You hear every day in the news about the housing ‘crisis’, that young people are hard done by, and that they will never be able to afford their own homes, will never be able to retire or will need to keep working into their 70’s.
I find it hilarious that a lot of young people have this view whilst simultaneously posting on Instagram about how fabulous their lives are with all their nights out, holidays, new clothes, and drinking Costa coffee every day. I even see school kids walking to school carrying their chocomochachinos.
As I said in my first post, a big motivation for me is to set my children on a path to FI in their lives.
The initial questions that I’m looking to answer are:
- Can a young person starting out on a low apprenticeship wage forge a path to FI and what would this roadmap look like?
- Is getting on the property ladder actually as hard as the mainstream press makes out or can it be done relatively easily with a proper plan in place?
- Is it a good idea for young people to even get on the property ladder?
- Is it worth going to university or is the apprenticeship path now a viable option?
This brings us to Little FU #1
Current net worth – £2500.00
Little FU #1 started out in the world of work, aged 17, in mid-2016 on an IT apprenticeship.
Prior to that he did his AS levels but felt carrying on to complete his A levels and then going to university wasn’t for him.
After looking around we found an IT apprenticeship with a local company that looked appealing, which meant that he could earn and learn at the same time.
At the end of his 2-year apprenticeship, he will have achieved a level 4 qualification (a degree is level 5) whilst earning approx £15k+, and he may have the option to do another year to achieve his level 5. His contemporaries who stopped on in education to complete their A levels and go to university will, at that point, have completed their first year of uni and be £9k in debt.
FU #1 started on an apprentice wage rate of £3.30/hour (£130/week, £6.8k/year).
Up to now, he has about £2500.00 in his bank account, which over 18 months is roughly a savings rate of 25% – not bad on such a low wage and considering that there has been no deliberate conscious effort to save any money up.
FU #1 has hit 19 years old, and now he is in the second year of his apprenticeship he will get a pay rise to the national minimum wage for his age, which from April 2018 is £5.90/hour (£220/week, £11.5k/year). This equates to approximately a 70% pay rise. We don’t want to lose this increase to lifestyle inflation.
It is time to get an FI plan in place…
Chocomochachinos…love it! : )
You’re teaching your son some valuable lessons. In addition to the benefits of his apprenticeship, understanding the importance of savings rate at such a young age is valuable. Pure gold!