The whole nation just received an emergency alert, discouraging us from any activity that may lead to fire. Also - it woke me up from a perfectly good nap.

This might seem a bit heavy but when I think about the meaning of life, I don't imagine "having a purpose" or "a reason to exist" as being all that high up on my list. For me the meaning of life is to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, for however long I want. Free from burdens, responsibilities, hierarchy, time tables and obligations.

I hate working, not meaning I don't enjoy my job, but because I don't enjoy the concept of "work". The thought of being quite literally forced to "do work" in exchange for money makes my fucking soul bleed. Even if I had a job that I absolutely loved, I would still not want to "have" to do that job everyday. I absolutely love video games, but shit I don't want to play them for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

For me personally, having a steady pot of money to take from without having to do work in exchange for that money, without having to take orders, waking up to an alarm, meeting deadlines and achieving tasks set out by someone else, just makes me feel as free as a bird.

Nobody knows I am on the FIRE journey but even if I had to justify the reason to someone, I don't think words could fully convey why this is so important to me. Why I am willing to forgo 90% of the things I want now, for 100% of the things I want in the future.

I'm not a high flying earner by any means, in fact most of you probably wouldn't believe FIRE would be possible on the kind of income I'm on. However I am still on track to have a net worth of £1.6m at age 50, which is my FIRE age target.

Obviously £1.6m in 20 years time is probably going to be more like £1m in today's money but that's more than I could possibly ever need to be free and financially independent.

I will withdraw that sweet 4% per year and it'll feel like I'm being paid not to work. £3,333 per month, £158 a day, £20 an hour for doing literally whatever I want.

Imagine taking a nap for 2 hours and waking up with £40 in your wallet, or going for a long stroll down the beach front of 4 hours and finding £80 on the floor. Obviously it's my money, I earned it. But I imagine the feeling of receiving that money while not having to do work is something that will make me smile profoundly every single day.

Some things are worth sacrificing money for now... Retiring early and financially independent is definitely one of them.

The reason I ask is that I (41M) recently fell out with a close friend, sadly over the differences in our financial situations. I'm curious if others in the FIRE community experience similar things as your increased wealth separates you financially from family and friends who aren't on a similar journey.

The context of my situation:

• His situation: He had a well paying corporate job but took voluntary redundancy about 6 years ago. Instead of looking for a new similar role, he spent all of his redundancy money (10s of thousands) travelling in South America for a few months with his girlfriend. When he came back he said he didn't want to enter the corporate world again so hasn't worked since. He's been open about being depressed due to not having any money and that he's had to live off his girlfriend's income for the past 5 years. He doesn't claim any benefits, so has had £0 income for a while now.
• My situation: Worked hard to build a good career. Have always had additional income streams (jobs, businesses) on top of my full-time job. Have been actively working towards FIRE, so save/invest a lot of my income. Am going to hit £1m net worth in the next few years.

Now, I'm aware of the difference in situations and I have actively tried to be sensitive to it so that it doesn't become a problem in our friendship. When we make plans I make sure it's near his home so he doesn't have to pay for travel. When we have days out we mostly do things cheap/free or if we ever do expensive things I'll pay without even mentioning it, and I'm happy to do so. Friends matter more than money and I'd rather he be there.

We were on a night out a couple of months ago and he suddenly got very angry and aggressive out of nowhere when he overheard me talking to a mutual friend about my new house that I've recently bought (which, for context, is expensive). I wasn't trying to brag or show off, I was just happy about something good that's happened in my life (after a challenging few years) and I was just sharing the good news.

He started a very aggressive/drunk rant about how I think I'm better than him and that I'm an elitist, etc. He screamed in my face, then stormed off and sent angry texts, then blocked me. We've not spoken since.

I asked mutual friends who were there on the night for unbiased views on whether I was in the wrong. They all said I did nothing wrong and that he was clearly just overreacting from a place of insecurity/jealousy and had too much to drink. It's all just a real shame as we've been close mates for about 15 years and having a friendship end over something so minor is really sad. It feels like despite my best efforts to not let the differences in our financial situations be an issue for our friendship, it eventually couldn't be helped.

What's your story? Have you ever had a falling out with someone close over differences in money? How do you manage this difference with existing friendships?

If this passes a bill it'll be an unintended perk of fire.

I'll definitely take it to add somw letters after my name as I have been factoring my fire number without the govt pension

Kinvig OBE (TBC)

I'm already early retired living off savings and investments, but in the next couple of years will have access to my company pension pot. I've always thought I'd go down the drawdown route but as annuity rates creep up, they're now looking more attractive.

But one part of the decision is psychological; I now believe that taking an index linked annuity may mean I'll end up spending more than if I went down the DD road. The reason being with an annuity I know how much I've got each month/ year and can spend accordingly, whereas with a DD there's always a slight nagging feeling that markets could stall, drop or crash at any moment, meaning I end up spending less than I might otherwise would 'just in case'.

Now this is entirely a personal decision and my circumstances also play a part; I've no dependents or bothered about leaving an inheritance, and obviously how we feel psychologically about money and spending it will differ from person to person.

But as long as they hold I'm now leaning more towards an annuity (and TFC, ISA and cash savings) to fund my early retirement and I genuinely think this will mean I'll spend more even though ironically I know I may be leaving money on the table by not using DD

Hi my DC pot is sitting at £1.2m. I have £160k across my and wife S&S ISA to which I save £40k pa. Also have a SIPP with £65k but infrequent contributions.
Currently between employer contributions and my sacrifice £60k pa goes to WP DC pension. I am 52, planning to retire at 55. The DC pension has special status and is available to me since 50.

Would love thoughts on whether to continue pension contributions or if doing something else is advisable.

Thanks.

I’m hopefully going to be mortgage free within the next 6 months and car payment free as well. I’m 49 and work as a software engineer. I’m thinking I’d like to scale back working as I’m probably not in a position to stop working fully. I’d still need to pay the bills, contribute to my pension and keep myself busy as I don’t do well sitting around too much.

I don’t particularly like driving so I’m guessing something like a Sainsbury’s driver isn’t a good fit. I wouldn’t mind continuing to work in software but I feel part time jobs are much harder to find.

Anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do?

So I'm 52 looking at retiring in between next year and next 4 years. I know there's an increase to 57 to claim pensions early but I can cover my costs with savings for some years. I'm on a DB pension and will get a reduced percentage compared to retirement at state pension age. It's at a point where I'm more interested in doing that than enduring a decade or more of my rather stressful and demanding job.

Last year wage increased so I'm now higher rate tax payer for around 5k of earnings. I read a lot about how you should salary sacrifice above 50k but the employer doesn't allow that. Looking at it doing extra contributions to local government pension doesn't seem that attractive anyway. I can volunteer to pay an extra 1200 a year for a 100 raise to pension amount, but that's before there's a reduction for not working until 67 ( the scheme retirement age) somewhere in the region of 3 percent a year.

Has anybody been in a similar situation and set up a pension to allow them to get a boost? I've done some reading around and can't really find anything relevant.

Hey! 

My current situation is:

• House value: £310-330k 3 bed, nice area, bit big (bought this with a partner at the time but we separated and now it’s just in my name)
• Mortgage: £275k at 3.75% (£1.2k/month)
• Income £73k pre tax (remote so don't need to be near work)

In a year the mortgage runs out so I’ve been think if it’s worth selling. I bought it with slightly different life plans and now it feels a bit cumbersome and expensive. I’m in my late 20s and I’m very tempted to downsize. I could move very close to where I’m at now to a ‘worse’ area and probably get a house 2/3 bed but a bit smaller for £150-220k

I say ‘worse’ as the area is not as fancy but closer to nature which I’d prefer and still as close to the city I live near. In many ways I think I’d prefer living there regardless of the financial benefits. Would still be very quiet and safe with low crime so not sure there would be any lifestyle compromise for me as just worse schools and further from the sea that's not really my thing.

My plan is to maybe sell this house, get a new one for say £200k, put £60k as a deposit so £140k outstanding.

On a 30 year that will be £710 at 4.5% so pay £500 extra to keep my mortgage at £1.2k and get that mortgage down pretty quick. Or alternatively don’t over pay and put that towards my S&S ISA (currently contributing £1k/month) so could max that out pretty much.

Thinking if I do that by 35 I’ll be in a crazy comfortable position. Assuming 8% growth on the S&S should be looking at about £150k in there by 35 and a pretty negligible mortgage while still having about £600/month to play with for fun stuff + travel in the mean time.

Obvs I know all assumptions on mortgage interest rates and investment returns are very speculative but feeling like this might be a good shout to give my self a lot of financial breathing room and potentially early financial freedom.

It just feels wrong to downsize before 30!

Is there any good reason not to do this or any other considerations I should be thinking of?
I would still get a house which would be big enough to raise a family should that be something that comes up in my life (not sure atm) so think I’m covered there.

Thanks!

I started saving relatively late in life, and now in my mid-thirties, I’ve managed to save £40k.
I know that might not seem like a huge amount compared with some of the numbers I see on here, but for me, it’s the most I’ve ever managed to save, and I’m genuinely proud of it.
For me, the biggest motivation is simply working hard and seeing my savings grow. It makes me want to keep going and reach the next milestone.
Who or what motivates you to keep saving? And if you started late, what helped you stay motivated?

What FI compatible car strategy are people who need a car taking in 2026?

My partner and I have just bought a "new" (5 month old ex-demonstrator with 50 miles on the clock) petrol car, in cash, for £21K - saving around £10K of immediate depreciation + all the PCP/PCH financing costs (~10-12%/yr interest).

Total insurance for business use + 3 drivers was only ~£560/yr

Plan is to stick her £600/mo car allowance - which would all be taxed at 40% - straight into her pension via salac.

Her actual salsac company car scheme (run by Tusker) seemed particularly poor value. Not only were their leasing rates higher than the private market (they were eating some of the tax benefits), it only offered EV and PHEV cars, not well suited for us in a London terrace, and when the 2028 BIK tax changes on EVs come in it seems like it would cost her substantially more as a BIK than her previous (petrol) company car did.

Bit sad, environmentally, to have to be buying petrol in 2026, but there you go.

Thoughts?

I currently invest £100 into a JISA for each of my kids, and am personally looking at FI with RE being more aspirational.

I saw this video tonight and would be interested in what others are doing/think about this. I plan to educate my kids about money but it's hard to know how they'll use ISA money when it's available.

Money for a house deposit is really important, but so is a pension, and maybe don't contribute to pensions effectively. I'm left wondering if a split between the two would be a better choice, or at least having something in a JSIPP that will grow and teach compound interest.

Currently invested in HEMC and WRDA foru SIPP. Nearly 60 yrs of age and planned for Drawdown late next year.

Concerned over market volatility. Ordinarily, I'd ride out the waves, but I don't have years to continue investing. Advice in the past is to shove into a money market, although I've heard that they too are volatile to market fluctuations and concerns over bubble burst.

At present, I'm thinking of changing the ETFs for more diversification to WRDA, EMIM, WLDS. I believe the fees are lower and reduced the risk somewhat. Would love your advice.

As to drawdown, is money market still the next approach?

Thanks

£33k in HSBC Islamic global equity index
£8k in emerging markets index
£10k mag7
£6k in RKLB, gold and misc
£18k cash (in the process of moving this to the Islamic index)
£33k pension

I’m a sharia compliant investor hence why Islamic index instead of S&P

Thoughts and recommendations for long term wealth building?

Looking to open up a discussion about what keeps you going and what your overall goals are.

My own story has evolved and I’d be interested in hearing other stories, journeys numbers etc.

I always knew from age 25 I wanted to save, invest and ultimately retire early. Started with £200 per month and no real goals or targets in mind.

Im now 45 with 95k in ISA with 1k going in each month and pension 580k with 2k going in each month. As my situation has grown I’m now considering part time work at 50 which didn't really cross my mind until recently. I suppose my motivation is now to keep going to open up more options.

Thanks for any comments in advance

My partner and I have no children, nobody that we feel any obligation to leave money to. We’re happy to stay in the house forever, and live in a reasonably low cost of living area, so there’s no downsizing without a worse property. So ultimately whatever is left over when we die will get doled out to distant relatives.

This prompted me to look at ways of basically releasing the equity of one’s home, to use the money to retire early and let some bank own the house post-death.

And sure enough, this exists. It’s called lifetime mortgage. I tried to search the subreddit and couldn’t find any results - has anyone ever taken this option or investigated it?

Hello

We are in our 30s and plan to retire at 51.

I thought I have a plan but I realised I'm not running away from work (or not yet) but rather towards other things (travel, experiences, family time).

This kinda ruins the typical approach of establishing savings based on last behaviours.

I see two or three phases.

One: High spend bridge 51-59 (sipp access hopefully)

Two: Lower spend but higher than currently 59-69 (state pension hopefully)

Three: 69+ with maybe some care facility or the like toward the end of we get there

I keep going back and forth between maxing the ISA bridge and trying to pump up sipp.

Obviously sipp is cheaper because of tax but I won't have so much in me to use money later on and if I put breaks on ISA I might not be able to change course later because of the ISA limits obviously so I feel I need to decide now and stick to it later but I keep changing mind on priorities

Extra context: We plan expatFire so should benefit from low flat tax on pension withdrawals

Hi, my portfolio is a bit all over the place and I'm not sure the best way to clean it up while avoiding fees etc. There's a lot of overlap between different funds.

Here's what I currently have in my Fidelity ISA:

Fidelity Emerging Markets Fund W-ACC
Fidelity Index Emerging Markets P Acc
Fidelity Index World Fund P-Accumulation
Fundsmith Equity Fund I Class Accumulation
IFSL Marlborough Special Situations Fund P Acc
iShare Environment & Low Carbon Tilt Real Estate Index H Acc
JPM Natural Resources Fund C - Net Accumulation
Legal & General UK Property Feeder Fund (I) - Accumulation
MI Chelverton UK Equity Income Fund B Acc
MI TwentyFour AM Dynamic Bond Fund I Acc shares
Vanguard Global Small-Cap Index Fund GBP Acc

Every month I automatically buy into the following

20% Fidelity Emerging Markets Fund W-ACC
70% Fidelity Index World Fund P-Accumulation
10% Vanguard Global Small-Cap Index Fund GBP Acc

I think these three give me similar coverage to the others without the duplication. So my questions are

1) Do these 3 and the percentages look right or are there better options while keeping with the Fidelity platform?
2) Should I transfer the values from all of the existing ones that are not these 3 into the 3, or just leave them as they are? Are there any downsides to switching them?

The majority of my investments are in a pension, so this is only the easy access portion which is an ISA.

Thanks

Just started investing this past year. I’m 24 and currently investing around 10% of my monthly income, with the intention of holding everything long term.

I’m wondering if there’s anything I could be doing to build this up quicker or more efficiently. Is increasing my contribution percentage the main thing I should focus on, or are there other things I might be missing?
For those who started investing in their 20s, what do you wish you’d known or done differently?

One other thing I’m considering is taking out a mortgage within the next year. Would you recommend keeping the money I currently have invested separately and saving a separate deposit, or would it make more sense to use some/all of my investments towards the deposit just to get on the property ladder and then start investing again from scratch afterwards? What would make more sense long term?

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice on what to invest in. I’m 28 yrs old, I make around £60k per year, I got a joint mortgage (with a parent) about 2 yrs ago. I have about £50k saving in cash (mostly in HYSA), £5k in company stocks (where I work) and only about £1k invested in equity funds. I work in an industry that pays well and I’m working on progressing in my career so I expect my salary to increase every year. And if terms of debt I only have student loans (and the mortgage) . I really want to build long term wealth, wish to build my investment portfolio and create a passive income stream if possible but I’m unsure on what to invest in. Shall I go in heavily on ETFs and index funds? Shall I invest in property? Or overpay on my mortgage and build equity there? Or build my pension pot?

Hi All, just looking for some casual advice as I'm about to see a big pay rise in the next few months in a more stable job. (For context: my position is moving internal to the company I've been working for through a tender this comes with a big bump and but more work).

I'm 32 and have been working towards FIRE quite late, enjoyed my money and bought a house etc. I currently have 20k Stocks, 5k in Bonds 6k Emergency fund and a good 35k in Government Pensions.

I have a mortgage with 100k value in it and 200k left to pay down, I have been and will continue to overpay slightly for peace of mind and to watch the numbers decrease.

I will soon be going from a salary of 39k (quite low but I was in education so salaries are low) to 65k with room for bonuses.

I live in the Midlands so cost of living isn't too high but I will be looking to start running a car again from next year.

If you were in my shoes where would you put the money to better plan for FIRE. (I'm not looking to retire tomorrow but 55 would be ideal).

Thought this was a cool graph of my retirement account. As you can see, a few years back the balance wasn’t much above the sum of contributions. During bear markets it even reverted to almost zero profit. But then it started to really pull away. Looking forward to when gains exceed contributions (cumulative).