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.

My hard work and determination is mostly directed to the here and now planning exhilaration experiences with my loved ones. No regrets. I have a wide range of family and friends and have lost some untimely and unexpectedly - no regrets taking my 56 year old mother on an extravagant ski holiday with her 4 grandchildren when we lost her 3 months later out of the blue.

I invest in relationships with children, friends, family, etc. Some cost ££££ others cost ££. I also love my work and career so retirement isnt the goal for me.

I am conscious of my current privilege as well as my very poor childhood where we were barely surviving.

This couple are obviously extreme, I’ve never searched for receipts or deprived myself of heating but still managed to retire very early.

What I don’t understand from a lot of these comments is those saying “life is for living” “ you could drop dead tomorrow “ ….. so you’re working 40+ hours a week so that you can live your best life on weekends and during your 5 weeks of A/L??
Just doesn’t compute for me.

I spend my days doing exactly what I want to do based on the very fact that I could indeed drop dead tomorrow!

Ridiculous. Some uneducated people will think that sitting in the cold in winter and stealing vouchers is a big part of how they’ve done that….but in reality it’s lucky investment and large salaries, no children neither. There’s got to be a balance - what if they die tomorrow? Living like that? Not for me!

Or invest what you can early, and watch compound interest work its magic

How did you do it? What age did you retire?

The maths on this is fascinating. A US blogger has calculated it for various % of income saved. At the extreme, if you save 75% of your income then you can amass a pot to retire on within 7 years. Paring spending is the key but obviously a good income helps too, you can’t save if you only have enough to cover essentials. But once true essentials are covered then we all have our own view on other essentials. Then it is a case of how much deferred gratification we want. I found his blog in 2012, via a mumsnet thread as it happens. It has accelerated my retirement date by at least 10 years.

YANBU. I cringed when I read it this morning. How unaware and bloody patronising! What possessed them to feature in such an article? Have they no idea how they look?

Rich people with shitloads of money, save a bit more by forgoing things that many people can’t afford anyway, let alone on a daily basis 🙄

Now they’re retired, perhaps they could spend some time with the large numbers of people in this country struggling to put food on the table.

Invest it where though? A stocks and shares ISA?

Tommorow isn’t promised .. I’ve known people plough everything into retirement only to pass away before or just after they got there. Life’s to short you have to enjoy what you can and at the same time try and put some away.

I’m quite uneducated to be fair 😏 left school at 16 due to pregnancy and I guess lucky that when I bought my home at 21 it was more affordable than it is now and has increased in value more than I’d hoped. But that’s all really, the rest was through aggressive and clever saving and frugality.

Living like they do? What, travelling the world? I’m sure they stick the heating on nowadays

Exactly this! I wouldn't want to spend my 20s, 30s and 40s cold, uncomfortable and bored just so that I can hopefully have fun later in life. You could get diagnosed with a terminal or chronic illness, Putin could start a nuclear war, your partner could run off with a younger model, etc. I think it's more sensible to spread the joy.

Well we eat at home and often do not have heating on just because we cannot afford it. we are as poor as church mice I'm afraid

It's how I did it. Not at 40, but at 54.

Of course if you only earn so that a packed lunch is a necessity anyway you're not going to save a lot for retirement, but if you have a decent income, having a mindset that means you only spend on things that give you real value, makes a massive difference.

Why not? Its a good start. There are a lot of low cost trackers run by platforms like Vanguard which have given good returns over the last few years.

Yes, I think it's a bit twatty to call them joyless.

Re-evaluating what brings you joy is important. You can't look at someone else's life and call it joyless.

My health is really important to me, so I'm really focusing on it recently - very little caffeine and alcohol for various reasons. And I have lots of joy, even though people are always bugging me to have more stuff that makes me feel worse.

42, we invested heavily in company shares (no risk), lived frugally but not in a joyless way. Always two holidays a year. Overpaid mortgage until mortgage free. Kids grown by now so could have 4/5 years of really aggressive saving. Both took voluntary redundancy.

How did you manage to buy a home at 21? Were you living at home with your child? Who provided childcare?

With waaaaaay more time to fill so hopefully not or they’re going to be very bored!

Yes, and I think there's a lot of joy in simple things. Often big spenders are looking for joy that's missing fron their lives. I would far far rarher hike up a mountian with a packed lunch than have a fortnight in an exclusive hotel in Dubai.

I get far more joy out of finding something I already own and can repurpose than I do out of buying something new.

I haven't taken things as extrme as them. I enjoy good food, but by way of buying quality ingredients to prepare simple meals, and a very nice restaurant once in a blue moon for a special occasion, not eating out reguarly. I hate it if I get caught out and have to buy a bottle of water because that spending adds nothing to my life and is not necessary, but I wouldn't turn down drinks with friends to save money.

The mindset that "treats" and "joy" need to involve spending is harmful and not making anyone happy imo.

Money they earned via hard work? The man had his successful business. The woman who had a skilled career as an actuary? Money they chose to save by scrimping and living like misers

What do you both do for work?

This post sums it up perfectly.
Re the coup who took packed lunches to work to enable them to retire :it's important to acknowledge that most people could take pl to work every day and still not be able to pay off their mortgage early.
Important not to use that couple as a benchmark ; totally detached from the majority!

In the normal way I guess. I got a mortgage with my (now) DH. Granted 20+ years ago this was much more affordable than it is now but certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Yes my child was with me and I worked part time until they went to school.

Same with the ‘how I managed to get on the property ladder in my 20s without parental help’. In almost all cases, it involves a couple who both live at home (individually or with one set of parents) and don’t pay any rent so they can save for a deposit. So yeah, if you’re partnered up in your 20s and don’t count no rent or bills (plus in many cases at least some of your food and your washing included) as parental help, it’s possible to buy a flat or a house even in the south. Doesn’t make it realistic for everyone though.

Love this. We live exactly like this