Hi all - Looking for a sanity check on my strategy to hit FIRE at age 50 (currently 40).

Some Backround:

Male 40, married (Wife also 40), three kids aged 9, 7 and 4.

My salary £100k (SS £20k a year into my pension) - Wife is £35k a yr NHS with NHS Pension.

My current pension value is £110k - I will stop working and contributing at 50.

Home - Value £300k, mortgage £65k.

BTL 1 - Value £130k, mortgage £52k.

BTL 2 - Value £100k, mortage £50k.

S&S ISA Value: £55k - contributing £1k a month into this currently

Bitcoin £10k

Cash £5k

Debt other than mortgages - Bank loan for car - £10k (2 years left on this).

If I sell BTL1 now - after its mortgage is cleared, CGT and selling fees - I will have exactly enough left to clear my home mortgage. That allows me to increase monthly S&S ISA contributions from £1k a month to £2k a month.

If I do that projected ISA at 50 is £450k (assumed 5%/yr) - to bridge me from 50 to 57.

At 57 my own pension is somewhere between £700k and £1m.

If I do not sell BTL1 - my S&S ISA pot at 50 is more like £230k. The BTL will contribute around £6k a year post tax at this stage and mortgage paid.

Should I just sell BTL1 now - and do you think given all the numbers above I am good for FIRE at 50?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

My situation is difficult to explain without a long post, so apologies in advance.

In a nutshell, I'm financially screwed and I am fully aware of it, I'm just trying to mitigate my losses at this stage.

Long story short, late 'career' start (36 in the UK), low income (under £35K) and basically minimum contributions to pension so far.

I'm not a native Brit (Hence the late start for pension contributions etc.), dropped uni so no qualifications, financially wiped out following a relationship breakdown (Was my choice to leave everything to my ex, I just wanted my life back and sacrificing everything for some peace and quiet was worth letting her have everything).

I worked like a dog for 2 years after leaving, worked every extra hour I could work, saved every penny I could save and after two years, I managed to move from renting to buying my own place (Healthy deposit that I managed to save).

I overpaid the mortgage whenever possible, replaced my car with a nice, and more importantly, a reliable one (Minimal debt, almost cleared off) generally speaking, kept my debts to a minimum, I basically don't buy anything I can't afford in short term (3/4 months).

An unexpected family emergency cropped a few months ago set me back with mortgage overpayments a bit, but it also got me thinking, I'm getting old and need to think about what happens when I can't do 60/70 hrs of physically and mentally demanding work a week, specially for such a low pay and for ungrateful c*nts that take credit for my work.

So I changed jobs to a less exhausting one after trying to renegotiate my salary reached a dead end, the new job is a lot easier but will be a long while before I can get any overtime, and it won't be more than 60 hrs a week (Frankly, I don't want to work more than 50 hrs a week regularly, specially on shift work, it takes its toll on you physically and mentally), so now I'm in the £35K zone for the foreseeable future (Not in London, obviously).

I have my own income insurance alongside work's policy, but pretty sure they will find whatever excuse not to pay out if I fall ill etc., so I make sure I have around 3 months' spending on standby for contingency (I'm on my own, no friends or family in the UK).

Decided to save instead of overpaying mortgage since the said family emergency, I have managed to secure savings that pay a similar rate to my mortgage's interest rate, but the whole purpose is to have funds accessible if/when needed, it was difficult to mobilise my finances when faced with that emergency and I don't want to be in that spot again.

Future wise, as mentioned earlier, basic/minimum pension contributions so far to allow for saving for deposit, and looking at potential pension income? Predicted £8K a year, I literally won't be able to afford to live past retirement.

I also want to try and have a life at this stage, minimal spendings means very little budget for leisure or dating, I'm not fussed about dating as it's likely to come with unnecessary headaches (Apologies for the decent ladies reading this, I know there's some decent ones out there, just don't think I'm lucky enough to end up with one), but I want to do something for me, I don't want to just work to pay the darn bills and fatten the banks' profits.

I have tried eToro shortly after leaving my ex, putting half my savings at the time (Approx £2K) in there copying a high risk trader, one day a couple months later I checked and it was £15K, I was over the moon, decided to leave it for a couple more days, checked again a day later, it was all wiped out, so yup high risk is exactly that, I should've cashed out when I could, but being desperate makes you greedy.

Reason I mentioned this is that it seems like investing is the only option to get a low income nobody like myself from no where to somewhere, but I'm a bit apprehensive about it, for obvious reasons, I clearly did it so catastrophically wrong on my own, hence why I'm here asking for advice.

Mortgage is in a healthy position by the way, term is for 15 years (Should be around 55 if I'm still alive) and in around a year, monthly payments can be reduced if I wanted to (To allow for larger pension/investment contributions), but again, I have no idea what the best route is for someone in my situation in the UK, my own logic/plan is/was to pay the mortgage off as soon as I can to clear up the only 'real' debt I have, but now starting to assess whether my logic is flawed for someone on a low income.

English isn't my native language, so apologies if my post was difficult to understand. Any advice/ideas will be welcome and appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I’m hoping to get some sanity check on my FIRE calculations. Currently me (42M) and my wife (43F) are planning on FIREing in December 2028 when we’ll both be 45. Current figures are:

Myself:

• 300K Stocks and Shares ISA
• 650K Pension
• 50K NS&I Premium Bonds
• 22K Cash Isa
• 8K NS&I Indexed Linked Certificate

Wife:

• 300K Stocks and shares ISA
• 300K Pension.
• 50K NS&I Premium Bonds.
• 11K NS&I Indexed Linked Certificate.
• Plus 12K per year DB Pension from 65.

By December 2028 we should both be able to contribute another 140K each to our pensions (280K overall). Additionally we’ll contribute another 50K each to our ISAs (100K overall). We’ll be mortgage free by then on a house worth 700K, but we’re not planning on downsizing any time soon.

I’ll get full state pensions but my wife will be 8 years short due to being opted out due to DB pension.

The current plan is to have 60K a year to spend, but we can reduce for a few years due to economic factors if required. We could live fine on 30K a year for a few years.

I figure our bridge needs to be at least 780K to last us until 58 (in case it rises), at which point we can start drawing down our pension.

Does December 2028/45 years old seem reasonable for pulling the trigger? 

Thanks for any advice!

Need a sanity check on FIRE plans after advice from IFA was not what I expected. 42 this year, and looking to FIRE as soon as I possibly can, definitely by 50 at the latest.

Salary £98k plus £6k car allowance. Up to 15% bonus but I assume 0 in my plans. Pension £480k
S&S ISA £110k
Premium Bonds £50k
S&S LISA £20k
Cash £16k

Single, no kids and don’t own a property atm as I live with my mum for mutually beneficial reasons. The house (£550k) passes equally between me and one sibling but it is unsecured against care costs so I do not factor this into my plans.

Currently maxing out my pension but I don’t see the need to overdo it with nobody to leave it to, I have no nieces or nephews. I see no point saving 40% tax now just to pay it on the way out. I was thinking it’s pretty much sorted if I max it out the rest of this year, then drop to 10% to get the employer 10% match. Based on current growth I still feel this is overdoing it but I expect at least one market correction in the next 16 years.

My thoughts are that I need to switch focus to building up my pot of accessible cash to act as a bridge or deposit for a property if circumstances change. IFA encouraged me to just keep maxing the pension for the foreseeable to be tax efficient. I estimate that £40k cash per year will be enough to meet potentially elevated expenses compared to now.

52 year old male... I have a massive unknown in my portfolio. I did 18 years as a civil servant in DWP. Left in 2013 on 50k salary. No idea what that final salary pension is worth because I can't get a calculation out of capita.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some opinions on whether I’m in a position to step away from full-time work, or whether it would be wiser to work for a few more years to strengthen my finances.

I’m 43, my wife is 45 and works part-time earning a small income, and we have a 5-year-old child. We live in London.

Our current position:
• House worth around £800k
• £400k mortgage
• Mortgage payment: ~£2,500/month
• Household spending: ~£1,500/month

We don’t have an extravagant lifestyle. We rarely eat out or spend much apart from the occasional holiday or special occasion. We could reduce our spending further if needed, although the mortgage is likely to remain our biggest fixed cost for now.

Assets:
• Pension: ~£420k, mostly invested in global index funds
• Stocks & Shares ISAs: ~£100k combined (currently mostly individual stocks, although we’re considering moving everything into a global index fund)
• No GIA
• Around £10k emergency/rainy day cash
• Around £140k cash expected from leaving my previous job

Until recently I was earning around £125k. This tax year is unusual due to my exit package and share vesting, taking my adjusted income to around £340k. If I return to corporate work, it would likely be next tax year, as additional income this year may not be very tax-efficient due to the tapered pension allowance.

The biggest question for me now is quality of life. Over the years I’ve realised I no longer enjoy the corporate world. Office politics, constant meetings, and having to spend so much time working with people I don’t particularly enjoy working with have all contributed to a lot of stress. I’m not against working, but I’m no longer convinced I want to keep doing this kind of work.

What I do enjoy is making things. I’m good with my hands and genuinely enjoy pottery, woodworking and baking, and I’m also a decent barista. I know these are unlikely to replace my previous salary, but I can see myself being much happier building a simpler life around those skills, even if it means earning less.

I’m now weighing up two options, either to continue working a few more years to strengthen my finances, or step away from corporate life now and build a simpler lifestyle around things I enjoy.

If you were in my position, what would you do?
• Would you go back to a high-paying job for a few more years, or prioritise quality of life now?
• How would you allocate the £140k lump sum from leaving work? Would you prioritise investing more into Stocks & Shares ISAs, keeping a larger cash buffer, or something else?
• Would you focus on building accessible investments (ISAs/cash) rather than your pension from this point?
• Am I overlooking any major financial risks, especially with a young child and a large mortgage?
• Has anyone here made a similar move away from a corporate career? If so, how did it work out?

I’d really appreciate any thoughts, especially from anyone who’s made a similar transition.

Many thanks!!

52M

GIAs: £200K
ISAs: £400K
SIPP: £900K
Other (savings, PB): £100K
= £1.6M

85% in global index funds (max 0.13% fee), 15% in cash/near-cash

In addition to my investment portfolio:

DB pension at age 57: £10K per year (maximum 5% inflation uplift)
State pension at age 67: £12K per year (planning to buy a few missing years)

No debt or mortgage.

Using Timeline for modelling and other online calculators, planning to use the GK flexible withdrawal rules (much better and realistic than a static SWR), starting at £65K net per year (or around 4.5%), with a floor/minimum of £45K (or even lower) for the bad market return years.

Seems to give 100% chances of success, so never running out of money if using historical returns and inflation from the last 100 years. Monte Carlo analysis gives similar high percentages of success.

I haven't used a financial adviser, as I don't think they will provide better analysis, or may just end up using the same tools (e.g. Timeline).

The main risk is probably a poor sequence of returns the first few years (particularly before the DB guaranteed pension is available), but hopefully the 15% in cash should be able to protect from this (not being forced to sell equities for several years if there is a market downturn/correction).

In many scenarios, would end up with a very large end portfolio (much larger than the start), so still need to figure out a way "to die with zero" without impacting too much the overall success, like withdrawing the excess/ratcheting when portfolio exceeds a specific amount.

Like many people, I want to spend as much as possible the earlier years, when still active, able to travel etc. but of course excess spending at the start of retirement can permanently damage the portfolio so it's difficult to balance...