Packed lunch = retired with £1m by 40.

[Allschoolsareartschools]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgdn3qqg7po
AIBU to say I've had a packed lunch for nearly 40 years but I dont have £1m & I'm not retired yet!
Am I doing something wrong?
Seriously how out of touch is this article? Good luck to them but its nothing to do with packed lunches.

Exactly.

It’s so naive to believe that these people are promoting this out of the goodness of their hearts!

I agree that the FIRE movement is only relevant to those who earn enough to have a choice to save some of it.

I also agree that some people are making money out of being a FIRE “educator” or influencer.

These things don’t mean FIRE in itself is nonsense. I think it’s good to open people’s eyes - especially younger people - to the huge power of saving and investing early, IF you can.

As a PP says there are plenty of free resources about FIRE and about investing. No need to follow influencers or pay for courses.

If they are running rebel finance and whatever goes along with that then they aren’t really retired. They are self employed. Sure it may be free on you tube but they’ll make money from views etc on there.

You can make a fortune by seemingly 'giving things away for free', just look at Adriene Mischler, she's now worth millions and yet the majority of her viewers are watching her videos on youtube for 'free'.

That blog post that a PP posted though was an awful lot of words to say 'invest in a tracker with low fees'. I thought Martin Lewis was wordy but at least you can find the nitty gritty detail on MSE. And he doesn't say 'do what I did and you'll retire early', he says 'here's easy ways to maximise your money' which is a very different focus. This couple are doing what trad wife influencers are doing, selling a dream that they don't follow themselves.

Wrong. It costs them money to run the course.

Honestly, some of you are intent on insisting they have ulterior motives. They're millionaires, content with their lot and want to help people understand investing.

You can stand down your conspiracy theories 😊

I’m often struck by a terrible irony.
I’m a single parent, I have two children under 10. We are super skint. Often on day trips they’re kicking off about something and I’m wondering how to sell it to them that they really want ice cream at home, not from some pricey cafe near à beach or a park.
But we are healthy, and I’m in my mid thirties.
I can run around and we laugh together.
Often I’m sat next to older people, or I see them through my job, who could buy the whole cafe and who’s annual pension is what I’d earn in five years.
I think they look at me and my life and they’d love to swap. They’d love to be back with small children. Full health. Family around them. They’d love to be so busy they had to wee whilst paying a gas bill on their phone.
But I can’t enjoy my time with my children as I’m worried about money and mortgage and whether I’ll be promoted.
We have money at the wrong time of our lives.

Exactly. They’re self employed and making money from these ‘free’ resources through advertising etc.

None of what they’re offering is new. Surely we all know that by saving and investing some of our earnings we can increase our capital! And the more we manage to save, and the higher the returns on that investment, the faster our capital will grow. Am I missing something?

Why are you assuming that the pensioners would love to swap with you? I know lots of retirees who are healthy, happy and absolutely enjoying their new freedom, having spent a life raising kids and working.

Having been a single parent in my 30s I can assure you this pensioner wouldn’t swap with you for all the money in the world. Once was enough.

I think some would. Some pensioners are bored now, especially those who have retired at 55. Having kids is exhausting but it’s lovely some times.

It is. But you don’t want to do it twice.

I doubt any pensioner that is lucky enough to retire at 55 would ever want to swap their new found freedom with the life of a single parent with school aged kids!!

There is no way i would spend the best part of £3k a year on crap pre packaged sandwiches and sludgey coffee, that would pay for a great holiday or 6 weekends away.

Correct me if I’m wrong. So she worked at Deloitte as an actuary. They started in 2014 and had 200k already and had a home. Over 10 years they saved 80k per year and purchased 2 buy to lets. By the end they sold all three properties and funnelled that into savings. No kids. They now rent.

Hmm - I have a decent business and I’m cynical - unless they are multi millionaires then in my experience most who get to that level continue to want to keep building it - it’s very easy to project a persona to keep the cash and interest coming and it not be quite what it seems , even if the advice is accurate and free- the MLMs huns specialise in seeming to be what they are not - this isn’t MLM but it may be they are using advertising/affiliate income - and they def aren’t retired - and how is it costing them, apart from time? I’m pretty sure it won’t be costing them. Absolutely nothing wrong with what they’re saying by the way but so much easier to enact with extremely good jobs to start with, no kids, both on the same page financially and presumably no divorce etc etc

in my experience most who get to that level continue to want to keep building it

Couple of million quid invested means they're building passive wealth.

I find FIRE a fascinating concept. I will always want to work as I want to contribute to society. Doesn’t mean that has to be paid.

I think there’s a lot to be said for living below your means. And thinking generationally. £10k might not seem much but gifted from grandparent to 22 year old could be transformational. Or even better invested in a pension for the grandchild on their birth.

There’s also a lot to be said for choices. Get a job with accommodation paid for in your early years. Work a lot of hours in your twenties. Buy the two bed not the three bed. But the beater not the financed car. Start the pension at 18 with your first part time job.

These guys seem like an MLM version of Dave Ramsey. I don’t believe for a minute they don’t make money out of their course somehow.

Hype sells. An ordinary story of coming from a wealthy background doesnt inspire people.
Everyone is trying to claim a 'from rags to riches' story.

The press promote it because they like the story or they know someone in the media industry who promoted it.

It doesnt have to be true. Its all just part of the "FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT!" mindset.

Why is the BBC promoting this?

I thought the BBC was meant to be objective and report the news. This story isn’t news!

The Bbc is not impartial. They are not funded by adverts but by the TV Licence people pay for.

They are considered somewhat 'right wing' in the media.

It just seems to me to be more rubbish about "Dont have kids, save every penny and become a happy millionaire. "

The right wing brigade see kids ( more than two ) as a burden on society .

FIRE is nothing to do with left/right politics. Not everything is. Its part of a larger movement about thrift/frugal living to achieve goals and is quite large in the US.

Most of the principles are exactly the same as used to be taught to children before credit for everything, even the ubiquitous avocado on toast - if you want something you need to plan and save for it, basic budgeting.

Its not compulsory, nobody has to do it and its not an MLM any more than any other thrift based group or moneysavingexpert type site. It's just about budgeting and saving to increase your chances of achieving costly goals (which might well include budgeting for the cost of children).

No, I didnt mean FIRE. I meant that the story suits right wing agenda. Start with nothing. Save money to invest by not having kids.

Personally my kids are worth more than a million quid any day!

There's a balance to be struck.
Most people will not be able to retire at 40 with £1m however much of their salary they are able to save.

But it's not the "coffee a day" culture that does stop the saving. It's the coffee and packed lunch, and the couple of foreign holidays, and I must get that new car, the iphone and have a gardener and a cleaner and that dress has a tiny rip so I'll throw it and buy new...
I'm not saying that any of those things on their own are frivolous and prevent saving. However they all add up, and I think there is a culture that does say "you deserve these things, you shouldn't have to go without any" - and then is surprised when there's no money left.

I remember explaining to my dc when they were quite small that when I said we couldn't afford something, it wasn't that we physically didn't have the money for that particular thing. But that if we chose to have that, then we couldn't have something else which we might want more. Did we get the Merlin Annual passes, or did we go on our annual holiday to Butlins? Unanimously chosen the holiday - they understood that they couldn't have both.

And I think one thing that has produced this attitude is the lack of opportunities to have the choices. When I went on school trips, I had my 50p to budget, and no more. I would try and buy something for my siblings, and often it involved me walking round the shop thinking "if I get the bigger rubber for dbro, then I can only get the ruler for dsis" and things like that. My dc when they went on school trips had none of this - they would all get a badge bought by the school.
Equally well the school tuck shop: shall I get the 6p packet of crisps and then I can get 4 penny sweets, or the 8p drink and save the other 2p and have more tomorrow?
I think this has effected the current generation in that they don't have this opportunity at a young age to realise that 50p spent now means no 50p later.

They ARE making money. They have B2B business where they else these courses to companies, housing associations and local councils. They also make money from YouTube ads.

The right wing agenda right now is about urging people to procreate…