How this millennial saved over $60,000 and bought first home by 25

One millennial managed to save enough money to buy her own property by the age of 25, despite the gloomy economic landscape facing young people.

Kennie Bukky, a U.K. based professional who’s under 30, is a compliance officer who has worked at firms including KPMG and Visa.

By 25, she had managed to save £50,000 (around $63,000) and got a mortgage on her first home. Her savings and mortgage have been verified by CNBC Make It.

Bukky explained that she didn’t have financial help from her parents and instead had to be extremely financially savvy, as inflation, the high cost of living, and skyrocketing house prices continued to disadvantage the under-30s.

In fact, only 36.5% of adults say they feel better off financially than their parents, while 42.8% say they’re worse off, according to CNBC’s International Your Money Financial Security Survey in April 2024.  

And as many young people feel priced out of adulthood, some are increasingly doom spending to deal with the stress because they don’t believe they’ll ever be able to own a home or start a family.

Bukky said that after graduating in 2017, these concerns were top of her mind.

“I’ve come from a background where we’ve had to be careful about money and money wasn’t always in abundance. There was always a scarcity mindset around money and my upbringing,” Bukky said in an interview with CNBC Make It.

“I never really had any money lessons or anything for my parents at all … I hated the idea of being restricted because of money and I started to learn from an early age that if you save money, you have the freedom to do whatever you want with that money.”

Here’s how Bukky, who chose to keep her legal name and age private for privacy reasons, managed to save five figures in her 20s.

Bukky felt her degree in forensic science didn’t have enough earning potential — so she pivoted into the finance industry, starting out as an onboarding analyst at banking firm RBS making £28,000. She was committed to saving money, even then.

One way that Bukky managed to save despite the high cost of living is by continuing to live with her parents for as long as possible — an increasingly common trend in recent years as the cost of rent has soared.

It meant she had a two-hour commute to and from the office most days, but she said the savings were worth the pain.

“I was obsessed with saving at least 50% of my salary,” Bukky said. “So I could have easily moved out, but I was prioritizing saving that money so I can invest and build toward financial freedom and financial independence. I lived at home for as long as I could, despite it not being the best setup.”

She added that saving money when on a lower salary created a saving habit that she’s kept even now. And this has caused her savings to snowball, as she was able to put aside even more money.

Once Bukky saved her first £50,000, she used roughly half as a deposit on her first home in 2022 and invested the rest in the stock market.

Bukky coupled saving money with living frugally, including only shopping for clothing during sales.

However, growing up in the social media age means it’s easy for young people to fall foul of comparison culture and feel pressured into living beyond their means.

“I just understood the end goal for myself. I know the kind of future I wanted for myself. I do not want a future where I’m struggling for money or limited by money. That was way more important than any lavish living,” Bukky said.

However, she said she still managed to enjoy herself and budgeted for cheap holidays with her friends, and going out for dinner.

She also admitted to getting carried away when she first started earning around £40,000 — and buying a BMW.

“I fell into that trap temporarily and then I looked at it and thought: actually, this isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I need to focus on my goal. So I owned the BMW for a few months and then I just sold it because I thought, actually, it’s not all that. I’ve tried it now, let me just go back to my Ford or something.”

The savvy millennial is now making over £100,000 a year. She has invested over £30,000 into the stock market, turned her first home into a buy-to-let property, and is on track to buy a second property.

Despite this, Bukky said minimalism still appeals to her.

“There’s certain things that I still wouldn’t do right now, for example, I just don’t think it’s the time for me to buy a lavish car, even though I can afford it fully,” she said.

“I need assets to be paying for that, not out of my pocket, because, in my opinion, that’s how you get stuck in the rat race, just acquiring all of these lavish things, because then it’s tied to your income. To me, that’s a form of bondage, tying yourself down to these liabilities.”