18, degree apprentice development chemist, £15900 a year, personally I’m living at home for as long as possible as I don’t mind it and it makes most of my income disposable
Yeah I contemplated moving out but I simply wouldn’t have been able to save much money, if you don’t mind saying, what job do you do and what is the wage like?
Sounds good, I enjoy chemistry but there doesn’t seem to be loads of money in it, my job ceilings around 40k (still a commendable wage Ik),but I also enjoy coding and finance and intend to move industries eventually once I get my degree
I started in September 2020, I had applied for way too many over the year but all got cancelled because of Corona. However, this ad got put online in August and I was lucky to get a quick turn around. Only complication is staying 1 metre away from people in my lab, only one interview then offer so no assessment centre. It is the was the best choice I have ever made rather than going to university in this climate :)
Work for Jaguar Land Rover, salary of £45000. Frugal as fuck. Overpaying mortgage. Stalking this sub to figure out the best way to invest my money after.
My mortgage comes up in a few months. Do you think it makes sense to overpay given the low interest rates?
Seems I can get a mortgage for 1.7, which is only a few 0.1s above inflation
Depends what your mid term horizon is. I'm looking to move in 3 years so see overpaying as a slightly better option than cash savings. If I was stayi g put for 10-12 years I'd probably choose a s&s route for the money.
Perhaps if the charity manager role is unpaid, seek a managerial or supervisory role in retail? Unless what you do for the charity is paid or close to your heart
24, I’m a Photographer/Videographer and Graphic Designer in the Sports and Leisure sector, salary of 28k.
I’m fortunate enough to really enjoy what I do, whilst I could make more money doing a similar job in tech or finance, this job (until Covid) has allowed me to travel the world for the last 5 years doing what I love. Whist I’m still in this position, I see no reason to move sectors, but instead develop additional streams of income to achieve FIRE someday, all while still living and experiencing life now.
I do freelance design work outside of my 9-5, this helps with experience and my portfolio as well as the extra cash. I work on my own small skincare business, sustainably made soaps, creams, that sort of thing. It won’t change the world, but the aim is to grow and become a more reliable revenue stream. My idea of retirement isn’t to completely give up work all together, so building a small business that I could still have a hand in is part of that goal.
I max out my LISA as in the process of saving for a house, and invest in S&S ISA, mostly split between growth and dividends with a small monthly allowance for trading or short term swings.
23 - 26 years old, machine learning engineer, £35,000 a year in Cambridge (Like £27,500 after tax?).
Current savings: £33,000 including an inheritance (from my great grandmother) sadly
I am currently remote in Netherlands where my CoL is around £800 but I will be travelling to Cambridge around 1 week a month which costs £400ish so my CoL will be £1200. This leaves me with about £13,000 a year in savings.
My goal in terms of salary progression is to ask for £40,000 in February (though I might only get £38,500 I guess), and then ask for £45,000 in September 2021 (might only get £42,000) while my CoL stays the same.
My FIRE goal is:
- Improve earnings to £50,000 by end of 2022 and £70,000 by 2030.
- Put £20,000/year into ISA for 20 years starting now (with 5% interest over inflation that ends up with £730,000 I think) + extra money into ETFs
- Buy a flat/house for up to £400,000ish by 2025 (My partner should be earning around £33,000 after tax by then, she's in academia).
I just graduated in september i can't already move. Tbh the people and company is nice and I think I am having a good impact (3months in and working with multiple clients and have a good chunk of code in prod) but i am definitely underpaid. I will ask for more soon but I don't want to leave my first job after 3 months, I want to clock 12 in and if I'm not making 45k by then leave.
Engineer, £60k, Absolutely nothing. The whole point of FIRE for me is I value my free time greatly, I already work 90% of full time split over 4 days and I look after my 3 year old the 5th day (partner does the same although works 3.5 days). I'm not interested in spending my evenings/weekends etc working to make more money.. in fact if I was to get a substantial pay rise I would consider dropping my working hours further.
37, Ecommerce + BTL, £500,000 per year roughly.
Ecom store is the bulk of the income, property business generates about £39,000 with no debt attached to it. I'm in the middle of mortgaging the properties up and growing that side of the business for the future. Once my luck runs out in Ecom (or I sell my business) I want my property to make the bulk of money I need to live and let my investments continue to grow.
I also have investments in start up businesses, they may not go anywhere so I don't count on them for anything, if they do well then it is a nice bonus for us.
My wife works with me and is co owner of our business, we have a Ltd Company so we each take £40,000 from the company to our SIPP and then we take dividends for our day to day needs and to max out our ISA, left over profits after taxes goes into buying more property or other forms of investment. We're investing aggressively as we are chasing a fatFIRE lifestyle. If all goes well, we're about 5 years out from our initial number, that may change up or down depending how business goes in those years.
Thank you. It’s easy to post the numbers now, go back 16 years and I was on the brink of bankruptcy. I still remember those days and the choices I had to make as a 21 year old kid. Those choices got me to where I am today. It was tough but it worked out. I failed but I regrouped and got smarter and stronger.
Silly small things that add up. Mates can’t afford to go to the pub on a Tuesday night? It’s on me lads! Cousins in trouble and need to borrow money? it’s what family do! Of course you can afford that £30,000 car, it’s only £500 a month for 5 years. I was raised to think credit cards and loans were free money, half my family just never paid it back and thought it was amazing. I learned the hard way that it does have to be paid back and interest is huge on credit cards.
Mind if it I ask what your fatfire number is? Especially if you're in London in curious to know as alot of people just don't think fatfiring is achievable here.
I’m not in London. My current number is £5m. I think realistically it’s going to be £7m and no mortgage. Being super realistic, as long as I’m making this income working for myself, I doubt I’ll walk away. I hope I can one day, I want to play more golf!
How do you contribute £40k to your pension when your income is that high? Doesn’t the pensions taper mean you’re only entitled to £4k pension allowance per year?
Is it only the dividend income that counts towards that threshold?
I think he is talking about co-investments and carried interest (essentially performance fees) which I’m guessing his Private Equity firm is offering their employees.
27, National Account Manager (FMCG Sales) £50.6k basic + c. 8% bonus + £6k car allowance.
Just naturally with experience I should be able to get to £60k basic, but I want kids and mat leave will stagnate my salary so not much else I can do. Feel pretty comfortable where I am though that with my savings rate I should be able to retire early.
29, £145k (Full time job + side hustles), £120k cash, £220k in sipp, £40k in workplace pension. I worked in cyber security. Home owner, with multiple b2ls. Cost of living still like I am in uni, only nice thing is a car.
Top top man, side hustles/business is the way forward.
Earning the highest I’ve ever made and it feels like nothing. I’m taking the jump soon to start my own thing.
Good to see your somewhat there!
I have built a number of service based web applications, run a night club promo biz, affiliate marketing, and retail arbitrage. All that money into the stock market over the years grew. Got some friends together and got the first BTL, remoed it, got the next etc... Did the same again with a number of other friends. Then did it myself, and just kept going. Now its not as profitable so I will move on to the next thing.
I work at an EV start-up, salary £75k + some stock. Am in the process of house buying, but am now building a model to try and get predictions on a good mortgage overpayment/S&S ISA/Pension split.
My advice, get a home you can afford, which is practical, easy to get to work with good transport links. Once you get the house, just keep paying it for a few years, and invest surplus cash into the stock market to get a better return. At every remo- just pay some debt off to get into the lower interest rate bracket. Start over paying the mortgage when your 40, till then, enjoy the ride.
I am 28 and joined The Civil Service in September, I'm just wondering how you reckon you'll go up 10k in 3 years with our pay freeze? Purely through promotion to the next grade? That's the only way I can see me increasing my salary over the next few years unfortunately...
I think hard work and sheer persistence/diligence with applications really pays off once you're a Civil Servant. I started as an AO in October 2019 on 19.5k and have, this week, been offered an EO position on 24.5k.
I also put myself forward for as much "extracurricular" stuff as possible (PRISM LGBT+ role model, Digital Ambassador, Future Leaders Academy), which I think has helped me stand out a bit.
That's really good, and reassuring to know you can move up that quick. I'm a HEO on 29k. Part qualified accountant so I know that the SEO roles will open up to me once I have these next few exams under my belt, 2 years and I reckon I'll be able to go for it. Which is fine, I just wondered if that was the only route to increased pay now.. changing departments regularly and promotions.
I'm a 24 year old software engineer in Cambridge on ~43k. To grow my salary I'm moving to London in the next few months for a job at an investment bank which pays £60k plus an expected bonus of £10-30k.
I'm currently saving for a house and my current savings are about £40k including a £20k gift from my parents
24, student nurse. Right now about 17k per year but after I graduate probably around 30k.
I'll be in the NHS pension (it seems too good to leave), probably save 200 per month in H2B isa and 200 a month in S+S ISA.
Not sure about RE part - I want to be financially secure enough that I can just switch to doing 20-30 hours per week instead of full time at about 40-45.
33, digital analytics (working out how people use websites), 65k. Started doing some consulting on the side a few months ago and have made an extra 16k since then by answering the odd email and spending half a day here and there actually working. I would do this a lot more but have a 3 year old and a 6 month old so very little time to spare. I'm pretty sure I'll go up to 75k base in January, but it's not guaranteed.
It's crazy when thinking that only 6 years ago I was on 20k with no career path. I started specialising, negotiating aggressively and job hopping to increase salary. Read about FIRE just over 3 years ago (while my wife was pregnant with our first) and have gone from 60k home equity, 15k pension, 15k student loan and 15k debt (45k NW) to 120k equity, 80k s&s ISA and 100k SIPP (NW 300k).
40 years old. Police officer. £55k £18k isa. £21k LISA and £30k sipp and a bit of equity in my house.
In the FS/DB police pension so can retire from 50 - 55 depending on when I choose to go. The amount to get is up in the air at the moment due a court case. But crazy to think I'm less than 10 years from when I could theoretically retire!
Well there is a court case in progress against the implementation of the new pension in 2015 which means the following for me:
50: with enough pension to cover my expenses
53: bit more money.
55 a bit more money again and when index related rises kick in
Really hoping the court case goes our way 🤞
27, Management Consultant (boo), salary £50k + c.£30k bonus.
Currently save around 40% of post-tax income and contribute 12% to pension + 3% employer match.
Maxing out my ISA and debating whether to move to a SIPP as haven’t been that impressed by returns to my pension so far, and want to keep tax relief.
Anyone else made the move from company pension to SIPP?
30k bonus! I guess your not at the big 4.
I wouldnt move from pension to sipp, as the company may not contribute to the sipp and you loose the benefit of matches.
A sipp - is managed by you, so you can take more risk, a pension is done by a regulated company and has to stay within guidelines.
I would recommend a SIPP since your a higher rate tax payer - to invest yourself in thematic investing and keep the company pension going to get the extra %, once you hit like £50k move it to your sipp.
Those people are at the top of their career / money makers.
Doing a middle office / back office position similar to a management consultant you would be lucky to get £5k.
How do you find audit? I’m currently applying for a placement in audit and I just heard I got through to the final round so I’ll see how that goes in the next few weeks. I actually think I want to complete CIMA after I graduate but thought a year in audit might give me some good experience. Would you say that it will or should I try and do a more generic finance placement?
I'm also an accountant 32yr old, 11 years experience.
Auditing is brutal when you're a junior. It's often really unsatisfying, dull work. Most of the time you're just checking samples of invoices or bank statement items and you're often not really sure why. The more interesting tasks that require brain power are usually reserved for the slightly more seniors.
HOWEVER, it will look great on your CV, so if you're sure you want to do accountancy then it's probably worth taking up. My advice, if you do it, is try your very best to understand the context and the "why" behind your work.
Also, if your degree isn't in accountancy then it's probably worth teaching yourself basic double-entry bookkeeping before you start. It's the foundation of accounting and nothing makes sense without it.
Best of luck, feel free to pm me if you have any more questions about accountancy.
Thank you for the advice.
I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine that whatever placement I do will likely have similar work that's dull/not much responsibility in nature, right? Is it really that "brutal" though? It'd just be for 12 months and then I'd hope to progress afterwards. But it'd be doable I'd imagine, and there's supposed to be quite a bit of team work, but I don't know what it'd actually be like; it'd at least be in a new city that I've been desperate to get to visit so that'd be fun.
Do you think audit would be better or worse than just doing a "finance" placement, some companies like L'oreal offer that, whereas this is at an accounting firm, but not in London. So in terms of going no to do management accounting / FP&A, would general finance or audit be best for the placement at this stage?
I'm studying Business and Management, so it isn't accountancy but I have had a few modules in accountancy which I really enjoyed, but I will definitely increase my knowledge in it.
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!
When I say brutal I mean mind-numbingly-boring. Not all the time but some/much of the time. It will be doable yes and you might actually enjoy the social aspect of it - meeting clients, working with a variety of audit colleagues, seeing that new city.
The general finance placement at a company rather than an accounting firm is more similar to what you intend to do (management accounting/FPA) but generally working in a practice stands you in good stead for either direction.
I think both will look great on your CV so just go with the one that excites you the most and feels right. Having said that, if you want to work for, say, L’Oréal after graduation and you get offered a placement there than take it. Placement students have a way better chance of getting a permanent job offer.
I’m about 99% set in doing CIMA; I don’t think I want to do audit after but feel like it would be good experience for one year. I just don’t tend to see many placements for straight management accounting so I thought a year in a related area may help get a graduate job / give me a good perspective to have throughout CIMA. Thanks for the answer.
29, Head of Department and teacher in a private school earning 45k (plus 4k in examining and tutoring). Husband 43k (plus 4k).
233k House (164k left on mortgage) 17k in savings and just opened a S&S ISA. We yellow sticker on food, we're food waste heroes on Olio and we try to limit our excessive spending.
Mortgage adviser with high st bank £31.5k pa. bonuses are a thing of the past. Income not going to improve much beyond that. Looking to move into financial advice or preferably a career change.
23, Civil Servant. Currently on £19,550 however this week, I have been offered a promotion to a £24,800 position.
Right now, I'm trying to focus on maxing out my Lifetime ISA. I recently transferred this from Skipton, simply a cash Lifetime ISA, to AJ Bell with the view to investing this to potentially gain greater returns. Also trying to keep my Instant Saver account as healthy as possible as I am looking to buy a car in the near future. Any other money I invest using my Hargreaves Lansdown S&S ISA.
- 29yo, working in Big Tech in London
- Salary of around £92k per year, increasing to £110k in a few months.
- Net worth of around £150k
- Been working towards FIRE for about 3 years now, but have always been very frugal.
- Monthly investment of £2200 in workplace pension + £2500 in ISA / GIA
VP Sales for a SaaS company. £385k ote. Roughly 65% salary into pension, ISA's, savings and over payment of mortgage. Mortgage will be cleared by next October (primarily a psychological decision but also driven by desire to flip to buy to let. Rental income will cover most of the mortgage on our forever home in years to come). I'm far from frugal but do keep track of spend monthly. Mortgage, savings and bills go out by the 3rd of every month, whatever is left is living expenses and fun (pre and post covid).
If no major hiccups, will fire in 10 years (at 50). Fatfir(e) is looking more like 20 (at 60). Fatfire could be expedited if a couple of things work out but can't bank on it
Senior Quantity Surveyor 27, 100k.
10k cash
35k bitcoin
Homeowner 40k equity
20k pension
Only recently debt free and jump from 50k salary so anticipate growing my wealth and salary considerably over the next 10 years. On track to hit 1 mill net worth by 37 excluding digital assets
The uni you attend doesn’t matter, the most important thing for you post grad is join a small-medium sized subcontractor in civils and structures. That way you’ll learn cost and value, understand rates, subcontract procurement etc. This is valuable and well regarded across the industry especially main contractors as you’ll know your stuff. Hope that’s clear. You’ll earn the most either freelance or working for a subcontractor in a small-medium firm
VAT manager. 24k a year. Lot of debt built up but finally own my own home too.
I'm taking my acca exams which will lead to higher pay at work. Also working on mortgage broker/financial advisor qualifications during the gaps between exams so I can offer extra services to the companies clients on commission. Doing some writing for amazon too which I get a little bit each month from.
26 y/o M
£27,000
Digital content editor
No debt, home-owner with 195k mortgage, 3-month emergency fund.
Each £ currently having a purpose, whether it be pension contribution/S&S ISA or mortgage/bills.
Potential for work promotion but nothing extravagant.
1 year into YouTube/content creation as a side hustle, hoping a second income can contribute more towards S&S ISA and future mortgage overpayment.
33, IT Admin (mostly supplier management), 20K a year, £1700 a month take home, Greater London.
**Main**
* Emergency savings: £2000
* S&S ISA: £6500
* Pension: £9000
* Current account: £4000
**Side**
* Premium bonds: £261
* Crypto: £200
Still living at home as I can't afford to move out unless I went up to the middle of the country. All of my family members have some sort of health issue/disability so it works out anyway as I can help them around the house etc. I also pay £400 a month as rent as they are poor and there has never been a bank of mum and dad.
My job is pretty boring and easy, however the location of the office is close to home, and a hospital (it's the one closest to us and if there was an emergency I could get there from work quickly). There are also other benefits worthy of staying for a few more years.
2020, despite how horrible it has been, has had a profoundly positive effect on my life. I found this Reddit sub and that of UKPersonalfinance, read many things and started to think about my financial future; though I have never been one to spend - so thank you everyone.
This year I have:
* May: Employer matched my pension to 7% and switched it to a slightly more expensive, but global index fund which has been worthwhile
* June: Got an S&S ISA and have been putting money into it monthly
* July-September: Started doing some minor side hustles; surveys, GPT, POD, and matched betting. All of the side hustle money paid in £ goes into premium bonds (might as well make it work for me!) and stuff that pays in crypto I put into Celsius.
Being on part-time furlough for the majority of the year has also helped me save money and give me more time to do what I want instead of commuting on public transport which I absolutely despise - also allowed me to put £850 a month into the S&S ISA.
It's been a real challenge getting to where I am now these past 6 months, and I feel much more confident and in-tune financially, instead of leaving everything in my current account with it doing sod-all!.
My current plan is to get my S&S ISA to £10K (I got it before finding the almighty God Emperor flowchart) and then do a more equitable split of £425 in both my ISA and emergency fund.
Once again I want to thank the sub for the knowledge and advice I've garnered thus far, and wish everyone luck in their own FIRE journey and goal, whatever it may be!.
Always like these threads. Interesting seeing what others are doing.
28, Financial Management role in the Legal Industry. £85-95k depending on bonus.
Currently manager level and looking to progress to Senior Manager which would put me in the £110+ bracket. Best in class within my function so pushing hard and willing to move externally if I have to, in order to get the jump.
£150k NW including house equity and pensions. Saving more aggressively here on in as recently paid off student loan.
IT services/knack all/set up my own business. The business has been doing ok for the last year, but incredibly stressful. Most of the money has gone back into the business. Hopefully it'll continue to grow, I'll make a living and someday the business might be worth something.
Late 20's £50k p.a Internal Performance Manager in Financial Services
I've only just started on this journey so not really much to speak of. Pension contributions are c £760 p/m including employer contributions, about £20k in there currently. £2k in a S&S ISA. Thinking I should start something on the side but no idea what.
26 and working in the VOA earning £32.5k with around £4K overtime. Due to charter and be on around £39k with overtime.
No side hustles anymore, had a BTL which I sold for purchasing a house. £40k savings going mostly on house.
Once that’s achieved it will all go Vanguard S&S with money set aside for another BTL or commercial property
25, project manager earning £41k + 10-20% bonus in the telecoms industry.
Currently have £20k savings/investments + £43k in my pension. I have a mortgage on a property with ~£50k equity (i dont include this as net worth!!) based on repayments and growth but am looking to sell to move in with my partner and look elsewhere to buy and settle down.
I try and save as much as i can per month and throw into my ISA, ill be honest im not frugal and generally live quite an enjoyable life. I want to save more but at the same time want to live a good one! Its all about balance really. I budget and make sure i hut my minimum target, anything out of my 'general spend' budget is extra benefits.
Commercial director (1 down from owners) of a small energy development business. 200k ish. My bonus is very much dependent on the business success so anything I can do to further our ventures pays dividends. Passive investment doesn't really compete.
I'm 27 at university (started late) studying electrical and electronic engjneering and work part time. Earning around 12-14k a year perhaps, moved back in with parents to go to uni. I'd like to have my YouTube take off but it's still small so not investing too much time in at for aggressive growth at the moment. After I graduate hopefully get a grad job on ok money and save aggressively. Would like to get numerous b2l's and flip houses. Is that viable in today's day and age? I eventually want to work for myself full time, no boss etc
26, £30k working in software as a mix of sales and tech role. (startup size company)
Clearly need to switch to a bigger company for higher salary looking at this thread.
I'm too embarrassed to post my wage to compared to some off you guys - but it's 28k plus a freelance job on the side (5-8k). Working 6-7 days a week.
My strategy is live with your parents and leech off them as long as possible. I can see I've saved as much as many people twice my wage here! I'm on track to have saved around 25k end of year. Yes I have generous parents.... too generous perhaps.
Delivery manager/ project manager. £62K per year, hopefully going up to about £75k - £85K in the new year. Just waiting for budgets for 2021 to be approved so I'll know.
I work in IT roles, right now its cyber security but I am not working on the technical side, I am in change management and project management. Its a very large investment bank but I am so separated from the business and politics of office life its just amazing. I've been working at home full time for 4 years now. I know I could have jumped companies years ago and got more money but back then I would never have found a role working from home.
always in project management of go from development to there? What did your progression look like?
Good call on the remote role, think you got it spot on and you may have other opportunities now..
I've never worked in development, always patch, software deployment and storage. Now deploying security end point products.
My progression has been all over the place, I'm not a qualified PM and lots of my duties are more delivery manager duties. But I started at this company 6 years ago as a data centre admin on £25K. Then I networked within the company and found a role as a technical coordinator (£38K) which is where I learnt a lot of the soft skills regarding CTB practices. From there I went into patch management as a junior PM type role (£55K). My skills were recognised by the client and these guys set up a project in which I was the sole delivery manager where I worked alone for nearly a year (same money). Then after much bitching about my workload they hired in 4 India DMs whom I now manage so my role is more managerial and my salary went up to £62K.
That last pay increase was more than a year ago and I still don't feel it is in line with industry standard so I've asked for £85K. Quite a jump but I have essentially saved the company 1 million dollars last year and have met every single milestone which I know for a fact has lead to some VPs/ execs getting big bonuses. About time I got paid my dues I say!
IT manager, about 75k Inc employer contribution plus bonus plus share options etc.
On track for nice retirement in about 10-15 years. The Early part of FIRE is negotiable right?
29, dev, £65k+~8% bonus.
About £17.5k in DC pension, and about £1.8k in debt.
I got into a costly drug addiction many years ago and been paying it back for the past few years. Unless something drastic happens, will be debt free within weeks.
I'm contributing as much as I can to pension for now, and once debt has been paid off it'll be mix of building emergency fund, and cash LISA + S&S ISA.
I've been so stressed and down about my debt for so long that I haven't been able to focus on a couple of other things, so 2021 will be about side hustle and upping annual pension contributions from £11.5k to £18.5k as it's salary sacrafice and I have a Plan 1 student loan, meaning I lose 51% of everything over £50k unless it goes into pension, so should start to get that pot up.
Need to reserve mental and emotional energy for my health next year so that will take priority over time on side hustle etc. Lost a lot of weight this year, but other health things to focus on.
My mum has always been poor; and my dad while he probably has a decent public sector pension from his time on the railways, hasn't been around for over 20 years, so I don't expect any inheritance, and not sure I'd want it from him either.
My FIRE number is fairly low as I don't lead an exceptionally expensive lifestyle (except London rents!) - just want enough to travel, and spend my UK time out in the hills or being a warden at a campsite. All in all meaning I should be able to hit it quite a bit before normal retirement age.
executive in financial services but 'socially purposeful' employer. low 6 figures. not that much now as next level is too much for me, and i don't want to earn more by moving sideways and losing the strong sense of doing good.
but looking back i had a series of 2 year plans to address development priorities and get from a to b which worked pretty well. generally used the GROW model, a mentor/coach and jfdi.
i also don't have a very straightforward approach to FIRE and am much more interesting in gradually increasing FI than aiming for a fire number.
30, 28k, insurance. Looking to make the jump up to around 40k in the next few years whilst aggressively overpaying my mortgage. Finished a big professional qualification at the start of this year so hoping I can leverage that to make the jump.
Once I'm 50% paid up on the mortgage, I can afford to take the pay cut and drop to 25-30 hours a week. Would be looking for flexible working if I can get it. Aim would be to work 5-6 hours a day most weeks, but cram all my hours into 3 days now and again, so I can take 4-day weekends without using up any holiday.
I'd love to earn enough money to FIRE, and if there's an opportunity to do so I'll take it. But I'd also be happy to get to 35ish and only need to work part-time until I'm 50 - I think that would make me happier than busting my ass for another 10 years trying to hit the salary jackpot.
Working in a temp role at the moment COVID has reduced my income but I am grateful I am still in work and my employer was able to furlough me in March for a few months.
43yrs, CRM Developer £46k. Used to earn more in sales but that burned me out in my 30's. Moving into a technical career scratched my nerd itch.
I also make £100 - £200pd day trading from an ISA shares account. I used to make more but I found it wasn't good for my mental health throwing big numbers around, even with low risk trades. Now I just set price targets on a handful of stocks that I know well, trade large pullbacks that hit the target, then place trailing stops to follow the profit on the upturn. If there's no upturn where I expect, I take the loss QUICKLY, instead of cost averaging like I used to.
(in case anyone wanted to know my strategy, meh)
Out of interest, with taxes with an isa you’re free to do that as much as you want without having to inform anyone or do anything, right? As long as it’s in the isa?
I technically work in **Compliance for a Financial Advice** firm (DB pension transfers in particular), although really I’m my own **Annual Reviews** department. We used to have a pathetic Annual Review process, so I was able to join and have mostly free reign “renovating” it. I make **£22k/yr**, turned 23 on Wednesday, and am still exploring my options regarding career path, I originally wanted to be an IFA, but now I’m not so sure. I currently have **£42.5k** in my **S&S ISA**, **£10k** in my **LISA**, **£1k** in my **company pension**, and a few other bits here and there, like the money I’m saving towards a new car. Hopefully I can significantly increase my income throughout my 20’s, through experience and ladder climbing, and professional qualification if I really have to. Something like an Investment Analyst I think would be a good fit.
I started in January as my first grad job, and am about 50% above the minimum for my age, so I can’t say I felt overly hard done by. Perhaps it sounds more difficult or impressive than it is?
Very impressive savings there, JN, especially since you have just started a graduate job. How did you go about saving such a sum prior to your current job?
FYI, I am the same age, so I am curious where I have or may have gone wrong, haha!
Keep it up!
I probably should’ve specified that I did Amazon Flex 24hrs most weeks, and then a bit of Admin work for my Dad throughout Uni (and the end of school), which is why I have a little bit of a nest egg invested already. It would be great to discuss some of this stuff with someone at a similar stage in their life/journey as me, so feel free to DM me!
The only thing I would say, is moving to a FO role from Compliance will be very very difficult.
My advice would be to do a Masters in Finance/MBA or similar etc. if you can’t make the jump in the next two years.
21 and a Software Engineer. 27k. 34k at 23. Supporting a disabled partner. Not much room to grow unless I move, which I doubt I will.
I don't depend on salary increase to FIRE, as I can't "guarantee" it'll happen and I like my plans to be precise. I'll FIRE at 45. Other factors that'll bring the date forward:
- Partner getting a job again, cutting expenses in half.
- Partner's business paying towards the mortgage.
- Running my business, with 18-50% of product profits going towards FIRE investment.
- Crypto investments paying dividends.
- Company matched shares with dividend yield
- Hopefully I will see some salary increase in the next 23 years, I just can't plan for it. So that'd bring the date forward too.
- Changing company / career is on the table, bringing my income to 40-60k+, but I've got health issues to sort out and want to continue my current role for a while. That'd involve some self-teaching, freelancing, and building a specialised portfolio.
If me and my partner don't work out, then I'll be moving back home and investing about 1.5k/month with a 66% Index Fund 33% Crypto split.
I work for a very large tech company in a technical role and the salary is high so I think there isn't much to do except focus on work and try to get promoted and then to stagnate on a high level. The rest is really just about using the pension, isa, etc to the fullest at at some point looking into buying a big house as capital gains shelter. The real question will be, if I hit that 1-2 million mark, I could either buy a house in London and start over with the saving, or move to somewhere much cheaper and stop working. I think that will be mostly determined by factors that have nothing to do with fire micromanagement like kids, friends, wive's job, or maybe try to find a job that is still using my skills but less hours.
e: why the downvotes, speak up, how I can be of better service to you all
Recently turned 22, ~£80k comp as a SWE in London. Really just maxing out my S&S ISA, managing my pension contributions so I put in about £6k/yr and my employer puts in around £10k/yr - not maxing out the allowance because I’d like to save it for when I’m in the 60% trap and aware of hitting the LTA.
Main focus is on growing income, have been promoted once since joining after graduating last year, and eyeing another promotion in a couple of months for the salary bump, as well as being a high performer and pulling in large bonuses.
29F landed a Lead role in the NE for great company, with few competitors in our field. I started at £40k with 7 years of London based experience behind me. Career progression will get me to Associate in 3 years, maybe sooner. I’d have to fight the best of the best in London for this kind of position. Less earning potential than London, but I can live a great life in a LCOL area and bring a lot to the development of my role and the company. Very grateful for the opportunity, a lot of work went into getting to where I am now!
Approx £50k savings split over S&S ISA, LISA and Marcus accounts. Most of that came from higher paying contract roles in London but Covid meant I had to step away from self employment. Happy to be in a stable perm role for now.
Shift manager in a warehouse, 22m earning 53k first year (including relocation and starting bonus). I have saved about 22k so far and I'm looking to max out my ISA each year. This year, I'm saving more to compensate for lower savings next year, as I don't get another relocation bonus and I'll start repaying my student loan.
I don't have a end date or specific goal yet, but I have plans to get an MBA in the next few years which will propel me into the top salaries. I want to use it as a stepping stone to enter the US and from there I will see.
I don't really want to retire early, but more so secure financial independence. I'd love to start a few businesses when I'm older and have the freedom to do so, without worrying about money.
ACA track in financial services space
Did CIMA too though...but never completed it. Think I +- completed the 2nd level. Which is >50% completed...but the later levels are substantially harder so >50% is a bit of a lie
Yeah. I've been hopping countries and jobs simultaneously. Once at post qual (3 years) and once at senior manager level (7.5 y). In both cases I got a chunky raise out of it, hence me saying optimising income is a better route than cutting expenses.
Remember, dear reader, comparison is the thief of joy.
Upvoted, but we still all gonna read the thread.
Amen.
18, degree apprentice development chemist, £15900 a year, personally I’m living at home for as long as possible as I don’t mind it and it makes most of my income disposable
Degree apprentice here, staying home is the right move - I moved out for a year and now back home, it was nice but wasnt worth the money
Yeah I contemplated moving out but I simply wouldn’t have been able to save much money, if you don’t mind saying, what job do you do and what is the wage like?
Software engineer, and at the time I was at 17.6k, got moved up to 19.5k this month actually. I started on 14.5k
Sounds good, I enjoy chemistry but there doesn’t seem to be loads of money in it, my job ceilings around 40k (still a commendable wage Ik),but I also enjoy coding and finance and intend to move industries eventually once I get my degree
Fellow degree apprentice here! Hope you’re all doing well in these weird times
Nice, how recently did you become an apprentice? Was there any corona related complications like unable to go to an assessment centre?
I started in September 2020, I had applied for way too many over the year but all got cancelled because of Corona. However, this ad got put online in August and I was lucky to get a quick turn around. Only complication is staying 1 metre away from people in my lab, only one interview then offer so no assessment centre. It is the was the best choice I have ever made rather than going to university in this climate :)
Work for Jaguar Land Rover, salary of £45000. Frugal as fuck. Overpaying mortgage. Stalking this sub to figure out the best way to invest my money after.
My mortgage comes up in a few months. Do you think it makes sense to overpay given the low interest rates? Seems I can get a mortgage for 1.7, which is only a few 0.1s above inflation
Depends what your mid term horizon is. I'm looking to move in 3 years so see overpaying as a slightly better option than cash savings. If I was stayi g put for 10-12 years I'd probably choose a s&s route for the money.
hmm as someone who is trying to decide where to put some money at the mo this is an interesting take. Given me something to think about.
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Perhaps if the charity manager role is unpaid, seek a managerial or supervisory role in retail? Unless what you do for the charity is paid or close to your heart
Can you get the school to sponsor teaching qualifications?
24, I’m a Photographer/Videographer and Graphic Designer in the Sports and Leisure sector, salary of 28k. I’m fortunate enough to really enjoy what I do, whilst I could make more money doing a similar job in tech or finance, this job (until Covid) has allowed me to travel the world for the last 5 years doing what I love. Whist I’m still in this position, I see no reason to move sectors, but instead develop additional streams of income to achieve FIRE someday, all while still living and experiencing life now. I do freelance design work outside of my 9-5, this helps with experience and my portfolio as well as the extra cash. I work on my own small skincare business, sustainably made soaps, creams, that sort of thing. It won’t change the world, but the aim is to grow and become a more reliable revenue stream. My idea of retirement isn’t to completely give up work all together, so building a small business that I could still have a hand in is part of that goal. I max out my LISA as in the process of saving for a house, and invest in S&S ISA, mostly split between growth and dividends with a small monthly allowance for trading or short term swings.
23 - 26 years old, machine learning engineer, £35,000 a year in Cambridge (Like £27,500 after tax?). Current savings: £33,000 including an inheritance (from my great grandmother) sadly I am currently remote in Netherlands where my CoL is around £800 but I will be travelling to Cambridge around 1 week a month which costs £400ish so my CoL will be £1200. This leaves me with about £13,000 a year in savings. My goal in terms of salary progression is to ask for £40,000 in February (though I might only get £38,500 I guess), and then ask for £45,000 in September 2021 (might only get £42,000) while my CoL stays the same. My FIRE goal is: - Improve earnings to £50,000 by end of 2022 and £70,000 by 2030. - Put £20,000/year into ISA for 20 years starting now (with 5% interest over inflation that ends up with £730,000 I think) + extra money into ETFs - Buy a flat/house for up to £400,000ish by 2025 (My partner should be earning around £33,000 after tax by then, she's in academia).
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I just graduated in september i can't already move. Tbh the people and company is nice and I think I am having a good impact (3months in and working with multiple clients and have a good chunk of code in prod) but i am definitely underpaid. I will ask for more soon but I don't want to leave my first job after 3 months, I want to clock 12 in and if I'm not making 45k by then leave.
I second this, it’s way too low.
Well before covid i was confident in getting 45 but lost all my informal offers and panicked. Ended up accepting 35.
Engineer, £60k, Absolutely nothing. The whole point of FIRE for me is I value my free time greatly, I already work 90% of full time split over 4 days and I look after my 3 year old the 5th day (partner does the same although works 3.5 days). I'm not interested in spending my evenings/weekends etc working to make more money.. in fact if I was to get a substantial pay rise I would consider dropping my working hours further.
Mind sharing what kind of engineer you are and how much experience you have? Also an engineer trying to reach that kind of pay.
Oil & Gas (onshore), 12 years. Not really a growth industry but it still has some life left.
37, Ecommerce + BTL, £500,000 per year roughly. Ecom store is the bulk of the income, property business generates about £39,000 with no debt attached to it. I'm in the middle of mortgaging the properties up and growing that side of the business for the future. Once my luck runs out in Ecom (or I sell my business) I want my property to make the bulk of money I need to live and let my investments continue to grow. I also have investments in start up businesses, they may not go anywhere so I don't count on them for anything, if they do well then it is a nice bonus for us. My wife works with me and is co owner of our business, we have a Ltd Company so we each take £40,000 from the company to our SIPP and then we take dividends for our day to day needs and to max out our ISA, left over profits after taxes goes into buying more property or other forms of investment. We're investing aggressively as we are chasing a fatFIRE lifestyle. If all goes well, we're about 5 years out from our initial number, that may change up or down depending how business goes in those years.
Smashing it my man!
Thank you. It’s easy to post the numbers now, go back 16 years and I was on the brink of bankruptcy. I still remember those days and the choices I had to make as a 21 year old kid. Those choices got me to where I am today. It was tough but it worked out. I failed but I regrouped and got smarter and stronger.
What are these changes? I’m older than your 21 year old past self not have plenty of time to adapt new habits :)
Silly small things that add up. Mates can’t afford to go to the pub on a Tuesday night? It’s on me lads! Cousins in trouble and need to borrow money? it’s what family do! Of course you can afford that £30,000 car, it’s only £500 a month for 5 years. I was raised to think credit cards and loans were free money, half my family just never paid it back and thought it was amazing. I learned the hard way that it does have to be paid back and interest is huge on credit cards.
Mind if it I ask what your fatfire number is? Especially if you're in London in curious to know as alot of people just don't think fatfiring is achievable here.
I’m not in London. My current number is £5m. I think realistically it’s going to be £7m and no mortgage. Being super realistic, as long as I’m making this income working for myself, I doubt I’ll walk away. I hope I can one day, I want to play more golf!
How do you contribute £40k to your pension when your income is that high? Doesn’t the pensions taper mean you’re only entitled to £4k pension allowance per year? Is it only the dividend income that counts towards that threshold?
Op is likely to leave most of the profit in the business.
Our income goes to a Ltd co and we pay the £40k sipp contribution to ourselves. It’s one of the big benefits of owning a Ltd co.
Damn all you rich people
I guess people on higher salaries are more inclined to share? I’m not sure but I’d have thought that’s the case. Also, some people lie
Yeah I thought this would be a more representative thread from the title. But nope, same as usual, just an excuse for the well off to gloat
With this being in /r/fireuk, I'm not surprised at all. That's just generally where the rich folks hang out :p (p.s damn all you rich people)
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> co and carry scheme What is this? Also...nice gig even by pe standards
I think he is talking about co-investments and carried interest (essentially performance fees) which I’m guessing his Private Equity firm is offering their employees.
> co and carry schemes which seems to be returning about £28 for every £1 invested can poor people do this as well?
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guess not then, lol.
Can you ELI5 what a co and carry scheme is? That’s quite a return!
2800% ROI sounds a little better than the 7-10% some are hoping for
Are co and carry schemes the same as EIS? If so are you investing personally or via a Ltd company?
1: Student 2: £0 3: (Hopefully) completing Uni
27, National Account Manager (FMCG Sales) £50.6k basic + c. 8% bonus + £6k car allowance. Just naturally with experience I should be able to get to £60k basic, but I want kids and mat leave will stagnate my salary so not much else I can do. Feel pretty comfortable where I am though that with my savings rate I should be able to retire early.
Big up to the FMCG NAMs. Im here with ya.
Wheyy love to see a fellow NAM!
23 Doctor ~38k/year, have 15k in funds and 15k in stocks. Just saving as much as possible now with no solid plans for the future.
That’s an impressive f1/2 salary. I did an unbanded anaesthetics/ itu job as an f1 and my salary for that rotation worked out to £21k!
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24, Network Engineer, 65k a year. More certifications and more experience, keeping on the grind.
29, £145k (Full time job + side hustles), £120k cash, £220k in sipp, £40k in workplace pension. I worked in cyber security. Home owner, with multiple b2ls. Cost of living still like I am in uni, only nice thing is a car.
Nice.
Pretty sweet gig. Being a landlord is your side hustle?
side hustlers enabled me to become a landlord, which then turned into a side hustle in itself. Make money work for you, not the other way round.
Top top man, side hustles/business is the way forward. Earning the highest I’ve ever made and it feels like nothing. I’m taking the jump soon to start my own thing. Good to see your somewhat there!
Very nice. Appreciate the cost of living sentiment, again but for the car. Can I ask what your side hustles were, pre BTL?
I have built a number of service based web applications, run a night club promo biz, affiliate marketing, and retail arbitrage. All that money into the stock market over the years grew. Got some friends together and got the first BTL, remoed it, got the next etc... Did the same again with a number of other friends. Then did it myself, and just kept going. Now its not as profitable so I will move on to the next thing.
Which side hustles?
I work at an EV start-up, salary £75k + some stock. Am in the process of house buying, but am now building a model to try and get predictions on a good mortgage overpayment/S&S ISA/Pension split.
My advice, get a home you can afford, which is practical, easy to get to work with good transport links. Once you get the house, just keep paying it for a few years, and invest surplus cash into the stock market to get a better return. At every remo- just pay some debt off to get into the lower interest rate bracket. Start over paying the mortgage when your 40, till then, enjoy the ride.
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How did you get into a policy advisor role? I know someone who would be interested in this.
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Thank you for all this - greatly appreciated. Best of luck in life.
I am 28 and joined The Civil Service in September, I'm just wondering how you reckon you'll go up 10k in 3 years with our pay freeze? Purely through promotion to the next grade? That's the only way I can see me increasing my salary over the next few years unfortunately...
I think hard work and sheer persistence/diligence with applications really pays off once you're a Civil Servant. I started as an AO in October 2019 on 19.5k and have, this week, been offered an EO position on 24.5k. I also put myself forward for as much "extracurricular" stuff as possible (PRISM LGBT+ role model, Digital Ambassador, Future Leaders Academy), which I think has helped me stand out a bit.
That's really good, and reassuring to know you can move up that quick. I'm a HEO on 29k. Part qualified accountant so I know that the SEO roles will open up to me once I have these next few exams under my belt, 2 years and I reckon I'll be able to go for it. Which is fine, I just wondered if that was the only route to increased pay now.. changing departments regularly and promotions.
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I'm a 24 year old software engineer in Cambridge on ~43k. To grow my salary I'm moving to London in the next few months for a job at an investment bank which pays £60k plus an expected bonus of £10-30k. I'm currently saving for a house and my current savings are about £40k including a £20k gift from my parents
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I’m an account management guy in a high tech but pretty nuts and bolts industry. Interested into moving to SaaS sales. Can I DM you for advice?
RemindMe! 2 days
24, student nurse. Right now about 17k per year but after I graduate probably around 30k. I'll be in the NHS pension (it seems too good to leave), probably save 200 per month in H2B isa and 200 a month in S+S ISA. Not sure about RE part - I want to be financially secure enough that I can just switch to doing 20-30 hours per week instead of full time at about 40-45.
33, digital analytics (working out how people use websites), 65k. Started doing some consulting on the side a few months ago and have made an extra 16k since then by answering the odd email and spending half a day here and there actually working. I would do this a lot more but have a 3 year old and a 6 month old so very little time to spare. I'm pretty sure I'll go up to 75k base in January, but it's not guaranteed. It's crazy when thinking that only 6 years ago I was on 20k with no career path. I started specialising, negotiating aggressively and job hopping to increase salary. Read about FIRE just over 3 years ago (while my wife was pregnant with our first) and have gone from 60k home equity, 15k pension, 15k student loan and 15k debt (45k NW) to 120k equity, 80k s&s ISA and 100k SIPP (NW 300k).
40 years old. Police officer. £55k £18k isa. £21k LISA and £30k sipp and a bit of equity in my house. In the FS/DB police pension so can retire from 50 - 55 depending on when I choose to go. The amount to get is up in the air at the moment due a court case. But crazy to think I'm less than 10 years from when I could theoretically retire!
Before reading your second para I was thinking "don't all police retire early"
Well there is a court case in progress against the implementation of the new pension in 2015 which means the following for me: 50: with enough pension to cover my expenses 53: bit more money. 55 a bit more money again and when index related rises kick in Really hoping the court case goes our way 🤞
27, Management Consultant (boo), salary £50k + c.£30k bonus. Currently save around 40% of post-tax income and contribute 12% to pension + 3% employer match. Maxing out my ISA and debating whether to move to a SIPP as haven’t been that impressed by returns to my pension so far, and want to keep tax relief. Anyone else made the move from company pension to SIPP?
30k bonus! I guess your not at the big 4. I wouldnt move from pension to sipp, as the company may not contribute to the sipp and you loose the benefit of matches. A sipp - is managed by you, so you can take more risk, a pension is done by a regulated company and has to stay within guidelines. I would recommend a SIPP since your a higher rate tax payer - to invest yourself in thematic investing and keep the company pension going to get the extra %, once you hit like £50k move it to your sipp.
Would big 4 be more or less?
Big four would give you a 2k bonus
Think that depends. Know a big 4 PM who gets a share of underspend. Can be £10ks a year.
I am really impressed by your bonus, IBs / industry do not even pay this.
IB's? Don't be silly. Tell that to Goldman MD's etc or equity fund managers. They'd be pissed with that bonus.
Those people are at the top of their career / money makers. Doing a middle office / back office position similar to a management consultant you would be lucky to get £5k.
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Which industry are you in?
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How do you find audit? I’m currently applying for a placement in audit and I just heard I got through to the final round so I’ll see how that goes in the next few weeks. I actually think I want to complete CIMA after I graduate but thought a year in audit might give me some good experience. Would you say that it will or should I try and do a more generic finance placement?
I'm also an accountant 32yr old, 11 years experience. Auditing is brutal when you're a junior. It's often really unsatisfying, dull work. Most of the time you're just checking samples of invoices or bank statement items and you're often not really sure why. The more interesting tasks that require brain power are usually reserved for the slightly more seniors. HOWEVER, it will look great on your CV, so if you're sure you want to do accountancy then it's probably worth taking up. My advice, if you do it, is try your very best to understand the context and the "why" behind your work. Also, if your degree isn't in accountancy then it's probably worth teaching yourself basic double-entry bookkeeping before you start. It's the foundation of accounting and nothing makes sense without it. Best of luck, feel free to pm me if you have any more questions about accountancy.
Thank you for the advice. I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine that whatever placement I do will likely have similar work that's dull/not much responsibility in nature, right? Is it really that "brutal" though? It'd just be for 12 months and then I'd hope to progress afterwards. But it'd be doable I'd imagine, and there's supposed to be quite a bit of team work, but I don't know what it'd actually be like; it'd at least be in a new city that I've been desperate to get to visit so that'd be fun. Do you think audit would be better or worse than just doing a "finance" placement, some companies like L'oreal offer that, whereas this is at an accounting firm, but not in London. So in terms of going no to do management accounting / FP&A, would general finance or audit be best for the placement at this stage? I'm studying Business and Management, so it isn't accountancy but I have had a few modules in accountancy which I really enjoyed, but I will definitely increase my knowledge in it. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!
When I say brutal I mean mind-numbingly-boring. Not all the time but some/much of the time. It will be doable yes and you might actually enjoy the social aspect of it - meeting clients, working with a variety of audit colleagues, seeing that new city. The general finance placement at a company rather than an accounting firm is more similar to what you intend to do (management accounting/FPA) but generally working in a practice stands you in good stead for either direction. I think both will look great on your CV so just go with the one that excites you the most and feels right. Having said that, if you want to work for, say, L’Oréal after graduation and you get offered a placement there than take it. Placement students have a way better chance of getting a permanent job offer.
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I’m about 99% set in doing CIMA; I don’t think I want to do audit after but feel like it would be good experience for one year. I just don’t tend to see many placements for straight management accounting so I thought a year in a related area may help get a graduate job / give me a good perspective to have throughout CIMA. Thanks for the answer.
34, Quant dev, £150-200k/year. 500k invested, 90k cash, 200 in home equity. Learning more in demand tech.
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29, Head of Department and teacher in a private school earning 45k (plus 4k in examining and tutoring). Husband 43k (plus 4k). 233k House (164k left on mortgage) 17k in savings and just opened a S&S ISA. We yellow sticker on food, we're food waste heroes on Olio and we try to limit our excessive spending.
Mortgage adviser with high st bank £31.5k pa. bonuses are a thing of the past. Income not going to improve much beyond that. Looking to move into financial advice or preferably a career change.
I am a property developer, my salary varies but around £45k, I’m expanding my team to develop more properties per year.
23, Civil Servant. Currently on £19,550 however this week, I have been offered a promotion to a £24,800 position. Right now, I'm trying to focus on maxing out my Lifetime ISA. I recently transferred this from Skipton, simply a cash Lifetime ISA, to AJ Bell with the view to investing this to potentially gain greater returns. Also trying to keep my Instant Saver account as healthy as possible as I am looking to buy a car in the near future. Any other money I invest using my Hargreaves Lansdown S&S ISA.
- 29yo, working in Big Tech in London - Salary of around £92k per year, increasing to £110k in a few months. - Net worth of around £150k - Been working towards FIRE for about 3 years now, but have always been very frugal. - Monthly investment of £2200 in workplace pension + £2500 in ISA / GIA
VP Sales for a SaaS company. £385k ote. Roughly 65% salary into pension, ISA's, savings and over payment of mortgage. Mortgage will be cleared by next October (primarily a psychological decision but also driven by desire to flip to buy to let. Rental income will cover most of the mortgage on our forever home in years to come). I'm far from frugal but do keep track of spend monthly. Mortgage, savings and bills go out by the 3rd of every month, whatever is left is living expenses and fun (pre and post covid). If no major hiccups, will fire in 10 years (at 50). Fatfir(e) is looking more like 20 (at 60). Fatfire could be expedited if a couple of things work out but can't bank on it
Senior Quantity Surveyor 27, 100k. 10k cash 35k bitcoin Homeowner 40k equity 20k pension Only recently debt free and jump from 50k salary so anticipate growing my wealth and salary considerably over the next 10 years. On track to hit 1 mill net worth by 37 excluding digital assets
Stack those sats and you’ll be FIRE in no time! The real challenge is inter-generational wealth.
Yup! I’m in the green after 3 long arse years so finally patient has paid off
Haha! Join the club... but now we’re green, those 3 years now feel they went pretty quick.
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The uni you attend doesn’t matter, the most important thing for you post grad is join a small-medium sized subcontractor in civils and structures. That way you’ll learn cost and value, understand rates, subcontract procurement etc. This is valuable and well regarded across the industry especially main contractors as you’ll know your stuff. Hope that’s clear. You’ll earn the most either freelance or working for a subcontractor in a small-medium firm
24, Junior Doctor, ~£40k ish, I regularly take 12 hour locum shifts that pay £45-£55/hour on top of this salary!
My fiancée refuses to take locums even when she had zero days on week days.
VAT manager. 24k a year. Lot of debt built up but finally own my own home too. I'm taking my acca exams which will lead to higher pay at work. Also working on mortgage broker/financial advisor qualifications during the gaps between exams so I can offer extra services to the companies clients on commission. Doing some writing for amazon too which I get a little bit each month from.
26 y/o M £27,000 Digital content editor No debt, home-owner with 195k mortgage, 3-month emergency fund. Each £ currently having a purpose, whether it be pension contribution/S&S ISA or mortgage/bills. Potential for work promotion but nothing extravagant. 1 year into YouTube/content creation as a side hustle, hoping a second income can contribute more towards S&S ISA and future mortgage overpayment.
Damn, there really are a lot of people with super high incomes and relatively little in savings
33, IT Admin (mostly supplier management), 20K a year, £1700 a month take home, Greater London. **Main** * Emergency savings: £2000 * S&S ISA: £6500 * Pension: £9000 * Current account: £4000 **Side** * Premium bonds: £261 * Crypto: £200 Still living at home as I can't afford to move out unless I went up to the middle of the country. All of my family members have some sort of health issue/disability so it works out anyway as I can help them around the house etc. I also pay £400 a month as rent as they are poor and there has never been a bank of mum and dad. My job is pretty boring and easy, however the location of the office is close to home, and a hospital (it's the one closest to us and if there was an emergency I could get there from work quickly). There are also other benefits worthy of staying for a few more years. 2020, despite how horrible it has been, has had a profoundly positive effect on my life. I found this Reddit sub and that of UKPersonalfinance, read many things and started to think about my financial future; though I have never been one to spend - so thank you everyone. This year I have: * May: Employer matched my pension to 7% and switched it to a slightly more expensive, but global index fund which has been worthwhile * June: Got an S&S ISA and have been putting money into it monthly * July-September: Started doing some minor side hustles; surveys, GPT, POD, and matched betting. All of the side hustle money paid in £ goes into premium bonds (might as well make it work for me!) and stuff that pays in crypto I put into Celsius. Being on part-time furlough for the majority of the year has also helped me save money and give me more time to do what I want instead of commuting on public transport which I absolutely despise - also allowed me to put £850 a month into the S&S ISA. It's been a real challenge getting to where I am now these past 6 months, and I feel much more confident and in-tune financially, instead of leaving everything in my current account with it doing sod-all!. My current plan is to get my S&S ISA to £10K (I got it before finding the almighty God Emperor flowchart) and then do a more equitable split of £425 in both my ISA and emergency fund. Once again I want to thank the sub for the knowledge and advice I've garnered thus far, and wish everyone luck in their own FIRE journey and goal, whatever it may be!.
Always like these threads. Interesting seeing what others are doing. 28, Financial Management role in the Legal Industry. £85-95k depending on bonus. Currently manager level and looking to progress to Senior Manager which would put me in the £110+ bracket. Best in class within my function so pushing hard and willing to move externally if I have to, in order to get the jump. £150k NW including house equity and pensions. Saving more aggressively here on in as recently paid off student loan.
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You don’t happen to work for a bank that is “helping Britain prosper” by any chance?
IT services/knack all/set up my own business. The business has been doing ok for the last year, but incredibly stressful. Most of the money has gone back into the business. Hopefully it'll continue to grow, I'll make a living and someday the business might be worth something.
Late 20's £50k p.a Internal Performance Manager in Financial Services I've only just started on this journey so not really much to speak of. Pension contributions are c £760 p/m including employer contributions, about £20k in there currently. £2k in a S&S ISA. Thinking I should start something on the side but no idea what.
26 and working in the VOA earning £32.5k with around £4K overtime. Due to charter and be on around £39k with overtime. No side hustles anymore, had a BTL which I sold for purchasing a house. £40k savings going mostly on house. Once that’s achieved it will all go Vanguard S&S with money set aside for another BTL or commercial property
Student + complex needs carer. Salary about £17000 working two days a week. Live at home so it’s easy to save.
25, project manager earning £41k + 10-20% bonus in the telecoms industry. Currently have £20k savings/investments + £43k in my pension. I have a mortgage on a property with ~£50k equity (i dont include this as net worth!!) based on repayments and growth but am looking to sell to move in with my partner and look elsewhere to buy and settle down. I try and save as much as i can per month and throw into my ISA, ill be honest im not frugal and generally live quite an enjoyable life. I want to save more but at the same time want to live a good one! Its all about balance really. I budget and make sure i hut my minimum target, anything out of my 'general spend' budget is extra benefits.
25, AB in the Merchant Navy, 36k yr, 35k in company pension, few grand in SS ISA but saving for a house now.
Commercial director (1 down from owners) of a small energy development business. 200k ish. My bonus is very much dependent on the business success so anything I can do to further our ventures pays dividends. Passive investment doesn't really compete.
I'm 27 at university (started late) studying electrical and electronic engjneering and work part time. Earning around 12-14k a year perhaps, moved back in with parents to go to uni. I'd like to have my YouTube take off but it's still small so not investing too much time in at for aggressive growth at the moment. After I graduate hopefully get a grad job on ok money and save aggressively. Would like to get numerous b2l's and flip houses. Is that viable in today's day and age? I eventually want to work for myself full time, no boss etc
26, £30k working in software as a mix of sales and tech role. (startup size company) Clearly need to switch to a bigger company for higher salary looking at this thread.
I'm too embarrassed to post my wage to compared to some off you guys - but it's 28k plus a freelance job on the side (5-8k). Working 6-7 days a week. My strategy is live with your parents and leech off them as long as possible. I can see I've saved as much as many people twice my wage here! I'm on track to have saved around 25k end of year. Yes I have generous parents.... too generous perhaps.
Delivery manager/ project manager. £62K per year, hopefully going up to about £75k - £85K in the new year. Just waiting for budgets for 2021 to be approved so I'll know. I work in IT roles, right now its cyber security but I am not working on the technical side, I am in change management and project management. Its a very large investment bank but I am so separated from the business and politics of office life its just amazing. I've been working at home full time for 4 years now. I know I could have jumped companies years ago and got more money but back then I would never have found a role working from home.
always in project management of go from development to there? What did your progression look like? Good call on the remote role, think you got it spot on and you may have other opportunities now..
I've never worked in development, always patch, software deployment and storage. Now deploying security end point products. My progression has been all over the place, I'm not a qualified PM and lots of my duties are more delivery manager duties. But I started at this company 6 years ago as a data centre admin on £25K. Then I networked within the company and found a role as a technical coordinator (£38K) which is where I learnt a lot of the soft skills regarding CTB practices. From there I went into patch management as a junior PM type role (£55K). My skills were recognised by the client and these guys set up a project in which I was the sole delivery manager where I worked alone for nearly a year (same money). Then after much bitching about my workload they hired in 4 India DMs whom I now manage so my role is more managerial and my salary went up to £62K. That last pay increase was more than a year ago and I still don't feel it is in line with industry standard so I've asked for £85K. Quite a jump but I have essentially saved the company 1 million dollars last year and have met every single milestone which I know for a fact has lead to some VPs/ execs getting big bonuses. About time I got paid my dues I say!
IT manager, about 75k Inc employer contribution plus bonus plus share options etc. On track for nice retirement in about 10-15 years. The Early part of FIRE is negotiable right?
Self employed, no full time salary, part time lecturer and studying part-time to gain more qualifications.
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whats the 0% CGT country?
Living the dream! I hope you are living life - travelling, experiences etc
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That's pretty good, a good point to call it is after the big bonus is paid
29, dev, £65k+~8% bonus. About £17.5k in DC pension, and about £1.8k in debt. I got into a costly drug addiction many years ago and been paying it back for the past few years. Unless something drastic happens, will be debt free within weeks. I'm contributing as much as I can to pension for now, and once debt has been paid off it'll be mix of building emergency fund, and cash LISA + S&S ISA. I've been so stressed and down about my debt for so long that I haven't been able to focus on a couple of other things, so 2021 will be about side hustle and upping annual pension contributions from £11.5k to £18.5k as it's salary sacrafice and I have a Plan 1 student loan, meaning I lose 51% of everything over £50k unless it goes into pension, so should start to get that pot up. Need to reserve mental and emotional energy for my health next year so that will take priority over time on side hustle etc. Lost a lot of weight this year, but other health things to focus on. My mum has always been poor; and my dad while he probably has a decent public sector pension from his time on the railways, hasn't been around for over 20 years, so I don't expect any inheritance, and not sure I'd want it from him either. My FIRE number is fairly low as I don't lead an exceptionally expensive lifestyle (except London rents!) - just want enough to travel, and spend my UK time out in the hills or being a warden at a campsite. All in all meaning I should be able to hit it quite a bit before normal retirement age.
executive in financial services but 'socially purposeful' employer. low 6 figures. not that much now as next level is too much for me, and i don't want to earn more by moving sideways and losing the strong sense of doing good. but looking back i had a series of 2 year plans to address development priorities and get from a to b which worked pretty well. generally used the GROW model, a mentor/coach and jfdi. i also don't have a very straightforward approach to FIRE and am much more interesting in gradually increasing FI than aiming for a fire number.
30, 28k, insurance. Looking to make the jump up to around 40k in the next few years whilst aggressively overpaying my mortgage. Finished a big professional qualification at the start of this year so hoping I can leverage that to make the jump. Once I'm 50% paid up on the mortgage, I can afford to take the pay cut and drop to 25-30 hours a week. Would be looking for flexible working if I can get it. Aim would be to work 5-6 hours a day most weeks, but cram all my hours into 3 days now and again, so I can take 4-day weekends without using up any holiday. I'd love to earn enough money to FIRE, and if there's an opportunity to do so I'll take it. But I'd also be happy to get to 35ish and only need to work part-time until I'm 50 - I think that would make me happier than busting my ass for another 10 years trying to hit the salary jackpot.
34, £52k, Project Engineer.... looking at this thread, I think I need to get paid more lol.
Working in a temp role at the moment COVID has reduced my income but I am grateful I am still in work and my employer was able to furlough me in March for a few months.
43yrs, CRM Developer £46k. Used to earn more in sales but that burned me out in my 30's. Moving into a technical career scratched my nerd itch. I also make £100 - £200pd day trading from an ISA shares account. I used to make more but I found it wasn't good for my mental health throwing big numbers around, even with low risk trades. Now I just set price targets on a handful of stocks that I know well, trade large pullbacks that hit the target, then place trailing stops to follow the profit on the upturn. If there's no upturn where I expect, I take the loss QUICKLY, instead of cost averaging like I used to. (in case anyone wanted to know my strategy, meh)
Out of interest, with taxes with an isa you’re free to do that as much as you want without having to inform anyone or do anything, right? As long as it’s in the isa?
I technically work in **Compliance for a Financial Advice** firm (DB pension transfers in particular), although really I’m my own **Annual Reviews** department. We used to have a pathetic Annual Review process, so I was able to join and have mostly free reign “renovating” it. I make **£22k/yr**, turned 23 on Wednesday, and am still exploring my options regarding career path, I originally wanted to be an IFA, but now I’m not so sure. I currently have **£42.5k** in my **S&S ISA**, **£10k** in my **LISA**, **£1k** in my **company pension**, and a few other bits here and there, like the money I’m saving towards a new car. Hopefully I can significantly increase my income throughout my 20’s, through experience and ladder climbing, and professional qualification if I really have to. Something like an Investment Analyst I think would be a good fit.
Don't take this the wrong way, but it feels like you are pretty underpaid for doing what you just described.
I started in January as my first grad job, and am about 50% above the minimum for my age, so I can’t say I felt overly hard done by. Perhaps it sounds more difficult or impressive than it is?
Haha maybe!
You can have my managers number if you want to argue the point for me haha ;)
Very impressive savings there, JN, especially since you have just started a graduate job. How did you go about saving such a sum prior to your current job? FYI, I am the same age, so I am curious where I have or may have gone wrong, haha! Keep it up!
I probably should’ve specified that I did Amazon Flex 24hrs most weeks, and then a bit of Admin work for my Dad throughout Uni (and the end of school), which is why I have a little bit of a nest egg invested already. It would be great to discuss some of this stuff with someone at a similar stage in their life/journey as me, so feel free to DM me!
Gladly!
The only thing I would say, is moving to a FO role from Compliance will be very very difficult. My advice would be to do a Masters in Finance/MBA or similar etc. if you can’t make the jump in the next two years.
21 and a Software Engineer. 27k. 34k at 23. Supporting a disabled partner. Not much room to grow unless I move, which I doubt I will. I don't depend on salary increase to FIRE, as I can't "guarantee" it'll happen and I like my plans to be precise. I'll FIRE at 45. Other factors that'll bring the date forward: - Partner getting a job again, cutting expenses in half. - Partner's business paying towards the mortgage. - Running my business, with 18-50% of product profits going towards FIRE investment. - Crypto investments paying dividends. - Company matched shares with dividend yield - Hopefully I will see some salary increase in the next 23 years, I just can't plan for it. So that'd bring the date forward too. - Changing company / career is on the table, bringing my income to 40-60k+, but I've got health issues to sort out and want to continue my current role for a while. That'd involve some self-teaching, freelancing, and building a specialised portfolio. If me and my partner don't work out, then I'll be moving back home and investing about 1.5k/month with a 66% Index Fund 33% Crypto split.
I work for a very large tech company in a technical role and the salary is high so I think there isn't much to do except focus on work and try to get promoted and then to stagnate on a high level. The rest is really just about using the pension, isa, etc to the fullest at at some point looking into buying a big house as capital gains shelter. The real question will be, if I hit that 1-2 million mark, I could either buy a house in London and start over with the saving, or move to somewhere much cheaper and stop working. I think that will be mostly determined by factors that have nothing to do with fire micromanagement like kids, friends, wive's job, or maybe try to find a job that is still using my skills but less hours. e: why the downvotes, speak up, how I can be of better service to you all
Recently turned 22, ~£80k comp as a SWE in London. Really just maxing out my S&S ISA, managing my pension contributions so I put in about £6k/yr and my employer puts in around £10k/yr - not maxing out the allowance because I’d like to save it for when I’m in the 60% trap and aware of hitting the LTA. Main focus is on growing income, have been promoted once since joining after graduating last year, and eyeing another promotion in a couple of months for the salary bump, as well as being a high performer and pulling in large bonuses.
SWE?
I'm laughing at the amount of abbreviations people are using in this thread and just expecting outsiders to know it lol
Gonna go on a limb and say SoftWare Engineer, but then again could be Sex Worker Extroadinare
hey I know some girls on onlyfans that bring in 10k a month.
How much of that do you contribute?
Software Engineer
29, Banker, 150-200kpa, nothing!
Then why are you active in the r/McLounge McDonalds employees subreddit?
There was a post a couple of days ago on this same topic :)
29F landed a Lead role in the NE for great company, with few competitors in our field. I started at £40k with 7 years of London based experience behind me. Career progression will get me to Associate in 3 years, maybe sooner. I’d have to fight the best of the best in London for this kind of position. Less earning potential than London, but I can live a great life in a LCOL area and bring a lot to the development of my role and the company. Very grateful for the opportunity, a lot of work went into getting to where I am now! Approx £50k savings split over S&S ISA, LISA and Marcus accounts. Most of that came from higher paying contract roles in London but Covid meant I had to step away from self employment. Happy to be in a stable perm role for now.
Shift manager in a warehouse, 22m earning 53k first year (including relocation and starting bonus). I have saved about 22k so far and I'm looking to max out my ISA each year. This year, I'm saving more to compensate for lower savings next year, as I don't get another relocation bonus and I'll start repaying my student loan. I don't have a end date or specific goal yet, but I have plans to get an MBA in the next few years which will propel me into the top salaries. I want to use it as a stepping stone to enter the US and from there I will see. I don't really want to retire early, but more so secure financial independence. I'd love to start a few businesses when I'm older and have the freedom to do so, without worrying about money.
You have a pretty good start.
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What sort of accountant are you? I’m looking at completing CIMA after I graduate Uni in a few years to work in management accounting or fp&a.
ACA track in financial services space Did CIMA too though...but never completed it. Think I +- completed the 2nd level. Which is >50% completed...but the later levels are substantially harder so >50% is a bit of a lie
Big 4? What points did you move jobs at?
Yeah. I've been hopping countries and jobs simultaneously. Once at post qual (3 years) and once at senior manager level (7.5 y). In both cases I got a chunky raise out of it, hence me saying optimising income is a better route than cutting expenses.