Having travelled all over the world with his work, Laurence now lives in the West Midlands with his wife. He has been retired for over a decade and now loves taking care of his grandchildren.
On a limited income, Laurence needs to ensure he and his wife are financially secure long term. Learn how he uses Moneyhub’s Categories so that his pension and savings will last in retirement.
““Categorising my spending means I build a picture over 12 months which helps me keep an eye on where I will be in future””
“My father used to manage money. He would write down on a piece of paper exactly what he spent to the penny. I can see him now sitting in his chair writing it all down. Some things never change.”
From pennies, to pens and now to pixels. Whilst the methods might have changed, this 72-year-old great-grandfather described to us how he inherited the habit of managing his money from his father. And though now retired and resident in the West Midlands it’s easy to see why knowing the value of money is so important, his having spent his career travelling the world as an auctioneer valuing other people’s assets.
We started by asking him about his relationship with money and he said, “I’m almost obsessive, checking this and checking that…moving money about is something I have done all my life.”
We were eager to know more about how this former valuer gets the best value from Moneyhub and were curious about why it was so important to him to stay so close to his money even though he is now retired. Surely, it’s time to relax?
He explained “I had more money when I first retired but that was 10 years ago so it’s not as much now as I had then - but that’s life! I have no idea what life will be like in another 10 years, but I need to know my wife and I will be comfortable and that the money will not run out. I made a spreadsheet that looks at my finances over 10 years to project where I’m going to be. When I was at work everything was done on spreadsheets, but spreadsheets are not that convenient on a day-to-day basis or in your pocket.”
Which is why he started using Moneyhub. He explained that he had a lot of different accounts all over the place and how “it was a bind going online to each account and each bank and logging in.”
He continued, “I like to know on a daily basis what goes in and what goes out and how I can utilise my money to the best advantage.”
We asked him how he felt about managing his money online and he commented that “a lot of people say they would not put their bank details on a computer or a phone, but I have never been caught out by a scam. I am very wary of those as every day you get a phone call about something…but the habit of using Moneyhub every day has made me pretty savvy. When I’m out and about I’ll get a notification about a transaction and I might wonder what that was so it’s a good reminder to check.”
Even though he has long since retired it’s clear that old habits die hard. He told us how he still uses one credit card for his motoring costs and one for eating out saying “I used to do it for work travel such as petrol, hotels, car services, tyres…or a business expense. I could see business expenses, personal expenses and travel expenses separately which is what I like about Moneyhub. I like that everything is on it and in one place."
“I can categorise everything into what I want, for example all my spending on Christmas presents. Then you can go to spending analysis to see what you spent even if you use different credit or bank cards. And categorising my spending means I build a picture over 12 months which helps me keep an eye on where I will be in future by making sure I’m not spending more than my plan.”
We asked him what he would say to anyone considering using Moneyhub for the first time and whilst acknowledging that people are all different, he commented that “if anyone asked me about this sort of thing I would say it’s really good. The more you use it the easier you will find it.”
In closing we asked what does Financial Wellness mean to you? His answer was simple.
“Everything! I’m on limited income and certainly don’t have millions of pounds but it means everything to me to know that our future is secure, and I have no money worries. I just want to know that in the next 10 years I’ll be ok.”
