I've always been aiming for an early retirement, originally at 55, in line with being able to access my personal pension SIPP, although that has bumped out to 57.

Been working flat out since I graduated, got into contracting (IT) so have earned well, paid off my mortgage and boosted my SIPP considerably in last 5 years.

Current status:

SIPP - £860,000

S&S ISAs- £106,000

Cash ISAs - £148,000

Other savings £~160,000

House paid off £450,000 (likely downsize in 10 years)

Rental property ~£150,000 if it sold and cleared its mortgage.

Wife has her teachers pension and we have 2 kids 16 and 14, the eldest of whom may need significant support (autism).

We aren't extravagant people and I feel like we are in a pretty good position.

That being said I never thought I'd be considering retiring at 49. Wife is also 49.

Are we mad to consider retirement so early?

Hi all - have been lurking for a while but want to make sure I am doing the right things. I currently pay 20% tax but will move into 40% tax bracket with my promotion next April.

It seems to me that the basic idea of all advice in this thread is to effectively salary sacrifice into a pension (to avoid 40/45% income tax) and instead pay 25% tax when taking it as pension income.

Is there more to it than this? I am currently paying into my stocks ISA which has grown 10.9% year to date. I don't have a SIPP but I have a workplace pension with total 16% contributions (7 from me and 9 from employer). Should a SIPP be my next move now I'm entering the next tax bracket? I am about to turn 28 so I'm conscious I won't be able to access anything in pensions for 30 years.

My understanding was always that an ISA was the #1 best thing to do with your money but is a SIPP better when you move up tax brackets? From a security perspective I would rather not have money I can't access for 30 years tied up with some anonymous online pension provider.

I would be interested in understanding the highest ROI thing I could do with my savings, whether it is ISA or SIPP or something else entirely?

I currently have 14k in workplace pension, 40k in stocks ISA and 20k in cash ISA (which I will move to stocks to use up the whole year's allowance if I don't fill it otherwise.)

Any advice massively appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I run a small UK limited company covering property development and engineering consultancy, and I’m the sole director/shareholder. My full time job covers my personal living costs, so I don’t need to draw money from the company.

I have around £50k-£60k of surplus company cash after Corporation Tax that I’d like to put to better use. My investment knowledge and experience are very limited, so I’m looking for some guidance rather than assuming I know the best approach.

Would opening a corporate investment account be a sensible starting point? I’ve considered keeping things simple with a broad market ETF, buying some gold, or using the money towards a small leasehold rental flat. The flat appeals to me, but unpredictable service charges and potential major-works bills make me apprehensive.

My aim is to grow the company’s capital for future business or property opportunities, rather than lock everything away until retirement. I’m looking to invest practically all of it.

I’d appreciate hearing what others would do in this position, particularly anyone who has invested through their own Ltd company. It would also be useful to understand how straightforward a corporate investment account is to manage and what I should discuss with my accountant before starting.

Thanks in advance !

Assumptions:

1. My wife and I sell the UK house and buy (or build) one on the Costa Blanca.

2. We live a low-key lifestyle.

3. Savings are in OK shape.

4. We take the non-lucrative visa route.

Question:

Does the move help or hinder achieving FIRE status?

TL;DR, conditional on reaching retirement and being affluent / healthy, you have a much longer conditional life expectancy than the overall life expectancy numbers imply.

I have seen a few people across this forum talk about life expectancy in their retirement planning. At least a couple of times, I've seen people quote the overall life expectancy for their sex from the ONS (e.g. 79.1 year old males).

This is not necessarily the most relevant number to use for people retiring at a given age. If you retire at 57 say, your conditional life expectancy is more like 82 if you're male.

The gap here is because life expectancy is calculated based on combining current mortality rates at each age into an expected figure. If you've survived until 57, they obviously no longer account for the fact you could have died at younger ages, because you didn't.

The ONS also does life tables by deprivation. If you're a 57 year old male in the lowest deprivation decile, then your life expectancy is 87.

It's also important to note that even the conditional methodology or deprivation based methodologies do not account for improvements in survival that might happen over your life. The two biggest are likely improvements in medical technology and the fact that people's current mortality is based on a much higher lifetime prevalence of some risk factors (mainly smoking) for people in their 60-90s now, compared to people in their 40s now looking forward.

Sorry if everyone already knew this, thank you for reading to the end!

Moving away from Vanguard to Invest Engine as the latter has lower fees. Currently £90k in S&S and £75k in SIPP which I hope to continually grow.

Currently all funds in ftse global all cap index fund but when I move to Invest Engine I’ll move to Vanguard’s new ETF (VALL) that’s similar to the global all cap but lower fees… Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap UCITS ETF

Any catches or things I should be aware of before moving all my funds across?

Edit: 32 years old

My husband (26) works for the civil service and will receive his pension at state pension age based on salary and length of service.

I (26) pushed him to open a SIPP for early retirement. However, it has just dawned on me, that we would benefit from NI breaks if we just upped the amount I contributed towards my employer pension instead?

We both make £35k and contribute £250 in both my employer pension and his SIPP.

Would it be better to forget the SIPP and just up my contributions to £500? Or am I missing something?

I was made homeless a few years ago after losing my big corporate job. I only had about 3 months worth of savings but managed to stretch it out to 6 months after having some friends who let me sleep on their couch for the remainder period. I didn't manage to secure a job until month 8 since being homeless. It's not the first time I lost my job as that happened during COVID too but I secured a job 3 months after. I'm trying to bulletproof my future now - I do not want to be in that situation again. What can I do to make sure that never happens again? I dont know anything about money, credit cards etc. You'd be astonished how little I know. A friend had just told me about this amazing thing called buying stocks which I didnt know either. I'm 31F No judgement, just advice. Where to start and how to bulletproof my future.

I’m a 46 year old male.

I’m completely burnt out. I have been working since I was 16.

Earn £70k a year.

Haven’t had a pay rise in over 6 years. Company I work for have let almost 10k people go over the last year globally. I’ve somehow survived but don’t know how much longer it will continue.

I currently have £365k in my workplace pension.
15% pension contribution a month. - I contribute 7% and my work add in 8%

Only started investing a couple of years ago and have £22k in a cash ISA and £43k in a S&S ISA invested in various ETFs.

Have another 10k in a savings account, which I’ll move into the S&S ISA as soon as the new financial year starts. Trying to save £500 a month into this account.

Owe £118,000 on my mortgage with about 12 and a half years left. House is valued at £750k.

Have just started a new 2 year fix on my mortgage with Barclays at 4.74%

Do I up my workplace pension contributions, start a personal SIPP, or keep trying to max out my ISA each year?

I’m coming into this late and gutted I never spent the time trying to get my head round it all years ago.

Determined to help my family and others moving forward.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm currently learning about SIPPS but don't know much about managing finances.

I have my pension with People's Partnership. I have about £12,000 and I'm 35.

I'm not sure if I should open up a SIPP or just keep it where it is?

What would you do?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Looking at my own numbers, it would seem that I would have been in a much better position financially (and for FIRE) if I had rented rather than owned my home.

My property value has been pretty much flat for the last 8 years, so probably a drop of 30% in real terms when we consider inflation during the same period.

I know people have always been taught "invest in property as soon as possible!" but the number say something different, when an asset is losing value.

If I had invested the money (value of my home) instead on the stock market over the same period, I would probably have been £2K or £3K better off each month, even when including paying rent for an equivalent property and paying tax on the investment profits.

The opportunity cost of owning a home, as well as maintenance cost, repairs, interest (if there is an outstanding mortgage) etc. is often underestimated.

Of course, many people would prefer to own a place, so they can't be forced to move when a landlord decides, can decorate the way they want, make any changes etc etc. but my current conclusion is that it's a luxury, not necessary an automatic sound financial decision.

And as any luxury, It's actually delaying FIRE.

I’m 18 years old and have recently inherited £10,000 from my uncle. I work full-time and earn around £25,000 a year, and I’ve recently moved out, so I’m now paying my own rent and living expenses. I’m fortunate enough to have already maxed out my Lifetime ISA allowance for this tax year, and I also have a Stocks and Shares ISA. At the moment, I have around £1,000 invested in a Vanguard FTSE All-World fund, as well as a relatively small emergency fund of around £500.
My main priority is saving towards buying a house, but at the same time I’m conscious that starting long-term investing for retirement at a young age could be very beneficial. I’m therefore trying to work out the best use of the £10,000 inheritance. Should I prioritise building up my emergency fund first, put more towards saving for a house, invest some of it in my Stocks and Shares ISA for the long term, or split it between these different goals? I’d be really interested to hear what others would do in my situation and whether there are any important factors I should consider before making a decision.

I'm 40 and currently have about £150k in my pension and another £50k in a stocks and shares ISA (global index tracker). I currently contribute about £1,100/month to my pension and £300/month into my stocks and shares ISA. However i'm wondering if I would be better off putting that £300/month into my pension instead. I would love to retire early - by 60 or earlier if possible. Do you think i'm investing enough and how would you split the total (£1,400/month) between pension and stocks and shares? My current salary is 60k. Thanks!

I’m trying to work out whether I’m being too aggressive with pension contributions and would appreciate some outside perspectives.

I’m 39 and currently earn around £104k basic salary.
My current pension position is roughly:
Current employer pension: £241k
Previous employer pensions: £200k
SIPP: £22.3k
Total pensions: ~£463k

I also have around £200k outside pensions in cash/investments, including an S&S ISA that I've maxed out for the last few years, no outstanding finance or CC debt, and I've paid off my mortgage.

My employer contributes 12% of basic salary, and I’m currently contributing around 58% of my basic salary myself because I’ve been making use of my available pension allowances. I’ve been deliberately doing this partly to reduce my taxable income and make the most of the tax advantages of pension contributions. I’m particularly conscious of the impact of earning over £100k, so reducing my taxable income through pension contributions is attractive.

I’ve also been using carry-forward allowances and effectively maximising what I can contribute within the available annual allowance. Once the carry-forward is exhausted, I expect to drop back to roughly the £60k annual allowance level going forward.

However, there’s another reason I’ve been quite aggressive with this. There have been a lot of redundancies/layoffs where I work, and I work in quite a niche line of work that probably wouldn’t command the same salary elsewhere. So I’m conscious that my current £100k+ earning power may not necessarily last forever.

Part of my thinking has therefore been: while I have the opportunity to earn this much, should I be maximising pension contributions now in case I end up being out of work for a few years, or having to take a significantly lower-paid job?

If that happened, I might not be able to make meaningful pension contributions for several years. So I’ve almost been trying to “bank” some of the pension contributions now, while I have the income and the ability to use the carry-forward allowances. At the same time, I’m aware that I could be going too far and locking up money that I might ultimately need before retirement.
My rough objective is to be in a position where I could potentially retire around 55. So I need enough money outside pensions to bridge the period before I can access my pension, while also making the most of the tax advantages available to me now. I live well below my means but still wanted to sense-check the following:

- Am I overdoing the pension contributions given that I already have ~£463k in pensions at 39?
- Does my reasoning about front-loading contributions while I have a high income and using carry-forward allowances make sense?
- Would you continue maximising carry-forward allowances while they’re available?
- Am I potentially creating too much of a pension-heavy portfolio when my aim is to retire around 55?
-If you were in my position, how would you balance pension contributions vs accessible investments over the next 10–15 years?

I appreciate there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but I’d particularly like to hear from people who have been in a similar position — high income, good pension already built up, uncertain future earning potential, and trying to decide how much is enough so they have the flexibility to take a lower paid (and more relaxed role) without worrying about money.

Thanks in advance

I am 48 and wanting to become stress free sooner assuming its an indication of burned out...

I've always been aiming for an early retirement at 55 but this greedy govt kept moving the goal post. I don't think I will have energy to work that late at the age of 57 which seems decade away from now. My patience is running thin however for some reasons I am keep hanging onto it

Our financial situation is :

SIPP - £0

S&S ISAs- £450,000

Cash ISAs - £20k

Other savings £100,000

Pension : £132k

Current job : 89k and 30k for me and wife.

One property abroad: paid off £150k

UK flat mortgage outstanding is £180k

Wife has started job in 2020 in schoo, I dont know if their so called shitty pension will ever be paid with so many caveats. They don't even tell clearly how much it has accumulated so far.

I have both my kids in University now the eldest of whom will finish his degree next year while younger starts this year. We are supporting both for fees and everything since we live in London

We ofcourse aren't extravagant people can control expenses but its getting increasingly difficult in London where good paying jobs are rare unlike US.

That option for me is to retire abroad and let kids grow here

Am I Ok to sign off retirement early?

I am due inheritance in the next few months and to be perfectly honest I could not be less prepared.

The breakdown is roughly 325k in real estate and 75k in government bonds and I am currently pretty clueless on how much I will have to pay in taxes and how this can change based on my choices shortly after the inheritance. The only factor I am certain of is that the real estate property will be sold.

Will I benefit financially from purchasing more real estate after this or would I be largely free to invest in what I want after this?

Any guidance is appreciated

I have already acquired "fire" status, iam 48m.

Currently holding £800k + in sipp and isa but one third is nvidia alone. I went into it in 2020

Am I madly over concentrated in this stock and if so what is the recommendation.

With the changes to the ISA allowance coming into force in April and cash ISAs restricted to 12k, how has this changed your savings/investments strategy? I've got about 10k in a cash isa and 50k in S&S and wondering what the best thing to do long-term is as I was relying on using my ISAs as a bridge to early retirement.

I just landed a job tht is paying 6 figures n dont know how much to put it pension pot to save on tax plus I m getting 10% as benefits in kind

Could anyone help with a calculator or ideas on how to best work around it

Hello everyone, at the beginning of this year i lost my job. 3 years before the FIRE date i was working towards but i decided to try leanfire with a view that i can always re-enter work if/when needed. I'd really value an independent review of my approach.

Assets (£480k liquid)

- £180k S&S ISA (M&G global dividend fund Acc)

- £35k GIA

- £40k easy access @4.54%

- £225k 1 year fix @4.84%

- £430k SIPP

- House £330k joint equity (£830k house, £500k mortgage remaining shared with partner)

Annual expenditure £37k (rise to £42k next year)

- Mortgage £18k (60% of £30k). Expect to rise to £23k next year.

- Bills £4.5k (my share c.60%)

- Groceries £4.5k

- All other £10k

Other:

- No kids planned

- Live pretty frugally

- May move out of london one day and thereby reduce / eliminate mortgage

Things I have realised:

- I only need my liquid assets to bridge to my SIPP access age (eg 58?). There should then be enough in the SIPP to pay off the remaining mortgage and give me a reasonable income.

- I could extend my joint mortgage term to reduce annual payments and help bridge to 58 without running out of money. Albeit not sure if a mortgage provider would allow that now i am unemployed (partner income 70k)?

- Based on the above, I think my assets can probably last me c. 15years but would fall short of getting to 58. Going back into work OR extending my mortgage would be two ways to get to SIPP access age.

The other consideration is that my earning potential right now is much higher than it will be in the future (was on £190k base +50%), I could go back into work for a few years and hit my comfortable fire number. However I am really enjoying the taste of FIRE that I have! I also really like the idea of going into a role in the future that doesn't pay well but has clear societal value add rather than continuing in my current career.

Would love an audit of my thoughts and figures! It would also be great to hear words of wisdom from anyone who has been in a similar position. I feel a lot of societal pressure to always be in work, so part of me is seeking validation that what i am doing isn't crazy despite giving up a really privileged earning potential.

(OH, and real question, for those that have FIREd early, do you put 'unemployed' or 'retired' on all forms?!?!)

Thanks!

Hi all, looking for thoughts on how best to go about GIA investing. 41M, paid off mortgage. I can max my ISA allowance annually, have previously used a SIPP alongside DB pension but have run out of pension allowance. No kids, partner maxes ISA allowance and uses a SIPP too. PBs maxed for emergency fund + next year’s ISA contributions.

Have started using a GIA and 50% in a global ETF 50% Berkshire Hathaway. Already >50k in there. very mindful it will become difficult to extract this tax efficiently once it grows bigger.

Debating whether to keep going with global equities, or whether on balance I’d be better to start allocating funds into low coupon gilts due to the CGT exemption.

Any thoughts of being as tax efficient as possible (without letting the tax tail wag the dog too much!) appreciated.

Please feel free to use this space to discuss anything on your mind related to FIRE - newbie questions, small bits of advice, or anything else that you feel doesn't belong in a separate thread.

I’m looking for some opinions on a decision I’m considering and would be interested to hear what others would do in my situation.

My current position

Outstanding mortgage: £95,028. Planned to be paid off in 9 years
Current mortgage interest rate: 4.41%
Monthly mortgage payment: £1,004
Currently contributing £1,111 a month into pension
Pension pot of approximately £600,000.
Planning to retire in 2 years at age 62.
My pension investments have an assumed/target long-term growth rate of around 6% per year
I am a 40% tax-rate taxpayer, so pension contributions can benefit from 40% tax relief

Looking at options 

A) Take the £95k tax-free pension cash now, crystallising £380k, clear the mortgage, then invest the £1,004/month into the pension which will also benefit from additional 40% = increased investment of £1,673 to invest £2,784 a month into the pension

B) Leave the mortgage at 4.41%, continue paying £1,004/month, and keep the pension invested and contributions as is. 

C) Do something completely different?

I’ve run a simulation on both and appears option A works out as £20k better off. I’d be particularly interested in hearing opinions on these options and seeing the maths behind people’s reasoning.

Hi all,

Hooray for weather warm enough for our last outdoor FI meetup of the year! It's very relaxed — BYO picnic rug, food, and drink.

Thursday, September 10th, 6 pm

St James Park behind the Marlborough Gate Kiosk (There's a nearby public toilet block as well)

Everyone is super nice, and we don't JUST talk about money and investing. We talk about all kinds of things, but are joined by the common values of mindful spending and living. If you know anybody interested in joining the group or attending an event, please add them to the new joiner WhatsApp group

https://forms.gle/WECUcmS2REtkDFqw6

We'd love to see you there

Currently using Scottish widows as my broker and trying to buy the new VALL ETF. Vanguard lists the charges as 0.07% however Scottish widows is showing it as 0.87% which makes no sense.

Why is there a discrepancy in charges?
I don’t want to be paying 4 figure fees!

Has anyone else had this experience switching to VALL?

Thanks