u/Indigo_reality

Hi all,

I've just joined this group based on its description, and because I've been noticing lots of high earners on the FIRE UK group who plan to live off 50k a year in retirement. I'm not exactly anti-consumerist or totally minimalist, and neither am I on a low income, but I was slightly at a loss wondering how do you even spend that much? Granted, cost of living is higher some parts of the country, but by that much?!

Anyway, I'm guessing Lean fire peeps are not big spenders prior to stepping way from work life. What's the norm here? Will you plan for any increases in retirement?

This pondering led me to check my spending as I haven't done it in about 5 years - eek! Excepting highly exceptional one off spends (like trips away, new bathroom), it was under 17k a year. My surprisingly big spend is on gifts and special occasions - big family and some big occasions this year.

My other half's (whose finances are separate, and has partial interest in FIRE) yearly spend is 15k - naturally frugal (And fewer gifts/occasions lol). We have 1 child and a paid off mortgage.

This led me to realise I'm close to FIRE, so am considering what my passions are before I jump ship! I'm giving myself 3 years max so I'm not leaping into a fear of unstructuredness! Also, been thinking about making a website for myself to do bits of consultancy (academic) or training in future. I put my heart into building my niche and it'd be sad to lose it completely. But is setting up something small like this more complicated than it sounds??

Thanks - if you've any thoughts on my ramblings, I'd love to hear. :)

Happy Sunday, all.

Part of my plan was always to downsize once our son left home. We live in an average 3-bed semi in a northern English university city, yet we can still probably release half of its value by moving to a similar sized or slightly smaller house in a small town, such as where I grew up and where my parents still live. Probably when we're older, I figured, certain things I love about living in a city I won't miss too much. And I can see certain benefits in terms of ease of travel- you can walk into town to shop - and basically everything is cheaper and probably feels safer overall (due to less transience of people, so people know each other more).

But I've just realised they've turned from Labour stalwart to Reform, and it may not change again too soon. I'm not wanting to be controversial (the purpose isn't to talk politics) but for me, this has made it much less attractive- not only because it doesn't reflect my own leaning (and question how good a job they can do in running local councils), but on a more general level, I'm questioning whether I want to move to a small town afterall - not due to fewer amenities but perhaps the people in my community might be too different to me. I always thought I'd get more into giving back to the community once I retired. Many of the other surrounding councils in small towns are now Reform too.

Anyone else in this kind of situation of questioning their downsizing to a low cost area plan due to recent political shifts? Just thinking out loud really on an issue that hadn't occurred to me in the 6 years I've had this plan! Thanks.