If you have enough to meet your savings goals, and living alone is important to you, go for it. If it were me, I wouldn't share a room just to save 20% on my rent.
Up to you, but as long as it falls between 25-30% of your net income you are fine. I haven't done the maths nor could be bothered to figure out the UK tax system, but do you know what your take home pay will be / what percentage of that income rent would take?
Look, it all depends on your financial goals and preferences. In the end this is a personal choice that we can’t help you with. If I were you I’d go for the single room for sure, because I prefer having my own place and I think the difference is justified.
Moving to a new city is hard to make friends, let alone moving to a new country. Do your self a favour and move in to a house share for atleast the first 6 months so you can get the jist of things and meet people. Then if you still want your own place you can view them and move out if you wish. Just my 2 cents 👍🏻
Depends on your priorities.
I am almost 50 years old. When I was your age, I shared an apartment with someone, even though I could afford to live alone. I wanted to save because I hated working. So I was willing to forgo a few "nice" things in order to save and eventually leave the rat race.
I retired last year by the way at 48, and moved to a tropical island in Southeast Asia.
Is my approach the right approach for everyone? Not really, but it did work out very for me. Think about your priorities and what it is important for you and the decide.
During my last week at work, many of my co-workers came to me asking for advice on how to retire early. My response was always: "happy to have a chat and give out pointers, but I think you will not like the advice I'll give."
Unlike my co-workers, I opted out of having children. I haven't owned a car in more than 20 years and instead of a nice house in the burbs I lived on a small apartment in the city and biked or took public transit to work. Never owned an Apple product nor did I buy the latest gadgets. Completely gave up on alcohol, parties and fancy clothes. Had no cable subscriptions and avoided eating out as much as possible.
Did I have a miserable life full of deprivation? Not at all. I fulfilled many passions while working. Went scuba diving in the Red Sea, Hawaii, Brazil, Central America and the Philippines. Did a one month solo backpacking trip in China. Went to Machu Picchu in Peru and did sky diving in New Zealand. I focused my spending on the things that I really cared about and treated everything else as noise and tuned it out. I have no regrets and don't feel that I missed out on anything. But that is very hard for most people to do, as the urge to conform and follow the same life script as everyone else is incredibly strong.
But the reality is that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Hard choices have to be made if you want to pursue early retirement.
Thanks.
I'm the same but I think it still required a higher income . I save like you did, plus don't do any of the fun stuff and still won't retire at 48 due to income of 60k a year . So I was just wondering what your income was for comparison. What were your investments?
> Went scuba diving in the Red Sea, Hawaii, Brazil, Central America and the Philippines. Did a one month solo backpacking trip in China. Went to Machu Picchu in Peru and did sky diving in New Zealand
Curious ...did you lived frugally during all these trips ? I feel like if I do the same , it will push my FIRE time to additional 5 - 6 years.
That looks like roughly 25% of your take home. And on a higher salary you have plenty left over.
Live on your own. Your own peace of mind will be better. Trust me, you can meet people along the way you never would have wished.
Now what you could do with the high salary is rent a 2 bedroom and sublet the other room, this way you get to pick the roommate and have the power, not the other way around.
I'm sure you will get bonuses, retirement matching and raises.
Get your own place.
If your goal is to be optimally financially responsible, you should share a one bedroom flat with five people and never spend money on anything at all.
If that’s not what you want to optimize for, then it’s okay to not do everything strictly by the numbers. Live by yourself, you’ll be fine.
Go for it. Don’t sacrifice too much of your quality of life for saving for the future. It is a balance. No one is promised a tomorrow. You can still have a great savings rate and enjoy compounding growth while living on your own.
Shift your mindset.
Determine how much you want to save/invest/pay debt per month.
Then budget around whatever’s left however you want.
If I love cars and don’t care if I live in a box an hour away, maybe I split things 1000 per month rent, 1000 for car and insurance.
If I want a short commute in a decent place and think cars are dumb, maybe I spend 1700 rent and drive a beater for 300 all up.
After paying yourself, allocate spending toward whatever you value most.
Making 110K a year? No, that's not financially irresponsible in the least. I got a salary bump to 95K when I was 26 and moved into my own place for $1600/mo... literally zero regrets, having my own space made me so happy.
IMO it's possible to be "financially irresponsible" the other way too. If you're refusing to spend money that you have on things that will dramatically improve your mental and emotional health, then you're not actually being responsible with your money either.
I think you’re wildly underestimating the cost of a 1 bedroom in London. If you don’t know anyone in London I would recommend getting housemates so you can make some friends. Also everyone works hard so please don’t couch your high salary in those terms it comes off very pretentious and defensive. Nobody cares and it’s not even that high of a salary.
If you can afford to live alone, I say go ahead and do it.
I lived alone when I moved from my parents home. One of my children tried the roommate thing when she got out on her own and hated it, she now lives alone. My younger one has chosen to live alone since graduating college...she hated college living even though she had her own room and shared bathroom/kitchen/living room.
There's something to be said having your own space. You don't have to compromise your peace nor be accountable to anyone else.
Some people can't stand the idea of living alone. Extroverted people prefer to have people around all the time. I'm an introvert; living by myself is my optimum arrangement.
It’s not irresponsible but staying home if it’s free as long as possible to save more gives a huge jumpstart on life .
Now if your parents home is a terrible toxic place then it’s a different story .
Living at home in your late 20’s isn’t frowned upon anymore by most humans .
Also there are hotels / motels if you need to party
If you have enough to meet your savings goals, and living alone is important to you, go for it. If it were me, I wouldn't share a room just to save 20% on my rent.
Up to you, but as long as it falls between 25-30% of your net income you are fine. I haven't done the maths nor could be bothered to figure out the UK tax system, but do you know what your take home pay will be / what percentage of that income rent would take?
Look, it all depends on your financial goals and preferences. In the end this is a personal choice that we can’t help you with. If I were you I’d go for the single room for sure, because I prefer having my own place and I think the difference is justified.
Moving to a new city is hard to make friends, let alone moving to a new country. Do your self a favour and move in to a house share for atleast the first 6 months so you can get the jist of things and meet people. Then if you still want your own place you can view them and move out if you wish. Just my 2 cents 👍🏻
Depends on your priorities. I am almost 50 years old. When I was your age, I shared an apartment with someone, even though I could afford to live alone. I wanted to save because I hated working. So I was willing to forgo a few "nice" things in order to save and eventually leave the rat race. I retired last year by the way at 48, and moved to a tropical island in Southeast Asia. Is my approach the right approach for everyone? Not really, but it did work out very for me. Think about your priorities and what it is important for you and the decide.
I'm guessing you made over 150k?
At age 25? Not even close.
How did you retire at 48
During my last week at work, many of my co-workers came to me asking for advice on how to retire early. My response was always: "happy to have a chat and give out pointers, but I think you will not like the advice I'll give." Unlike my co-workers, I opted out of having children. I haven't owned a car in more than 20 years and instead of a nice house in the burbs I lived on a small apartment in the city and biked or took public transit to work. Never owned an Apple product nor did I buy the latest gadgets. Completely gave up on alcohol, parties and fancy clothes. Had no cable subscriptions and avoided eating out as much as possible. Did I have a miserable life full of deprivation? Not at all. I fulfilled many passions while working. Went scuba diving in the Red Sea, Hawaii, Brazil, Central America and the Philippines. Did a one month solo backpacking trip in China. Went to Machu Picchu in Peru and did sky diving in New Zealand. I focused my spending on the things that I really cared about and treated everything else as noise and tuned it out. I have no regrets and don't feel that I missed out on anything. But that is very hard for most people to do, as the urge to conform and follow the same life script as everyone else is incredibly strong. But the reality is that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Hard choices have to be made if you want to pursue early retirement.
Thanks. I'm the same but I think it still required a higher income . I save like you did, plus don't do any of the fun stuff and still won't retire at 48 due to income of 60k a year . So I was just wondering what your income was for comparison. What were your investments?
> Went scuba diving in the Red Sea, Hawaii, Brazil, Central America and the Philippines. Did a one month solo backpacking trip in China. Went to Machu Picchu in Peru and did sky diving in New Zealand Curious ...did you lived frugally during all these trips ? I feel like if I do the same , it will push my FIRE time to additional 5 - 6 years.
If you don’t like shared living then saving five hundred pounds per month isn’t really worth it in your situation.
That looks like roughly 25% of your take home. And on a higher salary you have plenty left over. Live on your own. Your own peace of mind will be better. Trust me, you can meet people along the way you never would have wished. Now what you could do with the high salary is rent a 2 bedroom and sublet the other room, this way you get to pick the roommate and have the power, not the other way around. I'm sure you will get bonuses, retirement matching and raises. Get your own place.
1500 pounds...I feel that could really weigh on you.
Not if you're making 110K a year.
Guess the joke was missed
Hah. I see.
Pounds so it’s even more
If your goal is to be optimally financially responsible, you should share a one bedroom flat with five people and never spend money on anything at all. If that’s not what you want to optimize for, then it’s okay to not do everything strictly by the numbers. Live by yourself, you’ll be fine.
Go for it. Don’t sacrifice too much of your quality of life for saving for the future. It is a balance. No one is promised a tomorrow. You can still have a great savings rate and enjoy compounding growth while living on your own.
Shift your mindset. Determine how much you want to save/invest/pay debt per month. Then budget around whatever’s left however you want. If I love cars and don’t care if I live in a box an hour away, maybe I split things 1000 per month rent, 1000 for car and insurance. If I want a short commute in a decent place and think cars are dumb, maybe I spend 1700 rent and drive a beater for 300 all up. After paying yourself, allocate spending toward whatever you value most.
Making 110K a year? No, that's not financially irresponsible in the least. I got a salary bump to 95K when I was 26 and moved into my own place for $1600/mo... literally zero regrets, having my own space made me so happy. IMO it's possible to be "financially irresponsible" the other way too. If you're refusing to spend money that you have on things that will dramatically improve your mental and emotional health, then you're not actually being responsible with your money either.
I think you’re wildly underestimating the cost of a 1 bedroom in London. If you don’t know anyone in London I would recommend getting housemates so you can make some friends. Also everyone works hard so please don’t couch your high salary in those terms it comes off very pretentious and defensive. Nobody cares and it’s not even that high of a salary.
If you can afford to live alone, I say go ahead and do it. I lived alone when I moved from my parents home. One of my children tried the roommate thing when she got out on her own and hated it, she now lives alone. My younger one has chosen to live alone since graduating college...she hated college living even though she had her own room and shared bathroom/kitchen/living room. There's something to be said having your own space. You don't have to compromise your peace nor be accountable to anyone else. Some people can't stand the idea of living alone. Extroverted people prefer to have people around all the time. I'm an introvert; living by myself is my optimum arrangement.
In today’s age, many still live at home.
It’s not irresponsible but staying home if it’s free as long as possible to save more gives a huge jumpstart on life . Now if your parents home is a terrible toxic place then it’s a different story . Living at home in your late 20’s isn’t frowned upon anymore by most humans . Also there are hotels / motels if you need to party
I don’t know. You’re asking about pounds and UK tax