In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to Greg Rowe, 28, who lives in Aylesbury. Greg works as a civil servant and makes extra money running a side-hustle cleaning business. At some point, he’d love to go full-time with his cleaning firm. Greg already has an £80,000 pension pot and purchased his first flat using a Help to Buy equity loan in 2020. He wants to earn £150,000 a year by the time he is 35.
Monthly Budget
My monthly income: The take-home pay from my job as a civil servant is £2,300. I’m also bringing in about £1,100 after tax per month from my commercial and domestic cleaning company, Exchange Cleaning Ltd.
My monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £470, service charges and parking, £200, council tax, £105, groceries, £200, gas and electric, £90, water, £15, broadband, £30, mobile phone, £7, car fuel, £20, car insurance, £35, money into work pension, £180, money into savings, £1,000, money into investments, £400, eating out, £200, coffee, £100. The amount I spend on holidays and days out varies a lot, but can sometimes be around £200 per month.
I grew up near Land’s End, Cornwall, in a working-class family and would say I am a grafter from a family of grafters. My father was a farm labourer and my mother was a bank clerk, before retraining as a social worker and mental health practitioner. We lived in a worker’s cottage on a farm until I was 12, before moving into social housing to a home with three bedrooms. I got my own room when I was 16 and my eldest brother left for university.
I studied economic history at the London School of Economics, and while this was a great achievement, I always wanted to be out earning money rather than studying. My student loan balance is around £60,000. I don’t see it as a debt and it doesn’t worry me.
I first joined the civil service in 2018 and in my current policy role have an annual salary of £39,000. I take home £2,300 per month from this job.
I add just over 5 per cent, or around £180, of my salary to my work pension each month. My employer contribution is just over 27 per cent. It’s a defined benefit pension scheme and I have around £80,000 saved up in it to date. It’s a healthy sum for someone of my age.
I enjoy my day job and it provides me with security in an environment where I am well looked after. The civil service pension is also incredible. However, it is important for me to follow my passions.
I’ve always enjoyed earning a few extra quid and never really been suited to climbing the corporate ladder. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to become an entrepreneur and businessman, working for myself.
In March this year, I took the plunge and started my own cleaning business, Exchange Cleaning Ltd. I’d had plenty of business ideas over the years, but didn’t have the courage or stability to pursue them. But in March a brief romance came to an end and something told me it was time to start afresh. It’s still early days, but I’m making about £1,100 a month after tax from my side-hustle cleaning business.
The extra money is nice and has always been a driving force for me, but I’m quickly learning it’s the excitement of it all that I really thrive on. I’ve been using the extra money to boost my savings and investments and have some fun.
It was important for me to get on the property ladder by any means necessary and I purchased my first one-bedroom flat for £176,000 in 2020 using a Help to Buy equity loan. My Help to Buy equity loan was £35,000, which I repaid using lockdown savings and remortgaging. By using the scheme and settling outside London, I only needed a deposit of £11,000. The current interest rate on my mortgage is 1.7 per cent and I’ll be remortgaging in April 2024. A key aim for me now is building up equity in my home.
Quitting alcohol for good in 2020 has helped me focus on my finances and future. I have a stocks and shares Isa, a general investment account and a number of cash savings accounts.
I add £1,000 to my cash savings accounts with Monzo and NatWest each month. I also split around £400 and add it to my stocks and shares Isa and general investment account every month. As I have more money coming, I may dabble in investments with a higher risk level, as they could potentially offer more lucrative returns. That said, I don’t really like investing apps as I find them addictive and distracting.
Next year, I want to buy a house with plenty of parking and a garden in Aylesbury and rent out my flat, potentially for close to £1,000 per month. I reckon the sort of house I’m looking for would cost around £300,000. I’m optimistic about opportunities in the housing market, despite everything that’s going on. Once I buy the house and am renting out my flat, I’ll look at boosting my investments further.
When it comes to spending, I don’t hold back on eating out as it’s something I really enjoy. I also go to the New York Deli in Aylesbury for a coffee nearly every day. I get some of my best ideas while sitting and enjoying a coffee. I also don’t see the point in being too frugal, as you just don’t know what’s around the corner as you get older.
Money is important to me, I can’t deny it. Its significance to me stems from not coming from a wealthy background. I am happy with my current income, but would like to be making £150,000 a year by the time I am 35. I could help a lot of people with that sort of money. In the future, I want to own a few properties, have financial freedom, own a couple of successful businesses and help people who I care about. I’d like to be able to semi-retire as young as possible.
