Married well , no I jest! Buying a 500K house does'nt make one wealthy, it just means the bank lending criteria is lax! I would have been 29 before I was finished with the travelling, at that stage I had no capital at all. I also had an advantage in that i am very well qualified (this contributed to my being a skint 26yo), also all my 'life experiences' were also gained with an eye towards my future career, in otherwords, I may have been away travelling and blowing my meagre earnings, but the work was always going to stand me in good stead for any future employers - oh and as I mentioned above, the wife has a good income too. Fairplay to Kazbah, btw, as someone else said, not many 26yo's have anything like that.Glenbhoy...i hope you don't mind me asking this...but on another thread you're talking about buying a 500,000 house. do you mind me asking when did you change from the skint 26 year old,to someone who can finance a 500K mortgage. I'm trying to gauge how long someone can 'piss about' enjoying themselves, getting some life experience before they have to get back to the real world.