I've been saving regularly into S&S ISAs since early 2007 (aged 26), although until this year it was really "for a rainy day" as opposed to aiming for something specific like FI. I discovered this site mid-2017 and it's been a bit of a revelation to realise that I could focus on financial independence.
For simplicity, I will exclude property and pension here. I've generally contributed £600 per month, with two years (2014, 2015) in which I made greater contributions.
The below measures April in each year - for overall growth and return on the investment (i.e. change, excluding contributions for that year):
Year £ Overall growth Investment return
2007 1,583 - -
2008 8,295 424% -6%
2009 12,000 45% -29%
2010 19,800 65% 4%
2011 32,621 65% 24%
2012 37,620 15% -6%
2013 52,908 41% 19%
2014 67,317 27% 5%
2015 90,627 35% 11%
2016 100,301 11% 3%
2017 120,535 20% 13%
2018* 136,000* 13%* 6%* *forecast for 2017/18 based on in-year trend
I'd welcome any comments on this (including whether my calculations are correct!). I use my in-laws' financial adviser and hold three funds: one UK defensive, one UK adventurous and one worldwide. I need to look at these arrangements.
I've posted elsewhere about my aims, which seem quite conservative and basically involve getting the above to a sum of £460-610k; depending on whether I want to achieve FI at 45-50 (I'm 37 now).
I'm currently focusing hard on paying-off mortgage and other debt and will increase ISA contributions as this is achieved within the next 18-36 months. I've managed to get this down from £38k to £31k just since discovering this site in May.