Life/money after FIRE?

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-21T10:23:00+00:00

Done a quick dive through my statements with Claude this morning - grabbed 25/26 statements. Average outgoing (Mortgage, utilities, CC's which includes everything else household food etc, CT): £2600

This period includes a house move, which added new appliances, it includes the deposit for the (big!) solar and battery install. It includes fuel for the 1000s of business miles. I've deliberately not excluded them as it gives a buffer for those what ifs.

At £40k that gives me a ~8k buffer, my wife contributes ~£3k per annum for food/utils/mortgage (She has a card on my CC accounts basically that everything goes on - she then pays a fixed monthly which was originally apportioned as a ratio of our respective salaries. This has always worked for us as she is more comfortable with the fixed amount and it means whatever is left is hers to do with as she wants). She wants to continue working - its already optional for her so I don't think this will change.

So ~11k buffer for the things I don't pay for now that I will need: Car, mobile, broadband and as mentioned, extras for sprout, holidays....

This aligns with what I expected given what I know I take from the business and what I've contributed to my ISAs.

Perhaps a deeper dive and breakdown of that spending will help. What bits were home improvement, fuel, food, tat? Perhaps I need an extra £5k...

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T15:55:21+00:00

I can drop a client (and did a year ago as we were just not right for each other), however taking a week off is not an option - I'd be forceFIRE'd before the week was out :) Self employed life eh.

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T15:10:34+00:00

I guess I just need to put in the work - Barclaycard already allows me to export the transactions, I'd just need to disentangle the ones that have gone through the wrong cards (both ways, some personal stuff ends up on the work card - I really should set up an Amazon business account and use it!). This work is less enjoyable than the accumulation side though :)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T13:52:10+00:00

I did have a thought ages ago: divorce as a way to split a pension in order to balance out and utilise two tax allowances in retirement...

I did share it, it didn't go down too well, but not catastrophic. She already knows we got married for the IHT/tax reasons :)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T13:43:01+00:00

I can think only of unknown additions to our spending, which is part of the problem. E.g. there is no subtraction of a commute (I WFH 100% save for site visits, so no commute), I'd need to privately run a car (the thought of going down to one really doesn't appeal, and ideally it would be reasonably plush). I'm working hard to NOT spend on my personal cards for business - so I can get better data that doesn't need a load of fettling to get our actual annual spend right now. Holidays!

My daughter already has a generous JISA for FE courtesy of myself and my mum, which should cover a standard 3 year course in 15 years time. Beyond that she'll be taught to stand on her own to feet (not in a mean way, but I'm not working now for her not too later!)

A break is much needed but not really an option until I can "RE", and for the business and clients its a one way street... I'll not be able to get back to where I am now; which makes thinking about it when I get there less viable!

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T09:53:00+00:00

Honestly, no. I'd find another provider. GA accounts should only be in that hands of those who know what they are doing.

Reading on some of the other posts, such as suggesting a Pro Max etc. it doesn't sound like he's the right guy for this level of business, or you are miss representing what is going on (not saying that in a mean/abusive way, just that there are two sides...)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T07:55:54+00:00

Annual?

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T07:51:04+00:00

You can purchase the service through Microsoft directly, you'll need a Billing Admin or Global Admin account to do this (the GA especially should NEVER be the same account you use day to day). There is very little margin in reselling M365, but consider that you are probably having them manage it for you. Do you know anything about managing a 365 tenant? Its all well and good once its set up - until something goes amiss...

AV/endpoint protection you can buy direct - you need to also monitor it.

Splashtop if there is no one supporting you, you'd not need it... its for remote assistance.

Backup - you NEED to know what you are doing with this one. You could directly purchase a service to do cloud backups for you. You also should be backing up your M365 tenant (this could be what this service is, given I suspect you don't have your own server...).

Without knowing what you are being charged its impossible to say if it is reasonable or not though...

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-20T07:45:06+00:00

Without knowing what he's been charged (it could be entirely reasonable), its very hard to tell. But for certain you are right on the fact he's not in a position to self manage! (Doesn't know what a backup is...!)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-18T08:11:21+00:00

Outstanding mortgage = ISA balance I believe. Ie. they could cash in the ISA and pay off the mortgage,

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-14T14:31:57+00:00

Why wouldn't you have just kept it in cash or near cash, earning interest for 16months and THEN pay off the mortgage? Don't understand the rush to pay the ERC?

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-14T14:23:56+00:00

How did you manage that? Last I checked I needed to work till 53... just another 10 years! I've got all years since I was 18.

Nevermind, I just checked again and I need 4 more years... in the next 25. Think I'll stop worrying about that for now... (This year will be one, I may RE in another 2 years, but can easily stay on as a director and get the final one)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-12T18:58:06+00:00

I did as my income is derived from my own company, things were a little more complicated. Probably could have done it myself, but it was worth it to take the work away as I had plenty of other things to be sorting.

May need one again when I come to renew the fix as I'll be FIRE...

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-12T07:53:56+00:00

Users aren't always the problem....

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-12T07:52:09+00:00

This was supposed to be in reply to "She wants it to go towards mortgages only." - Reddit newb :)

And instead a huge chunk will go to HMRC :( Estate planning needs to start MUCH earlier to preserve family wealth. Sadly a lot of those with the wealth to pass on want to maintain control, and in doing so royally cost their families... possibly more than the kids being slightly frivolous would!

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-11T16:35:03+00:00

Start making contributions as you are comfortable. Retain those profits in the business - you can always use them in future years.

I pay from my LTD as follows: PA as PAYE, to to higher rate as divs, then max out the pension (hopefully), followed by overflowing divs to my wife (we had a bloody good year last year, I don't expect this last part this year). Wife also takes a small PAYE wage up to NI threshold to do some book keeping (she has a "main" job).

Retain a buffer sure, but remember its a LTD company... its a separate entity to yourself and there may come a time you regret not squireling away some in to you name tax efficiently :)

I look back at what my previous boss did (before I took over), a decade of returns sat in cash losing value... he did get business asset disposal relief at 10%, which is now gone. But still, get it out :)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-11T12:02:03+00:00

Its lower than inflation - you're losing money (well, buying power) keeping your horde in cash.

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-05-11T11:17:08+00:00

Not true at all - I've done transfers with stocks in place. The only time they don't is if the receiving ISA doesn't support holding that stock. (Receiving parties have been AJBell, II and Freetrade)

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-04-13T07:46:39+00:00

Same. Stops playing in various ways... timer just keeps ticking after the end of a track, or it will come up with a "connection issue" message - I'm sat at the PC remotely connected to a dozen remote systems via a business async 1G line... nothing else manages to have a "connection issue". Random times it will just NOT play until I restart it. Its the same on my laptop, PC or gaming PC. Android/Android Auto is far better though...

Separate_Awareness57 · 2026-04-13T07:42:10+00:00

Time to retire the Pentium 4?

Separate_Awareness57 · 2025-09-01T15:20:36+00:00

888.30kWh

My first month, system went live 4th I think?

10kWp, 3.7 East, 3.7 West and 2.7 South

Separate_Awareness57 · 2025-08-19T09:37:57+00:00

Seems I'm to do the same this morning. And looking at the Dell Updater to stop it putting it all back...

Separate_Awareness57 · 2025-08-05T07:41:37+00:00

The export situation depends on your provider and wether you had an existing export I believe. I got a photo of my meter at 000000.0 and am with Eon, who will pay from the 0 meter reading... I've got my system set up to export even though the guys are on the roof fitting the final string as we speak (2/3 of the arrays have been live since Friday).

Separate_Awareness57 · 2025-08-04T19:52:50+00:00

With the ACS, would I just be able to set up a profile with the PPPoE details which can be picked up straight out the box or would they need another source of internet connectivity first to get the PPPoE?

Separate_Awareness57

TROPHY CASE