Getting FIREd up 😀

killerpeaty

You must be delighted with the pension 10 months increase. I would be as well!

South_coast

Thanks all! 

The 10-month figure wasn't all from pensions, KP. Sorry, just realised I didn't explain it very well! A big chunk of that improvement was from paying off the last of the mortgage 😀 Just over £9k of it was from the pensions, though - not too shabby, esp considering my current pants contributions!

greent, I worked out the "money needed" figure by deciding how much I want to live on in retirement and how to fund that outside of the state pension. So it's part pensions, part S&S ISA and part cold hard cash (the LISA accounts for most of the cash, but I can't access it until I'm 60). There's a chunk in the "needed" figure for the refurb as well (probably not enough!) This should see me retire at 57, providing the Govt will let me access the pensions then (although my secret hope is 52, once I've collected enough NI - will obvs need more cash in that case 🤣!) In reality, the pensions will exceed what I was targeting, so I will probably need less in cash for the years between taking them and getting the state pension - either that or I'll just have a more comfortable retirement than I'd thought 😀!

[Deleted User]

Following!  You sound so inspirational (and fierce!) - we are about to take out a huge mortgage so, even though I really fancied the FIRE movement, it is just not possible.  That said, I'd like to pay off our mortgage early so will be on this board for tips/support/motivation!  Looking forward to reading all about your adventures.

South_coast

Fierce - I love it 🤣🤣🤣!

Thank you x

killerpeaty

9k is a lot! You should be delighted! My pensions increased by 3k including the contributions made. I didn't have much in pensions honestly because I only started having a pension 5-6 years ago and then I wasn't on a decent wage until 2 years ago. Don't worry though, I'm going to catch you up my ISAs are a bigger part of my investment portfolio. They are separate in my spreadsheet.

I have a rough amount I worked out when I first started work, since I'm no where near it I haven't recalculated!

South_coast

Rough figures are still better than the majority of the population 👍! Feel free to catch up, I will cheer you on 😀! Old job matched my contributions up to 7.5%, so I pumped quite a bit into the pension while I was working there (as a side note, it was very pleasing to correct them on this when they gave me the workings for my redundancy figure as they'd only put themselves down to pay me the minimum amount 🤣!)

killerpeaty

Cheeky, I bet they were hoping that you wouldn't mention that they were going above minimum!

South_coast

A naive assumption, given the way I was feeling 🤣!

greenbee

It seems most companies get the calculations wrong in some way or other when they're making people redundant. They generally forget to check your contract  

savingholmes

Fab progress.