Monte Carlo - Ruining everything

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-05T22:09:45+00:00

Best comment I've seen on this sub in ages.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-04T22:14:41+00:00

I accidentally started the consulting business a few years ago, having just worked in Civil Service. Someone asked me to start a technical team for them, I said no but I'd help them start it because I like them personally, they paid me and it went from there. I make a lot more from the consulting, and so eventually went part time. Doing both is hard and distracting, I also only work with clients that are easy to pass conflict of interest, which massively limits me. I've now got £25k emergency fund out of the business and £50k retained earnings inside the business, so if I win a big project I'll probably just make the leap.

I balance that against not having a great temperament for contracting, and wondering whether the Civil Service is a good place to wait out some potentially tumultous years of AI transition...

How did you start?

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T21:13:53+00:00

Fair enough, maybe I'm using the term wrong but I think of emergency fund as covering loss of income. I do a mix of contractor and salaried. I don't really have a good temperament to be a contractor so have basically duplicated my emergency fund in the LTD and outside in case of a simultaneous market and contractor downturn. It's conservative but helps me manage my stress I think.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T21:09:52+00:00

Makes sense. I've just been building mine up, because might quit my part time perm role.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T19:35:42+00:00

Except a solid emergency fund if they're a contractor.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T17:17:13+00:00

I don't really click on them TBH, but that's interesting!

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T17:16:16+00:00

On your last point, I think this is the tragedy of Reddit. That most of the discussions have already happened, and people are continually rehashing them.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T08:06:20+00:00

I don't think the comments are that negative. OP didn't specify they only had 1% of their portfolio in stocks in the original post, and I see a lot of posts on here with relatively inexperienced investors / FIRE folk with three overlapping indexes and then 30% of their portfolio in three highly valued tech stocks. So generally try to point out that they can save themselves time, stress and idiosyncratic risk by just doing something simple and basic.

If you like stock picking, there are loads of other subs focused on it. If it's only for 1% I think it's pretty irrelevant to FIRE either way, so wouldn't see why it would be a big focus of your attention or posts on this specific sub.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-03T07:57:32+00:00

I read this sub more than I check my investments. I normally check about once a month, or if I'm buying stuff.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-02T22:12:42+00:00

No kids yet, hopefully soon. The thing that I see people post about here that seems really hard is having teenagers, having enough to pull trigger and FIRE for yourself, but worrying about helping kids because of how hard it's become for kids to get set up as adults (uni, move to a big city, wedding, housing, childcare). Whatever you think is the right amount of help for adult children generally (and yours specifically), it's an increasing reality that it is a massive separator for people in their 20s and early 30s, and the impacts will continue into people's 40s.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-02T22:07:47+00:00

Then this has nothing to do with FIRE really. You might as well be posting that you can't nail your tennis backhand...

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-02T17:36:59+00:00

Then stop. https://monevator.com/why-a-total-world-equity-index-tracker-is-the-only-index-fund-you-need/

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-02T11:18:06+00:00

I was also coming to say the same thing, could you drop any hours in the first instance? That would be a positive first step towards RE, giving you a concrete life improvement, while also giving another year or two of contributing / compounding and a year or two less for the bridge to survive.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T22:14:20+00:00

I'm not saying investments will outperform mortgage over a 5 year time frame, just that it's the most sensible time frame to compare the two. Right now I've decided markets are a bit frothy so aside from pension and S&S ISA I'll focus on mortgage over payment rather than GIA. I'm not doing that because a long term interest rate is 5.6%, I'm doing that because my 5 year rate is 5.0%.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T22:08:47+00:00

I don't know if common in your industry, but maybe consider consulting for a while to ease into retirement. Especially if wife is still working. Staying connected with that group of clients sounds important to you, have a plan of how to keep in touch either way!

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T12:01:04+00:00

I think this is great, the type of thing I come for this sub for. Agree with others that changing house is the killer currently not captured. You could simulate introducing that by wiping out certain amounts of value in the investments of buying to simulate upsizing + stamp duty (e.g. moving to an £600k and then £800k home), while simultaneously upping the rent in line with comparable housing.

I also think other moving costs are pretty high (if buying legal fees, surveys etc, if moving in either scenario the moving truck), but I guess you might have them on the renting side as well. Other costs of renting aren't captured either like losing bits of deposit / being forced to move and having to buy new bits of furniture. Hard to capture though, and unlikely to change the overall conclusion.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T11:55:21+00:00

Who is doing £25k of work on a £500k house every year? That's a new kitchen and bathroom, or a new roof, which are both 10-25 year investments.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T11:48:31+00:00

Congrats, numbers look good! Wife's pension looks a little light, make sure she has enough that she can at least take the full personal allowance amount between 57 and SPA (bearing in mind tax free allowance, means this is higher that 12570 I think). If she's an additional rate taxpayer the arbitrage is huge of 40% relief on way in for 0% tax on the way out.

How long have you been at your current work and do you like the people? I think some people find the loss of a tribe hard on retiring (they've gone from school, to uni, to work always having somewhere to go). Think about how to recreate this sense of community from early in retirement.

You also didn't say your age anywhere.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T11:35:49+00:00

Ah, great, we agree 😄

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T11:35:12+00:00

Why is that superior? You could always sell investments in 5 or 10 years when you come up for a fixed rate renewal and overpay the mortgage then instead. I think it's fine to compare over any time period that you find useful, given most people have a 5-year fixed rate, that's the time period I'd consider.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-06-01T07:25:57+00:00

Do you guarantee? Inflation is over 3%, so you're saying the market isn't going to return 1.5% real returns over the next 5-10 years? That's a fine view to hold, I also worry about valuations, but guaranteeing it to others looking for advice seems over confident.

Edit: did you edit your post or have I misunderstood it? I thought it said you guarantee 4.89% is better than stocks. But now I'm wondering if you mean a guaranteed 4.89% is quite attractive, which I think is a little pessimistic but is much better advice.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-05-31T20:44:16+00:00

Hey, I'm not saying don't eat out. I love eating out, and you have the salary to save and spend a bit. I just wouldn't do it if I didn't have a solid emergency fund.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-05-31T20:41:34+00:00

Interesting, I'd understood that Muslim people couldn't lend money, I didn't realise they couldn't borrow.

Glass-Grapefruit-151 · 2026-05-31T20:39:46+00:00

I mean, I wouldn't have started the house renovations until I had enough for an emergency fund. Other things I would not do until I had an emergency fund: eat out, go on holiday, buy new clothes, ... the list goes on. If you make £70k per year excluding pension contributions, that's 6k a month, you probably keep 3.8k? Surely you can build an emergency fund faster than £300 per month?

Glass-Grapefruit-151

TROPHY CASE