Far too many of us find ourselves wondering just where all the money went by the time the end of the month rolls in. But how about where we spend our cash over the course of a lifetime? Well online lottery operators Lottoland commissioned a report to answer just that question, and the results were quite an eye-opener. Discover how much of our money we spend on going out, clothes and food – to name but a few – and it might just change the way you think about spending.
Lottoland used data from the Office of National Statistics in the UK to discover more about our spending habits, and they have taken a very interesting approach as to how to convey the information. They imagine that our lifetime earnings total exactly £100, and then see how that hypothetical one hundred pounds is spent. So where do you imagine most of our hard-earned money goes at the end of a lifetime of work? You’re not going to like this, but £18.30 of our £100 goes into the pocket of Mr Taxman, never to be seen again. Next up after that is pretty easy to guess too, as we spend an estimated £11.70 on accommodation in the form of rent and/or mortgages.
It’s difficult to avoid spending large chunks of money on taxes and a place to live, but there is room for savings further down the list. Transportation takes care of £9.80 of our £100, nearly 10% of the whole amount just to get around. Of course, how much you spend depends to a great degree on where you live and how you travel. If your daily commute is a 20-minute walk, then congratulations: you are already making major savings! It’s not that easy for most of us, and cars in particular are a drain on the bank balance. Now we come to an interesting area, as it turns out that we spend a (relatively) large £9 on entertainment and culture. Note that this is separate to the £1.50 we spend on booze and tobacco and the £6.20 we spend on restaurants and hotels over the course of a lifetime.
Boring old household bills take up £8.90 of our fund and probably all of us are guilty of spending too long in the shower or leaving lights on in empty rooms. Spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks clocks in at £7.10, which seems reasonable enough. Clothes and shoes averages out at £3.10, although some of us are guiltier than others in that regard! The dreaded student loans cost £2 per person and because the NHS takes on a lot of the cost of health-care that only works out at 90p over a lifetime. The lowest costing item on the list? Sad to say that it’s education at 70p; Maybe we need to look at our priorities a little bit in this country!
You can check out the Lottoland infographic in full here, and find out exactly where all of that money goes.
