Financially free people answer, please

Great tips!

Great idea! I've just started a family, so that's not a possibility...but I do hear teaching can be lucrative in certain circumstances.

I agree! Your health and living a contented life beats making a huge salary. Stress can destroy people if there's too much of it.

Lovely quote. I've read this before, but certainly could do with a refresher.

Excellent tips and sobering advice.

I am sorry to read about your husband's condition.

Yes, I've just had a baby but I'd still like to glean knowledge from the people on this site. Childcare is all-consuming at the moment, but will not be forever.

Yes, investing is not my forte.
I do like my quality of life here in Italy. I cannot complain about that at all.

I am glad you feel fulfilled by your job.

Sorry if it reads like I'm assuming things. I know there are people from all walks of life on this site.

I think the whole "looking at talents and future trends" part is key.

Also: I'll do my best to enjoy my current life along the way.

Ugh! I know...I got burned recently with a risky investment while trying to make a quick buck.

I'll think more tortoise and less hare.

Money isn't everything. I had quite a bit of it, when I was married to a high flying philanderer. Divorced. Got a fairly good settlement, Ofcourse, the much less than before, but happy and contended and not looking over my shoulder to see who the next bit on the side was?
So happy now.

We never rented for a start. We saved hard for a deposit on our first home by living with our respective parents before we married.

Buying our first house was a priority. I wouldn’t have married until we had the deposit. Nowadays young folk rent then wonder why they can’t buy.

Yes property is very expensive now but at one point we were paying 17% interest! Our children would be horrified at 7 let alone 17% !!

We also took a huge gamble and invested in another property so we had two mortgages!

We rented it out with a view that property would fund us in retirement and we continued buying and selling over the years.

Lots of friends thought we were totally mad and it was a struggle but house prices were going up so we stuck to the plan and rental income now funds our retirement.

The single thing that made the biggest difference to me was the realisation that renting rather than owning a home is the way to go. No capital tied up in property I can’t sell, I can change jobs without worrying about moving, and freedom to raise or lower my standard of living depending on my income. My kids are grown up and I went through a ruinous divorce, but now I have no debts and none of the stress that goes with owning and maintaining a house. I’ll be able to live comfortably on my pension when I retire.

I hope you will be able to afford the rent after you retire geekesse

I think there are swings and roundabouts with both renting or owning a home. Any spare money we had went into paying extra into our mortgage. To be honest, once we had our house paid off, that made a big difference financially. We had one holiday a year. A night out was a rarity, but in the end it has been worth it. We both worked hard and saved. Im fascinated that people who have money, seem to blow it all on the high life and then expect relatives and friends to loan them money! I don't mean anyone on here. I mean in my own circles. Folk seem to want an extravagant lifestyle, but they are not earning enough to pay for it. You should always have, at the very least, 3 months salary saved. That was the advice given me. The only advice I can give is save your money. Especially, if like me and my husband we get no State Pension till 67.

If you rent then that will continue into retirement. Rents have soared in recent years. If you put your back into paying off your mortgage then you have the security of your own home. No one can give you a couple of months notice to quit and your pension is your own.

I spent years reassuring an elderly relative that she would not, as she feared, be 'put out of her home' by the landlord. The fear, however, was not without foundation and the threat blighted her old age as did the constant struggle to pay rent.

Nobody goes into teaching to make serious money. I think the job is it's own reward. Also, the happiest times of my life (when all the children were small) were when we were almost broke.

Financial stability and savings don't bring happiness, they just reduce some worries. Work out what's important for you and aim for it. I like to live simply and appreciate every new day.

Hetty58, it depends if you're prepared to travel. My next job would put me into the higher rate of tax IF I was still in the UK. If you're a physics teacher, you can more or less name your price.

Having said that, I'd happily stay in the UK for my standard point on the payscale IF academies would pay it, but they only want NQT / low cost teachers.

Did I miss something, did OP say anything about being a Physics teacher? I understood her subject to Psychology, but prepared to stand corrected.

No. Just physics happens to be the most in demand subject.

Along with Secondary Maths.

I appreciate all of the responses!
I am definitely not a physics teacher. Oh, how I wish I were good at maths!