u/Key_Description_5309

Hi all,

My wife and I are looking for somewhere safe to live, commutable to Bath (and Bristol) hospitals. Keynsham seems like a reasonable choice - I know it's not particularly vibrant, according to this sub, but it seems safe enough and near to the greenery, and has the station.

The price is just not comparable to Bath, and given we're planning to buy in a couple of years anyway it seems pretty ideal.

A house just next to the chocolate quarter retirement village is available, the price is right and it's the right size for us. The commute looks completely reasonable to RUH Bath. We'd be commuting at about 7.20am, but occasionally at proper peak time e.g. 8.20am, in a car.

I wondered what you all thought about the commute - is it likely to be gridlocked and awful?

TIA

I have been working on a FIRE strategy and just want to sense check it, please.

35M, married to 30F currently without children but currently planning a family (ideally 2 children, fertility allowing, and both will be state educated likely in south of England). We’re both NHS doctors in the UK (specialty registrars). Both started working in NHS in 2019, have been contributing to NHS pensions continuously since then. We have little to no interest in private practice, but that may change for my wife (certainly not for me).

I will likely become a consultant in around 2034 (delayed from 2031 due to academic commitments) and wife around 2036 (delayed from around 2032 due to likely less than full time and maternity leave).

We currently do not own a home due to living uncertainties / moving around, and this will continue for another 2 years or so. We therefore have no intention to purchase a house yet – just until we are both absolutely sure that we won’t be moving away for a while. We will buy as soon as we can.

Current assets:

£84k in a combination of cash lifetime ISA and cash ISA. It’s actually £95k on paper but I expect that we will buy above 450k and so will forfeit the lifetime ISA bonuses + a bit more, so the £84k is the worst outcome currently. It’s in cash accounts due to the fact I thought I’d have bought by now.

We are both first time buyers, and have no other assets aside from our NHS pension.

FIRE aspirations:

I’d like to retire (this may prove to just be a drop to 2 days a week or thereabouts but I’d like to plan for a full retirement) at around 55-57. I’d like to assume my wife will do the same, or drop down to part time – she may not but again it’s great to plan for that. We will live a life with plenty of travel and so I definitely wouldn’t want to leanFIRE.

FIRE rough plan (ages are mine):

Next 2-3 years: save additional 35-40k for house deposit and stamp duty then buy family home, approx. 650-700k. Keep savings in a cash ISA due to need to access soon.

38-45: Save 1k/month into a S&S ISA initially. Once we hit 100k salary, use SIPPs to keep salary below 100k. This is to keep childcare bonuses and preserve tax allowance.

45-55: continue piling money into S&S ISA and SIPPs.

55-57: use ISA as a bridge to SIPP.

57-67: use ISA and SIPP.

67+: use NHS pension (I expect we’ll have pensions worth around 40k p.a. each by then, as we won’t have maxed them out due to starting late and retiring early).

Things I haven’t done yet:

- Worked out a “FIRE amount”. (Hence just picking 1k/mo at the moment to save)

- Considered the impact on our salary of my wife going part time once we have children.

- Considered the cost of being parents. Thankfully we have relatively good family childcare options – I don’t expect us to be paying multiple thousands of pounds per month.

Does this make sense? What haven’t I considered? What should I do next? Thanks in advance for what will no doubt be valuable input.

Commuting Keynsham to RUH bath

FIRE aspirations as 2 NHS doctors - advice / critique please