Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)

EvilRob said:
It sounds nice but what well paid jobs allow you to gradually taper down? If you can't taper down in a well paid job then it's a huge shift to a probably close to NMW job.
Possibly contracting I guess.
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It would be contracting in my line of work mostly.
And yes. It is a shame. I hope this changes in the future.

Tbh even low pay easy temp jobs would prop it up Quite well.
I'm on the way to 500k if I save at 9pc salary and expect 5pc YoY growth


All being well, health, I'd rather work 1/2 the year and have more money for doing things than just sitting around at home but doing no work. As someone who suffers with mental health I fear the ability to procrastinate without penalty (by no penalty I mean right now I have to go to work so time is precious, I value my weekends so get out on them) would be terrible for me.

I see too many old, miserable people, Including in my family, with too much time and money but no drive to use it.
 
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Pretty disappointing it takes weeks/months to transfer between investment platforms instead of days. Some platforms are a rip-off and fees change so people need to be able to switch. Regulator needs to get on it.
 
throwaway4372 said:
Pretty disappointing it takes weeks/months to transfer between investment platforms instead of days. Some platforms are a rip-off and fees change so people need to be able to switch. Regulator needs to get on it.
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Varies significantly by platform. It takes me about 7 days to transfer funds from Aviva workplace pension to my Fidelity SIPP. Agree it's a ripoff, they are clearly doing it to discourage people from moving as the technology has been available for ages.
 
Update:
  • I did eventually find a job, decent salary bump. Looks like it's going to be difficult so pray for me.
  • I did transfer to ii and get transfer rewards. Happy with ii so far and the flat fee is easier to live with.
  • I'm 100% VHVG so down just like everyone, just sticking to my plan of adding £20k each April and ignoring any investing discussions.
  • I cut back almost all subscriptions and plan to keep it that way. I switched from BT to YouFibre, which is about half the price and it seems like a less predatory company. I signed up for TopCashback but tried to use it twice and it failed, so starting to think that's not worth the bother.
  • Spring budget in 10 days...
 
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throwaway4372 said:
Update:
  • I did eventually find a job, decent salary bump. Looks like it's going to be difficult so pray for me.
  • I did transfer to ii and get transfer rewards. Happy with ii so far and the flat fee is easier to live with.
  • I'm 100% VHVG so down just like everyone, just sticking to my plan of adding £20k each April and ignoring any investing discussions.
  • I cut back almost all subscriptions and plan to keep it that way. I switched from BT to YouFibre, which is about half the price and it seems like a less predatory company. I signed up for TopCashback but tried to use it twice and it failed, so starting to think that's not worth the bother.
  • Spring budget in 10 days...
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I have been with Youfibre for over two years. Absolutely fantastic company to deal. They also offer 8gig up and down for a not too bad price if you need it.

Glad to see it is all working out for you.
 
Thanks to another thread, I discovered that I've only need 6 more years of NI contributions before I hit the magically 35 years for a full state pension.
That's got me thinking, I could pay of my house by then and then work aboard.
I need to look at the full tax implications of renting my house out when it's my only source of UK income.
any income from the house after costs/maintance would go into a SIPP, so I should be able to get what little tax that's on it after my personal tax allowance, which would still be more than some people paying into their work pensions.

But I'm liking the idea of working aboard, even if it won't pay anywhere near what I'm earning now, it will help me coast to retirement and maybe pad out a foreign pension fund but it's mainly for the experince and who knows I may never come back to the UK.

I have quite a lot of share options or shares in holding state with my current employer at the moment... but here's hoping that I get a golden parachute in about 6 years time.
 
slinxy said:
Thanks to another thread, I discovered that I've only need 6 more years of NI contributions before I hit the magically 35 years for a full state pension.
That's got me thinking, I could pay of my house by then and then work aboard.
I need to look at the full tax implications of renting my house out when it's my only source of UK income.
any income from the house after costs/maintance would go into a SIPP, so I should be able to get what little tax that's on it after my personal tax allowance, which would still be more than some people paying into their work pensions.

But I'm liking the idea of working aboard, even if it won't pay anywhere near what I'm earning now, it will help me coast to retirement and maybe pad out a foreign pension fund but it's mainly for the experince and who knows I may never come back to the UK.

I have quite a lot of share options or shares in holding state with my current employer at the moment... but here's hoping that I get a golden parachute in about 6 years time.
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Sounds great. I'm pondering moving abroad too. Planning this for 6 years just because that's when your NI contributions hit 35 years seems a bit arbitrary. Just do it whenever you can afford to, you can always top up with class 3 voluntary NICs for a few years at £900 year (current price).
What does a "holding state" mean? Is there a condition like a liquidity event needed for them to vest?
 
EvilRob said:
Sounds great. I'm pondering moving abroad too. Planning this for 6 years just because that's when your NI contributions hit 35 years seems a bit arbitrary. Just do it whenever you can afford to, you can always top up with class 3 voluntary NICs for a few years at £900 year (current price).
What does a "holding state" mean? Is there a condition like a liquidity event needed for them to vest?
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I could do it tomorrow if I liquate but I would have to pay a fine for paying off the mortage early. it just happen that I'm on route to pay off the mortage in 6-8 years along with the NI contributions. I'm still in my 40s so there's really no rush at the moment, I may need to work for another 6 years just to top up my uk pension fund.

Certain shares given by my company have certain tax implications, so that they need to place into an holding account for 3 or 5 years so that they are clear of taxes. Or they are placed in to an holding depending on perfomance. by liquidating the ones that are held for tax reasons early, I would have to pay the taxes on them and I may lose out on any free partnership shares. Hence the golden handcuffs, as they make it very expensive to leave BUT if the company makes me redundant, then they have to pay all the taxes, and hand over all held shares, 6 months gardening leave and 1 month pay per year of service.
 
slinxy said:
Hence the golden handcuffs, as they make it very expensive to leave BUT if the company makes me redundant, then they have to pay all the taxes, and hand over all held shares, 6 months gardening leave and 1 month pay per year of service.
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I wish you luck in getting made redundant!
 
State pension eligibility being based on years rather than contribution amount is one that bugs me.

I got a few grand tax rebate the other day, which highlights how ridiculous it is that they don't know how much tax to take at the time they take it. While they were holding this money I was claiming JSA - the least they could have done was send the rebate at the start of the JSA claim rather than at the end.

It's ridic they restrict access to personal pension by age (57 for me atm) and that they can change that age to derail your retirement plans. Imagine being 50 and out of work but having a massive pension you can't access.

Then you try to work around it with an ISA bridge they cap the isa allowance at £20k per year. So you have to have had the forethought and wherewithal to start building it up many years before you need it.

Then you look at GIA, but again we're back to not being taxed at the time of the taxable event and having to deal with self-assessment, that should all be automated, and we shouldn't have to pay stamp duty for investing in the uk.

Then you look at downsizing the house, but you get done on stamp duty for that too.

Council tax - 25% discount for a single person rather than 50%.

Supermarkets - massively more expensive per head if there's only one of you.

Could rant about this stuff all day, but it's only 4am so nah..
 
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The whole modern world, some may say capitalist world.. not just the uk is based on people working for as long as possible not as long as you want or need to, so that they can keep paying taxes and feeding the system, getting loans, mortgages, having kids with uni loans… it’s just anti compound interest.

Without side tracking.. if a person never needed to pay income tax but had to pay a correct level of tax for what they buy/consume, the FIRE would be so much achievable. But it’s just easier to group people and tax then accordingly and while they do it by grouping, that’s where the loop holes are and exploited.

If a young person never needed to pay tax, just saved their butt off they should be able retire 20-25% (the amount of time saved by not having to pay tax) earlier, freeing up their job for the next young person to do the same. But at the moment, we have generations of people too scared to retire as they may not have enough saved, causing a bottle neck in the career system.
 
throwaway4372 said:
State pension eligibility being based on years rather than contribution amount is one that bugs me.

I got a few grand tax rebate the other day, which highlights how ridiculous it is that they don't know how much tax to take at the time they take it. While they were holding this money I was claiming JSA - the least they could have done was send the rebate at the start of the JSA claim rather than at the end.

It's ridic they restrict access to personal pension by age (57 for me atm) and that they can change that age to derail your retirement plans. Imagine being 50 and out of work but having a massive pension you can't access.

Then you try to work around it with an ISA bridge they cap the isa allowance at £20k per year. So you have to have had the forethought and wherewithal to start building it up many years before you need it.

Then you look at GIA, but again we're back to not being taxed at the time of the taxable event and having to deal with self-assessment, that should all be automated, and we shouldn't have to pay stamp duty for investing in the uk.

Then you look at downsizing the house, but you get done on stamp duty for that too.

Council tax - 25% discount for a single person rather than 50%.

Supermarkets - massively more expensive per head if there's only one of you.

Could rant about this stuff all day, but it's only 4am so nah..
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Well they need people in the workforce so if you want the government top ups then its pretty fair they can restrict access no?

As for ISAs, the allowance is insanely generous. Cant really moan about it. If you did not want to be restricted by age barriers then you could just save into the ISAs earlier but of course you then lose the pension benefits so its a choice you make.
 
200sols said:
Well they need people in the workforce so if you want the government top ups then its pretty fair they can restrict access no?
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I see where you're coming from, but it still doesn't feel fair to me. Most of that money is mine and not the top-up, perhaps only the top-up could be age-restricted, but of course you'd say I knew the deal when I made the payments. However that isn't really true, the age was 55 (iirc) and I didn't agree to it changing, and I wasn't a higher rate taxpayer and didn't even know the top-up existed, and frankly I was just starting a pension because people said I should - I didn't understand jack, which is true of most people when they start a pension. I don't recall anyone saying the pension age might change, feels quite predatory looking back at it.
 
But even as a lower rate tax payer you get approx 25% top up as you don't pay tax on it. So you are getting a lot for free just by saving into a pension and it needs to be controlled somehow. Paying into an ISA or normal account is entirely yours to get when you want because there was no government contributions. You can't have it all ways.
 
throwaway4372 said:
I see where you're coming from, but it still doesn't feel fair to me. Most of that money is mine and not the top-up, perhaps only the top-up could be age-restricted, but of course you'd say I knew the deal when I made the payments. However that isn't really true, the age was 55 (iirc) and I didn't agree to it changing, and I wasn't a higher rate taxpayer and didn't even know the top-up existed, and frankly I was just starting a pension because people said I should - I didn't understand jack, which is true of most people when they start a pension. I don't recall anyone saying the pension age might change, feels quite predatory looking back at it.
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Said this in another thread already and it might have been to you so apologies if I'm repeating myself. But many pension schemes had the unqualified right to take the pension at 55 and these have not been affected by the change to 57. I know this is the case with two schemes I belong to. Worth checking if you haven't.
 
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