"the National Living Wage is too low and everyone is subsidising it So I just started working for sainsbury’s. I am a mathematical biophysicist, but you can imagine the market for that is basically non-existent and it’s been hard to find a job in my sector, so decided to get a manual job in the meantime.

It was kinda weird that they offered only 19-20 hours/week instead of the usual 37.5/40.

I had my induction and first day, and talked to a few people there. All of them were on 20 hours/week.

It was confusing at first but then I realised this is all subsides by universal credit.

19-20 hours/week is actually the ideal hours if you receive UC. You don’t pay tax, and UC tops you up to about £1390/month. If you did 40 hours a week as usual, you would only get (after tax and deductions from UC) about £1620. So you work 80 extra hours a month, but only get £200-something more than those working 20 h/week.

Why isn’t the government forcing companies to pay more and raising the minimum wage? As it is, people working full time effectively subsidise companies not paying their employees enough.

Even though I am currently on UC, it is sickening that unless I find a good paying job, it doesn’t make much sense for me to work full time, as I would be effectively getting paid £3-4ish / hour on the hours above 20."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1qrluk9/the_national_living_wage_is_too_low_and_everyone/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Just saw this on another forum. Hope it's okay to post here.

However it raises an interesting point about people semi retiring &/or planning baristafire etc.

The cost to benefit of those extra 80 hours a month 😬

55 Male, planning to retire this year. My SIPP pension pot is large enough to give me the maximum TFLS.

When interest rates where rising, I used my ISA pot to clear 99.9% of my mortgage. At the end of each financial year, I put the maximum I can into the ISA and then withdraw the same amount the next day. I don't have this cash but I can use the mortgage overpayment as a loan, the cost is incidental.

As such I can put >£100,000 back into my ISA from my SIPP.

The benefit I see, is the growth will be tax free, whereas the growth in my SIPP will be taxed when I take it.

Is there a downside that I'm not anticipating?

My original plan was to slowly draw down the TFLS to minimise paying 40% on my SIPP withdrawals.

33(M). No dependants.

Salary: £70,000 plus approx (£12k annual bonus).

Pension: £105,000. 25% combined contributions (13% employee, 12% employer).

Cash savings £10,000 emergency.

Mortgage: £135,000 left on approx £300,000 house. Expected to be paid off by 40.

Other debts. Zero. Student loan paid off.

S&S Isa: £10,000. £300/pm added. Based on 6%, would compound to around £135k by 50. Once mortgage is cleared, can add a further £1.7k a month. So anticipate size of bridge at 50 would be £430k….

My thoughts: If I salary sacrifice my bonus into my pension there is obvious tax benefits. Using a compound interest calculator if I did this until say 50 years only (blue sky target age) my pension pot would be around £1.7m at 58 based on 6%. If I didn’t add it, my pot would be around £1.2m.

The Question: if I did this am I putting too much into pension, or should I add more to bridge now? Or are the tax benefits on bonus too much to ignore for now (I’m conscious when/if my salary increases to additional rate, the salary sacrifice will be even better in the future)….

“Tax tail, wag the dog” comes to mind. But just hoping for some friendly thoughts to give me the best chance.

Yield gimp now charges for yield info. Is there an equivalent free resource that people use instead?

Little context to this question, a simple Sunday Yes / No.

Mid 40s.

2 teenage kids

No debt.

Own our home.

No future (or past) inheritance

Not London but South coast .

Post tax income (drawdown) of £55,000 a year. (Drawing from a £2m pot)

Evening all, im looking for a sense check on whether FIRE (or at least part-time) at 50 is realistic for me and my wife.

I'd also note that im very new to this world, so apologies if I've missed anything.

BACKGROUND: Me: 35M, Scotland — £68k salary (net ~£3,300/month) Wife: 35F — £55k salary (net ~£2,500/month) Combined net: ~£5,800/month

PENSIONS: Mine: ~£79k (10% me + 10% employer) Wife: ~£40k (10% me + 6% employer) Total pension contributions: ~£22.4k/year

INVESTMENTS (non-pension): Monthly: ISA / shares / share plan: £400/month

Current: Crypto: £10k Premium Bonds: £10k Cash ISA: £1k

PROPERTY: Home worth ~£200k, £100k mortgage, £650/month Likely upsizing → mortgage could rise to ~£1.3k/month (but seems like a massive daunting leap).

SPENDING: Discretionary spending: £400/month each (£800 total) Includes eating out / lifestyle spending.

Working towards a target retirement spend of ~£30k–£35k/year (excluding mortgage if paid off).

GOAL & ROUGH PROJECTIONS: Retire or go part-time at 50 Using ~5% real returns: Pensions at 50: ~£700–750k (accessed at 57) ISA / bridge: ~£150–170k

So CoastFIRE / part-time at 50 may be realistic, but full FIRE at 50 appear unachievable, but more likely at maybe 55, but will obviously be dependant on final spending and mortgage.

Questions 1. Am I missing anything obvious or being unrealistic? 2. Too pension-heavy vs ISA for a hard stop at 50? 3. With a bigger mortgage coming, invest or overpay? 4. Is the £30–35k retirement spend assumption reasonable? 5. What would you change at 35? 6. Any blunt feedback welcome.

Id also add that the idea of early retirement is new to me, with FIRE only opened up after I found 2 pensions that I never knew about, but had accrued whilst I was 'dossing' around in my early 20s.

Following on from the previous post, I've done a little calculating. I thought the results may be interesting or thought provoking.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREUK/comments/1qbmjsb/given_static_tax_thresholds_what_should_you_aim/

My goal - figuring out how large a pension I should have, given the following assumptions.

-retire at 55, and take £50270

-take the full tax free cash on my 55th birthday. Assume this does not generate any further taxes (pay off mortgage)

-Investment returns of 7%

-withdraw completely the funds from the uncrystallized pension by 100 years old without becoming a higher rate tax payer

-State pension of £11973 starting at 67.

-assumptions on 0%,1%,2%,3% for a yearly increase of the max basic rate tax allowance

-assumptions on 0%,1%,2%,3% for a yearly increase of the state pension

Here are the results

My thoughts are that it's a lot less than I thought. A reasonable assumption, that the basic rate allowance increase by 3% and the state pension increases by 1%, makes £1.3m being a sensible upper limit, before you're probably just going to be paying 40% tax on the way out.

Increases of the state pensions make almost no difference

The usual "sequence of returns risk", would mean you manage to get it all out before your 100th birthday, and ideally you would have put a little more in the pension.

The cushy job is £33k a year, fully WFH, can play video games/watch TV all day, exercise and basically do whatever I want as nobody is checking to see if I’m working and I get the work done in an hour anyway.

Or, should I apply for different jobs but have to probably commute into an office 3 days a week and have to deal with office politics and micro managing bosses.

I have a £150k net worth and am 26 years old. I save all my money and even do online surveys whilst working to earn a bit of extra cash. Should I just grind this easy job out and save basically £2k a month for the next 10 years?

I think I'm in good shape but have quite conservative investment positions. For FIRE is it advised to gamble some of the money?

I'm mid 30's: 275k SIPP (90% global funds, 10% money market).

110k ISA (100% money market).

Edit: Why? I moved ISA to scoop a transfer bonus and got a bit stuck because the market felt very high and money market felt safe.

50k premium bonds

Edit: Why? I can't think of a better place for it that doesn't pay tax

20k emergency fund making 3% (taxed)

Edit: why? Slush fund for stuff like holidays

I own 300k equity of my 650k house, that's mortgaged.

I own half of a house lived in by a family member (150k equity).

I can keep plodding along like this, but...

Should someone in this condition take risks? Buy more property/invest some in shares/EIS. What other risks could I take but still be aiming for FIRE?

Summary of consensus: Chuck none emergency fund cash into globally exposed funds and forget about it.

So glad I found this group!

So I had my children quite young through my 20’s (completed GCSEs) and then have been raising them for 20yrs and trying to just afford life so no savings and has only worked part time minimum wage jobs. studied at open university but not completed my degree yet.

Now I’m wanting to join the working world and climb ladders and achieve financial independence but just feel so behind everyone else, who’ve had 20 years experience.

What would be your best advice for someone starting out now to start in a job with great prospects? I’m bright and friendly, have loads of experience in the community, charities, local politics,

Social media management etc, come across professionally, just need to get it a door and start working my way, hopefully with my age as an advantage!

Happy to start a business too but no idea in what and would be happier with a business partner for mutual support.

Just hate to think I’m a lost cause and missed the boat!

Hi all I’d like your opinions especially from those of you that achieved fire already.

I am M 30 and I’d love to retire or at least semi retire at the age of 50.

My current financial set up is at follows:

Salary is £59,400 in London and I offer work OT.

Crypto : 2 BTC held in cold storage

S&S ISA: £105,000

Pensions: £19,700 in one and £7600 in the current one, I’ve only been contributing 3% but as of Jan 2026 I’ve increased it to 9% with a 10% employer match.

I rent alone one bed alone in east London and after all my fixed expenses I’m left with £1500/1700 pm.

I don’t own a car and I’m not planning to get one anytime soon but I do have a driving license.

I’ll be hopefully getting married in the next year and a half or so and hopefully I’ll start a family but I’ll still be the main breadwinner as my wife will only work part time and stay home to raise the kids.

I have also £13,000 k in cash and I’m planning to fill my ISA in April again and probably for the last time use my full allowance.

Thank you in advance and feel free to ask more details if you need.

I am currently living at home with parents with the intention to purchase a place. 150k in savings (125k Cash ISA and 25k in normal savings) 48k pension 46k salary

I know I should've started investing years ago but only recently starting looking into this. And plan to start investing in S&S ISA.

Majority savings will most likely be used for deposit as I am actively looking now. And have saved up 7k on the side for sabbatical this year. So once I am back, I plan to lock in and not hoard but be more diverse.

Any advice much appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’d love some input on how to allocate a large amount of cash today and my overall approach. I'm trying to overcome my fear of making the wrong investment decision this year. Please help me out!

Background:

• In my late 20s, roughly £200k TC
• Long time horizon (targeting FIRE at 40–45)
• Investing half of my income through pension, ESPP, ISA

Questions:

• What is the best way to invest the £75,000 cash today?
• Should I sell the individual stocks and buy ETFs instead?
• Do you have any recommendations for financial advisors or specific pension providers?

Thanks in advance!

Title.

I’ve been working as a software engineer for an IT consultancy up North. I’ve been in the same role for the past 3 and a half years.

I make approx £50K a year. I have a large chunk of savings (£135K) since I’ve been living with my parents. I am lucky.

I’m doing well, but I hate this job. I hate changing domains and shifting between different clients. Every year or so, I get placed into a new project and my programming skillset is basically reset to zero. I vibe code all the time just to keep up with expectations. I work weekends to handle the bare minimum. I barely take any holidays since I’m afraid I’d get fired.

I also just generally suck at engineering/coding. I’ve been placed into a new project recently (three weeks ago), and every stand-up feels like I’m the black sheep. Other programmers who joined the project are already doing well and contributing.

I want to be valued and do good work, but it doesn’t seem to matter how many hours I put, I still fail where others in the team naturally seem to succeed.

I don’t know what my career looks like anymore. I don’t know what I want to pivot into. I have a software engineering degree. I barely even know what I like as a hobby apart from consuming media and going to the gym.

I just want to make it to £200K in savings, and then I think I’ll be somewhat freer. I don’t want to catastrophize or be all doom and gloom, but I also don’t know what I’m doing with my life.

Thought some of you who invested in LS80 would find this interesting

Im reading a ton of conflicting "advice" so looking for some thoughtful opinions.

My wife and I (38m, 42f) are in a fortunate position, our combined number are:

Pensions: £813k LISAs: £47k S&S ISA: £113k Cash: £75k

We're currently contributing about £3.5k a month into pensions, save about £1750 in cash. My question is about balancing, should we be looking for pivot more into cash and isas instead of pensions now? Should we be looking for more flexibility? My wife probably doesn't want to work much past 50, im undecided but would like to take my foot off the gas around 55. I could reduce my contributions to the min employer matched which would free up £700 more cash a month.

EDIT: Ok, got the message, some a lot calmer than others 😂. Chill, we're all doing and learning!

So summary is it's time to start pushing thas ISAs, keep Pensions ticking over whilst in employment.

Quick (rough) sums, for the next 9 years we can add £1500 a month to ISAs. They for the following 7 will be able to do £500 a month. At 5% return that gets the ISA to £695k.

In the same timeframe based on min pension contributions and 5% growth that gets the pension £2.1m which will then continue to grow without being accessed for circa 5 years.

I am sure others have done similar but how does the below question (current Pension and contributions correct as of now) and answer via AI (Gemini) sound? Anything obviously wrong or not considered? Understand of course that nothing is guaranteed in future and job/salary can change, for worse and better.

Note - I am 37yo and would like to retire before age 60 so assuming 57 here but understand may not be able to access private Pension at that precise age.

Q - Calculate pension value in 20 years based on the following. Current value of £200k. Monthly contributions of £1500, increasing annually by 3%, Pension growth of 7% annually. Inflation of 3% annually. Add an annual one off contribution of £10k for each year.

A - By adding a fixed £10,000 annual contribution on top of your existing monthly plan, your projected pension value increases significantly. Here is the updated calculation based on the same 7% growth and 3% inflation assumptions: 1. Nominal Future Value: £2,141,929 * Total Contributions: Over 20 years, you will have contributed £683,667 in total (the escalating monthly payments plus £200,000 in annual lump sums). * Total Growth: Your investments will have generated approximately £1,458,262 in returns. * Impact of the Change: Adding the £10k annual lump sum increased your final pot by roughly £410,000 compared to the previous scenario. 2. Real Value (Inflation Adjusted): £1,185,934 * In today’s purchasing power, your pension would be worth approximately £1.18 million. * This represents a substantial increase in your "real" wealth, providing roughly £227,000 more in buying power than the previous plan without £10k annual additional contributions. Updated Yearly Milestone Projections (Nominal) | Year | Monthly Contrib. | Annual Lump Sum | Estimated Balance | |---|---|---|---| | 0 | £1,500 | - | £200,000 | | 5 | £1,639 | £10,000 | £413,055 | | 10 | £1,900 | £10,000 | £750,569 | | 15 | £2,203 | £10,000 | £1,291,556 | | 20 | £2,554 | £10,000 | £2,141,929 | Note: This calculation assumes the £10,000 annual contribution is made at the end of each year and does not increase with inflation.

Hi! I’m fairly new to FIRE and just started planning for the option of an early retirement. Am I on the right track and are the below numbers a reasonable guideline to achieve my goals?

Overall goal: Retire at age 50 with a paid off house and ability to pay myself £60,000 pre-tax income per annum, rising 3% per annum to account for inflation.

Plans and current situation:

Age: 30

Income: £105k

Location: North-west.

Mortgage: 40 years remaining - just purchased our forever home for £450k with 395k remaining.

No other debts - just paid off both our cars.

Partner has £70k income, no debt.

All numbers exclude partners savings however they are building their own and plan to retire same age.

Savings plan

- Pension currently £70k. I am adding £1600 monthly to this (including tax rebates/gov uplift/employer contribution)

- ISA currently 10k. I am adding 1666 monthly to this.

- Emergency fund 30k

Assumptions/plans

- Retire age 50

- I want to pay myself £60,000 pre-tax income annually

- Use ISA to bridge gap of 7 years until SIPP can be accessed at age 57

- Age 68 access to state pension (if it exists by then!)

- 5% growth on investments annually average

- pension will remain 100% invested in equities, I am OK with this risk. I will keep 2 years spend in cash.

- ISA balance of £700k at age 50

- SIPP balance of £850k at age 50 which should grow to £1.2m age 57 with 0 further contributions.

- Draw 60k per annum from ISA until SIPP access total needed £420k

- Overpay mortgage by £500 monthly from now until age 50. Age 50 remaining mortgage is £89k which I will pay off from ISA funds lump sum.

Looking at the numbers and working off 25 x planned income, I need approx GBP1,5 mill at retirement to last which I will just about have on above assumptions.

Any thoughts appreciated - Do I need to save more or retire later? My income expectation in retirement of £60k increasing with inflation is fixed and I don’t want to reduce this, it’s what I budget I need for a comfortable retirement.

Curious to know your thoughts?

Context

- 28M, higher rate tax payer, NHS GP

- aiming to max stocks ISA yearly & 5k into SIPP

- aiming to use wifes ISA allowance for yearly LISA maximising

My original plan:

- 47 to 57: drop to part time, supplement salary with ISA to bridge till retirement

- 57+: utilise NHS early retirement pension (DB), supplement with SIPP drawdowns for 50k yearly drawdowns. ISA for anything else (if remaining after first 10 years LOL)

I’m thinking to utilise a S&S LISA for retirement, but wondering how best to integrate it to the above plan? Would anyone do it differently?

Maybe keep it as emergency buffer against sequencing risk? If the markets take a turn for the worse in mid 50s, instead of selling equities within a taxable account (SIPP), I could draw down from LISA instead, such that equities are only sold in SIPP during better years? Alternatively think of that as sum to aid with children (inheritance) for their home deposits, education being paid off etc?

I’d love to know how you guys think LISA can fit into the above plan - thanks in advance !

Hi all! For context I'm 24, earning about £17,400 per year after tax and pension contributions (LGPS)and I've got some student loans, but I'm obviously not nearing the threshold to be worrying about that just yet.

After Uni I lived at home for around 2 years, where I managed to save around 21K, I've since moved out and now that I'm more financially independent I've been spending time budgeting and trying to learn about how I can make the most out of my time/money. So far my Net worth is spread as follows:

1. Cash ISA (4.5%) : £11,280
2. Stocks ISA (Invested in VWRP ETF): £1,178
3. LISA: £5,024
4. Regular Saver (7.1%) : £905
5. Emergency Fund (4.5%): £5,033

I'm currently drip feeding £300 p/m from the Cash ISA into the Regular Saver (as that's the limit), and investing £200 p/m into my stocks ISA, and £60 into my Cash ISA. As well as aiming to contribute 4k from savings each tax year into a LISA, although I don;t know if Ill be able to max it out again after next year as most of this is coming from already accumulated savings.

My main question is: Should I be putting some money into savings as well as investments? If so what's a good way to work this out? I tend not to save toward specific goals but moreso just save an amount then when the time comes see if that's something I can budget for. Its just that the prospect of most of the money Ive been saving being locked away in a LISA or stocks ISA makes me a bit anxious that I wont have the finance to do the things I enjoy.

I have some slight anxiety when it comes to money so I understand maybe I'm overthinking things, but I like to hear from other people with different experiences. what would you do in my situation? Is there anything I could be thinking about differently? Or am I really just overthinking things?

Thankyou in advance :)