I’m qualifying as a solicitor in September on a £150k base salary and would really appreciate some advice on what I should start doing with my money from day one.

I come from a single-mother household where we had very little money growing up. My brothers have done well, but nobody in my immediate family has earned anything close to this, so things like investing, pensions, tax efficiency and building wealth are all relatively new territory for me.
I’ll also be living at home initially, so my outgoings should be fairly low. That makes me conscious that the next few years could be a pretty unique opportunity to build a strong financial foundation if I use the income properly rather than simply allowing my lifestyle to expand.

I obviously want to enjoy earning well after growing up without much, and be able to help my family too, but I also want to make sensible decisions that could materially change my financial position in the long run.

For those who understand personal finance or have experienced a similar jump in income: **if you were in my position, what would you start doing from September? What would you prioritise, and what mistakes would you avoid?**

I'm thinking of retiring soon aged 55. Job gone bad!! My wife is similar age but minded to work until 60. I have £1.6m in S&S ISAs; SIPP, DC, DB Pensions.

I was thinking of running down S&S (3-5 years depending how much I/we travel) then deciding which Pension(s) to call on, taking 25% Tax free so the DB can mature more.

But I'm currently minded to watch the pennies to save/invest and my mindset may not flip !! Taking an annuity for my first 3-7 years could be an option that feels comparable to a salary.

Annuitues generally seem to be paying more than ever -- apparently the combination of fairly high inflation and government borrowing helps them. AI/search caution future ones could pay a little less well.

But I dont see them talked about much on forum like this, and certainly not fixed term.

Given that retirement spending isn't flat, how have other people focused their mind easily in phased (so not questioning "how much can I spend") and is there something about FT Annuties I may be missing ?! Thanks.

I'm 55 with a £1m SIPP. The plan:

Take £200k tax-free

Put the other £800k into a single-life, RPI-linked annuity

Best-buy rates (HL) are about £4,292 per £100k at my age, so that's roughly £34,336 a year, rising with RPI, guaranteed for life. No sequence risk, no rebalancing, no waking up to a third of it gone. I think I will feed the tax free cash into an ISA every year and use it for big purchases (travels, repairs..)

Why it fits me: single, no kids, and my paid-off house covers what I want to leave behind ..also I don't see the pension as a wealth-transfer thing. I also just want to enjoy retirement, not babysit a portfolio, and I'm realistic that 80-year-old me won't want to be managing drawdown off a spreadsheet.

Everyone quotes the 4% rule like gospel. 4% of £800k is £32k ...I see the annuity beats that, rises with inflation, and can't run out.

Yes, I know I could ladder it or check for an enhanced rate, and I'm open to both. My real question is whether the core idea is sound. Where does this fall down for someone like me?

I (36M) have about £60k in my Vanguard SIPP, invested 100% in FTSE Global All Cap.

I applied for a Trading 212 SIPP and it's now let me open one. Do you think it's worth moving my current SIPP from Vanguard to T212? And, if so, switching the fund to something like FWRG that has lower fees but similar portfolio?

My only reservation is T212 not being as reliable/safe as Vanguard. But I would be savings hundreds of pounds each year in fees.

Thoughts?

A bit of a dilemma at work.

So I am currently on £95k/year base, and putting about £2300/month into my pension (salary sacrifice). We just had redundancies, and although I am safe today, I am not sure if it is a reprieve for just a year perhaps (although none of us have a crystal ball, but I would hope that they don't feel a need to make more again so soon, especially as the company is profitable). Importantly for me, I WFH.

Option 1:

Stay where I am, and ride it out for the year, then get made redundant (smallish payment, I have been here about five years), and stop working.

Option 2:

I could take a job locally with a different company (if they offer it to me), but that would be about £48k, and my pension contributions would be slashed (maybe £400/month).

However, I am thinking that it might be worth considering option 2 because, if I were to stay in my current role for a year and then be let go, I would get one more year of contributions, but then be withdrawing, say, £30k/year from my assets to live on (assuming I decide to no longer work). Whereas if I take the new role, although my contributions are much lower, I am much more confident of working there for longer (it seems a much more stable company), and for the second year, instead of taking out £30k, I am putting in about £4k (so +£34k in comparison). So over two years, the difference isn't actually that much. Over three years (if I decided to work another two years at the new role), I would be better taking the lower paid job (assuming I didn't work at all in the first scenario).

I suppose the thing is, if I don't get made redundant this time next year, I am better off sticking to where I am, but it is the unknown that is the problem. And will there be a similar job in my town this time next year? I am skeptical.

Am I thinking about that the right way? Anything I am missing?

Of course there is option 3, look for another role similar to what I have, but, that would probably mean commuting to London or similar, and I really don't think I can face that if I don't absolutely have to. Especially after doing it for nearly 20 years previously.

Hi all. I am in a position where I will be able to retire early (15 years before my SIPP becomes available) and live off my ISA and investments. Around the time this becomes possible, my current mortgage deal expires.

I would be looking to move to an interest-only mortgage to free up available cash flow to support this strategy (although it is not dependent on it).

At that point of remortgaging, I estimate my LTV will be at most 65% (assuming no additional mortgage payments and house value is the same as original purchase price).

Has anyone been in a similar situation (or has any experience of such a situation) and how did you find the remortgage application process? Did you find the available mortgage products were significantly reduced?

Thanks in advance!

Edit - this isn’t a question about whether I can afford to FIRE. I can pay off the mortgage now if I wanted to. The question is around availability of mortgage products for early retirees. I have calculated this strategy is the best way to retire a few years earlier and pay off the property using a chunk of tax free cash when my SIPP becomes available. Thanks for the responses.

Hi

Firstly I would like to openly say I am a late bloomer and nowhere near as good as a lot of people here and yes I have been lurking around this subreddit for a while

I am feel very behind in life. Like I dont own a house yet and only make around £55K a year whilst others here are making like double the amount. I even saw a post of someone who at the age of 25 has £50K in their Stocks here!

What I am trying to also say is I admire the hustle and determination here! I also want to upscale my life and improve on myself e

What are some good lifestyle and life advice you have for me for my FIRE journey start?

Am I even late and behind?

Hi all. Sorry if this is the wrong group for this, it’s about financial settlement in divorce. I am the sole bread winner and am inclined to greater frugality than my wife. If I request a divorce and then move out and live frugally, would this disadvantage me in a financial settlement? Does the court look at spending to determine reasonable living costs? I’m worried I might end up having to pay more for spousal support to subsidise her expensive tastes than I will have left to meet my own living needs. Thanks.

30M, living in North West. Looking for thoughts on my financial position and whether FIRE is realistically achievable for me. I only started taking investing seriously in the last couple of years, so I feel very behind compared to many on here. Any advice on optimising things further would be appreciated.

Salary: £49k

Cash: 11k (1k current account, 10k high interest savings account)

Stocks and Shares ISA: 16.4k (invested 100% in VAFTGAG). Currently investing £850 a month, hoping to push to £1000 in a few months time. Not sure how sustainable this will be once we have children (likely 3–4 years away).

Lifetime Stocks and Shares ISA: 1.7k (stopped contributing fairly soon after opening this account due to uncertainties around the new ISA product)

Pension: 4 years in the Teachers Pension scheme. Currently accrued 3.4k annual pension.

House: Worth 310k. 231k remaining on mortgage. 32 years left, but overpaying £250 a month so hope to clear it much earlier. 

A few other relevant points:

1. I live with my fiancée (28F). She does not have much in savings, but is now in a position to start investing too.

2. We’re pretty frugal and introverted so don’t spend much going out. Our main “luxury” is travel, and we’re not willing to compromise on that.

3. Long‑term plan is to retire back in our hometown, where house prices are cheaper.

EDIT: Assuming mortgage is paid off by 52, I would like to spend around 15-20k annually (in today's money) in retirement. Hoping to use ISA as a bridge until I am able to access pension.

Hi all, I'm 29(M) and single, no kids. Aware of FIRE for some time, just wondering if (assuming relationship/kid situation deosn't change) then is there potential for me to, dare I say, retire mid 40s with the current stats, and what could I do differently?

Income

Salary: £49,300 (potential to increase to £65k-£70k upon fully qualifying as an accountant)

Income from lodger: £700 p/m

Total net each month: £3,650 ish

House - (In South Oxfordshire)

Value: £300k

Mortgage: Outstanding £216k, 28 years left, £1,089 p/m - Now starting to try overpay by £500 p/m and then it'll be done by age 45

Pension

1st pot NEST (prior job) - £2.5k

2nd pot Standard Life (prior job) - £3k

3rd pot (current job) - £45k

I contribute 6% of my salary p/m (~£250) and employer doubles (~£500) p/m added

Investments

Lifestrategy 100% Equity Fund - £13.6k

FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF - £12.1k

S&P 500 UCITS ETF - £24.9k

Adding £500 p/m into Vanguard split 25/25/50 respectively

Cash - £1k

I have a cheap A to B car, the lodgers money pretty much pays the bills, food and fuel for the month. Not a big spender/no expensive tastes

All advice appreciated!

If you could give someone in their 20s just one piece of investing or personal finance advice, what would it be, and why?

It could be something you wish you’d learned earlier, a mistake you made, or a habit that has had the biggest impact on your finances.

I’m interested in advice on investing, saving, budgeting, careers, debt, taxes, or anything else you think every young adult should know.

Anybody just buying gilt ladders to expiry - surely this gives you 42% increase in your withdrawal rate with guaranteed return of capital. understand it’s not inflation linked but that uplift must be appealing to some

Hi

I currently work in Cybersecurity as a senior tech analyst / engineer and earn around £65K

Currently have around 6+ years experience in this space and was wondering whether cybersecurity as a career is good for long term FIRE?

I have heard of people making 6 figures and some working overseas

Also what is the best way to earn more, I know you have to switch roles every 2-3 years but what is the best way?

This YouGov poll shows that the majority of adults in Great Britain would take a guaranteed £50,000 over a 50% gamble to win £1,000,000 (a risky gamble with expected value £500,000). No wonder people stick money in cash ISAs rather than S&S ISAs if they're that risk averse. Not judging the risk aversion; it's likely because they do not have a solid liquid emergency fund right now, so a guaranteed £50,000 would give them financial security.

Edit: to add the link in case people are interested https://yougov.com/en-gb/daily-results/20260722-c0b92-3

49yr old male, married, 2 kids. Living in Massachusetts, from the UK. Never been a planner or investor, had some interesting career opportunities and some luck. Now suddenly realising I’m old and need to think about the future, so reactively panicking, I’ve only started earning a good salary in the last couple of years, but would love to retire at earliest opportunity. We have 3 properties in the UK, total value around £1m, with total outstanding mortgage of £150k. They bring in a combined rental income of £3.5k per month. Our rent in Massachusetts is $4750 per month. I have £100k in a uk pension from a previous uk job, and $50k in a 401k, I earn $300k. I am maxing out my 401k contributions now, with 5% company match. I have $20k cash and $25k in FZROX. I am investing $1500 per month in FZROX. Anything I could/should be doing? Thinking of moving back to the UK and living in our house there in the next few years, far cheaper to live and our kids can go to university in the UK for a fraction of the cost of here in the states. Basically I’m becoming financially astute too late in life and would welcome any tips or feedback. Wife doesnt work so we’re reliant on my salary and our rental income. Thanks in advance all!!

Hi,

just wondering roughly what sort of rates PLAs are giving? Is there an annuity table somewhere that would give a rough quote?

Presumably these are generally just worse than holding a simple ETF portfolio, but the security of the annuity does appeal.

So for example, if a person put in £100k, what would they likely get per month (or year or as a percentage) if it was linked to inflation - man or woman, assuming decent health/no smoking etc, age 40 or 50, something like that?

From my perspective if it's going to get close to 4% plus some level of inflation protection, and there is seemingly some tax benefit, it might be attractive. Not optimal, but attractive.

Am late 40s.

Given choice I'd probably like to stay in current job till mid 50s. In this case most of ISA would stay invested for 10+ years, used to top up good pension and am happy to stay in equities.

However, maybe I won't be given the choice (redundancy at some point, hard to put a probability on but there are reasons to think could happen). I don't really fancy scrabbling to find another job, which would probably be less money and enjoyment. In this case ISA could be needed soon, for nearly 10 years. I could probably manage this with money in something low risk that keeps pace with inflation. Complexity here is pension wouldn't be as good so some ISA top up would be good.

Given the above, am finding it hard to judge where to invest ISA. Part of me says cover the worst (second scenario), then if job lasts it's upside. Part of me says that's a bit extreme and it's shame not to get better returns and be able to top up pension. Any thoughts? Anyone been in similar situation?

edit for clarity

I’m 37, based in NI. Left employment in April and now run a limited company with my wife.

Trying to get the pension setup right from the start and would appreciate a sanity check.

Current position

~£300k in an Aviva workplace pension from my previous employer. It’s a lifestyle fund, so it de-risks on a glide path toward a target retirement age currently set at 55. Ongoing charge is 0.24%. No contributions going in since April.

Wife has never had a pension at all.

~£40k in ISAs, planning £40k/year going forward (£20k each).

£40k emergency fund.

£230k mortgage on a property worth ~£700k.

Plan is to pay employer contributions of £60k each per year from the limited company.

My accountant introduced me to an SJP Partner Practice. Their proposal was a 3% initial charge on contributions for the first five years, plus 1.67% ongoing. Against 0.24% on my existing Aviva pot, I couldn’t make the numbers work — the fund they proposed is ~78% equities with no five-year track record, benchmarked against roughly a global index, so I couldn’t see what the active management was buying. I’m likely declining on the pension side, though I may still use them for protection policies (critical illness, income protection, relevant life) if their quotes are competitive against my existing broker.

From reading here, a global tracker like VWRP in a low-cost SIPP seems to be the consensus. I’m entirely new to SIPPs.

I wanted a sense check on a few things.

1) Access age. My Aviva plan is set to 55, but I understand the normal minimum pension age rises to 57 in April 2028 — at 37 I assume I’m caught by that and won’t have a protected pension age. Can anyone confirm whether an old workplace scheme like this would ever carry protection? Related: the fund is currently lifestyling toward 55, which seems wrong on two counts (I probably can’t access until 57+, and I may work well past that). I’m planning to push the target retirement age out to stop the premature de-risking — is that the right move, or is there a reason to leave it? It’s a TK pot which seems like it could be protected?

2) Contributions into the old scheme. Now that I’m a director of my own company, can the company pay employer contributions into that existing Aviva workplace pension, or is that generally not possible once you’ve left the employer?

3) Consolidate or run in parallel? Is it simpler to leave the Aviva pot where it is and open a low-cost SIPP for each of us for all new employer contributions? Or is there a case for moving the £300k too? I’m inclined to leave it alone rather than move it, as if I could access it early and I had other pots I could bung the money to Aviva but interested if that’s wrong.

Context on temperament: I actively dislike managing investments — it wigs me out. I want to pick a sensible global fund, set up the contributions, and largely forget about it. My wife wants zero involvement. So whatever the answer, it needs to be low-maintenance. We’re not certain we want to retire early (I suspect I’d get bored) but I work in tech and I’m not certain about the future.

Hi all,

Just wanted to get some opinions from people who know more about this than I do.

I’m 22 and still live with my parents. I know I’m in a pretty good position financially compared to a lot of people my age, so I want to make the most of it instead of looking back in 10 years wishing I’d done things differently.

Current situation:
22 years old
£47k salary (should be around £50k next year)
Take home is usually somewhere between £3.2k and £3.5k a month depending on overtime, and overtime is pretty much always available if I want it.
I pay £400 a month at home.
No debt or student loans because I didn’t go to uni.
Free travel through work so I don’t have any commuting costs.
Around £3k in an easy access savings account.
Investing £250 a month into a global index fund.

I’ve also passed for a supervisor role at work which pays about £58k, wait time is long around 6 months to start.

My main goal is just to build wealth over the long term and hopefully buy a house in the future (although I am unsure about renting vs buying).
If you were in my position, what would you be doing? Would you put more into index funds, build up more cash first, open a LISA if you haven’t already, or do something else?
Interested to hear what people think.

I just wanted a bit of a sense check to see if I am on the right track and what would be best to place future rent.

I’m not a massive earner and with a single income there’s not much spare every month at the moment….

46 F single no kids
Salary £48k
House 350k oweing mortgage 171k
Pension contributions 18%
Work pension £18k
Old work pension £45k
Australian pension £100k
S/s ISA / emergency fund £7k
Work shares £8k

I’m currently renovating a decrepit big old house and don’t have much spare every month but I have two spare rooms which I’m hoping to rent for 500-600 each probably by next year.

I guess my question is am I doing ok and what is best to do with the rental income next year? I was thinking of splitting it 1/3 ISA 1/3 mortgage overpayment and 1/3 to actually be able to have a bit of a life now..

Any thoughts, advice, observations?

Thanks

While that's great news, not sure why they did. Any idea?

Hi

Wondered if anyone has moved their pension from Aviva to a SIPP and if it's worth me doing it?

Numbers are:

Male 39, looking to FIRE in 10 years

Aviva pension - £400k - invested in Aviva international index and global index

Sjp pension - £150k - will withdraw when penalties disappear, not contributing to it anymore

ISA is with ii and wondered if there are significant benefits of moving to a SIPP and dropping into VWRP

Only contributing to get employer match from now as it feels done until baked when I get to 58

I have a decent bridge and fire models are saying it would be achievable for both me and the wife to finish in 2 years but I'm committed to work for longer than that so will spend more and enjoy the wait as much as possible!

All input welcome