Finance Thread

How is your financial situation?
What does your current expenditure look like?
What are your key outgoings?
Do you have any long term investments?

So I've spent this evening trying to get a feel for what my financial situations is.

  • I have about £1500 of direct debits a month.
  • I've accumulated a crap load of shares that I can't start accessing for another 2 years.
  • One of the other share schemes I'm paying into is effectively a "savings account" given the lack of improvement of the share price in the last 2 years.
  • I've got a loooooong way to go in my mortgage - but I think I can probably afford to start overpaying regularly and chuck in a lump sum before the year end. That opens up the possibility of doing the same again next year to a lesser extent to reduce the term, pay less interest overall and start chipping away at the sum.
  • I'm currently in pretty good shape financially. If I have a flat mate for the next 6 months+ I'll be able to bank a fair whack.