Where were/are you financially at 28?

[SunshineOverStress]

So I’m 28, still live at home, have no savings but I do own a nice car which is worth around 14k.

I want to save up for a deposit but living in Greater London it seems an impossible task to be able to buy a place by myself!

I’ve been on a lot of nice holidays, went travelling for 4 months last year, and waste a lot of money on going out drinking and eating! I always end up choosing to spend money on travel rather than for my future and want to at least try to find a balance!

Has anyone got any tips or suggestions? Preferably without the suggesting of selling my car as it brings me joy everyday! Am I failing at being an adult by having never have moved out at my age? 🙈

Once I owned my flat the second job paid for holidays and socialising, and I never had an expensive car, still don't!

Was back In this country living with my parents following breakdown of my relationship with my fiancé and on a dept management plan as during our relationship when times were hard for him I’d taken out a lone to see us through in my name, when we split I couldn’t afford it and as it wasn’t in his name it was my problem, hard lesson to learn but I got myself out of after a couple of years of hard work and hard savings.

I had my car and that was about it! Though I had been partially living abroad and had had some great holidays abroad

Fast forward 5 years and I’ve just bought my first house at the start of the year, have a great relationship with DP (lives together but mortgage in my name only) in between we rented together but a mortgage is much cheaper though we are in the North

I had decided not to take my place at university but to use the money I had saved towards it for setting up my own business so by 28 I had my own business & owned the business premises plus house and old car all bought without loans or mortgage , I was very focussed on work and had no time to do anything else, it wasn't easy then but I appreciate what it has given me now

I moved out of home at 20 to go backpacking and do working holidays for two years with now-DH. Came back to the UK and bought our first house together. We live in a cheap area so only cost £80k. For five years we worked incredibly hard and poured every bit of spare money (drove an old banger, no holidays, working overtime and extra jobs) into the house to overpay on the mortgage and paid the mortgage off when I was 28.

I'm 33 now and we moved at the end of last year into a house we renovated and I'm completely in love with. We have a mortgage again now and I'm not willing to go without quite as much as we did in our early-mid 20s, but I feel we've set ourselves up really well.

At 28 I was traveling around New Zealand and Australia with no job and no fixed abode. I don't regret that time at all, I loved every second. By the time I was 30 I had a mortgage, a good job and was saving towards a pension. So things can change very quickly if and when you want them to.

I am 25, I live in Greater London (IMO it's Home Counties though).
I have just bought my second house - a 3 bed semi.

I have been travelling and go on holiday 6 times a year, usually places like Maldives, Mauritius etc.

I eat out and drink out a lot after work.
I would say I'm very savvy with money. But of course it depends on your payslip. I always try to save 50% of my salary, this for me meant living in cheaper places when I wasn't a homeowner.
I came from 'poverty' so have never had family money or any inheritance.

I also am careful with the places I socialise, what I drink, how much I drink etc. For example, if I don't have much money but want to see my friends, I will let them know my budget is tight so we will either go to a set menu, a place with discount, or have one drink.

I am sorry but cars are ridiculous and very materialistic. They lose so much value so quickly. I drive a 2002 car that is on its way out, but living in London means driving is unnecessary 90% of the time.

At 28, was getting married
Had no car (still have no car - live in London)
Bought our first flat the following year, then DC1, moved to a house, DC2

Never really done the “big wild travel” as such - always tried to save more particularly bonuses / pay rises

Makes sense to live at home if you take the difference and put it into savings - less so if you fritter the money

At 28 I had my own 1 bed flat on a mortgage, an absolute banger of a car and a good job with a pension.
If you are happy as you are, fine, but I must say I went for years without holidays because I couldn't afford them and a mortgage, and I wasn't able to afford a decent car until I was in my 40s. In fact, thinking back, my whole life was frugal for many years. It was a long time ago, but I think the need for parsimony never goes away.

At 28 I was on unpaid maternity leave with my second child, paying a mortgage by myself on benefits while waiting for my house to sell after my husband and I separated. We had bought our house after we got married when I was 21/22, we "saved" the deposit through 2 years of tax rebates from our own business. To enable us to do that so quickly we rented off his parents for a relatively low rate.
We sold the house and split the profits which I then bought a shared ownership home with no mortgage. I'm still here 3 years later but was looking to move to the open market next year, as I'm due to qualify in a profession which should allow me to get a mortgage. That will now depend how much my current home is worth in comparison to what I'll need to buy.

At 28 living at home my parents would have been furious if I'd not saved some kind of deposit but I'd got a fancy car and been on holiday.

DH and I bought our house when I was 29. It was help to buy, so smaller deposit needed.

We'd moved out of London two years previously and gone North so we got a lot more for our money. We both took slight paycuts but it was more than offset by the massively reduced cost of rent / house prices.

London is a great place but (at least imo) it's not worth scrimping for years to end up mortgaged to the hilt in a shoebox sized flat, which is pretty much the London reality for anyone not earning megabucks.

I'd just bought my first house and was working as an estate agent. Interest rates were high compared to now (although were going to get a lot higher) and I had to have a lodger as I couldn't cover it just on what I earned.

I drove a great car though, Golf GTi, but sadly it was the company's, not mine.

It depends on what you want from life OP and its pointless comparing yourself to others.

I left home at 16, bought a house at 18, and by 28 I'd been through a few boyfriends and owned my own house with a 50% mortgage, I worked hard, lots of over time and lots of seeing friends.

By 30 I started a business on the side which allowed me to pay to travel the world, marry and subsequently divorce my first husband.

So, do I think people should live at home at 28? If you're happy then carry on. But honestly, I would never choose material things over the independence I gained from leaving home young and standing on my own two feet. My mother was abusive and I left to escape her, but even so I think my drive to live my own life would have meant I wouldn't have stayed much longer in any event! I just maybe would have gone to uni, or lived in another city, a little sooner than I did.

It's your life. Live it to best you can.

You've achieved far more than I did at your age. Don't fret too much. Could you try the outskirts of London like Watford or st.albans still easy to get into London from there.

At 28 I was married and we had just bought our first house. We were both on about £7000 pa and the house, a rickety 2 bed semi-detached cottage in rural Suffolk, cost £15650. We put down a £5k deposit which took us 3 years of solid saving living in a cheap, grotty rental and budgeting on food etc. I'll leave you to guess what the decade was.

I got married at 28. DH and I were both working crazy hours with lots of overtime. Bought first flat (zone 4) at 29.

You don't have to buy if you'd rather keep the car, holidays etc. There is no right way to do it.

I was married by then. Pre marriage and children I worked all hours to save for a house deposit as home ownership was more important to me as I want a stable base compared to my childhood. Travel came after that. Far easier to get on the property ladder whilst no financial commitments that children bring.

I’d graduated the year before and also just got married and was pregnant with DC2. I had no savings, had student debt, had purchased a 3 bedroom semi at 27 and moved to a brand new 4 bedroom detached house at 28. I wasn’t working.
I had a DC at 19 and had been living in rented flats until I was 27.

I had a one bedroom flat in Hackney BUT it only cost £170k, my parents lent me the £17k deposit which I paid back over 5 years and I was earning £30k. It was tight - I couldn't afford any holidays, for example, while loads of my renting friends were taking time out of work to travel - but it was manageable.

London is awful now. The starter rung costs what a 3 bed house did 10 years ago. I feel for you. But if you're lucky enough to stay at home for a while I would have a couple of frugal years and plough everything into savings to see how you get on.

(I also didn't have a car)

Your situation sounds perfect! Travel and experiences are the main thing when you're young, buying a house and all that guff...well you have the rest of your life to worry about that. Of course you have the rest of your life to travel as well, but you can never really travel with the sense of freedom that you have before kids and responsibilities.

I'm just shy of 28 and my DH is 2 years older.

We just bought our 2nd house, a 4 bed detached new build. Our first home we bought when I was 22 and he was 24 and it was a 3 bed mid terrace (also new build).

I'm really proud of the fact that we havent used help to buy at all and we saved up to put down 10% on our first house and we've put down just over 10% on this house after selling our last house.

However, we're in a town in the north west. We'd have no chance in london.

We got married a year ago and our wedding cost around £22k plus honeymoon. We were very fortunate to have had around £8k or £9k of it paid for by both of our parents, and we were given some very generous gifts of cash at our wedding to put towards our honeymoon.

My car is 10 years old and is probably on the verge of packing in so I'll need to get a new one soon, but we earn quite well and I like having so much disposable income every month without having anything on finance.

We also dont have kids yet but are TTC at the moment so are trying to put money away to cover maternity leave as although I'm in a well paid role my company only offers SMP and I am the breadwinner.

Was living in a flat share in London, earning early £30ks and had around £2k on a credit card. I had just started going out with DH so by 30 I was engaged and had bought my first house. That was through inheritance though.

I'm 29... At 28, we had our own house, owned both cars outright. I left home at 19 to rent then we bought at 21, both have probably above average earnings but we're north midlands and worlds apart in terms of property prices. To buy our first home we saved a 13k deposit over 3 years. There's no right or wrong place to be x

Is this a reverse and are you my mother?

@purpletigers You can see from the rest of the thread that OP isn't typical. Stop sniping.

I think you make your choice with how you spend your money and as long as it's a conscious decision and you understand the risks then go for it. But if you're do want a house, your pushing more and more large financial responsibilities closer together as you age. Your mortgage will have to be paid off in a shorter time meaning higher payments. Your pension/saving for retirement will become increasingly important as you age. And if you want kids you'll be paying for those at the same time, possibly whilst having lower earning potential (due to childcare decisions).

For the vast number of people, financial sacrifice is a way of life, the lucky ones just have to do it more infrequently than others and the stakes might not be quite as high when they do.