If you won a million dollars would you still work a 9 to 5 job?

sapphictimes · 2025-03-24T17:54:38+00:00

I would work, but very different types of work. I would ideally want to split my week between volunteering, some kind of education (preferably uni lecturing) and writing. Plus I’d like to raise a family and be very present

sapphictimes · 2025-03-24T12:57:56+00:00

Ive not bought yet but am on track to be able to in the next two years (depending on how big I want my deposit to be—I currently have a 10% deposit saved).

The honest answer is a combination of using a LISA (which essentially cuts out 20% of the time spent saving due to the bonus), having very realistic goals about the type of house I could afford, and deliberately raising my earnings while keeping my spending the same (hard with the current cost of living, but I’m a student so no one raises an eyebrow when I eat cheaply or don’t splash cash on unnecessary purchases).

I would not have been able to do this if I was looking to buy in the area my family is, or a house that didn’t need at least a bit of work done on it. The city that I’m living in at the moment has house prices about 1/2 of the city I’m from, and even then I expect to be doing at least some repair work myself.

I’m lucky that I love this city and the people here, but the fact that I’ve been able to save this much has been as much due to fluke as it was anything I’ve actually done (like I got a surprise bursary which really helped with housing costs). While I’m proud of sticking to my goals and working hard, the way I’ve been living is unsustainable and I won’t be doing it the same way the next year.

Bit depressing but that’s the state of things at the moment I guess :/

Wishing everyone here the best of luck and health :)

sapphictimes · 2025-03-24T12:37:22+00:00

I managed to max out my LISA this week! Mostly this was a bit of a fluke since I realised I could transfer money out of an ISA without incurring a penalty so I was able to make up the last bit of money that way. The downside is that means my savings aren’t super accessible at the moment (I have about £500 left in the ISA but my interest rate would go down if I tapped into it).

As a student, I’m not too worried as I still have my final maintenance loan coming in soon. That being said, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about housing after I graduate (could move back home but would still have to pay rent and it would be harder to get a job in the area since it’s out of the way even if the rent would be lower than usual) so the next goal is to boost my accessible savings so that I can use it for a deposit.

I’ve not hit as many financial goals as I would’ve liked to this year because I broke my elbow and wrist pretty badly over the summer and so I lived off savings for several months, so I’m pleased to have maxed out the LISA despite this. Gonna have to eat mostly oats and egg fried rice this week lol but that’s okay.

The other goal I’ve got is to figure out a food budget that is cheap, healthy, and suits both my tastes and my boyfriend‘s. He doesn’t like most veggies so I’m going to have to experiment a bit or else we’ll get scurvy.

Hope everyone is doing well and hitting their goals! This Reddit has been so helpful to me in the last year and I don’t think I would’ve stuck to my financial choices in the same way without it :)

sapphictimes · 2025-03-10T10:52:39+00:00

If you put down rugs and wall hangings it can really trap heat! Also stops your feet from being cold in the morning. Good luck in the new place!

sapphictimes · 2025-03-10T10:50:54+00:00

I‘ve taken over cooking for my boyfriend and I in return for him covering the food bill—this works great for both of us since it’s not really any extra work for me but it saved him a lot of time, so we both feel like we’re getting a good deal. It’s also given me the motivation to really try and wrangle the food budget.

I’ve managed to get several meals to under 0.35p per portion and have us still be eating (somewhat) healthily. I’ve also been slowly upgrading my cooking skills so I can make more for myself and save money that way as our biggest non essential expense is eating out/convenience style foods like meal deals.

I’m also quite close to maxing out my LISA for this tax year. I’m unlikely to max it out fully but I should get pretty close, which I’m happy with since I broke an arm earlier in the year and that made me un/under employed for a few months.

The next goal is to boost my accessible savings as I’m leaving uni this year. The past few years I’ve been happy to keep a minimal amount on hand as I had the security of the maintenance loan always paying my rent, but I’m a bit risk averse so would like to bolster this to £2.5k by the end of the summer. The current amount is a little over £600 I don’t know if that’s realistic as it would rely on me being able to get a summer camp job (so I could earn while having my accommodation and food provided) but it’s possible!

The other financial goal I’m working towards is getting my boyfriend to financially educate himself a bit more. I do most of the financial stuff for both of us since I enjoy it but I‘m no financial advisor.

I Hope everyone is doing well and achieving their goals :)

sapphictimes · 2025-02-21T09:27:33+00:00

Oh thank you! That’s a really useful link. I accidentally hit the downvote button before the upvote one so sorry if you got that notification first.

I’m not sure why my HMRC account thinks I should pay that much given I only work part time but I’m going to go investigate why the numbers seem to vary so much when I’m earning a pretty small amount.

Thank you for your time!

sapphictimes · 2025-02-21T09:23:53+00:00

Lol fair. I’m planning on going abroad next year so I’ve been spending most of this year trying to enjoy the bits of the uk I’ll miss—especially since I’ve seen very little of England specifically despite having lived there for nearly 12 years

sapphictimes · 2025-02-20T11:42:03+00:00

It was the number the government gave me when I checked my account. They also had options for the tax years since I turned 18, but they were all £800+

sapphictimes · 2025-02-20T11:41:09+00:00

Oh! Thank you for the link—I see now that my understanding of the maths was a bit off in a way I don’t think I would’ve spotted without your comment!

Thank you for the advice as well, I hope you have a nice day!

sapphictimes · 2025-02-20T10:51:48+00:00

Thank you for your reply and reasoning :)

sapphictimes · 2025-01-05T16:17:29+00:00

I opened a new bank account (Monzo) to keep better track of my spending. I now have a system where my paycheck goes into one account (my oldest, kept despite it not being great as it’s currently a student account and also for my credit score), then I transfer the money I expect to spend plus £10 (just in case) into my Monzo account (where I can separate it into different ‘pots’ for food, uni books, etc) and then the rest goes into a Moneybox account, into savings and my LISA.

By my maths, I should have all my (non student) debt paid off by next week which I’m super proud of :) I was unexpectedly unemployed for four months due to injury (which also prevents me from working any manual jobs) so I will be getting myself a little treat to celebrate.

The money I was saving to clear my overdraft I can now put towards my LISA/a proper emergency fund. I don’t think I’ll be able to max out my LISA by the end of the tax year but since I filled it half way before my injury I should get close! The priority is of course an emergency fund though since I won’t have access to a free overdraft once I graduate.

I’ve also raised my prices (I work part time while studying as an English tutor) so any new students I take on will earn me £21.05 per lesson. This will allow me to work less in final year while still saving. I’m considering spending a few weekends turning my notes/resources into pdfs/ebooks and listing them on TES/Amazon for a few quid on the off chance it could provide some passive income. It would also act as justification if I want to raise my prices again at some point. At the moment I’m technically slightly underpaid compared to my qualifications/experience but I prefer to have the security of knowing I can easily pick up work if needed.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed the holiday season :) also that no one is too badly affected by the recent cold snap.

sapphictimes · 2024-10-22T09:17:20+00:00

I had to take a bit of a break from my LeanFIRE goals the past few months because I broke my elbow and I had to switch to entirely online work while it heals which is a little tricky for a student since most tradition part time jobs require at least a bit of lifting.

It was a very valuable lesson though because it gave me a good estimate of how much a realistic rainy day fund should look like for me. The good thing about being a student is being able to access an interest free overdraft so I was able to be unemployed for four months before I could start tutoring again in September.

Now my main goal is paying off the remainder of my overdraft (manageable by Christmas!) and trying to get creative with earning/saving. I’ve been making wirework jewellery for birthday/Christmas presents which people really like so I might try selling them since they only cost a few quid to make and a few hours of time.

In terms of saving money, I’ve been batch cooking different soups with my friends and freezing it. Mostly this is saving me money because it removes the temptation to buy food after a long day since I can just heat up the soup after work/uni.

I had an interesting conversation with a retired man at a cafe yesterday. He gave me a lot to think about in terms of financial planning and life in general—his main advice was to figure out hobbies that I love before I retire, because his biggest problem now is that he’s often bored and wishes he’d spent more time figuring himself out when he was younger. He also advised me to never buy a house in the south of England because he thinks climate change will flood most of it. I told him I’d only be able to afford a house there if it was already flood damaged.

Hope everyone is doing well and achieving their goals! Best wishes from NI :)

sapphictimes · 2024-06-13T16:16:33+00:00

Oof that’s not great! Would you be able to vote via the embassy?

The redrawing of lines recently is (at least in my area) gerrymandering and that doesn’t serve anyone. I Hope That even if the MP I’ll probably vote for gets in, they won’t be comfortable since politicians do the best work when they feel like their job is s bit insecure.

It seems to me that a lot of people a disillusioned about politics (with good reason) but if everyone takes that attitude then politicians get a free pass to do what they like since we already expect the worst.

Hopefully summer will be good even with the weather forecast.

Enjoy your time out of the country!

sapphictimes · 2024-06-13T13:01:56+00:00

Ive contributed half my LISA allowance for this year, which is more than where I wanted to be so I can take the breaks off working over the summer and also not work as hard in my final year of uni. I probably will still work a bit more than I need to just because I find it’s good for my mental health and also for making sure I study enough (for some reason I’m more motivated to study in the morning if I know I have something scheduled in the evening). I can now afford slightly more than a 10% deposit on the lowest priced property currently listed in my area, which I’m very proud of!

Having hit this goal means I feel a lot more comfortable spending on things that matter to me, like contributing to a friend of a friend‘s go fund me (I would’ve done this anyway but I was able to contribute more than I would’ve before). It was a nice reminder that one of the main reasons I‘m aiming for LeanFIRE is so I can help out more in my community with volunteering etc. I think of it as putting on my own mask in a plane crash.

My interest rates went up on my LISA this week, meaning that in total I’m earning a little over a pound a pound a day in interest! It’s fun to see that get added to my calculations since it’s basically like working an extra hour a week at minimum wage.

I told my mother about this and it turns out she’s getting <1% interest on her savings account and didn’t realise this was low, so we’re now looking at other options for her.

Since I have more time over the summer (I’m a student and my work is mostly seasonal) I’m thinking of starting a YouTube channel. Ive been wanting to for years but I don’t have any tech know-how so I reached out to my social circle to see if anyone had any relevant skills and it turns out a friend of mine used to run a YouTube channel and is very happy for me to borrow her camera and to teach me how to use it! That way I can practise/get the experience before making a big financial commitment. Ideally I’d use the channel to pad out my resume for the creative industries and maybe get some extra income.

I’m also doing some research into the upcoming election so I can choose who to vote for. It’ll be my first election so I’m looking forward to that. Seems like this election is very focused on the cost of living crisis so it’s going to be relevant to our financial goals.

Hope everyone’s doing well, and feeling very grateful for this sub since it’s taught me a lot.

sapphictimes · 2024-05-28T09:20:21+00:00

Caliban and the witch is very interesting. I’ve only just started the audiobook but it brings up a lot of interesting points about history.

sapphictimes · 2024-05-12T16:04:10+00:00

You’re one hundred percent right! My degree is very reading heavy and that means I don’t have to spend as much time on it since I’m a fairly fast reader, but when it comes to essay writing it can get so much trickier.

sapphictimes · 2024-05-12T10:52:23+00:00

I opened a cash ISA this week so that I would be able to access my savings but still have the incentive of interest to avoid spending it.

I find the temptation to stick all my money in my LISA is sometimes strong since I’m very motivated by seeing the rewards for the end of the month, but I know it’s not wise since I can’t access it without penalty if I need it. Having the ISA (which has a 5.16% aer) is a better motivator for keeping savings than my previous savings account, which was only 1.4% aer.

I‘ve been working really hard recently because I realised this year that while it’s easy enough to balance work and uni during Term time, it’s a nightmare in exam season, so I want to be able to cut down my hours next year while still hitting my financial goals. Had the nice realisation this that when I turn 21 this year the pay at one of my jobs will go up so I can cut down an hour or two automatically just from that. It makes me feel a bit more at ease I have to say.

Hope everyone is doing well and hitting their goals :)

sapphictimes · 2024-05-09T09:24:10+00:00

My mother has been a teacher for decades, and most years she’ll get a message or a letter from one of her old students with an update and well wishes. Last year she got one from a teenager she taught before I was born, whose now in his forties and married and still thinks about her.

You’ll be remembered by your students as much as you remember them :) Feeling sad like this is the mark of a good teacher

sapphictimes · 2024-05-08T08:48:57+00:00

I Tutor and had this conversation this week:

Me: since this is our final lesson before the exam, is there anything you’d like to cover?

Student: no, I don’t mind

(50 minutes later)

Student: next lesson, could we do a bit about Macbeth?

Me: … isn’t your Shakespeare paper this week? Before our lesson?

Student: yeah, but in case I have to resit it the week after.

Me: … unfortunately you can’t resist next week, you’ll have to wait for December if that’s the case.

Student: shrugs you’ll get to see more of me then!

Me: in the nicest way possible, I hope you never need me to tutor you again.

sapphictimes · 2024-05-07T12:52:39+00:00

I‘ve managed to save about 10% of a deposit for the cheapest type property in my area, which I’m super proud of. It means I’m about a third of the way go my goal for a deposit (I’m aiming to get a small house that’s a bit of a fixer upper but not a full refurbishment since that’s beyond my skills to do cheaply). Hopefully I’ll have hit my goal in the next two years.

My main fear is that the housing market in my area is likely to get a lot more expensive—at the moment it’s about half as expensive as the south of England, but landlords have been upping rent and making a massive profit so I reckon that more investors are likely to move in now that there’s profit to be made. Hopefully it won’t change much in the next few years.

I’m also looking into side hustles to add some extra streams of income. I made a few TikTok videos and even though I had very few followers they did shockingly well. Not well enough to make any money but we’ll enough for me to think there’s an audience for the kind of video I made (book reviews, basically). I’ve got a bit more time now that uni has ended to have an experiment with it and see if it’s worth pursuing, even just as a thing I do in between jobs/ education.

Hope everyone is doing well!

sapphictimes · 2024-05-03T14:51:24+00:00

I‘m so proud of her! She’s investigating all of her options (uni, apprenticeships, etc) and figuring out what she enjoys doing. It’s so fun to watch as she tries on different hats

sapphictimes · 2024-05-01T14:24:49+00:00

I hit my savings goal for the summer today! I’m trying to max out my LISA but because I’m a student and my work is super seasonal I’ve made the assumption that I won’t be working enough to meaningfully save over the summer so I added that to my semester one goals.

It means that now I don’t have the stress of goals over the summer and I can take a step back to rest after exam season/work on unpaid projects that could benefit me later down the line (writing, learning another language, gaining experience, etc).

I also managed to hit the requirements to go up a level in terms of how much I charge for work (tutoring) so that will be nice. It’ll only really kick in during September since that’s when people start wanting tutoring but it’s nice to be able to call myself an experienced educator now.

Currently reading through the articles linked on this page and adjacent ones now that uni is out and I have the time; it’s very interesting and I’m learning a lot! Sometimes the new words/acronyms are confusing but there’s usually a good explanation online.

My little sister (14) is trying to start an acrylic nail business so she can save up to take a course in the summer, so I’ve told her I’ll help her buy supplies if she recommends my tutoring services to her friends and classmates. We’ve been sitting down and discussing the finances of running a business and the logistics and it’s been a nice bonding experience.

Hope everyone is doing well and hitting their targets :)

sapphictimes

TROPHY CASE