r/FIREUK

I was made redundant recently after 21 years. I assumed I’d need to find another job soon, but today everything finally clicked into place (Severance paid yesterday) and I realised I’m actually FIRE — not just in theory, but in reality.

My numbers

• Age: 52
• Home: £263k (mortgage cleared this week)
• Cash: £21k
• ISA: £55k
• Pension: £315k
• Sharesave: £3,825 saved → £15.6k value at today’s price
• Total net worth: ~£654k + Sharesave uplift
• Monthly spending: ~£1,050
• Household contribution: £500/month (side hustle)

I realised I have over £100k liquid, a fully paid‑off home, and a pension that will grow untouched for the next 4 years and 10 months until I hit 57. Even in a worst‑case scenario, my liquid runway alone covers 7–13 years.

I genuinely thought I’d need to go back to work. Turns out I’m already done. It hasn't quite sunk in yet.

Mind blown.

i think this is unworkable and likely performative, but if it did happen, what would or options be?

spent all sunday morning doing my quarterly net worth update and getting increasingly stressed out. i was trying to pull balances from my SIPP and ISA, and ended up getting locked out of my main bank for 24h just because their ancient 2FA app decided my face looked wrong in the morning light

It just gave me this sudden realization about how fragile our 30-year FI horizons really are. we obsess over safe withdrawal rates but completely ignore the infrastructure risk. traditional UK banking tech is an absolute dinosaur and only getting worse

I've honestly started restructuring how I hold assets just to hedge against institutional lockouts. shifting way more into self-custody, looking at decentralized digital ID networks like world to future-proof access, and spreading things across multiple hardware wallets

tracking a solid portfolio on a spreadsheet feels kinda meaningless if your broker just arbitrarily freezes your account in 15 years and u literally cant verify yourself against whatever automated systems they use then. anybody else factoring this kind of tech/access risk into their long term RE plans now, or am I just being overly paranoid about legacy banks?

How do you choose the best fund? Is it performance over time? What are the benefits of all world vs funds which track US companies only like S&P500?

I just read a comment on LinkedIn where Bill Bengen (of 4% fame) said that he now recommends 5.5% instead of 4% with all the same previous caveats.

“Thanks for the mention, Syd. I should like to add that the withdrawal rate I recommend for today's market conditions is about 5.5%, assuming a 30-year horizon, tax-advantaged account, COLA withdrawals, and no legacy.”

This is amazing news. 18x pot is certainly more achievable than 25x.

Does this change your approach to FIRE?

Hi everyone, long time lurker, maybe first time poster here.

This isn't a post looking for advice or help with numbers. It's a post about how my personal approach to FIRE is partly to blame for the greatest failure and pain of my life. It's cautionary, and it repeats advice often given and I expect often ignored in this sub.

I'm 33M, wife 33F. Together 12 years, married 3. I've been on the FIRE path since about 25. Homeowner since 27. Current network (joint) around 500k - house equity 200k, S&S ISAs 140k combined, my pension 140k, her pension is a DB with unknown value, plus cash of around 20k. Earnings around 150k combined, and recently about to accelerate savings rate due to salary increases and wedding, house renovations being complete. All good and on track.

Then, 6 months ago wife tells me she is unhappy. I try to suggest therapy, changes, talking, but all seemingly too late, she is adamant that she is done. Now we're heading towards divorce and selling our house. I've been through things with a solicitor and a roughly 50/50 split seems most likely.

FIRE has always been much more my dream than hers. I've chased the high salary and high savings rate, while she's been much happier in her job and with spending money now. She was very much on board with the idea even though it was more for me than her.

The emotional side of it all is far worse than the financial side, but I feel like I stand to lose years worth of hard work and savings. I've contributed the majority to our networth over the years, but it likely to all be considered a marital asset. Sure, on my own I can be more aggressive with savings in the years to come, but that'll be offset by losing a significant amount of networth, and losing the financial benefits of sharing living costs etc. Again, it feels unimportant now compared to the idea of life without my wife.

The irony is that my pursuit of FIRE is partly to blame for this. There's the well known "Build the life you want and then save for it" post. I saw that, I knew that, and I still didn't take it seriously enough.

I just want to say this in case it helps anyone else - if you are sat on the sofa with your partner thinking about your savings rates and checking your investments or browsing this sub, or are reluctant to enjoy life today because of the fear of working tomorrow, then please stop and appreciate what you have. I didn't and it's the greatest regret of my life. I would trade my entire networth to have another chance at my relationship.

I don't expect any advice or sympathy, but I hope if you read this and have a partner you care about, make sure you cherish them instead of dwelling on 10+ years away. As is often said, automate FIRE, and get on with living today.

Hi All, just thought I'd get some opinions on how much you deem acceptable to put towards your FIRE fund each month, I see so many variations and so many people ploughing all they can into the fund each month in the hope to FIRE early. But what I do see at times with that is the restriction on living now, what's the balance people go for?

I'll admit I'm late to the fire game so like learning from others.

For context I put 1kish into work pension & 1k into S&S isa per month. I could definitely put in more but I like to enjoy my life now, few holidays a year, treating my family, eating out etc plus I may never make it to my 60s, you never know what's round the corner.

What's other peoples balance, are you all in or more relaxed?

When Freetrade added Gilts to what they offer, they had a limited offering of 9 different ones. That was over a year ago and TY25 and T26 have now matured, so they only have 7 left. Two more are due to mature in 2028, with no news about adding any more. Even the AI assistant says no current plans to add.

Anyone else have gilts, anyone else want more options? You can request new funds via the help page, but not sure how useful that is. There are 70 different gilts and not expecting them all, but it would be nice if they replaced ones that matured and aimed to slowly increase the variety on offer. With so many different ones you would think those requesting will dilute demand by all choosing different favourite ones.

Please Freetrade can we have some more.

I’m 32, have 32k in a SIPP, 3k in an S&S ISA and a 6k emergency fund. I’m a civil servant who will receive a generous DB pension at retirement age (in line with state pension age) I earn 58k and contribute £250 p/m to my SIPP and £150 p/m to my S&S ISA. I’m hoping to retire or at least partially retire by 55. Should I continue to overweight my SIPP or prioritise my S&S ISA? I do have room to contribute some more but would like the advice of the forum on how I should go about this

37M
ISA - £80K contributing £1667 p/m
Pensions - £100K contributing £2400p/m
House Equity My half - £160K

VAFTGAG ISA and SIPP.

With partner, no kids nor planning to.

A divorce did put me off track in my early 30s.

Am I on track or not? - 37 Aiming for 50 and aiming to continue contributing at these rates until such time.

Hi, my work place pension is with Aegon (soon to be Standard Life) the funds are in the Aegon UBC (Universal balanced collection) I have 13 years to go until I could claim it but I was wondering if it would be better performing in an index fund such as the ftse global all cap I am also looking at starting an isa to potentially give me a few years earlier retirement potential before I need the pension.

I’d just like your thoughts if possible and do I need to think about de-risking anything this far out or can that wait?

I wish I’d found out about this stuff earlier.

Thanks

29M, £35k salary — wondering what my next steps should be financially.

I’ve got a workplace pension, around £20k in a Help to Buy ISA, and bought a buy-to-let last year which I put £50k down on. The rental is through a limited company, so as far as I’m aware I should still be eligible for the Help to Buy bonus.

Part of my retire plan will be to get more rentals and a steady cash flow. But I don't want to solely rely on that and would prefer multiple pots for my retirement.

I’m now thinking about starting an all-world ETF and either opening a LISA or transferring my Help to Buy ISA into one.

I recently moved in with my girlfriend. It’s her house and we probably won’t be buying together for a while, which is why I’m considering changing the ISA setup.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

Currently have my workplace pension with RL. Have a SIPP with Fidelity that I do partial transfers into and everything is currently either in RL Worldwide (workplace) or VWRP (fidelity). Fidelity is with ETFs only for fee cap.

Looking at options for a provider to be ready for drawdown in a few years.
- I will want to have FAD and UFPLS options - the simpler the better. UFPLS via online only (no forms etc) would be a big bonus
- starting this year I’ll be building a cash buffer of 60k, 20k per year from contributions (to avoid selling equities). Most likely RL money market fund unless others are better - those are currently OEICs so would be % fees not capped for fidelity.
- by retirement I’d be aiming for £260k in DC split 60k MMF, 200k VWRP. So a provider that is fee friendly for that mix while also having good features for drawdown

any suggestions? Are all MMFs likely to be OEIC?

There is a place for crossposting on Reddit, but it feels like this sub is just getting spammed with crossposting. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Is it just this sub that is being targeted by bots/AI slop posts or is Reddit just becoming worse overall?

I know I might get slated, but I wonder if I’m the only one who gets a little bit disappointed when I read the “I’m 30, when can I FIRE” or similar posts?

A bit of context - I’m 49 in a few weeks, and I guess it’s fairer to describe my aspirations as “FATfire at 55”. I’m very mindful I’m probably at the top end of my earning years, having made my business good.

But it makes me a little sad when I read posts from twenty odd or early 30 year olds basically working out when they can retire. At that age I was taking the world on! Full of ambition and “ftw”. It makes me a little sad for people that maybe only ten years into their chosen careers they are so disengaged that they spend a good deal of time working out how not to do it anymore.

It almost sounds more like some people need a career change, rather than hating on their profession so much they are counting the days until they don’t do it anymore! Feels more like that is a mentality that should be reserved for us middle aged folks!!!

EDIT - just to say thanks for everyone’s input thus far. I’m genuinely interested in hearing people’s thoughts.

Also, mild apologies - I don’t want this post to read as anything of “pfft, young uns are slackers” type thing. That wasn’t my intent - I did type this possibly quicker than I ought to have whilst juggling my breakfast and coffee! Any frustrations on my part are more about the environment that leads to people aspiring to no longer be in it, and I’m getting a real vibe of “taking back as much control as possible against the corporate machine” which is great to read!

Hope everyone’s days are going well!

I’ve been offered a package worth £45k. Leaving date is end of the calendar year.

My current salary is £50k, 3.5 years of experience in a LCOL area. The industry is finance. I enjoy what I do and my role within the company.

Aside from the £45k, I believe I’m in a stable position financially:

£40k in accessible investments

£20k in my pension

£20k liquid cash

I’ve just moved into my first home with my partner, my share of the mortgage and bills is £600 a month. My partner earns slightly less than me, in a stable field with no reasons for caution.

I believe if I were to not take the package, my future role would still be secure. Although I could be wearing rose tinted glasses here. I enjoy what I do for a living but fear the restructuring could force me into a team within my organisation which I do not enjoy.

I have until the end of May to confirm my decision, and am incredibly torn on what to do. It seems like a very good opportunity, but of course scared of shooting myself in the foot by taking the package vs staying.

Any advice is appreciated and of course happy to answer anymore questions which will help.

43M, very healthy pension and income, low expenditure. School age kids.

I’ve been targeting a retirement age of 52, and well on track to achieve it. Although I feel like I’m having a bit of a midlife crisis as I see time slipping away from me. I don’t particularly want to wait a decade before doing certain things with my life.

So I’m now thinking about pushing that date back by two years and plan for an age 54 retirement. In exchange, I’ll take an extra full month (maybe six weeks) off work per year as unpaid parental leave. And at some point in the next five years take a full six month sabbatical.

All the extra time off will be spent travelling. Places I would like to enjoy whilst I’m still fit and active.

Anybody else here easing back on the “retire as early as possible” to find a more balanced approach?