It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Sea_Shell

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

Sea_Shell

[Deleted User] said:

Sea_Shell said:

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

Viewed theoretically - never can be FI
Viewed realistically - yep

Looking "too good to be true" = don't look so often (or think about selling some equity to buy more non-equity type stuff for when it's not too good). 

 

I update my spreadsheets every month, so I do start looking towards the month ends.    Hard not to have a sneaky peak mid-month though!!   

We try not to tinker, and trust the plan...which is working so far.

OldScientist

Sea_Shell said:

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

There are always financial risks with any plan, but while some risks are catastrophic (e.g., earth gets hit by a large asteroid), their probability is very low. If you really want some scary reading then the National Risk register (which some of my pre-retirement scientific work made a tiny, tiny contribution to - part of one sentence!) is always a good read ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2023 )

DT2001

Pat38493 said:

DT2001 said:

I cannot see the 25% TFLS being done away with . It is already limited to £268k (in most circumstances) and is part of many people’s plans.

The decision is like most things to do with retirement down to individual’s circumstances. I have 3 ‘pots’ with the same platform and so could take the 25% of each over time to utilise the ISA limits and therefore protect my tax free growth but this would then be potentially subject to IHT.

I am of the opinion that you should make decisions based on the current tax rules as sometimes changes work in your favour (George Osborne’s realignment of pension dates in 2015 allowed me to put a larger lump sum into my pension and avoid paying HRT for the only time in my life!) and you usually have time to mitigate those that are unfavourable.

Bit of an aside but are you saying you have 3 separate pension accounts with the same provider in your name?  I didn't think that DIY providers allow that.

Sorry only just seen your question.
Yes, I have 3 separate accounts. I think the reasoning when it was set up about 10 years ago was to allow greater flexibility in drawdown.
It makes no difference to platform charges as they are combined to set the level.

DT2001

Sea_Shell said:

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

Surely you are, as far as reasonably possible, FI if your spend is 2.57% of your pot. History covered by SWR analysis has included wars etc so what events/investments could derail your plan? Your pots are diversified. It would be better, financially and psychologically, but I do not think you need for things to go your way even to a certain extent.

Expotter

Sea_Shell said:

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

Whenever I'm inclined to dwell on this, I remember Donald Rumsfeld's quote:

"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know."

I plan for the known knowns, try to make sure there's enough flexibility and slack in the plan for the known unknowns and as far as the unknown unknowns, I can only hope for the best.

Sea_Shell

Expotter said:

Sea_Shell said:

Musings for a Sunday Morning...

For those of us who have FIRE'd or are planning to...are we really "FI", or are we deluding ourselves?

As, at the end of the day, most of us are not so rich that we are immune to the vagaries of government policy, international affairs, monetary policy and business.    We still need things to "go our way" to a certain extent.

Can we ever really call ourselves Financially Independent, when in most cases, we really aren't, truly independent, in reality?



Our figures are looking "too good to be true" with the recent market increases in our ISA and Pension funds as we approach both mid year and our 5 year anniversary of our FIRE decision.

The next 5 years could be....interesting?!?

Whenever I'm inclined to dwell on this, I remember Donald Rumsfeld's quote:

"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know."

I plan for the known knowns, try to make sure there's enough flexibility and slack in the plan for the known unknowns and as far as the unknown unknowns, I can only hope for the best.

(without getting political...yet!  , as I don't want my thread canned )    It's the unknown unknowns that I'm worried about !!!!    Or are they known unknowns?      Time will tell, but my gut is having it's own thoughts. 

westv

Apart from Brexit, Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine the last 5 years had nothing of "interest"?

Sea_Shell

westv said:

Apart from Brexit, Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine the last 5 years had nothing of "interest"?

Quite.    If we've come through that lot financially unscathed, the next 5 years should be a breeze!!! 

zagfles

Sea_Shell said:

westv said:

Apart from Brexit, Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine the last 5 years had nothing of "interest"?

Quite.    If we've come through that lot financially unscathed, the next 5 years should be a breeze!!! 

You'll be fine. You have the ability to live a happy fulfilled life on a low'ish income, as I said in another thread that's worth half a million in pension/savings, and can't be taxed    

Those who should perhaps be more worried are those who think you need £60k to be "comfortable".