{"id":310777,"date":"2025-11-24T12:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310777\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:19:10","slug":"student-on-1-7k-a-month-wants-to-build-70k-in-savings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310777\/","title":{"rendered":"Student, on \u00a31.7k a month, wants to build \u00a370k in savings"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our How I Manage My Money series<\/a> 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 Richard \u0160amko, 20, who lives in Derby with his mum while studying at university. Richard is ambitious and wants to buy a home within four years. He\u2019d like a salary of at least \u00a3100,000 a year and \u00a370,000 in savings by the time he is 50. Richard has opted out of his work pension,<\/a> but plans to start paying into one soon. <\/p>\n

Monthly budget<\/p>\n

My monthly income: I take home about \u00a31,150 a month from my part-time job as a duty manager at a hotel. I also make around \u00a3650 per month via MyPocketSkill by taking on freelance social media manager jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I receive a student maintenance loan and tuition fee loan. These equate to \u00a39,000 and \u00a39,500 a year respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My monthly outgoings: My mum pays for rent and groceries, while I pay for everything else. Gas and electric, \u00a3125; water, \u00a35 \u2013 this is discounted due to the benefits my mum receives; broadband, \u00a326.50; mobile, \u00a310; paying off the mobile I purchased my mum last year, \u00a331; ChatGPT subscription, \u00a320; car repayment for my Seat Ibiza, \u00a3157; gym, \u00a313.50 \u2013 my employer pays the other half; eating out, \u00a350. I add money made via MyPocketSkill to a savings account. I spend \u00a3100 on clothes every other month and around \u00a3100 on day trips on an ad hoc basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I grew up in Slovakia and moved to the UK when I was 17. I grew up poor, but my mum always ensured we never got into debt. I\u2019m studying marketing, PR and advertising at the University of Derby and will graduate in 2029. <\/p>\n

I live at home with my mum while studying. Student accommodation would be expensive and it would be a headache to move. My mum has cerebral palsy and is unable to work. I am her unofficial carer and she receives universal credit and personal independence payment. I think younger people in full-time education who are carers should receive financial support from the government.<\/p>\n

I am always busy and do a number of different part-time jobs while studying to make extra money. About three or four days a week I work as a duty manager in a hotel, which gives me an income of about \u00a31,150 a month. I\u2019d started off as a breakfast boy at the hotel. I used to work in the hotel five or six days a week, but have cut this down. <\/p>\n

On top of my hotel job, I do freelance social media management and digital development jobs via the MyPocketSkill app. The money I get from this extra work is variable, but typically comes in at about \u00a3650 a month. I always add money from my jobs to savings accounts when I can.<\/p>\n

As I am always so busy, I don\u2019t think my responsibilities align with my age. I\u2019m certainly not a trust fund baby, but am grateful to be leading the life I am, even though I\u2019m on the go all the time and am a workaholic. <\/p>\n

I have always been careful with money and do not go out drinking and partying, as these just aren\u2019t things I enjoy. Not doing these things helps me save hundreds of pounds a month. My mum and I both love cooking and try to avoid takeaways as they are expensive. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m keen to buy my own home as soon as I can, and ideally within the next four years. I\u2019m confident I will be able to save enough for a deposit.<\/a> I\u2019d like to buy a three-bedroom semi-detached house in a rural location in an area surrounding Derby, though I know this could be expensive. I would also like to own a buy-to-let investment property when I am older. <\/p>\n

The reason I want my own home soon is because house prices<\/a> are constantly going up and I want to get my mortgage paid off as soon as possible and while I am still young. I\u2019m very picky about properties though, so finding the right one could be a challenge!<\/p>\n

I opted out of my workplace pension for my hotel job. I did this initially as I needed all the extra money from the job and didn\u2019t want to set sums aside in a pension. However, I\u2019m still comfortable not adding money to a pension now. I have about 49 years until I retire, so I am not too worried about it just yet. I plan to start paying into a work pension when I am 22 or 23. <\/p>\n

I have a current account and a savings account with Lloyds. The latter has about \u00a3500 in it. I also have a Monzo savings account, which has \u00a31,800 in it. All my money made via MyPocketSkill usually goes into savings. <\/p>\n

When I am older, I want to be sufficiently financially secure enough to have children. I will not be having children until I am financially secure, as I would never want to be in a position whereby I couldn\u2019t afford to feed them. I would like to be earning a salary of \u00a3100,000 a year. I know it is a big number, but if I continue to work hard I know I will achieve it. By the age of 50 I would like \u00a370,000 in savings.<\/p>\n

In the future, I would like to work for myself and run my own business. I\u2019d run an agency for small business owners, dealing with everything from marketing to payroll. As I get older, I would also love to travel more, and hope to visit places like Japan, South Korea, China and all over Europe. <\/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":310778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,160614,147,530,3415,6671],"class_list":{"0":"post-310777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-how-i-manage-my-money","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-savings","13":"tag-university"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}