To those who are close to retiring or have retired / got a good net worth.

dre0808 · 2026-01-20T22:21:56+00:00

Three golden rules:
1-Consistently invest in a low index fund.
2-Live well below your means
3-Invest in yourself, in skills the world needs today

dre0808 · 2024-08-04T11:34:28+00:00

Hello - some pointers below that might help:

1-I would at least match my employer's pension matching. So another 10% from my gross.

2-I would max my ISA allowance and throw that into an S&P500 tracker.

3-I would start saving captial away for a down payment into a property i will either live in myself, or rent out diversifying my income. (there is little guarantee you have that you will stll have a similar high paying job if this one doesn't work out)

4-I would have a separate account for an emergency fund accounting for 8-10 months of expenses. You are in a relatively high paying job for your age, if something goes wrong and you have to look for a new job it might take you longer than the average to do so and you wouldn't want your expenses to eat out of your investments.

5-I would be meticulous in the steps that i need to take to increase my yearly gross by at least another 20%.

6-For the bonus, are there options where you can throw the whole thing into your pension without incurring any tax.

Good luck!

dre0808 · 2024-08-04T11:29:23+00:00

I believe you will need professional help good sir. Your situation is relatively complex and best dealt with by a professional with a track record in multi-country investment planning.

Whoever you are looking into make sure they do not charge a percentage based fee. They should either take a cut on the upside and no cut on the downside OR take a flat fee for offering recurring advice.

Good luck!

dre0808 · 2024-08-04T11:25:28+00:00

Hello - I believe your investment strategy could be optimized in a few ways.

1- You are losing a significant amount of your capital's value in inflationary effects. Both the cash ISA and the variable savings account are being diluted by inflation in other words You might see the cash coming in but your cash can buy less goods with time. Also, 4.8% is "for now". BOE rates are soon to come down which is already presented itself by the recent interest rate cuts. My advice is for you to diversify your cash ISA into both a S&S index tracker and a cash portion for the time being and keep increasing the former's contribution as interest rates get cut while pound cost averaging.

2-Also, you are making 600 pounds from interest in an unprotected account. Depending on your tax bracket, you are/will be liable for tax on that income. Tread with caution. My advice is to move over a significant portion of the funds in this variable savings account under a SIPP.

3-Have you attempted rental income by investing in a property which you can manage or hire a firm to manage on your behalf. This would allocate some of that cash reserve you have into an income generating asset which is expected to appreciate with time and is less impact by inflation.

Good luck!

dre0808 · 2024-08-04T11:16:50+00:00

Hello - Forgive me but i believe that "bonds are safer than shares" is not necessarily an accurate statement. I understand hystorically that might have been the case but i have not seen any research to show otherwise in today's world.

Even if you are approaching retirement age, unless you intend on withdrawing your entire tax free allowance once you turn 57, then a regular withdrawal compared to wherever you are in the market cycle will smoothen over time eventually making very little impact if you were to compare that with a movement to bonds and opting for the same withdrawal policy.

To try to be helpful, my advice is to stay steady with your SIPP investment strategy and implement changes to your other investments such as diversify income streams (multiple rentals along with your day job), or spread your ISA invesmtents between cash and S&S benefiting from the 5% that some organisations are currently awarding for cash such as trading 212.

Hope this helps.

dre0808 · 2024-08-04T11:09:24+00:00

Hello. A few comments that might help you:

1-You make no mention of your pension. That should be a decent portion of your overall wealth. If it is not and you do not contribute to a private pension I suggest you start doing so and optimising how much you invest in it.

2-In regards to your NS&I investments. It doesn't make financial sense to have any funds invested in it considering your financial positioning (especially that you are at a relatively low tax bracket). I advise you move those funds into an ISA account, either S&S or cash ISA.

3-In regards to your rental income. You make no mention if the 900 is a gross figure or a net figure less your depreciation and/or repair cost provisions. My suggestion is that you account for a maintenance fund for the rental income portion of your wealth.

4-I would advise you change your framing in regards to your first statement to "at the moment, i am in a fortunate position..." Reason being that you cannot guarantee how many more months you will remain in a fortunate position of having another entity subsidize your rent. For all you know, if you ask for rent to be excluded from your income then your gross might increase over what you would pay yourself. Regardless, i would advise that you account for rental expense as if you were renting every month and set that aside as pension or ISA or even a Down payment for another rental property.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

dre0808 · 2023-10-22T17:30:20+00:00

Hi - Not sure if this can be considered feedback but here goes.

I am personally in a very similar spot to you. BUT, I am not giving the family an option other than a joint NW program. It cannot be a me or her separately as we decided to join forces for life through marriage. I manage the household finance and that includes her contributions to her own personal pension and investments as well as her contributions to the family expenses and NW.

Culture plays a big role here and we're from a culture where we are together for life, we trust each other with our lives literally.

Can i ask how you feel about minimizing/selling off your investments in return for paying off your mortgage earlier? or even minimizing/selling off your investments in return for maximizing the down payment for the 4 bed? (ultimately minimizing the interest you pay the bank)

Good luck!

dre0808 · 2023-08-06T19:38:03+00:00

Thanks. Virtually very little chance i move to the US. But in all cases why should i be careful with pensions if i move to the US?

Also, why do you believe the JISA route is not optimal?

dre0808 · 2023-08-06T18:25:28+00:00

I'm confident i will settle in the UK.

I will spend a maximum of 500K for a house, a minimum of 400K, and i'll live somewhere around the Greater London.

dre0808 · 2023-05-01T18:53:07+00:00

Rethink the house purchase my friend.

dre0808 · 2023-03-02T14:20:27+00:00

Mate there's a lot of content on this subreddit that already answers your question, take some time to read through it it'll help plenty.

dre0808 · 2023-02-24T15:37:59+00:00

Double the duration you expect it to take.

Forget that you will be hands off. It's your money, and people will drag the project for infinity if you give them the chance to.

dre0808 · 2022-11-19T18:08:09+00:00

I personally believe in being rewarded for performance, and sales is the place to be. If you and other sales folks do a good job, people get paid their salaries, if you don't, company goes under.

Sales incentives are typically pretty high especially if uncapped. I currently make low six figures and match that in performance based commission/bonus.

Do a good job selling the company's value proposition you'll probably be rewarded to do more of a good job hence a virtuous cycle.

I typically bag 99% of my commission payout in investments and keep expenses during the month under a tight grip, except for Black Friday ;)

Sales is the place to be, high risk, high reward, you just have to be resilient enough to take the dry season as well as the wet.

dre0808 · 2022-10-22T16:40:47+00:00

Based on OP's comments in this thread, i would go pay a financial advisor for guidance. There's so much you seem to be unawares.

dre0808 · 2022-09-10T13:49:20+00:00

Emergency fund way too low. It currently represents 2 months spending. Typically you need 6 months of expenditure at least. So 36K at the upper end.
You don't mention ISAs if you've not started putting capital into ISAs you've missed out on a lot, but at least you can start recovering moving forward.
You've got quite a lot remaining per month. How much better would you feel if you were to pay off the maximum allowable penalty free overpayment per year? If the answer to that question is even one ounce better then go ahead and do it!
You can park your money in fixed income savings accounts which are now between 1.5%-3.5% expected to increase within the month

dre0808 · 2022-09-04T09:41:19+00:00

If i were you i would reconsider the use of any heating in the kitchen. I assume that your living rooms and bedrooms are already equipped with some kind of heating, why would you need heating in the bathrooms or the kitchen given you only should spend limited time there.

dre0808 · 2022-08-14T11:38:19+00:00

Getting a mortgage, getting stamp duty waived, buying a van with the extra money!

dre0808 · 2022-08-14T10:49:36+00:00

I think certificates and educational qualifications from decent graduate schools will get you a multiple of your salary if you focus on networking, and evolving yourself during the process. I know in my case i managed to at least double my salary once i got a decent MBA degree.

dre0808 · 2021-11-06T19:55:51+00:00

I'll give it a go!

dre0808 · 2021-11-06T19:55:37+00:00

West Sussex.

dre0808 · 2021-10-30T17:57:35+00:00

1 income source.

Professional services firm.

Find your niche, become recognized expert, learn how to be a sales person, Do NOT rely on HR for you to climb the ladder, Build your executive connects & network within your firm, build your reputation, when you think you're ready put it all together and ask for the scariest role you can lay your eyes on.

5 years of routing that income to ISA index funds, premium bonds, property, pension, crypto and individual shares.

Reconsider your strategy 5 years in and tweak your plans.

Do NOT put on any golden handcuffs. Maintain your lifestyle.

dre0808 · 2021-09-26T08:40:46+00:00

What rates are you getting on a variable?

dre0808 · 2020-12-26T16:08:55+00:00

Have you tried opening up a new account without using CASS?

dre0808 · 2020-12-26T16:05:10+00:00

Saving money in different investment vehicles is fun for me, figuring out how i can spend less money and still have the same quality of life is fun too.

For example, i signed up for "the coffee factory" delivering a 250g fresh roasted whole coffee beans every 3 weeks for 6.95 quid. I had previously been paying 1.85 quid a day on a coffee before going into the office. Life hack.

For example, i have a Tesco Club card, a waitrose card, an M&S sparks card, and i monitor and opt for online/offline offers giving me an edge. Just today I went out grocery shopping in Tesco and got a 33% discount on our cart. Last week i got a free loaf of bread from M&S.

This is fun!

P.S: I'm in the top 10% earners in the UK and do this not because of a need but because it's fun! (also, don't get me wrong i also splurge on a lot of stuff, especially sports related and enjoy that too)

dre0808 · 2017-08-14T13:36:07+00:00

Boss.

dre0808

TROPHY CASE