Excluding company’s / your own contribution to the pension pot, how much is your monthly contribution to the stock market?
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Should we count pension contributions as well?
This will be an interesting poll to see results. The key things I see affecting investment amounts would be:
One thing not able to monitor is the variable of house ownership as in UK often arguably better to get on the housing ladder than investing for long term financial health so some in 30s-40s will plough fair amount into housing costs.
the most interesting poll result will likely be the under 25s as usually most people haven’t started investing yet by that age, so we can see what sort of allocation those who has use.
Yep at that age I knew nothing about investing and spent it all on pointless things 
equally many that age should have high savings rate but not all invested as if saving for house deposit etc.
at 24 I paid £7k to purchase my house (down payment+fee) with a 10%-down 25yr mortgage. had I not then I would have very likely started investing with the money to see it grow to a much greater balance, but then I would have missed the opportunity to live in my own home and get on the ladder young, which is an opportunity cost in itself.
Wow, imagine a 7k deposit nowadays
But I personally think, and many will disagree, that your own home is a better investment than any stocks etc when it comes to the UK, or England particularly. Everyone I know who has bought a house recently was paying more in rent or a at least a similar amount. So when you factor in your mortgage payments minus interest is equity compared to lost rent and that for example house prices went up 6% give or take last year (on a 10% deposit thats 60% return on your deposit).
Many will say it doesn’t pay you therefore not an asset, its a liability but I would say well good luck having to outperform the rental outlay+house price appreciation every year for rest of life.
hey now, I’m only 27 
I won a house at auction for around £62k hence the low cost, but it was 1 day away from losing my deposit entirely because auctions have a restriction to completing the contract that you don’t worry about with normal house purchases (that meant getting an approval for a mortgage in less than 2 months total)
£252 monthly mortgage payment still beats £500 monthly rent, especially as around £126 goes into equity for the house. Had I known the future though I would have just invested all of that into Tesla and waited 2 years to buy a house with my new balance 
Oh wow, I assumed the low deposit it was because you bought in the 1990s lol my bad your a spring chicken and nice work on having a house at that age. In the south where I am houses are crazy prices.
At auctions, can you visit the house before the auction? Or do you just bid based on location and photos?
yes you can. and you can also get a loan before the mortgage to bridge the gap, of course that costs money
That’s fantastic. I had never thought of going down this route. I’m 32 and basically banking on finding a partner to go halves on a mortgage with.
Some places deemed too dangerous to let people in are picture only which is usually just what you see from the street, so blind bidding. But in general you have multiple opportunities over a month or more to view the place in person.
They are usually property that can’t sell the normal route due to being very out of date or rundown, not your usual completed buy, though some do come in fully refurbished condition. The discount is because you will Need to renovate a bit yourself.
Out of interest how did you find your auction property? I’ve been considering that route as I have cheap living arrangements (without having to live with my parents 
) currently so have the freedom to not need to move in immediately.
Likewise. I’m in Ireland and have a decent house with cheap rent at 375 per month so I’m not in a rush. But wouldn’t mind finding some international auctioneers.
I used my first months paycheck on a self built PC, then saved almost everything besides rent for living at my moms for the first year to be able to have over $7k in my bank account to go to auction with 
, chased about 12 Lots, and won the very last one, that I liked the most, but it cost about £6k more than it needed to 
the result is my investments not starting until I was already 26. 
@obrienciaran not sure how people go about it internationally, but
in the UK John Butters Bee is the largest provider of home auctions. I delayed moving in for about a year because I had to take it back to brick and redo all the wiring, plumbing, plastering, floors, RSJ from removing walls 
et cetera.
https://www.buttersjohnbee.com/auctions
as a fun aside, their auctions are often on “homes under the hammer” so if you win a Lot while they are recording, you can approach them about being on their program I almost did, but they kept delaying the interview session for the shows opening and by then I had already cleared out the previous owners furniture (auction lots come with EVERYTHING left inside after the viewings conclude, so I got 20 year old furniture I had to clear out somehow 
) and begun taking down the crumbling plaster. the pay is just £150 for the appearance, but it helps with some of the finishing costs of your refurb
Nice one. I’ll check these guys out for a start and who knows where that’ll lead me.
Sounds like an upfront nightmare in terms of renovations but once that’s complete, it sounds like a relief in terms of satisfaction in money saving.
They seem to only list places in certain northern areas? Any ideas for other good places for auctions in the South?