Hi All, I know this isn't a financial advice page but I've just come into some money and I'm trying to put an investment plan together. I have seen on this sub that vanguard is a good platform but I also have a high interest savings account and considering premium bonds.

Can anyone suggest a product that will allow my money to perform better?

Thanks

Sorry if this is asked before.

But could I out 20k in a stock and share isa for the next 20 years. Hit 400k and retire and live of the dividends and taking some profit as the stock grows tax free?

Update #2 - One year ago
Update #1 - Two years ago
Original post - Three years ago

I've marked what I consider to be major achievements with 🎉

Updated Net Worth Chart

2024 - Age 27
Salary £68k
195k net worth 🎉
79k in pension 🎉

2023 - Age 26
Salary £65k 🎉
130k net worth
40k in pension
10k in isa

2022 - Age 25
Salary £40k
100k net worth 🎉
30k in pension

2021 - Age 24
Salary £27k initially, £38k by end of year 🎉

2020 - Age 23
Salary £22k
Learned a lot more about FIRE

2019 - Age 22
Salary £22k
Purchased home 🎉
Learned about FIRE

2018 - Age 21
Salary £22k

2017 - Age 20
Salary £16k

2016 - Age 19
Salary £15k

2015 - Age 18
Salary £6000 (apprentice)

2014 - Age 17
Unemployed

This latest year has had the largest increase in net worth so far, we have been saving quite a bit for our next house move. I am still neglecting my ISA but not upset about that, as getting a nicer place is the biggest priority for us by far. I am hoping to switch future cash savings into my ISA once we have that move completed, hopefully within a year or two or three...

Thankfully I have still able to throw a lot into my pension, my company does a great match, almost doubling the pot in 13 months is not too bad!

Been married a year now and have recently welcomed our first child. Few months ago we moved into our second home and thus now have a £280K mortgage at 4.5% over 40 years. We’ve now fully combined our finances for the first time since my wife’s maternity leave started and I’m keen to get a long term plan in place.

Majority of advice in this sub seems to be tailored towards individuals rather than as a couple, so wondering what other couples do to set up their future? Should we be aiming to overpay the mortgage, or invest in a low cost index fund perhaps?

We’re both aged 30 and have around 20k savings between us at the moment. TIA

Hi all, finally crawled out of a hole becoming debt free (except mortgage!) 🥳… creating disposable income I don’t want to waste!!

Where do I start now ?!

• mortgage overpayments
• general saving I.e isa
• investing ( advice on uk investing please ?!)

Thankyou !!

Hello. Not sure at all where to start so hopefully I can get help here. Apologies if this comes across as rambly and disorganised. I am quite out of my element here. I lost my mother a few months ago and it’s convinced me to try and go live my life instead of being like the people I see at my work who tell me how they’ve wasted their life working in a job they hate and are begging to retire (I am 27 if relevant.) I've only been back from leave for less than 2 months and already had enough. Never liked the idea of full time work even when I was a child and I would put a significant portion of blame on work for flaring my anxiety and depression and would rather spend that time doing something I love or spend what time I have left with my loved ones and could have spent with my Mum before she went.

Thanks to being as frugal as I can and inheriting a house and money from my Mum, I currently have £115k in savings and a house rented out for what will roughly amount to £630 per month after tax and fees. I am currently looking for a potential part time IT job but looking to be financially secure in the long term even without a part time job since I get the impression that part time IT work is quite rare and am hoping the part time job would be just to pay for leisure activities like holidays. I am currently pondering whether to pay off the remainder of my mortgage (roughly £70k remaining iirc and thinking will go up to roughly £700 a month in a few months and also need to check how much I can overpay before being charged) or purchase another house to rent out which is what I am erring towards since while I feel a monster being a landlord, I still get to keep the house at the end of it. My outgoings are very little since I try and live as cheap as I can and usually don’t exceed £400 a month (not including mortgage). I am also currently needing to investigate whether I can continue paying into my work pension in the event I leave my job (I work in the public sector for the local government authority if anyone happens to know the policy on this and also have 8 years worth of contributions). I am willing to remain in my current job that pays roughly £30k a year (before tax) but only until such a time I have acquired enough to leave it (and I pray that's less than a year away).

Also, if relevant I am single and am currently disinclined to have kids. Oh and silly question sorry, even if I am unemployed am I still taxed on National Insurance and Income Tax? Would anyone be willing to give me any advice and steer me towards the resources I need in order to attain financial independence as soon as possible? I'd really like my Mum's hard work to have meant something rather than just spent on something frivolous. Thank you very much for reading.  

Hi all, longtime reader first time writer. I’d really like to know how I can start FIRE What do you need to know? What do I need to do?

If anyone can help, I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you all

Do you see yourself moving providers over the years to save on fees or stick to one provider?

Hi, recently retired and sitting on roughly 120k from pension lump, I am not really open to risk so realise the less risk the less return (generally) but I'm fine with that. I put 20k in a 212 cash isa and have sat the 100k in premium bonds max 50k myself and wife, until I decide on forward plan. Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

Hi all

Just looking to see if there’s anything else we should be doing differently. We are late starters - went to uni for 8 years to get our medical degrees, followed by saving for house, wedding etc before having money to properly set aside (our starting salaries were ~£35k each with incremental rise yearly).

32M & 32F.

£246k equity between us in our house (value up £100k since purchasing pre-pandemic) - joint mortgage with wife, 14 years left on the mortgage (~£152k left to pay off at 3.99% interest).

~ £15k each in NHS pension.

I have £3k in 7% basic ISA.

I have £5k in S&S ISA - all in Vanguard S&P500 accumulating ETF.

Wife has very little saved ~£2k between basic ISA and S&S ISA (also S&P500 accumulating).

I currently earn £68k pa and she earns £57k pa - with our careers, both with likelihood of reaching just over £100k pa in next 6-8 years.

She knows she needs to save/invest more, I’m more aggressive with my savings putting between £600-900/month mostly into S&S ISA.

We pay for income protection so haven’t built emergency fund per se.

She has no debt. I have ~9k debt on car repayments.

EDIT: Both have student loans to pay off.

We have one child and plan for one or two more. May have to upsize house but thinking about mortgage to build after current mortgage paid off aiming to sell our house and pay off mortgage to build and hopefully remain mortgage free by mid-late 40s.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I (20M) am currently on a placement year at uni and will finish the year, in June, with a relatively large sum of money that i want to make sure i do what’s best with.

Over the past few years, A-level to now, i’ve grinded my arse off to put myself in the position i am in now both academically and financially. Having said that, at the end of my placement i’ll be putting 6k down on a car to repay about 14.7k over 4-4.5 years (for a 12k HP finance loan). The car I drive right now will become unfit for purpose in the very near future and i’d like a new (to me) car to be a planned and fondly anticipated purchase rather than a rash decision.

Being well, and i am usually very good at sticking to my savings goals, i should then have about 6500 after accounting for insurance etc on the new car.

This is where I need your guys’ help as I have an idea of what I’d like to do but i’m open to other suggestions as i’m sure many of you have been in similar situations.

I am thinking, prior to June, i should put 4k in to a LISA to maximise the government contribution for this tax year and then pay into that monthly from june onwards to maximise the contribution for the next tax year as i can easily save £350 a month with my habits. This LISA is important to me above other investments as my girlfriend and I will be wanting to buy a house fairly soon (serious long term, been together for 7 years)

With the remaining 2.5k, which would be available to me in June, I want to split it somehow so I have a pot in a reasonable-interest savings account, for emergencies, and the rest in an All World Acc S&P 500 to begin thinking long term as well (hence this post being directed to the FIRE subreddit). How do you think I should split this?

That sums up my situation and current take on my next steps but as I say, really open to suggestions from you guys :)

TIA

Hello everyone.

Aged 40 and now looking to open my first S&S ISA - I know that may sound crazy for someone my age but it is what it is.

Would it be possible to secure some advice on which products (or are they called Funds?) on T212 or Vanguard or HL that I should buy into?

I have £20k to use right now and also again next tax year start so can max it out for 2 years asap.

Year 3 and beyond if I am not able to max out on April 1st I can easily afford to pay in monthly amounts as I see fit.

If referral codes are allowed for any platform in here could you please dm me and I will use it

Thanks and dear mods; hopefully this post is allowed :)

Hi all,

I hope this post doesn’t come across the wrong way—I’m genuinely looking for perspective and advice. I’ve worked hard over the years, and I feel fortunate to be in a position I never imagined I’d be in. Here’s where I stand financially

• Property: £500k equity, no mortgage (recently paid off, no inheritance involved).

• Pension Pot: £250k.

• Savings: £250k, fully liquid and ready to be invested.

• Income: My salary averages around £250k+ per year.

I’ve been focused on paying off debt and building stability, and now that I’m here, I’m not sure what the next steps should be to make the most of my position.

So, I’d like to ask:

1. How would you view this position at 43? Am I on track compared to others in similar circumstances?

2. What strategies or steps would you recommend for me to fully maximise my finances going forward?

3. Is there anything I might be missing or overlooking (e.g., tax efficiency, further investments, lifestyle considerations)?

I don’t take this situation for granted, and I want to be smart about planning for the long term while also making the most of life now.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and guidance!

Hi everyone, my first post here. Just posting to let other ppl know about my case but even more important to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
Info about me: 33 yo (M), living in London, working in Finance. Gross Income is £115K plus bonus which is around £150k per year. Assets:
-Cash (including saving accounts): £17k

-Iliquid savings (mostly Pension but also LISA, company shares): £492k

-Liquid savings (mostly trackers): £328k

-Debt (interest free): £12k

-Crypto: £10k (if I recover FTX funds...)

Not too sure about my expenses since I have multiple CC and DC to maximise bonus and points but key parts:
-Rent (plus flat expenses): £18k per year

-Other expenses (hobbies, travelling, etc): £36k per year

-Donations (pre tax): £15k per year.

-Family support (post tax): £10k per year

My plan is to continue to work until I have £2M in assets and / or £100k in pre-tax passive income. I will likely retire in a country where my expenses will halve. However, before that happens my expenses might increase if I decide to have kids (maybe in the next 5 years). I might move in with my partner next year but I don't think that will affect my expenses. There are also some wildcards like a couple of side projects that I'm working on that if succesful could provide a good amount of extra money, but they are far from being a success yet so I'm giving them £0 value atm.
Let me know what you think but some of the questions I have in mind are:
-shall I stop putting money on my pension since it might get to a million on its own by the time I'm 55

-Shall I move money from tracker to dividend paying funds for tax efficiency?

-worth contracting a financial planner at this stage to make sure I'm being tax efficient?

-I might reach £2M before I can access my pension, how should I model earnings vs cashflow?
Thanks!

Hi I got about 95k to invest what is the best way I have it in savers account at 3.5 percent atm

Im a 26yo with about £12,000 in savings. Currently £1000 in a 4% revolute account. Rest sitting in my 0% current account.

At the end of march im starting my own business and probably won’t be making much money at the start. I would say I need £1500 to start the business and about £1200 as minimum living expenses.

How would you distribute these funds? I was considering notice accounts but never had long term savings accounts. I don’t know if it’s a right choice if I’m going to have uncertain income later?

Another inheritance-related post incoming... with some nuance

Background: I received a significant inheritance a few years ago, made some minor lifestyle changes (vs. the volume received), and more or less have continued to be 'high functioning' despite the devastating loss. This has been very deliberate given the traumatic nature under which I received the inheritance.

Context: I have been working a high-stress corporate role for ~7yrs (think big law, consulting, banking, etc.) and am considering options between FIRE vs. Expat FIRE vs. CoastFIRE (w/ retraining in a fulfilling sector e.g., teaching, becoming a therapist).

Current income, saving, and spending:
Income: I earn ~GBP 175k post-tax
Saving and spending: I save ~50% of it by living a very comfortable lifestyle (incl. capitalized expenses e.g., car, hobby items, home upgrades). I live in a low-tax country with minimal income and capital gains taxes, but am open to moving on. I currently live with a partner (whose income is far lower than mine) and we do not (currently) have children.

Asset breakdown:
Housing: 1x UK-based home valued at ~GBP1.5Mn + 1x overseas home valued at ~GBP650k (which provides residency in low tax country should I quit working)
Investment portfolio (Total ~GBP3Mn):
Index funds: ~GBP2.5Mn
Investment property: ~GBP200k in equity (cashflows with 6%+ net yield)
Unlisted investments: ~GBP250k (e.g., start up's, private equity)
Cash: ~GBP250k (gradually being moved to index funds i.e., DCAing)

Objectives:
- Destress lifestyle
- Focus work on more rewarding activities e.g., teaching, therapy - these would likely require reeducation e.g., masters degree
- Travel extensively, spending only 3-6 months p.a. in the UK (either in a Expat FIRE setting, or a job which allows significant mobility like teaching), seeing the world, exploring new cultures, and 'settling' in different places for 1-3 month periods
- Provide comfortably for a future family (1-2 children) and stay at home spouse, whilst also being present in their lives (i.e., not working all hours at the office)
- Remain tax efficient with assets e.g., through continuing to hold assets in low-tax country where I own a second property

I am conscious of the privileged position I am in financially. However, I am also conscious of a potential desire to 'run away' from a. Stressful career, and b. life at large (?) in an attempt to escape trauma (through which I received the inheritance)... I am concerned I may be romantacising the concepts of leaving my career for something less financially rewarding and more intrinsically rewarding, as well as potentially exiting the workforce more generally.

Many thanks in advance to all. Reflections and guidance are highly appreciated.

Edit: some comments have fairly given feedback that the 'ask' is unclear in this post. In my mind it is on the following choices:

A. Continue working in high stress + high income career to 1. build FIRE portfolio further, and 2. due to sunk cost of getting to this point (sacrifices and education, etc.); vs.:
Bi. FIRE (expat or otherwise) and completely exit the workforce - may be good or bad for mental health, hard to say (i.e., no stress, but also totally idle, where work and its routine could actually continue to be good for me post-trauma); or
Bii. Take a big gamble and retain into a (potentially but untested) more intrinsically rewarding career path, living a more humble lifestyle on a lower income and simply leaving my inheritance nest egg to grow (i.e., CoastFIRE?)

Thank you!

Self indulgent perhaps but in my pursuit of fire status, I've been forced in to early fire because of my health. I'll be fine, I've worked hard to get to being comfortable, but feel I've left many targets and opportunities on the table. I've always wondered for what purpose I've worked so hard all my life, as I'm not in to luxuries; I guess it was so I could take my foot off the gas and afford to be ill without additional pressures. Whilst it isnt the case here, just a friendly reminder to look after yourselves, not just your bank balance, health is more important than wealth.

Tdlr: unwell, they don't know what's wrong, work is too much of a struggle, cashing in my chips and see where I go from here (damn that sounded depressing)

I’ve got a LISA with 15k currently in cash but will invest in a global index tracker the goal is to FIRE

It’s been 2 years since I graduated I studied psychology at an average university

I can’t get a graduate job the competition is fierce and I think I studied the wrong subject to get a job.

I’m currently working in retail working on the tills.

Is it too late for me to retrain into a trade or try and get an apprenticeship I want to gain some skills that will increase my earning potential- but not sure what pathway to take. I fear I’ve wasted a lot of time at uni on the wrong course. I tried sales but I don’t think I’m a natural sales person I’ve applied to lots of jobs but keep getting rejected

Should I just stick at retail and contribute to budget and add 4k a year to the LISA

Any advice would be much appreciated

Hi everyone

I’m in a weird situation at the moment, I’ve started to become a lot more appreciative of what “I have” after going through an extremely rough couple of years with romantic partners - long story short I’ve just spent 50k on court proceedings to successfully have my daughter 50% of the time.

I earn quite a bit of money for my age, I’m aware. My basic salary is £99,000 & my OTE is £170,000 p/a which I’m currently on track to hit 70% of (I get paid out at 50% or above as it’s a stretch target).

I’m 30 years old My daughter is 5

Assets/investments:

• My company contributes 8% to my pension, to which I put 20% of my salary in every month & have been for the last year - my pension is currently split between a US & UK tracker, sitting around 100k
• 50k in a S&S ISA which is split between again UK & US trackers (the same ones infact) plus an Emerging Markets tracker
• £110k equity in a house which is about to be sold, I will soon have
• 35k watch collection (for investment purposes, not because I’m a flashy dude)
• 8k in crypto (which is now sitting in stable coins, I’m going to pull it out)
• circa 10k in cash sitting in a highish interest savings account

Situation:

• I own my car outright
• Currently renting paying £1750 p/m
• Outgoings are circa £750 outside of that bill wise
• I put £300 into S&S ISA
• & I put £50 p/m into JISA

I want to buy a house to keep my monthly ongoing down, and I feel like I’m dumping a stupid amount of money every month for no reason - but in my situation, what should/could I do to maximise the financial returns in my position?

TIA

Hello Community!

I’m 30 years old and want to start my FIRE journey. My aim is to retire between the age of 55 and 60 preferably outside London. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in an international role but because of the uncertainty around that, I’ve never contributed to a workplace pension. I also don’t own a house or any major depreciating asset such as a car.

Coming to the numbers,

1. ISA: £25k. I plan to max out my ISA to the extent I can.
2. Everyday Spending: £18k
3. Monthly Savers/Other Savers (4-5%): £28k
4. High yield savings account: £31k
5. Investments: £120k

Questions:

1. What else should I consider doing in addition to the above?
2. Would I need to re-optimize my existing accounts?
3. What other aspects of the FIRE journey do I consider that I’m currently not taking into account?

Thanks for all of your feedback and guidance on this in advance.

40 now and having reconciled financial position it appears I can comfortably retire at 57 (wife will be 60) but not sure if I should push for earlier.

Current position: Home equity is 260k SIPP £202K (adding 35k/yr) ISA £60K (adding 5.4k/yr) RAINY DAY FUND £15K BTL PROPERTY EQUITY £132K (all income reinvested) kids each have own JISA's which will pay for a house deposit/wedding as and when

Forecast at 57 SIPP £1.347M ISA £131K (big hols will come from this in interim) BTL EQUITY £102k (assuming 4%/yr growth and no further purchases) BTL INCOME £19.2K (assumes 3% rental growth/yr) Wife's DB Pens income £12k

I've ignored earnings and spending here as the above additional contributions to pension/ISA are affordable considering expenditure

Sharing this here as I have nobody in my circle that would be interested.

Would this be considered a good or average position by 40?

I used to believe that I should be very frugal to FIRE but recently having read the book 'Die with Zero' I've changed my mindset so spending more of what I earn on experiences/ memories with the kids whilst they are young.

Interested to hear what people think. I could easily retire at 50 or younger if I be more frugal and invest more but trying to get the balance right (for me).

Update: forgot to add wife's BTL info

Sorry that's a really misleading clickbait title. But it's the most positive spin I can put on a situtation that's just come up this morning. I've never posted on here before but I wanted to get this out while I'm overthinking it.

a bit about me, I've studied all my life, probably in too many different directions to climb any sort of ladder. I'm coming to the end of my Combined STEM degree, which as far as I can tell will still make no difference in careers I have access to.

My main job is a dreadfully dull procurement admin job, which is luckily WFH. The job isn't difficult, but the constant oversight and nitpicking has conditioned me to not even talk to people about good things that have even achieved, let alone muck ups.

To counteract the misery of the day job, apparent inability to move up or even sideways, I've been building a small side job as a sports/therapeutic massage therapist. I'm good at it, and get great reviews, but I'm not great at marketing.

With both (roughly) minimum wage jobs combined, I've managed to keep the lights on with the massages, and save 100% of the admin income.

This currently leaves me with

~ 68,500 in S&S ISA

- 5000 in NS&I income bonds

~3500 liquid

and a guesstimated 165k equity in the house if it sold around this time.

So on the one hand I hate my job, and always say I want to leave it so I can just study in peace and survive with the little side business. On the other hand I know how lucky I am to be able to combine both of these things really close to the start/finish times of the day job, and make quite a good income for relatively little effort.

So I've just recently become quite happy with keeping both on the go, and save as much as possible.

Then BAM I'm told it's all return to office in January.

So I have a choice, wind my neck in with all the silly thoughts about having all the freedom and being self employed for just 10 hours a week, go back to the normal office where I feel completely drained and unwelcome,

or forget about savings and just live off the little massage business which has already proven to pay bills for 2 years.

I've got a call booked this afternoon with my boss's boss, the only one I consider pretty nice and human. I'm not going to be rude or angry or say anything about this second job, but basically just that I realise we had a good run, but this RTO would be too much of a pay cut/lifestyle wrecker to be able to continue.

Has anyone had a similar situation? Should I just forget about FIRE for a while and live?

I’ve got a vanguard isa with £20k in that I’ve not paid into this year can I sell withdraw to my bank then deposit it with another provider in the same year?

It seems I can buy several years of NI contributions. It would cost me about 6 grand to buy about 6 years of NI contributions. Would you do it?

In my situation, I won't have enough years for full NI when I hit my fire number, so this would help me. However, I've built my FIRE plan as if NI doesn't exist, so if it's still around when I retire it will just be a bonus. Although looking at the direction this country is going I am not very confident that I would see a good return for this "Investment". This country seems intent on raising taxes and making it harder for people to retire. There is even talk about means testing the state pension; I know that's a bit of a long shot but we don't seem to be heading in the right direction IMO for me to be investing in any sort of long-term government benefits program...

Thoughts?

I want to find out the fire strategy for essentially saving enough money in an ISA or real estate which will sustain your quality of life without working all the way up until you reach the age of 58 which is currently when pension funds are able to be drawn down. Now even though you're savings have dropped quite a lot as you approached 58 because of the pension boost you can continue to sustain your quality of life and as that dwindles down for the next 10 years you then are propped up again by the state pension which as it stands now kicks in at 68. I want to know what this type of fire is called And if anyone has an excel file or a website which will allow me to calculate how much I need saved in each type of savings account/pension?

It's a hypothetical question but I'm making some money on some investments in this current market (mainly from past crypto purchases).

I'm interested in the answer to this question. If I wanted to have a fairly stable 2k per month to live off then how much money (roughly) would I need to have as a lump sum to invest into things which could make me this 2k per month after tax?

I'm not talking just from interest rates but just what is possible given the common, legal ways of investing money (for example buying small properties to rent out). Or from a combination of things like high interest accounts and being a landlord.

This question is assuming that the person is not working any other jobs.

I'm not saying that it's definitely the path I would want to take (I'm 40 and would want to be able to make more per month to be able to provide for family in future), but I'd love to be able to take breaks from work and know I had a stable 2k coming in.

Thanks.

M22. I recently by a stroke of luck landed an awesome job paying over £100k (about 80k salary, 20k stock). I grew up relatively poor so it’s always been a dream of mine to buy a nice sports car. I’m contemplating buying a nice car (~30k) and I wanted to hear if this is a terrible idea.

I have the potential to earn ~160k two years down the line if I’m promoted. My work provides free food and covers some expenses including gym and commute costs so my expenses would largely boil down to rent, council tax, groceries, saving up for holidays and outings (<£1800 per month).

I don’t want to own the car, only buy it on a lease and return it after the payment term is up, since I reckon my financial priorities would be quite different a few years down the line. I’m currently not saving up for buying a house for at least the next couple of years. I’m planning to invest about 1k per month in addition to the stock I receive.

I’m a new driver so I reckon with repayments, insurance, road tax, parking permits, MOT it would come to about £1300 per month. This means that I am probably cutting it close without much savings. Is this a good idea or not?

Anyone have any experience of being a Ltd Company in a job that would normally be self employed

I'm a driving instructor and just wondering whether it's worth setting up as a Ltd company