This is the most expensive age of your life

Every year of your life feels like the most expensive yet, doesn’t it? From the days of begging your parents for more money at university because your student loan’s run out, to adding yet another £100 to your overdraft limit as a working adult, only the very most fortunate among us don’t have to worry about money.

Most of it gets sucked up by rent, bills and basic living costs, meaning we feel like we need to treat ourselves, and so blow the remainder of our paychecks on booze, takeaways and trainers we probably didn’t really need.

But it’s important to put away money for the future too - particularly if you’re approaching the age of 31, as that is the most expensive age of your life, according to a new survey.

The research, carried out by credit check company ClearScore, found that this is the age many people start making important life decisions like getting married, buying a house and having children, making it the most costly year of our lives.

Of the 3,000 people surveyed, 27% of people said getting married was the biggest expense at that age, followed by buying a house at 25%, having a baby at 20% and going on a honeymoon with 14%.

Those are some expensive weddings people are having.

And how much will the average 31-year-old need to have saved up to pay for these expenses? Around £43,000, the survey found, not including any money left over for supporting children or retirement. Great! What fun news!

With all these expenses, it is perhaps unsurprising to learn, therefore, that a third of 25-34-year-olds still rely on their parents for financial help. 

Chief executive of ClearScore, Justin Basini, told Business Insider: “Many of life’s big milestones tend to happen very close together so we weren’t shocked to discover how much people were spending during their most expensive year.”

A study just last month found that UK millennials are the second most financially squeezed group in the entire developed world, behind only Greece, so next time someone has a go at us for all our supposed extreme spending on avocados and sandwiches, you can tell them where to shove it.

(Image: Pexels)