{"id":478308,"date":"2026-06-02T00:36:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T00:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:36:42","slug":"how-i-manage-my-money-seo-exec-25-on-1850-a-month-with-a-70000-student-loan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478308\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Manage My Money: SEO exec, 25, on \u00a31,850 a month, with a \u00a370,000 student loan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our How I Manage My Money<\/a> series, we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

This week, we speak to Matthew Walker-Mills, 25, who lives in Nantwich and works as a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) executive. Matthew adheres to a strict budget and is careful about how he spends money. He faces paying off nearly \u00a370,000 in student debt. Matthew believes he would need at least \u00a3300,000 in pensions for a comfortable retirement. <\/p>\n

Monthly Budget<\/p>\n

My monthly income: I take home \u00a31,850 per month from my full-time job as an SEO executive. I work for an e-commerce sports equipment retailer. My annual gross pay is about \u00a327,500 a year. <\/p>\n

My monthly outgoings: Rent, \u00a3700; council tax, \u00a3135; groceries, \u00a3140; gas and electric, \u00a370 to \u00a3120; broadband via mobile hub hotspot, \u00a320; car fuel, \u00a3150; Now TV, \u00a32.99 a month deal for one year; sim-only mobile contract, \u00a324; money into stocks and shares ISA, \u00a3250; money into regular cash savings account, \u00a3250; money into workplace pension, \u00a391; padel, \u00a313 a session. I pay for water on a quarterly basis, at about \u00a3150 per quarter. My car insurance is \u00a3438 for the year. I\u2019m not a member of a gym and prefer walking outside. I do a lot of my own cooking and try to avoid takeaways. <\/p>\n

I grew up in Stoke-on-Trent with my family. My dad worked as a sales adviser at an engineering firm, while my mum worked as a teaching assistant at my school after taking time off to bring us up. I studied football business and marketing at the University Campus of Football Business from 2020.<\/p>\n

It was challenging as this is when Covid-19 struck<\/a>, and most of my first year was completed remotely. It was a bit of a nightmare as I\u2019d booked student accommodation, but spent most of the first year at home.<\/p>\n

My total student loan debt package is now \u00a369,415.92, with interest accruing to the tune of more than \u00a32,000. When I took out my student loans, I didn\u2019t realise interest accrued.<\/p>\n

I understand that rules about interest on some student loans<\/a> will now be changing. I will have to start paying my student loans back once I earn a bit more money. Once the repayment kicks in, I will need to readjust my monthly budget accordingly. At this point, I just can\u2019t see how I will ever pay it all back.<\/p>\n

I work full-time as an SEO executive at an online sports equipment retailer. My gross annual salary<\/a> is \u00a327,500.<\/p>\n

It is quite daunting paying for everything myself, but I started out doing it while earning less than I\u2019m earning now. When I first started renting, I didn\u2019t have an organised budget. Now I am a lot better at budgeting, so as soon as my wage comes in, I know exactly how much is going into my savings and on rent or bills.<\/p>\n

I only spend \u00a3140 a month on groceries as I bulk-make meals and freeze them. I use Aldi and Lidl for groceries. I\u2019ve had my mobile phone for the last five years and would never buy a new one every five minutes. My car is a 2012 Hyundai i10, which was kindly given to me, and I have no plans to get a new car. I don\u2019t pay to go to the gym as it\u2019s expensive and doesn\u2019t interest me.<\/p>\n

Each month, I add \u00a3250 to a stocks and shares ISA with Trading212. I also add \u00a3250 to a regular cash savings account with Lloyds Bank, which has an interest rate of 5 per cent and has \u00a3500 in it. I have \u00a33,500 in my stocks and shares ISA, though this has been volatile in recent months as a result of the war in Iran. My instant access cash ISA has about \u00a35,000 in it, in case needed for an emergency like my car breaking down.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently moved from a one-bedroom flat in Wrexham, which cost \u00a3585 a month to rent. I\u2019m now living in a one-bedroom flat in Nantwich, which costs \u00a3700 a month to rent. It doesn\u2019t have any outdoor space.<\/p>\n

I would like to own my own home by the time I am 30, but there is no guarantee this will happen. Ideally, I\u2019d like a nice three-bedroom house somewhere near where I am now. I\u2019d only want to buy when I know I\u2019m settled in an area and where I\u2019m working. I also think I would need to earn at least \u00a335,000 to \u00a340,000 to be able to get a decent deposit together and buy a home.<\/p>\n

I add \u00a391 a month to a workplace pension, with 3 per cent added by my employer, and it\u2019s a big priority for me. Not having a pension would be a risk, as not many people can live on the state pension alone any more.<\/p>\n

In the future, I may set up another stocks and shares ISA as a form of pension to rely on in later life. When prices for everything are constantly rising, it\u2019s important to have a backup. I\u2019d like to retire in my 60s. My current pension projection is \u00a3160,000 and I don\u2019t think that would be anywhere near enough, so I need to save a lot more. I\u2019d need at least \u00a3300,000 to \u00a3400,000 in pensions for a comfortable retirement.<\/p>\n

I am very motivated by money. My large student debt gives me the motivation to earn more, as I want to get it paid off. I started my career on \u00a322,000 a year and am keen to earn \u00a340,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Want to take part in How I Manage My Money? Email money@theipaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people in the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,28012,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-478308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-how-i-manage-my-money","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}