I bought my first house. 600k / 5% interest mortgage

The original idea was to overpay and get it down to a comfortable level but the amount of gross income needed to do it is staggeringly high.

So I was thinking, should I downsize to a flat at 350k and almost half the monthly mortgage to allow me to invest more.

I’m a single guy. Minimalist. No idea why I bought such a big place tbh- mostly due to it being freehold. It will cost £25k extra out of pocket in penalties, stamp duty, fees, etc. but I’ll recoup that in mortgage interest in the first 2 years.

Do you think I’ll live to regret it? Should I stay with the larger house and remortgage in 5 years to a lower rate?

Hi all,

I’m 25M and looking to join fire in the future.

What are my best ways to maximise the possibility of retiring young. I have no set age and currently just going with the flow. Have a standard job roughly on 30k per year and have about 1k per month to put away. My cost of living at the moment is relatively cheap, I try spend at a minimal.

Currently looking to buy a house so much of anything I save over the next year will be going towards my home.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Is there a good formula to follow to know when enough is enough and then time to move on the new chapter.

Afternoon all, looking for some advice please. We're due to remortgage in November, we owe £128000, and looking like it will be around 6.4%. Our intentions are to sell up and downsize in around 2 or 3 years. Do we overpay on mortgage, or is investing the extra money better? We would look at overpaying the max every month (which I believe is 10%), but obviously each year that amount would be less as the mortgage comes down (so the surplus would probably just be invested in an ETF anyway). Paying the max (without penalties) would still take us around 9 years to pay off - so wouldn't be fully paid before we sell, but overpaying knocks off a huge amount of interest. Anybody have any advice on the best thing to do?

Hi all, this community has been very valuable to me over the past few years so looking for your thoughts on my current dilemma.

We have the opportunity to move to a bigger house which would be our forever home. Currently living mortgage free in a lovely home which we could stay in indefinitely, but has some drawbacks in terms of storage space, ongoing projects to put things right from the previous owners, and a garden which isn't ideal - all manageable but frustrating over time.

The new house is fantastic, ticks all the boxes but would mean we'd need a £300k mortgage. This would push back FIRE by 5 years, from aged 45 to 50 (currently age 38). And being mortgage free at the moment, it would add some phycological pressure of having to keep earning in a job which I generally enjoy but does come with pressure. And also would mean a bit less money to splurge on luxuries such as weekends away or potentially foreign holidays (I'm not strict in terms of a FIRE frugal lifestyle!).

So, what would you do? Keep on with the easy life where we currently are, or look to get the perfect house?

Hey All,

Would appreciate a sense check on my plan. Currently 39 (40 this year) SO is also 39. Two children of 4 & 2, Live in London.

Joint income circa 160k

Property:

Main Residence - circa £1.3 million - Mortgage balance of 657k at 0.94% fixed until 2026.

Let Flat - worth circa 300k with long-term tenant, bought circa 5 years ago and its value hasn't increased - no long-term desire to keep it, no mortgage.

Current Investments

ISA - Saving 1200p/m:

340k in ISAs, split between myself and SO. MIx of investments, but always an index.

SIPP/WPP - Saving 1250p/m

206k in pensions. SO is in the civil service on an average pay pension(DB), which isn't included. SIPP is invested in an index

DB is a minimum of 34k P/A if we take it when SO is 68.

Cash Savings:

Try to keep to a minimum but circa 20k in emergency fund held in cash.

Debt:

Circa 10k of credit card debt, but it's 0% and savings are put aside to cover it.

Goal:

Retire at ideally 50 (but have had to push to 51). ISA to bridge until we get into the SIPP, then SIPP as a bridge to civil service pension/State pension.

Targeting circa 56k annual income from 51 as a joint income, reducing to 44k after 71.

The mortgage is large, but was a decision to maximise borrowing at the 0.94% rate, however by the time the term is up we could pay it off by selling the flat and cashing in the ISAs, but depending on the mortgage rate available, I'm not opposed to taking another 5 year term and letting the ISAs compound a little more.

Thoughts/Comments/Suggestions? Ideally don't want to downsize the house, but acknowledge it's a helpful plan B.

With the labour party adamant on ensuring parents who send their children to independent schools are penalised, this policy is unlikely to change. Will this impact your plans on FIRE or your children's education? Which is more important?
The attached article provides a good overview of independent schools and potential impact on them from raising VAT on private education.

Fortunately, my son is doing hos GCSEs this year, so my decision to send him to an independent school was made when labour looked like they had no chance of getting in Governement. It was the best decision we made and worth the 1 to 2 year delay in FIRE in doing so.

However, would i (and others) make the same decision now, that we made 5 years, with this looming tax penalty. For me probably not. Hence will it raise any additional revenue or is this the policy of envy and levelling down?

Independent schools: Proposed VAT changes - House of Lords Library (parliament.uk)

I have a LISA with Hargrieves Landsdown, £4K per year. Currently up 12% since I opened ~2 years ago. I have split equally between:

• Rathbone Global Opportunities
• Barings Europe Select
• FSSA Asia Focus

I have a Junior ISA for our daughter, ~£2.4K per year into Vanguard. Currently up 20% since I opened ~2 years ago. Equally split between

• FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF - Distributing (VEVE)
• U.S. Equity Index Fund - Accumulation

I picked funds for myself and my daughter using the same thinking. Best performing over previous 5 years and low charges. I know past performance isn’t a predictor for future but I needed something to go on.

For my LISA, Barings Europe Select (~10%) & FSSA Asia Focus (5%) are bringing down my average. The two holdings in my daughter’s Junior ISA are pretty similar.

I’m wondering if I should just move all mine into Rathbone Global Opportunities or two years is too early to tell? Do people have advice about selling and moving fund investments on a regular basis? I’m not inclined to keep up with market developments and not keep to switch fund too often, life is busy enough with family, work and everything else.

In a FIRE scenario where the employee is contributing a significant amount to their pension, if the employer shares their NI saving with the employee it can add up to to something pretty significant. I was thinking of moving jobs and it occurred to me that as not all employers do this then for FIRE devotees it should be counted as a great job perk if you get it. My contribution rates have fluctated over the years but I calculate that if I contribute 60% of my salary the shared NI benefit is worth 4% of my salary. When I was contributing 42% then it was worth about 3% of salary. This is based on my employer sharing half of the employer's contribution.

I tried to find some stats to see what percentage of employers offered employers NI sharing from salary sacrifice but couldn't find any figures. I wonder if anyone knows roughly what percentage of employers offer this perk?

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Hi all,

First of all, this subreddit has been hugely insightful, I've loved reading the success stories and gauging what I can in terms of Financial Independence and early retirement. I was raised in a poor, what some may even consider financially reckless, environment. Therefore, everything I have / have learnt, has been achieved by moving away from the "live for today, and hope for tomorrow" MO I was raised with.

For context, I am a 37yo male. I have a good income, c£164k per year. My wife-to-be (getting married in a month) has an income of c£33k (including commission). Our outgoings total about £4k per month, though, we're expecting this to drop in the next few years. We were late-comers to the housing ladder, only getting our first home ~2 years ago. I've recently enrolled in a Salary Sacrifice EV scheme as a way to mitigate the stupendous amount of tax I pay per year, so that will effect my income in about 3 months... at which point, I'm expecting my net income to drop by about £1k per month (though, a portion of the loss will be offset by the fact the car I currently lease can be returned in favour of the SS EV). With that drop, our total household income per month will be about £11k.

I should also note, the £4k per month outgoings also includes ~£1k for "float", I.e., money which isn't directly tied to bills, but to allow for luxuries, unexpected outgoings etc. This leaves us about ~£7k per month (which will drop to ~£6.5k per month in 3 months' time after the SS EV kicks in and the current lease is handed back) for savings, investments or anything else.

So, to my questions:

1. We're considering investing in holiday homes, particularly in Eastern Europe where they are relatively cheap, but also have a good potential for year-round occupancy. Ideally, we will save for the next few years to buy these outright, as opposed to an Interest-only mortgage. Our rationale: this will afford a secondary income stream, and an asset from which we can leverage to accrue further properties, thus expanding our portfolio and increasing the net income from said income stream. Do you agree that this would be a sensible investment? Is buying outright a preferable option than an I-O Mortgage, especially considering the additional time required to save, and, as a result, the "loss" of that income stream for the additional period we are saving? Does anyone have any experience they could lend to make sure we don't fall foul of any gotchas?

2. We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket, so are also considering investing in Stocks, Shares, and ISAs alongside the above venture. Can anyone offer any advice on how best to go about this? Is there any key considerations we should be aware of? Are there any gotchas, or caveats that we should try and avoid?

A key note is that, thus far, we have no investment portfolio (I have accrued ~£80k in Workplace Pension pots, scattered around various providers, but aside from this, the only "asset" we have is a mortgaged property).

In terms of retirement, I'm not sure when that will be, though, I'm hopeful for mid-50s. That being said, it's almost impossible to outline a particular age as everything is so foggy when it comes to how best to invest and get the returns to enable an early retirement.

Again, big thanks to this community for the expertise provided thus far, and further thanks for any input anyone can provide in relation to the above.

As per title, 34 year old wanting to ideally retire by 50 with my partner (ie, no pressure on her to work either), taking £30k a year. Not sure why I've decided on 30k, it's not based on anything specific but seems a reasonable amount for the pair of us to live on, assuming mortgage is paid off by 50. I haven't planned for this before now, so this is a rather recent realisation that early retirement for the pair of us may be possible.

Current position:

ISA - £14K

SIPP - £40k

NHS DB pension - £1,250

NI contributions - 19 full years

Mortgage - £190k, on track to be paid off in 13 years.

I've recently landed a pretty sweet job (not NHS) that provides me with a DB pension. If I do manage to retire at 50, I'll have accrued 16 years worth of contributions.

Those 16 years I've forecast will net me an income of £12,750 if I begin to withdraw it at 62.

Obviously between 50 and 62, I'll have to rely on ISA funds.

At 30k/year, assuming typical inflation of 2% I've estimated I need ~£400k in my ISA prior to retiring to see us through those 12 years.

I've also estimated that over the next ~27 years, my SIPP should grow to ~£135k assuming no further contributions and an annual growth rate of 4.5%. From this, I'd need to withdraw £17,250 per year between 62 and 68 to top my DB pension up to £30k.

This leaves me with ~£30k in my SIPP to use beyond 68.

My combined yearly income at 68 will consist of my £12,250 DB pension, my £1,250 NHS pension and the state pension of £11,500 for a total of £25,000

Assuming I live until 80, I need a further £30k along with the £30k left in my SIPP to supplement my income by a further £5k a year.

This means between now and 50, I need to accrue 430k in my ISA.

Assuming an inflation adjusted growth rate of 4.5% (is this optimistic?) per annum, I estimate I need to save ~£17,500 a year into my ISA to achieve this.

Before we get onto the topic of how achievable this is, I'd just like to ask if the above checks out, if I've made any unrealistic assumptions, and whether or not I've made any serious mathematical errors, or missed any obvious.

As for feasibility, my net pay per month going forward is £3,750. bills per month total ~£2k.

This leaves me with £21k per year. Is it reasonable to assume I can save the vast majority of this for this retirement goal, or am I being naive?

I haven't taken into consideration any pension income from my partner. She obviously will have her own income from private and state pension, but I've assumed £0.

Thanks for any insight.

Hi all,

Looking for advice on what to prioritise next or whether to stick with the current plan.

Savings as follows:

Workplace pension - £68k. Contributing about £1400 p/m (17% sal sacrifice, 8% employee)

S&S ISA - £12k. Contributing £500 p/m into global index fund

Student loan Plan 1 - £6k left

Mortgage - c.£380k mortgage, 6% until end of 2025 (overpaying 10% p/m)

Cash savings - £2k, I am aware I need to build slightly bigger emergency fund.

Salary £78k, 15% annual bonus most years.

Hope is to retire before workplace pension using the ISA as a bridge.

Kids likely (within 3-4yrs) and mortgage means my realistic goal is to retire or at least go part time by early 50s.

Want to make the most of my time in the next few years with more disposable income than I'd have with kids, especially making the most of the extra money once I pay off my student loan (approx 2yrs from now), to set me on the right path.

Any advice on what to change, or shall I just keep going and be patient?

Thanks

I posted this in UK investing earlier but maybe this is a more appropriate place.

I have various holdings (both ISA and not) at various brokers in the UK - e.g. iWeb, Vanguard, II. I'm considering a temporary move (~2 years) to the US and trying to understand the consequences. Vanguard are pretty clear on their website that you have to close your account if you move to the US.

Is this generally true, or will some of these allow me to keep the existing investments and accounts open? Ideally I'd like to have all of these investments untouched while I'm away but need to be sure there's somewhere that will actually allow me to do that!

Caught between wanting to do a thing, and not wanting to ruin longer-term FIRE plans; the US treatment of the funds we can invest in here is insane.

Mother in law recently inherited somewhere in the region of £250k cash. She currently lives a baristaFIRE lifestyle due to being a few years away from accessing pension pot (she’s 54). Mortgage free, all kids have grown up and flown the nest, so all of her (and husbands) very modest income is focussed on paying the standard bills plus the occasional low cost holiday or date nights. They have no other savings of note, and have not managed to be financially savvy at all throughout their lives. As I said she has recently inherited circa 250k and has reached out to me to ask what to do. Naturally very risk adverse, and not at all business savvy so any sort of active investment is out of the question. I’ve explained the best thing to do is to set up a brokerage account and purchase some sort of index/tracker, but I thought I’d tap into the collective wisdom to see who knows of any UK brokerage app/acct that would suit a relatively financially illiterate boomer - that I could help set up with her over FaceTime as I live some hours away.

Thanks in advance!

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/inheritance-uk-average-no-savings-will-2ttr72rcj

TLDR: Work out based on life expectancy how much you’ll need to live the life you want plus any gifts you want to give to family. A sensible article which still somewhat demonises FIRE. Closest I’ve seen the mainstream media come to endorsing being sensible with money.

“”

Inheritance is a hot topic. Many parents and grandparents feel that leaving something for their family and friends is essential — others are striving for the opposite. Instead of living sensibly and bequeathing as much as possible to younger generations, followers of more hedonistic movements are pledging to spend it all and die with as close to nothing in the bank as possible. James Beckett read about the concept four years ago in Bill Perkins’s book Die with Zero, in which the millionaire hedge fund manager and poker player from New Jersey says that instead of prioritising saving, people should live as full a life as they can while they are young.

“It sounded financially irresponsible at first, but once you get to the end of the book you realise that the way everyone is living their lives is ludicrous,” said Beckett, 33, who lives in York. “I don’t expect to die literally with my last penny. It’s more about rallying against this idea that you need to save and invest your whole life and not spend any money.”

Change of plan Beckett used to live a frugal life. He saved half of his salary each month, invested his full £20,000 Isa allowance through the investment firm Vanguard, and saved regular amounts into a pension. By the time he was 29 he had more than £190,000 saved and was on track to be able to retire in his early forties.

After reading Perkins’s book he has completely changed his plan. “I’m not throwing everything I’ve learnt about saving and investing out the window, but I don’t want to be saving 80 per cent of my income at the detriment of enjoying myself,” Beckett said. “I want to experience life while I can. My girlfriend and I want to travel, do things with friends and make the most of life while we are still young and healthy.”

Life should not be about accumulating wealth, Perkins writes, it should be about investing in memorable experiences — some of which you probably shouldn’t put off until old age. It’s certainly easier to travel the world in your thirties than in your seventies, for instance. He suggests that instead of spending your working life saving as much as possible and waiting until retirement to enjoy the fruits of your labour, it makes more sense to enjoy yourself while you are young while still saving, then hit the brakes on saving when your earnings have peaked, which is generally in your late forties or early fifties.

Die with Zero is not about being selfish with your cash, Perkins insists. He advocates giving to loved ones and charitable causes but doing it while you are alive and you can see your money being put to good use.

If you are going to make this work, you need to start planning sooner rather than later. “Implementing this philosophy is challenging and poses a risk of financial insecurity if not meticulously planned,” said Megan Rimmer from the wealth manager Quilter Cheviot.

What you need to know Planning to die with nothing in your bank account isn’t easy. The idea is that you save and invest as much as you can (while enjoying life) until your net worth peaks. This is likely to be well before you retire, possibly in your late forties or early fifties. At this point you stop saving and start spending. So dying with zero relies on knowing two key things that are nigh on impossible to be sure of: when your earnings are at their peak and when you will die.

People aged 47 had the highest average wage in the UK in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, this earnings peak is being hit increasingly later in life — in 2018, 40-year-olds had the highest average wage — so you may want to add a few years to 47 if you think you are not quite there yet.

Then there is the death question. A 40-year-old man today can expect to live until 84, according to the ONS life expectancy calculator, and has a one in four chance of reaching 94. A 40-year-old woman has a typical life expectancy of 87, with a one in four chance of living to 96.

Perkins suggests drawing a timeline of your life from now until death, splitting it into “time buckets” of five to ten years. List all the experiences you want to have (think: running a marathon, hiking the Himalayas or dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant) and drop them into the relevant time bucket. While you are doing all this, don’t think about money, Perkins says. “Money at this point is just a distraction from the overall goal, which is to envision what you want your life to be like.”

How much will you need? Once you have settled on your priorities you can start to think about how you will fund the goals in your time buckets. Don’t forget to factor inflation into your plans — this pushes up the cost of living, and so affects the amount you will need to save. After coming up with your wish list, Perkins says, you need to calculate your “survival threshold” — the amount you will need to have as a bare minimum once you stop saving and start spending. You should multiply your annual expenses by the number of years longer you expect to live, then multiply that by 0.7. So, if you are 40, expect to live to 90 and plan to spend £40,000 a year, your survival threshold is 0.7 x 40,000 x 50, which equals £1.4 million.

When planning how to meet your spending goals, remember that your spending habits will change at different life stages. And remember to account for inflation.

Spend it now, feel the benefit Beckett said he is saving less of his money for a rainy retirement day and focusing more on the here and now. Last year he and his girlfriend, Amy, 30, upgraded their seats to business class on a flight to Mexico. Because he was spending more on the things he wanted to do he saved £11,000 into his Isa that year — half the amount he used to put aside.

“Nowadays I save closer to 30 per cent of my income, rather than 50 per cent as before, but it varies — it’s not a hard and fast rule I hold myself too. That’s part of the die with zero philosophy, invest in life experiences where it makes sense. A set amount might prevent me doing that.” He is keen to give away some of his wealth rather than passing it on when he dies. Gifts made in your lifetime are not subject to inheritance tax as long as you live for seven years after the gift was made. This includes money, jewellery and property. You can give away up to £3,000 each year tax-free, and can give £5,000 to a child who is getting married or starting a civil partnership, £2,500 to a grandchild or great-grandchild, and £1,000 to any other person. As well as this, with the small gift allowance you can give £250 per person to as many people as you want, as long as you haven’t used another allowance on those people.

Beckett has opened a stocks and shares Junior Isa for his niece, and plans to do the same for his children, if he has them. You can pay £9,000 a year into a Junior Isa and £2,880 into a Junior self-invested personal pension (Sipp) each tax year. The Junior Isa cannot be accessed until the child is 18 and a Junior Sipp is locked up until 55; that will go up to 57 by 2028.

“Giving money away is something I really want to do,” he said. “Why would you want to give the biggest gift you’ll ever give to someone when you’re dead and not even get the satisfaction of seeing them prosper with it?”

The savings plan Taking professional advice could be a good starting point if you are unsure where to start with your budgeting and planning. Make use of your Isa allowances, because anything you save in an Isa is tax-free for life, and consider investing in the stock market, where returns are generally higher than on cash savings.

If one of your goals is to hike along the Inca Trail and see Machu Picchu in Peru, you will need to save about £2,720 for a package holiday for two, so put aside £110 a month in the Plum Cash Isa for the next 24 months where it will earn 5.17 per cent interest.

Increase the amount you save whenever you get a pay rise, and take advantage of your workplace pension scheme. Not only do you get tax relief on your contributions, your employer will pay into your pension, helping to boost your pot. Bear in mind that you will not be able to access your pot until you are 55 (rising to 57 from 2028).

Think about when you want to stop working, and how much money you will then need for day-to-day living. A single person needs a post-tax income of about £31,300 a year for a moderate standard of living in retirement, according to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, and a couple need £43,100 a year between them. The new full state pension pays about £11,500 a year, but you will not get this until you are at least 67. To qualify for the full amount you need 35 years of national insurance contributions — you can find out if you are on track using the government’s state pension forecast.

Your health is an important consideration and another big unknown. It costs an average of £949 a week to stay in a residential care home, and £1,267 a week to stay in a nursing home, according to the healthcare analyst LaingBuisson. If you have run your assets down to zero in line with Perkins’s plan, the state will pick up the bill for the care you need, but you may want to set aside money to give yourself more choice.

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Hello everyone

I have just hit a £100k investment portfolio and looking to ensure I am well diversified across:

1. Global index funds and ETFs to reduce performance risks while minimising fees
2. Brokers/Accounts to maximise my FSCS cover (up to £85k per account I have)

Currently, I invest in my Stocks and Shares ISA with Hargreaves Lansdown into Global ETFs (mainly using Invesco FTSE All-World and Vanguard FTSE All-World). I also have my SIPP and my sons Junior S&S ISA with HL. Now that we are allowed to open and pay into more than 1 stocks and shares ISA in any given tax year, I am considering opening an account directly with Vanguard and starting paying into the FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund where the charge is 0.24% a year instead of my HL S&S ISA.

My questions are:

1. Do you think this is worth opening a Vanguard account to split where my money is held and my investments? My understanding is that on HL I only need to pay the management fee + the HL annual charge which is capped at £45... so in terms of charges I am only really paying an extra £45 a year having multiple accounts and funds? If i have misunderstood this please let me know.

2. Is spreading my investments like this (for example across Invesco + Vanguard on HL for my ETF's and then directly with Vanguard for my Index Fund) mean I am reducing risk and increasing coverage for FSCS as I am covered up to £85k in multiple accounts rather than just 1? Or have I misunderstood this?

Really appreciate the advice/support!

M25, currently saving £450 a month into Lifetime ISA & S&S ISA. Would it be worth saving into my SIPP also? It currently just sits there with no contributions and has a past workplace pension in it.

Anyone done this ie 6 figures into the stock market in a 1 year period? Risky? Due to potential large drop in the market? Or risky part investing and potentially missing out on gains?

Investment timeline 30+ years

So I'm soon to exchange contracts for a flat purchase, and need to raise ~£37k to do so. I have this in a brokerage account, and also in an ISA.

My general approach with any of this is to sell the brokerage account so as to let the ISA money grow free of tax, good times. But with the amount I need to see, I'm seeing that my CGT due would be almost £7k, which is.. Less fun.

It's got me thinking, should I be considering liquidating some of my ISA here? Yes I "lose" some of my allowance, but what is that for except to help me avoid paying tax, such as in this situation? Not sure if I'm being logical here. My thought would be to sell from the brokerage up to £3k gain to get my CGT allowance, then the rest from the ISA.

In addition, I'm pretty close to retirement, just a couple of years left. Once I retire, I'll be a basic rate tax payer, so I'll only pay 10% on gains, rather than 20%, and that's preferable as I'll pull from my brokerage accounts early on in the retirement to get my funds.

So am I missing some thought processes here, or is selling from my ISA reasonable for this?

Hi, boring question sorry. Anyone’s workplace pension with standard life? And if so, what fund are you invested in? - I’m relatively new to fire and over the last 6 years the growth on my pension pot has been about £11k (fluctuating between 9-12k) which seems pretty poor on £40k of deposits. Currently in Sustainable Multi Asset Universal SLP (a lifestyle profile) but I have at least 25 years to FIRE so plenty of time.

I want to switch to a global tracker, but the options seem quite limited, so I’m eyeing up the HSBC islamic global equity fund. Any thing better out there?

Thanks in advance.

I have recently started taking my Pension a little bit more seriously and paying into it, I am currently 27 and pay 5% of my salary which my company match, I also put around 8% into a stocks and shares ISA.

I have a question regarding Aviva Pesion, I have already changed from the deafault as I wanted to invest heavily in the US market. I have invested in the below.

Av MyM Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Index 90% (0.29% charge)

Av MyM BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity (Aquila C) 5% (0.55% charge)

Av MyM BlackRock UK Equity Index Tracker 5% (0.37% charge).

Am I silly having 3 different funds that I am being charged for on all 3? I did have the below previously but I currently invest in the vanguard global all cap so changed my pension funds to the below.

Av MyM BlackRock World ex UK Equity Index Tracker 90% (0.29%)

Av MyM BlackRock UK Equity Index Tracker 5% (0.29%)

Av MyM BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity (Aquila C) 5% (0.55%)

Am I being counter productive going for the ETF's with hire charges?

What are some of your favourite cheap places in the UK to live? Do houses in good areas even exist anymore for £150k? Help speed up FIRE for me by recommending a cheap city to reside in (open to anywhere).

Thanks.

As the title says, for those who have moved to the Middle East for that FIRE acceleration and tax free income. What is your investment strategy while abroad? Being unable to invest in ISAs do you just invest in GIAs? Save the cash to put into ISAs when you move back to the UK? Interested to hear your thoughts?

Hi.

I have around £50k in a SIPP and £30k in Stocks ISA. They are both all in Invesco EQQQ. I also have around £10k in my business account making 4.33% cash. I need to keep a decent amount of cash to pay quarterly VAT. I am a software contractor via a limited company making £10k-12k gross monthly depending on my day rate. I paid off my student loan and have no debt other than monthly credit card I clear in full each month. I don't own a property.

My fixed expenses are around £3.5k in London (after tax income £6.5k-£7.5k). This includes paying for my ex and 1.5 year old. I have a £230 monthly car lease that expires in a little over a year.

My main goal this year is to get as close to maxing my £60k pension while balancing my kid's quality of life. The £3.5k monthly is already quite optimised. The only way I can reduce it is when my car lease expires.

Once I get around £200k-250k in my SIPP (3-4 years?) I will switch to ISA and regular savings and buy a simple house/apartment in cash for around £200k. I prefer not to get a mortgage although I am ironically paying my ex's until our kid can go to school.

Should I be doing anything differently?

Here is the conundrum, 52, mortgage paid off (950k house in London which I don't want / can't downsize)

Current role is likely under threat, not confirmed. Getting a similar role is looking tough and I don't know if I can face it.

• 4% SWR is 36k
• 5% SWR is 45k

The lowest I can get my expenses down to is ~52k

Original plan was to work 2 or 3 more years which would get me to 1.2m give or take.

All the options I can see suck or have major issues, working part time, lowering salary expectations, retiring on less

Any pearls of wisdom?

PS I know I am lucky, yes I work in IT, yes it's a spreadsheet, yes it's 100% equities

https://i.imgur.com/EhV83RH.png

I completed my first university degree in 2021 which was covered by tuition + maintenance loan from SFE.

I am due to start a new job and will be earning enough to put away £1500 every month. I have also been given an unconditional offer to study Osteopathy part-time over 4 years. I will be taking out a loan for tuition fees and am also tempted to use a maintenance loan for investing more in my Vanguard stocks and down payment for my first home.

My first student loan is Plan 2 and the one I will be taking out will be Plan 5 (7.8% interest on both).

Is it worth taking out a maintenance loan or will interest accumulate dramatically over 10 years?

I’ve just learnt about this and find it a super goal to try to achieve. Please assess my chances.

Age: 40 (hubby 45 and 2 primary school age kids)

Debts: 1 flat : joint mortgage of £400k 1 BTL: mortgage of £180k No car as we live in london

My pensions: £480k Hubby pensions: £110k

ISAs: total £400k

Annual gross base income: Mine £130k + rental £30k Hubby: £100k

Net after tax and pensions probably £120k total

Spanner in the works: want to put both kids through private secondary school in London 😓 (£50k annually poor two kids?)

Can we still do this? We have term life insurance policies so the only reason I’m saving is to afford the private school in case one person is made redundant etc.

Can we still FIRE or do I have a chance of FIRE only if I don’t send kids to private secondary school?

I understand the general consensus is to SIPP in to a Global Equity index fund like VWRP which I am looking into but I just wanted to understand if my current fees are norm or excessive if someonone can assist with comparisons...

Currently in SW Workplace pension has 0.19% admin charge and fund charge of 10%.

Also I am unsure what SW PLC PP ONE REINSURED represents, the fund has 31% in this, the rest is split as follows:

25% UK Equity

21% US Equity

20% Europe

2% APAC

I posted recently about my potential rebalance and was shred to pieces so I'm going to elaborate on a few more details, most of the criticism was fair and I'm trying to alter my approach but I felt a few were not fair however I didn't provide enough details so here goes. 33 years old martial arts fighter and coach hoping work reduced hours by the time I am 45+

I started in around 2017, Contributions were:

2018 ISA 20,000
2019 ISA 20,000
2020 ISA 9,100
2021 ISA 13,200
2022 ISA 5,500
2023 ISA 600
2024 ISA 2000
Total £68,400

Value Today £101,000

Portfolio is now 100k as of this morning, the reason for the small drop off between 2021 and 2023 without going in too to much details was just pure depression. I am self employed so I essentially just stopped earning as much during those years and this year I've decided to book my ideas up

I basically did no tinkering from 2017 to 2021

Fundsmith

SMT

7IAM Adventurous Fund

Baillie Gifford American

Vanguard Life Strat 100%

I foolishly tinkered in 2022, trying to switch from funds to etfs and IT's as I am with Hargreaves Lansdown

I kept Fundsmith SMT and sold the rest, I sold Baillie Gifford at a massive profit but then bought the equivalent in the IT USA version (bad move in hindsight) but my thinking was I liked the fund (which I still do) but I wanted the IT for less fees. I used some of the profits from the fund sale to buy EWI. Same situations as BGUSA just terrible timing and they are my only two red on the portfolio but the fund would of gone massively anyway so it doesn't really matter tbh.

I put the rest in ETFs

Mainly VUSA (NO VUAG), VWRP, EQSG, SSIT, HRI,

Then I bought some thematic ETFs, which are doing okay but, I've made my portfolio so complicated right now with a lot of overlap and what not.

So I'm looking to really try and condense my portfolio and also rebalance because SMT and Fundsmith are so high now as I have literally not touched them for years.

I'm toying with going back to the original funds I had for simplicity but I really want to employ a core satellite approach, and have written a short reason why as one of the posters previously stated to look at my portfolio and ask justify to my self why

70% Core
40% S+P VUAG
10% S+P Quality Factor UBC99 - Quality Factor compares well in terms of low correlation with small cap (as can be seen on MSCI website on risk/return/key exposures)
10% S+P Small Cap ETF - As mentioned above
10% Wisdom Tree USA Quality Div Growth - Quality Factor DGRG

or essentially the same thinking as above but global

70% Core
40% SWDA
10% iShares Core World - Quality Factor
10% World Small Cap ETF
10% Wisdom Tree World Quality Div Growth -GGRG

Core would be something like (not thought about it too deeply yet but generally jist)

10% Tech

10% Healthcare

10% Consumer Staples

but I'm more interested in getting my Core down and being on the right track and to avoid disaster!

Any advice, am I at least on the right idea in terms of thinking or am I totally out of my depth here. Really open to criticism but also keen to hear if what I've said is just totally whacky and not at all in line with smart investing because the way I was shred to pieces has really made me think I have no clue what I'm doing yet I see the results and so the cognitive dissonance is running strong, perhaps was I lucky to get to this point?

Kind Regards!