'I saved £50k by 25 in my 9-5 job - I didn't have to give up Netflix or Starbucks'

A money-savvy woman has revealed how she managed to tuck away a whopping £50,000 by the age of 25, all while holding down a 9am - 5pm job. Kennie Bukky, who offers career and financial guidance online, shared her essential tips for hitting your savings targets.

On her TikTok account @Kenniebukky, she uploaded a video where she talks directly to her followers about her financial journey. The video featured overlay text stating: "How I realistically saved my first £50k ($60k) by 25 from a 9-5 job."

Kennie penned in the video's caption: "Delayed gratification. l hope my transparency here can help or inspire someone to achieve their savings goal through a 9-5 job."

At the start of the video, Kennie explained: "I get asked a lot how I was able to save up £50,000 by the time I was 25 years old. I get asked a lot how I was able to save up £50,000 by the time I was 25 years old and go on to like buy a property, have enough money to buy a second property because the money kept growing.

"To be honest like I didn't do anything that special and I definitely didn't take the personal finance gurus advice of like 'oh don't buy Starbucks, cancel your Netflix account'. No I didn't do none of that - I actually kind of enjoyed my life."

Kennie then details the three straightforward strategies she employed to amass her savings, which her viewers can emulate. Here's what she had to say.

Sharing her hacks on TikTok, she revealed: "The first thing - pay yourself first. At this point I was like 21, I was earning £28k - every time that money comes in, my salary, I'm cutting that in half - half of that is going straight into my savings and I am not touching that money.

"If I ever had to touch the money, now I owe myself money and I'm paying that back next month - that's how I was living my life for years."

The savvy TikToker further shared: "Number two - I was opting for high paying jobs, and when it came to my career I was like 'okay cool so now I'm on £28k, the next job needs to pay me a lot more.' So the next job paid me £40k and that's kind of like how I've been going and I've just been increasing and increasing my salary until I reached six figures.

"And I kept that same system of like, having the salary, keeping the half, and not touching it. And can you see how that would have just added up?"

Wrapping up her advice, Kennie explained: "The third thing I did, because at this point, when I started earning the £40k, I was like, oh, you know, I'm on £40k, I'm 23. Let me go buy me a fancy BMW. So I did. I bought my fancy BMW. And that's a lifestyle inflation. Avoid that, because that will eat into your savings.

"So what I did, after a while, I was like, I'm selling this BMW because I was paying like £300 a month towards that. I wasn't able to save as much so I actually sold that BMW to avoid lifestyle inflation and then I was able to keep on saving.

"I think I've reached a point where I can actually buy a nice car but at that stage I really wanted to save a lot of money. My point is avoid lifestyle inflation because that stuff will creep up on you."

The video went viral, amassing more than 525k views, over 50k likes and hundreds of comments from viewers who either lauded the advice or sought further details. Addressing queries in the comments section, Kennie clarified that during her savings period, she lived with her parents, which she cites as "a major key."

Kennie further shared insights into her career journey, revealing she has worked in various sectors including banking, finance, and financial technology. Post-university, she landed "an entry level compliance role."

Now having moved out of her parents' abode, Kennie added: "I've moved out now and the only way to save that much is to earn more by up skilling and applying for higher paying roles!"