My Tastes are Changing

I am a huge fan of Meg's blog The World of Wealth. Every so often, when I am feeling unmotivated about finances, I will trawl through her archives, reading old posts that both teach and inspire me. This week was one of those unmotivated weeks. I just read her post 'Clothes: Loads of Cheap Stuff vs Few Quality Pieces.'

It got me thinking about my own tastes. I graduated from university in December, something that finally made me feel like an adult. I think when you're at uni, even if you are 21 or 22, you're still a bit of a teenager at heart. Often you're living away from home, you're living amongst your peers and friends and a lot of the time, you're not studying, you're just having fun. As a result, you tend to dress like a regular young person does. Jeans and a t-shirt is often the 'uniform'. You were short, revealing clothing when you head for a night out, partly because that's what everyone else is doing.

However, I recently started my first full time job. I wear a uniform to work, so I didn't have to worry about dressing appropriately for an office environment. However, I am now beginning to feel like a fully-fledged adult and I find my taste is developing along with that. I am no longer satisfied with having a lot of cheap clothes. Instead, I now have an eye for high quality, conservative yet attractive clothing. And this tends to cost a bit more.

I have worked into my budget a clothing allowance of sorts. I need to start to build my wardrobe so that I no longer dress like a teenager. I also am required to socialise with colleagues on a regular basis, so I need to ensure I have smart casual attire that is appropriate to wear around my boss. So by allocating this money into a clothes account each time I get paid, I can save up for good quality clothing. I may not be able to buy as much or as often, but I think after some smart shopping, I will develop a good, solid wardrobe that will only need slight updating every so often.

Thanks again for the inspiration Meg!

I finally have an EF!

Though I understand how important an Emergency Fund (EF) is, I have never actually had one. So yesterday, I transferred $1500 into a separate ING account and named it "Emergency Fund".

Though this has basically depleted my savings, at least I now have a back up if something happens. I will contribute a small amount (between $20-$50) each fortnight and let it slowly build up. All the while, I will continue saving to pay off my car. Eventually, I would like my EF to at or around $10 000, but for now, I will build it up slowly while I pay off my car.

The plan was to pay off my car and then save up for a home deposit. I am wondering now, however, should I wait until my EF is fully funded at the desired $10 000 before buying? This seems like a good idea, as it will give me a back up if something were to go wrong. Gosh, I am never going to be able to afford a house!

Any thoughts?

I'm Back

I am back from my business trip and I am absolutely exhausted! The good news is, I made money off of this trip! Who would have thought.

I am off to bed but will update tomorrow! Is anyone even out there??

Off on Business!

I'm off on business tomorrow. Just a short, three hour drive from where I live to the city that I lived in last year. I will drive down with my boss and check into the hotel where I believe a very nice room will be waiting for me. Then a friend of mine is going to come and pick me up and then he is cooking me dinner. Very nice.

Friday I have an all day meeting and then I drive home.

Technically, this trip isn't costing me anything as it is all paid for by my work. However, this is my first big meeting since starting my new job so I went out and bought a new handbag. It doubles as a laptop bag/briefcase as well, so it looks very professional and is very handy. It cost me eighty dollars but worth every penny. Not only can I used it for work, but now, when I fly somewhere, I can just take this one bag, rather than take a handbag and my laptop bag.

I'll post once I return! Hoping someone out there is reading this...

Housing Dilemma

As I mentioned in my last post, I have recently started my first full-time job. This means my income has gone up around $20 000 per year. So I now have a lot more money.

I went to a mortgage advisor in the middle of January, to establish what I could and could not afford in regards to buying a house. They basically told me that if I saved the 5% deposit (which would take me approximately another six months), I would be able to purchase a place worth around $285 000. This would involve saving $850 a fortnight and then, once I'd purchased the house, paying $850 on my mortgage per fortnight.

This was doable. Just.

Basically, if I budgeted right down to the last dollar (whilst living very, very frugally), I would have been able to afford this. However, it would have meant that if anything happened, any type of emergency, even just an increase in interest rates, I would be stuck. I did not want to put myself in such a situation.

I decided that I would instead focus on paying off my car, as once that was done, I would have an extra $170 a fortnight, and this could be my wriggle room. So that is the focus at the moment. I am putting around $500 away into a high interest account and when that reaches the set amount, I will pay my car off.

Am I doing the right thing? I know that it is good to get into the property market and it is good to get in early, but I just don't think it's a good idea to be that tightly constrained, especially at my age. I obviously want to live my life a little as well.

What frustrates me, however, is that I earn a pretty good salary. It is in fact, better than almost anyone else my age that I know, significantly better. And yet I still can't afford a house? Has anyone else experienced this? Or am I missing something? Is it more affordable than I think it is?

I'm Finally Back!

After spending a month at my new job, I think I'm finally settled in and am ready to get back into blogging!

I haven't had a good month with money, but I have been adjusting to my new life and have had to purchase a fair few things to set myself up properly. I also had to pay $1200 to get my car fixed. Glad I did though, it looks great!

So I'm back! More to follow in the next couple of days!