Long time lurker, first time poster just looking for some advice/ feedback/ tips on how I'm doing so far. 42, and hoping to retire at around 56-58 if I'm lucky. All figures below are approx..

Currently have 3 pension pots from various jobs: Scottish Widows - active contributions of £1100 (10% personal and 7% employee). Total pot of £63,500 Spread evenly across these funds: SW Pension Portfolio One CS1 SW Pension Portfolio Three CS1 SW Premier Pension Portfolio 1 CS1

Aviva Total pot of £52,000 All invested in "Aviva Pensions Vanguard US Equity Index S6" (Recently swapped into this at beginning of this year)

Standard Life Total pot of £169,000 All invested in "SL BlackRock Managed (50:50) Global Equity Pension"

Stocks & Shares ISA in Vanguard - I try to contribute about £900 a month taken out soon after pay day, but I don't religiously stick to this (all depends on spending and credit bills especially around Christmas time etc) but I'd say I'm contributing about £9000 a year. Current holdings and weightings are : 45% - LifeStrategy 80% Equity Fund - Accumulation - £18,000 40% - U.S. Equity Index Fund - Accumulation - £16,000 15% - FTSE 100 Index Unit Trust Accumulation - £7,500

Other investments are small amount in crypto that's around $12,000.

House mortgage of £220,000 with rough house valuation of £440,000. Mortgage per month around £1,000

Other than mortgage I don't have any major credit card bills or loans. At end of each month I try to have very little left in my current account (i.e any remaining funds just prior to pay day are either sent to clear excess credit card, or put as an ad hoc payment into vanguard if I can)

The pension fund selections I'm not overly happy with - I think I could simplify my SW pensions to a single well performing global equity fund (I just need to find one that's available on my account for selection), and I think the SL fund could also be switched out for one that possibly has a higher return but I'm yet to research this. Similarly the vanguard funds - I've tried to diversify by having a bit of US and some UK, but not quite sure whether I should ditch the Life strategy and split it between US and UK funds instead. Any thoughts on any of this would be welcome!

At the moment I'm struggling with the idea of whether I'm on track or doing well with regards to my savings size and overall pension pot size for my age and for someone who roughly wants to retire just before 60ish. I've tried using the simplistic Retirement Planner tools on Aviva and it says that with my current pots retiring at 58 should give me my desired income and enough to clear mortgage etc. but I feel the need to better track it/compare it somehow. e.g this calendar year I calculated that my overall pension pot grew by 13.5%, but 5.5% of that growth would have come from my monthly contributions, so trying to figure out if the remaining 7% growth is good market performance or not.. maybe I've got the thought process wrong here or something but no idea how to track it. Any advice would be great - thanks for reading!

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to invest at least £20,000 per year, hopefully more. I currently have a £12k salary + dividends income.

I’m debating between two approaches and could use some advice:

1.	Max out my ISA for tax-free gains in the future, or

2.	Invest £9,600 in a SIPP, get £2,400 tax relief added, and put the remaining amount into my ISA.

The long-term appeal of an ISA is that gains are tax-free, but with a SIPP, I get immediate tax relief and the possibility of compounding more over time (though the money’s locked until later). The SIPP approach offsets large portion of what actually would go to the tax office otherwise.

Which approach would you recommend? Has anyone faced a similar situation?

34M here.

Thanks in advance!

Just want to say thank you to everyone in this community. I’d never heard of FIRE until stumbling across it a few weeks ago.

I’m 46M with a wife and two kids. Working in london. Sold my business 4 years ago and have been on autopilot helping them grow more and more.

I just achieved a secondary sale to PE and will therefore have £4.5m of assets in sipp/isa and funds.

From reading this I’ve just realised that at a SWR of 4% I could have £180k a year to live on.

My wife is really worried and doesn’t believe I can retire. But neither can I really.

I have the potential of another 4m if I stay another 4 years. But I can easily live on £180k annual. I have no mortgage or bills.

So what should I do. Stay and get fatter. Or am I fat already? Will I really be able to retire on SWR of 4% and it lasts for my whole life? Seems just too good to be true!!!

Also how much tax can I expect to have to pay on all this when I draw it down? I have

• 380k in pensions
• 490k in ISA
• 3.7m in funds VUSD etc.

Is there a method to draw down more tax efficiently?

I have Scottish Widows workplace pension and I'm trying to work out if I'd be better transferring every month to another provider with a better choice of funds (after my deposit gets the company matching...they only match if I use SW) but i think both of my funds are showing 23% annual growth...so I cant understand why I'd move to a vanguard for example

anyway, from Feb 2024 to Feb 2025 my numbers are
starting: £47338
deposits: £32556 this included a 1 time £20k deposit
end value: £99780

If I do ( (£99780 - £32556) - £47338) / £47338 aka (End value - deductions) - starting / starting
I get about a 40% growth....am I going mad, did I really get a 40% increase??! my 2 funds show 23% increase on both of them.

I deposit £780pcm
and split between SW SSGA North America Equity CS8 and Scottish Widows North American CS8

I'm 51, I've no ISA just this pension...I have a rental that I use the income to overpay my mortgage and will pay my main one off in 4 yeas and then that rental will give me about £500pcm income

thanks

Should we buy a joint house now by selling the two properties we individually purchased before marriage, or is it better to wait and save more to buy without selling them? Considering that both properties are currently let and we are high-rate taxpayers, what are the stamp duty implications of each option, including any additional costs or tax benefits?

Not sure if I need advice or just to get things off my chest, my FIRE plans are well on track and if I could just power on in my current job another 3 years or so I could hopefully retire at ~45yo.

But I am utterly hating my current job, I've not enjoyed it for a few years now but things have just got worse since my boss retired last year. I've been stuck with more crap and being less hands on than I'd like in my tech role. My non techy SVP is making terrible decisions, ignoring my professional opinion, micromanaging me and my team and constantly putting short term wins at the expense of longer term plans and profit.

I've been at my company over 16 years going from Junior to Director level. I think I'm totally burnt out, I've reduced my working hours to 4 days a week but I hate every meeting and work is just constantly on my mind in some way, leaving me angry and effecting my sleep.

I'm now wondering if I've just been so focused on FIRE the last few years not because I want to retire early but just to get away from this job.

I'm thinking I just have to walk from this job now, have a 6+ month break and then decide what to do next. Does it really matter if I have to work a few years longer on the assumption I end up having to take a lower paid job?

My friends and family think I've gone mad, but what's the point in building up a huge savings pot to retire early if you can't dip into it to save your sanity and have a career switch without having another job already lined up?

Would love any advice from others that have gone through similar, whether it was a wise move or not?

I've considered asking for a 6 month sabbatical, but honestly after 16 years I think it's probably just worth a change of scenery and I wouldn't come back even once I'm recovered.

Hi All,

I've (32M) followed this subreddit for about a month now and I am very happy for all those who have had success and I wanted some advice from you guys and what I should do.

I am currently a teacher earning 40k a year. I am currently just living paycheck to paycheck. I have the potential to free up £1200pm after i pay off my debt.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting off?

I’m amazed nobody has asked this yet, or if it has been posted and I’ve missed the post, but is anyone doing anything differently with their FIRE planning in light of the current dumpster fire that is America?

For example, I have a few shares in key US companies. Morally I am struggling with having them, added to which I really don’t know the impact of MAGA on the share value, long or short term.

I’d love to read some other perspectives.

Hi all

I was looking at a friends dad's net worth data and it was quite interesting. They are around 60 years old and have the following assets, and were unsure whether they should be getting a FA / FI in preparation for retirement.

The husband is almost in a semi-retirement, taking on contracting roles for X months and then taking a break.

Property Assets:

• House paid off - c. 1.1m value
• 1 investment property paid off - rental income c. 1500 (property worth around 300k)
• 1 investment property interest only mortgage - rent income c. 1500 but probably 600 after mortgage (property worth around 300k)

Cash Assets:

• Around 150k cash split between different savings accounts, cash ISAs etc.
• The husband will get a full state pension when the time comes, but the wife will only be partial

Investment Assets:

• Around 200k in S&S ISA (majority invested in Vanguard FTSE Developed)
• Around 200k in GIA / stock option from employer
• Around 600k in DC pension

Net Worth:

• Retirement: 600k
• Cash: 150k
• Investments (ISA): 200k
• Investments (non-ISA): 200k
• Total: c. £1.1m

They would be looking to gift around £100k to one of their children in the next couple years for deposit on a property.

Firstly I was blown away by these figures, as someone so far away from this, but it seems a great position to be in.

Do you think this situation warrants speaking to a financial planner? Immediately I feel those GIAs should be transitioned to ISAs but I'm sure there is more!!

Thanks in advance!

We're (both 30) very fortunate to be in a position where I can max both mine and my wife's ISA allowances, as well as my pension allowance every year. We would like to retire between 50-55.

I'm an additional rate taxpayer with 200k already in my pension and it's likely my withdrawals are going to be in the higher tax rate band. My spouse on the other hand only earns 18k/year, has only 5k in her pension, and is still unsure whether she will return back to work after maternity leave (would be 3 days a week at most)

Would it make sense to only put 16k in her S&S ISA, and put 4k in a LISA for the top-up instead of just putting all 20k in her S&S ISA?

I'm also wondering whether it's worth making a SIPP for her and putting some money in that every year to make sure we don't waste her tax free allowance, which her ISA/LISA wouldn't count towards

In a scenario where I want to spend £35,000 a year, what assumptions are you using for the drawdown to 57 (or 60) until you have access to your pension?

My initial thoughts were:

1. keep as much invested in possible, with an assumed growth rate of 6%
2. transfer £70k (or two years into safer assets (bonds) for 3/4% return)
3. deducted from the month opening value £2,916 (35k /12)

I had originally forecasted triggering the pension bridge at a point that my non-oension funds could support my retired lifestyle at 4% a year. But realised this is delaying my FIRE date by 4-5 years as it only needs to last till 57.

How do you forecast the date assuming you trigger FIRE earlier, assuming I still want to take £2,916 a month.

I am currently putting 5k pcm into a GIA as my ISA is already maxed out. When we hit the new tax year should I….

A. Transfer 20k from the GIA to ISA

Or

B. Switch the PCM payment to the ISA for 4 months?

Or

C. Something else.

Things to consider

• both GIA and ISA are with Vanguard. So I think fees are non existent?
• CGT. With a single 20k transfer from GIA do I risk breaching the CGT threshold?
• I have an ISA with Nutmeg with 47k in that I don’t see the point in moving because of transfer fees etc.

Hi all,

Quick background - 48 years old NHS worker, married with 1 child (aged 3).

Salary currently £53755 which will be going up to £60504 in October.

Wife works part-time and earns around £8k.

Before we got married both my wife and myself owned a property each, once we got married we decided to keep both properties and buy a 'family home' for ourselves which we did. Wife then received a £40k inheritance after which we bought another house in auction for £29k and after renovation total cost was £35k. So overall properties as follows:

'Family Home' - bought for £165k and now valued £350k (bought near bottom of price crash here in NI)

Rental 1 - bought for £126k and now valued around £120k (bought prior to price crash) - rental income £572 pm

Rental 2 - bought for £55k and now valued at £75k - rental income £425 pm

Rental 3 - bought for £35k (including renovation) and now valued £100k - rental income £707 pm

Total rental income: £1704 pm (£1022 pm after tax)

Total income - Salary £3030 (after tax, NI and pension) + Rental £1022 = £4052 pm

Over the past 5 years we have aggressively overpaid the mortgages down from a total of £267k in Jan 2020 to a total of £120k in Jan 2025.

I am in the fortunate position of having bought some bitcoin back in 2014 - I spent £1000 in total.

I decided to sell almost half of my bitcoin last month and after tax I received £126900 from the sale.

I have now paid off the mortgages on 'Family Home', Rental 1 and Rental 3 and paid off over half the mortgage on Rental 2 leaving us with an outstanding mortgage total of £18k. I also bought my wife a new(ish) car to replace the one she has been driving for the past 10 years.

So here is what I plan to do for the next 10 years:

Every month put £1000 into savings and £1667 into investment ISA and overpay the last mortgage by £500 per month.

Do this for 4 years then sell Rental 1 and then use the proceeds to fill my ISA allocation and my wife's ISA allocation for around 3 years (£40k per year) and I'd up my savings over those 3 years from £10k per year to £20k per year - at this stage I will be 55 years old.

That would hopefully leave us in the following situation:

Savings - around £100k

Saving and investment ISA - £200k

At this point I would retire and then sell Rental 2 and then for the next two years use the proceeds from that sale to further increase our saving and investment ISA pot by (roughly) £40k for 2 years (using both our allowances) which would give us an overall ISA pot at aged 57 of £280k.

We would keep Rental 3 to help us keep ticking along and then hope to live off that plus the savings and ISA return until aged 68 at which point I can draw upon the State Pension.

Our outgoings are fairly minimal now with most of the mortgages gone - I estimate for us to pay all bills, maintain 2 cars, afford a holiday or two, we would need around £14k per year as a minimum just to get by - obviously we would be aiming for more than that - ideally £25-30k per year if possible to have a decent lifestyle.

That's my plan - by the way I still have a decent amount of bitcoin as well but I don't tend to use that in any calculations - it's just there as a bonus really (albeit a big one) and I'd hope to one day be able to buy us an apartment in Spain over the next 4/5 years with that all being well.

Feel free to roast the plan - need to know if this sounds doable to you guys and am open to all suggestions.

As subject I've got £2000 I can invest a month. Any suggestions on where to put it and know I won't want to access any of it for at least 15 years.

Hi guys,

I found the community about a year ago and it’s been immensely useful. I have used the search function and googled, but I haven’t found the answers to my questions. I wondered if the community could help.

With regard to tax relief on pensions, I understand that I can contribute X amount to my pension (in this case it would be a SIPP), and the government will add 20%. I can then claim a further 20% via self-assessment.

What however does this mean in practice?

I have a childcare account with the government to pay for kids’ nursery. When I put £1000 in that account, the government then adds £200 (20% - limited to £500 per quarter). It usually appears within one or two days.

Is this then how it works with the 20% relief on the SIPP? A pension saver adds X amount, and within a couple of days, HMRC magically adds 20% of that sum to the individual SIPP?

If not - and it seems strange to think it would work like that because the account is private, so how would the government know? - then how exactly does the 20% get added?

For the 20% via self-assessment - again, how is this added? I complete my return in the January following the end of the tax year, state that I have put X amount in my pension - and then what? The government transfers a sum to my account? Or my subsequently salary is then reduced in tax to give the equivalent relief of 20% of what I paid? Or something else entirely?

Finally - I wonder if there is something I am missing here. If the government do indeed add 40% sums to what is contributed (and not simply give a education on future tax - that is one of the questions I am unsure about, as per the above), then what prevents a taxpayer saving money for several years as a basic rate taxpayer paying 20%, waiting till he or she gets to the higher rate threshold, and then putting it into a SIPP and getting 40% relief?

If this were possible, wouldn’t the government be providing more money than had ever been taken in tax?

It seems counter intuitive to think someone could save £60k while paying 20% on it (say £12k), get a better job and put it in a SIPP and claim £24k from the government for this?

In my mind it would seem more sensible to set a limit at least equal to the amount of tax paid at the higher rate. But nothing o have found online suggests such a limit is in place.

I ask because I have about £100k saved in my ISA. I should keep about £50k in case of redundancy etc, but the rest can be safely locked away (I am early 40s, and 57 is not not too far away). Since both ISA and SIPP are invested in VUAG (I am aware of concentration risk, but prepared to accept it), it seems almost like I am missing a trick by not sticking X amount from the ISA and getting 40% on it.

Another thing to consider - I may take a job in Continental Europe this year. If possibilities are limited by the need to be a UK tax payer to claim relief / get the bonus, then that suggests to me that I might be better off doing this this tax year (before 5 April) when I am guaranteed to be a 40% taxpayer, and not next tax year when (if say I left in August) I might have paid 40% pro rata but not reach the higher income threshold over the entirety of the year.

I am sorry if the questions appear basic to this with more knowledge, but I have searched to no avail and the answers elude me.

If anyone could shed any light about how the extra is added / money is returned look like in practice, and if there are any limits (amount of tax paid? requirement it continue to be higher tax payer?) I would be very very grateful.

I’ll be 47 this year, 2 young kids 10/7. Spouse is 48. We are definitely FI, more than enough to retire now with a 3% withdrawal not including DB pension which I could take from 50. We see all income and savings as shared, no his and hers, and have used all tax shelters optimally.

But my spouse started a job last year after being a SAHP for 10 years. It’s a good and rewarding job and I’m proud of her. We pay her entire salary into her SIPP although it’s not higher rate. My job pays well and now I’m FI I ignore most of the shitty bits and don’t stress.

Do you just know when it’s the right time to retire? I think 55 seems rational, I don’t want to risk retiring much later and randomly dying without a chance to enjoy it. Have seen 5 colleagues die at 60, 2 who had recently retired.

Seems premature to retire with the kids in school, seeing as we would still be limited in travelling during school holidays mostly.

If I earn £37000 a year and put that full amount in my sipp, will I get tax relief on all of it or will I have to deduct my personal tax allowance?

This community has given me a lot of inspiration and I wanted to write something after reaching this milestone. I hope my experience is a reflection of what is realistically achievable. I’ve had no inheritance, have never earned 6figures, live in a high COL area (London) and didn’t start at 15! Breakdown below:

32, M - Net Worth £101100 Cash & Equivalents - £8700 Pension - £21300 ISAs - £42400 (mostly ETF, ~6k single stocks) Crypto - £7200 P2P Lending - £12000 Use Assets - £9500 (Car owned outright) Debt - £0

I spent most of my early 20’s flipping from extreme FIRE (ultimate penny pinching) to extreme YOLO (no job, partying, travelling, debt). So I’d say my journey from £0 started at age 26. I’ve worked my way up in hospitality which has very low barriers to entry. By 26 I was earning around £40k and over the years thats increased to £85k.

I could have reached this faster. More recently I’ve made a real effort to balance the quest for FI with living now. The extreme frugality was unsustainable for me so I make a point to enjoy spending on my money dials, health, food and travel. With the salary increased I can do this and still hit a 35-40% saving rate. I also hit a major setback when I moved country just before Covid and ended up living for 6months locked down in a new city with no income. That set me back ~£15k in an early stage, not to mention the opportunity cost of that earning time. It was also more mentally demoralising than I expected as after two years of graft and saving I was back to square 1.

Anyone who is still grinding out their first £10k and reading these posts as I was. It’s definitely worth it.. head down, keep going x

Hi all, a turn of events later and I realise really how unpredictable things can get in life. My wife and I (early 30s) have decided to start taking financial decisions to reach fire but don't know where/how to start:

Our situation:
Both working full-time jobs in tech, newly weds no kids, £110k annual gross for me and £80k for her.

- £150K → 3.17% EU savings account (Inheritance money)

- £90K → single FAANG stocks (from RSUs when I worked there)

- £83K → UK Savings 1.16% (high-street bank savings account)

- Basic pension contributions from work for both of us

__

Some of the steps we're thinking of:
1- Registering our household with HMRC to save a little on my side of the taxes
2- Opening 2 Cash ISAs and putting 20K in each upfront (don't know where though, maybe Plum?)
3- Putting £5K in an account at 5% gross p.a. (5.12% AER) high rate and 1.15% (1.16% AER) low rate (high-street bank) - Tempted to explore Revolut's new 5% savings account but worried about putting too much money there..
4- Tempted to buy more stocks but since my account comes from my time working at FAANG, not sure how to start buying more stocks. Right now, my RSUs are just sitting there.

Next milestone goal: Going from 300 → 500K and better "investment"/portfolio distributions to grow faster.

Thank you for any advice or help! 🙏

For me, having only started investing seriously in equities in April 2020, it was in Jan 2022, and was about £20k in 1 month (but I also had a large tax bill to pay then)

I continued with the normal continuous investing plan and as expected things recovered fairly quickly.

Thinking about it now, my portfolio has grown a significant amount via contributions and price growth, a similar % drop would be much more.

Hi everyone, I have around £20K in a HL S&S ISA invested in around 8 funds (around a 65% US, 15% Europe, 10% UK and 10% ROW split), but I've been reading that ETFs and consolidating into fewer investments might be a better way forward to avoid overlap and reducing fees, as HL charge an uncapped 0.45% fee on funds.

Do you guys have any advice on how to proceed? I'm 34 years old so am hoping to retire in 20-25 years time of possible. I'm aware the value isn't that high, but we all have to start somewhere! Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Reddit,

I’m looking for some advice on how I’m going about my investing as I’ve just been winging it and feel it’s not optimal at all.

I’m 31, been very lucky/successful in my career (tech sales) which is where all the money has come from.

ISA: £170k

GIA: £160k

Easy access savings account: £90k

Another easy access savings account (was worried I went over the 85k amount being “insured”): £27k

Current account: £23k

Engaged to my partner who doesn’t work but we live in her mums second property which I rent for/cover the mortgage.

To highlight how much an idiot I am I don’t even know what’s in my pension. I think It’s circa £30k but that’s just my last employers pension, I tried and failed finding the other pensions.

So, what would you folk do differently? Also, worth noting that as of last year I am now filling up my partners ISA each year.

Thanks.

Hi All, I’m fairly new to investing, but would eventually like to have most of my savings in an all-world ETF or funds as is often recommended here. Most of my savings are outside an ISA so it is a GIA I am talking about.

I am not good with figures and so find it stressful doing tax returns. I guess this will not get any easier as I get older, either! I have read that distributing ETFs/funds are generally easier to deal with in terms of working out tax owed, because there is no excess reportable income, which is a hassle to work out (although there is the extra step of having to reinvest the income).

I wonder do most of you when choosing a “set and forget” fund for your retirement pot take this into account, and do you prefer accumulating or distributing funds?

I also read that some ETFs/funds eg the HSBC MSCI distributing fund, only distribute twice a year, so you only have to reinvest at these times. I understand that others distribute more often? Do you factor that in when making your choice?

Many thanks for any thoughts!

Hi all.

I’m new to this subreddit but I have only just started thinking about my financial future.

I will turn 60 in 17 years and I would love to believe retiring early was a possibility.

Is there any way shape of form I could in theory invest and get a return of say £250-300k by the time I’m 60 with only a small amount of monthly investment - say £150?

I have 0 savings thanks to a messy divorce, no home ownership and loads of small pensions due to a number of roles broken up by travelling - I couldn’t even tell you where they all are except maybe 4 of them.

Any words of wisdom will be happily received.

Tia.

Edit/Update

I have gathered as much information as possible regarding old pensions and given what I could find to PensionBee to bring together.

Just a side note for should anyone know the answer, 4 of my pensions were with NEST but I only put their information in once - does this matter?

Thank you everyone who commented with advice, I genuinely appreciate it.

I’ve loaded my ISA allowance and will do so next year. I’m trying to decide how best to invest ~£50k of cash in a blended equity / fixed income fund. I currently use two providers and want to determine best bet purely from a fees and efficiency of annual capital gain allowance. Nb: additional rate tax payer.

Option 1 - NetWealth. Total costs - fees plus fund charges - of 0.75%. NetWealth offers a Capital Gains Tax Service (‘bed and breakfast’) to sell assets within the fund and take advantage of unrealised gains against the annual tax free allowance.

Option 2 - Vanguard. Fund charges are ~0.22% per year. Account fee of 0.15%.

For simplicity’s sake - and because we can’t predict the future! - let’s assume the Vanguard and NetWealth funds deliver an identical return.

Can anyone help me with the maths here?

Hi All,

As title says, looking for some advice. (looking to retire at 57)

I am 34yrs old, working in construction management, earning appx 65K/pa +10% bonus. I have a company car which I salary sacrifice £3300 for/yr (pre tax), but is fully funded (i don't pay any fuel etc)

Net salary monthly (not including bonus)= £3300 (after £290 for student loans deductions, and after pension contributions)

I have appx £22,000 in a stocks Isa, as well as appx 40K in pension investments. and appx £5k in cash.

I contribute via auto enrolment to a pension appx £185/mo with employer also contributing c.£115 (£300 total/mo)

I have -£10,000 on a 0% interest credit card (0% until sept 2025) currently repaying £600/month to clear,

-£16,500 remaining on student loan, which should be paid off within 5 years on the salary deductions. (currently 4.3% interest, which is BOE/RPI linked, plan 1)

I own my own house, with mortgage appx £135K, with a value of c.£250K (115K equity)

fixed rate until sept 2025 paying 605/mo (1.99%)

I am Childfree, and will never have children.

household expenses = £1100/mo. bills, 600 CC repayment, 600-700 food and leisure activities, leaving an additional £800/month for investing etc.

Im looking for some advice from the community for the best plan of action over the next few months and the years beyond, as i approach needing to re-mortgage, and looking to become debt free, and now having an expendable income and planning for retirement.

I would find some peace from some financial stress by having the Credit card paid off (releasing 600/month), and paying off the student loan would release almost 300/month.

I have enough in my ISA and cash to be able to pay these both off, and would release almost £1k/month to be able to slowly replace the money drawn out.

obviously the mortgage rates are relatively high right now, and re-mortgaging to one of them will be at the best £1000/mo over a 15 year term, or £750 on 25 yr term (both 5 year fix deals)

What do those of you who have made a good success of approaching FIRE think about the direction i should take, i am at a point where my salary is comfortable, i have spare money, but i am a little lost with my options. should i keep invested and pay off the debt over time?, divest and repay the CC & SL?, hit the the mortgage repayment hard and be completely clear?, or have the longest possible mortgage and invest instead of overpaying down the balance?

Thanks all!

I have enough money now, my livelihood is covered by my investments for the rest of my days. My work is fulfilling, so I want to work for as long as I feel like it, and probably won't retire early, by choice. So I don't know if I'll retire at 55, at pension age or never. I want to minimise the total percentage (not amount) of tax I pay over my lifetime from now on. This includes income tax, CGT and IHT. England and Wales.

I need some help determining the right amount of pension contributions, assuming my employment income is £100,000 and will stay that way for as long as I work (in reality it's more complicated, with dividends and other income). Any tax I defer by paying into my pension, I'll still have to pay later when I withdraw, although the rate might be different, and there's also the tax-free amount of around £250k.

I could gift some money to my children, but I don't want to spoil them. Once they are 30 though (and I 65-ish), the equation changes and I can give them large amounts to take advantage of the 7-year rule as their attitude towards money is more or less fixed. I may consider crazier ideas, like retiring in Dubai with a QROPS, but I haven't really explored the outlandish options much.

Good people of Reddit- help me with a problem if you will.

I (39m) got promoted in May last year . The new role moved me from an employee to a self employed partner in large professional services firm based in the South West. I now receive drawings of c.£8k per month net (likely income for this year c.£225k- with the balance paid as distributions next financial year).

I had contributed reasonably well to my pension as an employee through salary sacrifice. Since May, that wasn’t open to me and I haven’t contributed at all to my pension this financial year.

Late last year we bought a new house, and my mortgage has increased to take up the lion’s share of my increased monthly income.

As we come to the end of the tax year, I’m considering whether to make a lump sum contribution to my pension and thinking about how to approach pension payments in the next few years.

With a fair wind, my income will increase steadily and in c5 years time I’m likely to have my pension allowance reduced to £10k (which will remain the case until I retire), so there’s an obvious incentive to contribute now.

Other relevant info

House: £1m (£550k equity) ISA: £130k in S&S Pension: £300k

Question: This year, I could move some of my isa into my pension and get considerable tax relief (e.g. £51k from ISA -> £100k in pension [using previous years unused allowances]). I invest in basically the same ETFs in ISA and pension, so there difference is basically tax benefit v access benefit so far as I can see.

What would you do?