2021 Financial Review – How I Saved 50% of my Income

In the past 12 months I have moved house 3 times, opened 7 new bank accounts, crushed my little finger, started credit card hacking, read 140 books, drove the NC500, eaten my bodyweight in crisps, zip lined off a quarry in Wales, learnt to like rosé, went to my first comedy show, threw an epic halloween party, taken countless lateral flow tests and so so much more….a hell of a year! But it’s over so now its time to dive into my 2021 financial review.

It feels like moments ago that I was writing my 2020 overview… seriously where has this year gone! I can’t get over the fact that I graduate in 7 months – I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up 😅

But without further ado here it is, my complete 2021 financial round up – every penny the came into my accounts and every penny that left it, as well as an insight into what I did with the rest 🤩

First up in my 2021 financial review, exactly how much I made!

INCOME

I have made the most money I have ever made in 2021 – beating my 2020 income by over £8,000. This is solely down to the fact that I have worked practically full time since May alongside my working towards my degree. I have broken down my income into 6 different categories…

#1 Wages = £10,196.20

First up, the largest of the seven categories was the income from my multiple part time jobs. At the start of the year I only had one ‘kind of’ job – I worked very infrequently as an ambassador for my department at university. My role included participating in online webinars where I answered questions about what being at my uni is like, what the course is like and general student enquiries. Now when I saw infrequent I mean very infrequent – were talking max 4 hours a month.

The pay rate for this job was very very good at £10 an hour but the hours were so sparse I never really classed this as an official job. It was more a little boost of income every few months.

From the start of the year, I was looking and applying for multiple jobs with absolutely no luck. Until May when I randomly got a job offer from going into a pub for my friends 21st birthday dinner and having a laugh with our waitress. I started the next evening.

As it was exam season, I agreed to work full time until teaching officially re-started in October. I even agreed to staying in my uni city over summer to work – this required finding temporary accommodation which came with an extreme price tag (more than that later).

Coincidentally about two weeks into this new job I was offered a job I applied for in April. This was another flexible job working for my university. I decided because of how flexible the second job could be I would be capable of working both jobs.

With the addition of job 2 I ended up working 60 hours each week over summer – this certainly helped boost my income!

My original plan was to drop my hours down to around 20 hours max each week in October but this did not go to plan. I have ended up working an average of 40 hours each week from October till December. I will definitely not be continuing this in the new year 😅

It should be noted that £672.30 of this total came from tips. Not bad as a little unexpected income boost!

I saved/invested every single penny of this income stream.

#2 Student Loan = £9,074.84

Now some people may not class this as income as technically it could be classed as a debt. However, I do not see it this way! Currently in the UK you do not pay a penny back until you earn over an income threshold. Plus the debt is wiped after 30 years. Additionally, once you earn over the threshold, you only pay 9% of any income towards the balance. This comes out of your income at the source – meaning you never see a penny of that money. Hence, rather than seeing it as a type of debt, I see it as a graduate tax.

In 2021 I received £9,074.84 over three separate payments. I automatically save 20% of this income and use the other 80% to cover my living costs.

#3 Miscellaneous = £2,223.73

My third largest income category in 2021 can only be categorised as miscellaneous. This includes things like refunds because I have already counted the money as being “spent”, or loan repayments. I lent my sister money last year and she is still paying me back monthly.

I save/invest every single penny of this income category.

#4 Bursary = £1,000

Due to the fact that student financing goes off the income of parents, I automatically qualified for additional income support from my university. This came in a tax free bursary of £1,000 – which I saved/invested every penny of.

#5 Side Hustle = £860.60

Now this income category is slightly off because half way through the year, I changed how I managed this income. I know keep it separate from my personal income. From then on, all money made went into a separate account and I gave myself a “pay check” at the end of the month. Usually around 50% of any money made during the month. However, the last 3 months or so I have made £0 each month in this category as I haven’t really had the time to work on this income stream.

I saved/invested every single penny of this income stream.

#6 Interest = £113.70

Interest rates this year have been dramatically low! I usually receive between £0.10-£0.50 in interest each month however due to a few outliers I managed to make over £100 in bank interest. I transferred Lifetime ISA accounts in March which meant I had to close an account and take profits made – this was around £34. Plus, I had two regular saver accounts expire this year paying around £40 each.

I saved/invested every single penny of this income stream.

Total Income = £23,469.07

Next up in my 2021 financial review – exactly how much I spent!

SPENDING

Not only was 2021 my highest grossing year yet it was also my most expensive year to date. This was expected as 2020 was the year of quarantine so my spending was very low for the majority of the year. However, even though I spent more than ever this year I still came in at under 50% of my income. I have broken down my spending into 13 different categories…

#1 Rent = £4,876.31

As expected my largest spending category in 2021 was rent! I have lived in 3 different student properties during the last year. The most expensive was the temporary accommodation I stayed in over summer which set me back £145 per week.

This category should have been higher but I got a rent rebate at the start of the year due to the pandemic. This was over £1,000. Nice extra savings boost that I wasn’t accounting for 🤩

#2 Transportation = £2,444.46

Even though I don’t own a car, I did pay for two different car insurance policies in full last year. However, this was when I was insurance hacking (cheaper than getting temporary insurance). Meaning I received the majority of this back in refunds which I have classed as “misc.” income. The cost of my bus pass (£285) is also included in this total, which is valid until June 2022. This will save me a lot of money in the long run. The rest of the total is made up of various train tickets. Mostly travelling between my home town and uni city!

#3 Personal = £913.83

My third biggest spending category in 2021 was “personal” – this includes anything to do with my health and wellbeing. We’re talking stuff like as the cost of getting my eyes tested, new glasses, my contact lenses, laundry top-ups and over the counter medication. Save the expenses relating to my eyes most of these costs were under £10 so it has really surprised me how much the total of this category was. Like how did I spend more on these little things than I did on food 😅

#4 Gifts & Charity = £864.66

One of my favourite ways to spend money! I don’t regret spending a single penny in this category 💓

This includes all birthday spending, the costs of Christmas and charitable donations throughout the year. I have a separate sinking fund for these costs so they don’t come out of my weekly “allowance”.

#5 Groceries = £633.73

I try very hard to stick to a £40/month groceries budget which on average I did for the entirety of 2021 🎉

However, I did have a huge additional groceries expense that I hadn’t accounted for (around £160) which made up the rest of the total spending. This was the price of my family’s big Christmas shop which I last minute decided to cover the cost of.

#6 Eating Out = £607.32

Now this is much higher than I would like it to be. Definitely something I need to work on in 2022. Although over £200 of this was spent on meals I treated various friends too. My biggest weakness is getting food at the end of a night out 🙊

#7 Social = £436.42

This category accounts for any spending on drinks, events or general social activities. I am not really into clubbing but love going out for cocktails or chilled drinks. Also included in this category was a day out with my family, a stag do and a trip to Liverpool for a surprise going away party 🎉

#8 Travel = £406.59

I was hoping 2021 was the year I could get back into travelling however it just doesn’t seem right to get on a plane just yet. Fingers crossed for 2022! So this year I embraced local travel and enjoyed a week in Anglesey, a Scotland road trip and a couple of day trips 😍.

#9 Household = £188.70

Household encompasses all of those little things that I took for granted when I lived at home only to realise how essential they are. We’re talking cleaning stuff, washing things and general items needed to keep a house running 😅. I really thought this category would be larger because I bought *a lot* of things to try and make my bedroom liveable (it is a basement room 😬). However, I also spent £36 on a box of sustainable toilet rolls 😂. In my defence they will last till we graduate!

#10 Work = £117.99

This is a very random category but definitely needed as I didn’t want to include these in my personal categories. The sort of things that fell under this were uniform, food bought on shift, new shoes etc.

#11 Entertainment = £104.29

Let’s be honest, most of this was spent on books 🙊. 2022 is the year that I will finally read all the books on my TBR and not buy anything else! Also included in this is my monthly book club fees (£1.20) and my newly reclaimed Spotify subscription (£16.99). I only took this back on in December so it will make more of an impact to my 2022 spending.

#12 Shopping = £39.39

Very happy with this figure!! 2021 was the year that I truly felt content with all the material items I already own. It helps that I didn’t really go anywhere that require buying a new outfit in 2021. Plus I have great friends/family who let me borrow their clothes 😆

#13 Uni = £12.85

This is a minor category but it didn’t really fit under any of the others so here we are. This includes things like printer credit and book I had to buy for my dissertation.

Total = £11,646.54

Next in my 2021 financial review, let’s talk about the money left over!

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REST?

What happened to the other £11,822.53? Almost all of it was invested! Except for £2.5k of it. I am holding back to be able to max out my Lifetime ISA on the first day of the new tax year.

2021 was the year I truly began to focus on investing! I dipped my toes in slightly back in 2020 but didn’t take it seriously until the last year. During 2021, I invested mostly across two different ISA’s but also a small proportion in various crypto currencies. I invested a total of £14,750 during 2021 as I made the decision to invest money saved in 2020. This was just sitting in cash accounts, receiving little to no interest at all.

Seeing as I had already saved up a solid emergency fund in 2020, I felt comfortable taking the “risk” in the markets. I am so so glad I took the plunge as I am up £2804.78 to date 🤩. I’ve classed this as passive net worth growth as I use robe-advisors who invest my money for me – meaning all I have to do is transfer money into the account and they do the rest.

And finally in my 2021 financial review, let’s talk about my net worth!

NET WORTH

Start of 2021 = £9,910.58

End of 2021 = £24,272.68

What a year this has been for my net worth! So many milestones absolutely smashed.

2021 complete.

So that’s it, my complete 2021 financial review!

Enjoyed reading my 2021 financial review? Why not check out my other money reviews…

2020 Money Review