Onwards to freedom!

Thanks all for stopping by and posting

KC - bobbing along, although not at all exciting, is fine by me I hope all is well in your world? I try to limit my screen time these days, and unfortunately your thread is far too popular for me to be able to keep up! I can read your "that's what I want" in two ways, I hope the "happy to hear things are bobbing along SSS" is the correct interpretation, not "things are not bobbing along nicely for KC"! _pale_

VDOT - the include or exclude equity question used to rage on the fire blogs. Maybe it still does, I've not been keeping up. Seems a nonsense question to me. Home equity absolutely forms part of your NW. If you had a 500k home with a £1 mortgage, and £500 on a credit card, would you be a net debtor or well off? Simple as that Even if you were house rich and cash poor, do you have a nice fat asset that can be sold to solve your cashflow problem? Home equity in my opinion is 100% part of your net worth. Of course other values could be of use when pondering the future, so measuring more liquid assets, or in my case assets that earn an income, is useful, so I track both NW and interest accruing assets (NW - home - cars). Thanks for the unpaid leave feedback - great to hear from someone who has gone for it and loved it so much they want to keep coming back for more!

TM - long time no speak! Hope you are well Thank you so much for both opening my eyes to the possibility in the first place, and for reporting back that it was well worth it and something you plan to keep doing! :cool: I already use AL to cover Christmas holidays, I'm thinking I might request UL to cover a fortnight in Easter and maybe a fortnight in Summer. Would no doubt be easier to swing with employer as it's a more "normal" holiday length, so less likely to result in them clutching their pearls and reaching for the smelling salts :rotfl: OH could cover remaining school holidays, and we'd have a big fat AL allowance each left to spend on family all together time. I was nervous requesting my reduction in hours, but it all went smoothly and my employer was very accommodating, hopefully it'll be more of the same when requesting UL.

Worked out my daily gross to be a little over £180, which seems like a lot when I write it down. That's about 3k off my gross if I take 4 weeks UL. We could no doubt source childcare or make the decision that it's far cheaper for OH to take UL, so I should just work through, bring home the bacon, and leave the childrearing to her. That feels all kinds of wrong to me though. I want my children to look back fondly on their childhood with both Mum and Dad. Selfishly I want to look back on their childhoods and remember being present and involved. I'm tempted to say no matter the cost per day I'd still think it's worth it, but what if scenarios are fun to play out... If I had the opportunity to earn a million at the cost of being absent for one year, I'd probably take it. I'd be 100% present after that year, so just an example of delayed gratification really. That's not a realistic prospect though, the kind of money I can earn, taking good chunks regularly over time wins

I never truly had a proper appreciation of how conflicted women can be over the working mum versus stay at home mum thing. I think I get it now. It seems no matter which way you go, others will vilify you, and you will often find yourself feeling guilty for one reason or another. This whole UL option makes for a massive opportunity to hit the middle ground and feel reasonably happy that you're doing a bit of all the right things - role model, bread winner, carer, friend. Working, but working less, definitely suits me and OH perfectly. We're very fortunate to be able to treat it as an option, I fully understand that's a luxury many people don't have. I'm thankful for our comfortable lives, and that we live in a time where it's becoming more normal for fathers to take on a role other than bread winner. We're a way off equality (gender pay gap, etc), but over time if things become more equitable across the board (time off work, etc) I imagine the traditional disparities would all balance out. Just in time for us all to be made redundant through automation :rotfl:

Hi KC and VDOT, thanks for stopping by

Our 18k figure is all in except childcare (coming to an end soon), though I'm sure the children will become more expensive over time. No mortgage or debt, and very modest holidays are currently key for us. VDOT, your expenses will drop massively once mortgage and childcare are in the rear view You might find that a lower number might be realistic, £1500 core + £500 discretionary monthly budget sounds pretty generous to me, shaving 6k off your annual spend would drop your required pot size by 150k if using a 4% withdrawal rate - you'd get there all the sooner Nothing to say you can't add more years at the end to boost the pot and allow a more luxurious lifestyle, but you'd be making a conscious trade off at that point.

A lot of people seem to break the journey up by introducing mini targets. Rather than aim for a percentage of total ideal FI, they might aim for a leaner FI first (25x annual "survival" budget, or maybe 25x annual shortfall from a part time low wage job, etc), then ramp up from there. I like imagining possibilities and options. Drives OH nuts, but fixing on an idea and aiming for it works well for me. Over time the end aim will no doubt change a bit, but I don't see any harm in that. Breaking up the journey makes it so much easier, more a series of nice brisk walks than one insane ultra marathon!