I had a depressing realisation recently. If you earn £45k for the next 20 years, and put 50% of that towards your house it’ll buy you a house around £450k. Not THAT much for all that time.
Don’t most of us want a nice place?
Plus who can afford 50% of their income that consistently?
Except that it’s only depressing if you consider the value of your house important. If that’s your success metric then you may well be disappointed.
For me this comes back to childhood dreams. For some reason I thought I’d be a millionaire by the time I was in my mid-twenties. Childhood naivety gives way to a certain reality you didn’t predict.
However instead if you adjust your success metric (keeping with the property theme), to something more important, then it’s not such a big deal anymore.
Wouldn’t you also be happy in a property with enough room for all the inhabitants close to the people you care about?
Wouldn’t you rather have 20 years of great moments; having traveled, partied, loved and lived… and be in an “average” house than a mansion having experienced few great moments, instead sacrificing your time for the delayed satisfaction of a great property.
Of course those things aren’t mutually exclusive, but as David Allen said:
Adjusting the success metric from finance to happiness opens up different routes to achieve the goal.