myself about the capital market and investment. I then came up with my own pension plan and started implementing it immediately by saving money and investing it in stocks and bonds and by using the returns for buying real estate property so that I wouldn’t have to pay a rent once I retired. It turned out that I didn’t even have to pay a rent a number of years before retirement. After some years my wage was above average but, as I wrote some time ago, it took decades for wages in the East to catch up with those in the West a process that hasn’t finished yet even today.
Now I can manage on a pension, a company pension, a mortgage-free home, and private savings.
I’m always careful with money (Not tight) after issues with my first wife which I won’t go into.
With my second wife we both were earning, so put some of our earnings into savings. When the kids came along we were down to one wage.
We just cut our cloth to fit. We still went on holidays (in this country). And the kids didn’t go with out.
As time has gone on out goings became less (finishing with the mortgage helped with that). Once I retired I paid off credit cards and stopped smoking. Thus giving us more disposable income.
I used to work for the MoD so was on a decent salary. And after working there for over 40 years ended with a decent pension.
So with my pension, my state pension and reductions in outgoings, I don’t seem to be any worse off than when I was working. Plus have money in the bank. 
Have you always been good at managing your money? Not until V and I got together and she discovered the size of my overdraft. 
Or have you treated it like water? I never had enough to treat it like water because my ex used to spend it like that.
Did you earn a good income? Yes, and, once-upon-a-time, I had 2 jobs going at the same time.
Or did you earn the minimum wage? Never. Once I joined the rubber industry I was reasonably well paid. The problem was, the more I earned, the more my ex spent.
How well have you managed your money over the years? Since V and I got together and my overdraft got sorted, very well thanks. V’s excellent with money management.
Did you always put a certain amount by each month? Not until my overdraft got sorted then I started to save the money I was using to pay off the overdraft each month.
I put a few coppers away each day for my crustie loaf of bread on a Friday, and maybe an oxo cube
Hi
I am a nightmare at planning things.
I do not do spreadsheets at all.
I have a very simple system.
I put a certain amount away every month for unexpected things and routine payments.
I then have a balance and I take most of it out in cash weekly.
I pay my helpers in cash and the rest goes in cash into my pocket.
When the pocket is empty, I do without.
It really is as simple as that.
It works for me.
A Northern upbringing.
You pay your debts every month and owe nobody anything you cannot repay.
By that I mean you pay your Mortgage, Council Tax , Gas and Electricity every month .
Tough, brutal and as a student and newly qualified, working on pig intestines.
You stank, but it paid the Bills.
The wife controls the money and a brilliant job she’s done too, I’ve done my bit by piling money in to a pension hence a 18 months early retirement,. The only niggle is its tied to the stock market, Thursday the market crashed by 4% today it recouped those loses, rough with the smooth.
Because of our savings, a couple of inheritances, and a mortgaged rental apartment, I retired at 62. We did well when we sold our Hertford apartment, moved to Worcester and bought another apartment in the same development as our rental mortgage-free (wiped out most of our savings though). Then, when our tenants moved out, we sold the rental which, by then, was mortgage-free too (I’d paid the mortgage down by drawing down my Additional Voluntary Contributions attached to my company pension).
I didn’t start drawing my state pension until I was 67 so I get extra each month because of that.
