The Herald and Mr MoneyJar’s Top Five Tips For Young Scots

With the cost-of-living crisis being at the heart of daily discourse in the UK over the last few years, many people, especially younger generations looking to make a start in life, have felt their finances squeezed.

That’s why The Herald has been speaking to Timi Merriman-Johnson, an award-winning financial advisor and content creator who is more commonly known as Mr MoneyJar.

He’ll be speaking at this weekend’s Ideal Home Show in Scotland to educate audiences on personal finance, investing, getting on the property ladder and much more, but ahead of that, we asked him to reveal the top five tips for young people in Scotland.

Tip 1 –  Budgeting

In order for you to improve your finances, you’ll need visibility over them and you can achieve this by starting a budgeting habit. Don’t want to pore through endless bank statements? No problem. You can download a free budgeting app like Snoop or Emma, which you can link your bank accounts to and see exactly how much you’ve got going in and coming out. I recommend checking your finances monthly or if you can, weekly.

Tip 2: Pay off high-interest debt

If you want to see an immediate uplift to the amount of money leaving your bank account every month, try to prioritise paying off high-interest debt. Pay off as much as you can each month, as paying just the minimums often results in paying off less than the amount of interest that’s being added on. If you need specific advice, you can always call a debt-help charity like Citizens Advice Scotland

Tip 3: Save an emergency fund

An emergency fund is a pot of cash that you set aside – preferably in a separate bank account – should you lose your job or encounter a rainy day. Conventional advice says to set aside 3-6 months worth of living expenses, but if this is too much, try to start off with a months’ worth. Your future self will thank you for it!

Tip 4: Invest

There are three simple steps you can follow to start your investing journey. First, you need to sign up to an investing platform, then you can open a Stocks and Shares ISA within which you can invest up to £20,000 tax free each year, and then you can select which investments to put inside your ISA. With some platforms you have complete control over what you invest in, but if you’re a beginner, you can always use a ‘robo adviser’ which has set plans you can choose from. Some will let you do this from as little as £25 a month!

Tip 5: For first time buyers

If you are buying your first home, you may be able to access help through a Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) government scheme. There are two main ones:

● The Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme, which helps first time buyers to buy a property on the open market

● New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) scheme, which helps first time buyers to buy a new-build property from a council or housing association

You can read more about them at gov.scot/policies/homeowners/