Do you wish you prioritised travels or property?

[saffagraffuits]

If you were in your early 20s again, would you prioritise travels/experiences or getting on to the property ladder sooner?

We have two dc, and it is interesting the different approaches they've taken.
DD has prioritised travelling and seeing the world. She goes for months at a time. She's now 30 and hasn't started saving for a house deposit. Earns a decent wage (£50k). DD wishes she'd saved and bought the flat.

DS has prioritised getting a deposit for a flat with his girlfriend. He's 26 and just bought (with enormous mortgage) a £500k flat (London). He currently makes the same amount of money as his sister, but is likely to earn a lot more in future. DS has voiced that maybe he should have had more fun and bought at 29-30 rather than 26.

I think it’s pretty normal to have regrets over whichever choice you didn’t make.

I got on the property ladder young, mid 20s. Kinda regret not travelling more when I was young and had no dependents. Equally, my SIL just bought her first place in her 50s because she travelled loads. She had a lot of fun in younger life but is a bit regretful now because she couldn’t afford much and has no idea when she will be able to afford to retire.

Advantages & disadvantages whatever path you take.

I went travelling but then I met my DH who was already on the property ladder so it worked out in the end. I think I'd still be struggling to get on the ladder if I was single (I'm mid-30s). Then again, my colleague didn't travel but studied all the way up to PhD and bought a flat at the age of 42 so I don't think I'd feel too bad if I was still renting.

Property, which is what I did. I don't regret it.

I prioritised travel and experience in my 20s as opposed to a property obsessed friend (houses have never been homes for her, always pwoperdees that she has kept like show homes). I also put more of my salary into my pension.

Now that health has made it really difficult for me to travel as I get older, on balance I'm glad I travelled when I could. I do sometimes wish I had a bigger flat that didn't need so much work but I'd rather have the experiences behind me.

It's good to strike a balance, I think. I was fortunate to be able to travel for work, so got to see a lot of the world that way. I did prioritise property at the expense of longer trips, however, and have no regrets. From my 40's I prioritised my pension / investing over both travel and trading up the property ladder, which will hopefully enable me to travel more in retirement.

Sounds like you achieved a really good balance @ClematisBlue49

I feel in hindsight like I should have prioritised travel a bit more in my 20s. It’s great that I’ve money to do it now my mortgage is almost paid off but not so much fun in your fifties.

I have never prioritised travel. Property, investments. I’m mean, I think. Never had anything as a child. I could never spend thousands on a holiday and have nothing to show in a fortnight. Now I’m getting older

Travelling for me and DH. Experiences are the things that can't be taken away, they make you change as a person in a way debt never will.

I bought my first flat when I was 19. With hindsight I wish I had rented it out and done a bit more travelling.

I don't regret it though. It set me up early when property prices were rising.

We bought at 24 and had travelled a little at Uni. We have done what we could since and enjoyed our life but when people were having weekends away we had no money especially as I was still studying. I am completely happy with our choices, we had plenty of fun at home and can go away now a bit any more in the future when the child we had much later is older, hopefully with her. I personally find flying a bit problematic with the state of the planet but its not banned in our house as such I can't feel at home with flying a few times a year as a lifstyle choive. For me ownership is king I am scared of the insecurity of renting and if we had started later there is no way we would have what we have now. We married young though and that was part of it for us as well as watching my parents work hard at property and working with it also. That is my personal story but other choices are valid too....

I know you only asked about travel, but that's not the only opportunity cost to buying a house at a young age. I did do some traveling when I was younger and it was one of the best experiences of my life. But the biggest gain I've had from not buying a house is my career.

My partner and I have both moved to big cities where we would never have been able to afford to buy in our 20s but it's really boosted our careers. We've also had the freedom to relocate as and when opportunities have presented themselves, increasing our salaries and seniority each time. We're now both in London based roles (with London pay) yet have been able to negotiate WFH with any travel to the office paid for. We're now looking to buy where his family lives and have much more earning potential than any of his friends that stayed locally and bought a house young. We've also been able to save up a large deposit and are only looking are places that are 2-3x our earnings so even though we are started later we will be able to pay off our mortgage quicker and have it take up a much smaller percentage of our pay. Neither of us have any regrets.

I don’t really think there is a right or wrong choice. I have been lucky that I was a bit lost about what to do for a long while in my late teens and early adulthood so traveled a lot and wandered around the world for a long long while, that really shaped me as I now have a career in which I still travel the world and so traveling isn’t something I have had to really give up yet, and it’s led me to having the career I have which comes with a comfortable salary. I am now late 20’s and bought (mortgage-free) in a cheaper country with nice weather. I personally think owning your own place can be as good for the soul. I used to shudder at the idea of settling down and growing roots but now I am « older » I actually quite enjoy having something that’s mine and it’s a massive security in the current market where renting seems a bit like a gamble with ever increasing rent prices and nothing to show for it at the end of the day, the fact that the housing market isn’t likely to ever become easily affordable again for any of us and the fact that getting paid any kind of retirement in 50 years time is getting increasingly unlikely, I do think buying early rather than late is the smarter choice, especially as now there are plenty of ways to travel cheaply so one doesn’t really need to pick between either.

We bought young, and paid the mortgage off in our mid/late 30s, we could afford to do lots of travel now, but neither of us are particularly bothered by it. I find holidays a faff 😂 saving for the “dream” house now, so not going to be going travelling

Property 100%. Especially in this day and age and if you are doing it yourself (with no help from parents).

If I had gone travelling I would never have been able to afford to get on the property ladder.

Travelling is nice and makes for some good photos, but the next minute it's just a memory while you're renting a flat you will never be able to buy.

I imagine it's relatively common (but not universal of course) to think the other option might have been better - grass is always greener etc etc.

A balance was best for me. I bought a home in a 'nicer' part of a deprived area in my mid-20s. Cheap mortgage. This way, I was able to go on a decent number of holidays every year and had a decent disposable income.

However, I slightly wish I travelled more for longer stunts, as holidays and trips aren't really the same. Also, because I live in a deprived area, I'd probably have been able to buy something later in life anyway. Then again, I bought when interest rates and prices were low, so maybe it worked out for the best!

Still in that home today :)

I’d say there’s a way to have both? I travelled loads between 18-28, while studying. Then bought at 28. Helps when you’re in a relationship though as pooling funds is a game changer! Plus mortgage rates were better when I was that age (9 years ago).

Is "travel" the same as "holidays" though? I didn't do any until my thirties, DH had many more holidays than I did and his parents took him abroad as a child. When we met we both owned a house and managed to pay off the mortgages of both, then bought one together which we've also paid off the mortgage of. We've still managed to do nice holidays most years, although this current house purchase left us strapped until my house sold (17 months later). We had a three year gap without holidays as we were saving for the move.

But I don't feel we've missed out on holidays particularly and I certainly wouldn't give up the security of owning our house outright for more exotic travel. Happy with the balance.

I've never had any desire to travel very far. Nor did I earn enough to buy anywhere. So it's neither for me.

I took a you can have it all approach, travelled till I was early 30s and child free. No regrets whatsoever, I simply couldn't have done it now or later in life really. We bought a cheaper first property, then stretched ourselves on the second as our incomes are much higher now with career progression. I won't lie, it's a stretch now with high mortgage and childcare but I guess I knew this time would come. Now waiting for DS to start school and we'll sell up the house which is refurbished, with profit - so in a couple of years' time things should be easier. I definitely don't regret living my life and exploring in my late 20s, I wish I could've done it for longer but it wasn't possible with my career choice. I think it was a fair compromise looking back though.

Bought and then travelled. But it wasn't planned like that - every decision felt right at the time.

I prioritized property and bought a flat with DH at 27. We still went abroad but just to see my family in Asia and has 1/2 holidays. Though admittedly was living at home before buying..Pandemic happened and I only started travelling intensively after that. Mostly funded by salary increases.

I don't regret it because we bought in London and we would be competing with 25 other people for a flat if we didn't buy. On the other hand, we missed out on the cheap flights pre pandemic!

We have a 2 bed flat now and I guess most people would think we should be saving money towards buying a 'family home'. I would like a bigger flat, but wouldn't compromise my lifestyle for it and not really interested in a 'family home'' even though I plan to have a DC (only child). I am doing the holidays now and trying to increase our income further so we can overpay the mortgage and upgrade to a bigger flat without taking on a much bigger mortgage. Currently our mortgage is 2.3 times our combined income and I hope for our mortgage to not exceed 3 times combined income even with an upgrade.

I didn’t have money for property or travel in my 20s, but I also wouldn’t have wanted to buy a house young as I was moving around and figuring out what I wanted. When I earned enough to save, I started putting money away each month and prioritised that over travel, but I also had a job at the time that sent me abroad. I didn’t feel I was missing out as I never went abroad as a kid, we were too poor. Now I’m in my 30s and own a flat I’m prioritising travel - I’ve been to 8 countries this year alone and plan to do longer stints abroad as I’m freelance and can work from anywhere. My partner and I will probably buy a slightly bigger place together in a few years but we won’t be having kids so we’re happy to have a flat and aren’t interested in upsizing to a house.

For me, buying a property in London in my 20s is what enabled me to earn more in my London based role. Our wages were not great when we bought but we fixed for five years and did a long term so we had low costs for five years. We have increased our earnings now to the point where our mortgage has gone from 4.7 times income to 2.3 times income.

That was the main benefit to buying my property, it's not an investment or anything like that but that temporary reprieve for 5 years which allowed me to increase my income above inflation..so I don't regret buying earlier.

I did both. Saved like mad after Uni and went round the world. Bought a flat at 28 with my sister. Got a job with extensive travel, bought a house when DC came along. But I got on the housing ladder before prices went nuts and had help from parents for my first deposit. Very lucky.