Investing as part of life plan

bostonerimus

Much harder if starting now to achieve what you did, given house price and equity valuations are stretched.

For most people putting a bit into a rental and a bit into global tracker, retirement at 52 remains unlikely.

Thirty years ago getting to a position of financial independence seemed a long way off to me too. I also managed to get through some pretty big market crashes when I took significant hits. Anyway what’s the alternative; just spend it all and hope for the best? If you don't start now you've lost time and your goal will be harder to reach.

So come up with a plan and do it. Your plan will be different from other people's plans. It might mean moving to an area with more affordable housing or just planning to rent for the long term. If house prices are a big issue for you then maybe vote for politicians that might do something about it.

This is not a time to listen to Mick Jones in his BAD days and the lyrics of Rush that go “ I can’t go on so I give in”

short_butt_sweet

bostonerimus wrote: »

If house prices are a big issue for you then maybe vote for politicians that might do something about it.

relatedly, https://landforthemany.uk/ is a report making various policy suggestions to the Labour Party (which they may or may not follow).

This is not a time to listen to Mick Jones in his BAD days and the lyrics of Rush that go “ I can’t go on so I give in”

better to listen to Samuel Beckett: "I can't go on, I'll go on"

MaxiRobriguez

bostonerimus wrote: »

Thirty years ago getting to a position of financial independence seemed a long way off to me too. I also managed to get through some pretty big market crashes when I took significant hits. Anyway what’s the alternative; just spend it all and hope for the best? If you don't start now you've lost time and your goal will be harder to reach.

So come up with a plan and do it. Your plan will be different from other people's plans. It might mean moving to an area with more affordable housing or just planning to rent for the long term. If house prices are a big issue for you then maybe vote for politicians that might do something about it.

This is not a time to listen to Mick Jones in his BAD days and the lyrics of Rush that go “ I can’t go on so I give in”

Not giving in, just reigning in expectations based on reality.

It's very much a common theme to hear from elders "We did this and look we're fine so you just need to do that too" but they're comparing their environment whereby jobs were relatively plentiful, safe, pensions were generous and house prices relative to earnings were cheap.

I'm 31, on about double the average salary, paying 25% into my pension, own a large chunk of equity in my small house but I'm likely to have to work until 67 still because at some point I'm going to have to move us when we start a family and as soon as we do that, our debts are suddenly massive again for what will be a very average home in the UK.

That's just the reality at the moment, and me voting a certain way won't make a blind bit of difference because there's too much vested interest across multiple people to keep house prices high. You may not like that reality because it suggests your wealth accumulation was less to do with your plan and more to do with luck of age, but unfortunately the numbers are pretty clear in that wealth for my generation is dictated to mostly by inheritance.

MaxiRobriguez

My situation, comparable to both my own generations and others on the whole, is good I don't deny it. I'm also not at all going down the "woe is me" line, I'm happy with my lot.

But it is completely undeniable that our generation are less well off than our parents, various research supports that. That doesn't mean that some of us won't be able to retire before 60, but it does mean that it is less likely to happen for us than it would have been for someone in similar circumstances to us 30 years ago at age 30.

https://www.ft.com/content/81343d9e-187b-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/08/are-todays-young-people-poorer-than-ever/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34858997

I will be able to retire at some point, even if it's not as early as I would have liked. Too many of our generation will work until they drop if wealth isn't shared more equally between the generations somehow.

bostonerimus

short_butt_sweet wrote: »

better to listen to Samuel Beckett: "I can't go on, I'll go on"

but too many people say this "Unfortunately I am afraid, as always, of going on", if they can live by your quote then they are probably in good shape. Maybe there are other financially relevant Beckett quotes. Of course my favourite literary/money quote is when Dickens has Mr Micawber say

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."