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This week: “I’m a 45-year-old forever singleton living in the North West. Whilst I wish I weren’t single, you take what life throws at you and roll with it, one day my prince will come along and I can stop kissing frogs (don’t worry though I have a ‘friend’ so I don’t live in a drought, lol). I work full-time as a Senior Fraud Analyst for a major high street banking provider, working 35 hours a week condensed into four days. As a department, we deal with incoming calls from customers whose accounts and/or transactions we block due to suspected scam and fraud activity. I moved out of my parents’ home in 2007, initially buying the property I live in with a friend, K (best friends before living together and still are to this day). We bought back when we could borrow more than 100% and borrowed a total of 115%…then the financial crisis hit and we went into negative equity. She moved out when she got pregnant in 2013 and I took in a part-time weekday lodger to help cover the mortgage. I did this until we reached 2017 and had equity so I could buy her out (I only gave her £2,500, which she was happy with to come off the mortgage). To help do this, I borrowed £35k from my parents, which meant I could get a much more favourable mortgage rate, which halved my payments. I had 10 years to pay them back, but did this in five thanks to some inheritance received from my late grandfather. I now have approx. £96,000 equity and my property is currently for sale as I’m looking for somewhere slightly bigger so I can have a dedicated office and a walk-in wardrobe space. Outside of work, I class myself as having lots of hobbies and spend my time walking, attending gym classes, going to the theatre, reading, cinema trips, spending time with friends, eating out and most importantly, going on holidays. I save each month for various things but nothing long-term other than a pot of money which is earmarked for my house move. I have a personal loan I took out at 2.9% for a car and home improvements and a 0% interest credit card, the total across the two come to about £23k and I will pay these off when it comes to move, but at the moment, I am earning more in interest on the lump sum savings of £25k. If I want something, I’ll work for it and do regular overtime on weekends, this pays for life’s luxuries such as the musical theatre tickets, clothes and holidays.”
