To ask if you saved for a house deposit alone?

[WineInTheSun]

Currently saving for a deposit alone... I’m 24 and have 5.4K saved. I started saving about 8 months ago. I live at home and am very lucky in that I don’t pay rent- however I do have a large outgoing in terms of commute costs to work. I earn £26K a year.

It feels like this will never end! I am buying outside of London (20K should be enough for a deposit), but has anybody else felt the despair of the target figure seeming so far away? The 5.4K is all of my savings... up until this I never had savings, always spent money on Travel or luxuries. My friends seem to be between the extremes of either having bought with a partner with lots of savings or up to their eyeballs in debt and an overdraft.

I just want some hope from other people who have bought alone in their 20s!

Hey, I didn’t save alone, myself and partner saved whilst renting rooms etc took us 10 years because of low incomes, plus rent etc.
You are in a great position saving well. Sounds like you have about 20 months left at this rate to meet your target. Just keep going and grind it out. Open a help to buy isa if you haven’t already.
I know it’s hard but it’s worth it I promise, you are doing very well so far

you sound like you are doing really well. Don't lose hope. It seems to take forever, but that time will pass anyway. It will be worth it in the end.

I saved alone but was only able to do so while living rent free at home and buying and doing nothing and I mean nothing for a year.

At the moment you are only saving 675pm out of a take home salary of at-least 1699.71 if you have 5% auto enrolment and a payment plan 2 (newer) student loan.

Unless your commute costs a grand a month there is scope to be saving more. It’s painful but much much quicker.

I bought alone in my 20s. Yes it feels like a long, hard slog and would be done twice as fast if you were buying with a partner who had the same income as you, but I can promise that the pride you feel when you achieve this on your own will be totally worth it! Plus you don’t risk buying with a partner who you later split up with - that happened to a couple of my friends and it wasn’t pretty!

I think the source of your frustration might be your slightly unrealistic timescale view - I bought mine at 28 and didn’t feel slow at all. 24 is very young, you just need to take the time to get the savings and hopefully your salary will increase over the next few years too.

Best of luck and well done for the savings you’ve got so far!

Don’t lose hope, it feels really long but will be worth it in the end! I am now looking to buy with DH but with lots of sacrifices, I managed to save £15k myself before meeting him. It took about 3 years and I did it but having a 60 day notice savings account which meant as soon as I put money in (on payday!) i wouldn’t be able to touch it. I was living in London at the time with my parents (didn’t pay any rent but contributed to bills) and was working as a newly qualified nurse earning about £24K. Very hard work and was a bit depressing at the time but it is definitely doable.

I did save alone, but I also used some of the money I saved to invest in professional qualifications which very quickly bumped up my salary.

Just something to consider. You're smashing it at the moment, but am just wondering - if you used the 0.4 k to invest in yourself, whatever field your in, and really work to get your salary increased if you can, that may also help when it comes to the income multiples/mortgage part.

It seems to take forever. If you have the time, what I've done is I got a picture of a house, and I edited it to make it white, and then sat like a weirdo and figured out how much we were planning on saving worked out into £100 segments. I kid you not. The only way I cant make DH save Is by showing him how many boxes weve ticked off, and it helps him to remain focused on the goal as he can see it moving up and up.

It's an over simplification for most people, but he struggles to remain focused otherwise.

I bought alone although a long time ago, best thing l ever did, it totally changed my future.

Our deposit was joint savings from me and my then 1st husband - no help from anywhere else - we saved for a year. We also paid for our own wedding - 2 years savings that time.

I didn't have the opportunity to live "at home"
I lived in various house shares & worked multiple jobs for several years
Therefore I possibly had a greater incentive to own property, to have my own space !
Of course it takes time & effort

Look forward to the end goal

My DH bought our first house before he met me. He had 26k saved by 26 and he had similar salary to you, and also lived at home, so it is doable. This was 15 years ago, and with some promotions his salary has doubled since. Hang in there.

I'm saving on my own. I'm not prioritising deposit cause I want my savings account to be healthy and do contributions towards retirement and investing in case of having kids at some point. Once I'll decide to buy, then I'll put as much money towards that as possible. But it will take a while, but since you are living rent fee could you live miserably for a year and get your savings up?

also- are you saving into a LISA so you get the govt bonus? thats a really nice boost to the total

I bought alone 4 years ago (in my 20s) I had saved £15,000 over the space of about 6 years though. It was hard and I did have to sacrifice nice holidays on and off. I bought a flat, sold it just over a year ago and subsequently a house as the prices rocketed as soon as I bought. Was just good timing.

Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job.

Don't forget the other costs of buying a house though. Solicitor fees, conveyancing, moving costs and initial furnishing costs. I didn't buy solo but we bought as soon as we had our deposit which made it a bit of a struggle to pay for all the additional fees. I'd plan to save up an extra £3k on top of your deposit to cover the additional costs.

I'm in the same boat! In my twenties too and I'm not including any men who may or may not stick around in my plans when buying. I know exactly how you feel- its a long slog and a few of my friends have shacked up with boyfriends with most of the earning power which has allowed them to buy some beautiful houses. Its a bit demoralising because I will only ever be able to afford a flat in a less desirable area of town on my own. But I just think how proud of myself I will be when I get there! And there is always the option of upsizing after a few years.

I moved 10 times (not including the time when I was a student) before I bought in late 20s

That was enough incentive

I bought alone last year at 26. I actually was buying out my ex from the property we had bought together. He had put in the whole deposit so I had to pay him this, plus his mortgage contributions.

I had 12 months to come up with the money. I saved £13k in this time and borrowed the remaining £5k from my parents. I could have saved more, if I hadn’t already been paying the mortgage!

I am now paying my parents back £350 a month, on top of my mortgage and doing some essential house repairs. It is painful, I agree and I miss the days of luxuries and travel but I completely love having my own space. There is nothing that makes me happier than unlocking my own front door every night!

I agree about getting a LISA, this can boost your savings by 25% so could make a huge difference to you.

I did it OP I was 28 started saving at 22 best thing I ever did my only advice would be after all
That hard work don't give it away if you meet someone a friend of mine did this 3 times 🙄 she had to keep starting from scratch.