Anyone doing FIRE? How's it going?

[BigTittyLife]

I'm aiming for a fat FIRE at 48. We're 38.
We're hoping to have a £1m pot by that age spread across different investments - some accessible at 48, others tied up until later on. On top of those investments, we have a house worth about £340K which we've paid off. We also have shares in a company which may or may not sell for a decent price at some point.

I wouldn't say we're particularly frugal and we certainly don't go to the extents of some FIRE people. I guess our biggest savings compared to others are that we don't go on holiday at the moment because of our elderly dog, and that we don't have housing costs because we live in a modest house that we've fully paid off.

We're currently putting away about 79% of our income without trying too hard.

We're invested mostly in shares-based retirement tracker funds. We're dabbling in higher risk investments but only amounts that we can afford to lose. We have private pension pots but we don't put a huge amount into those. We both have decent-ish workplace pensions which will give an income of some size at some point.

Is anyone else doing FIRE? I'm on some FIRE forums but they're quite US-dominated and can be a bit weird. I'm wondering if any MNers are FIRE-ing?

What’s FIRE? Never heard of it.

I didn't do FIRE and now I'm too old as I'm 62 and will retire at 67 with, I hope, about £1.5 million. Children held me back from really going all out for savings/investments until about 5 years ago. Basically everything I had went on the mortgage and the kids, holidays were camping etc, though I paid £200 monthly into a pension from 27. Luckily I love my work (self-employed) and dread retirement, always have.

My thoughts on your plan: you don't say you have children so it sounds like a good and feasible plan, assuming you don't want to work from 48 (what will you do?). I'm intrigued that you don't do much with pensions though. Given the tax relief on them, sounds like money down the drain really, though I realise that you wouldn't be able to access them until 10 years after your desired retirement date.

So long as you living for today as well as tomorrow, go for it!

@Cantabulous
I should've said that we don't have children which is also a big saving 😅

Pensions. Well. We have okay-ish workplace pensions but they're DC and DB so it's hard to say exactly how much is in each of our pots. But there's contention around private pensions. At the moment, we each put a couple of hundred quid a month into private pensions. I want to invest more because of the tax-relief. But DP's not keen because that'd tie money up until quite a way past our retirement age and because he's involved in the start-up business world and sees how risk gets passed onto pension funds. I think its a risk worth taking.

I like the concept but I'm not quite in a place where it seems doable yet! But it has helped me focused on the number I'd need to retire early. I'm in my 40s but it feels if I focus now it will put me in a good place.

It’s a good thing to have in mind but- if you push too hard you can get anxious and instead of retiring early and living modestly, you accidentally turn into a miser.

We are approaching early retirement having lived frugally, and DH is struggling with 2 things- the price of a slice of cake or ice cream when you are out, and how much will be enough.

And he has no hobbies.
So 3 things really- will we have enough, will we be able to bring ourselves to spend any, and what will we do all day?

I have no such worries 🤣 I hope he’ll gradually acclimate and be prepared to let loose a bit!

I did a version of FIRE - I found among the most helpful things to read were a couple of blogs. One is Mr Money Mustache (USA / Canada) and the other is The Escape Artist (UK based).

Oh yes I agree, how much is enough. I worry about what I'll do if I run out of money.

Sorry about my accidental comment.
I find this an interesting idea but get a lot out of working so I'm in no rush to stop completely.
I do think intentional spending is a positive thing.

Yes, being child-free is the best option for building wealth, for sure!

I'm always challenging my wealthier friends who have stashed an insane amount of cash but are still working because that is their life. What are you going to spend it on??? Will the cautious, saving habit magically break once you're on the scrapheap, so you manage to get through it all?

As for the fear of running out of money in old age: well, who knows? Do we really want to know? So long as there is a paid-off roof over our heads, how much do we really care? I've calculated that the state pension just about covers my most essential bills, so I'm working to 67 and just leaving it at that.

OP, if you and your DH have slightly different approaches to pension saving, there's no harm in you following your heart and him following his I would have thought. I take his point to a degree, but the higher rate tax saving is money in the bank really, as it goes in to your pocket, not into the pension fund's...

I am trying to do FIRE but being a single mum to two (who I had in late 30s) didn’t help. I might get to retire a bit early but am keen to help out my dds.

What is FIRE?

Thanks for all your insights. And thanks for the Escape Artist recommendation - I'd not come across him so will definitely check it out.

How much is enough is always such a tough question. You could just keep going. But my perspective is that at some point, you just have to say "Nope, that'll likely be enough, I'm off".
For us, that's about £1m. We've arrived at that as a figure to aim for based on some very conservative and very unlikely scenarios:
We assume we'll both live to 98,
We assume no equity release from property at any
We assume zero growth or interest on any of our investments,
We assume zero inheritance from our parents,
We assume zero pay-off from the company,
We assume zero income from workplace pensions.

So, just drawing down the £1m (assuming all of the above) over 50 years would give us £20K per year which isn't ideal but would still give us a lean FIRE.
We're aiming for fat FIRE because we can safely - I hope - assume that most/all of these above scenarios won't play out.

@Cantabulous Yes, I agree about pensions. Fuck it, I'm just going to up the amount I put in and DP can make his own decisions.

We had a FIRE thread a few years ago but not recently https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/4165470-FIRE-starter#:~:text=This%20is%20a%20thread%20for,usually%20in%20low%20cost%20funds.

Do you think £1M is enough for Fat FIRE at 48? Or is that in addition to DB pensions?

Sorry cross posted with your detail on the £1M

@Mia85 Oh thank you. I did try and find a FIRE thread before starting this one but I didn't manage it. So thanks for posting the link.
Looks like it might be time for a new one then 😄

I think being wise with money and not wasting it is a good thing, but the FIRE mentality doesn’t always sit well with me as surely life is also to be enjoyed along the way?

I grew up with a parent who was probably doing FIRE before it was a thing - retired mid fifties - and life really wasn’t too much fun at times. Walking miles because paying for parking was unthinkable, never having a restaurant meal, never really having new clothes (unless I had earned the money myself) and the blinking endless rounds of sandwiches…

To make matters worse, my other parent (who never had any access to money - these days it would be called financial abuse) then died young and never really got to enjoy any of the benefits.

Is there, literally, a happier medium?

Financial Independence Retire Early
I think.

Basically living frugally, building savings and pensions.

When you can live off your combined interest/ investments/pension/ then you no longer need to work.

Very broadly speaking- If you live like someone on £30k when you are on £60k, then you only need to work half as many years.

It’s more usual these days to do the opposite!

That’s true, @BadSkiingMum

It only works if everyone is on board.

And splitting up is expensive too! It probably fails as a strategy if your marriage fails!

@BadSkiingMum I'm sorry you had that experience as a child. I agree with you - I find it sad when people sacrifice so much of their 20s and 30s for this early retirement goal.
But, I think there absolutely is a happy medium where you can enjoy life along the way but still be building for an early retirement. This is hugely individual so I don't think there are hard and fast rules - I mean "don't be too extravagant or wasteful" are good general rules but what counts as "wasteful" and "extravagant" are subjective.

I don't think I sacrifice anything day-to-day in the quest for early retirement.
We have sacrificed holidays over the last few years (which is saving us a few quid of course) but this is dog-related not FIRE-related 😂

I should say that finding the "happy medium" is a lot easier with a higher income which we're fortunate to have.

I think treat income a bit like the speed limit. A limit, not a target!

So spend what you need to enjoy the day to day, without going above your income. If you can go significantly below your income, then you can reduce your hours at some point.

We're trying but with DC it's almost impossible. We've taken a huge chunk off the mortgage though which I'm proud of.
I'm aiming for a 55 retirement so we've still got 20 years! Any tips are greatly received!

I suppose I am, not quite as young though as dp is older. Looks like we'll have his pension pot of £750k house is paid off, my pensions can't be drawn yet of approx £300 per month (db tied to exh so hard to say plus 3 smaller ones) finally I'm likely to inherit circa £250k plus inflation but hopefully not for a long time.

Looks like we can retire at 60 and 52

My Husband and I got into FIRE about 8 years ago. Prior to that, we had both saved quite a bit from our salaries but hadn’t heard of FIRE.

We’ve never earned a huge amount (higher than average though, but live in London) and haven’t got children. We haven’t scrimped like some of the FIRE-enthusiasts, but we prioritised savings and put that money aside from our salaries before spending anything else.

We’ve just slowly and steadily saved and invested money from our mid-20’s, starting with very small amounts, and in the past couple of years (now in our mid/late 40’s) all the compounding has started to become visible.

I’m very risk-averse, so have made prudent assumptions, but we recently reached the point where I think we have reached FI. This has worked out well as I was recently let go from my job and I’m under no pressure to find a new one.

Looking back, I could have taken a few more risks with my money (had a chunk in a cash ISA for years and should have put it in S&S) and it’s not foolproof as the cost of living is increasing and you never know what the future holds.

Honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I’m so grateful to my past self for having consistently saved. I was so ground down by work and now I feel extremely free - like I can do anything that I want! My husband is still working and enjoys his job more, but having the financial safety net means that he knows he can just walk away if he wants to, and that’s so liberating.

Pa we don't like overly frugally but we don't spend like a £100k a year household, in between I suppose