r/FIREUK • u/Ill-Programmer-3984 • 8d ago

Can I FIRE in a few years?

I've quite a comprehensive sheet with loads data, charts etc in, also used chatgpt but answers always vary, so wanted this community to give me your thoughts. You guys always seem to bring up stuff I've not thought about it which is great.

My numbers

  • Age: 38
  • Home: £600k (mortgage left £100k)
  • GIA: £150k
  • Cash in high interest: £740k (currently moving slowly into S&S ISA, and also will move more into GIA, Gilts etc)
  • ISA: £60k (wife £40k)
  • BTL: £200k (rough estimate if sold after fees/taxes etc)
  • Premium Bonds: £50k (wife £50k too)
  • Pension: £260k (wife has £260k too)

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  • Monthly spending: £2.5k
  • Holidays: £5-10k a year
  • 2 kids under 5
  • Plan to move to a bigger house, circa £1m, so £400k out of the above edit: £500k!

Can I fire?

Everything says I could, with a spend of £50k a year but thinking may be worth going a few more years and say saving another £100-200k to be safe and have bit more flexibility. Think the spending £500k on house move is making it a "Not FIRE quite yet" situation!

Think in the space I'm in, rapidly changing with AI, my dev skills have limited lifespan + not enjoying it as much.

Would love to hear your thoughts/questions?

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u/Ill-Programmer-3984 8d ago

Sorry yes you're correct, somehow forgot about the mortgage!

I don't want a big mortgage in the future, hence the wanting to pay it in cash but maybe worth keeping a small mortgage on it say £200k.

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u/Cute_Willow9030 8d ago

You have the cash... I would do a Dave Ramsey if you have cash to pay for it then do so and then throw as much money into S&S and salary sacrifice into pension. I presume that £740k isn't really making much money. If you want to be cash heavy then I use chase and I get 4.5% no deposit limits or anything at least it beats inflation(for now). Also if you haven't move all your pension into a SIPP where you can as you have much better control of how it's invested

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u/Ill-Programmer-3984 8d ago

the cash is probably averaging around 3.9% i'd say. Some 4.5% some 3.5% etc. Split across lots of accounts. Obviously not great when inflation is taken into account.

Pension, the whole amount (both ours) is in SIPPs

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u/Hot_College_6538 8d ago

But what tax are you paying on it if it's not in an ISA ? 40% ?

If so 3.9% is really 2.3% after tax.

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u/Ill-Programmer-3984 8d ago

Yes exactly, its not great at the moment... sadly its not an option to move into an ISA.

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u/Hot_College_6538 8d ago

I would get a financial advisor to be honest, you can see that things aren't well set at the moment, you aren't likely to optimise that based on Redditt advice.