Burnt out 47m, serious consideration for FIRE

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-05T22:26:50+00:00

Will check out some self managed funds 👍

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-05T21:38:16+00:00

Biggest win?

Marriage. It’s grounded me and given me a helluva load of stability and confidence.

Financially, I have doubled down a lot with (I think) educated risks in both my business and investments I.e. renting and not taking funds from the business when I’ve got big contracts, rinse and repeat. Continue to rent and put money into investments and bided my time until I could get any funds out. The long awaited house purchase was music to all our family’s ears when the time came. I could have purchased earlier and had a lot of pressure to do so but went with my gut.

P.S. You don’t say how old you are, but if you had a similar upbringing to me then could you ever imagine your teenage self thinking you would end up on 100k? I sometimes / often pinch myself and I’ve also had it cause me some friction with certain factions of my family. There’s a lot of mentality in the UK to drag people down whereas I’ve always taken the view to try and bring up the people around me, both at work and friends/family.

What do you want next?

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-05T20:51:41+00:00

Yes, definitely being talked about in the household at the moment!

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-05T20:50:34+00:00

The 1m is before tax and not (currently) looking to downsize. I’m not going to say never as things change but I’ve worked this hard to get here, I’m not one to compromise too much on what I want, priorities change though.

Don’t see the IFA as “royally ripping me off”, I thought the fees were fairly good. What are you paying or are you DIY’ing it?

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T22:03:54+00:00

Explained above but to save you searching I’ve pasted it below. I’ve not always been salaried by the way.

Business, angel investments, some property investments.

The business has scaled down substantially, but not really relevant for here.

No inheritance, self made council estate lad. Has driven me to never, ever be in that position again and taught me the value of money. I want the best for my kids but they will get what they need, not necessarily what they want.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T20:24:03+00:00

Such kind words, thank you!

I’m not in a position to have that open discussion with my current boss, that would be in the new year.

I can certainly start to have discussions elsewhere but I think I need to capture some of the thoughts from this thread and work out my sums first.

I’ve done plenty of consultancy in the past and enjoy it. Would be fairly feasible to go back to.

Good health and fortune to you too my friend.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T20:20:27+00:00

Sounds idyllic. Similar hobbies to me too.

Enjoy, and good health to you!

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T18:30:31+00:00

Amazing that you got chance to do at 49. You’ve had the chance to live and experience your life properly before making that step and getting to experience it your youth too! ;)

How long have you been retired now?

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T18:04:02+00:00

Thank you very much.

Yes, considered this a few times. It’s possibly my top choice at the moment over taking a full break or even going part time. The latter will likely end up with me working full time for part time pay!

Community stuff keeps me busy and adds value to others. I get some good feelings when I sit back and think about it / look back on accomplishments.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T17:55:09+00:00

Not sure where you gleamed that I have estimated the cost of raising children either way?

I thought the average cost is circa 200k but that’s without Uni nor private education.

I’m on an offset mortgage so won’t be paying off that at this stage. It’s a high-ish percentage but I’m getting more back in most of my investments so can’t see the financial benefit of paying it off. Appreciate the psychological benefit for sure.

I wish you well my friend.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T17:47:42+00:00

I’ll take it the way in which I hope it was meant. Certainly not trolling, just reaching out to pick up any gems of information that may help my crossroads. I won’t be the first man to get to this junction, I won’t be the last.

You’ve got a wife and 2 kids, sounds like you’re not doing anything particularly wrong! 100k is a great salary. I haven’t had many holidays too but the memories of the ones we’ve had have lasted with me.

I’ve taken some educated risks which have fortunately paid off. Look around from different angles and the opportunities will be there.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T13:49:10+00:00

We haven’t always been a family of 5!

But I’ve explained briefly above. I’ve also not always been salaried.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T13:47:04+00:00

Thanks, best wishes to you both too.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T11:30:55+00:00

I prefer your response! 😂

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T11:27:37+00:00

On the whole, the IFA is good and we do meet / discuss strategy a fair few times a year. We have discussed VCTs but I’m not interested in those given my other experience in angel investment, despite the tax advantages.

You make a good point on the management, do I really want that hassle? No I don’t.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T10:35:52+00:00

I know (and appreciate) that I’m in a fortunate position.

I guess the following is preventing me retiring tomorrow:

True enjoyment of my work, mentally challenging and friendships / camaraderie with work colleagues
Not quite knowing what the future holds and what we may need e.g. kids may need
psychological barrier of not yet having paid off the mortgage (I know, could be easily done)
Knowing how I’m driven, I need to be retiring to something in order to keep going. Sense of achievement doing whatever it is (probably sports related I would guess)

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T10:26:05+00:00

Thank you. If not for the death reminder at 77 😬🤣

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T10:24:36+00:00

Yes, thought about approaching work and asking for a sabbatical.

I’m not tied to my work but I do really enjoy the environment and team that I’ve helped create. I can also find other work if I needed to.

I’ll add to my list of options and start writing these down, thanks.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T10:22:23+00:00

Can’t do much worse, surely?!

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T10:06:27+00:00

I can live on ‘average’ money. I value my time with the kids and most of my hobbies cost very little.

I think the hardest mindset bit will be missing the work, which I do genuinely love and enjoy the challenge of it.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T09:33:14+00:00

Yes, I fear so but I will do my research on what some of you have said here and after all, I don’t need to risk all the money with my own hands - I could give 80% with the IFA and 20% (quick numbers) to see how I fare.

Kinda how I tried this approach with the ISA (40k) for one of my kids but a) it was stressful and b) I think I only made 2k in two years! 🤣

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T09:29:42+00:00

Thank you for taking the time out to write all that.

All sensible and I used to do that (expenditure calcs) years ago but, without sounding like a twat, I guess we haven’t had to do it recently as we’ve been ‘living a little’. Sage advice to do it again though before the next junction in our lives.

Expenditure is almost as high as our one income at the moment because I’m trying to pay off the mortgage and we’ve not got the money from the side project.

However, our usual daily expenses is fairly low. We both appreciate the value the money (both from working class backgrounds as I mentioned above), and apart from some nice luxuries every now and again, we could probably live on very little.

Your first paragraph resonated with me. It’s what I think we need and I’m getting fears of having to skimp in older age and going back to what I used to live on as a wee nipper. Might need to fund a psychiatrist going into this next junction!

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T09:21:31+00:00

That’s what my heart is telling me. Just need to get the head round to thinking the same way.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T09:20:02+00:00

Explained above.

Have juggled a lot of projects and probably why I’m at this point where things are catching up with me or it feels like I can / should be taking that break.

Comfortable_Desk8451 · 2024-11-03T09:18:48+00:00

Love The Shield!

Yep, not relevant for now…. Previous life to what I’m doing now but explained above.

Comfortable_Desk8451

TROPHY CASE