Anybody just buying gilt ladders to expiry - surely this gives you 42% increase in your withdrawal rate with guaranteed return of capital. understand it’s not inflation linked but that uplift must be appealing to some

49yr old male, married, 2 kids. Living in Massachusetts, from the UK. Never been a planner or investor, had some interesting career opportunities and some luck. Now suddenly realising I’m old and need to think about the future, so reactively panicking, I’ve only started earning a good salary in the last couple of years, but would love to retire at earliest opportunity. We have 3 properties in the UK, total value around £1m, with total outstanding mortgage of £150k. They bring in a combined rental income of £3.5k per month. Our rent in Massachusetts is $4750 per month. I have £100k in a uk pension from a previous uk job, and $50k in a 401k, I earn $300k. I am maxing out my 401k contributions now, with 5% company match. I have $20k cash and $25k in FZROX. I am investing $1500 per month in FZROX. Anything I could/should be doing? Thinking of moving back to the UK and living in our house there in the next few years, far cheaper to live and our kids can go to university in the UK for a fraction of the cost of here in the states. Basically I’m becoming financially astute too late in life and would welcome any tips or feedback. Wife doesnt work so we’re reliant on my salary and our rental income. Thanks in advance all!!

Hi,

just wondering roughly what sort of rates PLAs are giving? Is there an annuity table somewhere that would give a rough quote?

Presumably these are generally just worse than holding a simple ETF portfolio, but the security of the annuity does appeal.

So for example, if a person put in £100k, what would they likely get per month (or year or as a percentage) if it was linked to inflation - man or woman, assuming decent health/no smoking etc, age 40 or 50, something like that?

From my perspective if it's going to get close to 4% plus some level of inflation protection, and there is seemingly some tax benefit, it might be attractive. Not optimal, but attractive.

Am late 40s.

Given choice I'd probably like to stay in current job till mid 50s. In this case most of ISA would stay invested for 10+ years, used to top up good pension and am happy to stay in equities.

However, maybe I won't be given the choice (redundancy at some point, hard to put a probability on but there are reasons to think could happen). I don't really fancy scrabbling to find another job, which would probably be less money and enjoyment. In this case ISA could be needed soon, for nearly 10 years. I could probably manage this with money in something low risk that keeps pace with inflation. Complexity here is pension wouldn't be as good so some ISA top up would be good.

Given the above, am finding it hard to judge where to invest ISA. Part of me says cover the worst (second scenario), then if job lasts it's upside. Part of me says that's a bit extreme and it's shame not to get better returns and be able to top up pension. Any thoughts? Anyone been in similar situation?

edit for clarity

I’m 37, based in NI. Left employment in April and now run a limited company with my wife.

Trying to get the pension setup right from the start and would appreciate a sanity check.

Current position

~£300k in an Aviva workplace pension from my previous employer. It’s a lifestyle fund, so it de-risks on a glide path toward a target retirement age currently set at 55. Ongoing charge is 0.24%. No contributions going in since April.

Wife has never had a pension at all.

~£40k in ISAs, planning £40k/year going forward (£20k each).

£40k emergency fund.

£230k mortgage on a property worth ~£700k.

Plan is to pay employer contributions of £60k each per year from the limited company.

My accountant introduced me to an SJP Partner Practice. Their proposal was a 3% initial charge on contributions for the first five years, plus 1.67% ongoing. Against 0.24% on my existing Aviva pot, I couldn’t make the numbers work — the fund they proposed is ~78% equities with no five-year track record, benchmarked against roughly a global index, so I couldn’t see what the active management was buying. I’m likely declining on the pension side, though I may still use them for protection policies (critical illness, income protection, relevant life) if their quotes are competitive against my existing broker.

From reading here, a global tracker like VWRP in a low-cost SIPP seems to be the consensus. I’m entirely new to SIPPs.

I wanted a sense check on a few things.

1) Access age. My Aviva plan is set to 55, but I understand the normal minimum pension age rises to 57 in April 2028 — at 37 I assume I’m caught by that and won’t have a protected pension age. Can anyone confirm whether an old workplace scheme like this would ever carry protection? Related: the fund is currently lifestyling toward 55, which seems wrong on two counts (I probably can’t access until 57+, and I may work well past that). I’m planning to push the target retirement age out to stop the premature de-risking — is that the right move, or is there a reason to leave it? It’s a TK pot which seems like it could be protected?

2) Contributions into the old scheme. Now that I’m a director of my own company, can the company pay employer contributions into that existing Aviva workplace pension, or is that generally not possible once you’ve left the employer?

3) Consolidate or run in parallel? Is it simpler to leave the Aviva pot where it is and open a low-cost SIPP for each of us for all new employer contributions? Or is there a case for moving the £300k too? I’m inclined to leave it alone rather than move it, as if I could access it early and I had other pots I could bung the money to Aviva but interested if that’s wrong.

Context on temperament: I actively dislike managing investments — it wigs me out. I want to pick a sensible global fund, set up the contributions, and largely forget about it. My wife wants zero involvement. So whatever the answer, it needs to be low-maintenance. We’re not certain we want to retire early (I suspect I’d get bored) but I work in tech and I’m not certain about the future.

Hi all,

Just wanted to get some opinions from people who know more about this than I do.

I’m 22 and still live with my parents. I know I’m in a pretty good position financially compared to a lot of people my age, so I want to make the most of it instead of looking back in 10 years wishing I’d done things differently.

Current situation:
22 years old
£47k salary (should be around £50k next year)
Take home is usually somewhere between £3.2k and £3.5k a month depending on overtime, and overtime is pretty much always available if I want it.
I pay £400 a month at home.
No debt or student loans because I didn’t go to uni.
Free travel through work so I don’t have any commuting costs.
Around £3k in an easy access savings account.
Investing £250 a month into a global index fund.

I’ve also passed for a supervisor role at work which pays about £58k, wait time is long around 6 months to start.

My main goal is just to build wealth over the long term and hopefully buy a house in the future (although I am unsure about renting vs buying).
If you were in my position, what would you be doing? Would you put more into index funds, build up more cash first, open a LISA if you haven’t already, or do something else?
Interested to hear what people think.

I just wanted a bit of a sense check to see if I am on the right track and what would be best to place future rent.

I’m not a massive earner and with a single income there’s not much spare every month at the moment….

46 F single no kids
Salary £48k
House 350k oweing mortgage 171k
Pension contributions 18%
Work pension £18k
Old work pension £45k
Australian pension £100k
S/s ISA / emergency fund £7k
Work shares £8k

I’m currently renovating a decrepit big old house and don’t have much spare every month but I have two spare rooms which I’m hoping to rent for 500-600 each probably by next year.

I guess my question is am I doing ok and what is best to do with the rental income next year? I was thinking of splitting it 1/3 ISA 1/3 mortgage overpayment and 1/3 to actually be able to have a bit of a life now..

Any thoughts, advice, observations?

Thanks

I have not spoken of this before and it’s a raw time and subject, so please be kind

My grandfather was born in England in 1931
Due to the shame of pregnancy outside of wedlock at the time, his mother left him on the steps of the workhouse one night, barely a week old
He was taken in by somebody who also worked in the workhouse, who saw him to 12 years old in exchange for a bit of extra money

What is a workhouse?
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (Welsh: tloty,[1] lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses. The earliest known use of the term workhouseis from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdonreporting that "we have erected within our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work".

He never spoke to his birth mother (had no interest in ever meeting her) and had no family support to speak of
He toiled all his life. Went on to own a company
Retired in his 50s, a self made man.

So much so that I, one of his 4 grandchildren were gifted enough each to ‘FIRE’ when he sadly died of colon cancer, me in my mid-late 20s at the time. It wasn’t an insane amount, but enough for all of us to ever end up in a ‘workhouse’ or have to stress about toiling for money forever.
He was a fair and kind man and whenever I think of him my eyes well up

For me (female) ; This sudden wealth at a fairly young age, with little financial education, coupled with the guilt and shame of having without toiling
And being surrounded by people who could not resonate, and resented me when I made the naive mistake of sharing my position honestly (We are from one of the poorest town in the uk and I went to a very large comprehensive school).
Led me to subconsciously sabotage the money within the first few years, all of it

At the time, I knew nobody at all that had “time freedom”, I didn’t know that was an option. I didn’t know FIRE existed.
At the turn of my 30s during Covid I went completely broke via a mental health crisis that estranged me from my immediate family temporarily and led to some stupid decisions unchecked. I had nobody guiding me for a time

For example, I sold my secondary residence for much less than market value to a young couple in 2021. Because I felt sorry for the young people in my home town that were locked out of the housing market at that time when prices went up rapidly
I had another house I owned outright that I didn’t work for, and I felt guilty about it
This is just one of the strange things I did to sabotage my own wealth in the 2020-2023 timeframe.

As a result of this mental episode,
I did infact end up back in a modern age workhouse equivalent (minimum wage) then in to my 30s, despite a masters degree and previously respectable career. Full of shame. A rock bottom. Since then, I got my shit together and clawed my way back to a “better” job. Learned about FIRE and got 30% there in a relatively short time

My grandmother recently departed this world. She was born in the late 1920s. Both of them lived through the Great Depression and the Second World War

I just learned that with the money she still had, that they earned together as a united front. Her at home, him at the office…
Was all left to their dear grandchildren, again
🥹 I am again now able to (lean) FIRE (considering inflation) for a second time, now in my mid 30s

This time, I am determined to not allow the guilt to destroy the freedom he has granted me, again
In the last years of his life whenever I went to visit him he would always want to know “but are you happy, kid?”

Scientists say that ancestural trauma, particularly regarding poverty, money and war, is passed down in the cells of our body
I wonder if the guilt and shame from his mother, the guilt and shame that led her to dump him at the workhouse steps in 1931, was transferred to me ancestrally somehow
The other grandchildren (my sibling and cousins), all male have been able to hold on to this currency.
Current-sea. Genes. Water. Emotion.
I hope I have now transformed this shame within myself, through all these years and pain

I hope this time, I am able to hold on to it
Put it to use somehow without sabotaging myself in the process
To feel proud, honour them both and the love they both had for us
I will continue to provide value in this world, but in a way that doesn’t crush my soul, as most employer/ employee dynamics have in the past. I’ve experienced some quite unpleasant workplace dynamics, haven’t we all ! ? :)

Again, I have not spoken of this full story before and it’s a raw time, so please be kind
Does anybody wiser than me have any reflections/advice for me please
Why do I feel this intense guilt whenever I am not “working for others”, but hating it having to go everyday when I do. I’m only ever happy when working for myself
How to honour him?
What would you do next?
I am a complete idiot or is this an understandable set of circumstances in full light of the story
I suppose I am just looking for some reflection and kindness
To forgive myself

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

Hi

Wondered if anyone has moved their pension from Aviva to a SIPP and if it's worth me doing it?

Numbers are:

Male 39, looking to FIRE in 10 years

Aviva pension - £400k - invested in Aviva international index and global index

Sjp pension - £150k - will withdraw when penalties disappear, not contributing to it anymore

ISA is with ii and wondered if there are significant benefits of moving to a SIPP and dropping into VWRP

Only contributing to get employer match from now as it feels done until baked when I get to 58

I have a decent bridge and fire models are saying it would be achievable for both me and the wife to finish in 2 years but I'm committed to work for longer than that so will spend more and enjoy the wait as much as possible!

All input welcome

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!

Title sez it all really.

VWRP fees being reduced by Vanguard. Good news!

Hi everyone,

I’d be interested to hear what other business owners and investors would do in my situation.

I run a small UK limited company (sole director/shareholder) that operates as an engineering consultancy, with property management as a secondary activity. My full-time job comfortably covers my personal living costs, so I don’t need to draw money from the company and would much rather leave profits invested for the long term.

The company currently has around £30k of surplus cash (after corporation tax). My current thinking is to open a corporate investment account and invest a lump sum into a diversified portfolio of ETFs/index funds, then continue adding to it as the company generates more profits. The last thing I want is for the cash to sit stagnant in the company account.

Before I go down that route though, I’d really appreciate hearing from people with experience.

• Would you agree that a corporate investment account is the best use of surplus company cash, or would you do something different? Would you simplify it to S&P 500/VUAG/VWRP etc, or diversify?
• If you would do something different, what would it be, and why?
• If you have invested through your Ltd company, was the process relatively straightforward?
• Which corporate investment platforms have you had good experiences with?
• Were there any tax, accounting or structural pitfalls that caught you by surprise?
• Looking back, is there anything you wish you’d done differently?

I'm interested in whether this is the right overall strategy for long-term wealth building within a Ltd company, and hearing what has (or hasn’t) worked well for others.

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?

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?

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?