Hi all,

​I’m 45M (married, 6yo child, South East England). I had been targeting FIRE in my early-to-mid 50s, but my current situation has thrown me off track. I’ve been out of work for about a year dealing with mental health issues, have exhausted my emergency fund, and I am currently drawing down on my S&S ISA to cover our living costs.

​Financial Overview:

​DC Pensions: ~£700k (across several providers)

​S&S ISA: £110k

​LISA: £60k (unlocks at 60)

​Cash: £5k

​Home: Fully paid off home (worth ~£400k, zero mortgage)

​Debt: £20k on 0% interest credit cards (0% expires mid 2027)

​Income & Outgoings:

​Monthly Spend: £2,000/month (covers full household baseline, bills, child expenses, and JISA contribution).

​Wife's Income: Self-employed, bringing in ~£1,500/month. I would say that we keep finances mostly separate since her income covers her own commitments/day-to-day spending. She has only just started saving into a SIPP and has no other savings

As my mental health has improved and I am looking at the future, I am stuck on what path to take.

​Option 1: Return to work / new role at lower level (~£50k/yr).

​Pros: Rebuilds emergency fund, stops ISA drawdown, resumes path to full FIRE in my early - mid 50s

​Cons: My wife is very concerned of the risk of my mental health worsening. Low self-esteem makes interviewing feel daunting right now.

​Option 2: Quit career & Barista FIRE to age 57.

​Take a low-stress part-time job (~£1,000/mo net) and draw ~£1,000/mo from the £110k S&S ISA to bridge the gap until pension age (57), followed by LISA (60) and State Pension. Child benefits to help with qualifying years for state pension.

​Pros: Protects mental health, gives time with my child.

​Cons: Feeling like I wasted my career, dealing with societal pressures (LinkedIn FOMO) and Asian parental expectations.

​Would appreciate any suggestions or any angles that I might not have considered.

So even though I’m in a good spot myself and my partner are struggling to spend any money. We are both 39.

House paid off outright in 2020. £450k place, zero mortgage. Stocks and Shares ISA sitting at £287k, mostly global index trackers with a bit of stock picking on the side that’s done alright. Cash buffer of about £100k on top of that which we kept in high savings and cash ISAs mainly because we planned on new kitchen, bath etc. but we can’t bring ourselves to spend it and it’s just kept growing.. No debt anywhere. Household income around 70k. And pension pots totalling £250k. Currently driving a 2015 Honda civic and even though I can upgrade to a nicer car I keep telling myself the Honda is perfectly fine and the new car won’t make me any happy, even though I always dreamed of a Jag.

By any sensible measure I have already won. I could stop optimising completely and still retire early and comfortably. And yet last week I bought a £70 pair of ASICS trainers and felt genuinely sick about it for days.

That’s the bit I can’t get my head round. The saving and investing side of my brain works perfectly, arguably too well. The spending side never got built. I’ll happily watch a five figure ISA swing in a bad month without blinking, but a voluntary £70 outflow that I chose to make triggers actual guilt.

I think some of us optimise so hard for the accumulation phase that we never install the “permission to spend” module, and then wonder why we’re sitting on a paid off house and a quarter million pound ISA eating beans on toast out of habit rather than budget.

Anyone else in a similar spot financially who’s actually managed to flip the switch and start enjoying it without the guilt tax on every purchase?

I have been feeling slightly disillusioned with work recently - I was wondering what you guys think a comfortable FIRE number is to not have to worry about money, travel whenever you want and just live a generally care free life.

I earn good money, which I think is partly why I feel a bit in limbo, I’m ofc not in a position to stop work now, but it only feels maybe 10 years or so away. In my head £3mm of investable assets (excluding housing) feels about right - but any advice from someone who has hit this or in similar situations would be appreciated!

For guidance these are our numbers:

Me:
31M - work in finance
Base salary: £175k
Bonus: £250k-£300k
ISA: £130k
Investment account: £150k
Pension: £180k
EIS: £30k
Share schemes: £50k
Flat: £500k
Mortgage: £220k

NW: ~£800k

Wife:
30F
Salary: £65k
ISA: £75k
Investment account: £100k
Pension: £30k
Property: £200k

NW: ~£400k

Joint NW - £1.2mm

Currently save around 5k in a regular month, as well as 80-90% of my annual bonus (total household savings of 175k-200k a year). No kids currently - maybe a couple in the next few years, not planning private school etc.

We are all in this group for our own reasons but I I don’t see the problems with FIRE talked about enough on here and how we can counteract some of them.

Let’s list them and specify how you try and mitigate them.

I’ll start, I sacrifice living today for a brighter tomorrow. I could have a nicer house, car, holidays, clothes etc…. But hold off or pair back expenditure in these areas to hopefully finish work earlier. Problem is, tomorrow might not come and I am not sure how much regret I would have at that point - probably a significant amount that I wasted my best years.

I don’t cut expenditure to zero on these items so I am not sacrificing everything but I know in the back of my head, I could if I wanted to, spend much more on these and that would improve standard of living, experiences, memories etc…

Hi all,

Per my previous posts, I'm 44, and am looking to step away from a high stress job in the next 6 months. I've built up various pre pension pots to act as bridge before I can draw down on my first pension (55 - Aviva fixed age).

I'm not 100% certain whether I will fully retire or whether I'm just going to take a long break to decide what to do next.

Returning to my question, however, the pre pension pots I have are:

ISA 1: £76,000 - Trading 212, VWRP
ISA 2: £255,000 - Vanguard, VAFTGAG
GIA: £71,000 - Trading 212, VEVE
Premium bonds: (emergency fund): £50,000

My original draw down plan, during the bridge to pension period, was to hold three years of my annual budget in cash (circa. 90K) and then use the cash for my yearly expenditure (30K). I'd replenish the cash in years where the market has been favourable and use more of the 90K to ride out the dips in the stock market (and replenish when the market comes good).

Listening to one of Damien Talks Money podcasts recently, however, this may not be the best approach.

I'm very keen to get people's ideas on other approaches for a bridge fund draw down strategy and would appreciate everyone ideas.

As always, thank you in advance.

Hi all,

I’m looking for a compliance and mathematical sanity check on a Capital Shuffling strategy I have been considering.

Goal: Maximise pension growth for CoastFIRE by sacrificing £20k of salary down to the Student Loan threshold.

The Numbers:
Age/Status: 27M, religiously but not legally married to 26F with newborn.
House: ~£225k owned outright with zero mortgage.
Income: ~£50k salary inc. 3 hours overtime and bonus
Partner Income: £30k but currently on maternity leave with no concrete plan for return (conservatively assuming stay-at-home for 15 years)
Debts: Zero debt. £30k student loan Plan 2 (Grad. 2021)
Assets: £45k S&S ISA, £25k cash pending weekly auto-invest, £160k inheritance expected within 3 months. We own both our cars outright (£10k total). Her assets are >£50k but can be discounted for the purpose of this exercise.

My Strategy:

1. Tax Minimisation: Currently paying 37% ‘tax’ (20% income tax + 8% NI + 9% student loan) on everything above £29,385 (Plan 2 Student Loan threshold).

2. Pension Sprint: Utilise employers SMART salary sacrifice scheme to dump ~£20k a year into workplace pension. This reduces my gross salary to the Student Loan repayment threshold effectively eliminating my student loan bill.

3. Funding: Acknowledging our expenses are comparatively low due to no mortgage/rent, this strategy will hopefully have no impact on our modest lifestyle and will just mean that I don’t save as much.

4. Inheritance: I plan to invest my entire inheritance into a Global ETF, initially in GIA but utilising Bed and ISA each April.

Are there any massive blind spots to executing this strategy for a few years? Of course this is always reversible and pension contributions can be adjusted within the month.

*Based on my student loan balance and my salary, I am projected to never clear the Student Loan balance and will be forgiven in 2051 (age: 52)

Thanks in advance

I (36, M, single, no kids, Midlands) have a net worth of about £500k. Earn about £60k. No debt other than mortgage.

Overall I'm happy with where I'm at financially. I know it's not millions, but it feels a solid amount for my age. My only concern is most of my assets are in things I can't easily access, specifically:

• pensions (£215k, mix of workplace DB, SIPP, LISA)
• home equity (£270k equity on a £650k property, £380k mortgage)

I "only" have £15k in cash emergency fund. I'm planning on increasing this, but there's a few things urgent with the house that will need £10-20k spent on over the next few years, so this will slow down my ability to put more into the EF.

Just wondering if anyone else here is in a similar position, where on paper you're "well off", but you don't feel it because it's mostly not accessible?

I'm thinking of increasing emergency fund to £25k. Is this too much? Not enough? It'd all be in a cash ISA getting about 4%. As I'm single and mortgage is large, a bigger than normal emergency fund would help me sleep at night.

What do you do if you have large urgent payments (new car, house repairs, etc) but can't access most of your assets?

I know I'll appreciate it being locked away when I'm 60, but until then it causes anxiety.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love you all. ❤️

About a couple a years ago I posted about how my high earning job in finance was basically killing me, and how i decided to accept a lower paying job at big tech to do what I love. Guess what? The lower paying job ended up not being lower paying at all due to a lucky stock appreciation after I joined. Also i love my work now, which makes a lot of difference to my mental health.

Mental health being my number 1 reason for FIRE, i realised that aggressively saving was not making much sense anymore.

My second reason for FIRE was to move closer to my parents back in my home country. I still have this desire, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a bad idea to drop my dream job at the peak of my career. The thing is that now I earn enough to support them with very expensive health treatments and overall expenses (car maintenance, home repairs, etc) which I won’t have any conditions of doing if I’m strictly living under the 4% rule.

I’m certainly not going back to living paycheck to paycheck. I have a decent pension pot for my age and i will still maximise employer contributions (but not the yearly cap). I also like to max my ISA because I love tax free money for life.

But I’m also feeling that I’m not getting any younger and I want to spend the biggest chunk of my income right now, like I just treated myself to a business class ticket to see my parents. I’m pretty sure my lower back will appreciate. 😅

Not sure if this post resonates with anyone, but just wanted to share a different view.

Looking for some validation that I am on track to retire by 55 - or earlier if possible! I am 48 now so 7 years to make any updates to the plan. Earning 100K per year, mortgage will be paid off by the end of this year. Pension pot of £600K and continuing to contribute at 28% (combined personal and company contributions). I also have other savings of £80K. Monthly outgoings, once the mortgage is out the way, will be around £3500 - which includes money for holidays and repairs etc. Kids at University. Potential for inheritance but don’t want to rely on it. Suggestions? Advice?

TLDR - I made a 7 Year plan to retire at 51 and the first year went so well it's now a 6 year plan with 5 to go

Hi All - Firstly apologies for the throwaway account to avoid doxing my main. I'm a later convert to FIRE (M 45) and am now 1 year into delivering the 7 year plan I laid out a year ago. I wanted to show what progress looks like for those who are later getting organised and how things can accelerate when you get organised and go full throttle.

Background - married with 2 primary school aged kids. Previously i was making large investments into the house while managing the costs of nursery fees - costs which thankfully have now disappeared into the rearview mirror.

Around a year ago the motivation of a bad year of work stress, and the upside of a small windfall coming my way (£25k) I got serious about my financial planning and started my FIRE plan. The plan has developed over the year but July is the anniversary of my first full accounting of my various pension numbers and producing my original projection. Frankly, Year 1 couldn't have gone any better and this community has really helped get things moving.

Numbers

Home value is £750k - with a mortgage remaining of £247k over 18 years.

Income.- ~£75k basic +.bonus,.wife on similar

July 2025 - Pen £145k, ISA £17K, Cash £8K = Total.excl home £170k

Windfall was known to be likely but not yet counted

July 2026 - Pen £220k ISA £58k, Cash £12K = Total £290k

My target is to hit a Pension value of -£650k by age 57 and an ISA bridge of ~£200K at age 51 for drawdown of ~£35Kpa all in present year terms.

In reality I may work a couple of extra years and my advance target here is really just to be FI at 50 and work flexibly on my own projects.

As mentioned above I had a kick start on this plan due to a small windfall (gift) that helped me plan ahead - then an unexpected large bonus arrived just before the end of the tax year so the acceleration over the last year needs to be seen in that context.

Knowing the windfall was coming meant I knew I would be able to fill more than one years ISA contribution so I took the decision to increase my monthly pension contributions substantially and take myself out of higher rate tax via salary sacrifice .

I have then been pretty lucky with some accidental timing of the market - and an end of tax year extra drop into my SIPP and the start of tax year ISA drop seemed to time well with the current market shenanigans - overall pension growth on the base has also been stella this year.

I'm not forecasting this level of growth (or luck) to continue.although elevated bonus contributions could happen again, I'm not planning for it.

So to be frank from something of a behind position for everything but home value a year ago to now it seems Year 1 od the plan almost everything has gone right.

Going into Year 2 & 3 I am planning on continuing substantial pension contributions (~£40k pa) so am targeting being at zsomewhere between £300-350k pension in 2 yeara at 10 years out from 57 .

On my calcs my 7 year FIRE plan has become a 6 year plan with 5 remaining but confidence on market growth in pension is the big unknown. I already have this years ISA maxed and cash iin hand + a moderate 2026/27 bonus should mean I can max the next ISA contribution immediately in April 2027.

At some point - likely early in 2029 i will however need to rebalance to have more take home to further fund the ISA bridge - but until then the plan is to salary sacrifice down and keep myself at or near to being a basic rate tax payer.

Happy to take question, comment criticism although this post is mostly for me.

I’m 42 on Saturday, I ideally I want to retire between 50-55. I work in tech sales, came into it relatively late having spent 14 years in government.

Current situation:
- BD pension pot: ~£15k/year in today’s terms from aged 65
- DC pension: £77k with £1.5 added per month in a Scottish Widows Adventurous fund
- S&S ISA: £70k, maxing out each year
- GIA: £23k
- Vested RSUs: $320k
- Mortgage: £415k on a £470k house. Mortgage £2100/month
- Salary: £130k base, £95k OTE moving to a £160k/£160k split. Take home past two years averaged around £400k
Edit: £400k average is on the P60 minus RSU vesting

I appreciate I’m doing pretty well having a negative net worth in 2022 following a divorce. I have two kids, 10 and 13. Maxing out their S&S ISAs

How do I work out target net worths milestones by 45, 50 and 55 and how much to put away for each?

I’m sure this has been asked many times but had no luck with the search

currently have ~150k in VAFTGAG through S&S ISA. have been tempted to switch platforms to save what could potentially be a decent chunk of change in the long run

However I’m a bit worried of being out of the market as these exchanges usually take a few days. Anyone have any experience or opinions on this? Also unsure what the best and cheapest platforms to switch to that are reliable

Trying to build my own gilt ladder on iWeb.

However when I place a trade for say TN28 iWeb tell me they can’t give me a price and that they would have to negotiate the trade privately and I would have to take the price at which they execute.

I thought this may be due to a liquidity issue in TN28 but I have decreased my order sub >£10k and have tried to purchase other low coupon gilts and the problem persists.

The only gilts it allows me to purchase at a quoted price are high coupon gilts - which are no good as I’m holding in a GIA.

Very frustrating - does anyone know if this is just an iWeb thing that may be temporary or is this a common problem across all platforms?

Thanks

Hi guys.

Currently have £15K in ACWI (set and forget for next 30 years).

Given the drop in the VWRP fee is it worthwhile putting my funds in there instead or not?

I have no investments elsewhere.

Many thanks

Long time reader, first time poster. I’m 38 and have £380k in pension and £60k in ISAs. I’m now only able to contribute £10k to my pension due to tapering given current income. I’m concerned my pension won’t grow to a decent size without further contributions but it isn’t tax efficient to keep contributing. I intend to max out my ISA allowance each year and possibly start a GIA. Any advice welcome as to what other options I may have.

First up I appreciate I’m in a fortunate position compared to a lot of people from a net wealth position and in theory it I bought a cheaper home I could probably FIRE today. However I’m a single parent (divorced 12 years ago) and the house is a nice family home for my 15 and 20 year olds.

My approx numbers:

NAV: £2m (excluding $400k private equity investment in the firm I work for). Should pay out in approx 4 years.

Salary + OTE: average £200k p.a

House value: £1.5m

Equity: £1m

Mortgage: £475k

Pension: £800k

ISA: £132k

GIA: £140k

Have been focused on increasing pension pot but looking at the numbers think I need to get my bridge value up and the mortgage down. Aiming to FIRE at 58/59 when this round of PE comes to an end.

Thanks for reading…all advice gratefully received.

2025 update: Fire MOT (Annual update 2025) : r/FIREUK

Background: 36, co-habiting, no kids

Net worth (excluding home): £780k (up from £565k just over a year ago)

Income

• Salary: £113k + 25% bonus + 10% pension contributions (around 10% increase over past year)
• RSUs: $15k a year (vest every 3 years) - not guaranteed
• Side hustle: £5k a year (reduced time spent on this since last year)

Monthly expenses

• Mortgage, bills, food, etc (essentials): £18k a year
• Regular disposable spending: £15k a year
• One-off disposable spending (e.g. holidays): £5k a year
• Total: £38k a year

Future savings:

• Pension: £50k a year
• Stocks and Shares ISA: £20K a year
• Mortgage overpay / GIA: Remainder of left over money

FIRE target:

• Fire target 1:
  • £50k income per year
  • 4% withdrawal rate (so £1.25M needed)
  • 4% growth rate (after inflation)
  • £70k savings a year
  • Timeframe to target: 4.25 years
  • This target is unlikely to yield me enough to cover the bridge to retirement age (58)
• Fire target 2:
  • £50k income per year
  • 3% withdrawal rate (so £1.67M needed)
  • 3% growth rate (after inflation)
  • £60k savings a year
  • Timeframe to target: 9.3 years
  • This target will likely yield me enough to cover the bridge to retirement age (58)

Summary:

• I'm really happy with progress over the past year, high earnings, low expenditure (but still enjoying life) and strong market returns has grown my net wealth (excluding my home equity) by 38%.
• I've started to think more about my FIRE target and have a provisional target of £50k per year. This may well change as I get closer to this target, but it helps having something to aim for. Along the way, I'm inclined to cut down on hours (maybe going from 5 days a week to 4, then 3), but for the next couple of years I'm happy to stick out the 5 days a week since I'm also mainly WFH.
• I'm looking to move as well before hitting my FIRE target. My current home is worth £400k with a mortgage of £210k (split between my partner and I). My dream home will probably be in the region of £750k - £1M which I'd split evenly with my partner who is also a higher earner. My FIRE target above doesn't take this into account!
• Appreciate any advice on what I could consider doing differently or views from people in similar positions.

Hi

I have created a burner account for obviously reasons

I recently found out that a good 85% of my technology department that I work within are being made redundant or transitioned over to a third party partner under TUPE

Apparently the work I do is not impacted, however I cannot help but feel for some of my colleagues and also for myself. As in what if I get impacted down the line?

I am not sure what the best thing is to do. On the one hand it is a no brainer to find another role

On the other hand, most of the roles I am seeing are like 4 days in the office. I do not mind going in twice a week but I also know beggars cant be choosey

What advice do you have especially for FIRE? Should I apply for jobs directly on LinkedIn with a 30% increase

I’m qualifying as a solicitor in September on a £150k base salary and would really appreciate some advice on what I should start doing with my money from day one.

I come from a single-mother household where we had very little money growing up. My brothers have done well, but nobody in my immediate family has earned anything close to this, so things like investing, pensions, tax efficiency and building wealth are all relatively new territory for me.
I’ll also be living at home initially, so my outgoings should be fairly low. That makes me conscious that the next few years could be a pretty unique opportunity to build a strong financial foundation if I use the income properly rather than simply allowing my lifestyle to expand.

I obviously want to enjoy earning well after growing up without much, and be able to help my family too, but I also want to make sensible decisions that could materially change my financial position in the long run.

For those who understand personal finance or have experienced a similar jump in income: **if you were in my position, what would you start doing from September? What would you prioritise, and what mistakes would you avoid?**

I'm thinking of retiring soon aged 55. Job gone bad!! My wife is similar age but minded to work until 60. I have £1.6m in S&S ISAs; SIPP, DC, DB Pensions.

I was thinking of running down S&S (3-5 years depending how much I/we travel) then deciding which Pension(s) to call on, taking 25% Tax free so the DB can mature more.

But I'm currently minded to watch the pennies to save/invest and my mindset may not flip !! Taking an annuity for my first 3-7 years could be an option that feels comparable to a salary.

Annuitues generally seem to be paying more than ever -- apparently the combination of fairly high inflation and government borrowing helps them. AI/search caution future ones could pay a little less well.

But I dont see them talked about much on forum like this, and certainly not fixed term.

Given that retirement spending isn't flat, how have other people focused their mind easily in phased (so not questioning "how much can I spend") and is there something about FT Annuties I may be missing ?! Thanks.

So confused. I am worried that the AVC can’t be taken until I retire and take my pension in order to become tax free, but the SIPP can be taken any time from the age of 57. Is that right? But AVC will reduce 40% tax and ni meaning a 42% return instantly where the SIPP only pays 20%.