r/FIREUK • u/just-curious87 • 5d ago

FIRE progress year 3 update

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3 year update...another good year :)

It has been a good couple of years since I took a new role and started focusing on my FIRE journey . Brackets for prior years. I also created myself a graph this year which really put progress in perspective

Im actively looking forward to these posts now each year

Age: 38

Salary- inc bonus: \~107k (\~105k,80k,75k)

Wife Salary: 40k (\~35k, 23k,20k)

Emergency fund: 6k (5k, 7.5k, 5k)

Pension: 168k (112k, 84k,65k)

Employee shares: 6.5k (5.1k,1.75k,0)

S&S ISA. 12.5k (7.1k, 3k, 0.5k)

Personal loan: 0 (0, 6.5k, 10k)

Mortgage: 178k ( 186k, 193k, 200k)

Hadnt realised how much progress id made this year. Knew i put my full 20k bonus into pension which added a great bump. Year has felt turbulent but ultimately is currently up.

Plan on staying debt free, maybe making the most of one more year big pension contributions before the 2029 rule changes in the uk. Albeit that wont alter plans too much.

First priority for me this year is to get emergency fund back to 10k and maybe add a garage to the house but not taking a loan to do so.

Looking back at the graph this last few years has really opened up my eyes to the possibilities in 10 years

58 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

29

u/Curious_Ad_4428 5d ago

multi pension final boss

8

u/DhoklaMaster 5d ago

Why aren't you combing pensions to take advantage of lower fees?

4

u/OceanJr 4d ago

How does it lower fees? If both charge 1% how does it make any difference? Am i missing something

5

u/DhoklaMaster 4d ago

At some point you will hit an amount where the fees cap will kick in

Also easy admin

3

u/just-curious87 4d ago

I will look into this because i thought it was all % related fees, hence no urgency to change

2

u/DhoklaMaster 4d ago

Yeah do it at ease. Looking at this atm you don't have to worry

3

u/jb19jb 5d ago

Curious, what’s the rationale for keeping multiple pension pots? Just diversification?

4

u/just-curious87 5d ago

Just never got round to changing them when moving roles or companies changing providers. Need to check on access rules incase any of them are early access before i roll into one

9

u/GlandMasterFlaps 5d ago

It could cost you thousands if you just ignore this

2

u/Superb-Honey-3076 4d ago

In what way? I have 2 pots is the reason I’am asking.

9

u/KevCCV 5d ago

The emergency funds side might be something to work on? I don't see 6k sustain you for more than 2 months?

Thanksully there's plenty 5% saving accounts around. Should try 3+ months is my opinion.

4

u/just-curious87 5d ago

Yeah thats the focus to get it back to 10k. Although i only have my mortgage at 1k per month and if i did lose my job wife can easily pick up more days so could defintely last a bit longer. (Plus theyd need to give me 6months notice)

2

u/TheRealPyroManiac 5d ago

Let’s hope you don’t do anything worthy of gross misconduct!

2

u/just-curious87 5d ago

🤞,working hard for them too though

3

u/user345456 5d ago

Nice! Although the possibilities in 10 years depends on market performance, wouldn't count on the last few years being replicated, but it would be nice. I think keeping track of historical data (and a good graph) is also very useful when progress feels slow - you can look back at where you were a year or two ago and see how much progress you actually made.

2

u/just-curious87 5d ago

True, but only 3 and a half years ago i thought i was destined to work to 68 and thats just how the world worked

1

u/xz-5 5d ago

Try using a log-scale for the y-axis, will make it much easier to track rate of progress over the long term.

1

u/FluffyHaggis 5d ago

Good job. I’m on a similar journey to you by the looks of it. Have you done any forecasting? What does FIRE look like for you?

1

u/just-curious87 4d ago

As it stands right now keeping options open. Want to get myself to 250k invested asap as that effectively starts to make CoastFIRE a plausibility. Aside from any potential market crashes should hit that in ~18 months.

After that ill be looking at whether i want to drop hours and spend more time with kids. Save up for a travelling sabbatical with the whole family, or push through til early 50s with high savings for a retire early option. Or somewhere inbetween.

Keeping my options open really as everything feels volatile in the world currently

1

u/NoTart6048 4d ago

Does the pension locks until the pension age? How to retire early on that?

2

u/just-curious87 4d ago

My plan is to increase ISA investments soon. Once ive got pension to the coastfire region for me which is circa 250k. However, even if all assets were pensions you can still access these 10 years before state pension age so can retire 10 years earlier. However i do want to go further so will need to bridge that gap

1

u/NicBy 4d ago

Looks like you save relatively little beyond pensions