The 5 habits making you broke according to savings whizz who has £100k in the bank AND plans to retire at 40
Mia McGrath is just 24 but already has £100k in savings and plans to retire at 40.
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Thanks to her thrifty lifestyle, Mia is planning to stop working 26 years before her peers.
The Londoner who works in fashion regularly shares how she achieves her saving goals, and this time, she shared the habits to give up if you want to start saving.
"Trying to be cool or aesthetic is making you broke," Mia said in a TikTok video posted this week.
She went on to say that buying a new outfit or a £38 Rhode phone case to look 'aesthetically pleasing' on Instagram was a waste of money.
Mia admitted she used to do this before making a change.
She said: "I realised I was doing it for other people, not for myself."
The second mistake people make is following trends and fads that turn out to be very expensive.
The savvy saver warned: "You don't need the latest trending item - a Labubu, a Coach bag. It's not essential."
She added: "I guarantee if you waited 30 days to buy it, you wouldn't want it anymore."
The third financial mistake Mia identified is 'not saving because you think it's pointless'.
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She argued that no matter how small the amount, it was always worth doing.
"I guarantee, if it's £10, £50, no matter how small it is, you're probably not doing it because of that reason," she reminded viewers.
Mia, who has accumulated 'almost £100,000 in savings and investments' in recent years, revealed that she also started small, even putting money aside when she was relying on a student maintenance grant.
She continued: "I wouldn't have been able to do that if I had that mindset that saving £50 is pointless."
Fourthly, Mia advocated for starting a side hustle, telling fellow TikTokers that they're 'not too busy'
She said: "Stop using the excuse that you don't have enough time, you just don't want to enough."
She insisted: "Whatever it is, creating content, creating a personal brand, making extra money - I've done all those things while at a nine to five job that I have to be in the office five days a week for."
Mia added that, providing someone wants to improve their finances, they can - it just takes discipline.
Finally, Mia warned that it's irresponsible to think a 'man is going to sweep in' and facilitate the 'soft life' that some people crave.
Mia said: "There is so much bad advice on TikTok saying you need to appear in your "soft feminine energy" and go sit at a bar where a rich man will find you..."
In a bid to do away with this myth, Mia said: 'You have to work hard and have your own money."
Money saving challenges
Here's some of our favourite money saving challenges.
Weather saving challenge - Save the amount equal to whatever the highest temperature was that week. £1 = 1C.
1p challenge - save 1p a day for everyday of the year, but it increase the amount by 1p each day. So day one you save 1p, 2p on day two and 3p on day three. When you reach 100 days you start adding a £1 coin each day too, while this increases to a £2 coin each day plus pennies at 200 days, and £3 each day on top of pennies at day 300.
20p a day challenge - Start by putting 20p in savings, then increase the amount by 20p every day. For example, the first week will look like this: 20p, 40p, 60p, 80p, £1, £1.20, £1.40.
£5 a week challenge - Like the 20p challenge, put aside £5 a week and increase it by a fiver each week. Eg £5, £10, £15, £20
Round-up challenge - Every time you buy something, round up the purchase to the nearest £1 and put the difference in a savings account. Eg. You pay £2.60, so you put 40p in savings. You can use an app such as Monzo or Starling to do this.
Bingo challenge - Here you have a bingo card with different numbers on it and you tick them off when you've put that amount in your savings account. It can be ad hoc but you have to tick them all off by the end of the month.
Monday to Sunday challenge - With this challenge, you simply save £1 on Monday, £2 on Tuesday and so on until the weekend where you don't save on Saturday or Sunday.
365 day challenge - Every Sunday you put aside £1, followed by £2 on Monday, £3 on Wednesday and so on. On Saturday you'll put away £7, and then the process repeats and you'll put aside £1 on Sunday as the new week begins
The clip went viral on her TikTok account @ miarosemcgrath with over 62k views and 6,100 likes.
One person wrote: "The waiting 30 days is such a brilliant and helpful thing to do!"
Another commented: "You're really genuine and I love you for that."
"Great points! It's so important to stay mindful of spending and focus on saving in the long run," penned a third.
Meanwhile, a fourth said: "You're such good advice for the younger women out there."
"Very wise words,' claimed a fifth
Someone else added: "Couldn't agree more."
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