u/Capital-Stay-5657

As I'm sure all of you know private pension access age is rising to 57 from 2028 however if you joined your workplace pension scheme before november 2021 this may not apply to you.

Some pension providers will still allow you to access your pension at the age of 55.
My workplace pension provider, peoples pension, will allow me to access it at 55. Definitely worth checking your providers policy on this as apparently some providers will continue to allow access at 55 while others will not.

This is crucial to check because I often see posts about people running calculations for when they can FIRE and adjusting their pension age to 57. This may not apply to you and hence you may be able to retire earlier than you think.

Another crucial point to remember, I see some people posting about consolidating pensions, this can be a critical mistake since you may then lose access at 55 and need to wait until 57.
If you are consolidating pensions consolidate at provider that has 55 locked in as access age! This can be worth a heck of a lot more than trying to save 0.1-0.2% on fees...

Peoples pension for example will allow access at 55 even if I transfer other pension pots to them.

https://preview.redd.it/0bf9pqjt6p0h1.png?width=1908&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9f49e1b760004db271a8b800cd104967606b604

Pretty wide range of policy proposals around CGT. It's clear from recent election results a very likely outcome of next election is going to be a coalition government.

For those using a large GIA bridge to get to pension age. How are you thinking about planning around this?

I'm projected to hit my fire number in 2029 (Very GIA heavy) but planning on putting off FIRE to see which way the wind blows on CGT rates.
A 45% rate vs 20% makes a very large difference to calculations.

Hey guys
Me and partner are working towards FIRE. 1 kid 1 more planned. Expect to FIRE around 43-45 (4-5 years away)

Something that is worrying me however is the housing aspect of post FIRE life.

People that have fired or are close how would you / did you deal with a situation where you need to move home and get a new mortgage?

Are there any providers that will offer you a mortgage based on an investment portfolio?
Or would you essentially be forced to buy property with cash if you had to move.

I ask because since we are planning on FIRING at a fairly young age with young kids and ageing parents. I can foresee a world where we need to move homes to be near better secondary schools for kids or potentially need to upsize to cater towards a family member moving in with us.
You can also have situations like a relationship breakdown and separation again requiring a change in housing. With everything catered towards salaried people whether its rent affordability calculations or mortgages I'm curious to understand how people navigate this with no monthly "income".