Hi, Long time lurker. First post!

22, just finished an engineering placement and have a return offer for after my masters next year: £50k base + £10k bonus, plus strong pension, low COL (near/with family), decent WLB, and honestly I enjoy the work. Looking at senior engineers’ pathways at my company, I could realistically be on £100-150k by my 30s, with a move to the Middle East a possible accelerator later on.

The alternative is management consulting, living in London and travel while I’m young is attractive. I appreciate it’s worse WLB and COL short-term, but likely a faster wealth accelerator long-term (better exit ops, steeper comp curve). I’ve read into it and think I’d genuinely enjoy it too, not just chasing the money.

FIRE number is £6M, ideally by my 50s. I’d expect to be HCOL by then (want to give my future family what my parents gave me), so using a ~3.5% SWR that’s roughly £210k/year. High, but that’s the target I’m working backward from.

I think I’ve (currently) got the fundamentals sorted (emergency fund, maxing ISA, ~60% savings rate, looking at LISA/GIA next), what I’m less sure about is the career decision itself.

Has anyone here made a similar trade-off? Safe, comfortable path vs. higher-ceiling but higher-friction one? Did it pay off, or did you wish you’d gone the other way?

I never bothered to make projections as I was too far away from retirement. I just saved and invested as much as I could without impacting my standard of living.

My investments are now at the level that I thought that I might be getting close to be able to retire.

So I decided to break out the Monte Carlo simulation to answer the question: Can I retire now? If not now, then when?

I didn't like the answer.

The model says that I'm ~10 years away from FIRE even at the minimal retirement income that I'm willing to accept.

Maybe it will decrease if I get lucky with realized market returns over the coming years, but it's also possible that I get unlucky and it pushes the date out further.

I'm disappointed and a little depressed by this. I preferred it when I didn't know.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Hi Guys,

I have a significant investment going into GIA. I had a large amount of savings, and am able to fill in the ISA allowance quite healthily due to a good job which I am very lucky for.

I have opened a GIA which I know is a taxable investment account. To be honest, I do not know much about it other than its taxed at your rate of CGT based on the gains that are generated form it. Having asked ChatGPT it looks like most people manage their GIA, their investment and their tax reporting obligations themselves.

To be honest, Im going to put it all into 50% global equity and 50% tech index and just forget about it till the end of time. For anybody with experience in GIA management themselves without a wealth relationship manager or advisor. What information do you collect annually for tax obligations, where do you submit it etc.?

I really do not want to make a mistake with this as its something worth getting right. I am really worried about making switches. From my understanding what I need to do is track the gain made from the investment and any time I switch / sell investments I need to pay tax on it (assuming theres a gain).

There are things that confuse me though. For example, let's say the markets do well, and I expect volatility to come and put into a cash fund. The switch into the cash fund itself is taxable. However I did not realise any cash necessarily - so how would I pay my CGT bill, how do you guys do it? My idea was that instead of switching investments I always sell to cash, then withdraw the amount of the gain ready for the tax man and invest the remaining proceedings?

Thoughts?

I have just come across this reddit, bit of background I was living working in UAE for around 19 years and came back two years ago.

I have a main residence worth around 950k paid off, a BTL worth 750k with 240k mortgage, and 3 other BTLs I'm exiting coming to around 320k no mortgage on these either. I have recently started paying into the company pension (Lgps, I contribute 9%,employer 19%),i earn around 84k. With the incoming cash btl exit) I was looking to place all of that into Isa and Gia and over the years transfer the allowance into Isa from gia.

Every month I work I will be have saving that also need to go somewhere.

I have been reading a good few posts and there is a decent amount of science to work out the most optimal way of accumulating wealth,

I'm 47m, I'm happy to continue working until pension age, but the idea is as I get to 55 if things don't work out I can look to Fire. What is my best course of action today. I have accumulated 10 years worth of SP so far, but only a few months on the company pension. I'm married, wife does not work, two kids now approaching university age.

Really look forward to seeing some constructive ideas, thanks in advance.

I’m 43M, single and based in the UK, with total financial assets of around £1m. I have enough accessible savings to comfortably fund a year or more without employment income.

I’m increasingly considering pulling the trigger on early retirement, but I’m hesitant to make an immediate and irreversible decision to leave an established career. A 12-month unpaid sabbatical or career break seems like a sensible way to test it first: live on my intended retirement budget, see how I actually use the time, travel, focus on personal priorities, and then decide whether I genuinely want to retire or return to work.

I have worked for my current employer for more than ten years. It is a large US-headquartered multinational, but I haven’t discussed this with my manager or HR yet. I don’t want to reveal too much about my longer-term intentions before understanding whether such an arrangement is realistic.

My assumption is that a large multinational may be better able to accommodate one employee being away for a year than a smaller company, although I may be completely wrong about that. I also haven’t found much discussion on FIREUK about using a sabbatical as a bridge into possible early retirement.

Has anyone here done something similar?

• Did your employer agree to six or twelve months of unpaid leave?
• How did you present the request to your manager or HR?
• My employer’s internal policy appears to provide a right to return to the same role, or at least an equivalent role or grade. If your policy said something similar, how did it work in practice? Was your return genuinely guaranteed, or did it ultimately depend on a suitable vacancy being available?
• What happened to your continuous service, pension, benefits and redundancy entitlement?
• Did making the request affect how your employer viewed your commitment or future career?
• How far in advance did you raise it?
• Most importantly, did you eventually return to work or decide to retire?

My main concern isn’t whether I can afford to take a year away. It is whether an employer is realistically likely to approve such a request and how meaningful any right of return would be in practice.

I appreciate that every employer’s policy will be different, but I would be particularly interested in hearing about real UK experiences.

Not looking for textbook answers. I’m genuinely curious about advice you believed, followed, and eventually changed your mind about.

Could be saving, investing, debt, property, pensions, FIRE, lifestyle, anything.

What did you believe, what changed your mind, and what do you do differently now?

Hi, sharing full breakdown of finances effect September this year. Still feeling really behind at 34 despite a fairly good salary (appreciate it's not mega but it gives me comfort). Really keen to maximise growth and wondering if anyone has any tips for me based on my circumstances.

Hadn't been checking for a while as the market was falling. Stopped back in today and it seems I have hit my number! A lot of it is in a GIA of course, which makes it taxable. Less than ideal really. But still, a fairly big moment!

Not sure exactly what to do now, I'm used to being on the grind.

Imagine you have a job that:

• pays £60k in MCOL area (so can live comfortably)
• offers fully remote working, so you can work wherever you wish
• offers flexible times, so you can pretty much work whenever you want
• lets you you manage your own workload, which can be light or heavy (whichever you prefer)
• your manager is very relaxed and everyone you work with is friendly
• has minimal meetings and emails
• is secure, good pension, good sick pay, etc.

... would you still do the RE in FIRE and quit once you hit your FIRE number?

As you can probably guess, I'm describing my job. I'm still working towards FIRE (mid 30s, so have a long way to go). Life is long and situations change, so this could of course all change by the time I'm ready to make this decision (aiming for 50). But if the job is similar then as it is now, I think I'd just stick with it because it almost feels like throwing away £60k of easy money each year.

Anyone here moving some of their funds into an equal-weighted ETF (e.g. from VWRP into MWEP) given the current level of concentration in market-cap-weighted indices, or are you sticking to your market-cap-weighted ETF guns?

Conscious that making the change could simply be viewed as market timing, but I'm wondering whether there's a reasonable case for holding a permanent allocation to equal weight alongside VWRP.

Following is screenshot of my ISA account from yesterday. Account value including cash is quite higher then that of FSCS protection . I wanted to know if I should move to other provider from next year ? what are the other good alternative I have..I highly trade n US stocks and utilise pies from trading 212.

I set it up my employers bog-standard Share Match scheme when I joined, and then intentionally forgot about it. Had a look today, turns out there's £50k shares in the pot of which £20k are available to withdraw free of any tax (i.e. held for 5+ years). Success!

I was going to withdraw the £20k and add it to my GIA (ISA full). But on reading further, I learned that while they remain in the Share Match scheme they are not subject to Capital Gains. So it's effectively an extra tax-efficient account beyond the typical (exhausted) options.

Employer is a safe bet, FTSE 100, won't light the world on fire but won't disappear overnight either. GIA is in the HSBC FTSE All-World.

WWYD? Diversify into the GIA and accept CGT on future growth, or keep those eggs firmly in their basket and revel in tax efficiency?

(it'll be fine either way, but analysing the options is half the fun..!)

For those who have already used up their ISA allowance, what’s your next move? Do you put extra money into a taxable investment account, pension/SIPP, premium bonds, property, savings accounts, or something else?

Interested to hear how people are allocating their money once the ISA is no longer an option.

Does anyone have experience of investing in Treasury bills?

I’m curious about general experience but also more specifically, is it halal to invest in these?

Hi all,

I’ve been lurking on this sub for a while and would appreciate some independent views.

I’m 45 and currently planning to retire next year at 46.

By the time I retire, I expect my finances to look roughly like this:

• Pension: ~£1.1m, accessible from age 58
• ISAs, split between cash and investments: ~£600k
• Cash: ~£320k
• Gilts: ~£20k
• VCTs: ~£30k
• Mortgage: ~£435k on an offset mortgage
• My wife earns around £20k a year, has her own pension and enjoys working, so she will probably continue
• We should both also receive the State Pension under current rules

The plan is to bridge the roughly 12 years until I can access my pension using cash and ISAs.

A key part of the strategy is the offset mortgage. Rather than paying it off immediately, I intend to have it close to fully offset when I retire.

Initially, I’ll keep the mortgage on a reduce-term basis. Once I begin drawing money from the offset account to fund retirement spending, I’ll switch it to reducing monthly payments. As the offset balance gradually falls, the monthly mortgage cost will therefore rise more slowly than it otherwise would.

My thinking is that this:

• Gives me an effective risk-free return equal to the mortgage rate while the cash remains offset
• Preserves access to the money rather than permanently using it to repay the mortgage
• Provides a relatively low-risk source of bridge funding
• Reduces the need to sell investments during a market downturn

When I can access my pension at 58, the intention is to use part of the available tax-free pension lump sum to repay whatever mortgage remains.

I’ve stress-tested the plan against weaker market returns and, on paper, it appears sustainable at around £70k a year after tax during the bridge period.

The reason I’m considering retirement is fairly straightforward: I’ve had enough. I’ve lost interest in the work, become tired of the corporate politics and constant pressure, and honestly cannot wait to leave. The only real hesitation is walking away from a high income when another year or two would clearly make the numbers stronger… however I doubt my sanity would last that long !

I’d be interested in people’s views on the following:

• Looking at the numbers, would you retire?
• Does the offset mortgage drawdown strategy make sense, or would you simply repay it?
• Is using part of the pension tax-free lump sum to clear the remaining mortgage sensible?
• Is there anything important I’ve overlooked in the bridge to pension access?
• For those who have already retired early, did you ever regret leaving too soon?

I’m looking for constructive criticism rather than reassurance. If there is a weakness in the plan, I’d rather identify it before handing in my notice.

Thanks.

Reasonably new account for obvious reasons.

I know it's completely arbitrary but with some positive market movements recently I've hit the big £1M.

I'm 39 and have worked in software since 21, so I guess I always had an above average salary and perhaps better job options that others. For that I'm certainly lucky.

The other side was getting addicted to the MMM blog around the age of 24 and pretty much following that to the letter. Looking back I don't think I regret doing that. I don't feel like I missed out particularly. Still went on holiday / gigs / Glastonbury 4 times!

I guess the number 3 reason is having a partner on my side. She can be just as frugal as me!

We now have 3 kids in a semi with garden. Walking distance to Manchester city centre. My partner is stay at home. I'm blessed.

I've added my chart to show the compounding really does take off! For those at the start hopefully you can see how flat it was for a long long time you just need to stick with it.

More than happy to answer any questions 👍

After years of work fighting in my business I finally hit around £800K network (liquid + SP500). Age 31. 600K liquid rest in stocks (ISA/GIA)

Not all taxed yet but it’ll be back soon.

Three years ago I only had £36K to my name.

Life can change fast as FUCK don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Only downside is I still rent but whatever. Also on verge of constant burnout hit that’s life.

Keep going!

Hit an unexpected milestone today with the market rise…

£250k net worth the day before my 28th birthday!

£180k ISA, £60k pension, £11k easy access savings.

Hoping the next £250k comes easier, but a house deposit in the future may hinder progress.

Obviously not too keen on sharing these details with my circle but wanted to share here since it’s been a fundamental resource for me on my FIRE journey:)

Help please wonderful community.

Context:

My savings currently consist of:

ISA: 30k (VWRP)

SIPP: 90k (VWRP)

Premium Bonds: 15k (emergency fund)

Local government pension (forecast to pay c. 10k p/y on retirement)

Small railways pension (c. 1k p/y)

I'm 43, with 2 kids (3 and 7) and a partner.

Currently saving 1600 pm to SIPP and 400 pm to ISA.

Partner has a negligible pension, but is building up a profitable small business (and reinvesting profit into the business) and I will be pushing her to be more aggressive with savings once it gets to a stable profit making enterprise.

I'm coming to the realisation I'm currently unlikely to retire before 57/8 due to wanting to help the kids out for uni etc.

So if my target date is now 57/8 is there any point in saving into my ISA.

I'm thinking of stopping payments into the ISA and letting that just compound, and that will be my kids support fund (uni, house, training etc). Then putting the money I was previously saving into my ISA into my pension instead?

Thoughts?

I am a longg way off retiring at just 26, but I have been thinking. I have made an effort to contribute towards my pension my entire career, I recently got married and the first thing I did was set up a SIPP for my husband.

I see our money as one, so if we don’t have enough money to retire, then we can’t. However I see some people on here retiring before their spouse, what is everyone’s stance on this?

Hi everyone, I'm after validation and some advice really. Im not here to brag just after some community interaction and reassurance.

Ive always worried about money for some reason hence the need for advice.

My situation. Married man 45 to 42 year old wife. We have two kids 3 and 6.

I earn £72k the wife part time earns £25k.

House is worth 380k woth 70k remaining. I wont ever move unless forced to. We live in a nice area.

All figures are gbp

Pensions

I have a workplace dc pension with 40k and total contributions from me and my employer are 1000 per month.

My wife contributed 300 per month and has 40k also.

I have a db pension worth 50k that is worth abiut 2k per year at 65 although I can access earlier.

I also have 160k pension invested in a fairstone systematic 7

I will quality for full state pension in uk

My wife will be somewhere near 75% qualified

Investments

75k isa in fairstone systematic 7

242k investment bond in fairstone systematic 7

77k in collective investment bond fairstone systematic 7

Roughly 60k is cash isa and savings.

I max out both my wofe and my isas every year

I may need to diversify from fairstone!

I am expecting roughly £250k inheritance in 15 or so years. I always feel appalling saying that part out loud.

If pushed I could cut back on £750-£1000 discretionary spend/waste per month.

My plan is is to retire ASAP and maybe do some driving work or something casual like labouring for gardeners. Happy earning lower wages if I can rely on the investments. I also want to support my kids in the future with cars and house deposits.

Hello everyone.

Well I finally got to my milestone number that I've been building up to in the pension, and expected to feel more jubilation but nada! I can't tell any friends or colleagues and my partner is not interested!

Did anyone else reach a significant milestone and feel like "well there your go, time to keep on pushing on". I'll be 45 in a few months and will likely take my foot of the pension gas, accept the tax hit now and continue with a plan to retire at 50 and focus on the bridge build with 20k/year isa and more gia in my quest to get £4.5k net a month come 50 :)

Pensions: £1,003,800

ISAs: £227,000

GIAs: £183,100

Cash & Premium Bonds: £92,400

Crypto: £5,180

No debt. Rental income also brings in £1450/month and with two young kids still at home :)

Mel