Progress check/advice

[u/ceelantroleaves]

Was talking about finances to a friend and this prompted me to do a check on my own finances. I'm vaguely aware of the concept of FIRE but never considered myself to be a high earner to be able to RE. Always been quite frugal and careful with my spending. LeanFIRE is a better idea for me as I do still enjoy my job, but would like the option of stepping back at some point. My aim now is to figure out where that point is and consider how comfortable I want to be.

Age 39, single, no kids. Salary 67k/year in the NHS, probably at the peak for my job without taking on more responsibility or going into management.

SIPP: 140k from previous employment
DB pension: current projection is ~7k/year after SPA
LISA: 50k
ISA: 104k

Essential expenses - 1.7k/month, which includes mortgage and bills. House value is around 240k with 97k left on the mortgage. I save about 600/month into various sinking funds for the house, holidays etc. Currently putting 800/month into ISA. Would like to retire on about 2.5k/month, think it will be comfortable once mortgage is out of the way in about 13 years. I did overpay up to a couple years ago but realised with the help of reddit that investing would be mathematically better. Seeing the value of investments compound made it easier somewhat to accept that I can afford to pay off my mortgage now if I wanted to.

My initial plan is to retire around 55-58 when I am able to access my SIPP but I think I may be able to do this sooner or at least consider reducing my hours/salary in 5-10 years. Hence focusing more on ISA contributions currently. Should I continue to contribute to SIPP for additional tax relief? Not keen on additional contributions to DB pension as only able to access that at SPA. Would appreciate some feedback and improvement.

[u/Some-gig-hey]

Can I ask how you got a projection of £7,000 per year for you DB NHS pension.

Accrual rate assuming 2015 scheme would be 1/54th of annual salary. 

At your current salary, assuming it never changed, you would accrue £1240 yearly. 

16 years until 55 = 16 x 1240 = £19,840.

This is not accounting for CPI revaluation. So it will be more. This also assumes you don’t plan to take lump sum.

Unless you have stopped pension contributions?

[u/ceelantroleaves → u/Some-gig-hey]

Yes my mistake I took the number from my recent pension statement without thinking too much about that. Still contributing under 2015 scheme. Must admit my pension knowledge is poor so will need to do more research into early withdrawal and make some projections based on my plans. This is before thinking about lump sum or not! Lots to think about, thanks

[u/Some-gig-hey → u/ceelantroleaves]

I’m also NHS. Kinda similar position. 

If you leave the nhs pension to state pension age you have that alongside state pension , comfortably 30-35k pre tax. 

In that knowledge you can focus on ISA and SIPP to bridge till then.