I want to retire early - how can I plan for it?

FIREDreamer

Exodi said:

barnstar2077 said:

MX5huggy said:

Have a look at this before deciding to pay off the mortgage. 

https://youtu.be/9MfCVkRvjQs?si=iJcf9mul1J8hvwcw

You clearly value the comfort of paying it off, but do you know the cost in missed opportunity of paying it off. 

I like what he has to say, but I find him hard to watch as he moves his head around so much.  I guess I am not very animated myself! :  )

I was hoping it was the James Shack video and was pleasantly suprised it was.

Extremely knowledgeable and useful youtuber (though I'd say it requires a decent understanding of finances beforehand).

If you find him hard to watch, I'd steer clear of most finance youtubers! I've lost count of the amount that make their career off thumbnails with flames in, big red downward arrows and laser-eyes photoshopped on people - typically coupled with exaggerated or controversial titles like "THE END OF THE S&P500?" or "WHY RENTING IS BETTER THAN BUYING". He's definitely one of the more relaxed and less click-baity. He also doesn't shill sponsorships every 5 minutes.

He's probably my favourite finance youtuber at the moment, definitely underappreciated.

Meaningful Money and Pensioncraft are good too.

barnstar2077

FIREDreamer said:

Exodi said:

barnstar2077 said:

MX5huggy said:

Have a look at this before deciding to pay off the mortgage. 

https://youtu.be/9MfCVkRvjQs?si=iJcf9mul1J8hvwcw

You clearly value the comfort of paying it off, but do you know the cost in missed opportunity of paying it off. 

I like what he has to say, but I find him hard to watch as he moves his head around so much.  I guess I am not very animated myself! :  )

I was hoping it was the James Shack video and was pleasantly suprised it was.

Extremely knowledgeable and useful youtuber (though I'd say it requires a decent understanding of finances beforehand).

If you find him hard to watch, I'd steer clear of most finance youtubers! I've lost count of the amount that make their career off thumbnails with flames in, big red downward arrows and laser-eyes photoshopped on people - typically coupled with exaggerated or controversial titles like "THE END OF THE S&P500?" or "WHY RENTING IS BETTER THAN BUYING". He's definitely one of the more relaxed and less click-baity. He also doesn't shill sponsorships every 5 minutes.

He's probably my favourite finance youtuber at the moment, definitely underappreciated.

Meaningful Money and Pensioncraft are good too.

PensionCraft is a favourite of mine as well, very knowledgeable and always bases everything on data and easy to understand graphs. 

barnstar2077

Exodi said:

barnstar2077 said:

MX5huggy said:

Have a look at this before deciding to pay off the mortgage. 

https://youtu.be/9MfCVkRvjQs?si=iJcf9mul1J8hvwcw

You clearly value the comfort of paying it off, but do you know the cost in missed opportunity of paying it off. 

I like what he has to say, but I find him hard to watch as he moves his head around so much.  I guess I am not very animated myself! :  )

I was hoping it was the James Shack video and was pleasantly suprised it was.

Extremely knowledgeable and useful youtuber (though I'd say it requires a decent understanding of finances beforehand).

If you find him hard to watch, I'd steer clear of most finance youtubers! I've lost count of the amount that make their career off thumbnails with flames in, big red downward arrows and laser-eyes photoshopped on people - typically coupled with exaggerated or controversial titles like "THE END OF THE S&P500?" or "WHY RENTING IS BETTER THAN BUYING". He's definitely one of the more relaxed and less click-baity. He also doesn't shill sponsorships every 5 minutes.

He's probably my favourite finance youtuber at the moment, definitely underappreciated.

I agree, the actual content and subject matter of his videos are well thought out and presented, but the gentlemans mannerisms are not for me.  I wish him well though, and am glad that so many people enjoy his channel. 

Gaberdeen

Short update on how things are going

Mortgage reduced to £95,000 (valuation £320k) with a 5 year fix at 4.11% - it's with NatWest so we can overpay by 20% as opposed to the normal 10% which we plan on doing - my calculations are that if we fully utilise the over payment each year the mortgage will be paid off in 3 years.

(First year 20% = £19k)

Some of the riskier ISA investments were divested into cash for lowering the ~£200k mortgage - yield on the portfolio now around 9% - total valuation of portfolio is £580,000. Projected yield per month is around £4,250.

Flat (mortgage free) is still being rented out - no issues there. Still valued at ~£85k and still pulling in ~£660 per month

Pensionable Salary has increased to ~£81k - increased pension contributions to 54% (~£36,000) and tuned a take-home pay of £2,500. That plus the ~£660 from the BTL allows me to overpay the mortgage by around £410 per month. My plan is to use ISA income / dividends at the end of the year to overpay the full 20% (i.e. £14,900 paid in December 25)

So long as there are no surprises or curve-balls (touch wood) the next major milestone should be in 3 years when the mortgage is paid off.

Previous advice received on on this thread will be enthusiastically followed, i.e. living off the ISA & BTL dividends / yield as and when I need to and increasing my pension contributions so my take home = NMW.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions received.

Gaberdeen

Short update on how things are going;

Good Bits

Mortgage reduced to £78k, 9 months into a 5 year fix at 4.11% - plan is still to pay this off within 3 years (Jan 2028)

ISA portfolio now valued at around £630,000. Dividend yield is now ~£5900 per month

Flat (mortgage free) is still being rented out - no issues there. Still valued at ~£85k and still pulling in ~£660 per month

Pensionable Salary still at £81k with a review in December - pension contributions still 54% and pension value has increased to around £393k from £327k in January.

Bad (ish) bits

Treated myself to a new timepiece on a 15 month 0% card - already started to allocate funds to pay this off outright when it comes due.

Labour Party's obsession with running down oil & gas has put the shitters up the industry, looking at the possible loss of 30,000 jobs within the next 5 years if capital allowances at the very least aren't reinstated. Moreover, the supply chain knock-on from COP is forecast to be in the 100' of 000's.

Still not a "net zero" job in sight for anyone up/out here.

Strummer22

Gaberdeen said:

ISA portfolio now valued at around £630,000. Dividend yield is now ~£5900 per month

Blimey, what are you invested in for an 11% dividend yield!? 

Unless you meant per annum.

I'd retire now if I had £5,900 monthly tax-free income ;-)

Gaberdeen

No, monthly, 11% is about right although the PF value fluctuates +/- £20k every few weeks

PF is a diversified mix of Equity, Trusts, Bonds and Funds, impossible to list them all as there's around 80+ positions but the highest yielding LSE tickers are NESF, PTAL, AA4, DNA3, GCP, FGEN.

I should note that I don't currently "spend" the PF income, I match it to whatever is underperforming and average down on the relevant holdings. I very occasionally make disposals where an asset has gone up ~25% and that also gets reinvested in a "new" holding.

The hope is that when I can draw my pension, I won't need to wait to down-tools and indeed if I wanted to give helicopter rides and 2-weeks in a bunk bed a back seat beyond 47, there's nothing stopping me taking another job, even if it doesn't pay as well.