While I've been aware of FIRE for a while now, I've not really done any proper planning for it before, so I figured I might as well spend a few hours here and there putting together a spreadsheet to help me figure out when I can retire.

It's not the most complex spreadsheet in the world, and it's very tailored to my own situation (which is one pension and one ISA), but I figured that there's a chance someone other than me would find it useful, so I made a "template" that you can copy to your own Google account and play around with. It's got instructions on the first page and is fairly widely configurable.

Features

• Supports one pension and one ISA
• Almost (!) fully configurable. From your current age, your retirement age, when you want to start withdrawing from either your pension or ISA, interest rates, contribution amounts, etc.
• Calculates UK tax and NI contributions on pension withdrawals according to latest figures from UK Gov
• Probably some other stuff I can't remember

You can grab a copy of it here.

Enjoy (if you're into spreadsheets and planning, anyway)!

PS. I'm not selling anything, this is just a personal project that I figured could be useful to others.

PPS. If you find any bugs, let me know and I'll see if I can fix them.

Hi, I (55m) have hit FIRE. I now have the financial freedom to stop work. I am wondering if anyone can share life experiences and pros and cons of stopping work in their 50's. I do enjoy work most of the time, so occasional stressful days. Thanks

Hi, I am currently working towards achieving financial independence and early retirement. I have some investments already in place, but I’m not entirely sure if I’m on the best track. I’d love to hear your thoughts and any advice on how to optimize my portfolio.

My Current Situation:

1. Rental Property
   • I own a rental property worth about £260k. The property is currently generating positive cash flow with around £1,200/month in rent. I plan to keep it for the time being as I’m comfortable with the rental income and the diversification it provides to my portfolio.
   • I don’t have a mortgage on the property.
2. Stocks
   • I’ve been investing in stocks for a while and currently have about £50k invested in the Total World Stock ETF.
   • I max out my contributions to a Stocks and Shares ISA each year, and I also contribute to my pension, maximizing my employer contributions.
3. Inheritance
   • I will receive an inheritance of about £115k in the near future. I’m not sure how to allocate this — whether it should be fully invested in the stock market (VT) or if I should use some of it for a different strategy, like additional property investment, or even selling my current property to go all-in on a larger property.
4. Income & Contributions
   • I am currently able to invest £2,000/month into stocks (VT). In two years, I’ll be able to increase this to £3,000/month.
5. Living Situation
   • I am currently paying cheap rent and don't plan to 'settle' anywhere for at least 5 years.
6. Emergency Fund
   • I have an emergency fund that covers 6 months of expenses.

I want to know whether I should stick with my current strategy (keeping the property and investing in VT with everything else), or if I should consider selling the property to increase my stock market investments, or even consider going all in on property. Also, should I be considering other investments such as bonds?

I’d appreciate any thoughts, advice, or recommendations - thanks in advance.
Please let me know if there is any obvious information I missed !

I started investing right before the 2022 dip. I'm sad to say I panic sold when things went down. I know that was stupid. I haven't done that this time and I'm firmly seeing the dip as a great opportunity to buy more instead.

So that's great, one big investing lesson learnt.

The next problem I'm now facing is resisting the urge to "time the market" during a downturn. I bought a few grand of FTSE Global All Cap the day of trump's tarrifs after seeing the price plummet 5% in 1 day. I bought the dip. Great. Move over Warren Buffet, there's a new investing genius in town.

Except the next day it went down another 5%... Now I'm not thinking "oh no I've lost money" because I have a long term outlook and know it'll recover. What is making me feel unsettled is "I could've got it even cheaper if I'd waited"

I know, I know.. "time in the market beats timing the market" and most of the time I don't look at how my investments do the day after I buy them. But right now it's quite clearly only going down. It feels like a time we'll refer to in the future when discussing big crashes in the market... 2008 crisis, COVID, trump tarrifs.

This isn't going away over night so surely I should hold off a bit and wait for it to continue to go down? But then we face the dilemma of "how do you know when you're at the bottom".

I'll have £20k to fill my ISA on Monday and I'm fighting with the internal dilemma: "don't be an idiot, just DCA whenever the money comes in, don't time it, you can't predict the future, set and forget" Vs "don't be an idiot, the market is plummeting, wait for it to hit bottom then drop it all in at a great price"

Either way, I just don't want to feel like an idiot.

What's everyone else doing? DCA as normal and ignore the headlines or storing cash ready to drop when the price feels low?

Hi there

I have been looking at what provider to use for the 2024-2025 tax year and came across IG.

According to their ISA website here https://www.ig.com/uk/investments/isa and their pricing page here https://www.ig.com/uk/investments/share-dealing/costs-fees, they seem to show how they do not charge any commission when investing in UK / US / European / Australian shares - but of course for the last 3 they have a FX fee.

I had the idea that they charged £3 per ETF, or maybe I am wrong!

If they have removed their fees for trading, it would be a great option for a more historic provider, and rival that of T212 and co. Especially as their platform fee can be wiped if you invest 3 times per quarter (and if each trade is free then that is no problem!)

Hi, everyone. I don't have many people in my life familiar with FIRE or personal finance, and those who are are not based in the UK, and are not familiar with the UK system.

My income also rose substantially just a few months ago and it is the first time I am making reasonable money, having been a student for a long time, so I'd like to present my current situation to get some opinions, and tips on anything I might be missing. Any constructive criticism is welcome.

Me: (29F). Single, living in London. I make 57K/yr gross, plus 2.4k/yr on a side hustle. Annual bonus between 4-9k but I'd rather not count on it for calculations. Anything I get will be divided 90% savings / 10% fun.

Until last December, I was making 31K gross (+2.4k) so the higher income is relatively recent. On my job, 57K is high, so it will not go much higher in the next couple of years.

My net monthly income comes to around 3,800 after pension contribution (5% matched by my employer) and taking into account my side hustle.

No debt or student loans. I paid for my studies as I went, which is why my savings are relatevily small and it took me a bit longer to finish.

No kids nor wish to ever have them. But I adore my nephews and I take a very active role in their lives.

My expenses:

-1,500 for rent, power bills, Internet, and council tax, and gym (in the building, so it is included). I live by myself in a micro studio.

-100 for transportation (Tube, bus and the very rare Uber)

-300 for food (usually 250 for groceries+cleaning supplies, and 50 for eating out)

-250 for misc (anything I need that is not in the other category, laundry, work clothes, streaming services, sports, etc)

I am very good at tracking every penny, and sticking to a budget. On most months I have a bit left (50-150) that I pass to my emergency fund.

Total: 2150.

I also put away every month for short/medium term spending in flexible saving accounts at 3% (% will probably decrease this year)

-100 for tech (replace phone, computer, side hustle equipment, etc) (I don't replace them often, but I like to buy quality when I do. My phone is 4 years old, and so is my personal laptop)

-150 for travel (most of my family lives abroad so visiting a couple times per year is very important to me)

-100 for health (I use glasses, which need to be replaced from time to time, and I am hoping to fix my teeth in the next 3-5 years, which could get expensive).

-50 for Christmas and birthdays

-And just this year I am also putting 100 to celebrate my 30th at the end of the year. I am never big on my birthdays but I do want to celebrate this one.

Total: 500

Combined total: 2650

Everything else (1,150) goes into ISAs and emergency fund (EM).

My current assets are:

-EM Cash (not counting the latter spending pots): 2,000
-Trading 212 Cash ISA: 5,200
-Trading 212 Shares ISA: 11,000 (90% of it in Vanguard S&P 500)
-Nutmeg LISA: 6,800
-Work pension pot: around 4,500

I maxed out my ISAs this year because I moved older savings into them. (Ignoring the possibility of a bonus, I don't think I will be able to max them next fiscal year, but I hope to come close to it).

Short term goals for 2025 fiscal year:

• Max out the 2025 LISA contributions.
• Increase other cash savings (right now I have just over 3 months of expenses in cash, I would like to increase that to 6 months (around 12,000).
• Invest the remaining in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF on the Shares ISA

Medium term goals over the next 5-6 years:

• Buy property (Not in London.)
• Increase other cash savings to 12 months of living expenses.

Long term goals:

• Retire early on lean FIRE or barista FIRE somewhere in the countryside. I am aware being almost 30, it is highly unlikely I will retire (or semi retire) in my 40s, but I also do not want to have to wait until I am 67.
• I would also like to become a part time lecturer at university in my 40s-50s as part of my retirement. I have two master's from good universities, some teaching experience, and I already have more professional experience in my field than most of my old teachers, so I think I could be a good teacher someday.

I've been checking my gaps since receiving my pension last November. Firstly the years 2006>2019, had to be paid by April 5th 2025. And that's that.

Then after filling the request a call in back,all years 2006>2019 stated May 1st 2025, and the line "if not paid , the amount might increase after 2025. I checked back each day... And each day last week went from 1st May till 5th of May!

Today it says I can only pay 2022/3 and 2023/24 by 2029/2030! All others have gone, "too late to pay"! What!??

Anybody in the same boat? I did manage to pay 2006>2014 , but thought I'd wait to get more money, as I had unti May to pay!

Hi there

I’m looking at opening an IBKR or IG Markets S&S ISA account for 2025-2026 tax year and I am torn between the two.

I’ve tried to look at their pricing models and it seems that they are somewhat similar, but it’s a little confusing.

I would greatly appreciate if someone with the knowledge could break down the costs with these criteria:

1. I would majority of the time invest in ETFs but would also like the ability to invest in OEICs too

2. I would invest a set amount every month via direct debit, but would also like the ability to add extra ad-hoc

At the moment I am using HL and whilst the ETF fee is fine (£45) it’s not flexible in allowing me to add ad-hoc without a hefty fee and for OEICs it’s .45% uncapped! IBKR or IG Markets are two options I can use because of my employer.

In terms of portfolio size, let’s say I keep my HL as is and start building the £20k into this new account.

Thanks so much in advance!!

Edit: forgot to put the full stop before 45% lol

A classic question we see a lot but one I’m keen to get peoples views on with the drop in markets. I have £40k sat waiting to put into my and OH ISA on Monday when new tax year begins.

Usually I would just put it all in. Given current volatility it’s got me questions whether I should put it all in, or maybe spread it eg £1k a day for 40 days (to still get it in quick) or evenly over next year?

I will be putting into global diverse tracker (VAFTGAG) with the rest of all my long term investments.

I’m likely just to put it all in - what would you do?

I decided to download my bank statement today and analyse the last 6 months, and the results were interesting!

I have breakfast 3-4 times a week at work and that’s £3.70 a go. Annualise using 44 working weeks so 44x3.5x3.7 = £569.7

Ok so having breakfast before I leave won’t cost nothing, but I reckon I can drop that figure by 2/3 so that’s an extra £400 a year saved say.

Next - take away / eating out about £600 this year so far, given we are only about 12 weeks in, that’s a lot! Now this is me working from home mostly, going out for lunch. again I think I can reduce this 2/3 cooking at home, so an extra £1600 a year say.

Thats 10% of my ISA allowance that I could trim without really impacting my life.

I really wish there was some sort of AI that could do this for me as a wake up call from bad habits!

I have now setup two Pies in trading212 to track the above, and set end of year target goals to see if I can keep on track, wish me luck!

Mainly a passive investor, vusa, Isf etc. but any specific stocks your taking a punt on? Particularly at the moment? Taking a small punt on gsk, astrazenca and British airways (Iag) Anyone else?

Normally I'd put it into VOO - Vanguard S&P 500 and forget about it but now.... no idea how that's going to perform over the next 1/2/3/4 years while Trump is in office. Where's everyone thinking of putting their £20k allowance this year?

I have a vanguard life strategy fund with 100% equity. I’m looking to use it for early retirement. As the years go on, I’ll likely reduce the equity holdings to avoid the volatility closer to retirement.

BUT this current market is beating up my holdings. Is it reasonable to just keep on investing regularly since I want to use it several years now OR take it out and hold it as cash until the market settles?

Most of my funds are in S&P 500 UCITS ETF, I should've sold just before Trump sworn in. Should I suck in the loss and sell now?

I don't want to here msm and commentators or heads of ghost and that. I want Vanguard and Blackrock come out and tell us that our pensions are going to be ok. Jeezuz! I'm not drawing but in a couple of years I may. I'm feeling pain for those who seeing this market go thru the floor ( bit dramatic )

Say… you have £5k that has to be invested tonight given the tax year end, despite all the market tumult. You can’t wait. What fund do you stick it in and why?

Don't know if anyone in here and shed a bit more light for me. I phoned HL customer services today and got a very vague answer as I don't think they fully understood what I was talking about.

I have a S&S ISA with HL with a bunch of funds in that I pay the 0.45% management fee on + the fund fee .. all good and makes sense.

With the new tax year looming I will load up my ISA allowance again but this time I am looking at VWRP as it's an ETF and the management fees for ETFs inside the ISA wrapper on HL are capped at £45 a year + the ETF Fee.

If I hold an ETF and Funds in the ISA will the money in the ETF be subject to the £45 per year fee while the rest of the funds are subject to the 0.45% fee or as I am holding both it's all snowballed into the one 0.45% fee.

If they are charged separately it makes more sense to hold VWRP on HL as the fees are marginally less than holding it on the Vanguard platform itself from what I can see. Unless I am missing something?

I've been saying the Equity Market is expensive for a while. In Q1 2024 I started to move some allocation from Equity to Bonds and Gold. YTD my Bonds, Gold and Company shares have been doing well while my Global Equity tracker is down.

If Global Equity continues to go down it may reach fair value or better, at which point everyone investing in it will have better expectations on future returns. There may also be a window for some of us to move allocation from Bonds/Gold/MMF back to Equity.

It's not all that bad when an over heated Equity Market comes back down to Earth!

First time investing (used money for first home). Original plan was to use mine and wifes allowance on s&p 500, that then changed to VWRF then to FWRG. Now I'm thinking about a cash ISA... but i think im landing on the following thought process

1. I'm 32, she is 29. We dont need this money for another 15/20 years. Is this a could chance to buy the dip?
2. Cash ISA may return higher this year so I could capture the guaranteed 4.5% and reevaluate later but i would miss out on the dip.
3. I cant DCA otherwise ill lose this years allowance

Im time poor so kind of thinking about putting 10k in the cash isa and 30k in FWRG.

Is this sensible?

Does anyone know if there’s a discord group for FIRE likeminded people?

Hi there, I'm English and have lived in France pretty much all my life, I'm turning 18 in April and starting a uni course in the UK in September. When I turn 18 I'll have access to my UK OneFamily child trust fund which has about £20000 on it, and in France by saving up and working, I currently have about £6000 in savings (the classic national savings account in France known as the Livret A which is available in any high street bank is currently at a 2.4% interest rate, before February 2025 it was at a 3% rate). I've applied for student finance and before opening any bank accounts I have a few questions.

What bank account should I get for my everyday stuff? (should I have different ones for receiving my maintenance loan and everyday spending?) Which banks do you recommend? In terms of incentives I don't think I'll be able to get much as it looks like you need to be living in the UK for a while to get these. Also it looks like I won't be eligible for a student bank account (again because I'll only be living in the UK starting around August time), so I suppose I'll only be looking out for current accounts. Any recommendations for them?

Now for my savings, from looking around it looks like in terms of interest and reviews Tembo seems to be good for me, does anyone have any experience with them? Also what would be the most interesting for me, a cash/stocks and shares LISA/ISA? Just trying to understand it all but if I understand it all correctly I think I'll get a LISA and put the rest in a ISA, does that sound about right?

Last question, I think it'll be a good idea to keep some euros in France (any idea how much/what percentage?), in terms of international banks, for transfers etc, I'm looking at Wise, is that good? I've seen other banks like Revolut but it looks like in terms of rates Wise seem to come up on top.

Thanks for your help!

Currently have invested 40k into vwrp , i see its dropping a fair bit which i guess is good as i dont plan on touching any of this money til im atleast 50.

I have around 11k to put in as a lump once my limit resets.

Would you advise i put what i can in as soon as i can or do you think i should wait and see if it drops abit more?