FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big

onomatopoeia99

Firegirl said:

Hope you’re all doing well. Popped in to post a quick update.

My total is now £423, 500, I’ve hit over Age 47 target at the age of 45! Delighted with that!

How much is growth of the investments?  I ask as it's been a bumper year for index tracker funds, my own (considerably smaller, despite being older) self-invested pension has grown about 30% since January, without including the money I've paid in.  The work auto-enrollment scheme has grown as well, but not as much.  I have a feeling there will be a reset on the big US tech stocks at some point that may see a year or two of negative growth, but not a crash.

Was never tempted by contracting despite the potential to double or even more my gross income, so I've stuck with PAYE my whole adult life. Perhaps seven more years for me (62) based on 5% growth and being able to maintain my current level of contributions will leave me with a retirment that would allow similar spending to now, or maybe five years if things perform better.  I'm pretty conservative about leaving myself relying on savings so I'll probably still be working at 67 though!

Firegirl

Def a bumper year for global index link! I’ve also been adding to my pension so I’ve had big jumps this year. Perm job starts in Jan so I will have a nice settled long term plan once I get all that set up!

Had a curve ball there with a family emergency and had to withdraw 15k to help out my brother.  Nothing more important than family so that’s gone for the moment. He will pay me back over the next 5 years.

Have a lovely Xmas everyone!

Firegirl

I started my perm job in Jan so pension 4 is my new company pension.  I will be update what my monthly contributions look like once I get my first pay slip and can view the new pension. (I think company contributions will be approx £850 per month.  I’ll be contributing approx £2500 a month, so that’s £3350 per month to the pension.)

Pension 1-£233, 500 
Pension 2-£62, 500 (Approx)
Pension 3-£12,000  (Approx)
Pension 4-TBC
ISA-£111, 000

Total- £419,000

I’m not including the money owed to me and will just take that as a boost when it comes within the next 5 years.

Firegirl

I was very organised in my perm job and set up my salary sacrifice to the work pension but it doesn’t get set up until the second month that I’m paid. Wondering if most new starts aren’t that organised in the first month 🤣

Be interesting how it looks when I log into the pension when it is set up. There should be at least the company contribution there.  Find it strange that I will miss a month of company matching.

Let’s see what happens next month. I also haven’t been able to log on to choose my fund selection yet.  🤔 

chile_paul2

Firegirl said:

I was very organised in my perm job and set up my salary sacrifice to the work pension but it doesn’t get set up until the second month that I’m paid. Wondering if most new starts aren’t that organised in the first month 🤣

Be interesting how it looks when I log into the pension when it is set up. There should be at least the company contribution there.  Find it strange that I will miss a month of company matching.

Let’s see what happens next month. I also haven’t been able to log on to choose my fund selection yet.  🤔 

Based on my experience the payments into my company pension don’t land until about 5 days after my salary is paid so don’t be too disappointed if you log in on payday and find it empty!

ussdave

That's quicker than mine.  Often doesn't appear until the 9th of the following month.

Firegirl

I see, it’ll take a while to show then. I’ll need to be patient. 🤣 Looking forward to doing some calculations and seeing how it stacks up against my targets and plans.

Cobbler_tone

Firegirl said:

I was very organised in my perm job and set up my salary sacrifice to the work pension but it doesn’t get set up until the second month that I’m paid. Wondering if most new starts aren’t that organised in the first month 🤣

Be interesting how it looks when I log into the pension when it is set up. There should be at least the company contribution there.  Find it strange that I will miss a month of company matching.

Let’s see what happens next month. I also haven’t been able to log on to choose my fund selection yet.  🤔 

Sounds pretty slick. It took my colleague 4 months to get set up on the pension and another 2 months to get visibility online. She was frustrated as was trying to avoid 40% tax, along with losing matching contributions. She wouldn't have been messing around with fund selection though.

Firegirl

@Cobbler_tone

Thats such bad form isn’t it! Cause I work for such a big company it should be easy to chase up the pension without drawing attention to myself.

In other news we’ve battened down the hatches for the big storm brewing!  Torches, stove etc all ready.  Wonder what tomorrow will bring!  Let’s hope people stay home and safe tomorrow as I’d say there will be random objects blowing all over the place 💨

Firegirl

I’m interested in Market volatility over the next wee while.

looked at my balances last night and my total was £425500.  I’ll post my totals now and again over the next while to see how things go!

In other news free electric chargers are working again at my work so I’ll make use of them again and direct saved funds to my ISA!