hi, i made a post here a month ago about winning £700k on a scratchcard. it’s been a month and i had a few people asking for an update so i thought i’d post one!

link to post: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREUK/s/0jSnug3f9e

i did pay off my mum and uncle’s mortgages and i told them that i won £100k instead of 700k. they were incredibly happy for me and have sworn to keep it a secret. my mum has finally been able to reduce her hours at work now that she doesn’t need to worry about the mortgage and we are all so much happier. i feel like i finally have my mum back. we also have a family holiday booked to new york at christmas

i quit my primark job and applied elsewhere and i got myself a new job. i’m going to be working 25 hours a week at starbucks. because i don’t need to worry about saving and helping my family out it’s more than enough money for me and means i can just live and enjoy life

i’ve spent a bit of money on a bulk driving lessons package and i’ve bought the cutest pink fiat to practice in, i got a really good deal on it and got it for £3000. it might be old but it’s my car and i love it! i also splashed out a bit on pink pillows and carpets for it haha

i’ve put £75k in an account to pay for uni and my living costs. many people advised against this but i believe it’s going to be such a huge relief to never have to worry about finances and paying off student debts. i’ve allocated £15k a year to living costs and i plan to work a bit too to help me out

i did allocate £20k to silly fun spending. i’ve booked a holiday to ibiza with my best friend and i also bought some stupidly expensive designer heels and a bag. i also got myself a gold tiffany’s necklace and some new makeup. i know i didn’t need any of it but the joy it brings me to have these things is immense

i also got my little brother an iphone as he’s always wanted one. i got small gifts for my family too, as well donating around 20k to a few charities that mean a lot to me. i actually did spend £200 on more cards to test my luck and i won £100 on one which was fun lol

after all of this, i have around £520k left that i plan to invest into my future. i’m looking into properties so i can buy my first home and never need to worry about a mortgage. i’m shopping around but i have my heart set on a gorgeous 3 bedroom in a nice part of my city. it’s going for £300k and it’s a new build so it’s in a beautiful condition. i’m giving myself until the end of the month to decide but i am 99% sure that i’m going for it. it’s a stunning home and i can see my future family living there forever. £20k will likely go on decorating and furnishings i think. i’m going to just pretend i’m paying a mortgage on it

after buying my home i am going to invest the remaining £200k. where i’m going to invest them i don’t know as i’m still trying to find a good financial advisor. but that is the plan and i believe it’ll set me up for life! i’ll be in my mid 20s with a degree and job in my dream industry and a beautiful home to call my own, as well as having a retirement fund set and being able to drive. this lottery win has been the biggest blessing and i am so so happy and grateful

Almost exactly a year ago I was made redundant. I didn’t actually decide to retire at the time. I thought I’d take a bit of time out, figure out what I wanted to do next and then probably get another corporate job.

Except I never really did.

I’ve worked this year, but not exactly how I thought I would. I tried going back into corporate, but realised my tolerance for it had cratered, so I discovered the only job that brings me joy is a little seasonal minimum wage job, which runs April to Oct each year. I will probably earn about £6k max per year with this little job.

So at 55, I think I’m calling it. I'm now Semi-retired.

 To fortify this decision I’ve spent the last year figuring out whether the numbers actually work, and this is roughly where I’ve landed.

Pensions

£275k Vanguard SIPP
91% LifeStrategy 80 (£251K)/ 9% Sterling MMF (£24K)

£227k SMART Sustainable Growth
Roughly 80/20. The intention is to leave this one alone until 67 unless everything goes spectacularly up the creek.

ISA/Cash

£24k S&S ISA, which is now almost entirely in a Sterling MMF (I've kept a minimum amount in LS80 to conform to April 2027 restrictions on 100% MMF in ISA). This is my "Shock Absorber Level 1".

Shock Absorber Level 2 is the £24K MMF inside my bridge pot.

Finally £24K in a Cash ISA (3.6% T212) for this year's spending.

So effectively I’ve got about 3 years spending lined up before I’d need to start selling equities in a falling market. In normal years I will take my from bridge pot's LS80 via UFPLS likely.

Everything else

House equity around £215k with £35k mortgage outstanding.
Car worth around £8k. I’m keeping it until it dies.

Full State Pension forecasted.

Spending

I’m working on £24k a year net as my normal spending. I can live on less if markets are having a meltdown, but I don’t particularly want to spend the next 12 years eating beans so that I can arrive at State Pension age with the biggest possible number on a spreadsheet. The bridge pot is there to be used to zero if necessary.

I can tier my spending down to £18K pa with the mortgage and £15K if I go mortgage free (using the pension).

The plan

The £275k SIPP is basically doing the heavy lifting between now and 67. The £227k pension is for afterwards.

The bit I’m still questioning is whether I’ve got the defensive side right.

At the minute I’ve essentially chosen cash/MMFs as my main line of defence against having to sell equities after a big fall, while obviously still having some bond allocation inside LS80 and the SMART pension. But gilts ladders and fixed income have been coming up quite a lot in the comments on my youtube recently. It's even been suggested that I keep the SMART pension at 100% equities too. So my head is swirling as to what is the best course of action.

I’m not convinced I need to complicate it more than I already have, but it’s the bit I’m currently interrogating.

So I’m throwing the whole thing to FIREUK.

What have I missed? Where are the weak spots?

Feel free to poke holes in it. We're never taught how to decumulate, how to be our own pension retirement planners, so this is still a work in progress for me. 😂

P.S. if you get this far, thanks for your patience lol

48, retiring in 5 years, with access to DC pensions from 55.

From 68, our DB and State Pensions cover all essentials and about 90% of our spending. So the risk is the bridge from 55 to 67.

The plan is in about 2029, to put about £350k of a DC pot into an index-linked gilt ladder held to various maturities over the bridge period. It would pay the essentials from 55 to 67. The rest stays in global equities for the extras.

Real yields today are about 1.5–2.5% for those maturities (2033–2045). The BoE curve implies about 2.6% across the ladder by the time I'd buy.

What's the best argument against doing this? Is there a simpler or better way? Obviously things can change, but it seems projected real yields are looking extremely attractive right now on index-linked gilts.

I am in year 12 at the moment and study maths chemistry and computer science . Unlike many people I am with I don’t know what I want to do with myself when I’m older . I ideally want to get a degree apprenticeship based in the north east in tech finance or engineering . But I don’t know what I exactly want to do as a job when I’m older and also degree apprenticeships are quite rare in my region . I’m quite ambitious and I want to earn 100k+ at some point in my life .

Can anyone give me ideas for careers where I can do this, I was initially thinking of investment banking but this requires relocation to London and a degree at a top university . I find stuff like stocks and investments quite interesting and I am quite talented at math . So basically what I’m asking is what are the best careers where I can get 100k+ at some point ideally as early as possible and what I can access through a degree apprenticeship in my region. I saw this accountancy one at a big 4 company but I don’t know if I am fully sold of accountancy. And I have been looking into tech sales but I’m not sure if it’s just tiktok hype

I’m 32 and living in Northern Ireland. I’ve got 32k in my S&S ISA, 6k of which are investment gains. I am contributing £850/ month. My mortgage will be going from 1.2% to 5.17% in February bringing my monthly payment £666. The outstanding balance in February will be £100k

I also have £12k in the bank. My take home pay is £3400/ month.

My question is should I consider withdrawing my funds from my S&S ISA and pay off a chunk of my mortgage?

The reason I’m thinking about this is because of the potential AI bubble popping and my S&S ISA tanking.

My monthly expenditure including holidays averages about 1,800/ month.

What is everyone else planning on doing? Is it best to just ride it out if it happens? I know it’s impossible to predict when it will happen. Should I consider reducing my monthly contributions instead and just save more cash?

Thanks.

Good morning,

I done some rather random investments few years ago using vanguard, had good returns.

Cash ISA for my self and the wife and then my pension fund.

Now I'm 40 I'm just wondering if I need to vary the allocations around a little bit? I plan to retire at 55 ISH.

I have also equity in my house of 255k plus 30k in normal savings account.

Happy to pay for advice

Regards

Craig

We are a couple in our early 30s, and fortunate enough that we have good income and investments such that FIRE before 50 would likely be viable.

I grew up in a very working class background and have therefore always had underlying anxiety about spending money, with a natural tendency to want to save. Now we’re in a position that I don’t need to be so tight with money, I still feel guilty for spending, and always think that more money could be going towards our investments, thus bringing our retirement forward also.

I get that there’s no point doing all of this unless we can enjoy the present, but I’m finding it hard to get the right balance. Sometimes I look at how much extra money delaying retirement by a few years would give us each month, and it sounds great. But then again, I don’t even know if I need that extra amount.

Sorry for the ramble. Any input as to how you’ve dealt with this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi

Over the last month or two, I have made some extra repayments to my student loan (type 2 post 2012) to the point where I have cleared over 70% of it

My thinking behind it was the student loan is accumlating interest and I am single right now with not much commitments yet

I have the means to repay it in full now, but wondering is it worth it?

Thanks

Hi all, just looking at a sanity check on my current approach.
Age: 44, Salary: £120k, Combined Pension: £400k, Equity ISA: £25k, Cash ISA: £16k, Mortgage: £335k of £550k house, Kids: 3, Wife: 1.

Currently youngest is in nursery so my intention next year is to salary sacrifice down to below £100k but for the moment I'm taking full salary. After a period of redundancy both my cash savings and income this year are down so I don't need to salary sacrifice to get childcare support for nursery but that will start to be an issue next year.

Wife also has a number of pension pots including teacher pension and private but the number above is just mine. Her income is relatively low so tax efficiency isn't much of an issue for her.

Currently we're just hovering above 60% loan to value on the mortgage so my number one priority is to make sure we are comfortably below that (to cope with any minor housing price shocks) before July next year when the mortgage renewal hits. So I'm making £500 / month overpayments on that and that should take care of that. I think after the renewal that £500 may well be eaten up by the increase in interest.

Alongside that I'm shunting around £850 to £1000 into my cash ISA. My mental goal is to have about £20k in cash as my emergency fund and that's it. As I say my savings took a large hit with a gap in employment so my equity ISA and cash situations are not where they like after just having bought a new house to fit us all (timing could have been better).

Alongside this during divorce with wife Mk.1 I prioritised retaining my pension at cost of cash and property proceeds which is why I'm pension top heavy and a 30 year mortgage.

Essentially TL:DR - Prioritise cash and mortgage this year, then large salary sacrifice next year to keep childcare support and tax efficiency with equity ISA contributions with left overs.

Thanks all!

For anyone in the the FIRE community renewing their mortgage, what are people’s thoughts?

I’m expecting interest rates to stay flat or increase in the next year or 2, so I am thinking to opt for a 5-Year Fixed. I have a lot on at the moment, and that would give me some piece of mind. It’s actually on a flat I own that I had to move out of due to work. Hoping to move back to it in about 5 years.
Alternatively, sell up and throw all equity in the S&P 500 ?

I’ve got about £160k/£170k equity.

A few of us are organizing a casual, no-pressure meetup for anyone in the Hemel Hempstead or wider Herts area interested in FIRE, investing, or just getting a better grip on their personal finances.

We've already got a few people from the Rebel Finance School community coming along, but we’d love to open it up to anyone locally who wants to chat about money in real life. There are absolutely no pitches or products being sold—just talking index funds, pensions, and savings rates over a drink.

We will be meeting at The Green Man, Leverstock Green Road, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom, HP3 8QE.

This may be a stupid question, but I’m quite clueless when it comes to finances. I’ve been making good money these last couple of years (having made next to nothing most of my life), around £450k a year, and I have 175k left on a 500k mortgage, at 3.9 percent with one year left on deal. I have 200k savings, and absolutely nothing in retirement. I’m 47 years old. Keen to move house too in the next couple of years.
What should I do? Pay off mortgage asap? Invest or start putting money in a pension?

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 am a 55 year old with a partner (54) who is a teacher and 2 children aged 17 and 15. We currently live in the south east in a house that we own valued at around £1,000,000 mortgage free. Fully expect to downsize this at some point. We own cars with no outstanding finance. The children are currently in state school with 1 and 3 years remaining. Both expect to attend UK universities for 3 year courses. Both have a range of savings with each having an JISA, a JSIP and a savings account so dont need to really be included in the FIRE discussion.

I worked for a tech org with a current salary is £150k with a 20% bonus and a company share scheme that typically provides around $40k of shares PA paid in April (which vest over 3 years on a monthly basis). I currently have around $1.3m shares with a further $500k due to vest over the next 3 years. If I stop work these will be lost - so case of silver handcuffs. There would be a significant tax implication on CGT on these.

I have a number of pensions. My current employer one, which is still being contributed to is valued at £300,000. The others have an approximate value of £1.6m. Partner has a teachers pension. I have a number of investment accounts with around £700k in a GIA and £300k in ISA. Again, some CGT exposure. Easy access cash savings of around £30k and £30k of premium bonds. She has some savings and may inherit some money in the next 5 years (although care home costs are eating away at this).

We are both investigating taking early retirement and would be looking to finish working in July next year. We are also investigating moving overseas as a way of reducing living costs and providing a change of lifestyle once youngest finishes school.

Clearly know I am in a fairly strong position position but want to just hear what people think about FIRE at 56.

Excluding the obvious public sector pensions, what is a good contribution split nowadays?

I’ve seen mentioned here a lot to maximise the matched contributions from your employer.

Currently I’m on the government minimum of 5% e’ee and 3% e’er. I have been offered a job that along with other benefits has a 3.3% e’ee and 6.7% e’er contribution which I thought sounds quite good right?

Is there any need to voluntarily put in more or keep going isa’s and saver accounts. For reference I’m 27, on around 40k and saving for a house with Lisa, trading 212 isa and Lloyd monthly saver.

I am new to FIRE, I'm 43 (f) and I have a pension pot of £235,663.24 in value as of today. Is this good? Should I be moving it out of my current provider (AVIVA on a 5/7 risk investment fund) and to somewhere else which will provide more return?

l've built up this pot over years of PAYE sacrifice with employer matching, but I'm now looking into freelancing.
Should I set up some kind of SIPP or is there something else I will get higher long term returns on?

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.