FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big

LL_USS

I also want to see how this works (the learning process), not all about making money (the results). Let's see how it fares after a long period of investment for your individual case, and mine. I am still skeptical of what money journalists put on the media, I need to see how it happens to me :-).

Again, good luck with your investments and planning.

Roger175

Firegirl said:

@LL_USS

Thanks for the encouragement and hope looking at your investments isn’t causing concern for you.  I’m not too worried as I’m a long way off retirement so there’s plenty time for market recovery.  Remember to zoom out when you look at your graphs as that will reduce the panic!

It will be really interesting to see at the end of my journey how the market fluctuations pan out and really that was a reason I wanted to do this diary so others can see that you need to hold your nerve.  

As I’m currently still investing such a lot each month then a market drop may end up being a good thing.  A long sale!  BUT it’s a stark reminder that this could happen when retired and to be prepared for a market crash by choosing lower risk stock or having some in cash.

I’ll keep a wee eye on my investments out of interest.  Will be interesting to see what the next few years brings!

Spot on. The biggest mistake in my life was when I stopped investing when I started seeing my monthly investments reducing every month - this was back in 2007 when I was a very naive investor, and yes, you have a very different outlook once retired (well I do!) - I saw the current situation (or something of the like) coming and so at the end of last year, I sold all of a S&P500 fund and about 50% of my global equity fund and put that into a STMM fund. I am now doing some buying but mainly value shares for income.

LL_USS

It is a great time to learning about investing. I've been sitting at the side to watch for years (also to gather a decent cash fund) and saving lots of materials about how to invest, but things would never stick or make much sense until we actually start to open an account to do it. My target is only modest, for the sum to beat inflation for me to take out in 10-15 years time. I will remember to move the investment to cash or minimal risk a couple of years before I plan to take the money.

kempiejon

LL_USS said:

It is a great time to learning about investing. I've been sitting at the side to watch for years (also to gather a decent cash fund) and saving lots of materials about how to invest, but things would never stick or make much sense until we actually start to open an account to do it. My target is only modest, for the sum to beat inflation for me to take out in 10-15 years time. I will remember to move the investment to cash or minimal risk a couple of years before I plan to take the money.

That's a good looking starting place. I only really learnt about investing by investing. I did my own reading in the days when books were where we sought out information and newspapaers and ceefax were the source of upto date prices.
Depending on how your investments work inraltion to inflation (otherwise we might as well buy index linked gilts) and can stick at it for 15 years you might not need to worry so much about sequence of returns risk because your pot more than matches your needs. Though if looking an annuity it has merit.
I'm not planning on changing my strategy before I plan to take the money. I'm only a few years from taking my pensions and not intending to move to more than 15% cash.
You'll hopefully be a long time in drawdown and need the continued growth.

Firegirl

@Roger175 I’m so happy you managed to time the market. Not an easy thing to do so well done! I am dreadful at timing the market so I just do a steady investment over time. When I retire I intend to do the cash flow ladder method/cash bucket method so if there is volatility I can ride the wave as I withdraw.  

If my aim high target actually come true I might not even need to worry about it because I’d be living off the yearly growth.  Goodness if someone told me 20 years ago that there was a remote possibility I’d be in this position I’d never have believed it!  I used to tell my son I didn’t like McDonalds because I could afford one for him and myself! 

Anyway, got side tracked there, @LL_USS have a look at the cash flow ladder method.  It might suit your needs coming towards retirement.  I’ll have a look and post a link that describes it for you. 

https://youtu.be/CSCtezePxK4?si=F31kH7uKmouVA5Xn

Hope you’re all keeping well. 😀

LL_USS

@Firegirl thank you for the link, I have saved it to have a look. I may still work long whilst give away most of my surplus and will live on my DB and a standard sum of saving, and will need to see how to best take out the cash from the last two over retirement years. Hope I'll get the idea after studying this.

Hope all is going well with you and your plan. My LISAs is in Dodl S&S now but still staying uninvested as I am still not sure what I am doing :-).

Firegirl

Hi Everyone!

Long time no chat! I have been extremely busy in work and as I work in the UK and the project is in Asia time zone this means everyone across locations are basically working all time zones 🤣 Always amuses me that basically by working double days your effectively cutting your salary in half. Anyway things are starting to settle down now and normal days are near!

Funny story, when it was my birthday this year I thought I was a year older than I was….i realised it was because my retirement goals were over target so I’d inadvertently aged myself with my goals🤣

I thought I’d do a check on my positions out of interest.

Pension 1-£250, 500 (No more to be added)
Pension 2-£65, 000 (No more to be added)
Pension 3-£18, 000 (Current work pension)
ISA-£113, 000

Total- £446,000

Money owed not counted here but I should have it back by the end of this year and am hoping it lands when there’s a market dip🤞

Ibrahim5

One day you might be old enough to be a FIREWOMAN.

Firegirl

Question for you lovely people in my phone, who are full of great ideas.

Heres a little background.  I have a financially savvy son that will turn 18 in a few months.  He has a part time job and saved up for his own car. He’s good at saving and careful with money. He’s always been entrepreneurial from a young age.

The question, and I’ve talked about this before but it’s getting closer now so I’ve some decisions to make. 

I have saved up for my kids and. want to launch him into adulthood with some advice, without overwhelming him.  I’m thinking of the following.

1. Chat about compound interest and get him to mess about with some calculators. (He already knows the concept)

2. Get him to open a LISA to save for his first house.  (Perhaps saying I’ll match what he saves to encourage him to save.)

3. Open a pension and put 2k in there in the hope he sees the benefit of saving young. (Downside is he’s better getting company matching at later date!)

4.  Go over basics of equities/ bonds - but maybe this is a bit much for first convo.

5. Go over the fact when stock market is low you need to hold your nerve and not sell. 

6. Credit rating and looking after your account and making sure not to go overdrawn.

Any other ideas😊

cfw1994

Pretty good things to discuss.
Defo a lot for one conversation, mind!

On the power of compound interest: might be a tough topic (is he good at maths?).  Maybe ask “would you rather have a million pounds today or a penny doubled every day for a month?”
Clearly 100% a day is impossible, but it might illustrate the point.  Get him doing a spreadsheet to get the answer 😉

Being thrifty but having fun is key.  Buying a coffee out every day isn’t unusual for young new workers, but ‘wastes’ a lot of money.  Go for dinner with mates or take a day to hike with them with picnics - might be more fun & cheaper!
Our two were both vegetarians at Uni - far cheaper to eat, and if they have the interest, they can become great cooks!
The monthly subs will crush many of their generation - spotify/netflix/prime/expensive-phone-contracts/etc.  minimise those as much as they can.

Ask him what questions he has - maybe you will be surprised 🤷‍♂️

Good luck - I feel it is very much incumbent on us to help educate them.  Ours (now late 20s) tell us most of their friends are pretty hopeless with money, & even half-joke about me running a zoom for them to share knowledge and answer questions (maybe I should blog 🤣).