FIRE - how low could you go

Dazza1902

Agree about children, we made the decision for my wife to stay at home when they were young. She had the better job. Worth the sacrifice. Now with no mortgage and only one at uni, I save about £1600 pm, approx 40% of our take home

Dh6

I’m a similar age to you and have been interested in the FIRE principles for the last couple of years or so. 

I’ve no interest in scrimping and scraping to the n’th degree like some do to save a few quid. 

Save/invest as much as you can as early as you can and live your life today, of course you’ll be able to retire sooner than you would have but you’re at the mercy of the markets. 

My current spread sheet has me retiring at 50 but that could be miles out! I’ve also got young children who are costing me a fortune but I don’t think twice about spoiling them!

All the best

DH

jim8888

I think it's great that you're discovering the FIRE movement, you'll be learning so much good financial stuff at a relatively early stage in life. Many of us who have done likewise, I think, become less interested in RE, but can't find fault with FI. And, as many have alluded to, there's more to life than just money. For myself, I was always interested in retiring at 55 - like 99% of the population - but wanted to do it on a comfortable income. I was about thirty when I began investing toward this goal and my target was to invest 10% of my net income every month into tracker funds. (This was over and above the pension schemes we already contributed to.) For you two, that'd be £500 a month which, over 25 years with maybe an 8% return, would give you a half million pot on top of any other pensions you have at 55. If you can do more, great, but that 10% rule really worked for me, especially as our joint incomes rose over the years. In the end, I did retire at 50 without a hit to income, but after a year went back to work as found I missed it. I've now really retired at 58, and not a day goes by that I don't thank myself for putting that 10% away, every month, over all those years ago. 

Alexland

I’ve also got young children who are costing me a fortune but I don’t think twice about spoiling them!

As adults it's fine to make a decision to run a very low cost lifestyle but when children are involved it seems wrong that they shouldn't experience the same nice things as their friends.
Last week we bought them shoes, a matress, a (used) electric ride-in car, a new scooter, presents for their friends' birthday parties, cooked school meals, etc. None of that helps me towards FIRE but you just have to do it.

LV_426

jim8888 said:

I think it's great that you're discovering the FIRE movement, you'll be learning so much good financial stuff at a relatively early stage in life. Many of us who have done likewise, I think, become less interested in RE, but can't find fault with FI. And, as many have alluded to, there's more to life than just money. For myself, I was always interested in retiring at 55 - like 99% of the population - but wanted to do it on a comfortable income. I was about thirty when I began investing toward this goal and my target was to invest 10% of my net income every month into tracker funds. (This was over and above the pension schemes we already contributed to.) For you two, that'd be £500 a month which, over 25 years with maybe an 8% return, would give you a half million pot on top of any other pensions you have at 55. If you can do more, great, but that 10% rule really worked for me, especially as our joint incomes rose over the years. In the end, I did retire at 50 without a hit to income, but after a year went back to work as found I missed it. I've now really retired at 58, and not a day goes by that I don't thank myself for putting that 10% away, every month, over all those years ago. 

Nice work!
I really had no conception of retiring early when I first started my career. I wish someone had sat me down and said, How would you like to retire at 50? Here's what you need to do..
I think in those early years I could have stacked away even more into that AVC plan, which is now my most valuable asset.
However I feel I've got the balance right between enjoying life, and saving.

QrizB

Alexland said:

Kids change everything. It's not just the reduction in earnings and/or childcare but also the everyday cost of keeping them occupied giving them a happy childhood and making provision to help them with expenses that are likely to happen in late teens and early adulthood. It probably added at least 5 years onto our working life but we are still aiming to retire nice and early. If you don't have time to do your own cleaning how do you expect to find the masses of time that kids require?

I'll second (fourth? fifth?) this. Before kids we were on track to retire at 45-50. Now it's 55-60. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien!

MallyGirl

Alexland said:

I’ve also got young children who are costing me a fortune but I don’t think twice about spoiling them!

As adults it's fine to make a decision to run a very low cost lifestyle but when children are involved it seems wrong that they shouldn't experience the same nice things as their friends.
Last week we bought them shoes, a matress, a (used) electric ride-in car, a new scooter, presents for their friends' birthday parties, cooked school meals, etc. None of that helps me towards FIRE but you just have to do it.

and later on its saxophones, driving lessons, music lessons, ....

Audaxer

KattoNS said:

This is not ‘lean’ per se, and we could save more of course by cutting subscriptions, cleaning ourselves, not spending much on fun money etc. 

I think the fact you are planning to invest £2k a month from your take home pay is pretty good going. Unless you really need to cut back further to reach your target retirement pot, I wouldn't deprive yourselves of these sort of things.

What surprises me is that your food bill, including pet food, is only £300 per month. Does that mean all food, including lunches etc. and also include all non-food items in the supermarket shop, like toiletries, kitchen roll etc.? If so, you are doing very well, as we as a retired couple spend over £400 per month on that, and it would be even more if I included the pet food in that figure.

Albermarle

MallyGirl said:

Alexland said:

I’ve also got young children who are costing me a fortune but I don’t think twice about spoiling them!

As adults it's fine to make a decision to run a very low cost lifestyle but when children are involved it seems wrong that they shouldn't experience the same nice things as their friends.
Last week we bought them shoes, a matress, a (used) electric ride-in car, a new scooter, presents for their friends' birthday parties, cooked school meals, etc. None of that helps me towards FIRE but you just have to do it.

and later on its saxophones, driving lessons, music lessons, ....

Mobile phone subscriptions , holidays, Uni costs etc etc

LV_426

Audaxer said:

KattoNS said:

This is not ‘lean’ per se, and we could save more of course by cutting subscriptions, cleaning ourselves, not spending much on fun money etc. 

I think the fact you are planning to invest £2k a month from your take home pay is pretty good going. Unless you really need to cut back further to reach your target retirement pot, I wouldn't deprive yourselves of these sort of things.

What surprises me is that your food bill, including pet food, is only £300 per month. Does that mean all food, including lunches etc. and also include all non-food items in the supermarket shop, like toiletries, kitchen roll etc.? If so, you are doing very well, as we as a retired couple spend over £400 per month on that, and it would be even more if I included the pet food in that figure.

I'd also like to know where they are getting car insurance from. Because at £100 for 2 cars that is a spectacular deal!