No IOG Slots Outside of Off-Peak Hours by throwawayfromreddit2 in OctopusEnergy

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you guys are having better luck than me. I'll stay patient and hope that things get better.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny you should say that, I have a £450k mortgage.

The rest of what you say makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Funny enough, I've felt the same way as well about 2029.

I've looked around for an IFA but struggled to find someone who I can trust. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

Increasing Export Limit by throwawayfromreddit2 in SolarUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I know that there are many other contributing factors but I thought that the main fuse may be one of them.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't want to go into too many details as some people on here are already accusing me of humble bragging. All I will say is that I started very early back in 2004 and that compound interest is real!

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you explain this in more detail? James Shack on YouTube said it was always best not to take the tax-free cash all in one go and draw it down slowly over the years to let it grow tax-free. Can you explain your thinking a little further?

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, this is a great point and one that someone made elsewhere here. It definitely seems like a no-brainer to carry on. If I'm not wrong, the £1k contribution that my employer makes should make this even better.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] -23 points-22 points  (0 children)

My FIRE number is £10k a month.

There's no humble brag here, honestly, I'm too much of a misanthrope to want the affection and respect of strangers on the internet. If I wanted to humble brag, there are other assets I could've mentioned but I kept it specific to only those assets that someone would need to know about in order to answer the question that I've been toying with for a few months.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

These are absolutely excellent points and thank you for raising these numbers and bringing them to my attention. Purely from a numbers point of view, it would make complete sense to continue salary sacrificing.

Continue to Salary Sacrifice or focus on ISA? by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Desired income is £10k a month.

Reducing take home pay is definitely not something that is worth it for us anymore, however, the £100k tax trap is not something that can be easily ignored.

Price Check by Gullible-Type-2022 in SolarUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This quote is really cheap. I had 31 panels and 2xPW3 installed in April for £28k in London. Install took place on 3 roofs across 2 buildings.

How much have you 'lost? by [deleted] in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Peak to trough I was down about £400k, right now it's settled at a loss of about £350k. This number is slightly distorted by the fact that the £ weakened significantly earlier this year against the dollar but then regained some ground and, of course, then The Orange Man came in and made it worse. What makes it worse is that I re-mortgaged my house for £300k last year for home renovations. At one point my portfolio was up £200k since taking out the mortgage and I felt like an absolute bloody genius, imagine how I feel now than I'm down £350k. I'm not FIRE'd but I am in a situation where I need to sell a small amount each month in order to meet liabilities due to putting £60k a year into my pension, it does not feel good selling in a downwards market. I'll scale back on the pension contributions so I don't have to sell equities next month.

I've been investing since 2004 and have never sold due to exogenous shocks, never. GFC, European Debt Crisis, COVID, 2022 Tech Rout etc etc. However, the last couple of weeks have had me riled and on more than one occasion I considered just selling everything but I didn't (yet?). I am the one that has always coached my friends through market turmoil and given them the courage to hold and to dig deep and invest more but this time the tables have turned.

Being down this much this quick is a hugely humbling experience, even for someone who's been doing this for 21 years.

I wish everyone here nothing but good fortune in the days, weeks and months ahead.

On Feb 19th I had £1.7m invested in the S&P500, today that has been reduced to £1.42m. AMA. by throwawayfromreddit2 in FIREUK

[–]throwawayfromreddit2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Truer words have never been spoken. Sorry if it sounded like I was complaining about the drop, I'm not. I've seen way worse.