Future savings

Looking into the future I'm already thinking about Christmas and it is still August (just)!!

In the Spring I went to one wedding at a luxury resort and this summer I have been to 3 weddings in Scotland. I was talking to the bride and groom each time about the sacrifices they have made in order for them to organise and most importantly afford their big day. This rang true in my mind because their weddings have collectively become my summer holiday. I couldn't afford to travel to all their weddings, stag parties, buy presents, etc. and also afford for me to have a summer holiday.

So now I am looking to the future. I have been really busy each weekend over the summer with birthday parties, stag parties, and weddings. Apologies to anybody who has wanted to see me but I have inconvenienced you by already being booked solid for 3 months! Looking at my diary I have some big things coming up and I am starting to not just book out my time for them all but to also see the costs mounting up like a tsunami wave gathering pace mid-ocean of the future but heading for the beach that I am standing on in the present. Am I the only one feeling like this?

In the immediate future there is my birthday and leaving party. This will be an expensive outing starting immediately after work, including dinner, entry to a club and drinks while I'm there. Then in the near future I'll be moving to a new job. I'm considering the effect this will have on my life, how much it could cost for me to adjust to a totally new lifestyle commuting to London for two hours each morning and back again for two hours in the evening. Not to mention the cost of the commute itself too.

So this brings me to the next big things coming up into the Short term future. Family birthdays and Christmas. Individually they do not look like a lot but I am trying to budget for it to fit into my new salary along side the commuting and paying off my birthday shebang!

Adding up all of these small things also makes me consider that for the bigger things I will have to save for. Like in the Medium term, say three to five years, I will likely want to move house (deposit and solicitors fees), holiday to Australia (to see friends and relatives), wedding (Yeah I'm single right now but who knows in 5 years!!) and the honeymoon to go with it.

After all of these things I am also looking at where my career will go in the Long term, about seven years to ten years. I'm hoping it'll be good despite the likelihood of a double-dip recession. So I am hoping to be able to buy a brand new car. Mainly because I would like the registration plate SM17 HAM (Smitham - geddit!).

Bearing my new job in mind, where my career may go, my aspirations, hopes of a family life and paying tuition fees, etc. I am trying to see how this can fit into my salary. Where does the money come from for all of this?

Here is the point of this ramble, if you have followed me so far, dear Reader, then here is your reward...
Scale this problem up. Suppose I am not alone. Suppose that I am one example of say, ooo... about the entire UK population. Their money has got to come from somewhere... THE GOVERNMENT'S MONEY HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE!?!
So when I read today that Ed Balls (Labour leadership candidate) is proposing spending £12bn of money that technically doesn't exist!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/31/ed-balls-affordable-homes

It is a difference in borrowing. The UK borrowed less than it thought it would. That's like me not maxing out my overdraft and then spending my overdraft to the max.

Someone tell me if I am alone in this. Am I going crazy? How does the government do it and can the same mechanisms work for me too so I can buy Christmas presents, move home, pay for my honeymoon, pay tuition fees, and buy a brand new car.

Just a quick courtesy call

On Wednesday I went to an All You Can Eat Curry night at a local restaurant in Albert Road Southsea. I wasn't massively hungry so only had a starter, salad, and Chicken Tikka Massala (CTM) Britain's most popular food. There was a lot of tasty looking food that I had paid to try but just didn't want. My mobile provider called me the following day to see how I was enjoying my contract. Later that day in the office we were discussing the texts that we pay for but just don't use. It occurs to me that the mobile companies have managed to get us used to an All You Can Eat business model where we are not actually that hungry. So here I am on a train bound for London thinking of all the different business models I pay into but don't actually make the most of. My electricity supplier, for example, gets me to pay a large sum every month irrespective of my usage but an assumption that I will use more in the Winter without any clear understanding or estimate of how much I will actually use. Your thoughts?