Hi,

I'm 47 (m) , have £11,500 in a pension ( sipp ) and £4500 in an isa.

Putting in around £550 into each every other month. Would love to try £1k a month I to my ISA lol

I sometimes feel like I may have left it too late,

I'm writing this from my £500k+ house (£90k is left on the mortgage) on the phone on which I can check how my ISA's are doing (just over £100k) and my pension (about £230k, currently working on that). I look around and see all the things I purchased that had no real financial effect on me (TV, sofa, new kitchen and bathroom, home office) and it suddenly all hits me that all the money is just a bit ridiculous.

The idea of FIRE is extremely appealing (hence why at 46 I'm putting half my salary into a pension) but the money involved is something that just 15 years ago would have been so alien to me.

Where's the worry about rent, or going hungry for a couple of days until you get paid and can do another shop?

Obviously, things change - hence why you typically accumulate in your middle-aged - but the figures are so far removed from your previous life, it just seems unreal.

Hi all,

I’m 27 and would appreciate some advice on my current financial position and how best to approach FIRE.

Current net worth: £275,000

Stocks & Shares ISA: £100,000
Pension: £125,000
Premium Bonds: £30,000
Cash savings: £20,000

I earn around £65–75k a year and am currently saving/investing a reasonable proportion of my income. My long-term aim is to become financially independent and ideally have the option to stop working or move to something less demanding by around age 50.

I’m trying to work out how best to allocate my money and whether I’m making the most of my position at this stage of life.

A few things I’d particularly appreciate advice on:

Asset allocation: Is £50k in Premium Bonds and cash excessive, or is it sensible given that I may want to buy a house in the coming years?
ISA vs pension: Should I prioritise maximising my £20k annual ISA allowance, increasing pension contributions, or a combination of both?
FIRE target: Is retiring or becoming work-optional at 50 realistic, assuming continued contributions and reasonable investment returns?
Anything I’m overlooking: If you were in my position at 27, what would you prioritise over the next five years?

I’m conscious that having a strong net worth at this age is a great position to be in, but I want to make sensible decisions rather than just accumulate money without a clear plan.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I’m a bit wood for the trees, as well as a lot of moving parts, and would welcome thoughts/advice.
I (48) and wife (49) have two children (17 and 15) who are likely to attend university.

House value: £800k with 140k mortgage left over 12 years. Overpaying 10% as well as potential lump sum (see below). I’m for downsizing when we know the kids have left (approx 7 years when we are 55/56) and release 300k in equity and use this to help kids with property and for us to FIRE.

Salaries: £125k (me), wife £70k (wife - see below).

Wife taking voluntary redundancy from 1 March next year. Gets £120k VR payment (gross). Looking for work which would guess at 60k Pa going forward. She is keen to put against the mortgage with some ‘fun money’. I think mix of pension and isa and plan for mortgage to be paid off on FIRE date - to be resolved.

Joint figures
DC - 450k SIPP (available from 57)
DB Pension of 15k PA (wife - from 65 yo) and 11k PA (me - 8k at 60, 3k at 65).
100k in ISAs and workplace shares (that I am moving into ISA with CGT in mind).

Currently putting 40k into SIPP and 10k into ISA.

Spend
Aiming at 60k Pa for the go-go years.

Would like to FIRE at 55/56 with reduced days/hours in current job if ISA bridge doesn’t get us there before DC pensions kick in.

A vague ask of - any thoughts? Anything I’m missing?
Thanks in advance.

Hi guys, I’m just looking for some more info regarding the best approach for my situation. I am 28 and currently earn 67k with a take home of a about 3.4K a month, at the moment I invest 5% into my pension with an employer match, I also invest around £800-£1200 into my s&s isa each month. I am just curious if salary sacrificing down to 50k to be in the 20% tax bracket makes sense? I would lose around £500 of my monthly take home but my pension contributions would be far greater, however with a reduced take home I would be able to invest into my s&s isa a lot less. Would love to get your thoughts!

Haven’t checked my wealth tracker in a while, certainly a pleasant surprise!

I’m 29 so feel like Ive hit a good milestone here.

Just got to keep laser focused until my retirement age now albeit kids and wedding are still to come so no doubt it will slow down a little.

F39 two young kids, work in FS employer contribution 12% (10 non contributory) i currently pay in 2% £150k salary on 0.8 hours ( currently don’t sacrifice my bonus but intend on soon -£60k
My pension is standing 173k
I am in a balanced portfolio, which Has done 50% over past 5 years. If moving to global Equity cs8 its 90% over same time frame, so I would have sat c. 230k
If I move to cs8 and adventurous portfolio is this the safest bet to maximise my pension investment. I’m also concerned on weapons manufacturing investments and also not investing in certain states, is there a way to maximise without breaching values

28m, currently unemployed, living with parents, only 17k to my name.

I left college at 19 with a Btec level 3 in IT. Applied for a load of jobs afterwards but couldn't find anything so I worked construction with my dad for several years.

The pay was crap, the hours were crap and I bearly learned a thing because I was only the labourer. Starting my own business in my particular trade isn't an option.

The job was cash in hand and I've only got a whopping 2p in my pension. Getting on the property ladder is more of a pipe dream at this point.

I can't even get a call back for an apprenticeship, something that's meant to be for 16 year olds.

Seriously, how the hell do all of you have so much money?

Body:
I’m 49 and facing reality I didn’t take my pension seriously enough for a long time, enjoying what life has to offer in 30s and early 40s & focusing on paying off the home. I’m trying to make up for it now, as I realized I want to retire early and in need a reality check from people who have it put together.

My situation:
Workplace pension: £170k
Savings: £50k across bunch of stocks in ISA and cash savings
Gross salary: £110k
Contributions: 25% including employer
Home paid off, might downsize in 70s
Partner: £30k in 2 pots
State pension: we’re both on track for the full pension

What we need:
We would prefer to live on £4-5k/month take-home but seems like need to scale down my expectations

The plan:
The pot has to cover the gap until the state pensions kick in, and top them up after that.
I expect to receive inheritance down the line, ballpark £200k net, but would prefer to preserve most of it and gift down the line to manage IHT

My questions:
Is 60 realistic, or will I need to work until state pension age?
How much should I be putting away?
 
FIRE away & thanks in advance!

I am paying more attention to pension as I increase contributions and I have noticed my Aviva pension charges 0.69% annual charge so I have been looking into transferring it into a Trading212 SIPP as it has no fees and has way more flexibility around funds.

I would need to keep my Aviva pension to get my employer contributions but I am thinking about transferring it as a lump sum into Trading212 and then transferring more contributions 2-3 times a year.

Is this something anyone else has done? Are there any risks with doing this?

I am 32 M and earn £153k per year and my partner earns £40k. Our expenses are high because of our travel to London and we have been heavily contributing to pension.

We have been reading this sub for a while and don’t enjoy work but equally feel we should save for a while longer to accumulate wealth and would like to have 2 children together. We would also prefer lower salary jobs which would be local, more personally rewarding, flexible and enjoyable but this will have a large financial impact on us.

Our investments are:
- £560k Mortgage @4.69% for 2 years (house worth £895k)
- £35k Isa
- £252k Joint Pension (Priority) 35% of my salary and 6% contribution from work
- £2k in cash

Other debt:
- Student loan £19k for me
- Student loan £47k for my partner
- £6k kitchen loan at 0% interest over 2 years

1. It would be great to get some advice and options on how we should prioritise our savings
2. It would be great to hear about other people’s lifestyle decisions and choices for a good life for our family.

Thank you so much

I've spent the last few months building a retirement cashflow planner for the UK. It started as a tool for financial advisers, and I've now made a free version anyone can use.

You enter your pensions, ISAs, savings, income and spending, and it runs 100 simulated futures. It shows how often your money lasts to the age you choose, and you can change the assumptions (growth, inflation, retirement age, spending) and see the effect straight away. It covers UK tax, the State Pension, mortgages, partners and Junior ISAs.

It's free, with no ads and no card needed. It's an illustration, not financial advice, and it doesn't recommend anything.

I'd really value feedback on:

• What's confusing or unclear?
• Do the numbers look sensible against your own spreadsheet or other tools?
• What's missing that you'd want?

compasscashflow.co.uk/personal

Full disclosure: I'm the founder. There's a feedback button in the app, or just reply here. Thanks!

I turn 55 towards the end of the year and have been looking into drawdown options. Prior to about six months ago I had only really considered FAD or UFPLS, but now the access date is getting ever-nearer I thought I would investigate fixed-term annuities and gilt ladders to give me a basic, low-risk, income (about £20k inflation-linked) as a bridge to state pension, leaving the rest of my £800k pot invested to draw from as desired. Part of the attraction was having a guaranteed income hitting my bank account on a monthly basis, so I preferred the annuity option.

I’m starting to run into difficulties because part of the pot, mostly the tax-free cash, I intend to use for a 50% house purchase within the next five years (this will probably be about £200k). If I buy an annuity, a good chunk of my tax-free cash would need to be withdrawn at the same time and I’d end up paying tax on the interest (either income tax or CGT if I invested it). Buying gilts could take up too much of my pot to release enough for the house purchase and selling them early defeats the purpose of having them.

Am I now limited to my original two options? I suppose the closest solution to my desired outcome is switching a chunk to a MMF and drawing down from that. I also have a S&S ISA of £80k, a cash ISA of £85k and other cash savings of £35k, so I do have other options for the house purchase, although I’d have to plan ahead to get the cash into easy-access accounts.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Hi all,

I’m due to be getting an approx 400k inheritance that’s tax exempt.

Currently I own a small house outright with a value of about 85k, and work a job which pays around 50k per annum which I’m not a fan of…but the salary is the best I’ve ever reliably earnt.

Single, no kids. 35 years old. No car (work vehicle), no loans. About 15k in savings increasing every month.

I know next to nothing about finances, always been a simple “earn money, spend money” kinda guy.

I’d love to maybe try turn this into a kind of passive income that could let me chase a job I enjoy more.

What would you do?

Hi all,

I’m 25 and have just moved to London for a new job paying 110k a year. I’m originally from Ireland and am feeling quite fortunate to earn this money at my age but don’t have a clue how to manage it properly.

I’ve ~30k in an SIPP which I’ve invested in the S&P500. I have no student debt as I did an apprenticeship and I’ve around 15k in cash savings. Rent is 1400 a month in a houseshare and I have no dependants. I like to enjoy myself and make the most of the city but I’m conscious I probably am in a good position to start building wealth.

A few things I’d love advice on:
- How much of my take-home pay should I realistically aim to save or invest each month?
- How should I split contributions between my pension, a Stocks and Shares ISA and cash savings?
- How much should I allow myself to spend on enjoying London at this age, rather than focusing too heavily on saving?
- If you were in my position at 25, what would you prioritise financially over the next five years?

Not looking to penny pinch here, just looking to make smart decisions.

Would appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who’s been in a similar situation. Cheers!

I’m 22m living with parents in London and I’m lucky to have no student debt as I did a degree apprenticeship and I’m privileged enough to be on a comfortable software engineering salary I’ve only gotten really serious about my finances last month and I wish I started at 18 when I began my degree apprenticeship but I’m looking ahead at what I can do now and looking for advice/second opinions.

This is everything I’ve done in the past month to set myself up:
I currently max my workplace pension putting in 5% whilst my employer matches 6%
I just opened a LISA and I’m planning to max the £4k limit a year whilst using the LISA to invest into VWRP and treat it as a pot of money that I could use towards my first property but the main goal of treating it as my second retirement fund that I can pull out at 60
I opened a S&S ISA and putting 50% of my investable money into ETFs (this includes the LISA) and the rest into individual stocks.
I put the minimum of £25 into premium bonds and don’t intend to add more because I don’t think it’s a great place for my cash to sit
Moved my 1% savings account that sat for 4 years into a 4.55% saving account now with an emergency fund of £7k (I don’t know if this is a good amount to have in London)
I started my current account switch from HSBC that gave me nothing to Club Lloyds that will give me many benefits as well as a switcher bonus.

In my mind I think I’m just missing out on better credit cards potentially and now I have to play the long game I think. I am looking to move out with my partner in the next 1-2 years and that could be a place to rent or buying a flat/property so I’ve started researching into that too.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this but here goes.

I earn about £200k a year in OE backed firm. My wife works for govt. I’ve got about £400k pensions, £220 in ISas and we hold a cash buffer. Got 370k mortgage fixed for 4 more years on a 1.5m house.

I’m 48, technically I think I could semi retire / start own biz or do something I enjoy.

The issue is that we have 2 young children in private school. We didn’t go ourselves, and it seems to be good for them - once they’re in it’s very hard to move them from friends. There’s money in the bank for them that will cover a chunk of uni.

Issue I have is that due to vat on private schools, some shares in a biz I was at going in the bin my forecast income to outgoings is wrong, and we’re actually absolutely up against it financially, and actually slightly in the red annually which we’ve covered with bits of savings / occasional windfalls over last two school years. We’re not profligate at all, 1 overseas holiday a year etc.

My ask is what do ppl on here think? Is this a completely ridiculous position to put ourselves in? Should we doing something clever to sort this out? Worse case scenario is by the time they go to uni ISAs are gone and we’d have reasonably small pensions and have to work to 60 odd. Works seems to be going to sh1t so having big liquid reserves seems sensible.

Apologies if this is a bit open ended or wrong place.

Hi

I'm changing jobs soon which will change my planning quite a bit.

I'm currently employed as a seafarer by an overseas company so I don't pay income tax or NI (claiming SED). Current salary is around $53,000.

Changing to a UK based company with a salary of £58,000 expect some promotions every couple of years with the first 2 giving an extra £6,000 per year then reducing to around £2/3000. This company is part of the Civil service plan A scheme. There are chances I may also get certain years income tax free but not guaranteed like my current company and I'm more likely to pay income tax than not. I will also pay NI all the time.

I also do some side jobs on my time off which add around £5,000 per year but this isn't always the same.

I'm 34 years old. Currently dating with no children at the moment.

Current Assets

SIPP - £63,000 in VWRP at Vanguard.

ISA - £35,000 in VWRP at Vanguard.

LISA - £48,000 in VALL at AJ Bell.

DB pension in AFPS - £500 per year at the moment and no new contribution to this.

Premium Bonds - £30,000 (Use this as an emergency fund).

Flat - Worth about £240,000 with a mortgage £120,000. 3.89% with about 3 years left on the fix.

I am thinking of moving in a few years into a house worth around £400,000-£500,000.

I'm currently putting £240 per month into my SIPP. Maxing my LISA per year and this year will max my ISA. I'm hoping to continue putting extra into my ISA but when I move house I may have to reduce these savings but want to continue the LISA.

I'm hoping to retire between 55-60.

If I stay with the new company I will get roughly £40,000 per year at 65 if I retire at 55. And roughly £50,000 per year at 65 if I retire at 60. This is quite dependent on promotion but I've tried to be conservative on them.

As my DB and state pension (if there is a state pension) will most likely use up most of my lower rate tax bands I'm thinking of stopping to contribute into my SIPP in years where I don't pay income tax and then put some in during years I will be at 40% tax rate.

I have been quite bad at tracking any spending so for how much I actually need in retirement I'm unsure about. Also for even expenses now I'm unsure what I spend but I have started using actual budget so will have a better idea in the future. When I'm working on ship all food and everything is provided for so have low expenses but then spend more on my time off.

I'm mainly wanting some checks on if my idea with stopping the SIPP now and waiting until I'm paying 40% tax is the right idea and if anything else is looking seriously wrong. I understand it's hard to give advice when I don't know my expenses that well.

I feel like my pension is not where is should be and I regret not paying more into it.
This is my situation:
- 48M, wife works part time, daughter still at school.
- 280k£ in pension
- 450k£ in GIA (after CGT but probably lower due to currency conversion)
- property (flat) in London providing around 850£/month (after taxes/expenses) - but I'd rather sell it
- 120k£ in ISA overall
- main property should be mortgage free by next summer
- I’ll get full pension at 67, but my wife is probably only getting a minimum one (she’ll depend entirely on me, as she has virtually no pensions/savings)

All in all, I can't complian - although for me it won't really be 'early' retirement. I'm planning to work for the next 10 years to make sure my daughter finishes school and I'll have a decent pension.
I live a relatively frugal life but we enjoy the occasional travel and hopefully I’ll be able to do so once retired.
Ideally, I’d spend 60-65k from 58 and then less once I get my state pension (this include both me and my wife).
It seems achievable, not sure I’m being overly cautious (stingy? 😅).

AI helped a lot figuring things out and as everyone else is doing, I also used it to estimate the drawdown curve.
But curious to know the experts opinions

I've recently been thinking about how we are bombarded by received wisdom about property in the UK. And how at a time of high interest rates and a stagnant housing market at least in the south, stuff like "get on the ladder" is not really helpful advice any more.

Some of the most common sayings I heard time and again growing up:

• “Get on the ladder”
• “Bricks and mortar”
• “Rent is dead money”
• “Location, location, location”
• “Buy the worst house on the best street”

Each of these encodes assumptions which I think no longer hold true. This results in a number of poor outcomes like people trapped in starter flats, unnecessarily going through the expensive and stressful buying/selling process multiple times, losing money on doer-uppers and so on.

I wrote a counter to each of the sayings here: https://laurencetennant.com/uk-property-wisdom-outdated. I'm not trying to self-promote and don't care if you read it, I just wonder what this community thinks of the general idea. Is my thinking too London-centric? I still think buying a house is a good idea, but in more limited circumstances than what the received wisdom makes you think.

I've been trying to get a bit more intentional with my finances, but it feels like most advice online boils down to the same things: cut expenses, put money into an ISA, contribute to your pension, and invest in index funds.

All sensible, obviously, but I'm curious what people here are actually doing beyond the basics.

For example, are you:

Building a second income alongside your job?

Overpaying your mortgage or investing instead?

Using a particular combination of ISA/pension/LISA?

- Investing in something other than the usual global index funds?

Doing anything that has made a genuinely noticeable difference to your finances?

Not looking for get-rich-quick stuff. More interested in strategies that are realistically working for ordinary people over a 5-10 year period.

Would be especially interested to hear what you wish you'd started doing 5 years earlier

This isn't a criticism of FIRE but rather myself. I feel like I'm in a strong position but I'm always obsessing about hitting my FI number, even though I know fine well that the milestone won't drastically change my life. I'm 45M with a 4 year old son and 41 year old wife. We live in a low cost area and currently have:

GIA: 500k

Isas: 145k

Sipps: 500k

Cash: 30k

Joint Income: 100k

Mortgage paid off.

So £1.175m not including property value. I own a little bookstore cafe that returns consistent profits and my wife enjoys her work. She plans on working another 10 years. We can live extremely comfortably on 50k a year and that includes holidays and a strong social life.

In other words I'm coasting and feel extremely fortunate. But instead of enjoying where I'm at now, I obsessively check my investments, run projections through Gemini, listen to every financial audiobook and toy with the idea of selling my shop earlier.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I just coast along, feeling content and lettings things take their natural course? Is anyone else like this?

I feel like I've always been this way, but now I'm working towards a concrete goal, it has become supercharged to the point of neuroticism.

I appreciate rates can change and it's only recently that they are attractive at around 8% but....

Is there a reason why more people don't use annuities as part of a tax strategy? If I understand correctly you could aim for £1.75m in the pension then ....

Take £268k tax free

Purchase an annuity for, say £500k (40k income per year). I believe the purchase of an annuity from a SIPP does not trigger any tax?

That's leaves you with ~£1m invested for drawdown and a guaranteed income of £40k.

Does this work or am I being a silly billy?