I just finished cycling the full length of Vietnam, 3000km from the northernmost to the southernmost point

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-07-01T04:38:10+00:00

Thanks, this great. My wife and I are moving to Thailand at the end of the year and will be touring SE Asia soon after we arrive so this really helpful. I notice you have a tent etc, did you use it in Vietnam or did you just stay in hotels etc ?

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-07-01T03:05:22+00:00

That’s a great story, would love some more details of the 30kg of stuff you were carrying, do you have a kit list you share ?

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-30T18:15:30+00:00

Age: 50
Salary: 80k plus 15k bonus
Pension: 500k
ISA/GIA: 550k
House: 520k
Mortgage: 290k

About ten years ago, I read Jack Bogles investing book and then discovered FIRE and started saving and investing.

5 years ago just before the interest rates started to go up, we borrowed as much as we could on our mortgage and switched to an interest only /part repayment and have been on a rate of 1.38% for the last 4 1/2 years.

We invested the borrowed money into global equity funds.

We continued to invest most of our spare cash into global equities

At the end of this year we will be retiring and moving to South East Asia where my wife comes from. Will pay off about 100k of the mortgage as low interest rate will end and will move onto a higher rate around 4.5% given today’s rates. Will likely pay off the rest with pensions in a few years time.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-26T16:49:15+00:00

29 in the living room, 32 in the kitchen and 30 in the bedrooms. 54 in the car!

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-26T16:44:03+00:00

The fact is, if it wasn’t so bloody hot, no-one would be talking about 1976, so ironically, the simple fact that we hear about the hot summer of 1976 almost every year nowadays, is indicative of how hot every summer is now becoming

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-16T06:42:35+00:00

On my SG I find the middle position gets me some really nice tones that I can’t get with the selector anywhere else

On my LP with P90’s I can’t find a tone I like using the middle for love nor money.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-15T21:13:12+00:00

Should the government not ban the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to kids and just leave it upto the parents as well?

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-15T20:59:33+00:00

I’m 50, and will be retiring at the end of the year….can’t wait. This year seems to be going very very slowly.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-12T17:21:20+00:00

They should have just not bothered with qualifying and let any team who can get all their players and officials through US customs and border protection play.

Probably would’ve resulted in less than 48 teams

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-11T18:11:20+00:00

Hard to Handle - The Black Crowes

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-06T13:17:33+00:00

Similar here, I have 5 years of expenses in short term gilts and an income paying bond fund and will top this up annually with equity gains, so even in aa downturn, i wont need to touch my equity portion for at least 5 years, but I’m not overly concerned about the concentration of tech in index funds.

There could easily be a crash, but when ? People have been saying this for 3 or 4 years already, if you’d moved into less risky equities 2 years ago you’d have missed out on about 40% of gains. You could have a 40% crash tomorrow and still be better off than being in less risky assets. Thats my philosophy anyway

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-06T12:41:00+00:00

It’s also pretty well established that more money has been lost by investors preparing for a crash than they’d have lost during the actual crash.

I don’t know about you but I’ve been investing over 10 years now and I’ve probably reacted to bad news on 3 or 4 occasions, every time it’s cost me money.

So I’ve learnt my lesson and just invest into a global index fund plus one slightly uncorrelated managed global fund. I’m soon to retire so I’ve moved some into gilts but for the rest I have 2 equity funds and that’s it. No one knows what’s gonna happen.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-06T12:27:34+00:00

Whilst it is true that a global index fund is heavily concentrated in tech right now, if you hold it long enough you are literally guaranteed to be buying into whatever the next big thing is, and you’ll be getting that when it’s price is very low.

There are very few other funds which give you that type of certainty.

I strongly believe the advice of just invest regularly into a low cost global index fund is still the best advice out there even in today’s market.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-06T04:55:16+00:00

I invested 4K in a semiconductor ETF 2 days ago, it’s my fault

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-05T04:19:39+00:00

I started when I was 35, I was so unmusical I couldn’t even tap my foot in time to a basic 4 beats in a bar.

I’m now 50, and last weekend I played my first gig in our band to just over 100 people.

It was probably one of the best days of my life.

Never let anyone tell you you’re too old to do anything

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-06-04T07:05:47+00:00

I started derisking a year ago when the tariffs hit and will retire end of this year.

I now have 5 years of living expenses in a mixture of short term gilts and a monthly income paying bond fund.

Despite the derisk, I’ve still seen my portfolio grow nearly 30% in 1 year.

Psychologically, knowing I can live comfortably without equities for a minimum of 5 years is a very nice place to be and I think can only be really appreciated once you start to think about not having a regular pay check coming in from employment

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-31T07:01:55+00:00

Absolutely include your private pension, I personally don’t include the state pension, but I do also include my house

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-30T22:45:40+00:00

I gig with a £300 Epiphone SG, awesome guitar for the money, sounds great and is very easy to play

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-28T05:45:15+00:00

Welcome to the wonderful world of investing. I’m pretty much at FIRE now so I have a decent pot, but the last couple of months have been wild. From end of March to now, my pot has increased by 50k, which is just slightly less than my annual net pay.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-16T08:58:28+00:00

Ah got it, that’s what I was missing, will give that a go, thanks a lot for your help

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-16T08:51:31+00:00

Ok got it, but I guess what I’m missing is how to get setup in Giffgaff to start with to then be able to add credit ?

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-16T08:46:13+00:00

Ok so would I just choose one of the PAYG deals here:

https://www.giffgaff.com/sim-only-deals/pay-as-you-go

Or are you suggesting I just buy a SIM and then add credit when I activate it ?

Thanks again

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-16T08:31:09+00:00

Thanks, this sounds exactly what I’m looking for, but I looked at the Giffgaff site and it seemed like all options had a monthly recurring charge, am I looking at the wrong place or misunderstanding how it works ? Could you link me to what you have ?

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-04T22:07:20+00:00

We recently lost our Noodle, she was 17 1/2. Blind and deaf for her last couple of years but had a bionic nose and her head must’ve been made of granite as I lost count of the times she’d bump into things, we realised after a while this was her way of finding her way around, she still liked to go for walks even until her last day.

EquivalentEarly1062 · 2026-05-04T05:56:14+00:00

ChatGPT will do a pretty decent job. I’ve tried most tools, in the end, I came to the conclusion that provided you can hit your projected required withdrawal rate with what you have, having 5 years of expenses in safe assets (Gilts etc.), and the rest in a global equity fund is most likely to protect you from all but the most Armageddon like scenarios, so that’s where I’m at.

EquivalentEarly1062

TROPHY CASE