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 Dan French, 44, an operations manager for a commercial property company. Dan lives in Stroud with his fiancée, Kerry, 41, and their cat, Tiptoe. Dan owns a property on a 100 per cent mortgage and was close to wiping out his savings after spending £9,000 on a holiday for his fortieth birthday. He’s now actively building his savings back up so he elopes with Kerry in 2025.
Monthly budget
My monthly income: I take home £2,275 per month from my job as an operations manager at a commercial property company.
Kerry works as a factory worker at a manufacturing company and earns around £22,000 a year.
My monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £700; gas and electric, groceries, £200; council tax, £100; gas and electric, £100; water, £15; Sky TV and broadband, £30; TV licence, £10; boiler cover, £12.50; home insurance, £10; life insurance, £10; income protection cover, £14; critical illness cover, £11; petrol, £200; car tax, £18; mobile phone, £10; bank charges, namely account benefits like breakdown cover, £13; PrimeVideo, £8.99; Apple Music, £16.99; Postcode Lottery, £12; contact lenses, £22.50; money into savings, £150. I add 4 per cent of my salary into a work pension each month.
Kerry and I have separate accounts for our own bills and a joint account for the shared bills. I pay slightly more on the shared bills, including the mortgage. Any money we have left over goes on eating out, days out, holidays, clothes and hobbies, including playing golf.
I grew up with my parents and sister in Stonehouse, which is not far from where I live now. While we managed, it’s safe to say I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family. My father was a carpenter and worked as a door and window fitter, while my mother had various jobs in administration.
After leaving school I completed a GNVQ in travel and tourism. I worked at a local tour operator for 10 years, before deciding it was time for a change. I got a job managing a design and copy team offering hospital advertising to NHS trusts, but was made redundant when the business went into liquidation. However, the next day I was invited to become operations manager at a commercial property company. After deductions, I now take home £2,275 per month from my job.
I purchased the end of terrace Victorian house I live in now back in 2007. I got it with my previous partner for £152,000 on a 100 per cent mortgage, right before house prices started to crash. I was hugely against renting and paying for someone else’s mortgage, but because I had no savings, my only option was to opt for a deal with a zero per cent deposit. It did worry me as I knew the repayments were going to be a struggle, but we were just glad to get on the property ladder.
The relationship with my former partner broke down after a couple of years and for a short time before I met Kerry, I was solely responsible for the mortgage repayments as my ex moved out. The house was in negative equity by about £20,000, but I soldiered on.
After several years and a partial recovery in the housing market, I was able to replace my former partner on the mortgage with Kerry. I did have to pay my former partner £5,000 to get her to agree to do this. Kerry and I have been living in the house together ever since.
Our mortgage rate is 3.2 per cent on a five-year fix, but this expires in August 2024 and I’m not looking forward to searching for a new deal. We’ve got about £120,000 left to pay off the mortgage. It’ll hopefully be paid off in about 15 years if I end up staying in the same house, potentially earlier if I receive any inheritance money. However, we would ideally like to move house, which could mean I’ll be paying off a mortgage right up to retirement.
Just before my fortieth birthday, I knew I wanted to go abroad for a big holiday. The fact Kerry and I each received an unexpected tax rebate of over £1,000 buoyed our plans. We knuckled down and saved like crazy for over a year to be able to go on the kind of holiday we wanted. Having saved hard, we went to Selous in Tanzania for a safari for five nights.
While staying in a wooden water bungalow surrounded by hippos and crocodiles and enjoying a candlelit dinner, I proposed to Kerry, and am delighted to report she said yes! After our stay in Selous, we went to Zanzibar for a 12-night beach holiday. In total, and without one single regret, the holiday cost around £9,000.
This once-in-a-lifetime holiday had a significant impact on my savings. Aside from £4,000 stashed away in premium bonds, it wiped them out. Soon after the holiday, we knew we needed to start saving for the wedding, but were happy to have a long engagement.
I am a risk-taker and at some point would like to start investing, but it’s sometimes tricky to figure out what to invest in and know which platform to go for. For the time being, I put £150 a month into a cash savings account with Coventry Building Society, which has an interest rate of 5.5 per cent. Kerry adds £70 a month into the same account. I also now have about £5,000 in premium bonds. We plan to ramp up our savings significantly next year and would like to be adding £450 a month to the pot, rather than £220.
We want to get our savings up to a level which will allow us to have the wedding of our dreams in 2025. The plans are up in the air, but Kerry and I want to elope. It’ll just be the two of us on an even bigger and better trip than we had for my fortieth. One idea is four nights in Dubai, a week in Sri Lanka, where I believe it’s relatively easy to get legally married, and a week in the Maldives. We are close to having £10,000 in savings and expect the minimum we will need for the wedding to be around £15,000.
I do think work pensions are a good thing, but many people are living on the breadline and just can’t afford to pay into one. I add 4 per cent of my salary into my work pension each month, with my employer adding 3 per cent. I believe my work pension pot is building up quite well, but, if I’m honest, I haven’t really given it much thought. I’m more of a live for the moment type of person.
With no children, for us it’s all about work, play and, of course, paying the bills. Aside from saving like mad for the wedding, I also need a new second-hand car, which is likely to cost around £15,000. I have no idea how I will fund this and am assuming I will have to take a loan out.
Longer term, Kerry and I would like to move to a bigger house with a driveway and bigger garden. I’d be looking to buy somewhere for about £300,000, but you don’t get a great deal of house for your money where we are. The current interest rate on mortgages is also having a huge impact on my dream to move. In reality, I can’t see us being able to move for at least five years.
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