MP Josh Reynolds: My £60,000 student loan is mental. It’s like another mortgage

In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals. This week, in our celebrity edition, we speak to Liberal Democrat MP Joshua Reynolds, 27, who talks about growing up in a frugal household, working from 16, carrying a £60,000 student loan and why he puts money aside at the start of every month. What was money like when you were growing up? It was only my dad that worked in the family – he was a project manager at a shop-fitting company – and he worked away quite a lot. My mum looked after me and my brother. Shorts Growing up, we never said things like “I want that” or “that’s something we need” and we didn’t have. We weren’t sat counting pennies here and there, but I think my parents were always quite frugal when it came to spending. We went on UK holidays, so we didn’t go abroad – it wasn’t a thing for us. The first time I actually went abroad was on a school trip to Germany. So, we holidayed in the UK and my parents tried to save a bit of money here and there where they could. What was your first job? My first job was actually working at Marks and Spencer on Maidenhead High Street – so in the constituency, which is probably on brand. I was on the customer service desk, and I started doing that when I was 16, when I was starting my A levels. I always remember I used to work from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. I got an M&S discount card – 20 per cent staff discount for me, and one for my mum. And I tell you, every Christmas that came in very handy. What did you spend your first pay cheque on? I don’t know what that first pay cheque was. I know I saved quite a lot of money up to buy my car. I learned to drive pretty much as soon as I turned 17, and I imagine I was probably saving up for that car. It was a £1,500 car that leaked and had a wing mirror taped on to it still, but it was mine, and I bought it with my money. No one could tell me it wasn’t. It’s that moment where your parents can’t say that they paid for it. No – this is mine, and this is one of the first things that’s ever been mine. How much student loan debt do you have? When I asked a question about student loans in the Commons earlier this year, it was £60,000 – that was my student loan balance. That’s mental. And let’s face it, as an MP, I’m in a privileged position – it means we pay a lot of money back on our student loans, but it does not feel like it’s going down. Did you think about student debt differently when you were at university? I remember at school being told it won’t make an impact on a mortgage application. I’m sure I remember them saying it’s like a phone bill. It’s so not either of those things. It’s like another mortgage. It reduced the amount of money I could borrow [for a house]. It’s a massive strain to have now. What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to spending? Everyone’s got a weakness when it comes to money. One of the things that I know I do – when I look at my bank account at the end of the month and tot up what I’ve done on what – I get scared by the amount of £3 at Costa, or £4 at Pret. Did I need to go and stop at Costa on my way to the train station? No, I didn’t. Did I need that pastry? No, I didn’t. I use Monzo Bank and Monzo Wrapped at the end of the year is quite possibly the worst bit of the year. Life can’t get any worse: it’s January – oh yeah, Monzo Wrapped is here. Great. There was one year I looked at it and I was like, “Right, this is wrong. I need to stop,” and I made a conscious effort to change off the back of that. What’s the best purchase you’ve made? I bought myself a car for around £5,000 back in 2019 and it’s still going. It’s still living; it’s still just about rattling away and surviving, but it’s still here. I’ve sweated that asset pretty well, haven’t I? It’s another Vauxhall Corsa, but it’s a slightly more modern one; it’s a 2016 car. How do you manage your money? I do it myself. I like having little pots of money. Every month when I get paid, I’ll go, “Right, what do I want, what do I need to do?” Knowing that we’ll end up doing a bit of a splurge Christmas shop for food, every month I put away £10-£15. It means when I get to Christmas, I’ve got that cash and I can go, “You know what, I can do a Christmas food shop and not worry about what I’m putting in the basket because it’s Christmas. I’ve saved for that across the year.” Same with the car MOT and servicing. If I just wait until August, it’s going to hit and it’s going to hit pretty hard, so let’s put £20 away each month. Do you save for retirement? I’ve got my Parliament pension; that’s important. I also have a pension from when I was working at the Co-op after I finished university, and I always tried to make sure I put more money into that than I ever needed to. I was very aware that I would like to retire early. My dad retired at 55, having done pretty much the same. He tried to be frugal and put more away than he needed to each month. What’s the best financial advice you’ve been given? I think the best bit of advice that I was given was probably by my dad, which was: put money aside at the beginning of the month, not the end. When you get paid, don’t wait until the end to see what you have left, because if you have it, you’ll probably spend it, and if you’ve got it, you’ll find a reason for it to be spent. So, put it away to begin with, and then if you really need it, you take it out and use it. It’s almost tricking your brain into thinking you haven’t got the money to go and spend on these things.