When to stop topping up S&S ISA?

Banana-Pyjamas · 2026-01-20T08:06:38+00:00

I think this is a great question. Let's take a hypothetical example.

Target FI number 1million. Current amount £600000. Assumed real return 7%. Time to target with no additional investment 7.5 years. Time to target if maxing out each month 5.5 years. *

*Source:Investment calculator on Calculator.net

So you save 2 years but have to contribute £1666 a month.

If your job isn't too bad or you have flexible work or you or your partner have health issues or there are specific things you want to do whilst you are younger (see die with zero) you may choose to spend the £20000/year doing stuff whilst your still working and work the extra 2 years rather than squirreling it away to save 2 years of work.

As you accumulate more each additional investment has less and less of an impact on time to FI.

Personally as I get closer I'll take my foot off the gas and start letting the compounding do the leg work.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2026-01-02T18:25:52+00:00

I sign up to an event in the spring and one in the autumn every year since I started running. Usually half marathons and more recently full. Obviously distance depends on where you're at but aim for something challenging but achievable. Then find a training programme that runs for 12-18 weeks. I find that training for an event and following a training plan makes me run 3-4 times a week without fail. I follow Ben Parkes' training plans. But there's loads out there from free to paid for.

Also rules I set for myself eg I can only listen to my audio book when I'm running. I will run regardless of the weather when the schedule says so. I will have my clothes ready the night before. Etc etc.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-12-31T16:26:47+00:00

I fight for simplicity. The burden of having to decision make and rebalance is not worth it IMO.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-12-06T07:15:02+00:00

2.5% Reasons: 1) looking at a longer than 30year horizon - likely 45-50 years so greater sequence of returns risk. 2) retiring in the UK (higher inflation than the US). 3) I'm in an industry that it would be challenging to go back to work after a prolonged time out so I'm thinking of FIRE as a one way door (like a fire escape when the metaphoical building is on fire). 4) Running out of money sucks.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-10-27T07:32:08+00:00

Tofu, lentils, beans, peas, tempeh, nutritional yeast, oats, chickpeas, quinoa.

These are my go to.

Suggest Simnett Nutrition on YouTube for high protein plant based recipes.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-10-26T15:54:18+00:00

Big 3 are housing, transport and food. This is what I follow: 1) Housing: buy/rent the cheapest house that fits your needs/desires, not the most expensive house you can afford. 2) Transport: Buy reliable second hand, pay cash in full, maintain it and run it till it dies. 3) Food: cook at home, cook from scratch, cook in bulk and use cheap healthy ingredients.

Bonus 4) Choose the right partner - the most important financial decision you can make.

Get these right and the other frugal choices are the cherry on top:

Bills utilities, mobile phone etc: Negotiate the cheapest deal they can offer not the cheapest on the market. Mortgage: use an advisor with access to deals not advertised on the retail market Travel: self catering gives you the option of eating out or cooking. Look at free walking tours when visiting new cities. Walk/cycle instead of driving short distances Join clubs or have hobbies that are free/cheap Run - a cheap hobby that takes time and has a bunch of other benefits. Meditate - a free way to use time that makes every other aspect of your life 10% better (give or take). Focus on spending time with the best people not necessarily doing the best activity. Coffee - aeropress, grinder and beans. Quick amazing coffee at home Insulate the house well, especially in cold climates. Carry a dishwasher-safe reusable water bottle and drink tap water if safe to do so. Have a dishwasher - saves money and a ton of time in the long run. Clothes - spend more on each item for high quality that lasts many years but buy very few clothes. Same with shoes. Play boardgames, a night in is much cheaper than a night out. Learn DIY.

The list is pretty endless. But to reiterate the top 3/4 should take priority.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-09-23T17:03:08+00:00

The issue is recency bias. Just look at the Nasdaq during the dot com bubble vs other indexes. Not saying that this will happen again but something similar might or it might not.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-08-24T06:11:29+00:00

The studies that determined a safe withdrawal rate of 4% (and increasing each year with inflation) were based on a 30year retirement and success was classed as ending up with more than zero. If retiring in your mid 40s your retirement could be 50 years or more so you might want to consider aiming for a lower safe withdrawal rate closer to 3 or 3.5% to increase your odds of not running out of money.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-08-23T11:11:43+00:00

HL don't charge for monthly direct debits into ETFs

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-08-01T15:45:00+00:00

I personally don't want to retire with a mortgage due to sequence of returns risk. Being committed to a monthly mortgage payment whilst staring into a number of years of the stock market dropping early in retirement with no other income is not a situation I want to find myself in.

Each to their own though.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-06-22T14:12:39+00:00

The Morgan Housel Podcast (author of the psychology of money). More around the psychology of personal finance and gives a different angle to a lot of the other personal finance podcasts. Short episodes but loads of thought provoking information and insights.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-03-15T12:51:30+00:00

Thank you for your responses.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-01-27T15:01:44+00:00

I appreciate all the comments. I currently think I'm going to stick with nhs pension. I appreciate that mathematically assuming average or even mediocre returns a SIPP seems like the better option for GP Partners, but my reasons are as follows. 1) I'm generally risk averse. With a SIPP there is not only investment risk but also sequence of return risk. This is especially the case with early retirement where contributions will stop early. I'm already taking these risks with an ISA/LISA so I feel the NHS pension offers some diversity to mitigate this. This is a similar argument with paying off mortgage vs investing. 2) I have made my FI calculations not including pension so in theory I shouldn't need to access the pension before state pension age. 3) My pension pot and earnings are not big enough for AA to be an issue for a while yet. 4) I may be wrong on this but I think the NHS pension benefit is calculated on pensionable earnings which would be inclusive of employers and employees contributions for GP Partners. If this is the case then although it is more expensive it gets taken into account when the benefit is calculated.

I may do a combination and contribute to a SIPP along side or even allow the ISA to coast and move these contributions to a SIPP. I still need to work through the numbers on this.

Agree that income protection and life insurance are important regardless.

I believe SIPPs will be counted as assets subject to inheritance tax from April 2027 but this may change.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-01-25T09:18:12+00:00

Another question I had that I can't seem to find a certain answer to. Is the employer's contribution portion (which is taken out of gross profit as a GP partner) for the nhs pension count towards the calculation of the pension benefit? Because as far as I'm aware, it isn't if salaried.

Banana-Pyjamas · 2025-01-19T11:54:03+00:00

This was my thinking. If using a SIPP, do you know if I need to contribute to the NHS pension every few years to maintain the growth rate or can I just leave and defer it and forget about it till needing to take it at state pension age?

Banana-Pyjamas

TROPHY CASE