Firstly, these are all my opinions. Don't come screaming at me if you did them and didn't like the result. I'm no expert!

Question 1: Does that sound reasonable?

I personally wouldn't spend £3,500 on a car but I've become extremely frugal recently. Are you sure it won't survive the winter or are you just looking for an excuse to get something better? Break down cover would probably be your cheaper option and wouldn't any repairs still probably be less than £3,500?

My personal advice would actually be to close your overdraft because that money is not yours. It's very hard to do because you feel like you're throwing away £2,500 for nothing but remember that you never really had it in the first place. Only ever spend what you have, you'll live a better life doing so.

Question 2: is there anything I can do now?

• Consider changing your current account - It's a simple win, a lot of banks at the moment are offering an incentive to switch, it's very easy to do, takes very little time and they normally pay you £100-200 to do it. The only thing is you do need a few Direct Debits to move across.
  
  
• Start a Budget - Whether it's on Excel or another piece of software it doesn't matter. Figure out how much actually do need to spend, how much you will need to spend when you move and how much you'll have left over. Personally I decided to pay for a service called YNAB which is around £40 for the year but works for me because I like being able to import my transactions and analyse them.
  
  
• Start an Savings Account for emergencies - Easy access account, put in a set amount of money in each month and forget about that money
  
  
• Possibly Read up about Investing - Only ever invest what you can afford to loose though. I personally just lost a fair amount from stupid mistakes, don't go in to shares without doing some serious research and understanding the extra fees involved.
  
  Question 3: Is there anything I can do next year, once I actually have the year's earning?
  
  Don't wait until the end of the year to start saving. If you think you're going to get £1400 then budget your life around £1200 and set up an monthly direct debit for the other money to go straight into a savings account or investment of some sort. The trick is to make sure you don't give yourself the opportunity to spend the money by putting it somewhere else and forgetting about it.
  
  I don't recommend a Stocks and Shares ISA. Yes it's Tax Free but actually you'd need to make £11,300 profit before start paying tax anyway - It's called Capital Gains Tax, see number 2 here. If you manage to make that much profit on £1400 a month, please let me know your secret!
  
  From my experience:
  
  
• Shares are higher risk - They can be very volatile. One bit of bad news for the company you invest in and the whole thing can drop. I lost ~£500 in shares recently due to lack of/bad research.
  
  
• Funds are a bit more stable - You are lending your money to the bank who has created the fund and they decide where your money is put to work. The fund usually has a name which identifies a sector or speciality and that's the only things they will invest your money in - They decide how much goes where, and moves it around when needed. If one company in a fund does badly, hopefully the other companies in the fund will keep it afloat. The reason I really like funds is because the Bank running the fund wants them to succeed because they take a small cut of your profits. You're also spreading your eggs a bit. I'm biased towards these because I've had a 29% return over the last 2 years through funds and pretty much just put them in what was suggested at the and forgot about them.
  
  The bank I use for funds, shares etc is Hargreaves Lansdown. I'm a big fan of their website and app. They also have "Wealth 150" funds which are they ones they personally recommend will do well. Be careful though, read the small print and don't just rely on me. I found out about it from a friend but then found out the hard way they have clause where if you have less than £50 in an account, they'll just close it and keep the money.
  
  If you're interested in learning to invest, a really good book is called The Naked Trader. The guy doesn't act like a Finance Buff he just makes it ridiculously easy to understand.
  
  The key stories I've learned as someone just turned 29:
  
  
• Don't play with money you don't have
  
• Don't invest in something you don't know about
  
• Don't gamble because in the long run you'll always loose more than you win, you're not different in this sense
  
• Force yourself to routinely look at your balance even if it's not healthy - Being ignorant makes it worse
  
• Stay away from Credit Cards, took me 3 years to get out of that
  
• Put your money to work, never just leave it in a current account. Banks are literally paying you to borrow your money so at least shove it in a savings account, even if it's for a few pennies
  
• Be good with time management - It's common practice for banks (utility providers, car insurance, etc) to give you a good rate for a year and then hope you forget and leave the money in there. Stay on top and transfer it around when the promotional rates!
  
  Good luck!

Homework can be found in the "Recommended Reading" section of our FAQ. I've pasted it at the end of this comment for your convenience.

If there was one book most worth reading I would argue it's Smarter Investing by Tim Hale. It gives you all the basic grounding that you need to know in an easy-to-digest manner.

Another good source for information is www.monevator.com, though the writers are very opinionated and not great fans of people in my profession.

You could potentially seek financial advice, and pay a fixed fee for some recommendations, or even pay Hargreaves Lansdown directly for advice (they offer telephone-based advice for a fee), but at your level of savings the costs may be disproportionally high.

Recommended Reading

Books about investing

Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

This book was written by the father of "value investing", and the mentor of Warren Buffett, who is widely accepted to be the world's most successful investor.

It was originally published in 1948, but Ben Graham updated it periodically over the years, and it stands as true today as it ever has.

Beating the Street - Peter Lynch

Published in 1994, this is arguably showing its age more than Intelligent Investor. Either way, valuable reading from one of the best managers of money in the past few decades.

Naked Trader - Robbie Burns

Subtitled "How anyone can make money trading shares", this is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek account of one financial journalist's attempt to quit his job and make £1,000,000 using a short-to-medium term trading strategy. Not very scientific, but an interesting counterpoint to the previous recommendations.

Smarter Investing - Tim Hale

The ultimate counterpoint to attempting to "beat the markets" - after spending 15 years working in active fund manager, Tim Hale concluded that the best outcomes for most investors in most situations would be a simple portfolio of "passive" investments (that is, funds which attempt to track a market, rather than outperform it). This style is favoured by the likes of Monevator, and many of the subscribers here.

Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letters - Warren Buffett

Not a book, but a series of essays over the years from the world's most successful investor. Makes interesting reading! Notably, the 2014 letter (not published in the above link but published here in abridged form) implies that he now feels most investors would be best served by low-cost trackers.

The Financial Times guide to investing - Glen Arnold

A great starter guide, going from the very basics (why businesses need shareholders) to more in-depth explanations of different types of investment, and step-by-step guides on how to execute trades.

Ok, that's basically what I did when I started out. Let me just say, there is a learning curve- and LOTS to learn. However, if investing turns out to be something you enjoy, and you always continue learning, you open the door to higher returns in general (and a very interesting hobby :D ).

At the start, you don't need to know much more than the general facts. Equity, bonds, the market. What the lingo means, and where the resources are. The original book I got for an overview was the following, and I would recommend it: The
The FT Investing Guide - not a cheap book, but will go over the foundational knowledge you need.

I would then follow with The Intelligent Investor, which is THE great value-investment book. It will tell you about how to logically approach investing in companies, and give you a framework for choosing better companies to invest in, and not overpaying for the equity you invest in.

Knowledge of macro economics is also a plus, imo. I started off by reading Economics for Dummies (yes, really).

The basics of accounting is somewhat essential, but it's covered in the FT guide. If you can get to the point where you can understand a typical income statement, balance sheet or statement of cash flows, it should be enough to be a competent investor. It allows you to understand the underlying financial health of a business, which is very important.

Your aim is to find strong companies, with good future prospects, which are undervalued by the market, and invest for the long-term. This will allow you to maximise your returns.

..I was all set to continue writing this wall of text, but I think I'll leave it here for now. If you have any further questions, or would like more clarification on any points, I'd be happy to help. So just let me know.

I'm sure Lurklurk will be along with a more comprehensive reply, but a civil service pension is very safe.

I would guess that, once it starts paying out, it does so for the rest of your life, which no contribution-based pension or other savings will do. With them, you have money in the pot, and if it runs out you're screwed.

You wrote that "changes to the pension scheme have made it less desirable in recent times", but you still have a very good pension scheme - I don't think there are many better.

50 years ago, all pension schemes were defined benefit - in recent decades it has been realised that this is unsustainable, and now practically all are contribution-based. The civil service are one of the last holdouts giving these gold-plated pensions.

You should read these previous threads, especially /u/pflurklurk's extensive comments n them:

• Defined benefit pension
  
  
• Should I top up my Civil Service pension?
  
  
• Need help to figure out how my pension works
  
  I think that, at your age, you should probably be trying to make some separate retirement provision (pension or ISA or whatever) - even if you don't manage to keep it up (perhaps when you later have the expenses of children, for example) then your long horizon does indeed give you the maximum benefit of compounding.
  
  Read Tim Hale's Smarter Investing, which should address all immediate questions regarding your longterm investing plans. I got a brand new copy of the blue-covered edition for £3 a few weeks ago, but prices have been fluctuating since - compare [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0273708007) and Abe.

My first bit of advice would be How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie, really helped me when I started living on my own and worried I'd be bankrupt by Christmas.

Second bit of advice would be to acknowledge your emergency fund as being there for when things go wrong. That's why you've built it up and set aside the money for it. If you're anxious about having money for things to go wrong then consider dedicating some extra money to the fund every month. Each month I always check my average monthly expenditure on YNAB to make sure I've got at least six months worth of emergency fund.

I think what's happened to you being in a car accident and going through that process is going to be a major financial blow to you, but I would argue you will come out of it more relaxed than the friends and family who are calling you "frugal" (as though living within your means is a bad thing?!).

I go through the same motions every month around pay day, almost all my work colleagues are really excited for Black Friday this month because it falls on the day after pay day. I know countless people who start the month all jolly and happy because it's pay day who are gloomy and bleak by the 8th/9th or the month because they spent it all in a week.

Without trying to be smug about it, you are right to be concerned and worried but you do also need to treat yourself. Part of budgeting, saving, cutting back and investing is you find out the stuff that really matters to you and makes you happy. My advice would be to get some fresh air, go for a walk and just appreciate some of the free stuff you get from being around people and the outdoors.

You don't have to spend money to be happy :)

Here is the mother of all lottery advice comments. I think /u/Rabid_Tanuki may have been inspired by it. It’s entertaining and worth a read.

However, I would point out that £1m is not actually all that much money. It’s a good amount, and it can guarantee you financial security for life if you play your cards right. But in many ways you aren’t in nearly as precarious a situation as the people who win £30m. Even if you did tell people (DON’T!), this still is only enough to buy MAYBE one house in a high cost of living (HCOL) area like London. Your new friends wouldn’t expect Jaguars, just free trips, parties and help with medical expenses.

Still, you need to be careful: it’s surprisingly easy to fritter away a million euros/dollars/pounds/crowns. If you know you have trouble keeping money, then it’s a good idea to get financial advice on setting up some kind of trust. Taxes are another thing to think about. Realize, though, that there are many people who have this much in a standard brokerage account just due to having earned and invested over time. Since this isn’t a stupid amount of lottery money, you could do much worse than just sticking it in some index funds, turning on dividend reinvesting, and forgetting about it. (Which funds? Getting started investing can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. By far the most important thing is to start. Read this book.)

The reason £1m is able to guarantee you financial security is because of something called the 4% rule. TL;DR: once this is invested, you can safely take £40,000 a year out of it, if need be. As you’re looking for a career in journalism, having a base income of £40k which you can rely on is going to come in REAL handy.

Congratulations: you’ve been shown to the front of the “FI/RE” queue. (There’s a UK version too.) Now don’t fuck it up!

First off starting with some non financial advice stuff

It seems you have things sorted from a technical ability perspective but when it comes down to requirements and understanding what is needed that is something you might fall down on.

This happens a fair bit to be honest with you as systems can get a lot more complex and you are at the mercy of any business analysis which might be done, so as you say you can deliver "it" if you know what "it" is, that comes from experience but can be learnt in other ways.

Couple of book links:

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Coder-Conduct-Professional-Programmers/dp/0137081073
  
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pragmatic-Programmer-Andrew-Hunt/dp/020161622X/
  
  Now financial questions, I would adjust your salary expectations, but it might not be out of the question for you to find something in that area especially depending on how commutable Manchester is, but there are places everywhere which do this kind of work, just might find competition is different.

I totally understand this feeling too - been there!

I found the book What Colour is your Parachute really helpful for this - when you have a few ideas of things you might like to do and why but also feel like you need a life overhaul/plan.

here’s the book it’s a workbook and so takes some time, as it’ll only be useful if you do the exercises etc

I think the main PF ones will be recommended well, and lots of the same approaches apply on both sides. Tax treatment is probably the key difference, which might not be best learned through a book.

So aside I'm going to recommend one book I adore that I think is hugely applicable through life (has probably changed my view upon the world more than almost anything else) and one that I've just started but is so far fascinating.

Thinking, fast and slow: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0141033576

Nobel prize winner, talking about how humans think weirdly. I challenge anyone to read this and not find something they think is applicable to their own life or how they view the world.

How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Miserable-Strategies-Already/dp/B01HH0BC70

A guide to being miserable. A self help book effectively written from the other side. I detest saccharine self help things, this is captivating and I think a great way of viewing problems.

Not as relevant, but The Evolution of Cooperation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolution-Co-Operation-Penguin-Press-Science/dp/0140124950

A simple and perhaps laboured point but something that has stuck with me over the past 10 years.

Two of these, the first and last, are ones I've finished and lent out to others as much as I can possibly do so. I expect that how to be miserable will fall under these ranks but I've not finished it yet.

Got a book recommendation for you: https://www.amazon.com/Defining-Decade-Your-Twenties-Matter/dp/0446561754 from your post it sounds like this might help you clarify your thinking. I hope you find a path you’re happy with.

Simple Not Easy is one of the few great investing books by a UK author.

Though the books of James Montier are excellent too.

Here's my list of top 30 books.

That rule (50:30:20) originally came from Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts senator)'s book [All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Your-Worth-Ultimate-Lifetime/dp/0743269888). It's a really good primer on financial planning too.

I follow her rule and mine split is:

30% - Needs (rent bills groceries transport, mandatory stuff)

17% - Wants (not including holidays)

7% - Wants Holidays

48% - Post Tax Savings

> do you invest?

Yes. If you're looking for a recommendation, I'd suggest a low-fee index fund like this. If you're wondering why, I'd recommend reading this.

Economics in One Lesson is a great book on economics.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-One-Lesson-H-Hazlitt/dp/0517548232/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509531115&sr=1-3&keywords=Economics+in+One+Lesson

>And as for "hedge fund managers make 20%" ... well actually they don't. Hope the rest of your money is with them though, as you're sure to be right.


[Well many do](https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/investments/asset-classes/private-equity/pep-fund-performance]

(And)[https://www.calstrs.com/sites/main/files/file-attachments/pe_portfolio_performance_as_of_march_31_2018.pdf]

>Let me know how you get on with what they teach about Art at the LSE...

Since you are so in love with that profession, why not read his books? Where he talks about art as an investment can be.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Deal-Contemporary-Global-Financial/dp/0691148325

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Are-Customers-Yachts-Investment/dp/0471770892/

It has definitions for investing and speculation .