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? 🙈

I'm 27 this year.

Moved away from home (3hrs) to uni at 18. Haven't moved back since. Have rented or now live with my boyfriend in his house.

Have a house deposit saved ready for us to move when this madness is over.

49k salary.

Assets...er...a car and 2 horses!

Don't travel that often (abroad once or max twice a year for special occasion), don't go out much, don't drink or smoke....am generally very stingy haha!

Hi op
I am in similar circumstances to you- I am still living with parents and I have done so with my partner to save for a deposit for the last couple of years- I am a year older than you. I really appreciate everything that my parents have done for us to help us save a considerable amount of money. (£60k)

We pay a small amount of rent and do the weekly food shop for all the family but generally our outgoings are minimal. We have been on several 'luxury' holidays over the last few years but other than that we try and save.. I am really surprised at your age and living at home you havent managed to save anything at all? Are you a low owner? How much money do you plan to save for a deposit? we both have old cars 10+ years old and although we both would like a new one we have prioritised saving for a deposit!

It's up to you though- if you had to save £20k would you be happy living at your parents until you are say 35?

We are lucky that when the market stabilizes we will be in a great position to buy albeit we dont live in london and I can imagine how frustrating it must be with the extortionate house prices!

At 28 I had just brought a house with a partner after selling a flat I had purchased on my own at 26 with a 10% deposit. At 32 we are now in our second home, we upsized to a 4 bed and put down a 15% deposit. I am the main earner.
We both own our own car which are 4 and 3 years old.
We live in Essex a 40 min train ride from Liverpool Street and neither of us work in London.
It's about what you want. If you were to decide in a year that you wanted a house how quickly could you save a deposit?

I think a lot of it depends on the person you are. I'm a homebody, love my dogs and prefer city breaks can't do travelling for weeks at a time, just not my bag.

I'm 28, married and expecting my first baby this summer. We are in our second house (have a mortgage, but it's not a first time buyer type of house now, we could stay here forever). We earn good salaries, both working full time. DH didn't go to uni but I did and have a professional qualification post uni too. Typically we'd go on holiday once maybe twice a year but for less than 14 days in total. Although covid stopped our recent holiday.

At 28, I'd been in my house for 3 years (bought with OH). 10% deposit that was half loaned from his parents, half a bank loan (this was 2009, just sneaking in before the hardline checks they conduct now).

My car was worth about a grand, and I had roughly 15k of debt thanks to irresponsible spending. I continued to accrue more debt, and 9 years later am only just seeing the end of it all thanks to work progression and pay rises. I'm crap with money.

At 28 I was married a nearly and expecting my first dc. We had bought our own house 2 years previous to getting married. We bought our house outright as we had worked abroad tax free, saved most of our wages and travelled for a year too! But I finished university at the age of 21. So 7 years was a long time to get all of that done.

At 28, I was four years into my first job (I was late starting as I did a masters and internship first). I was living in a shared house, going for after works drinks (but not as much as I'd have liked as I'd no money left after rent). I'd taken a few budget holidays, but all within Europe (inter-railing, hosteling in eastern Europe - that kind of thing). I didn't have a car (just a bike) and little savings as I wasn't able to (about a months worth of my pretty low salary). But I had no debt either.

At 28, I was ready to move on - applied for lots of jobs, took one in mainland Europe in July of that year. It tripled my salary and from there was able to rent my own apartment, go on more exotic holidays and save for my own apartment.

A year nearly*

I'm going back to when I was 21. At that point I had £3k saved from not blowing lots of money on clothes, holidays and clubbing. And from never refusing work or overtime. I was a very steady 21 year old.

That's why my dad helped me with a flat deposit. At 21 I had a flat in London, a £23k mortgage, a flatmate so I could run my ageing car, a good job in the City and was in work by 7.45 every morning. For the first few years by not having holidays or blowing money I just about made end meet.

By 28 my career had taken off, I elected to have a car allowance rather than a company car and had bought my first house.

My friends poo pooed how hard I worked and told me I was boring and wasting my life. By 38 the same friends were skint, moving out of London because their flats were too small and telling me I was soooo lucky.

Er no. I had just worked my socks off, made sacrifices and married somebody equally hardworking and sensible with money.

I left home for university at 18 and at 28 was nearing the end of my professional training. I bought a flat that year with by boyfriend with the aid of a deposit from my parents.i had an old banger and we had yearly but cheap holidays. No expensive restaurants or clothes. This was many years ago when a young professional couple could afford a one bedroom flat in London so buying was within the grasp of most of our peers and was by far the biggest monetary demand .Because it was possible most of us spent our money that way rather than on new cars or holidays, watches and going out.

At 28 I was moving into a long term house, having just sold our first home. I’m 32 now. In London though you’ll have no chance, move to Glasgow.

At 28 I was married and DS1 was born.... Living in Greater London and renting, DH and I were both working ft in standard office jobs. Car was a 2nd hand nissan micra, and we had about 15k in savings. Usually only 1 cheap holiday a year to visit relatives in Italy.

Now 32, just had DS2, living in Brighton, still renting and have less savings and a slightly nicer 2nd hand nissan micra

Hoping to buy before 35, probably using shared ownership.

At 28, I had a company car, reasonable job, no nice holidays, few nights out, maybe the pub once or twice a week, but I had bought a very tatty two bed house that I was doing up. I had about 15% equity.

It sounds like you've had more fun than I had. If you want a house deposit though, you'll have to stop the holidays and the evenings out. It seems to be one or the other, unless you earn £££££s

Since lockdown, how much have you saved per week? Multiply that by 50 and that's how much you could save each year.

At 28 I was living in a houseshare and going out every night drinking, eating, cinema trips, pub lunches etc. Had probably less than £1k total in savings and not that much to show for it.

Loved my life, but woke up one day, looked around and realised that all my friends were settling down, buying flats/houses, getting married, having kids etc and I was still living the life of a student. Took stock, changed career, changed city, started saving. Bought my first flat 5 years later at 33.

Exactly the same scenario as you! No savings and used all of what I did have on travel. Now on maternity leave and need to sort myself out once it's over. The prospect of buying a house just seems impossible so I stick to renting (which my husband covers as I'm at a stay at home mum currently).

Living abroad working and renting an apartment, normal car bought outright and small overdraft I think. Money was spent on clothes, lots of travelling, going out and fun stuff really. Got a mortgage for a house at 32 and still in it/have paid a good whack off. Don’t have any savings, which does worry me, but count our house as our main investment,

At 28 I was living in the Caribbean, renting a huge house with my own 50m swimming pool, travelling extensively, glamorous job. But I am mid fifties and life was different then

My advice OP would be to ditch the car, and budget budget budget.

At 28 I was married, three beautiful daughters after IVF.

Owned our own home, having sold our Victorian terrace to buy a (then) new build, three bed detached.
The following year I became a civil servant. But at 28 I owned my own car, a umpteenth hand fiesta, worth about £200

There is life outside of London, life and jobs and affordable housing.

We now own, outright, a four bed, three story, detached, with garden, garage, drive, two and half bathrooms, 8 miles from city centre (city is not london) and have about £200k in the Bank. (We are mid 50’s)

I’m struggling to understand why you’d own a car at £14k when that would be about 25% of the cost of a quite nice house in cheaper parts of the country?
If your job is transferable, look at Lincolnshire, Sandwell (near Birmingham) newark in Nottinghamshire, pontefract, Selby, Durham area and you too could be a home owner, married, parent, whatever your dreams are.

At 28 we were newlyweds and had just bought our first flat in Greater London. We didn’t have large salaries but we were putting a few hundred aside every month towards savings. We did not go out drinking and partying, but we did enjoy a nice quality of life with two holidays abroad every year, meals out with friends and regular date nights. We did not own a car as they are so expensive to run.

I know you don’t want to hear it, but if you really want to buy your own place, the easiest way is to sell your car for the 14k and save aggressively (by which I mean live as cheaply as possible, so no splashing out on things like travel and going out and clothes) for a few months/years to get another 10k in the bank account. If you are working a full time job and living for free at home then surely that should be a feasible task—save 1k/month for 10 months and you’re set. You can get a 1 bed flat in Greater London for 250k and then work your way up the property ladder from there. With things as they are, I expect there will be some bargains to be had in the coming months.

Are your parents happy for you to be still living at home and not saving for a house deposit?

At 28, I owned a 2 bedroom flat with a lodger whose rent paid the mortgage. I had saved like a loon since graduating and lived in shared houses. No car - cycled to work, and worked nearly every evening so little spending on restaurants etc.

I had just got engaged. Gosh it seems a long time ago!

At 28 I lived on my own, rented a small house, worked full time, spent very little, drove a £300 car, was entirely self-sufficient with no dependents.

28 was only 2 years ago for me...

I was at university, had savings of 8k and renting a property i been in for the previous 5 years. I have a daughter and was single.

Now at 30, have a partner and I have 12k savings, I also have a separate savings nest for a 5% deposit for a house. Start saving now! Never too late!

At 28 I was married, owned my own home (mortgage of 500 quid a month) and had just given birth to my first child.

A second (surprise) baby later we have zero savings, too much on the credit card but hopefully a decent amount of equity in the house! (Well we did before lockdown!).

But I'm in the north east, house prices are so cheap and my little 3 bed semi cost 95,000! We earn about 40 grand between us but I'm part time and due to go back full time next year when the youngest gets his free hours!

Car worth 23k (might as well build credit in reasonable style
10k in business account
Also working full time
Live with parents
Savings of 5k (due to various life events, should be MUCH MUCH more)
I had one holiday since leaving uni in 2014, due to working and studying.

Was saving for a home but at this point, I'm just saving for saving sake OP the way things are with all job instability. Cash is king, just stack your cash then decide what to do with it when the air is a little clearer. Don't forget Brexit is coming too, who knows what things will be like then could be great, could be bad. Save what you can to give yourself options, so you can pviot when you want to @SunshineOverStress