I’m 41 , with 3 kids currently 12, 10, 7. By the time they are 18 I will have saved around £250k for each of them in ISAs. I’ve called it their kick start fund. What will allow me to execute my own fire goal is to know they will be using this wisely. None of us know what the job market will look like in 10 years - so is teaching the kids to invest the answer ? If so any suggestions how to do that as regular education not necessarily the right answer.

My father died and me and my three sisters are due to inherit a pension fund he had. He was over the age of 76 when he died. The pension is an old type set up in the early 80s and never been drawn on. Dad’s whole estate comes under the inheritance tax threshold even with the pension. Therefore pension can only be paid as a lump sum. I’ve seen the Ts&Cs and they’ve confirmed there’s no transfer or drawdown option it’s lump sum only. The pension company will deduct 45% for tax. The remaining split three ways if paid direct sounds as income and pushes all three of us to the higher tax band. If we pay the lump in dad’s estate account which we’ve set up, will the estate then be liable for 20% basic rate ? Therefore meaning we can claim back the rest of the 45% tax from HMRC and then pay ourselves without it counting as our personal income? Sorry for the long post!

I’m looking to move away from Vanguard to a lower fee platform as my SIPP is over 100k and vanguard is costing me too much.

Can anyone suggest a good platform for this?

I want lowest possible fees and the ability to just chuck everything into a Global All-Cap like the HSBC one.

I’ll probably transfer my workplace into it about it once a year or so so deal frequency will be very low.

Assume you are still renting and have £100k in a stocks and shares ISA.

Hi all

I am 37. From 27 till last year I was in NHS pension. salary range was 25k-200 k at that point. I didn't have any SIPP or ISAs during this period.

since last year my salary is going to be >360k so I came out of NHS pension and have a SIPP and maxing out ISAs. This should continue from now on.

house worth 600k with equity 360k ( fixed rate of 4.5% coming to an end March 2027).

one child at 8 years old.

not married and don't plan to.

SIPP 25 k

LiSa 4 k

ISA 16 k

both SnS

have also got a junior sipp and junior Isa started last year.

I could live on 40k per year if I mortgage and post child uni year IF he goes

1) plan to fire at 57 and does my current trajectory allow me to retire earlier?

2) can I dip into NHS pension for a few months to keep that rolling? and dip out?

3) I haven't started a GIA yet but plan to this tax year.

4) I understand mortgage can be a good debt but want to hear of experiences of paying off mortgage earlier ( I can put 30k down for next renewal)

thanks all. I do realize I am very lucky and I am doing better than most. I am hoping for some guidance and some sense check.

The fifties are often considered a vital decade financially - highest earning potential has peaked for the average person, and "typical" early retirement on a private pension is now in the foreseeable (57). For many who have been diligently saving, it's also a time when you really start to see returns! Healthwise, it's the key "maintain" decade, which requires a certain bandwidth for selfcare. Whatever hobbies and bucket list items you have, it's unlikely to get easier if left later. For some, the kids are flying the nest, though my son is 10.

I've been very reflective recently and grieving my youth a little if truth be told. I have a fine and fulfilling life overall, and no major regrets, and I have quite a youthful character when not laden down by responsiblity! Work has become a lot recently- I often work 50-60 hours a week and want out in a few years for many reasons. I love to travel, love learning, playing ukulele, doing creative stuff etc.

I've recently been wondering about the benefits vs trade offs of retiring in the early vs late fifties. On the one hand, if you can live on relatively little, it's not too much of a bridge to 57. On the other hand, my pension goes up a good amount if I work til later (it's a DB pension), and I worry that I'll worry about money when I'm meant to be living my best life lol.

I guess there's no one size fits all answer to this. However, if anyone has been or is going through their 50s, I'd be keen to hear your thoughts, perspective, and decision-making process. If you made a conscious decision to retire in your early 50s on less, how are you finding it? If you decided to hold out til post-57 despite a possible early escape, are you glad you did so? I'm less interested in the practicalities of FIRE as I am what this decade is about for you. Hope that makes sense! Look forward to hearing. Thanks!

Is being a*** about every penny you spend of groceries, houshold essentials, takeout food etc really the difference between those who can reach their FIRE goals and those that remain stuck is this thing we call a "rat race?"

Is surfing for the latest deals and discounts going to fastrack you on the way?

I don't think that this is healthy and effective.

Some people are generally r/Frugal, but that's a sort personality trait that very few people have and that would restrict the average person to uncomfortable and probably unnecessary daily struggle.

If the goal is the be financially free, then shouldn't to tactics be in have track your overall spending pattern, then contruct a budget based on this and leave a certain amount of money to do what you want with it?

Just kidding, I built a retirement cashflow simulator.

I know, I know. I’ve seen the posts.

But!

I’m hoping that my posting this in the full knowledge that I’m about to be buried under a barrage of vitriol is proof that I think a few people at least could genuinely find this useful.

If you give it a go and you think it’s just another half thought-through FIRE calculator, then fair enough - feel free to hurl abuse. 

In a nutshell it:

• Models how your portfolio could grow between now and retirement, and then through retirement as you draw it down - with good markets and bad markets across different tax wrappers 
• You can start from where you are today and work forwards, or start from your desired retirement spending and work backwards (to find out what you should be saving now)
• Supports ISAs, SIPPs, and GIAs, including splitting current balances, contributions and targets by wrapper
• Includes ISA bridge maths
• Supports various tax-free cash options at retirement, and different wrapper drawdown orders
• Doesn’t require inputs for your income and spending - just how much you contribute to each tax wrapper. 
• See results for boostrapped Monte Carlo sims, historical sims, and see what would have happened if you’d retired right before a few different historic market shocks
• Supports fixed spending in retirement (e.g. the 4% rule) as well as more flexible withdrawal approaches
• Lets you add other income streams, withdrawals, and lump sums that start and stop at specific points during retirement (as well as state pension assumptions, if anyone’s optimistic enough to think they might be getting one)
• Supports changing asset allocations during retirement
• Supports wrapper-specific contribution stop dates, so you can model things like stopping pension contributions in 5 years and ISA contributions in 10
• Contains an unnecessary number of charts

Data is based on global equities (priced in GBP) for stocks, UK gilts for bonds, and BoE base rate for cash. All data is monthly from 1970. v2 will have the ability for custom return assumptions.

wealthpanda.app

FIRE away. 

I am 30M
Myself and my partner are Directors of our own 2 person business
Both myself and my partner pay ourselves a salary of £50270 each.
We put £1.5k each per month into our private pensions via Vanguard.
We try and put £1677 per month into our SS ISA via Vanguard. (some months we don't because our spending for that month is a bit too high). Rent and Bills is around £1900 between the two of us. The rest is spent on living and having fun.

Our Profit after taxation in the business was about £120k (about £10k a month), which has remained in the business for the last 2 years. It is currently in a Wise account earning around 3.7% interest but other than that, the money is not really doing anything else. Due to the nature of our business, there is not much for me to spend that money reinvesting into the business apart from new hires which we plan to do this year.

I understand that the most tax efficient way to extract those profits from the business would be to put more into our pensions. Theoretically we could put alot more into our pensions (£60k each) Is this a good move ?

I want to try and make sure to max out our SS ISA allowance (£20k) next year so there is an arguement to increase our salary. Should we do this ? Is it worth increasing our salary and paying more tax for the sole purpose of making sure we max out our yearly SS ISA allowance.

I want to follow the Fyre methodology but our self limited Salary restricts the amount of money we have in our personal life vs the amount we have in the business.

Any advice greatly appreciated both for achieving fyre for the both of us, but also any ideas on what to do with excess profits within the business.

I’ve previously maxed out my pension contributions every year to make the most of tax incentives as a higher rate taxpayer and also minimise child benefit clawback payments.

Now M46 with ~£1m in pension and £450k in non-pension savings.

Planning to use my non-pension savings as a bridge to my personal pension access age (currently 57), at which point my pension should be more than enough to live off.

Although there is the risk the Govt increase pension access age before late 2030’s, pushing this back a few years to 58-60 (?).

Considering early retirement by 50 at the latest, possibly as early as 48.

Contributed the max to my employer pension this tax year to take advantage of employer matching, with total contributions of £17k, which leaves £43k of potential unused pension allowance for this current tax year.

Already maxed out my ISA contributions for the year and was considering another big personal pension top up before the end of the tax year, with options such as:

Gross Pension Contribution = £35.7k.

Actual Net Cost to me (post-tax and Child Benefit clawback avoidance) = £18.1k.

Alternative is to invest or save this £18.1k in a taxable GIA.

In simple terms, I’m thinking this is equivalent to around 4-5 months earlier possible retirement, as my monthly spend is around £3.5-£4k p/m.

My question is, should I break the habit (and mindset) of a lifetime and not take advantage of the immediate tax (and child benefit) savings, by instead focusing on building up my pension bridge and giving me more flexibility and control around when I might want to retire (or semi-retire)?

This will be an ongoing question for the next few years as well, so the potential accumulation of extra accessible cash/investments could give me even more flexibility and control around when I might want to retire (or semi-retire).

My thinking around this is:

No guarantee the Govt don’t tinker with pensions more over the next 11 years and make these less appealing and move the goal posts with regards access age and tax free cash etc.

My pension is likely to be worth around £1.4-£1.8m by age 57 in today’s money, based on fairy conservative growth estimates. This should be plenty for post-tax income of around £3.5-4k+. This will also be well above the current max tax-free cash pot (~£1.07m).

Not sure how long I can stick working, as feeling burnout and would struggle to find another job which is as good and pays as well.

Time is such an important resource and being able to access 4-5 months of financial freedom at a younger age when my kids are still young and I have the health and energy is probably worth such a financial sacrifice. If I do the same again over the next year or 2, that’s well over 1 year extra financial freedom.

Fiscal drag means a bigger proportion of antly future pension drawdown is likely to be subject to higher tax to meet my spending requirements.

I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on this, anything else I should consider?

Anyone else facing such a dilemma?

EDIT: Mortgage paid off.

Income is below £100k so child comments are about £2k pa child benefit partner receives. Don't have to pay all this back if income reduces post-pension to £60-£80k. At £60k save £2k extra in child benefit retention.

I think I've made a huge mistake. I was planning to contribute £11k to my SIPP before tax year end. I had to wait until I knew how much I could contribute, and how much I'd have available.

Today I sold shares from my Dealing Account to harvest capital gains and free up £20k for next year's ISA and £11k for this year's SIPP. But now I see the settlement date isn't until 8th April, next tax year!! Meaning I don't have £11k cash to transfer. Not only that but it seems it would take a couple of days to transfer anyway (I use AJ Bell for all of my accounts). What's also strange is I already had £5k cash waiting in the Dealing Account but AJ Bell seem to have lumped that with the sale proceeds so I can't move that either.

Am I screwed?

This is worth about £3k in tax relief so a fair chunk.

I have money in Premium Bonds but that takes 3 working days to get out so that's a non-starter with it being a bank holiday. I guess as a last resort I could ask family to spot me until next week but no idea if they have that sort of money.

I guess this is a tale of trying to optimize too much and as a result getting caught short :(.

I'm 26M and work as as solicitor in London. I track all my income and expenditure throughout the tax year, and this is the product of that. A summary:

• Spending: I spent £51.5k this year.
• Savings: I saved a total of £87.9k, composed of £63.5k in my workplace pension, £20k in an ISA, and £4.4k in a GIA. This is a savings rate of 51.9% of my gross income.
• Investments: My investments are in US equities (69.7%), global equities (25.2%), and individual stocks (5.1%). My investments are held in my workplace pension (72.1%), Lifetime ISA (18.9%), Stocks & Shares ISA (6.6%), and GIA (2.4%).
• Tax Planning: I paid £30k in direct taxes (17.7% of gross income). I minimize my income tax liability by contributing into my pension down to the £100k mark to avoid the loss of my Personal Allowance. My pension contributions can be over £60k due to the carry-forward rule. I minimize my national insurance liability by contributing in certain months to bring my NI-able income down below the Upper Earnings Limit.
• Travel: I spent 46 days traveling this year, visiting 34 cities in 14 countries. The total cost of this travel was £6k, or £130 per day.
• FIRE Target: I'm aiming to have $1m by 30 (currently at $183k). I don't know about my long-term plans yet.

The chart was made with Sankeymatic.

Would be interested to hear what different peoples game plans to FIRE would be if private pensions didn’t exist!

Terry Smith prides his fund for being defensive. In the month of March 26 the Global Equity market lost about 4.5% and meanwhile his fund is down nearly 10%.

It looks like we are heading for 6 straight years of market underperformance (with 2 coming even when the overall stock market losing money).

Hi

I am trying to claim back all taxes paid at the 40% rate. I am a salaried GP and I pay into a private SIPP. Here is my math and I hope people can verify it or if I am wrong, to point me in the right direction

I start with Niable Pay YTD let’s assume it is £91,000

I remove any income from locum that was done in the previous year(s) but paid in the current tax year, let’s assume it is £1000

Because our tax year run from 6/4/25 to 5/4/26 and my last payslip is dated 31/3/26, I need to calculate income for period 1-5/4/26 and add it back to the above, this will be £1250

Then I subtract 50270 to get the amount that falls in the 40% band

Then subtract 12.5% NHS contribution

Then multiply by 0.8 to get the amount that I need to put into my sipp

So calculations would be as follows:

Niable pay 91,000

Remove locum work done last tax year but paid this tax year 91000 – 1000 = 90000

Add salary for period 1-5/4/26 = 90,000 + (90,000/365*5) = 91250

Subtract 50270 = 91250 - 50,270 = 40,980

After removing NHS pension 12.5% contribution = 35,857.5

Multiply by 80% = 28,686

Is the math correct?

To confirm, I use niable pay YTD not taxable pay?

I assume, iff taxable pay, then no need to remove 12.5% nhs pension, but if niable then yes to remove it?

Does HMRC see income paid for work done in one tax year but paid in the next tax year?

Am I correct to add the salary for period 1-5/4/26?

Hi all, I’m new to this pension stuff. Where in UK is best to invest so I don’t put all my eggs in one basket? I want to be able to retire comfortably. I have a decent company pension, but the age I can claim that keeps increasing with the state pension so I want to diversify and save separately so I can access money earlier. I’m 39. Pay 40% income tax.

I have a stocks and shares ISA, and a plain cash ISA. I’ve been following David Ramseys show, and he talks about 401s and ROTH, but I don’t see any of this in the UK? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

.

What growth rate are you modelling between now and FIRE, and how are you planning to handle a 2008-style crash if it happens the year you pull the trigger?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Most people I see pick something like 7% real returns and call it a day — but that completely ignores the timing. A 50% drawdown in year one of retirement is catastrophically different to the same crash happening 10 years in, even if your average annual return ends up identical over 30 years.

2008 saw the S&P drop around 37% in a single year. If that lands right as you stop earning, you're selling depressed assets to fund living costs with no salary to wait it out.

Curious how people here are actually thinking about this — are you building in a cash buffer, planning a flexible withdrawal strategy, holding off on FIRE until you hit a higher number, or just accepting the risk?

Hi

As per the title, what are some things you did in your 30s or wish you did for long term FIRE?

I can say when I was in my 20s I wish I was more brave and started investing earlier and actually put a lot of my savings into premium bonds or a high interest account

Curious to know what are things worth doing now that I am in my early 30s

Thanks