$300,00 in the bank

[bodnobal]

OK, not so much when you put it in to pounds and pence, but do you think that is a safety net type of figure, do what you liek type of figure, or do you figure you got to earn another 300K.

I got some tulipty Oracle Forms stuff to do in about 8 hours for $350 a day, I'm not sure I care any more.

[milanbenes]

oh dear,

no, you need about a million GBP or more,

keep going

Milan.

[EternalOptimist]

funny enough

£300k is my personal target. I reckon I can retire on that

[Bovvered]

Obviously the earlier you retire the more money you need. I saw a program that reckoned yo could retire at around 35 with 450K.

[EternalOptimist]

disagree bovvered

I reckon I could live off the interest with the odd job thrown in to keep the boredom at bay and to pay for any big ticket items.

[eternalnomad]

disagree bovvered

I reckon I could live off the interest with the odd job thrown in to keep the boredom at bay and to pay for any big ticket items.

How old are you EternalOptimist (if you dont mind me asking) - I am 36 and dont think I could live of the interest of £450K even though I am mortgage free.

Interest rates even on these big sums are pretty crap these days and after inflation and savings tax there is very little hard cash left to live off.

[Bovvered]

I guess a lot of it's down to lifestyle choices as well.

[sunnysan]

Loads of wonga

Well I would love to have $300 k dollars,

HTF does anybidy live in London and able to save that amount by the time they are mid 30's

Granted I arrived here when I was 26 with £200, I am early 30's now but not near that amount of cash.

Do poeple who have saved that much, have you made many lifestyle sacrifices or has it just been owing to good rates?

[eternalnomad]

Well I would love to have $300 k dollars,

HTF does anybidy live in London and able to save that amount by the time they are mid 30's

Granted I arrived here when I was 26 with £200, I am early 30's now but not near that amount of cash.

Do poeple who have saved that much, have you made many lifestyle sacrifices or has it just been owing to good rates?

In my case its a 'bit of both'

I have been on very good rates for many years and never had any 'resting' periods (on the contrary during my early contracting years I worked on Xmas days etc. for go-lives).

In terms of lifestyle we have always lived a lifestyle akin to somebody earning £30-40K per annum which means the savings have built up quite nicely over the years.

Now I have built up a sizeable sum there is some frustration in knowing how to make it 'work for me'. Property is a market that is about to crash BIG TIME, I dont trust any financial advisor, the stock market looks a bit on the high side already, gold is at an all time high and the banks pay crap rates on savings.

[sunnysan]

Investments

You may want to look at South African governement bonds or stock exchange or even savings accoutn in a bank there.

If you do the math, if you had bought ZAR in 2001 say 100K and about 20 to 1, you would have just about doubled your money in £ terms(FX is now about 11 to 1) ans well as earning approximately double the amount of interest in a fixed savings account there.

I am no economist but it appears that the strength of the dollar dictates the relative strength of the Rand, so short and medium term I would imagine that the exchange rate will hover at about 10.5 11 to £1 if not imporve further.

Somthing to look at, DYOR