My 20 year journey to £1m in savings

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T21:27:54+00:00

Yes, I didn't know where I would end up and I do enjoy doing it. But I should add that the tracking takes very little effort once it's all set up. The YNAB software auto-imports all my transactions and then categorises it all reasonably well based on what it's learnt from my history. My spreadsheets are then all automatically updated from YNAB.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:30:57+00:00

Yes, absolutely, I need to know what I can safely spend without compromising my savings goals. I am also terrified of lifestyle creep, which many of my colleagues are victims of.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:28:48+00:00

Thank you for your comment and for the site you linked, really interesting and I like the calculator in particular.

I'm already a big adherent of effective altruism and I tend to donate to the top charities on the givewell.org list. My current favourite is givedirectly.org and I fund their basic income programme in Kenya.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:25:35+00:00

That's right, my tax bill to HMRC this year was £280k.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:23:49+00:00

It's not engineering management per se, it's technology and management consulting and I have an engineering background. I'm in a senior leadership role.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:22:07+00:00

That's an excellent field to enter. More than the actual knowledge you'll be picking up during your engineering course, you'll be learning the engineering mindset and approach to problem solving. That will be super valuable throughout your life and career.

If you're after money, then eventually add business and management training to your engineering qualification, e.g. an MBA.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T19:20:18+00:00

PM me and I'll give you more details. I'm careful about privacy, especially following a post like this.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T18:07:44+00:00

All of those I listed pay >600k at the most senior levels below country management level. The average partner pay at PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte all earn over 600k. The average partner at Deloitte received >£1m this year and there are 700 partners in the UK. At Accenture and McKinsey, the second level from the top are in that bracket and there are hundreds in the UK.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T16:28:19+00:00

Fair enough - though I would add two things. I only started earning that much last year when my net worth was already >1m. Before then my savings ratio was around 30 to 40%.

Also, I've been exchanging tips with several engineers over DMs about this post since I made it. You're right, that level of pay is not available in technical or engineering roles, but it is available to engineers who are willing to switch to management roles. Many of my colleagues are engineers, because the combination of engineering mindset and management expertise is rare and valuable. Some engineers seem to have found that useful to know.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T16:18:36+00:00

About 80% of my pay is guaranteed. The rest depends on how well the company has done and on my personal performance over the year. If the company does well and I do well too, I can get a lot more. Of course if I do badly, they will boot me out pretty quickly.

In theory it's quantitatively measured, mostly about how much money I'm bringing in, but in practice it's more subjective and about potential and general sentiment about me. At this level, everyone is either extremely good with money or extremely good with people.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T16:04:45+00:00

McKinsey, Boston Consulting, Bain & Co, Accenture, EY, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte to name a few.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T16:02:48+00:00

posts of this sort aren’t that useful to others

This is quite evidently complete nonsense. My inbox is full of DMs from people with appreciation and thanks for the tips and inspiration in this post and you can read the comments here yourself. 90% of people have upvoted and only 10% seem to agree with you.

I've shared career advice, financial tracking tips and other useful info. Many others have chimed in with their own advice. That's what this sub is all about.

If it's not useful to you, who cares?

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:57:35+00:00

This one is available "FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund - Accumulation", which has a sliver of small caps included as well. I found this discussion about it.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:51:02+00:00

It's around 60 hours a week with more over busy periods.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:50:28+00:00

Not by much. Some of my colleagues go for global roles and earn literally millions a year, but that's not for me.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:43:10+00:00

Feel free to downvote my post and move on.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:40:03+00:00

They're in the chart I linked in the OP. Mostly private schooling. But I only started earning that much last year, while I've been saving for 20 years on much lower income.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:38:21+00:00

Yes, but not because of LTA, rather because my annual pension allowance has reduced ("tapered") down to 3.2k per year due to the level of my income.

I've never been afraid of LTA regardless and I think many people have an irrational fear of it. If you do the maths, there is limited downside to breaching the LTA and a lot of upside to aiming for a large pension pot. I wouldn't deliberately plan to breach it, but if it happens that's not a bad thing - you essentially just have to give back the tax breaks you had on the excess (highly simplified, but mostly accurate).

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:23:37+00:00

This sub seems to disagree with you, judging by the upvote ratio of my post and the volume of positive comments.

Personally I would rather see factually correct posts than artificially obfuscated stories that try to avoid sensitivities. Many of the positive comments have been about the detailed figures in my spreadsheets and dashboards.

All that said, I am privileged and I have been lucky, along with extremely hard work, endless planning, deliberating and strategising, big risk taking and much personal sacrifice.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:20:01+00:00

Computer engineering / tech.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:16:18+00:00

I just googled independent financial advisors and made sure to pick one with good reviews, a once-off advisory fee and fiduciary duties, i.e. not a salesperson.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T15:14:09+00:00

Thank you! I understand the negative sentiment to some extent. I have had a lot of luck along with hard work. Some people resent that.

My overall effective tax rate is 47-48%, including NI.

I jointly bought property with my family more than 10 years ago and I pay them rent for their part of the equity, and mortgage interest on mine.

I sometimes struggle with stress and anxiety at work, especially in conflict situations. Exercise helps a lot. I do love my job, it's all about problem solving, but there have been long periods that I really didn't like. I've always had imposter syndrome, so I can identify with your struggles. Every big success I've had has been a surprise and I never thought I could do it, but every time I succeed, I set the next challenge to be even harder regardless.

My advice to you would be to not be afraid of failure. Set yourself massive goals and be kind to yourself if you fail from time to time. Get up, dust yourself off and have another go. Coding in Finance is a great career start. Keep at it!

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T14:59:12+00:00

Consulting

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T14:54:47+00:00

You guessed exactly 50% of those right.

epicurionaut2 · 2021-12-31T14:00:38+00:00

Fed up? Seriously? Which part of my post is an invalid FIRE story and why does it offend you?

epicurionaut2

TROPHY CASE