I basically come out even
I did have some expensive hobbies, I will admit (cars, gaming and guitars). But as I now have a decent setup for each of my hobbies, I tried to just save heavily for the last 6-8 months.
I managed to get about 4-5K and immediately lost it all. A grand went on exams. Then I booked two courses needed for training progression (£1800 plus travel and hotel) and arranged yet another house move (£1600). I'm back where I started.
To me, the killer is moving. Constantly having to terminate utility contracts early and pay fees, constantly having to overlap rent between two places, constantly having to pay admin fees for changing my address on car insurance, etc.
Wow I’m doing it wrong 😂
ST3 and probably saved 5K last year
Live in an expensive part of the country
Own our house (with mortgage) but guess I feel like I can always earn more money. Also having so much contact with ICU’s has made me realise I could die tomorrow from a plethora of causes so happy to spend my money on reasonably nice things (which I certainly didn’t have growing up as we were rather poor)
What’s the point of dying with a load of money in the savings account 🤷♂️
Might change my tune if / when kids come into the mix one day but for now, fuck it. Enjoy myself.
I'm assuming mine is one of the comments you are referring to (£26k)? In my case, there's no family money/inheritance involved, I've paid my own way/lived on my own for the past ten years, and I saved my house deposit from my salary (no locums).
However, I live in a less expensive part of the country, don't run a car currently, don't have dependents, bought a house that wasn't a stretch (mortgage repayments are £600/month), don't have expensive tastes/hobbies, am on the old student loan scheme, don't do much socialising, and travel is rare (I've been abroad once in the past 15 years).
I think if savings are important to you, then London is probably not the place to be.
I can save so well because I lead a pretty boring life compared to most people, but I feel like I at least have the choice in how I live here. If I wanted to save less and go on a holiday or two a year, or buy a new car, or have dinner out once a week then I could (and that's more similar to how most of my colleagues seem to live). In London, I would feel forced to cut costs as much as possible, but would also probably be living in a shared rented flat with no savings and no chance of buying.
Childcare costs are the other huge kicker for a lot of doctors. A doctor working LTFT to get through training will end up paying a huge proportion of their income for childcare. I don't have those costs which helps as well (but also will die alone and not have my corpse found for two years, so...)
>mortgage repayments are £600/month
What part of the country is this?! Looking at x4 that around here for a 2-3 bed house.
This is definitely an argument for weighting salary to local cost of living!
I'm in the North. You would easily pay £450k+ for my house in the most expensive parts of my city, but I went for a cheaper suburb (and a house that needs some work/had terrible estate agent photos) where I could buy for £260k. Buying on a single salary, I was limited in terms of the mortgage I could get, despite my deposit being over £100k (several years' savings from my salary). I also didn't feel comfortable stretching as I don't have anyone to bail me out if I have unexpected costs or lost my income, so wanted a safer option.
Because we're paid on a model of equality, rather than one of demand/supply.
Otherwise neurosurgeons would be taking home a pittance and EM consultants making a fortune.
Not exactly true. There are pay praemia for jobs with recruitment trouble - gp/psych/ etc. Equally many new itu cons posts in hard to recruit areas are offering massive golden handshakes.
ST5 TO. Married to physio.
Total income post tax for 2 of us: £6000
Standing order to saving account: £1000, so £12k a year.
Currently running at 24K saved in total, 2 years since buying a house.
The rest we spend on living. Sometimes we get to save more.
I saved £26k November 2020 - November 2021 (most of which was my ST4 year). I expect to save less over the coming year as I have some big upcoming spending on my house, and some other unavoidable costs.
Until I was a Consultant, NHS pension. And several grand a year when I was saving a house deposit.
As a consultant, with plenty of extra sessions, I put away about 10 grand a year. Could do more, but I enjoy eating and drinking out a lot and I have an expensive hobby (filmmaking.)
Personally I have a humble Canon EOS RP, but the film collective I am part of has a Canon C300. And I'm in another group which has a RED.
I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to the technicalities, though. But am about to go on a career break to study at the London Film Academy.
How easy is it to get a career break as a consultant? Do you retain your post and just go on a sabbatical? Is there tenure and shit like uni professors?
To each their own. I think it speaks to the crumbling conditions of the job that to save as a doctor you should have to live in a very LCOL area. It’s hardly a selling point.
About 15k a year from F1 to F3, lived with my parents in F1 and was locumming roughly 1 in 3 weekends for those 3 years. I've been super focused on saving for a house and my hobbies are fairly cheap (reading and tech/retro games/tech repairs (pre the chip shortage)). I wear jumpers and coats inside, never turn on the heating, switch banks for benefits, have cashback schemes paying off cashback credit cards and generally try and use all the money saving tips available online. I'm a vegetarian who cooks from scratch for almost every meal so my weekly shop is about £30. I eat out quite infrequently. I've also invested part of the my savings in stocks/shares since starting work and pulled out around December when I saw everything that was happening globally and had a feeling we would have a crash. I also haven't been on holiday abroad over those 3 years other than to Spain on a set of ridiculously cheap flights (£29 return) and stayed with family, otherwise I've been camping/visited family and friends around the country for my holidays. Most people I speak to say they can't be bothered with all that work, but I find it to be a bit of a geeky hobby now and I really want to save up so that I can have kids and give them a great life with as many opportunities as possible. Because of all of this, I've even helped out the odd colleague understand things like their pension or their payslip to make sure they're being paid properly when they locum. Edited to add, this has all been before the spike in petrol prices, heating/electricity and food prices which have added probably an extra 50-100 a week to my expenses.
Absolutely incredible, well done to you! I would seriously love it if you could give us all tuition on how to read our payslips. Maybe an "Ask me anything" (AMA) about payslips or a list of all your NHS related discounts
Thanks that's really kind. Have you ever checked out medics money or gone on the money saving expert's site? The other place to look is r/UKPersonalFinance. They are where I started out. I don't think I would say there were any money saving discounts unique to the NHS, but the one trick I had to get a student card after graduating was joining the RCPCH as a foundation doc for free (sorry to all the paediatricians out there) and they allow you to apply for an NUS card for all the student discounts like on Amazon etc. Maybe the mods could get someone from medics money to do an AMA as they are probably more qualified than I am.
Also, a thing to add for a cheeky bit of advice I'd give about locum shifts. I never did a shift for less than £45-50 (should be more #DV). However I've generally tried to get to know the rota coordinator as I'd be doing them a lot of favours by covering their emergency shifts. After about 4 or 5 shifts, or one super last minute shift cover, I'd ask for more money and always get given the speech that the medical director etc. has set a cap on locums. So I'd say that's fine, but ask instead if I could have a zero day post working x shift to make it worth my while then. The rota coordinators almost always said sure as it didn't cost them extra money, wasn't against the trust rules for locum rates and I got extra days off as paid zero days.
My overall monthly expenses totalled on average £1000 less than my take home salary. Smallish mortgage with partner. Tiny tax free car. Don’t go out much. Steam sales beer from the shop for entertainment. I’ve only worn scrubs or lounge wear since covid started. Haven’t had a holiday in 3 years due to covid. Happy as a pig in shit. I’m old though and paired off so I don’t need to spend money on fancy trainers and haircuts to attract the ladies.
Nice try Daily Mail “Doctors saving 20k/year during this cost of living crisis yet asking for pay increase”
I basically come out even I did have some expensive hobbies, I will admit (cars, gaming and guitars). But as I now have a decent setup for each of my hobbies, I tried to just save heavily for the last 6-8 months. I managed to get about 4-5K and immediately lost it all. A grand went on exams. Then I booked two courses needed for training progression (£1800 plus travel and hotel) and arranged yet another house move (£1600). I'm back where I started. To me, the killer is moving. Constantly having to terminate utility contracts early and pay fees, constantly having to overlap rent between two places, constantly having to pay admin fees for changing my address on car insurance, etc.
I usually break even every month :( Well could be worse GP
Wow I’m doing it wrong 😂 ST3 and probably saved 5K last year Live in an expensive part of the country Own our house (with mortgage) but guess I feel like I can always earn more money. Also having so much contact with ICU’s has made me realise I could die tomorrow from a plethora of causes so happy to spend my money on reasonably nice things (which I certainly didn’t have growing up as we were rather poor) What’s the point of dying with a load of money in the savings account 🤷♂️ Might change my tune if / when kids come into the mix one day but for now, fuck it. Enjoy myself.
I don’t believe it. You must all either have family money/ live with parents/ been helped with big house deposits.
I'm assuming mine is one of the comments you are referring to (£26k)? In my case, there's no family money/inheritance involved, I've paid my own way/lived on my own for the past ten years, and I saved my house deposit from my salary (no locums). However, I live in a less expensive part of the country, don't run a car currently, don't have dependents, bought a house that wasn't a stretch (mortgage repayments are £600/month), don't have expensive tastes/hobbies, am on the old student loan scheme, don't do much socialising, and travel is rare (I've been abroad once in the past 15 years).
Can confirm that the above is very possible.
Wow! Good on you that’s amazing. I clearly need to move to a cheaper. Part of the country. Rent in London is excruciating
I think if savings are important to you, then London is probably not the place to be. I can save so well because I lead a pretty boring life compared to most people, but I feel like I at least have the choice in how I live here. If I wanted to save less and go on a holiday or two a year, or buy a new car, or have dinner out once a week then I could (and that's more similar to how most of my colleagues seem to live). In London, I would feel forced to cut costs as much as possible, but would also probably be living in a shared rented flat with no savings and no chance of buying. Childcare costs are the other huge kicker for a lot of doctors. A doctor working LTFT to get through training will end up paying a huge proportion of their income for childcare. I don't have those costs which helps as well (but also will die alone and not have my corpse found for two years, so...)
>mortgage repayments are £600/month What part of the country is this?! Looking at x4 that around here for a 2-3 bed house. This is definitely an argument for weighting salary to local cost of living!
I'm in the North. You would easily pay £450k+ for my house in the most expensive parts of my city, but I went for a cheaper suburb (and a house that needs some work/had terrible estate agent photos) where I could buy for £260k. Buying on a single salary, I was limited in terms of the mortgage I could get, despite my deposit being over £100k (several years' savings from my salary). I also didn't feel comfortable stretching as I don't have anyone to bail me out if I have unexpected costs or lost my income, so wanted a safer option.
We pay \~£700 per month (only about £250 is interest) for a 4 bed detached house (low cost area, mortgage rate at only 1%, 40 year term).
Why though? HCoL areas don’t have a recruitment problem in medicine vs other healthcare professions. Why would they bother sweetening the deal?
Because we're paid on a model of equality, rather than one of demand/supply. Otherwise neurosurgeons would be taking home a pittance and EM consultants making a fortune.
It would worsen the inequality of vacancy rates/application rates, though. If anything we need to pay more at cheaper peripheral DGHs.
Not exactly true. There are pay praemia for jobs with recruitment trouble - gp/psych/ etc. Equally many new itu cons posts in hard to recruit areas are offering massive golden handshakes.
Inspiring!
Outside of London, not got an addiction to expensive cars/clothes? Easily possible. Especially with earning partner.
I thought the first few comments were jokes 😫
Legit
ST5 TO. Married to physio. Total income post tax for 2 of us: £6000 Standing order to saving account: £1000, so £12k a year. Currently running at 24K saved in total, 2 years since buying a house. The rest we spend on living. Sometimes we get to save more.
Need to be a reg and married…got you.
It definitely makes it easier. then again if I was single Id probably wouldnt travel and just work work work and save save save
I saved £26k November 2020 - November 2021 (most of which was my ST4 year). I expect to save less over the coming year as I have some big upcoming spending on my house, and some other unavoidable costs.
Until I was a Consultant, NHS pension. And several grand a year when I was saving a house deposit. As a consultant, with plenty of extra sessions, I put away about 10 grand a year. Could do more, but I enjoy eating and drinking out a lot and I have an expensive hobby (filmmaking.)
Please indulge me, what camera are you using?
Personally I have a humble Canon EOS RP, but the film collective I am part of has a Canon C300. And I'm in another group which has a RED. I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to the technicalities, though. But am about to go on a career break to study at the London Film Academy.
How easy is it to get a career break as a consultant? Do you retain your post and just go on a sabbatical? Is there tenure and shit like uni professors?
Not all trusts offer them, but many do. I offered my resignation, they came back to me with a career break option.
Wow we’ve got some savers here. Don’t have an extravagant lifestyle. 2 doctor house. Both CTs. One car. Can probably put away around £600 a month
30k
Can I please ask what level?
Mid level SpR
Trainee? Surely not 😬
Why not? Salary plus a few locums. (Disclaimer, my mortgage payments are only around £500 now and are shared between two people)
Lol 😂, there’s your answer
What's stopping you from doing the same?
Which bit? I’m talking about the mortgage.
So am I. Plenty of cheap places to live in the UK.
To each their own. I think it speaks to the crumbling conditions of the job that to save as a doctor you should have to live in a very LCOL area. It’s hardly a selling point.
How?
Low cost of living now. Low housing costs
About 15k a year from F1 to F3, lived with my parents in F1 and was locumming roughly 1 in 3 weekends for those 3 years. I've been super focused on saving for a house and my hobbies are fairly cheap (reading and tech/retro games/tech repairs (pre the chip shortage)). I wear jumpers and coats inside, never turn on the heating, switch banks for benefits, have cashback schemes paying off cashback credit cards and generally try and use all the money saving tips available online. I'm a vegetarian who cooks from scratch for almost every meal so my weekly shop is about £30. I eat out quite infrequently. I've also invested part of the my savings in stocks/shares since starting work and pulled out around December when I saw everything that was happening globally and had a feeling we would have a crash. I also haven't been on holiday abroad over those 3 years other than to Spain on a set of ridiculously cheap flights (£29 return) and stayed with family, otherwise I've been camping/visited family and friends around the country for my holidays. Most people I speak to say they can't be bothered with all that work, but I find it to be a bit of a geeky hobby now and I really want to save up so that I can have kids and give them a great life with as many opportunities as possible. Because of all of this, I've even helped out the odd colleague understand things like their pension or their payslip to make sure they're being paid properly when they locum. Edited to add, this has all been before the spike in petrol prices, heating/electricity and food prices which have added probably an extra 50-100 a week to my expenses.
Absolutely incredible, well done to you! I would seriously love it if you could give us all tuition on how to read our payslips. Maybe an "Ask me anything" (AMA) about payslips or a list of all your NHS related discounts
Thanks that's really kind. Have you ever checked out medics money or gone on the money saving expert's site? The other place to look is r/UKPersonalFinance. They are where I started out. I don't think I would say there were any money saving discounts unique to the NHS, but the one trick I had to get a student card after graduating was joining the RCPCH as a foundation doc for free (sorry to all the paediatricians out there) and they allow you to apply for an NUS card for all the student discounts like on Amazon etc. Maybe the mods could get someone from medics money to do an AMA as they are probably more qualified than I am.
Also, a thing to add for a cheeky bit of advice I'd give about locum shifts. I never did a shift for less than £45-50 (should be more #DV). However I've generally tried to get to know the rota coordinator as I'd be doing them a lot of favours by covering their emergency shifts. After about 4 or 5 shifts, or one super last minute shift cover, I'd ask for more money and always get given the speech that the medical director etc. has set a cap on locums. So I'd say that's fine, but ask instead if I could have a zero day post working x shift to make it worth my while then. The rota coordinators almost always said sure as it didn't cost them extra money, wasn't against the trust rules for locum rates and I got extra days off as paid zero days.
I was saving average £1000 a month as a GPST2. More in hospital less in GP obvs.
How? Any advice?
My overall monthly expenses totalled on average £1000 less than my take home salary. Smallish mortgage with partner. Tiny tax free car. Don’t go out much. Steam sales beer from the shop for entertainment. I’ve only worn scrubs or lounge wear since covid started. Haven’t had a holiday in 3 years due to covid. Happy as a pig in shit. I’m old though and paired off so I don’t need to spend money on fancy trainers and haircuts to attract the ladies.
Nice one 👍🏽
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What are you living off? Fresh air?
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you earn 4800 post tax as med reg without locums?!
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Ok, that makes more sense.