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.

@Opal8

How many people don't reach retirement age?

I know several who didn't make 55...

I’ll bet you know vastly more who did live past 55.

I favour a balance, we’ve had cheaper holidays and scrimped a bit over the years. Will pay off the mortgage in a few months (I’ll be 43). Just in time for the energy price hikes, .
So £2000 on a summer holiday. Most of our friends spend £10,000 to £15,000.

Being financially secure is really important to us. But it is important to strike a balance between scrimping and living beyond (or only just within) your means.

My mortgage was paid in my early 40s. Its not because I worked harder, its because my parents died and I used my inheritance to pay it off. No plans to retire any time soon. I still have bills to pay and 2 dependent children.
The title of the thread though, is disingenuous. Financial success/stability is rarely down to "hard work" alone. If in doubt read some of the Molly Mae threads.

Got married at 33. DH and I bought house in London for £250k at same time and had mortgage paid off in early 40s. No financial input from anyone for deposit or paying off balance. We are not from wealthy backgrounds. We’ve also converted the loft, extended kitchen at cost of around £150k paid with savings.
We didn’t lead a frugal life. Still went on holiday but spending £1-2k on a holiday rather than several k more. Only have one DC. We kept making the same mortgage payment and decided to pay off the last £70k as a lump sum to get rid of it (not an approach everyone would agree with but the feeling is amazing). We both are relatively well paid and are natural savers. We don’t forgo meals out or coffees etc but we have enough ‘stuff’ so only so much we can buy. We are planning to buy bigger house so will be taking on bigger mortgage (maybe 3-400k) not looking forward to this but our aim will be to pay off as quickly as possible ie over 15 yrs or so. I should say that we benefited for a lot of our mortgage by being on an incredibly low standard variable rate so this helped a lot. I would love to retire but would like more in my pension and to be able to give my DC and god-daughter good starts.

I didn't though. You can do both. Just don't buy a stupid flashy car, don't buy crazy flash furniture. Don't live with your parents and spend your money mindlessly on Amazon and Asos.

I'm not saying anyone did I was quoting a poster who suggested limiting your 20s socially to pay off sooner which I fundamentally disagree with. It's also about priorities, my husband has recently bought his boyhood dream car, that could have gone on the mortgage but there is more to life than saving every penny for the roof over your head.

Isn't the joke that when you see stories like this there's always help from The Bank of Mum and Dad or they've spent part of their adult life living somewhere rent-free, received money through inheritance, or so on?

I'm sure it's done. I'm not sure it's feasible for most people who don't have significant support

I’d rather have enjoyed my youth than worked day and night to pay off the mortgage. What if you did all that and never made 30 so didn’t see the benefit of your frugal years. I think a balance is good, fun and memories plus savings

I could have downsized at 30 and been mortgage free - but my larger property in a very desirable area continues to make much more equity on a smaller mortgage so I see it as an investment…..see it as the same as pension - why would I stop paying into that investment? I was v lucky to have bought in the 90s in the SE.

I also have “retired” from my high paying high stress corporate role and retrained in an area that I love and is rewarding and makes a difference to peoples lives - is totally flexible with hours and location so that I can work from anywhere for as long as I like. It doesn’t feel like work it is an enriching experience and having contrast is great.

I also feel that your experiences make you who you are - you are what you do and who you connect with. I have had some amazing experiences of travel with friends in my 20s, 30s that a frugal mindset / wouldn’t have accommodated. I also agree that I would not be compatible and would find it tedious to be with penny pinching people who are often preoccupied and not spontaneous.

Both of my parents died young (mid 30s, mid 50s) and on my Dads side none of his siblings got past 70 so I’m all for living.

My children also have had loads of fantastic enriching experiences in their childhoods which cost money.

Lots of people work incredibly hard and yet home ownership is a dream that will never happen for them.

There does seem to be this assumption that "just work hard and it'll happen"

Nope.

@UserBot989

I wouldn't find a walking tour ''staid'' but then I don't buy in to the notion that all socialising requires alcohol or that all younger people are more interesting than all older people. This definitely isn't true. I was out last night with a younger man (6 years younger) so I don't think I'm old for my age. Being ready for something different doesn't make you boring. I would love to walk the camino. And a walking tour of my city, that's something I haven't done before. Eating out in city bars, done that. Many times.

Second this, I'm in my twenties and I love walking/hiking holidays!

Dh's parents did this. They lived a fairly frugal life, holidays to the same British sea side town every year. When mortgage rates hit 15% or whatever it was they could afford it and when they came back down they continued to pay a much higher amount than needed.

Due to that and an inheritance FIL retired at 50. MIL had been a SAHM (70s/80s) and had only just started working full time in the 90s. She told me there was no way she was retiring and loved working.

They then started having holidays abroad a few times a year etc which meant Dh and his sibling never had that with their parents, never went abroad. It was a cheap childhood and parents who were now going on expensive holidays as a couple. FIL is now 74, MIL died several years ago and he is alone. Although he is out and about daily I hardly think this was the retirement he envisioned. He had lots of plans of things he would do and some of them he has but most he did alone because MIL was still working.

Dh and I on the other hand could have over paid our mortgage but instead chose to have lovely holidays with the children and built up savings to pay for university.

I think there is a drive to pay off the mortgage but the retire bit, I don't know. FIL's brother had early onset dementia and never got to enjoy any retirement. So if he had scrimped and saved and not enjoyed life whilst he was still able to it would have been very sad. He died at 60 having been medically retired a few years earlier. Both my Mum and MIL died in their very early 60s.

I work hard but have never earned enough to save money never mind pay off a mortgage by the time I’m 40

following

The title of the thread though, is disingenuous. Financial success/stability is rarely down to "hard work" alone

This is very true. We saved thousands in childcare because grandparents were very generous with their time. That’s not an option for many.

Surely this depends where you live. I have a mortgage. If I went to the town I grew up in, I could buy a few houses outright. It’s all relative.

You're better off in your younger years piling money into your pensions to maximise tax relief and compound interest, especially when interest rates on mortgages are low. You will likely fall foul of the maximum pension pot rules though.
By paying one additional monthly payment annually you can decrease the mortgage term significantly.
There's no point retiring at 40 without a massive pension pot as it will be difficult to top up in your twilight years.

If it means people stop squandering money on fast clothing, fast food, consumer electronics that are a complete rip off and other meaningless consumables then it sounds very reasonable to set the priority towards owning your own home sooner.

There is far too much emphasis on having "stuff" and splashing out on cheapo holidays numerous times a year, which seems to confer that's the only way in life to "have fun and live life" when you can do many meaningful things without spending money and spare the planet at the same time.

Nearly every person I know who has retired and not carried on with some form of work - whether it be part-time, freelance or voluntary - or had very involved hobbies has got very old, very quickly. I think there’s a lot to be said for having a reason to get up on a morning.

Why would you be happy ending your career so soon? I'm 38, my career has just started a new lease of life. I'm hoping I'll do something good over the next twenty years!

As someone on a pretty average salary I agree with you. I personally would not find life as enjoyable if I cut down on things to the extreme level needed to save for early retirement. I want to enjoy life now while I’m young (ish) and - fortunately - relatively healthy. The things I’ve done and experiences I’ve had are probably not the same things I’ll be interested as I get older, so I don’t regret doing them when I did.

You can’t take for granted that you’ll still have your health in your side when you’re older. Sadly I’ve seen people who are working themselves into the ground pinning all their hopes on living life when they get to retire and it doesn’t always work out the way they hoped.
I know it sounds morbid but life could all change in an instant. I don’t want to be putting life on hold, banking on a distant future. If I got told I was going tomorrow I’d want to feel like my life is fairly fulfilled and not feel regret for the things I didn’t do.

We never had a mortgage @Ieattoomuchsugar (combination of earning quite a bit tax free abroad and profiting on houses) so we are now mid thirties with no mortgage but we still have to work. I don't plan on retiring soon.
We earn the most we ever have now at 114 between us.

@daisychain01

If it means people stop squandering money on fast clothing, fast food, consumer electronics that are a complete rip off and other meaningless consumables then it sounds very reasonable to set the priority towards owning your own home sooner.

There is far too much emphasis on having "stuff" and splashing out on cheapo holidays numerous times a year, which seems to confer that's the only way in life to "have fun and live life" when you can do many meaningful things without spending money and spare the planet at the same time.

Sanctimonious much?

I used to work as a community carer. Every single client I had that had worked hard, saved it all, never did anything, never took their kids on holiday or did anything fun, died regretting it. All of their hard saved money went on paying for their care. Every single one of them wish they’d enjoyed life more and had some stories to tell.

We have a lot of equity – combo of initial parental help, smidge of profit from selling my first flat, and buying and improving a fixer-upper – so could theoretically buy somewhere mortgage-free now, but only in a part of the country far from our family and friends, and without much going for it. Or get a small mortgage somewhere else. But we’d still need to work to pay bills, buy food, support DC, and save for pensions, so not only no retirement but also living somewhere crap with no support network. It doesn’t really balance out for me.

I couldn’t have bought in my 20s then lived frugally to pay down a mortgage anyway; the London prices + starter wages in my industry equation = “grotty houseshares for 15 years” rather than “FIRE”.

I wanted to thoroughly enjoy my 20sand 30s. Also wanted a property and security.

i bought a house at 27 on my own. cheap house, kept remortgaging it to go on holiday, big travelling holidays. Interest rates were cheap 20 years ago. Paid it off with inheritance and pay increases. Rent it out now. Moved in with dh, paid his mortgage off at 50 with redundancy payment. For security as weren’t sure what his earning prospects were.

He got another good job, I got a pay rise, we bought a bigger house at 52,, got a mortgage been in it 2 years,. Plant to pay it off at 56.

Combination of luck, inheritance, much bigger salaries, and just being old.

Even if I paid off my mortgage tomorrow (I'm in my late 40s) I couldn't retire in 10 years' time. The savings on my mortgage for 10 years wouldn't be enough to keep me until I could claim my pension, and then top up my pension so that it was enough to live on. I am saving to help my retirement but my mortgage is neither here nor there really - it's not a large mortgage.