How I Manage My Money: Adventure firm owner, on £40,000 a year, with no pension

In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.

This week we speak to Matt George, 46, who lives in Newlyn, Cornwall, with his wife, Em, 37, and their two-year-old son, Penn. Matt, who runs Kernow Coasteering, has no money in pensions and hopes his rental property will act as his pension in later life. His work is highly seasonal and he’d love to earn £100,000 a year in the future.

Monthly budget

My income: I have about £40,000 a year coming in from my business, Kernow Coasteering. It’s highly seasonal, so it’s hard to think of it as a monthly figure. My wife works as an accountant on a part-time basis.

We have £875 a month coming in from a rental property. I also do affiliate marketing work on the side via the Amazon Influencer Programme, mainly aimed at the US, which is bringing in an income of about £700 a month. We also get £100 for Child Benefit each month.

My monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £900; council tax, £231; groceries, £350; gas and electric, £175; water, £75; broadband, £30; mobile, £25; insurance policies, £100; car fuel, £300; money into savings. £300; eating out and takeaways, £50; subscriptions like Amazon Prime and Netflix, about £22; clothes, £50. Our home and contents insurance is about £200 a year. My wife runs the car and deals with the costs involved. She also has a horse, which we spend about £200 a month on.

I grew up in Sennen, Cornwall. Although I had a happy childhood, things were tough financially for us when my mum was on her own for a while. When I was very young, there were times when my mum could barely make ends meet. But she eventually married my stepdad, who had a very good job in the Middle East. After this, we were comfortable financially.

I studied industrial geology at university, but never used the degree for anything. When I was younger, my main priority was maximising my free time and never working more than necessary. I did a few jobs, ranging from working for a furniture removal firm to being a private drum teacher.

I set up my business, Kernow Coasteering, in 2013. The business provides coasteering and rock climbing activities in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

My business is extremely seasonal. My earning window is from Easter until the end of August. At the end of August I will know how much money I have until the next season begins the following year.

As any business owner will say, you can never switch off and the work, or at least the mental load, never finishes at 5pm. But I can’t complain, as the personal freedom I have makes it worthwhile. I couldn’t be a full-time employee for someone else.

We live in a lovely house in a quiet area in Cornwall. It’s got three bedrooms, and while not huge, is good enough for us. If money fell into our lap, we’d move, but we’re more than happy if we have to stay here forever. We only bought the house in 2024 for £300,000, so are still on the initial fixed-term mortgage deal.

The rental property we own is a recently built three-bedroom house in another town in Cornwall called Camborne. It cost £190,000 to buy and the rent we get from it is £875 a month. We purchased it specifically as an investment and rent it out to locals.

This is definitely an issue with second homes in Cornwall. Property prices have soared well out of reach of most young local people here. I was very lucky to purchase my first house before the Covid-era price boom. I think I would have been priced out of the market had I waited.

As property prices have increased, so have rental prices. With so much rental stock going to Airbnb or other holiday accommodation, the situation for locals looking for housing is quite grim in Cornwall. Ironically, there’s a huge amount of new-builds going up everywhere, but most of them are beyond what many locals can afford.

I try to add £300 a month to cash savings a month. A lack of knowledge prevents me from investing, and this is something I keep meaning to address. I have some money in Premium Bonds, and at the end of the season normally park some money in them. I keep thinking I need to do something more with my money, but then a confidence-shattering event like war in the Middle East comes along and I pull back.

My main investment is my rental property. It is my savings scheme and pension plan rolled into one. Having been self-employed essentially forever, I have never had a pension via an employer. I also haven’t set up a private pension, as I’ve never really felt I had enough spare cash. Hopefully, my rental property will make up for the fact I have no money in pensions.

I’m a lot more motivated by money than I used to be. I used to prioritise my free time and not working anymore than the bare minimum. This is changing as I have a child, and my wife, in order to look after our son, is working a bit less than before. This means I am actively trying to increase our income. I’d like an annual income of at least £100,000 a year. I’d like more free time with my son, and to be able to travel and do my hobbies more. Achieving financial security would also be great.

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المصدر: iNews