Sorted

I have just sorted out my finances. So in addition to my cash ISA for the short term and my pension for the long term I now have a stocks and shares ISA for the medium term. I also have a monthly budget for my disposable income (after food and travel costs), which is £950 per month. I get to spend this on going out, clothes and shoes, toiletries, books and magazines, haircuts, contact lenses plus other people's birthdays etc. That is a lot of money. It's actually more than my first proper monthly salary after tax (in 2000), which was about £900. That's mental.

I do appreciate that I am fortunate to earn a good salary, given that around a third of households in the UK have an annual income of around £16000. I certainly never expected to be earning the amount that I do at my age, and it was never what motivated me. What it has done is enabled me to help out my family, which I am really happy about.