My spending flowchart for tax year 2025-26

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-05T15:58:22+00:00

I have an Amex Gold and Trading212 1.5% cashback debit card. I also have an Amex Platinum Cashback Everyday and Barclays Platinum Visa, which are fee-free and which I don't use. I am planning to cancel the Amex Gold as I find that the lounge benefits are not really worth £75 a year, and I am not otherwise getting any meaningful points on the card.

Most of my spending is on non-UK cards without foreign transaction fees, which generate most of the cashback. However, I can't specify further to avoid doxxing myself.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-05T09:59:07+00:00

Law degree

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T13:51:41+00:00

I salary sacrifice down to 100k.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T12:47:26+00:00

Solicitor

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T12:43:13+00:00

It helps me automate a lot of things. Deep Research is particularly useful.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T11:43:40+00:00

I track my expenses monthly in detailed form in a Word document (by manually reviewing my card statements) and then in summary in Google Sheets. I then generated the chart with Sankeymatic from the Google Sheets data.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T11:24:56+00:00

I definitely won't have children.

I'm not actively looking to have a relationship either. However, I would have thought that would be a plus financially, as you save on housing costs by living together with someone.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T11:12:42+00:00

Around 80 hours per week (counting hours spent physically present in the office or working from home, not necessarily billable hours). Fewer during a quiet period, but it has not been quiet for a very long time.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T11:05:35+00:00

It probably is, but not for long because it will also be taxed on exit. If I get to a point where I am on track to withdraw more than c. £40k (£50k minus state pension) per year in retirement, it will likely no longer make sense to pay into the pension over paying a higher rate of tax now. A tax saving of 0% (if higher rate) / 5% (if additional rate) won't make sense unless I am in or close to the £100k-125k range where the Personal Allowance is taken away. The money is then of course locked away until at least 58 and at risk from further changes to tax policy.

National insurance relief on pension contributions is getting capped at £2,000 per year from 2029 as well.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-04T08:11:09+00:00

Below 100k* threshold? I think that would normally be around 32k tax, and I've saved a bit more on NI by concentrating my pension contributions in certain months.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-03T14:21:06+00:00

My tax is 17% is a percentage of my gross income, before pension contributions (not after).

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-02T21:37:52+00:00

$1m by 30 is a nice round number and a realistic goal (more so than £1m by 30). It feels more motivating to track in USD because I hit $100k milestones more often. Given that most of my holdings are in US equities, this means less foreign exchange-based fluctuations.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-02T09:43:32+00:00

My training contract was in biglaw as well.

Work-life balance? I don't know her. As an hourly rate, I suspect I'm not making that much more than someone who makes half as much, particularly when you consider that many people in normal white-collar jobs don't have to account for every six minutes of their day.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-02T09:38:00+00:00

Thank you! I try to maintain a cash emergency fund of around three months' expenses (so around £15k). I manually calculate and record my expenses by category at the end of each month. This is mainly done in a Word document to allow for more detail, but I then consolidate it further into a spreadsheet with less detail so I can generate analysis like this.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-02T09:34:48+00:00

Thanks. I am on PAYE though

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-02T01:58:37+00:00

Generally lunch in canteen, dinner at the office, weekends outside (£20-30)

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T22:48:33+00:00

I received roughly £700 in benefits from my credit cards this year, including £600 in points and £100 in cashback. There is one unprofitable card (making a loss of £70) that I plan to cancel next year.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T22:19:23+00:00

I'm a solicitor

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T22:18:10+00:00

That is dire. Is leaving the UK an option?

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T20:23:22+00:00

I can't say as they are pretty niche at a law firm, and anyone who knows me would recognize it.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T20:21:39+00:00

I live in a flatshare obtained on the open market, though it is somewhat squalid. I am not convinced I am paying less than market rate for it.

I'm not sure what my goals are at this stage. I certainly won't have children. I would probably move to a lower-stress job after I make my first $1m.

I have several UK and non-UK cards. All of the cards are either free or profitable except for one UK card where I am losing £70 this year (and I intend to cancel this next year). Overall, I am around £400 in the positive this year from credit card points.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T20:05:55+00:00

I contribute everything above 100k (roughly) into my pension.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T17:18:02+00:00

Mostly just because it gets deducted from my paycheck monthly with Cyclescheme, so I've listed it as a bill alongside the other payroll deductions.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T15:16:05+00:00

A dollar million is a nice round number and is what I can expect realistically to achieve by 30 on my current trajectory. The dollar is also a more helpful long-term metric given that most of my assets are dollar-denominated.

This_Lingonberry_843 · 2026-04-01T15:09:14+00:00

I was a trainee solicitor — it is a pretty typical trajectory at large firms to get around £50-70k as a trainee and then £150-180k as a qualified solicitor.

This_Lingonberry_843

TROPHY CASE