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 was 28 in 1990. I lived in London and was worse off than you financially in every single way. I did supposedly own a flat (I had a joint mortgage with a friend on a cheap flat with 2 tiny bedrooms in Hackney, which was in negative equity). I was so poor that I couldn't afford the bus fare to work so I had to cycle on a second hand Raleigh Shopper and I took my lunch with me every day. Often it was just bread and hummus. I also worked a second job in the evenings and at weekends working as a waitress for a private catering company.

I moved out at 16 and rented. I had ds at 22. By 28 I had almost saved enough to buy a house and paid off all debts. I bought my forever house at 29. Can't say it was easy saving up though, I had two jobs. I didn't have the advantage of living at home well into adulthood and no child to support but I did it.

If you live at home i would deduct a % from your salary each month into savings for a house. Say if you earn 1500, pay your parents 200, save 650 into saving for a house. Anything more you can spend on a car, travel savings, eating out, clothes, whatever.

Pay yourself before anything else.

I turned 28 this year. Bought my first house with my husband at 26, had moved in with him renting at 21 so took awhile save up deposit along with paying for big wedding! We don’t live in London though and obviously had two salaries to do it with.

My advice would be to do a very strict budget, what you need to spend on set bills, what you’re giving yourself for fun money and what you can save. And put the to save money into a savings account as soon as it comes in on payday.

I had just moved back from living abroad with DH in low tax countries where we earned good salaries. In 6 years, we managed to save six figures, which is invested as our nest egg.

We took gambles that paid off. My DSis at the same age was on the housing ladder and had about 3 months savings.

My brother is 28 now and still living at home, having gone to uni later, but doesn’t pay any rent so could very much easily afford to move out. He lives in a cheap area so wouldn’t be surprised if he only ended up with a tiny mortgage.

Different people follow different paths - or even following the same paths, end up on it at different times.

I was renting a house at 28 with my fiance, in a fairly low-paid job, and had debt of about £12k. I rarely went on holiday and kept an eye on every single penny that went in and out of my account, otherwise I would have been bankrupt!

Bought our first house at 27 which was 3 years ago. Took 7 years of saving, during which time we had 3 kids and I did a degree so I wasn’t making money for a lot of it! We live in the south west though, and there are 2 of us!
My sister was more like you and lived at home into her 20s. She didn’t save to buy until she moved out and started renting - tbh I can’t blame her as if you’re comfortable and happy and your parents are happy with you at home then it can seem pointless and insurmountable but if you’re living in a shitty rented flat it’s much easier to motivate yourself to leave!

Honestly? Imho yep you are failing at being an adult.

Ownership of a 14k car is irrelevant. It's a depreciating asset. Congratulations, you've pissed money away.

At 28, DH and I saved while renting in zones 1& 2, & bought our first flat, a 2 bed in zone 2. I'm not that much older than you, I'm 34, DH is 33.

It's not really about where you are at 28. It's where you might want to be in your 30s and how you get there. Your 30s is when, for most people, women in particular, you probably need to plan on having any children you might want to have biologically. Some lucky people will conceive easily/have healthy pregnancies in their 40s, they are the minority, so don't bank on it if it's important to you.

Having a family is expensive. By saving in our 20s, DH and I were able to move at age 30 to a bigger house outside London, and can afford the budget killer years of maternity leave & childcare bills for DS & DD.

Of course this is all based on being lucky enough to afford to save. You don't have to own property etc to have a family. But it's harder & more stressful and it can sometimes mean relying on state benefits that could be axed/reduced in the future. The point is it sounds like you can afford it and your position is one of choices.

I think perhaps I should note ds's situation. He's 25. Graduated 2017. Had a gap year working. Did a Masters 2018/19 working part-time. Working 2019/20 before a PhD.

No overdraft after uni. Lives mostly at home. Has saved £14k. Has a very basic and elderly car. Has cheerful holidays involving sleeping on Greek beaches with his mates and airbnbs. I admit we take no money from him.

It's about attitude to money and using it wisely rather than piddling it up the wall on lifestyle

In your shoes OP, I would definitely buy the council house you live in.

Good luck

To everyone on here saying they doubled the value of their first mortgaged home - you didn't DO that, it just happened to you, it's sheer financial good luck. Sure, it's wiser to spend money on a mortgage than rent, and you can choose a property wisely, but how the market performance on a macro level is out of your control.
I doubled the value of my first flat, but I've lived in my current one 5 years and if anything it's lost a few thousand in value in that time. It's impossible to know what will happen to the housing market this year. I expect a lot of people will end up in negative equity.
The OP needs to concentrate on what she wants to achieve in terms of happiness and security and focus on getting there rather than imagining her home as some kind of wild cash accumulation scheme.

I wasn't saying that -I was saying massive property losses in the 1990!!! Property ownership is not a one way gravy train over the long haul by any means.

Certainly nwever having a gap year and picking London business law were good cohices and the best advice really is what my parents did - two professional careers,married about 8 - 10 years before I was born so they could beuy before they bred. Then we did the same- 2 professional full time salaries and bough and only then had the first baby, same with my married child - two professional full time salaries bought before their children came.

Even my father's father was 49 in 1928 when my father was born and quite old when the other siblings came and bought before he bred.

At 28 I had two primary school aged DC. We owned our house and we’re just starting the process of buying the house we live in now. Didn’t really have savings, still don’t have much.

My situation was completely different to yours. I got pregnant at 18, dd1 was born when I was 19 and I had to get my shit together. We brought our first house when I was 20 with a 100% mortgage, something that no longer exists. We’d have struggled big time to save for a deposit whilst renting. Dd2 was born when I was 22.

Which is the better way, well who knows. I own my house, I’m glad that I’m young with my kids and I have a fairly comfortable life. But I’ve never travelled outside of Europe. I’ve never had a fancy car and don’t have nights out all that often. If you’re happy with your life then that’s what matters.

Married with a baby. In a mortgaged house with a mortgage of around £110,000. No credit cards, loans or over drafts. Car was about 10yrs old. I bought it when it was a about 8yrs old and paid for it out right (1.2 corsa)

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland as a 28 year old owner of a 2 bed flat, I am quite curious as to how you know you aren't going to be in negative equity/ be able to afford childcare for 2 children. Esp since house prices are going to fall at least 20%. It's all very nice to be judgemental about younger people who haven't attained the financial status you have but given we are living in a time of great financial instability, I think it's probably better not to blow your own trumpet too much.

At 28 I'd been married 5 years, had first child and TTC 2nd and into my 2nd house

I'm 28, married, renting a house and renting a flat (we work in different parts of the country), both have nice cars for all the commuting we do.
60k savings, split between various savings accounts and ISAs.
Could buy a house but move with work 1-2 times a year at the moment so it would be a bit pointless.
My weakness is buying nice things for the house to make it feel more like mine.

At 28 we were shit with money. We'd remortgaged our house up to negative equity. Took out frivolous loans and ran up credit cards, wasted a 20k inheritance.
We didn't have loads coming in but we would have been fine if we'd budgeted and not been servicing debts. It kind of seemed acceptable then though and that everyone was in debt.

At age 36 we started to turn it all around and paid off all our debts, have an emergency fund to cover 3 months essential bills. We are still paying off the loan my stepdad had to lend us to pay off the negative equity but we'll have that paid off in a few months.

We have a really good income even though I work part time and we feel secure. I still keep control of our finances and don't waste money but we do have nice holidays and treat the kids. Our car is paid off and 7 years old and I couldn't care less about replacing it with a flashier one. When I see someone with a nice new car now I just think oh so they've taken out finance. Very few people pay for their cars in cash.

The crux is at age 40 I don't care what people think. Our house is beautiful and perfect for us but maybe isn't the big house we could have pushed ourselves to afford. Id rather have the extra money in savings and to spend.

OhTheRoses: lives mostly at home is a huge financial advantage. The op has this advantage but maybe she pays her way at home? She has travelled a lot and that’s quite expensive. If a parent pays for everything of course DC can save their earnings if they wish. It’s a huge luxury though.

I'm that age and will shortly be buying my first home. However, it is only really the last year that I've actually managed to pay off my debt and get deposit savings started. I've worked really hard to cut things back and take on extra work to get a deposit. There isn't a way of having a balance unless you move and buy a house in a much cheaper area. For years I thought I could save whilst also going on holiday (not every year), sometimes eating out and generally having a social life. Turns out that isn't the case and as soon as I became super strict things started coming together.

Married, in my 2nd house and with my first baby. Still living in the same house but without a dh and with more children!

At 28 I was living at home, had saved 30k despite the financial crisis by basically working every hour under the sun, upskilling, and saving every penny. (I only had two holidays in my 20s and no gadgets). I applied for every promotion under the sun at my company. At 29 my DH and I bought a pokey house within commuting distance to central London - we don’t live in Greater London but outside which is realistically what you probably should aim for too.

At 28 was in my 8th year of paying mortgage. Had 2 children, one age 4 and one age 2. Both not on fantastic wages but I work part time and mortgage payments low

I accept that @BubblesBuddy but the point I was trying to make was that he is as sensible with money as his parents. If he wasn't saving asdiduously we would make him stump up his keep. He bought a flask and takes it to work to save on bought coffees. He's also still working at entry level. £20k until September '19.

In a deep massive hole of denial :o

We took out a €30k loan that year and I've fuck all idea what we spent it on. It's all gone I've taken control of the finances now. Very glad we didn't buy a €25k car that we were looking at. They are now selling for around €9k so we may get one this year.

Nowhere near getting a deposit for a house. I had a 9yo and we were TTC.