My goal in life is not to make a lot of money, although I enjoy investing and I enjoy making money.
What is most important is good friends, family and experiences, and money is just a vehicle to enable me to do
what I want in life.
Hi, I'm Alex Symeonoglou.
I'm thirty-four years of age and I live in Maidenhead, which is just outside of London.
My job is strategic assistant and chief of staff for a large pharmaceutical organization, and I make £
132,000 a year. So I'm half Greek, half English.
But I was born and grew up in Athens, Greece, until I was 18 years of age.
And since then, I've traveled a little bit back and forth.
So I did my bachelor's degree in the U.K.
Then I went back to Greece to do my military service, and I started my own business and then I went to Paris to do my
MBA. And now I've ended up in London for the past seven to eight years.
From a very young age, my father taught me some very good financial principles.
He was a bit of a role model to understand how to manage money, how to live beneath your means and not show off.
And by the time I reached university, I was on a daily basis, tracking stocks and getting involved with my father's
investments. Investing is something that I have a huge passion for.
I read investment news every single day.
I look at stock prices, and it's actually the thing that I talk about the most with all of my friends and family.
It actually jokingly is probably a second job for me.
I currently own my own two bedroom, two bathroom flat in Maidenhead.
I actually got a mortgage, a loan for 13 years, but I plan to pay it off in nine, so I have another four years
left and if all goes well, then what I will do with it is I will rent it out in order to have some passive income while
I transition to another flat or house where in the UK or abroad.
But the main reason why I bought in Maidenhead is because it's actually financially a very good option.
It's near London, it's actually very near Heathrow, but it means that for the same amount of money, I can actually have
something much, much bigger.
And actually, when I look at the cost price of the flat, which was run about £300,000., there is no way I would have
anything equivalent in London.
So overall, I think my money management skills are pretty good.
I manage my budget monthly very, very strictly.
So I have a very set rule in terms of how much money I want to save each month.
And I put that aside immediately, which forces me to save money each month.
I think on the flip side, if I'm honest with myself, there's point in times where I probably save a bit too much,
which has a detriment in terms of some of my lifestyle and also my interactions with my friends.
And I think the other thing that sometimes I can do is I can unexpectedly splurge.
So, for example, I bought a car a couple of years ago, which is a nice car, and I did buy it for a good deal.
But did I really need it?
I probably didn't.
And that would have been money better put aside to invest or save.
In total, I put around about 34% of my gross salary into my pension each month.
I also maximize the UK investment scheme that allows you to put around about £150
pounds in company shares, which then my company adds a little bit on top.
I actually take the full car allowance as I own my own car.
It means that I get £6,800 each year for car allowance, and that is good money that I put into
savings. So one of the great things about being in the UK is
the National Health Service, the NHS.
Actually, what that means is that health care is free at the point of entry for every single patient, which I also
have a private health care scheme that is funded by my company, which enables me, when needed, to get faster access
to treatment. We like to work out a lot, so I go to the gym.
I've been lifting weights for many years.
I remember when I was young, I always loved watching Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone.
So I'm not at that level, but I'm trying to get there.
I play a lot of tennis.
I actually used to play golf, I used to be on the Greek national golf team.
But it's actually quite strenuous for my back.
So I've now transitioned into tennis, which I play on a weekly basis.
Now, mixology is probably my most expensive hobby in which I host cocktail parties quite often, so I probably spend
between £50 to £200 on bottles, but I don't drink £200 worth of alcohol each month.
That's only for my guests.
So the way I do it is probably once a month, I'll have a cocktail party in which I want to try new recipes.
And what I do is there's always a theme and I have a menu.
The way that I invest in the UK is through stocks and shares ISA.
To make things very simple, this is very similar to the U.S.
Roth IRA.
So I think the biggest money mistake that I've ever made is investing in stocks that I knew nothing about.
One of the most important principles when investing is that I need to understand what the company is.
There's been a couple of occasions in the past where I've put a big amount of money in companies that I actually knew
nothing about, and I ended up losing 50% to 60% of the capital.
It's a lesson well-learned, but actually, it did hurt me financially.
So credit card usage is actually one of the things that I'm very passionate about.
When I was in Greece, it's something that I never did because credit card usage was seen as something as dangerous
and you might get into debt.
I actually use my credit card just as I would use a debit card.
The first thing is I get points and I love points.
It enables me to buy miles, whether it's to travel, to see friends and family, or even to purchase things.
And I'm very pleased to say that I have a 999 Experian credit rating in the U.K., which is the highest possible.
But it also gives you a lot of protection.
So whether you travel using your credit card, it means you have travel or medical insurance.
And when you purchase items, even a car, it means that it gives you some sort of protection.
In terms of things that I splurge on, shoes is one of the things that I have a passion for.
So I'm very peculiar, I like my shoes to be a specific type of smelling leather and look a certain way.
So I have a fairly big collection of leather shoes that are fairly expensive.
So I polish them on a monthly basis.
I also moisturize them so they will go a long way.
But it's actually quite a big splurge because the minimum I spend on a good pair of leather shoes will be £600 to £700
pounds.
The other thing that I splurge on, but less frequently, is my computer.
So I have a custom-built computer in which I select every component.
It's quite an expensive hobby, and it costs me around about, to build my own computer, £2,000.
Things that I refuse to spend money on is a new car.
The other thing that I refuse to buy is branded clothing for everything, and I like my nice shoes.
But when I go to the gym, I'm fine wearing a cheap T-shirt that will do its job for the long term.
Looking forward into the future, it's always difficult to be 100% certain, but I do know that beyond progressing in my
career, I do very much want to move potentially to another country in order to experience a different culture and a
different experience.
The other thing is that being 34, I'm probably ready to start a family of my own, whether that's in the UK or
another country. I think it's probably something that is very important to me.
Friends and family being one of the most important things in life.
One of the things that I like about working is not the money or the job title, but it's actually the opportunity to be
useful and make an impact in my life.
So if all goes well, I'll be healthy into a very old age and I'll keep working because that will give me a lot of
purpose.