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.

@WhenSheWasBad

I'm 36 and mortgage free. I was diagnosed with MS and a critical illness policy I had paid out. I now have been diagnosed with cancer. Having no mortgage is not the be all and end all. Time is

I’m so sorry. This is one of the reasons I want to be mortgage free. I imagine it is harder being very ill when you still have a mortgage to pay.
Best of luck.

Yes, life would be harder with a mortgage. Just get some good insurance and live life!

@LAURAMINIMAQ88

I might be dead by the time its paid , would rather enjoy my life, you just never know .

But you may also have to live many years on a fixed income.

I am happier knowing I have money for the future rather than blowing it all now on stuff.

It costs less than £2k rather than £10-£15k

The poster degrading "cheapo holidays" was talking about the frivolous environmental impact, I'm curious what makes a middle class holiday more moral than a "cheapo" holiday, but need the parameters of a cheapo holiday first.

I'm 60 and I think people in their 20s/30s now have higher expectations from life than I did. I got my first mortgage in my early 20s from then on me (and my eventual DH) pretty much lived hand to mouth for the next 20 years Every penny was budgeted. We went without (i didn't have a phone or washing machine or wardrobe in my flat for the first 4 years) or bought secondhand. I didn't expect holidays or meals out or takeaways, things which nowadays are often seen as essential. And there was less to spend money on back then. No mobile phones, no nail bars, no TV subscription services to tempt us. What we didn't plough into overpaying the mortgage went into pensions.
Looking back it was pretty bleak sometimes but at the time it was our normal. We were young and driven and didn't miss what we had never had or expected. And to me it was worth it in the end. By our early 50s we had paid off the mortgage. Now we have a great life with loads of disposable income, 3 lovely homes and good pensions.

I honestly don't know which way round is better. Perhaps I might have enjoyed travel and luxuries more if I had had them when I was younger rather than putting them off until I was financially secure. My dad was like me and died young, before he had the chance to enjoy the benefits of his hard work. OTOH I am naturally a worrier so think if I had my time again I'd probably do the same again.

We're currently overpaying our mortgage and if we kept it up at this rate we would have paid it off by the time we're 40. We can do this because between us we have a high income (about 200k pre tax), bought a relatively cheap house for people in that income bracket (500k, though realise that is not cheap!) and don't have kids. This doesn't involve overpayment fees, we stay within our 10% each year. I think if we didn't want kids we would probably be happy to stay in this house but would probably do a lot more work to it so that would push paying the mortgage off back. I don't think we would retire early but would probably go part time now and just work less so we have more time to ourselves.

As it is were planning to move to a bigger place and have kids so while part time might happen eventually I doubt we'll pay off our mortgage and retire particularly early. It's definitely possible if you dont have kids though!

Sorry, long message, I got carried away but quite passionate about the topic so couldn't help myself!

I follow the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community and it isn't about retiring to have nothing to do, it is all about choice and being about to spend your time doing things which you are passion about. For some lucky people this may be the work the currently do, not for me.
For me, I am keen to get 'financially free' as I find work, although pays very well, consumes a lot of my energy and I want to go part time or move to a less stressful environment in future.
If DH and I didn't want to start a family, we would very likely be able to retire at 40. We already have a buy to let mortgage free (bought at 21) which gives us an extra income, and we currently have enough for around 5 years expenses invested (not including pensions), which will hopefully keep on growing and we will keep adding to it (we are early 30s). Our experience has been that our salaries have increased drastically over the years but we have controlled 'lifestyle creep' so it doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice at all. If we wanted to we could afford a fancy car, big house, new loaf sofa but we priorities the things most important to us which are experiences and time in the future because this gives us more value. Instead we don't have a car, don't need one as we live in London near a tube. Don't live in a big fancy house in a gentrified area, we are fine jumping on the tube and don't currently need more space. We keep our fixed expenses low.
It's all about choice. We choose to not sacrifice on holidays, we tend to go on experience holidays and love being able to spare no expense, it's the first taste of financial freedom for me. We also don't sacrifice on food and like treating ourselves to the odd amazing restaurant experience and don't eat value supermarket food. The key is that we NEVER spend unintentionally so whenever we do, it is completely worth dipping into the potential retirement fund as we want to live all the time and not be too scrimping. I appreciate that this rate of investing while still being able to spend on things we value is only possible because we are privileged enough to be high earners. Couldn't have a taste of both if we weren't, which would probably make saving and making everything a sacrifice now quite grim in my opinion.

We have done that. DH retired a couple of years at 45. I work, but part time in a job that doesn't pay all that well. DH might go back to work in a couple of years, now that our children are at secondary school and need less parental time.

We live quite simply, but spend money in the stuff that makes us happy. DH doesn't actually like spending money and us naturally frugal. I am a lot less frugal, but like the discipline of frugality and the way it makes me focus on what makes me happy.

What we do spend money on has changed over time, but I think that's the case for most people.

For all of us, it's been great for DH to be at home while our children were still young. Our house is smaller than that if a lot of our friends, but it's still nice, and in a great location. And without a mortgage or childcare costs, and with someone at home most of the time to spend time on things that we would otherwise pay someone else to do, it's possible to live a nice comfortable life for a lot less money.

I agree with Resl - surely there a middle ground? We paid off our mortgage in our early 40s, it gave us more options ... DH was able to become self employed .... I could take a part time job with a very low salary but doing something I loved. We are in a position to help our DS with a deposit for his first home. We've had some nice holidays but personally I am not someone who "lives" for holidays.

DH can now afford to take early retirement (61) but I have no plans to ... I am 64 this year, working part time but love what I do so will carry on as long as I feel able to .. I also spend time with my elderly DM (although generally fit and well at 89!) so I feel I have a good work/life balance.

I am not sure I need any more 'leisure' time at the moment ... I have plenty of hobbies, volunteering etc that I can comfortably fit in.

I have always been a "jam tomorrow" person so yes this has suited me but everyone is different. For me I did things like working until in labour, back at work full time when baby was 2 weeks etc etc - not choices most women on here want to make. We paid off the mortgage on our second house and 2 buy to let flats by about 1996 but I was only about 34 and wanted to work for more than just that so when I was 35 we sold those 3 and bought with a £500k mortgage (in today's money about £1m mortgage) my current house - we took out a 10 year loan to pay it off quickly although for various reasons (divorce - I kept the house and bought my lower earner husband out and took on about £1.3m of mortgage by age of 41). The only reason I have a mortgage now (which I am paying back quickly - next tranche tomorrow actually) is I have helped all 5 children buy a first property - the last one 12 months ago and remortgaged to help the last one.

However everyone is different and many have no such choices or can never buy a home due to low wages or don't want to. Paying off the mortgage over 25 or 30 years is not bad either. What we did was my husband had a house in NW england when we married but we moved to London for my career so bough for me what was a first house - small terraced zone 5 London 1984, then semi same area 1988 , then detached - the risky one - borrowed 4x my earnings on not only an interest only mortgage BUT a partially deferred interest loan so the interest was added to the capital and we were paying 11.85% mortgage in 1992 and then on Black Wednesday interest rates rose on one day first 2% and then another 3%.... that was a big day. We then put every last penny into paying that huge and risky loan down but in 1990 when we bought that detached house that was the only way we could afford a house like that and we had 3 small children and wanted the space. Then in 1997 as i say above we sold that house and 2 buy to let flats (all 3 sold at losses in the 1990s property crash - things have not always been up and up and up for property prices for many people as old as I am) and put every penny into this house where I now live including all the children's savings in 1997 too although I soon paid them back. Again it was the only way we could afford £850k house in 1997.

So I suppose in a way I have been a bit of a risk taker rather than pay it all off and retire. Instead I have felt I can always earn more and more and work harder and harder so take on the challenge etc.

I can’t get my head around restricting your life in your prime to retire early (although if you do retire at 40 that’s still fairly prime). You never know what’s around the corner and while it’s sensible to plan for the future, it’s important to live in the here and now.

Obviously if you can afford to enjoy life and pay off your mortgage young you are winning at life!

And I am now cringing at all the typos in that post. Sorry.

It really depends on your lifestyle preferences.

Most people in my circle went to university and the studied at post grad level. I didn’t buy my first house until I was 25 - which was early for my group of friends.

I could have easily been mortgage free in my thirties if I stayed there, but I have moved twice. I have been promoted several times and am now in my dream home - in which I will be very happy in my retirement.

Work is hard and stressful, but I have ambitions that I won’t achieve by my forties.

Retiring at forty potentially means needing to find a good lifestyle for forty to fifty years. A car, meals out, two holidays a year, updates to house.

Realistically very few people could afford to pay off a mortgage and build up that type of retirement pot if they only work for twenty years.

Some lucky person who sold a tech company could do it - but normal worker bees would have a pretty miserable, but very long retirement.

I would want to work part time, not retire

I know lots of ppl in their seventies who work part time. They don't need the money. It's about social interaction for them

I know a girl who's parents bought her a house outright and bankroll her. She doesn't work and hasn't done since about thirty. She just bums around all day. For me I'd need to have structure and I wouldn't respect myself living like that

The key is to start asap.

Bought cralp house in our early 20s using deposit savings from PT jobs since 16. Yes to working and studying!

Spent 20s doing house up/travelling/living/working as we were young and full of energy 😁.

I understand living in the SE would make this VERY difficult and there were two of us but I also think there are a lot of 25 year olds still mollycoddled at home enjoying full pay packets when they could be working on independence.

No chance of early retirement though, impossible if you've had kids I think.

Five people I knew all died in their early 40s in the last couple of years (none from Covid). Life is about balance whatever age you are. Financial security is fantastic but not at the expense of any quality of life.

This. Nothing is guaranteed in life except death. Provide for your family but don't sacrifice fun, laughter, and interesting experiences.

@Applesonthelawn

I think the aim should not be to retire early, but to find work you love and work life balance whilst you are working. Retirement is pretty boring and unchallenging for most people and something you only need to do when your mental capacities decline.

I'm not sure what age you are, but you may find your view changes as you get older. I'm early 50s and prior to lockdown I quite enjoyed my working life. Now WFH each day is a real slog, and they've redesigned the office so even when we can go back in it won't be the same.

I could easily fill my days if retired. If bored, there's any number of voluntary activities I could support with. Unfortunately financially I can't see it happening before 60, and I'm lucky because retirement at 60 is just about affordable for me.

Technically I could probably retire (mid 40's) but we would need to downsize significantly. We have about £700k equity and good saving pots plus an inherited house which we are going to rent. But I would rather have a bigger house (hence a big mortgage) and I send my kids to private school. In actual fact there is very little left over every month - albeit we have an excellent standard of living. I think you have to decide what is important to you. I see a big expensive house as an excellent tax free saving vehicle. We spend all of our income every month.

I’ve read up on a FIRE Financially Invest, Retire Early and it’s mainly American based blogging, they don’t buy houses and focus on paying off the mortgage, that’s not the end goal, it’s to build a pot to live off. They see buying and maintaining a house as an expense and a constraint. The blogs I’ve read they grew up very poor, had normal middle class jobs but still lived renting in very shabby places minimum wage people would live, and ate the same way, then had a pot big enough to rent anywhere in world that had cheap cost of living. So if you’re earning $100k and living like you’re on $25k, 10 years is enough to build a $500k pot, they would have health insurance with their good job too. I don’t think it translates that well to UK where we have a social safety net - it works out like this, busting a gut to another goal.

We sort of did this by buying a very cheap first house at age 22 (small terrace for £77k in Sheffield!) - my husband and I both moved into fairly well paying graduate jobs and we had paid it off by age 27. But we decided to move to a bigger family home, now with 2 children, and have a large mortgage which we won’t pay off for many years.

I don’t think being mortgage-free is the be all and end all, it depends what you value but for us it made sense to enjoy life in a larger house rather than remain with more disposable income in a very small one.

Mortgage free at 40 would be great. However, we wanted a lovely, big house to raise our dc in as we spend so much time together at home. Life is a balance, we overpay what we can but also have a lovely lifestyle and do lots of fun things with our dc.

We can do this because between us we have a high income (about 200k pre tax)

So you are not typical at all.

The mean salary is under £30K so most couples even if they both work will have £60K gross. If one parent takes time off for childcare or £1K a month goes on childcare, you can see how crazy it is to expect to pay off £500K home soon.

@Roominmyhouse I dont think it works like that. My sample size is admittedly small (2) but in both cases it wasnt about retiring, it was about building a business you really believe in, working all hours (obsessionally really) to do that and then one day realising that youd done all you wanted to with the business (in both cases it was getting so big it didnt feel do much like "theirs" any more), it didnt satisfy you in the same way and life was passing you by. So business gets sold them - boom! Retired. Certainly in my brother's case he's a very all or nothing person. He could never do a 9-5 job. It would either be 24/7 or not at all.

Your talking about the fire movement.
Financial freedom, retire early.
essentially young people with half decent wage live very frugally, paying a large proportion of their salary into usually vanguards vti and generate enough wealth to then live off the pot for ever more.. The idea is to have fuck you money and financial freedom. Meaning you don't have to stick in jobs you hate because you have too..

Once you get to 100,000 of saving in stock and shares funds apparently that accumulates more quickly towards the million.
. I was talking to dd about this, it's all about balance. You do not want to spend your youth sweating over every penny! Your youth is more precious.
However it would be nice to know you have £££ behind you to say.. Adios in a shit job!
. I'm actually going to open up sipp soon for both dc... Self invested personal pension.

I can't contribute much to it at the moment, but once it's open, when and as if we put money into it.. It all start to have the magic of compound and once its there we can encourage them to pay little bits in once they start earning...
People I've read about who fire don't literally do nothing at 40 it just means they are free to work and do what they want. Many start charities etc

@user5656555

It costs less than £2k rather than £10-£15k

The poster degrading "cheapo holidays" was talking about the frivolous environmental impact, I'm curious what makes a middle class holiday more moral than a "cheapo" holiday, but need the parameters of a cheapo holiday first.

Can’t quite remember that post. But it is less environmentally costly to have one holiday (maybe in the U.K. so no flying).

Rather than 6-7 flights abroad for lots of little get always. Travelling is amazing but it is unfortunately not great for climate change.

Without DC I’m planning to retire between 50 and 55. I think I’ll have had more than enough of being a wage slave in a high pressure (but well paid) environment by then.

All of my pension modellers assume retirement at 67 so I’m putting a lot of further contributions in as well as savings and mortgage reduction.

I definitely envisage taking a year off and then maybe some part time work for a non profit

Knowing that this is potentially only 10-15 years away keeps me focussed on the day to day.