Semi/Early Retirement at a young age

slowlyfading

Just found your thread I will be watching with interest, as I'm trying to do the same journey, as detailed on my blog

C-dog

Read back over the thread last night. Wow what a ride this has been so far and I'm pretty much bang on the goals I set for myself back in October. I missed hitting 50% of my goal by a few days but I can live with that. Been saving what I can from the dividends this month and funding both ISAs fully with VLS100 for me and VLS80 for the wife. These were our chosen funds.

Following that I'll pad out my bond allocation ever so much and get this to about 20% overall in my unwrapped accounts. Goal is to add 10% of my FI amount to the pot by October.

Mum and bump doing fine by all accounts. Mrs C-dog is now on maternity leave, but this doesn't upset the plan too much as she is a contractor for the business and her income remains unchanged as she will be continuing her role.

TL:DR (thread). Set a goal to be 50% of the way to FI in October. Missed it by a few days. Going to be a dad in a few weeks. Quit sky to the horror of the board. Likes red wine and skiing.

mark55man

really really not sure why you would be going near bonds now


have you considered some of the PIBS. do some reading on the fool.co.uk banking board which is all about fixed interest and contributed to by people who are completely serious investors and very wealthy

C-dog

The bonds are to be held in my taxable account. It's really a hedge against market downturn but also to keep my capital gains in check.

Haven't heard about PIBS at all. Looked into them just there and don't really understand them to be honest. I'll have to dig a bit more over the weekend.

Anywho, we've suspended dividend payments until the end of July as we have our on account tax payment to make and want to reinvest into the business over the next few months. I'll probably tax a basic salary to cover costs during this time.

I have to say though, the planning of FI has really focused me in my business and our plans for the future. I've set more opportunities in motion the past twelve months that are all starting to bear fruit including the removal of myself from the business (though this will take a number of years to achieve).

To the moon!

mark55man

http://www.fixedincomeinvestor.co.uk/x/learnaboutbonds.html

http://www.fixedincomeinvestor.co.uk/x/bondtable.html

http://boards.fool.co.uk/banking-sector-50033.aspx (Most of the interesting retail / inexperience articles are 2-3 years old so that's a bit of a slog but these guys know this stuff inside out - will try and dig out some specifics (later)

EDIT - This is a good starter for 10 http://boards.fool.co.uk/getting-a-decent-return-using-pref-shares-12655859.aspx?sort=whole#12655859 - NOTES this is a 2 years old article and the position has changed markedly in that the risks are less but the returns are less as the price of these instruments has increased lowering the yield. However the basic education about the instrument should be solid - DYOR

C-dog

mark88man, thanks so much for the links. Will get a browse at them asap.

Absolutely busted from work at present. Thankfully business is good.

Baby due in 5 or so weeks, so the free time will be dedicated to nursery building, antenatal and the likes. Jesus H, how do you hold a baby?

Panic and excitement have fully set in. Sure it'll all be grand in the end. Right?

atush

Close to your chest so they can fell your heartbeat lol

Hand under to support their neck and head.

mark55man

What Atush said --^

Don't worry c-dog - I'm as clumsy as you get and I never managed to drop one

jamesd

C-dog wrote: »

The bonds are to be held in my taxable account. It's really a hedge against market downturn but also to keep my capital gains in check.

Since it's taxable, why not use P2P, avoid the bond risks and get the higher interest rates available from P2P as well?

C-dog

Afternoon all!

Busy few weeks in the c-dog house. We have had a baby girl and by christ its brilliant being a dad. Completely life changing event and I absolutely love my daughter more than words can describe.

It's honestly great and paternity leave has seen some great weather this week, so we're making the very best of it all.

On an investment front. My Emerging markets ETF down 10% an VSL100 dipped 5% in the last few weeks alone. With all the fun in the EU at the minute, I do see much greater dips on the horizon, but I'm happy to buy on the way down, so today I've put some further funds into the VLS 100 and also put a tester £1500 into Fundingcircle. With the downturn and the investments made, we're still teetering above 50% so I'm happy with that.

Business is continuing without me and the plans we've made prior to paternity leave are all in motion. We're planning a huge q3 & q4, so hopefully we can put another 10-15% of our goal into the accounts over the next 6 months.

I am actually not looking forward to returning to work. If you had of said this to me a month ago I'd have laughed out loud. My mindset is that I'm working to spend more time with my wife and child. I will have to work smarter to make sure this is maximised.