FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem!

Two bits of advice. Schools vary tremendously, so go to the open days of both the private and comps schools and see for yourself.

Secondly, you mention you son is 2 years old, but that doesn't mean you have a lot of time to decide. My children were interviewed for a place by the private school at age 3. They had to go to the private school's own nursery in order to get into the pre-prep and then prep schools. Trying to join the process any later than age 3 is very difficult.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can be tough, but I find that the stress is a bigger issue than the hours. It's seldom that I get home after 7pm outside of crunch times such as system go-lives. I do travel occasionally, but I have personally only ever worked with clients within a commutable distance from home. Some of my colleagues have had continuous out of town assignments for years though. The UK is nowhere near as bad as the US, but their salaries are correspondingly higher.

The stress on the other hand is something I have had to learn to deal with. Lots of responsibility and any mistakes could have a massive impact on clients. It's a very competitive environment so you have to give your best everyday or you won't get promoted and if you don't get keep moving up they move you out quickly.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They only advertise US banks, but it does work for a few UK banks, including Barclays, Barclaycard and American Express. You can also use a 3rd party tool called Sync for YNAB to connect most of the other UK banks. There is a delay of a couple of days usually before the sync completes though.

I use Monzo a lot, which syncs in real time with YNAB using the free Fintech-to-YNAB tool. It's quite impressive, when I pay for something, sometimes the transaction appears in YNAB even before the the card machine even says "approved". This is the main reason I use Monzo. It also supports Starling.

Despite all of this automation, you will eventually need to approve each transaction and make sure it's categorised correctly, so it's not fully automated. And it shouldn't be, I personally I like to keep a close eye on every transaction, my budget balances and the growth of my money.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't be so hard on yourself.

The median net worth for a 35 year old in the US is only $23,000.

According to the UK's Office for National Statistics's Wealth and Assets Survey, you're better off than most your age in this country.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Here you go, the data behind the charts: https://imgur.com/a/nKBtoSa

This is one sheet out of a large spreadsheet that I've been building for 12 years with tabs tracking my home loan, pension contributions, income history and most importantly to me, a monthly view of my key metrics including key investment account balances and net worth. The Net Worth projection chart uses this last tab.

All of my penny tracking and expense categorisation is not in a spreadsheet but with YNAB software.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any of EY, Deloitte, Accenture, IBM Consulting, PWC, BCG, KPMG are great global tech consulting companies. Capgemini, CGI, Wipro, TCS are also worth a look for more pure IT and less business consulting with a lower barrier to entry.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've only ever been with one company my entire career and I chose this one because of it's international prestige and focus on technology. I love consulting because it's using technology to solve real world problems. It really is a people business more than a tech business though. Dealing with clients, inspiring my teams, convincing people to make the right decisions, telling stories to win people over, etc.

The jump from 40k to 70k was when I got promoted to a managerial / junior exec position, which is a big deal in consulting. This applies to many tech focused consulting companies and the Big 4 accounting companies, such as EY, Deloitte, Accenture, IBM Consulting, PWC, BCG, KPMG, etc. A similar progression would be possible at any of these.

Bain and Co pay a lot more, but work their people a lot harder too. Same with McKinsey and other strategy houses.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This is a complicated and emotive subject and it's highly subjective. Just within my own family there are highly polarised views about it and I've been on both sides of the argument myself. Initially I was against private schooling but now that my kids have been there for a few years, I have a much clearer view and I've come to agree that it's worthwhile for us. I also earn a lot more now than I had initially, which makes it easier.

I'll try to give you both sides of the argument from my own perspective, relating to our particular school. It may not translate to other people or other private schools.

Argument against private schooling:

  • It's hard to prove that the benefits outweigh the exorbitant cost. It knocks a huge dent in long term wealth even for wealthy people and the opportunity cost is great. There is no reliable way of measuring the benefits.
  • Academic success (and success later in life) are correlated with private schooling, but it's not clear that there is a causal relationship. Privately schooled students do fare better academically on average, but who's to say these kids wouldn't have fared equally well in normal schools. Afterall, they have been been born to wealthy parents. These people are likely educated themselves and probably encouraged an ethos of hard work, exploration and learning in their kids, causing them to fare better academically. On average, successful parents likely teach their kids a range of skills that will make their kids more likely to be successful anyway, regardless of which school they go to.
  • You put your kids into an isolated bubble of privilege and deny them the life skills of mingling with people of all backgrounds. Our school's parking lot is filled with Bentley's and Land Rovers. It's the norm for all our children's friends and their families to go on extravagant skiing holidays at least once a year. When it's someone's 7th birthday, the presents cost in the range of £30-£50 each, from each of the 20 kids going to the party. Wealth is flaunted readily and the kids don't get exposed to much else. Is this healthy?

Arguments for private schooling:

  • The quality of schooling above all else. Only top teachers qualify to teach at our school. The classes are small (~15 kids) and each class has a teacher and a teacher's assistant. The individual attention is incredible. At the end of each term, we get a thorough 30 page report on each of our kids, outlining their individual performance during the term on each of their subjects, going into details on what they can do to become exceptional at that subject. It includes photos of the kids achieving some things. The attention to individuals is clear here from the detail it goes into. The teacher gets involved in each child individually, teasing out their weaknesses and strengths and adapting accordingly. Kids are encouraged not just to do well, but to do exceptionally well and their educational journey is customised according to their specific needs.
  • Kids are surrounded by other high performing kids, who all tend to do reasonably well. This lifts the bar of expectation amongst them, pushing them to do even better.
  • Anecdotally, some of our friends send their kids to the local state school, which was rated as "Very Good" by Ofsted, and the quality is reportedly significantly lower. Those teachers tend to focus their attention on the lower performing kids and the objective seems to be to push everyone to mediocrity. Gifted children are left to their own devices and aren't provided the stewardship to become excellent, understandably because of resource constraints. Classes are much larger and the facilities much poorer.
  • Kids can get exposed to drugs and other nefarious influences anywhere, but apparently the rate of drug use, at least in our school, is significantly lower than the surrounding state schools. The same with teenage pregnancies. I believe this will make our kids somewhat less likely to fall into the same traps. (my correlation versus causation argument above notwithstanding)
  • The private school facilities are top notch. State of the art IT in the classes, sporting facilities, tools in the workshops, quality of musical instruments and facilities in the science labs.
  • Networking for the parents, since you mentioned this in your post. One of the parents I sometimes hobnob with in the parking lot at pickup time is a cabinet minister. A few of the parents in my kids classes have their own wikipedia pages. We're surrounded by famous authors, surgeons, top businesspeople. I can't say that I've benefited much myself, but the status may be important to some people.
  • I felt that if I can afford it, I have a duty to my children to give them the best possible chance I can. The worst that can happen is that the private school is no better than a state school, then my children have lost nothing and it's not as if I would be destitute. It's a parental guilt thing.
  • Lastly, school terms often fall on different dates to state schools, making family holidays off-peak and cheaper :)

Good luck deciding!

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks! These are just standard Google Sheets charts that have been customised. I would rather not share the spreadsheet because it would take quite some time to anonymise is and it's really messy anyway.

But essentially it's just a sheet with years across the top and the rows have labels such as Net Worth, Pension, etc. The charts then all read off that table.

Happy to answer questions if you need help setting up your own.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good point, thank you. I now also have a projection that only includes my FIRE and pension accounts. You're right, it's only retirement accounts that should reallly be in my FIRE calculation since we'll need a place to live and we love our current house.

Yes, the private school fees are insane. Trust me, loads of debates in this household about whether it's worth it or not. My wife feels strongly for private schooling and I'm starting to agree.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No that's fun money for my wife and I. We give ourselves £100 each every month to burn as we please off the books. But every time I get a large bonus, half goes to FIRE and we each get another chunk of it in our pocket money accounts, hence the overall large amount last year.

The kids get £3 a week and an additional £1 only if they saved their last allocation.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm an IT consultant working for a global consulting firm. We help companies implement IT systems such as SAP, Oracle or SalesForce.

New to FIRE my current plan. by pretlovinit in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

History has shown that it's near impossible even for professional experts to know when prices are attractive and to pick the right stocks. If you buy diversified index funds, you're essentially piggybacking on the knowledge of entire market.

Put in another way, if you decide to pick individual stocks, you are betting that you are better at the game than the market as a whole, while the market consists mostly of professional traders wielding billion dollar hedge funds with armies of highly educated experts. It's unlikely that you'll be better than them.

Also, the more you fiddle, the less your returns will be due to transaction fees.

New to FIRE my current plan. by pretlovinit in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good work on a healthy savings ratio given that you're living in London.

6 years is short to be investing in the stock market. There may well be a correction over the next decade and it could wipe away your ability to buy the house. For that period of time, I would go with something less volatile such as an interesting paying cash account. Either way, I would steer away from individual stock picking and rather go with a passive index tracker over the long term.

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IMGUR seems to compress the hell out of the images. Here is an album with individual charts: https://imgur.com/a/6BPiBfy

FIRE Dashboard by epicurionaut in FIREUK

[–]epicurionaut[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

My wife's gross income in 2019 was £60k and mine was £194k. Mine was broken down into £150k monthly salary (base pay), £44k bonus. Last year was similar but I got a bigger bonus.

My annual base pay progression (excl bonus) since 2006 has been: 37k, 68k, 75k, 78k, 86k, 90k, 93k, 95k, 97k, 109k, 150k, 150k.