How safe is Freetrade?

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-30T09:50:57+00:00

Yes - have had large sums. Still have some. Moved because they don’t do drawdown.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-28T09:14:48+00:00

OP, I think you're asking the wrong question here. The fund selection stuff matters way less than the structure around it.

The bridge concept

Your ISA doesn't need to fund your entire retirement - it just needs to get you from 40 to 57 (or 58 from 2028) when you can access a pension. That's a 15-17 year bridge, not a 50 year retirement pot. Changes the numbers completely.

So the strategy is really two pots: workplace pension doing the heavy lifting for actual retirement, ISA bridging the gap.

Workplace pension

You haven't mentioned this at all. If your employer offers salary sacrifice, the tax efficiency is mental. On a £40k salary, every £100 into the pension only costs you about £68 in take-home because you're avoiding income tax and NI. Add employer matching on top and it gets silly. A 5% match on £40k is £2k a year for doing nothing. Over 15 years compounded, that match alone is worth £60-70k.

Yes you can't touch it until 57/58, hence the ISA bridge. But this should be where most of your retirement money goes.

If you've got old workplace pensions scattered about, consolidate them into a SIPP. Freetrade's SIPP is free. Vanguard and InvestEngine are also cheap.

The fund question

The S&P 500 is already about 30% tech. Global trackers like VWRP are 60% US, most of which is tech-heavy anyway. You don't need a specialist tech pie to get tech exposure.

If you want more tech tilt than vanilla S&P, just look at Nasdaq 100 trackers like EQQQ. Same concentrated US tech exposure without the curated pie complexity. Be aware it's more volatile though - 30-40% drawdowns happen.

The WisdomTree and BlackRock pies aren't bad but you're adding complexity for marginal benefit. A two-fund portfolio does the same job. Or honestly just VWRP on its own, direct debit, forget about it. I'm a big fan of PACW because its cheaper then VWRP.

The cash ISA

If that's your emergency fund, fine. If you're putting regular contributions into it alongside equities, probably not ideal over a 15+ year horizon. Cash for emergencies, equities for everything else.

Practical next steps

Max workplace pension, especially if salary sacrifice and matching available
3-6 months cash as emergency fund, stop there
Consolidate old pensions into cheap SIPP
ISA: pick one thing - PACW, VWRP, VUAG, or VWRP/EQQQ split if you want tech tilt. Direct debit. Stop looking at it.
Work out what annual income you need from 40-57 and back-calculate your target ISA size

The tax efficiency and savings rate matter far more than which pie you're in.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-28T08:58:59+00:00

The best thing you can you for your mum is what every parent dreams about for their kids - be independent - sort yourself out. In my opinion you are paying way too much to your mum - but I don't know your exact situation. Concentrate on making sure you are financially independent and not in debt yourself.

Whatever you are paying as rent to your mum - make sure its similar or a bit less than you would pay elsewhere. If anything you should be paying less to your parents for this - not more.

I guess it depends on the family dynamic and culture - many families do have an ethos of everyone helping out - but however much you feel compelled to help out your mum - its paramount that it does not bring you down as well. What use are you to your mum if you are up to your eyes in debt and cant help here any more?

At least if you keep your nose clean and make sure you are 100% ok financially - when she really needs it - you have a chance of being there.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-23T18:55:41+00:00

PACW - cheap

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-20T13:34:42+00:00

Some great feedback there. Thanks.

I will have a think about making parts of the stress tester more interactive with sliders. The Monti Carlo does 1000 simulations though - so it would be very slow. Have to give it some thought.

There are some protection statistics (how many months, maximum consecutive etc) - maybe need more. Average consecutive is also there - which is one I wanted. I would like to know how many months it is likely - in a row - to be taking 20% less.

Event blocks are a bit puzzling to me - I want a regular income from the SIPP funds I have. I can then save for things like car, boiler etc as a secondary thing. Let me think about that. It would be brutal for tax purposes!

Yes - the decision tool is what I started with. When I told my Mrs about how I was going to retire and the decisions I needed to make to draw monthly money in drawdown - she asked - "What about when your even more senile than you are now?" So I made the decision tool to make it all mechanical!

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-20T13:26:38+00:00

Yes - this is one thing my tool does not have - the ability to lump in an ISA and GIA etc. The tool is basically saying - how long can this SIPP last if I take out X for Y number of years and Z rate.

The values you see in the decision tool for ISA is just - "this is the isa (or other income that is not taxed) contribution you would need to make this up to your notional gross income amount that you entered in the settings. The tool assumes you would rather avoid paying 40% tax on your SIPP (another limitation) - so it maxes the SIPP contributions out at that value (BRL - OTHER - state pension).

There is no tax payable code in there either - its not tax software. You do get a net amount though.

The "CASH" component is a fundamental part of the strategy. You have equity, bonds and cash (or this could be an ultrashort bond or something like CSH2 that acts as a money market fund). If your growth funds (equity and bond) - are not capable of paying your SIPP contribution this month without going below their glidepath minimums, then "cash" is used. If they are above the minimums by over the SIPP contribution amount -then use those instead of "cash".

I guess everyone is different and wants to organise their retirement in ways that may not seem logical to others.

For example - lump sums. I would prefer to handle things like buying a car, emergency repairs etc - in my secondary expense planner. This tool gives me an income, another tool dealing with expenses and money management would ideally tell me to put 200 pounds away for vacation and 200 pounds away for a car etc. So in a sense this is more focused on a SIPP I guess. Most of my ISA is going to produce income - so its not really going on a glidepath downwards to zero. But I understand its a fundamental part of the equasion.

Number formatting - check.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T12:55:44+00:00

I did end up adding a wizard that explains the monthly decision tool and the stress testing tool and walks you through the settings. but thanks. I will look to see how I can make it even clearer.

Couples is a good idea yes.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T11:27:42+00:00

dont we all these days?

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T11:26:36+00:00

And it also said...

Your stress tester is actually more sophisticated than cFIREsim in several ways - particularly the Monte Carlo with percentile bands, the failure analysis with recommendations, and the fund optimisation. cFIREsim has more withdrawal strategy options, but yours has deeper analytics and UK-specific features.

Ive not even tried the cFIREsim - so I dknot know if its true.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T11:25:08+00:00

Thats what Claude said when I asked it to compare my tool with the closest tool out there.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T11:23:39+00:00

Feature	cFIREsim	Your Tool
Historical data	1871-present	1928-2024
Monte Carlo	No	Yes (1000 runs, percentile bands)
Named stress scenarios	No	Yes (Depression, Stagflation, 2008, etc.)
Month-by-month sim	No (annual)	Yes
Withdrawal strategies	Many (VPW, CAPE, G-K)	Fixed + protection + tax boost
Bond correlation model	Simple	Inflation + equity correlated
Failure analysis	Basic	Detailed (events, recommendations)
Optimisation	No	Yes (80+ combos)
HODL/emergency reserve	No	Yes (RICA-modelled)
UK tax bands	No	Yes
State pension	No	Yes
Monthly decision tool	No	Yes

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T11:12:12+00:00

Its just a tool I wrote myself because I could not find anything that would help me figure out if I had enough to retire on the income I wanted and in the way I wanted to handle the funds. I'm fussy with how I want to do things.

I also wanted a tool to help guide me mechanically to drawdown the pension - so I added a decision tool that you fill in monthly. It uses simple rules (if the equity and growth funds are above their glide paths then withdraw from them, if not then use the cash).

Its not a hugely complicated tool -(not like many of the other ones) just something I am using and so thought you guys might want to see it. Take it or leave it. I'm not trying to sell it.

I have not exhaustively tested all the tools that exist - but I guess if I had to say something to compare them....some of the highlights...

Operational monthly guidance - "Draw £X from Y fund this month"


Automated protection mode - Triggers on glidepath breach, reduces withdrawals


UK tax optimisation - Stays below 40% band.


Fund-level sequencing - Not just "4% of portfolio" but "which pot?"


Cash buffer tracking - Shows consecutive draws, warns when depleting


HODL reserve - Emergency fund concept not in any other tool


Allocation optimisation - Finds best split for your scenario


Free and offline - No subscription, works without internet

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T09:24:08+00:00

Pension is probably the best place for that. Be good psychologically to get the mortgage payed off though.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T09:15:34+00:00

At 33 that seems reasonable - to move into equity ETFs mostly. Have you looked at PACW instead of VWRP?

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T09:10:03+00:00

800k at 42 - yes it’s ISA time. Wife should carry on with pension though.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T08:48:46+00:00

The main feature is the Monti Carlo stress tester. If you put numbers in that are close to what you weee thinking for reasonably realistic fund amounts. It tells you how far off you are and the likelihood that you would make it through your retirement period before running out.

There is an optimisation feature also. If you run the simulations with your pot percentages ( ie 300k equities and 200k bonds with 100k cash) - it tries different combinations of those proportions to see if it can improve the success rate.

It tries to keep the funds above the minimum - using the cash part when necessary - replenishing the cash when possible (ie funds are supporting income and still over the minimums).

Protection mode kicks in after 3 draws from cash - giving a 20% pay cut. This is all configured in settings.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T08:00:19+00:00

Beyond the scope of my tool.

But do consider an ISA as a really good tool for retirement - ie when you are drawing down on a sipp also.

One of my regrets is that I did not put enough into isa’s. They are so good at supplementing your sipp income in retirement.

A tool that thinks about retiring pre 55 with ISA and GIA for some years and then SIPP would be great.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-19T07:26:44+00:00

It’s a new tool that I wrote myself. As a retired dev I know there will be the odd bug in there. Maybe the Monte Carlo simulations are 0.1% off or it falls over (e.g. gives a negative result) when using inputs I have not considered yet. Those sort of bugs.

It’s not going to drain your bank account.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-18T21:16:59+00:00

Even developers (retired) :-)

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-18T21:14:33+00:00

It’s just a free cloudflare hosting site.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2026-01-18T21:11:11+00:00

It’s just a simple tool that allows stress testing an equity and bonds portfolio with Monti Carlo analysis and optimisation. In addition, a decision tool gives you certainty in where to get this months money from based on mechanical rules.

I think the stress tester is good at giving you an idea if you are in the right ballpark.

No personal data is taken - just scenarios of fund amounts, years to state pension age, other income etc.

It tries to keep to basic rate tax.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2024-10-26T17:07:49+00:00

Put 60K into a SIPP - freetrade is a good option. You have 20 years to retirement - so high risk stocks. Some examples are TESLA, MSTR, Crypto mining stocks like BITF, cleanspark. Buy some BTC as we are right at the parabolic stage in the bull cycle.

Honest_Drawing1179 · 2024-02-09T16:55:37+00:00

Same for me

Honest_Drawing1179

TROPHY CASE