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.

Earn a high salary, live frugally = have lots of money.
Hardly the stuff of the Money Saving Expert, is it!

Compound interest, tax efficient savings vehicles. And the stock market has been doing very well over the last few years. But you are right, stopping meal deals alone is unlikely to do it.

Bet they are fun at parties….!

Each to their own I guess. I’m sure the reward is amazing if you live long enough to reap it.

There is frugal, and then there is joyless. I would rather enjoy my life a little

It doesn’t mention if they have children. I assume not? I feel like we could save a shit load of money too if we didn’t have a child!

Won’t they have to continue living frugally to make £1m savings last 50 years? Or more? Especially as with such short working lives they won’t have clocked up enough for a state pension?

No mention of children.

I wonder what they will do with their time?

Wouldn't do half what they have but packed lunches yes. Have never understood people spending £5-£10 on lunch alone when you can prep something in 5-10 minutes at home (often less than the time it takes to queue) for less than £1.

The biggest saving appears to be that they don't have children. Which would also probably mean you'd need to turn the heating on in winter.

Yes, I just see that it was £1mil between them, did I read that right, so £500k each. Aren't you recommended to have about £300k-£500k in a pension for a reasonable retirement amount to retire in your 60s and also they won't get full state pension.

The article about Alan and Katie Doneghan here is only a tiny snapshot of them. They are actually amazing people who have been awarded medals- BEM (I think) for their services. They run the Rebel Finance School which is free - see YouTube.

I have started it and they give a lot of good advice. As a teacher, I think their course should be shown to 6th formers.

They are financially independent now - living off investments but they worked very hard to get there through their jobs and businesses.

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No but I admire you and you will have either saved quite a bit by doing this or been able to spend it on something else more useful or enjoyable so I admire you!

I’d be really bored if I retired. DH and I need our careers to have something interesting to talk about 😂

Also, £1m (eroded by inflation) doesn’t seem sufficient to last two people 50 years!!

Imagine being married to someone called Alan.

That sounds miserable. I think I’d rather work.

I’ve said this so much recently but this year I heard a financial advisor who said his dad lived by the save save save mantra. He said they didn’t do holidays, any extra work on the house, no hobbies, at school fairs they were the ones told basically they were there to look around etc. When he died he was rich, so he never spent it. The advisor said he tells his kids you have to live, his dad died cranky and miserable and rich and he only remembers the word ‘no’ from him.

ps I’d say their friends secretly bitch about them😂

I think it's out of touch compared to the average person's life, finances & the cost of living for society as a whole.
Like I say, good luck to anyone who's doing this but it certainly isn't the norm.

I know a few people who live like this, though maybe not to this extent. None of them ever seem happy - focusing so much on a future (which may never come to fruition) at the expense of living in the present doesn’t do good things to your brain.

I also think living so long with this mindset means that even once you retire you’re not going to be fully happy. The penny pinching mentality will stop you ever fully enjoying life and retirement.

Yeah DH and i talk about how loaded we would be if we didn’t have 2 kids. I eat at home most days as I wfh.

That money will generate an income of around £50k and they will never touch the capital.

Surely impossible with dc?

So they aren’t retired then, are they? They run the a finance self help company. On YouTube it maybe free but it will have income from advertising. They probably do public speaking and make income from multiple other streams related to this business.

Yes. She basically has a smirk that says "It's great, I am loaded and I enjoyed the same sandwich for years every day, so i could change my life. So maybe you can too..."

Or maybe I'm just enviously looking at them thinking I might be able to do the same if I earned £100k with no kids and a mortgage 🤔😂😅

Surely impossible with dc?

It’s about FIRE movement and it’s pretty extreme.
good for them I have the following comments whenever I read about FIRE

• when they retire early they seem to be living same frugal lifestyle but not having to work so that the money lasts. Honestly miserable life for 40 years before retirement and then for another 40 years after - is it worth it? Not for me.
• some things are best enjoyed young. It’s nice to travel at any age but parties in Thailand or Ibiza are more fun when you are 20.
• No one is guaranteed long life. Imagine living like that and then getting very ill in your early 50ies? What if you drop dead or get run over by a car? What a waste.

overall I prefer to work so that I enjoy life when I can. plus I have kids!

£1m won’t last long for retiring at 40