FIREside Chats

We all know MFW is great, a friendly meeting place for folk who are all very different but a little bit similar, in that they're trying to provide stability for them and theirs by achieving something that is pretty hard work <3  I'm not sure if it's the demographics of the board, but I've noticed a lot more posts in the last year or so about people who are investing for their future with almost as much enthusiasm as they are paying down their mortgages. I'm the world's worst MFW, but I do get excited about (legal) tax avoidance, ISAs and pensions to a degree that bores even my closest friends and loved ones :D

So I thought an "investing on MFW" thread would be good fun, an outlet for those of us boring people in the real world with finance chat and a bit of a safe space and a sounding board for people who can't face the zealous optimisation, million pound portfolios and occasional snark on the real investing/pensions boards. Zealous optimisation and a million pound portfolio doesn't (of course) mean you're not welcome to post. The title is just a wee tongue in cheek reference to the fact that most of us might like to retire slightly earlier than state pension age (financial independence retire early). It's not intended as a savings thread, we have quite a lot of those already.

I thought it might be fun to use an introduction to say what you're investing for, how you're doing it and when you're hoping to achieve it by (completely optional). After this, hopefully the thread will just descend into updates on whatever frequency you think fit, general chat and encouragement  :)

  • Why am I investing? - Mrs E and I would like to retire early and are likely to carry a mortgage into retirement as houses where we stay are either very small or out of our price range. We are happy to move somewhere cheaper in retirement. We are fairly spendy (for me, part of the journey will need to be cutting our expenses).
  • How much do I think I'll need? - If you use the oldish chestnut of being financially independent if you have 25x your expenses saved, we would currently require a horrendous investment pot of £956,931 to draw on. The picture, however, is not that clear.
  • How am I going to get there? - I am stupendously lucky in that I have two defined benefit (DB) pensions. Both of these are small (£2,500-£3,000/year), but I am a current member of one that is currently accruing at the rate of c. £850/year. Mrs E and I also have £105,000 or so in defined contribution (DC) pensions, Vanguard SIPPs for both of us and a Scottish Widows workplace pension for Mrs E (which is a salary sacrifice arrangement). We will also have made sufficient contributions to have full state pensions by the time we turn 50 or thereabouts.
  • How long do I have? I turned 38 yesterday and would like to retire at 58 (twenty years time). We're probably about £300,000 away from our goal
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Comments

  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 13,670 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Although I will say the pensions board have been a godsend for me - had such help over there on things I didn't understand, and a LOT of patience from some posters while I went round in circles. >:)
    Definitely agreed - for every butting of heads there are 10 helpful posts!
    We budget from the first and I have a personal challenge where I'm trying to increase the amount we invest by 0.5% of salaries each month (only 2% this month). I have paid this into my SIPP and have also paid in about £120 from an ISA to keep me from temptation >:)  £184.64 (topped up to £230.80 by the gummint)

  • Oh, now that IS good/to be pondered news, thank you!

    I'm not a fancy tax payer, I'm an awkward one - 21%...
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