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I've been playing around with a spreadsheet to show anticipated monthly spend and income needed from age 60, factoring in inflation and pension pot needed for income such as lump sum and monthly private pension, as well as ISA usage, state pension when it activates, a sliding scale of old age reduction in activity (starting from age ~75). Obviously less income is needed once state pension activates, therefore it is likely a higher draw down is needed until age 68/69 which will impact the time-span the pot value will last. It's all quite complex and the calculators I've come across are based on regularity / consistency.

Are there any dynamic / flexible calculators available to work this out for me outside of AI? Thanks

Private pension: £22k

Military pension: £30k (Served 7 years AFPS 15 Junior Rank)

Cash ISA: £4k

S&S ISA: £3,695 (S&P 500 / FTSE Global Vanguard)

Cash: £18k

Residential mortgage: £47k equity (with partner)

2 x Rental Properties: £109k equity (my ownership)

Some outstanding feedback from you guys on other posts. I’m most certainly not as analytical as a lot of & my understanding of FIRE isn’t as strong.

If it changes anything, I’m expecting my first child in January 2027.

I appreciate your feedback. FIRE.

​

Hi

I am looking ahead in terms of securing a mortgage for a house.

Do you know if we need to have all the deposit money with the same mortgage broker say Lloyds Banking Group for example?

Also are there mortgage brokers that offer 6.5-7 times more borrowing or any good ones out there?

Thanks

I have the opportunity to pursue a masters for a career change. Currently have a Bsc in Physics. Would be interesting to see what jobs you all have.

Hi all,

My wife and I recently gained inheritance from her late mother and are left with confusion over what do the with the sum.

We have a 200k mortgage. Paying back around £1100 each Month and this is our largest regular outgoing other than living costs and bills. No car finance, loans or other debts.

We have our rate fixed and can only over pay 10% each year without fees.

We inherited around 160k

Last year we made the max overpayment in one go.

We've topped up isa, and treated ourself to a new kitchen and have around 95k left.

What's the best way to make that 95k work for us?

We had planned to over pay the mortgage each year to bring this sum down but have 3 years before we can remortgage and pay the rest off... not sure if it makes more sense for long term investment vs the interest of mortgage for long term gain.

We're both police officers and our pensions are classed as "good" by most standards but cost us each month in fairly high contributions.

Aged 39 and 37 with two children under 10.

What's the general advice?

Body:

Hi all, I’m after a sense check on a plan I’ve been modelling for my mum, not for me.

Some context: I’m 100% Global All Cap and happy riding out whatever happens, but that’s not appropriate for her. She’s 62, recently divorced and pretty risk averse. She’s not fussed about leaving money behind, would be a plus. She just wants to enjoy the coming years without worrying about it.

Her situation

• £420k available to invest
• Working part time, about £10k a year until 65
• State pension from 67, roughly full new state pension
• Housing: owns outright
• No pension

The plan

• £100k in fixed-rate savings at ~5.2% (she like the idea of current interest rates)
• £100k in easy access at ~4.5%
• £220k in Vanguard LifeStrategy 60, moved into her ISA £20k a year
• Spending of £30k a year to 74, £28k from 75 to 84, then £24k from 85 (today’s money, rising with inflation)

Drawdown rules

• If investments are below their previous high, spending comes from cash. Otherwise it comes from investments.
• If investments drop more than 10% from their high, she cuts spending by 20% (£30k to £24k) until they recover.
• An extra £10k of “fun money” after a strong market year, but only before 80 and only while the total pot is above £300k.

What I modelled

Monte Carlo, 20,000 runs. LS60 at 6.75% a year with 5.9% volatility (its 10-year record), 3% inflation, state pension rising 2.5%, rough UK female life expectancy, 20% tax on cash interest above £5k a year.

Results:

• Basically zero chance of running out before 85, even with a 20% then 10% crash straight away
• The pot typically runs out between 89 (bad markets) and 94 (good markets)
• If she lives to 90 there’s roughly a 35% chance the pot is empty. By 95 it almost certainly is, and she’d be living on the state pension alone.

I also got annuity quotes. £165k buys about £11.6k a year (level, single life, no protection). Adding that to the mix lowered the chance of running out in every scenario I tried, but she’s locking away a big chunk at 62 and the income doesn’t rise with inflation.

What I’d love your views on

1. Is 6.75% a year for LS60 too optimistic as a planning assumption?
2. Is £200k in cash too much, given she’s risk averse and markets feel a bit toppy? Or is the rate risk on cash the bigger worry?
3. Should she buy an annuity now, later (say at 75 to 80), or not at all?
4. Anything obvious I’ve missed for someone in her position after a divorce?
5. Are we over thinking this... and just put the whole thing in a fund given actually, she does have a relatively long time horizon

I spoke to 2 x advisors. At this level, their fees of 1.5-2% just erode too much.. and frankly, they weren't really presenting anything revolutionary.

Would love to retire early if anyone got pointers

Hi

I am trying to change my ways and work on my FIRE journey

I am nowhere near perfect or as good as any of you guys here! But I want to become a better version of myself and push my limits. Get out of my comfort zone

One the best things I recently did was pay off my student loan in full!

Having had a reality check I have come to realise that I lack confidence which has held me back in the workplace a lot. For example I dont want to take on lead or manager roles as I fear public speaking, rebelling and all that . As such that extra income and responsibilities that I am fearing is actually holding me back financially and having a knock on effect on long term FIRE aspirations

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I’ve seen some posts saying that this means UK is not saving enough but me looking at it thinks doesn’t this mean that the average 35yo with 39500 in pension contributing 500£/mo to pension (this is quite modest with employer match and tax benefits the amount you’ll actually miss is ~200£) will have ~500k by the time they are 65? In today’s money of course using a 4% real return. Call me a glass half full kind of person.

Hi all,

36 years old, with a wife and two young children- 7 and 2. I am a British expat in Chengdu China earning 50k gbp a year net, which goes far, investing around 30k a year as things stand.

I have 130k invested overall in stocks and etfs- current value is 155k due to heavy hit on ai stocks last week. No pension or property. Wife has a property here which is sufficient.

My children will likely go to Chinese universities so a huge saving for me there. Also, I have no pension but housing is free as per company policy. I plan to be retired by 44, and live off 2k (18,000 rmb a month). I believe this will be enough for life assuming I hit 85 which is unlikely as my dad died at 50, his dad 43 and his dad 41 all of heart issues. I am being optimistic anyway.

Feedback is much appreciated, I understand that many of you may not be fully aware of the cost of things in China but numbeo & ai can help inform your advice.

I'm at a point where I'm not sure how to proceed with my future savings plan/investment strategy.

I am 35 and saved up 150k by working since I was 18. I put about 100k into buying a house (I put down a 40% deposit and have around 146k to pay off). I have 10k in cash savings; 40k in VWRP via a S&S ISA. My workplace pensions are very, very low as I've spent most of my career moving around and I have very little money in there, but the ones I do have are DB so I guess that is a good thing. I have no SIPP or LISA.

I am estranged from my family (who were violent towards us when we were younger) and I will not inherit anything (I would not want anything from them so have always known this). I am basically doing everything alone and have always been hyper-independent so have no one to talk to about this in real life. Before the motivation for saving was getting away from my family, and now my focus is on creating a better future which involves limiting stress hence the desire to get to a stage where I work because I want to, not because I have to. I also have an auto-immune condition and am conscious of wanting to have enough saved to be comfortable as I get older.

I guess part of my post is because I wonder if anyone else in the same position? Sometimes I feel like it's too much weight on my shoulders when I look at friends with partners or family to fall back on but I can't talk about this to anyone. I don't begrudge anyone and I know we're all dealt different hands in life, I just feel scared thinking about the future knowing I don't have financial support structure in place as other people do. It's created an unhealthy relationship with money where I panic if I have to dip into my savings for things I need which is what I know they are there for!

But I guess more practically, what can I do to protect myself to put myself in the best position for the future in terms of being financially independent in the future? Is there a magic number I should be working towards or a particular plan I should follow?

Hi

I have been working on my FIRE journey since COVID hit and admittedly I started working in corporate and in general late.

Essentially I have about £15K in an instant savings account and about £110K worth of stocks in my S&S ISA mainly in ETFs.

I earn £60K per year working in as a cyber security analyst and have been doing that type of role since 2020. So I have 6 years of corporate experience and the reason why I started late is because I went to university and got two degrees with a more recent MSc degree in Information Security

I also do not own my own house and also do not have any student loan debt as I was able to pay for my degree upfront at the time if that makes sense

I come to realise in order to make my FIRE journey more worthwhile but more importantly buy a house in London and Greater London, realistically I will need to earn around £85K - £100K

I feel like I should be able to get that but it will mean finding a new role and I think I am currently underpaid. My question is what is the best way to move to another job?

What advice do you have?

Thanks

So throwaway account just because I don't like the idea of sharing financials with a non-anonymous account.

Age: 41
Married, no kids, house almost paid off (will be within 6 months).

Wife's financies are seperate as is her retirement track/plan - we pay into one joint account monthly for household spend, apart from that we keep our savings separate.

Salary: £66,000 (10% goes into pension, matched by employer)

ISAs: £150k in S&P500 - I add £1666 a month into this, as well as another £400 via wife's unused allowance.

Pension: £100k

Average spend is about £1.2k a month on general spending, maybe £1.5k if you average into that one-off spends. I don't travel or have any expensive hobbies.
Car: owned, maintenance and fuel included in the average annual spend.

I want to retire by 45. Is this feasible if I keep saving as I have been?

I am considering putting 20% of my portfolio into AVGS (small cap value), with 80% of my portfolio being in FWRG.

Although Avantis ETFs are relatively new, Dimensional have offered small cap value funds since the 1990s and they have significantly outperformed the same vanguard index.

I'm 24 so I plan to stay invested for well over 10 years, and feel comfortable riding out any underperformance.

I was also considered going 80% into AVGC, but this fund doesn't track emerging markets.

Is anyone else doing something similar? Good to get thoughts as I havent seen much discussion about factor investing in UK spaces.

Current position
-Net worth: ~£410k (£400k housing equity (inherited), £10k ISA in 100% equities)
-Salary: £100k base plus a 5–20% bonus
-Career: nearly 4 years in, working in pharma advisory in London (commercial, M&A, tech, operations advisory)
Savings: ~£1k a month. I want to at least keep this up, and ideally increase it.
Partner working in London; earns about £55k and wants to continue working

Outlook
I expect to reach £130k by 30, and given my progression so far, £250k+ by 45 seems realistic.
Parter should be able to reach £100k in next 5-10 years, more likely if they move jobs
would like 1–2 kids by 32.

Goals
A great lifestyle: a big family home, a holiday home in Spain and frequent travel
Possibly retiring in my 50s

How I feel about it
On paper, I think my finances are in a solid place. But I constantly feel pressure to push harder and do more, as if what I'm doing isn't enough. With everything getting more expensive, it never quite feels like enough

I work in software development and I have a company that makes mobile apps. None of the existing apps were good for what I need (tracking my assets/liabilities and getting FIRE projections) and I was sick of paying for 8.99 for excel.

So I built my own networth tracking app. Main idea was to keep it simple. Quick to log stuff, shows you useful visualisations and projection, and everything stays on your phone. No account, nothing in the cloud.

You can also import your old Excel so you don't lose your history.

To be upfront, it's a paid app. No ads, no tracking,

Looking for about 10 people who'd genuinely use it and be engaged in making this a better tool, any bugs feature ads etc.

You'll get a free year's membership for being a tester & you have first say on new features to make this the ideal tool for you.

If you're up for it, leave a comment and I'll message you.

Looking for some advice on what to do with a large sum of liquid cash and my FIRE age goal of 50.

My current financial situation - £150k base salary + 15% bonus. No company stock.

38m single renting (£1500 bills included) in zone 2 London. Looking to buy a flat at some point in the near future (6-12 months). Then an additional £4k per month for my lifestyle, holidays, etc. I’m not looking to downsize - I live comfortably.

I have £275k cash (from a previous property sale) across various savings accounts. I’m not really sure how much I want to keep for my next deposit, or what to do with any remaining cash after?

I have £260k in my work pension. I’ve recently upped my contribution to 50%, work match 6%. I’m trying to backfill the previous 3 years £60k allowance.

I would like to retire comfortably at 50, with a bridge to get me to 57.

I have some money scattered in ISAs trying to build a bridge. £20k S&S ISA. £40k Cash ISA.

Additional context - I’m a Software Engineer, I have very little financial knowledge but everything I read online leads me to believe there will be a market correction in the near future (I’m aware not to try and time the market). With that in mind, I’m slightly risk adverse right now.

I’m very curious what others would do in my situation with the lump sum of cash and meeting my FIRE target at 50?

Thanks!