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

I've got to the offer stage and I have been talking with the recruiter about salary. He has already told them that 100k will be the starting point for discussion. They have already shared some details about the package:

Annual Leave - 23.5 days

Employer contribution - 3%

Bonus uncapped but we will be talking through how this is measured next week.

Recruiter is leaning towards 100k with car allowance included. I said car allowance should be about 5k on top of the base of 100k if they aren't going to budge with the employer contribution. My industry normally pays out 6-7% on average for pension contribution and 25 days annual leave minimum. They have said they are open to increasing the annual leave.

This is a step-up in terms of salary but I do want to be scrupulous about the entire package. Does anyone have any advice or experience of being in this situation. Am I missing any other details that should have more of my attention?

Pensions are my priority and even though I do contribute a high percentage consistently, I would like the employer to take some pressure off that, my suggestion would be another way of them contributing by paying me more.

VWRP fees being reduced by Vanguard. Good news!

Title sez it all really.

I’m sure many of us have a spreadsheet or similar and I wanted to understand what assumptions people use for theirs.

1) My general starting point is to exclude inflation for everything. Which means the calculations are in ‘today’s money’. So all investment growth is X% - inflation. Similarly working out how much I’ll need to live off as part of ISA bridge, and pension drawdown is in today’s equivalent.

2) Investment growth in all stocks (VWRP) pot for S&S isa & pension? 2% above inflation? 3% 4% 5% above?

3) Drawdown rate for pension. Is ‘the 4% rule’ of pot still sensible? (Eg £1m pot required for 40k per year drawdown which includes subsequent inflation built in). If it’s taken at 57 do people tend to reduce this to 3.5% or even lower? Or use a different methodology to work out pension pot required?

4) Anything else that’s key? Salary growth seems highly variable person to person but is key.

Interested in all opinions and discussions!

Retired and in need of advice. Property of c£650k with £100k mortgage still to pay (2% fixed runs out next July) £300,000 in 4.5% instant access, £66000 fixed rate bond(5%), £44000 global investments (isa) £75000 bridging loans at 8%.

Also, c£600,000 in corporate property yielding £32,5000 per annum rental income.

Expected inheritance of c£300,000 within 2 years.

Should I be investing more or protecting income?

Sorry for this guys but guess I just need a little reassurance..

45 male self employed solicitor based in LCOL area
Wife works 4 days a week in public sector and earns £40000 PA
2 children aged 11 and 8. Would like to help with university costs

I have JISAs for the kids and pay £200 a month into each of them. If I keep this up they should each have around £85000 at the age of 18 and hopefully will be sensible with this…

SIPP £500k. Have been paying £2500 a month for quite some time and probably read to reduce these payments if I stop working

ISA £275000

Premium bonds £25000

House worth £450k, mortgage £150k

People will hate this but I have 3 mortgage free rental properties and a mortgage free commercial property that net me £35000 a year (this is taxable tho)

I need to change something as I just can’t cope with the stress any more. Quite possibly
I might come out of the partnership and stay on as a salaried solicitor but maybe on a 3 day week for a few years and then stop. Possibly i might take a job in my SIL’s soft play centre. Not sure.

I think as a family need around £4k a month to run the house.

Just generally how do people think I am positioned if I (for some reason) decided to down tools and stop working completely?

I'm relatively new to FIRE in the sense that I'm now considering taking it seriously but I've always been a pro-active saver. I'm keen to get thoughts and advice from people who are or have been in a similar financial position to me to help inform my financial decisions. My salary is modest but I'd love to know what's possible from my position.

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to investing which has worked well for me so far but aware of the fact certain things could be working much harder.

For context I'm self employed and run a small Ltd company.

• 28 years old
• £50k annual salary £3800 pm after tax. Business is doing well and could increase this however opting for staying in my current tax bracket and increasing pension contributions from my business.
• £48.5k saved in cash earning 4.5% interest. (I know this could be working harder but this is my house deposit saving so have kept safe and liquid) Possibly looking to buy next year.
• £21k saved in an ISA (Cash currently - needs to work harder)
• £26k in Pension
• £6.5k in a SIPP
• £12.5k in a fund & share acc (25% gains)
• £6.6k in a LISA (32% gains)
• £400 into my pension pm through my business. I have the headroom to ramp this up quite a bit and plan to do so.

Expenses:

• Rent & bills: £1200pm
• Other expenses: around £500pm
• Holidays: around £2k a year
• No car and generally cycle everywhere

In summary I'd love to know what people would do if they were in my shoes. A key question I have at the moment is whether I buy a property next year (would be around £400k in London) or keep saving, investing and staying flexible.

as i've been working toward fi, i started tracking my net worth properly about six months ago. pension, isa, cash savings, investments... basically everything in one place. honestly, it's changed the way i think about progress more than any book or youtube video i've watched. before, i just had a rough idea that things were moving in the right direction. now i can actually see the long-term trend. even during months where the market goes nowhere, seeing the overall graph still creeping upward makes it feel like i'm getting somewhere.

what surprised me most is how much it's changed my spending habits. knowing i'll update the spreadsheet at the end of the month makes me stop and think before buying something i don't really need. budgeting apps never had that effect on me. i'm just using a basic google sheet with a running total and a simple line graph. for a long time the graph looked almost flat, but once it finally started to curve upward it became strangely motivating.

curious how people here do it. do you update monthly, quarterly, or only every now and then? and do you include home equity in your fire number, or keep it separate because it isn't really liquid?

Hi I’m new to FIRE and have an active interest in getting out of the “matrix’ .
Where would you start ?
I’m 23 earn 40/50k a year this will go up in coming years.
My bills are very low as I still live at home so only a few hundred pounds in bills a month if that.
So if you were new to the game in my situation where would you start and aim to be in a few years?
-Appreciate all inputs.
Thank you

​

Age 51

£390k in SIPP

£115k in stocks and shares ISA

Planning on retiring when I am 57. I pay basic tax on wages and don't really need the isa until I retire.

Should I drip feed the isa into my pension over the next 6 years to get the extra 20% tax relief?

I just went through the annual ordeal of renewing house and car insurance for the first time since I hit my FIRE number and quit the rat race. Discovered there's an option in the 'employment status' drop down menu labelled 'Independent Means' – which felt pretty good to select. Hang on in there folks and you too can renew your insurance as someone of independent means before too long.

I currently pay into a railway pension at the moment. Through the pension, I’m able to contribute into something called BRASS, which is basically AVC’s but they seem to invest it so it grows through the years. I can’t touch this till I retire.I’ve been seeing a lot of posts recently with people investing into things like S&P500 etc.
Would I be better off stopping BRASS and investing it somewhere else like the S&P500?

I am 49 and moved to UK 6 years ago working as an ops manager on a permanent job with local gov pension schemes. I live in a rented house and can only save £500 max monthly. Couldn’t have saving due to different positive reasons moving countries with the aim to make progress. I have some 15k in private pension and no debts. Please suggest what to do to look financially stable in the future if FIRE dream sounds too late. Thanks

I'm 32 years old this year. Many people think financial freedom means sleeping in every day, buying whatever you want, and going wherever you want. But for me, the greatest meaning of financial freedom is having the right to choose.

In my twenties, like many young people, I worked hard every day, hoping to improve my life. Besides my regular job, I consistently studied investing and asset allocation. As a result of several years of persistent effort, I built up enough assets and cash flow to cover my living expenses, so I'm no longer forced to do a job I don't like just for a salary.

Now, I can manage my time freely. When I like to travel, I go to see different cities; when I want to spend time with my family, I put aside work; and when I encounter a project that interests me, I can seriously research it instead of making hasty decisions due to financial pressure.

Financial freedom isn't about having unlimited money, but about having passive income, and having enough ability and confidence to live the life you truly want.

If I had to share one key takeaway, I think the most important thing isn't luck, but long-term vision, self-discipline, and continuous learning. When time is on your side, many things will gradually change.

32 years old is just a new beginning. I continue to learn and look forward to creating more value in the future, because true wealth is not just the numbers in my account, but also inner peace and freedom in life.

Hi

I think this is an interesting and maybe controversial question but I will ask it anyways.

I am now in my mid 30s and work a tech role which I have been doing collectively with my degree for just over 10 years now.

Even though I earn around £55K a year doing a tech role which has elements of cloud, infrastructure and cyber - I am starting to find the work "boring". As in I just work from home everyday, and my life structure is the same.

Since I rent and dont have any kids or partner either, I feel like I dont have that many commitments just yet although I do want a property of my own at some point. Maybe once I find my partner

The point is, I am not sure if it is now too late to completely change careers or explore something new or different? I feel like even though I have a computer science degree and solid background I am somehow wasting it and throwing away a £55K a year remote job

What are your thoughts?

So let’s lay down some figures

I’m 40 years. Married

My wife is nhs. So she’s got a pension that’s associated with such.

Myself, I’ve got several pensions due to the nature of my job. Currently I’m working in the public sector with a defined benefits scheme. Just started a few months ago

Background

£82,000 pension with PensionBee
4 years pension from the nhs
3 months pension from civil service
Got £145,000 left on mortgage

Saving roughly £800-900 a month into the ISA

£45,000 stocks and shares isa
£12,000 cash isa

I’ve been focusing on the isa to act like a bridge between public state retirement with the aim of retiring at 60.

Figured I’d need roughly, £20,000 a year to get me to retirement. Or state age anyway.

Question.
Should I stop putting so much into the S&S and put it into PensionBee? I’m worried that I’m tying up money that I can’t access at a moment notice.

Considering selling a rental £1100pcm gross after expenses maybe 80% £880

Bought 112k
Potential 185?
So I would have capital gains on profit £73k

Property has been a steady income and a hedge against investments.

Maybe sell and put money in vanguard global index. I know index have performed well over the last while. I will have access to my siip in 5 years, work pension 10 years.

Any FIRE landlords moving to index funds ? Simplify my life and mitigate tax issues when I can access my SIIP.

Pension only 5k from the employment nearly 2 decades ago but can't pay into it as its linked to that employer. The following employers didn't have pension schemes, so was just the statutory contribution under PAYE. Last 10 years ltd sole director/creator/artist with no contribution to pension but maxing ISA and focusing on passive income from creations long term. So, are there good low cost pension products that you'd recommend where I can invest? 40F

Thank you

Hi all,

I am in a bit of a strange financial position (high income, low cash, low pension from being self employed for a number of years) and wonder what would be the ideal way forward for me to work towards FIRE. I don’t have a target retirement date, I know I probably should but I just really want to sense check how I am doing overall and what a realistic potential FIRE could look like, if one is even possible, then I can decide my goal from there.

I know my expenses are way too high but atm I don’t really know how I can get that down, with the majority being mortgage and car payments. Anyways, here it goes..

Salary - £105k (7% salary sacrifice per month, matched by employer so £1,225 total contributions per month) leaving my take home at ~£5k. Started a few months ago.

Mortgage - Currently £1.5k

Car payments- £568 per month with 27 months left. I know this is huge, I am currently looking at early settlement options using another source of funds (bank loan, credit card) with lower interest to save up to £1,637 in interest

I live alone and these are my two largest payments but of course there is plenty more.. council tax, fuel, groceries, etc. leaving me with about £1k after all expenses and monthly spending budget. I typically put as much of this as I can into S&S ISA.

S&S ISA: £25k
Workplace pension: £4.1k
SIPP: £26k
Savings: £10k

What would you do from here if you were me??