My FIRE journey is approaching 1 year old. I first came across FIRE around this time last year by reading a New York Times article about it and was completely inspired. I set about doing it right away. I chucked some money into a Stocks and Shares ISA before realising I was making a false start. I had to pay off my vast debt before anything else and now I’m actively investing.   Over the past few months, I have had a niggling pain in my side about the whole process. Although I am completely enamoured with the FI part, … Continue reading RE: The problem with FIRE

After perusing the UK personal finance Reddit thread, I came across a post asking people to name their biggest financial regret. Amongst the many depressing and amusing suggestions, there were several people who claimed that they had “no regrets” and that the others admitting regrets should just “enjoy life”. At first, I thought that was a rather strange answer to the question as surely, being honest with yourself, there must be something that you regret purchasing. Despite that thought, I came later to reflect on what enjoying life means. Certainly, it means something vastly different to each and every one … Continue reading Enjoying life and FIRE

While wondering what to do about my pension a couple of weeks back, and starting a new job, I decided that I had no clue what my new take-home pay would be. I spent some time (a lot of time) making this handy payslip calculator. Pay-Slip-Calculator-v1-2 It will calculate the tax, NI, student loan, and pension deductions from your PAYE salary and give an idea of what your take-home would look like. It is useful for playing around with pension percentages to see what impact it will have on your income without having to ask payroll. Its very simple to … Continue reading Payslip calculator

Time flies when you are having fun as the saying goes. October was a big month for me but it went by very quickly indeed. I finally finished a job I was hating where I had to wait out my three month notice period. I had a week off at home chilling, resetting and getting my life in order before starting at my new job. I am very happy with the move so far. I’m working on some great projects and my colleagues seem super nice so far. Plus I’m paid more which will accelerate my journey to FIRE. The figures … Continue reading November update

I had some time on the weekend to consider the best approach to my pension contributions. I found myself going down a rabbit warren of spreadsheets and tax legislation and thought it might be an idea to share what I found. What are pensions? Pension is a term used to describe money which is protected from tax and is intended for retirement. Currently, you may only access your pension funds once you reach 55 years old. Other features include: Mandatory enrolment for all employees who are eligible. Tax-free contributions are limited to £40,000 per year. Max limit of £1,030,000 total … Continue reading Pension Pondering