Work hard now to pay off your mortgage by 30, and retire by 40

[Ieattoomuchsugar]

And to buy a house at 19/20 whatever age

Maybe exaggerating with the ages a bit but these are examples I've seen.

People who've gone without holidays, new clothes etc, lived with the bare minimum and worked endless overtime for years in order to achieve the above.

Has anybody actually done this or in the process of doing it?

I do see the appeal but I personally wouldn't want/wouldn't have wanted to spend my 20s and 30s living that way. I do think life is to be enjoyed, I of course want to save but I am not prepared to go without things I enjoy for such a long time. I think it's better to strike a balance, and I'd rather enjoy life now just as much as when I am 50/60.

@retirementsucks 50% of my after tax income is spent on overpaying the mortgage and the mortgage itself. Minimum mortgage payment is 23% of post tax income (we both have pensions, DH has £200 of student loans plus he has a salary sacrifice to buy company stock).
we wouldn't have that once mortgage is paid off and we are retired.

Following with interest - but not much hope of achieving this myself, for a number of reasons. Firstly I’m not paid enough, and while I could earn more I don’t have the energy to increase work/stress although if I’d been more organised I could have done so when I was younger. Secondly I have various heritable diseases in my family and I don’t know (and would probably not want to know) if I carry the genes making it likely that I will develop them. So all in all for my circumstances it’s better to live life now and enjoy it since I know that it is very possible to work your guts out and delay pleasure only to die too soon to enjoy it.

Comments above on it not being possible for the average person to save a million quid. It’s certainly not easy but certainly possible. Compound interest is a remarkable thing. If you put down a £5000 lump sum now, and then invested your full £20k ISA tax allowance each year (so £1,666 a month), at a relatively conservative 8% annual return over 20 years - you would have £1,013,040.

Yes I am doing this
Bought my first house when I was 20. Now 44 and the mortgage is done and I have just very recently given up work. It feels odd saying “I’ve retired” but I’m sure I’ll get used to it!

RenGreen

Yes you can build a million pound retirement fund if you work hard and build a successful business. If you start putting money into it early. If you dont waste your money on unecessary things. I know because thats how we did it.

@TravelDreamLife

H &: started down this path 20 years ago.(at 20). I was miserable. I wanted to travel, to enjoy.life... but, no... It's 'pay now play later'...

Then at 23 I had a colleague who got sick. They recovered & then one day were just...gone. I'll never forget that feeling. It took me a couple of months to figure out it was because I knew she'd led an awesome life so far & you didn't know how many days we had left. I didn't want to spend my life saving for a future that might not arrive.

Started travelling, started living, but with a balance (we live pretty frugally). We're mid 40's now. Have been to incredible places, have a small mortgage & pensions way above average, but nowhere near retirement.

I wouldn't change it. I've seen too many people try it & financial or health problems, death, divorce, etc. has stopped almost every one of them. It's great for those it works for, but it's too much of a risk for me.

Yeah, I feel like this. I've known a few people die young, and it changes your view.

We do save and overpay (although not wealthy enough to do so on a massive scale), but we also make sure we enjoy life and travel while we have our health and youth.

This thread is really giving me the jitters. I am an absolute moron with money and reading PPs just makes me want to jump off a cliff! I guess we can't all be good at everything... I am quite good at folding fitted sheets.

It really doesn't matter for many people. I have been looking at the 1921 census for various ancestors - few of whom ever owned a home and they led perfectly happy lives renting. One was over 50 and an assistant matron at a London hospital in 1921 living in the nurse's home until she died. Another rented a 2 up 2 down and in 1921 had 7 children living there including one adult one (and she, a widow (widowed twice by then ) had 3 other older daughters who had left home and were living in - in service - including my granny who sadly is not on the census as she took herself off by boat in 1921 to work for a British family in India as a nanny - but was back by 1922 as it did not work out well, got malaria etc).

The other side of the family again on my mother's side including my grandfather were renting too also in Sunderland and they had the father in work and 3 sons at home all out of work from jobs at the shipyard and a daughter and mother not working and daughter's husband who was also "out of work" it says from the shipyard.

So two households - one with 7 people and only the father in work and the other one - the widow - 8 people and no one working.

We bought a house in our 20s and we rented out part of it. That helped us to afford our second house (we rented out the first to a nice guy who loved the first house but didn't want the responsibility of owning a home--he was actually much richer than we are). The extra income helped us pay our mortgage off for both houses. We were both able to retire early. And yes, it is fucking great. But it was also hard work and responsibility. The first house was a disaster zone when we bought it, and a lot of people our age were having fun while we were peeling up urine stained carpet and many other disagreeable tasks.

@Xenia

It really doesn't matter for many people. I have been looking at the 1921 census for various ancestors - few of whom ever owned a home and they led perfectly happy lives renting. One was over 50 and an assistant matron at a London hospital in 1921 living in the nurse's home until she died. Another rented a 2 up 2 down and in 1921 had 7 children living there including one adult one (and she, a widow (widowed twice by then ) had 3 other older daughters who had left home and were living in - in service - including my granny who sadly is not on the census as she took herself off by boat in 1921 to work for a British family in India as a nanny - but was back by 1922 as it did not work out well, got malaria etc).

The other side of the family again on my mother's side including my grandfather were renting too also in Sunderland and they had the father in work and 3 sons at home all out of work from jobs at the shipyard and a daughter and mother not working and daughter's husband who was also "out of work" it says from the shipyard.

So two households - one with 7 people and only the father in work and the other one - the widow - 8 people and no one working.

*The other side of the family again on my mother's side including my grandfather were renting too also in Sunderland and they had the father in work and 3 sons at home all out of work from jobs at the shipyard and a daughter and mother not working and daughter's husband who was also "out of work" it says from the shipyard.

So two households - one with 7 people and only the father in work and the other one - the widow - 8 people and no one working*

I'm sure they were having a flipping whale of a time 🙄 Poverty and servitude ?

@Freelady

We have just under 2 k a month. That is fine. Mortage paid off. Council tax is expensive but otherwise we shop around. If my dh dies I get half his pension. We are 58 and 62 so no state pension .

and you will have more or less the same costs on half the pension . It doesn't matter how many people are sitting under one light bulb.

You can never get your 20s back when they are gone. It's not the time to be working all the hours and having no life. Plus you might have an accident or ill health and die young.

I'm trying to do this, looking to pay my mortgage off by 30, however I'm not going without, simply being a little more thrifty and spending less on crap! I have 5 years...

I couldnt have afforded to do this without avoiding uni (undergraduate and postgrad) and training for my profession all of which meant many years with very little money and being frugal just to get to qualification. I did save a house deposit and buy a house with my husband, have a very cheap wedding and we have overpaid our mortgage since nearly the start but we still haven't cleared it yet and it's a small house

I agree with others that retirement is overrated. I could've stayed in my retail job, saved like a mad person and tried for promotions to pay off a cheap house and retire early. But I wouldnt have enjoyed that or earned as much as now. I also wouldve had to retire on a very frugal budget if I even could've.

Now by studying I am in a job I love earning more money but it took until after 30 to really kick it off. So I have failed the paying mortgage off by 30 in your OP but feel much more fulfilled and actually as I love work dont feel the urge or need to retire. And my retirement plan is way healthier in terms of ££s potential and so when I do eventually retire I should hopefully be in a much more comfortable position.

I dont understand the FIRE movement when it amounts to living very frugally and saving an amount of money yes to retire early but still to live very frugally. For me, I prefer working longer in a more lucrative career which took time to build and then having the prospect of retiring on a more comfortable sum - or loving work enough to not want to.

We did this Took a mortgage where you could use your savings to offset the interest and you could overpay without any issues. But could also take money out if you needed it. We did not spend on meals out that much but still had fun entertaining at home etc. I was about 40 when we paid it but we kept the mortgage going on £10 month in case we needed to draw out again. You can sleep well knowing that this is now your worst case scenario financially

@lljkk

wtf sounds so boring to be retired by age 40.

when is the article due?

Haha, this site is full of lazy click bait "journalists" trying to get their next story. Gutter press. Even in Australia we still get all of the shit stories and they are always from mumsnet threads..

@UserBot989

Who would buy a house at 19 though? I think realistically, 27 or 28 would be young to buy a house and then even high earners would be lucky to have it paid off by 55.

@UserBot989 I bought my first house aged 28 and will pay the mortgage off aged 55. I'm not a high earner either. I don't think my situation is all that unusual?

@TooOldToBeAGoth

Yes I am doing this Bought my first house when I was 20. Now 44 and the mortgage is done and I have just very recently given up work. It feels odd saying “I’ve retired” but I’m sure I’ll get used to it!

@TooOldToBeAGoth how can you retire though? Even without the mortgage you still need some money to live on - do you have lots of savings?

New, yes I agree - the Fire etc movement is not for me. We paid off the mortgage on our last house (4 bed detached not far from am outer London tube station) by about 1996 and we have the conversation we could stay here mortgage free for life. However I was 35, a lawyer, who had set up on my own 2 years before and it was going very well ( I began working for myself from home in 1994) and I just only really had 2 more things I wanted in life - a bigger house and more babies so we took on a massive mortgage (about £950k in today's money allowing for inflation since then) and the year after had twins to add to the family.

Also our family do not live to a very old age and the work I do (which is basically typing from home) I hope to do until I die. My father worked full time as a doctor to about age 77 and died at 79. The grandfather on the other side was still going into the engineering firm he founded to about age 85 and he wrote his first book (on valves for which he and others had patents) at 87 - the Japanese part of the company loved seeing such an old man still involved as they tend to respect old age over there more than here.

New, yes I agree - the Fire etc movement is not for me. We paid off the mortgage on our last house (4 bed detached not far from am outer London tube station) by about 1996 and we have the conversation we could stay here mortgage free for life. However I was 35, a lawyer, who had set up on my own 2 years before and it was going very well ( I began working for myself from home in 1994) and I just only really had 2 more things I wanted in life - a bigger house and more babies so we took on a massive mortgage (about £950k in today's money allowing for inflation since then) and the year after had twins to add to the family.

Also our family do not live to a very old age and the work I do (which is basically typing from home) I hope to do until I die. My father worked full time as a doctor to about age 77 and died at 79. The grandfather on the other side was still going into the engineering firm he founded to about age 85 and he wrote his first book (on valves for which he and others had patents) at 87 - the Japanese part of the company loved seeing such an old man still involved as they tend to respect old age over there more than here.

That was certainly not worth saying twice.....

I have some investments that give me an income I can live on

I’ve been doing this for the past 5 years. Came out of a terrible relationship and then threw myself into work! I’ve got 26k left on the mortgage.. I’ve lived like a homeless person 🤣🤣🤣 2 holidays in 5 years, take every job I can get !! It’s been in some ways the worse time of my life 🥲🥲🥲🤣 ! But as im self
employed I want to get this done asap. No one sat me down in my twenties and explained how this all worked. To add I want to be a stay at home mum when I have kids so another reason to get this paid - to NOT relay on my partner to make this happen. I’ve totally learnt the value for money in this time, it’s life changing. Seeing my dad work so hard in his 70s it’s hurt to watch! You can help more people around you,
whek your finical free. I also want to start other buissness ventures- which becomes less risk when I don’t have debt around my neck.

I left Uni at 21 and bought my house at 24, which looking back seems ridiculous I managed it. I decided I wanted to do it, worked overtime in my regular job, picked up every extra shift out of hours I could (more increased pay) and also worked a job in a pub on evenings and weekends. It was a 70 hour week for a while, and I didn't go on holidays or have weekends away, and missed friends significant birthdays, 40ths etc but they knew why and understood. I managed the near burnt-out knowing there was a defined end point in sight and it wouldn't be forever.

I wouldn't, and couldn't, have kept that up for much longer, and I definitely wouldn't do it to retire, just to get myself started in life.