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.

I forgot my packed lunch yesterday and bought this vegetable stew kind of thing in the staff canteen - it was £8! £8 for a meagre portion of ratatouille. Packed lunches might not make you millions but they will probably save you in the region of £20 a week. Even a sandwich in our canteen is £4-£5 which is just crazy to me.

I get it to a degree but I can't live like that. What if I am not lucky enough to reach that stage? I wanna have a nice lunch while I am alive!

What did you do with the money saved from the packed lunches? If the answer is spent it elsewhere then it won’t have impacted your retirement. If you invested it, either in a stocks & shares isa or pension, then it can have a material difference on your retirement outcome over time. The reality is most people take a packed lunch because they need to spend the money elsewhere.

I did this. Retired at 42, don’t have £1m either. I’m not bored and would prefer a homemade sandwich to a shop bought one any day!

Ah to each their own. I get why people might want to do this but for myself I wouldn’t trade spending lots on travel and theatre and other entertainment throughout life for the chance to retire early. I’m sure though that some of their ideas would be useful and in general being mindful about choosing to spend now vs save for later is a good thing.

Obviously saving money will help you retire earlier, including packed lunches. But that sort of extreme frugality seems a miserable way to live. I know a couple who did it and are retired at 45. But they only really have each other because a) everyone else is working during the day and b) they didn’t maintain friendships very well because they almost never went out. What is the point of money if you don’t spend at least some of it enjoying life?

What is this doing on the BBC anyway, this is the sort of stuff I expect to read in the Daily Mail accompanied by either a happy or sad face

Very much like the articles about couples who manage to buy their first home by scrimping, saving and not eating avocados...

Then you read down and discover they have a huge deposit due to parents/grandparents' inheritance - nothing to do with their budgeting.

Life is for living. And all these 'you need several million in a pension pot so you can have a glorious standard of living when you retire' articles do nothing but make people anxious. I'm retired, not much more than SSP to live on, but I'm happy!

(Admittedly I own my home and so don't have rent to pay, which might well be on a lot of retirees' minds).

Crikey my husband died when he was 46 - I'm not saying we lived an expensive lifestyle & i will be retiring early but can you imagine if he had lived like that how he would have felt......

They’re members of the asset class / it’s all about passive income. Some other poor schmucks are paying for their lifestyle.

they lived frugally to buy property back when buying property was easier. Once that’s done, it’s about sitting tight and waiting for that mortgage to come down with the hard earned cash of other people.

She is an actuary so likely earning over 100k which the article fails to mention. They have no kids or pets. Most people wouldnt be able to "save" £40k through not buying lunch or having the heating on, unless you eat out a la carte daily as the norm! Most people dont earn 40k pa!

50k is not guaranteed unless they buy an annuity. It may be achievable in some years but they’d have to dip into capital in others. Let’s also not forget about inflation

As a lone parent juggling work and family, I managed to achieve something similar - not £1 million, or anywhere near - but enough to live comfortably without money worries. I set up clear, concise financial goals that allowed me to scale down to just two days a week at age 43 and fully retire at 56. My path to financial independence was quite simple, but disciplined:

1. Bought a modest house & paid off the mortgage early.
2. Avoided all consumer credit; drove reliable used cars.
3. Strict budgeting & frugal living, but kept room for holidays and treats (the house was never cold in winter!).
4. Invested regularly & maximised pension (including buying extra State pension years).

I've been enjoying a comfortable, independent lifestyle for a while now which will get a boost in a few more years when the State pension kicks in. It was a marathon, but solo parents can do this... and so can anyone who sets their mind to it.

Edited to add. Just realised I worked this out based on 14.50 per work day, not 14. But it needs to be invested, not put in a savings account as you need the higher interest.

There’s the thing though. If someone really was disciplined, took their lunch, but put that money into a managed share fund, assuming it earns just 7% (kind of low for shares) and compounding the interest.

That’s 72.50 a week.

After 30 years you would have invested around 113000 and with compound interest you’d have approximately 385000. After 40 years you would have invested around 151000 and should have about 830000.

Two tricks to this. You have to actually do it and not just talk about it. Secondly, you had to start 30-40 years ago. It’s the long term compounding that does the work.

I wish this was something I learnt a whole lot earlier. Trying to get my kids to invest every week now, but despite the figures, they also have trouble picturing themselves 30 years from now.

I don’t have kids. Still don’t earn enough to do it without just existing and i won’t live in a cold damp house either.

No kids. Tbh id rather work (pt) and have comforts in the form of heating and not forever being a slave to the lunchbox.

And 40 is a long time to 68. You have to factor in emergencies, unexpected expenses etc.

I dont have a high enough income that being frugal would give me that much money but id also not want to live like that.

A colleague of mine many years ago worked 2 jobs(55 hours a week) cause they wanted to retire to Australia. They got terminal cancer before that time came. I'd prefer to enjoy life now, while I'm healthy. Making pack lunches is fine but not spending on anything but essentials would be pretty miserable. Infact stupid when you have a choice not to be like that. People like them, just really annoy me and a bit insulting to people who dont have the choice.

It is only possible for people on higher salaries - who basically live like people on the lower salaries and save the rest

lots of people couldn’t have £50 a week to save from the age of 20 - they already don’t buy lunches out and keep the heating off

i I guess the article is more targeted at the “o earn 80k and don’t have any money” brigade. I guess it’s slightly insulting to the people who could never manage this because they don’t earn much to be told that “I wouldn’t want to live like that -its not living “

My ideal life would be to work 3 or 4 days and enjoy 3 or 4 days. Structure, money, comfort, freedom. If you're not using heating when you're well paid and in your twenties, are you really going to use heating when you've only got 1 million and it needs to last you a lifetime?

every time I hear the words life coach I think of Jeremy in Peep Show

That’s great until one of you dies young. Woman I worked with saved hard for years so they would be comfortable in their early retirement. 6 weeks before he retired he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and died on his retirement day. She retired and died three months later from a heart attack. No children but her sister inherited a fortune.

Urgh, such smugness! So they retired at 40 with £1m which by my calcs gives them £12,500 a year each for 40 years……even with pensions that doesn’t actually sounds like much to me! Also doesn’t say how much they earned but actuaries are not badly paid! I know 2 who retired at 50 and still managed to put their heating on in winter.

They look as bland and boring as their life appears to be. I bet their retirement will be a hoot.

Have also been doing the course. It actually has a lot of useful content and you don't have to agree with them. I like the stuff about spending intentionally on what you value, avoiding lifestyle creep, and consciously examining your money mindset.

It has actually made me think properly about everything and my choices and life and, ironically, decide to spend more now, rather than anxiously obsessively saving and feeling guilty at every purchase beyond Lidl basics (life events and circumstances kind of miserably got me to that point).

I do agree that it's obviously very different for me and for them given our different lives and circumstances, but it's still helpful overall.

I still don't buy into the idea of investments because they are volatile and I'm risk-averse, but let's see what I learn from the later weeks of the course.

The whole thing so far has been psychologically useful to me and made me look at everything with more clarity and honesty. Haven't read this particular article but they don't come across as smug etc online...the course is free, no upselling, and so far they come across as congruent and genuine.