When Sean Cooper paid off his mortgage in three years, he was so proud, he called in a TV crew to film him burning his mortgage papers.
But not everyone celebrated with him. In fact, the 30-year-old’s achievement actually annoyed a lot of people.
As the Canadian resident explained to CBC, Cooper managed to achieve the unbelievable feat simply by being frugal.
Cooper said he worked three jobs. He was employed full-time at a pensions consulting firm while also working at a “no-frills” supermarket as a clerk and doing freelance writing on weekends and at night.
“So while people were out having a good time, I was usually inside on my computer working,” he said.
To cut costs further, he rented out his three-bedroom home and lived in the basement, riding his bike to work and eating “Kraft dinners” of macaroni and cheese.
The result? He paid off his $255,000 mortgage in three years and two months.
It’s an achievement many would be proud of, but some did not like Cooper’s industriousness and were scathing of his frugal lifestyle.
“Upstanding citizen works his life away, lives in miserable squalor and forgoes human relationships for years. How is this an inspirational story?” one man said on the CBC Facebook page.
Others didn’t want to applaud another example of white privilege: “Yet another privileged white man bragging about how he ‘did it on his own.’ But did anyone notice how big his down payment was? Or the fact that he has a $75k+ full-time job?”
Even his work ethic had some fired up: “So he took three jobs when people are struggling to get one, so that he can pay his debt off faster, while others trying to find a job struggled,” one woman wrote.
Some got even more personal, saying they felt sorry for him.
“If he hopes to woo a mate with whom to enjoy his financial standing, he isn’t going to need applause — he’s going to need something to talk about, like a person, besides *work* or ‘frugal’ ways to gussy up Kraft dinner,” one man said.
“I’m not particularly happy for him, I pity him — he’s a model victim of a deranged cultural ethos that elevates work and money and possessions above all. He’s ‘relieved’ that his house (where he barely lives) is paid off?
“Great, but is he satisfied with *any other aspect* of his life? How could he be — when has he had time to be?”
Not everyone was that cruel, with many congratulating him on his achievement.
“I applaud this young man for making a plan and sticking to it … three years in his life working hard and living frugally and now look what he has to offer when he does take a wife, a debt free home. Bravo!”
But others wondered whether Cooper had help.
In a follow-up interview with The Globe and Mail, Cooper explained that he had saved a $170,000 deposit on his own.
“I didn’t get inheritance and I paid for university all myself, so I certainly wasn’t given a free ride by my parents,” he said.
“My mother was a single mother, and I paid her $600 a month in rent when I was living in her basement.”
But Cooper acknowledged that the sacrifice to his social life was probably not worth it.
“I definitely regret that,” he told The Globe and Mail.
“Paying off my house this quickly, I realized I made a mistake working 80 to 100 hours some weeks. I’d rather I paid it off in five to six years and had spent more time socializing with people.”
Finally after 10 years, Cooper has decided to let go of his supermarket job and enjoy his life a bit more.
“I’m going to loosen up and enjoy some of the things I’ve been depriving myself of.”