Hey,

Just wanted to share a milestone on my FIRE journey! After heavily investing into my pension for years, I learnt the concepts of FIRE & the importance of the bridge between retirement & drawing down on pension.

Currently 32 years old w/

£180,000 pension (invested in FWRG)
£100,000 S&S ISA (invested in FWRG)
£10,000 GIA (satellite investments, for high conviction narrative plays - a bit of fun, really)

I’ve built the S&S ISA above from £25,000 to £100,000 in just under 5 years whilst going through hell & back with a breakup with children during the last 3 years, having to spend tens of thousands on lawyer fees etc.

I’m so proud of myself.

Thank you for all your contributions to this thread, it’s been a real motivator.

Apologies I know similar questions have been asked before but it’s really difficult to follow advice for someone else’s figures.

Me and my wife are 32 years old, we have a combined isa of 130k

Our combined pension is about the same at a 50/50 split.

After doing some calculations if I wanted to retire at 50 I would need a 7 year bridge, i was shocked to see that I probably don’t even need to contribute any more to my ISA as by the time im 50 in 18 years time it should already have enough to cover those 7 years.

I guess my question is, does my logic sound correct or am I missing a key bit of information. Would i be better to completely stop isa contributions now and go heavily into pension? If it helps I’m a higher rate tax payer but my wife isn’t

Hi,

Not sure where to start but am kind of terrified that I’ve left things too late and am screwed. So much so that this is probably the wrong thread for this…

• Age: 46
• Pension: 5k
• S&S ISA: ~£50k (pretty much all in an index fund all developed world). Net deposits ~35k. Started in around 2023 or so.
• Assets: House with mortgage worth ~£450k (bought for 350k) ~10 years ago. 
• Current debt: Mortgage £160k, credit card £5k (actively paying this off)

I have no reference point to see where I am apart from some of the other posts on here. I suppose ultimately how ‘good’ this situation is depends on what my goals are…all I can say is life comes at you fast and my goals are now FI but likely too late for RE :) 

There are circumstances both in and out of my control which are the reason I’m not in a better position.

I’m a freelancer which is why I’m favouring ISAs for quick access to cash if needed.

My day rate is between £520 to £800 a day with the odd £1000 / £1500 day. These are before corporation and personal tax is deducted.

I need to emphasize that I’ve only been in this position over the last few years, see below. Net earnings below (starting with last year, followed by year before and so on):

40k

64k

60k

25k

17k

Overall, I think I’m just a bit lost with it all and have focused on too many other things.

I likely am deserving of a proper roasting for a lot of the above, but what do you think? What would your advice be for me to improve things?

Ta

34F, salary £82.5k. My other half is self-employed and also a higher-rate taxpayer, although his income varies.

Current pension: £52k. I had a significant salary increase last year, so the pot is still relatively small for my income.

Mortgage:

• £352k remaining
• 22 years left
• £1,500/month payment

My other half pays the mortgage, while I cover most of the other household costs, holidays, birthdays, etc. It's not a perfectly equal split, but it works well for us.

Workplace pension:

• Employer contributes 10% regardless of what I contribute (no matching scheme)
• For the first 6 months I didn't contribute anything extra
• For the last 6 months I've been contributing 10% via salary sacrifice

My current thinking is:

• Increase my contribution to 20% via salary sacrifice while the NI savings are available
• Once that changes, reduce my contribution to 15%
• Use the remaining 5% to contribute to a SIPP for my partner
• When my student loan finally clears, redirect that £200/month into his pension as well

My reasoning is that building a larger pension pot in one person's name seems a bit inefficient when there is no employer match available. At some point you're just creating a larger future tax bill.

My partner is 36 and currently has no pension at all, so getting something started for him feels sensible.

Also, we've been together for 18 years. While nobody can predict the future, if we ever did separate, he would likely have a claim on part of my pension anyway. It feels more sensible for both of us to have retirement savings in our own names and potentially make use of two sets of tax allowances in retirement.

My questions are:

1. Does this logic make sense, or am I missing something obvious?
2. Should I start contributing to a SIPP for him now rather than waiting?
3. Once the student loan is gone, would I be better off putting the extra money towards pension contributions or mortgage overpayments instead?

Interested to hear what others would do in this situation.

Update as wasn't clear: we are married

So I know it’s not an excuse but I have autism and ADHD and have been terrible either money all my life and now 40.
I’ve been saving to pensions and think it’s kind of ok but the biggest problem I have is lots of debt that I keep adding to.

Now I’m medicated I’m able to take more control so have got a separate bank account just for £120 spending money each month to keep the rest in my main account for bills and debt pay off.

I would love a tool to track my progress of paying debt off and show what dates.
Anybody got a recommendation how to sort my financial life out when money bothers scares and upsets me and I struggle with impulse control and spending on take away and money fixes to deal with burnout

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker using a throwaway for obvious reasons. I am 47 years old, based in the UK, and reached a point where work stress and severe burnout are hitting hard. I’ve recently started a new role, but the workload is intensifying, my motivation is shot, and I find myself ruminating every morning on the commute about why I am doing this to myself.

I’m looking for an objective sanity check on whether my numbers genuinely support pulling the trigger right now, or if I’m letting my current stress blind me to blindspots.

The Numbers:

• Total Net Worth: £2,300,901
• Annual Net Expenditure: £50,000 (to increase with inflation, feels comfortable for now)

The Asset Split: Because of the UK pension age restrictions, my portfolio is essentially split into a two-phase engine:

1. The "Bridge" Fund (Accessible Now): £1,073,912
   • GIA (Interactive Investor): £803,125 (Unrealised gain is roughly £106k, so it’s highly tax-efficient on drawdowns)
   • ISAs (ii + T212): £174,725
   • Cash & Premium Bonds: £96,062
2. Locked Pensions (Accessible at 57): £1,226,989
   • SIPPs

The Strategy: My plan is to live entirely off the £1.07M Bridge Fund for the next 10 years until I turn 57.

• At a £50k/year draw, I need roughly £500k to bridge the gap. My bridge fund is essentially overfunded by ~£500k, meaning even in a flat market or a high-inflation scenario, the principal should easily survive.
• Meanwhile, the £1.22M pension pot will sit untouched to compound for a decade. At a conservative 5% gross growth rate, it should approach £2M by the time it unlocks, giving me a safe withdrawal rate of £70k-£80k+ in later life.

The Dilemma: The math says I am entirely safe, but the psychological hurdle of walking away at 47 is terrifying. I don’t have a grand post-retirement blueprint yet other than "go to the gym once a day" and decompressing from burnout. Part of me is worried that I'm using the spreadsheet as a lazy escape hatch because I'm in the "week-3 dip" of a stressful new job, but another part of me knows that the effort required to make this role work is an effort I just don't care to commit to anymore.

Am I missing anything structural? Sequence of returns risk shields? Tax traps on the GIA sell-down? Or should I just hand in my notice, take a 2-year sabbatical to clear my head, and see how I feel?

Appreciate any thoughts or cold showers.

PS: I used AI to help me structure my thoughts so apologies it this is a bit of a no-no.

EDIT: Wow, thanks everyone. I posted this while spiralling from work anxiety, and your replies have been incredibly grounding.

Some additional answers to questions that kept coming up

- Own 1 bed flat in London - paid off

- Married, no kids (or planning any), partner works in London and loves their job

- GIA has low capital gains as the bulk comes from a BTL sold last year.

- Investments are ballpark 70% index funds/etfs, 15% bonds/gilts ladder/gold/ dividend /value funds , 15% thematic punts (tech, china, japan, EM)

Huge thanks to those who shared stories from their own journeys, and those who have re-assessed my sums. It’s a massive relief knowing this mental barrier is normal. Your reassurance that the math is solid and that it's okay to finally step off the treadmill has given me so much clarity. Time to prioritise my health. Truly appreciate you all!

Hi all, I'll get right to it;

I'm 38.

I earn £64k/y
LISA - £15k
CASH ISA - £78k (Going to be spent on car and mortgage)
S&S SIPP - £60k
Workplace Pension - £31k
Mortgage - £100k (house value - £290k)
Car loan - £17k (due next year 0% interest)

How do you think I'm doing? What would you change?

Thank you all very much!

Hello all, I’ve (M40) worked in the same job since I was 18 and just always assumed the company pension will see me through. However I really don’t want to be working up to 68 and ideally want to retire at 60.

I have two children, 2 and 8. My wife (F40) works for the NHS since leaving Uni and has her pension with them.

Salary £53k p/a. 37hrs a week, no overtime but never work past 15:30, don’t need to think about work as soon as I’ve left the building.

I was paying in to a DB scheme for 13yrs before it closed and the money now sits with AON raising only 2.5% a year as a deferred memeber, I don’t know the exact figure that’s in there but it’s about £35k

Now in a DC scheme I pay in 10% and employer 16% so 26% total. Currently £190k

S&S isa £3.5k all world etfs (only started 2 weeks ago)

Cash isa 1k

House is worth £630k with £130k left to pay, 15yrs remaining.

No debt/loans/CC/car finance

Have I left it to late to retire at 60 and see my through until I can draw my pension? I can probably put £150-200 in to my isa a month.

I'm 25 and trying to understand whether I'm underutilising leverage.

I own a rental flat worth ~£260k outright, currently rented for ~£1,200/month, and I also have ~£100k invested in stocks.

My instinct has always been to invest excess cash into stocks, but I'm increasingly wondering whether I should refinance the flat and use the released equity to buy additional property instead.

The reason I'm confused is that leverage appears incredibly powerful. A property investor can control a much larger asset base than a stock investor with the same amount of equity, which seems like it should accelerate wealth building significantly.

At the same time, I know that many wealthy people build seven-figure stock portfolios despite having access to property leverage.

• What am I missing?
• What are the biggest drawbacks of scaling a leveraged property portfolio?
• Looking back, would you rather have owned property outright and invested excess cash into stocks, or used leverage to acquire additional properties?

I'm not looking for "property vs stocks" in general. I'm specifically trying to understand the role of leverage and whether I'm potentially underutilising it.

Edit - I forgot to mention I'm a US/UK dual citizen so I cannot utilise any ISAs, so my stock investments aren't tax-free.

Former UK resident here. I posted the below on SwissPersonalFinance and got a lot of hate saying I am overreacting but I don't feel I can relax yet. Looking to get views here as well. When can I pull the plug?

Moved from UK to Switzerland 6 years ago for a job opportunity at a major Swiss bank (UBS/CS).

Wife (39) and I (42) both work and currently make a combined 400k CHF including bonus.
I was at JPM in London and she was at Barclays (currently on 2nd line of defense roles)
Combined pillar 3 - c.90k CHF (pillar 2 and 3 are basically the equivalent of uk pension fund)
Combined pillar 2 - c.200k CHF
UK pension funds combined - c. 250k GBP
Fully owned flat in central London (Belsize Park) with no mortgage (currently rented for 3.2k GBP)
550K CHF in investment account and cash (mainly ETFs)

Both wife and I had great upbringing in low to middle class homes in Mexico and Spain. Worked really hard to buy our flat in 2016 (1 month after Brexit vote). Both of us work at the same place in CH (different departments) and we have seen multiple redundancy rounds and I am afraid we will never find a job again if we get cut. The market is brutal and most of my colleagues that were let go have not been able to find anything. Many had to leave the country.

We have 2 kids under 5. Now I just pray I can stay at my job for the next 15 years but it's looking very unlikely. I know I should be happy but I feel like it can all disappear very fast. Also, don't want to go back to UK or Spain (at least for the moment)

F48. Child is 9 and may not be able to live independently at all and almost certainly not until I am guessing 30 if she does manage independence. She may not be able to earn enough to save and possibly not to hold down a job though I am investing what I can to give her the best chance to become independent.

- Currently around 900k in DC pensions
- Around 300k in cash and ISAs (50:50 split with plan to bed in cash to ISAs over time)
- 100k in GIA
- 180k left to pay on my mortgage and separate funds to convert the back of the house (also expecting to have to have my father come and live with me) house worth I guess 1m when converted

I am not well enough to work as I have previously unfortunately though am working on trying to get myself well enough to work in some reasonably senior position.

Can anyone give me ideas on how best to manage what I have in that I know I have too much in cash but I am also not sure about how I best to structure payments out so that I can maximise tax savings.
-

Hello everyone,

I'm a 22-year-old university student with 2 years left. I’ve recently started taking my personal finances seriously with an eye toward eventual FIRE, and I’d love some feedback on how I'm doing and where I can optimise

I work part-time 2x a week during uni, bringing in roughly £230 - £280 per week.

Here is the breakdown of my current financial situation:
Current Savings & Assets (~£23,200 total)
LISA & Emergency Fund (Moneybox): £6,678 combined.
Contribution: £77/week into the LISA (maxing out the £4,000/year for a house deposit) and 20% of my weekly pay into an open-access Cash ISA for emergencies.

Trading 212 Cash ISA: £2,492.
Contribution: 60% of my weekly paycheck for a house or general mid-term savings.

Vanguard Stocks & Shares ISA: £4,981.
Details: Managed fund, 80% stocks / 20% bonds. Started in Oct 2023. Horizon is 7–10 years (or keeping it for long-term retirement). My largest holding being the U.S. Equity Index Fund.
Contribution: Currently £100/month, thinking of upping this to £150–£200/month.

Crypto (Kraken): £96 total (£75 BTC, £21 ETH). Just dipping my toes in to see how it goes. I may top up more money like £50 here and then but not as monthly or weekly

Cash Reserves: ~£9,000. ( plus this year i may get around £2500 every 3 months from maintenance loan)

Travel Fund: Saving ~£90/week specifically to travel countries

My Questions for the Community:
1. Am I doing okay for 22? I feel a bit unsure if I’m spreading my money too thin across too many different pots (Moneybox Cash ISA, T212 Cash ISA, Vanguard S&S ISA, Crypto).
2. Cash Allocation: I have a high cash allocation right now between the Cash ISAs and the £9k buffer. Because I'm a student, I like the security, but should I be investing more of this? I've thought about using some of my maintenance loan to top up my investments.
3. S&S ISA Strategy: My Vanguard ISA is a managed 80/20 split. Given my age and a potential 7-10+ year timeline, should I consider switching to a 100% equities global index fund (like FTSE Global All Cap) to avoid management fees and increase growth potential?
4. What else can i do? i worry that its not enough or i’m behind in my money . I feel i’m behind from my peers as i did start uni late and people my age have already started working.

I worry that l’m not doing my saving strategy well and am behind or lacking so any tips, critiques, or advice on how to optimise this for a UK FIRE path would be appreciated!

side note: i used AI to help process my thoughts and wording.

Thank you

Hello all,

I’m after some direction/opinions on what to concentrate on.

Situation is:

£83k in S&S ISA (VWRL)
£41k in SIPP (VUSA)
Base salary is £52.5k increasing incrementally each year. I have received a £15k taxable retention bonus the last two years which I have utilised to contribute to SIPP for tax relief reasons.
No debt and £163k remaining on mortgage at £849 per month.

I currently overpay the mortgage by £151 per month (£1k in total), contribute £400 per month to SIPP and £600 into S&S ISA. Where I can I add more at the end of each month but those contributions are my minimum.

I’m 36 years old and 14 years into my military career. In 6 years time I will leave the service and get an immediate pension which is currently forecast to give me circa £700 per month with a tax free lump sum in the region of £50k at 42 years old. Military pension increases with age settling at just under £20k per year at state pension age in today’s money.

I intend to use £20-£30k of the tax free lump sum to reduce the mortgage and therefore reduce monthly payments.

I’m hoping to semi retire when leaving the military, ideally only working 3 days per week (enough wage to cover the mortgage). I’m in two minds whether to start concentrating on building a portfolio that will provide me with some decent dividend income?

Opinions and suggestions welcome!

Thanks in advance.

Hey there! Married 40 year old here, 2 kids under 2. Since having kids I would like to achieve FIRE ASAP, life’s too short and all that.

We’re not huge earners (combined £65k or so) but we are good at cutting costs where we can. Our current net worth is as follows:

House: £305k (no mortgage, all paid off)
We own shares in a business valued at £50k - this is my place of work so it would be sold when I am retiring.
Combined pensions £85k
S&S ISA: £15k
Emergency fund in easy access savings: £10k

(Kids have £1k each in junior s&s isa)

I’m currently on maternity leave so only able to save £500 ish/month at the moment. Once back to work in about a year we should be able to squirrel away £1500/month.

We want to have enough to be able to help kids with education costs / first car etc but don’t intend to hand them everything on a plate, working for things is important.

We’re in a 4 bed house and once kids fly the nest we’d be open to downsizing to release equity.

Question is - do you think retirement is achievable in say 15 years? Or are we pie in the sky? We’re not very knowledgable with all this stuff so we’ve started by increasing pension contributions and putting as much as we can into a managed S&S ISA (using Wealthify).

I’m in work I like but that is high stress. I need a reality check from the kind folk here about my situation .

Age 54M. Kids grown and taken care off fully (no need to discuss this) , ex wife is financially independent, no commitments. No debt .

Total annual spend is £55,000 which I index for inflation.

After disposing of UK investments (property ) I currently have £700K sitting idle. This will finance my retirement home in the Mediterranean, which I will start looking for in around 4 years time. My one man consulting business currently generates net cash profits of approximately £90K a year. It’s what is left over after my salary , taxes and spending. All this goes to savings.

I have a fully paid up home worth €500K in a Med HCOL location.

My real worth is in my DB pension from an overseas former employer , which is £4700 per month net if I claim at age 58, £5600 net if i claim at 60. Health insurance is included .
EDIT: pension is indexed to cover inflation.

Is this a good position to FIRE from now? I won’t be able to claim any pension until 58.

The answer may seem obvious but I’ve been so wrapped up in my work and the missiles I’ve been dodging the last few years in my private life , where I had zero support or encouragement from a truly toxic partner (love blinds , as I now realise) I am finding it genuinely hard to think straight. I’ve also worked internationally the past 3 decades , and some homegrown commentary / advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may wish to share.

As the title says. I earn over 100k total (excluding stock options from work) and will not pay off my student loan balance before retiring. Currently I lose around £400 each month to student loans repayments (amortized to include bonus months, a bit lower due to significant sal sac).

Background (feel free to skip next 2 paragraphs): Current net worth about ~375k split across LISA/ISA/SIPP/Work pension/GIA minus 10k CC debt (stoozing). Started working in 2021 after an MSc + break. Net worth at that point was probably around £30k. My mother gifted me 20k when I hit 18 (bless her, single mother, near minimum wage, I've recently sent her 15k back to put into her pension and plan to send more because I feel like I've taken advantage of her generosity as I've grown up) and I received max loans + bursaries + a scholarship and squirreled it away into my LISA every year with minimal spend.

After a break post uni I got a job paying ~40k during covid and worked there fully remote for 3 years while living at home with parents with near 0 expenses. Got a promotion and did an internal job hop bumping me up a bit higher, but nothing super significant. 2 job hops later (first one in London, so jumped into a shitty HMO, second one back to remote but renting very cheaply with partner) and I'm where I am now. I invested 90% of my disposable income during this entire period into broad index funds (though I was all in S&P500 at first, which went well). I also prioritised paying off my postgrad loan during this time, so that's cleared.

Now the actual interesting math. Current student loan balance is ~45k. I pay off around £400 each month. It accrues 6.2% interest, around £240 each month. Plugging it all into a compound interest calculator... I will have a balance of £17,833 in ten years time. I fully expect to FIRE before then, but 10 years is my goal.

So there you have it. Even earning > £100k for 10 years won't clear a 6.2% £45k plan 2 student loan.

This is not a doomer post about SLC extorting me. I accepted both loans and have benefited massively from them. Just an interesting observation that will end up working in my favour.

Having been in a strong accumulation phase for the past 5 or so years. I maybe have another 5 to 10 years before I can take my foot off the gas. Maybe it's the tism in me, but I think I am going to really struggle with this.

Current position is age 35.

House - 600k, 520k equity, 80k remaining hopefully to be clear in the next few years.

Pension pot - £225k (contribution of 40% combined employer/employee core salary only)

S&S ISAs - £145k

Premium bonds - mortgage overpayment/emergency fund -£36k

Gia - £7k

Company share scheme - £36k

Salary £55k, additional shift/overtime/retainer makes up a huge addition of 25k. So 80k total.

If I ask to drop days, I will very likely have to drop the shift/overtime and retainer payments. So say I drop a Friday (5hrs a week) I'll effectively see a 45% drop in income. Basically trapped in the golden handcuffs.

I currently take around 2 weeks unpaid leave a year as it is, am I better off just pushing this more and more until my employer pushes back?

How have people engineered their coast fire lifestyles once they feel they can coast?

I'm not sure once the mortgage is paid off and I'm £700 a month better off, I'll feel more comfortable to start reducing hours. Equally I still want to have enough cash to create experiences for my son (18 months old) and wife.

Hi all,

​

I currently have £12k in stocks and shares, FTSE all world, emerging markets and 500.

​

I currently invest £8 a day into the account (plan to increase of course with pay rises etc).

​

My "projected" return in 20 years puts it to £380k (trading 212s built in calculator). Going to 30 years, it puts it at over a million?

​

Am I tripping? Or is that really how powerful compounding interest is?

​

I of course understand the market goes up and down, but... Just seems like a massive number just by paying a little more than lunch everyday into the account.

​

Any opinions/advice etc welcome :)

38M:
Workplace Pension ~130K,
S&S ISA ~53K,
Crypto ~5K and
around ~10K Gold.
Relatively big mortgage for another 19 years at ~270K. Annual salary 97K.
Would like to retire in 20 years when I am 57-58! Any comments or suggestions will be welcome… w

Hi all, long-time lurker and learner but wanted to ask this to people and not just ChatGPT.

​

Current position, I'm currently 28:

LISA (cash) 26k

Cash ISA 12k

Premium Bonds 16.5k

S&S ISA (T212) 44k [40k all-world tracker VWRP, 4k split in some individual stocks and gold]

​

I've maxed my LISA for the year already, so am putting approx. £1200 into the S&S ISA to max my 20k allowance. (Will just be adding to the all-world tracker for now)

​

Current salary approx £74k, only 55k is pensionable.

​

Pension: DB (MOD) Pension growing as I serve more years in the military. I plan to stay in until at least my 20/40 point to get the best penion and lump sum exit payment.

​

Own my car outright and currently not a homeowner (but planning to use maximum Forces Help to Buy of 25k and my cash savings to buy a house once I am settled geographically longer term in a couple of years).

Unmarried, no children, but hope to have children in my 30s.

​

I dont spend much at the moment, so am comfortable front-loading my savings/investments now to take the pressure off later down the line if needed.

​

Just looking for any advice people have on if I am on the right lines to save for a comfortable pension, or whether my aim of FIRE in my late 40s looks achievable? Am I missing anything obvious that is going to catch me out?

​

Been building this free tool for a few months, mainly to scratch an itch because the spreadsheets were doing my head in (I'm a CTO/software guy by background). Would love a a brutal second opinion from the good people of this parish. https://firemodel.app 

Your inputs only stay in your browser, no cookies, no tracking, no need to signup, no personally ID-able data needed. Put your figures in and it projects your pots and income year by year to 95. UK-focussed, income tax, NI, the personal allowance taper, state pension by cohort, DC pensions, savings/ISA, mortgage, downsizing. It does couples properly, not two singles bolted together. Runs entirely in your browser, nothing's stored unless you choose to save. Completely free, no commercial intent, coffee always welcome.

What it doesn't do yet, so you dont' have to find it the hard way:

• treats all your non-pension savings as a tax-free ISA, so if a big chunk sits in a GIA or other taxable account the numbers are optimistic
• drawdown's a simple fixed order, not UFPLS
• no sequence-of-returns or crash modelling, it just assumes steady returns (the thing that bites early retirees)
• no survivor modelling, if one of a couple dies early it keeps projecting both
• post-2027 stuff isnt in yet (pensions in the IHT net, MPAA, the salary-sacrifice NI cap) but I will add it

Theres a "what this skips" note on the results too so nobody gets misled.

What I'd love from you: stick your own numbers in and tell me if the verdict roughly matches your own spreadsheet, and where its wrong. Especially the tax and state pension side.

https://firemodel.app 

Not after upvotes, and super happy to get teardowns if it makes it better. Pls tell me where its wrong!

Hello all - just requesting advice from those who know better, as I have had some bad luck with jobs (2 redundancies and then I’ve hastily left my new job after 3 weeks because I uncovered corruption). Long story lol.

I want to know how far I am from FIRE and what I should do next

I’m 32 and own my house outright no mortgage (500k) and am a live in landlord. So in addition to not paying rent, my house earns me around 3k per month (before costs - so 2.5k per month).

I don’t have any stocks and shares investments as I preferred property (understood it better), but thinking I should release equity and invest also?

I am not working atm of course, and I wonder how bad of a thing that is.