UK and Ireland MMM check in and discussion

[shelivesthedream]

Coming in fashionably late to the party :)

28f, living in a pretty LCOL area of South Yorkshire.
Work for local government, so downside is pretty poor salary and below-inflation raises each year, but upside is that I have a ridiculously good pension that kicks in at 55, which I'm making my goal retirement age
Also planning for either a 1 year sabbatical or a 2 year reduction in hours in about 4 years' time to do an MA full / part time (depending on how big my 'stache grows)

Cool MA plan! Nice how MMM means one can do these non-job things. For career reasons or fun? And what in?

[Runner5]

Cool MA plan! Nice how MMM means one can do these non-job things. For career reasons or fun? And what in?

Thanks! Hoping to do it in Medieval History, so absolutely for fun, not profit! Was inspired by a friend / ex-colleague who reduced her hours to do an MRes in 1 year. Started off thinking 'I could never do that!!!' which turned into 'I will TOTALLY do that!' The freedom to be able to do this takes such a weight off my mind!

[dreams_and_discoveries]

Cool MA plan! Nice how MMM means one can do these non-job things. For career reasons or fun? And what in?

Thanks! Hoping to do it in Medieval History, so absolutely for fun, not profit! Was inspired by a friend / ex-colleague who reduced her hours to do an MRes in 1 year. Started off thinking 'I could never do that!!!' which turned into 'I will TOTALLY do that!' The freedom to be able to do this takes such a weight off my mind!

That's a great plan - I did a MA for fun too, and it was a really enriching experience, although a lot of hard work.

[Stubblestache]

Yeah, the ratesetter thing kinda spooked me for a bit; however I think they have enough to cover it in their provision fund.

But I'm still toying with the idea of cashing out, the main things that's stopping me is lack of alternative plans for the funds and the fact 'm getting over 6% from them.  And the I think, the casher-outers will all also have 6% + loans, may be worth buying more if rates go up....

What's everyone else doing?

I mainly use the rolling market but I've reduced my holding to just have enough to get the one year sign up bonus.

Still, that will mean around a 13% return on the year, which isn't bad at all. (1k to become eligible for the bonus + 100 quid bonus + around 3% returns on rolling market).

If I had money in there paying 6%, I would certainly reconsider keeping it there. It hasn't paid that much since I joined though, even at 5 year.

[cerat0n1a]

I'm 47, already FI but not planning to RE for a year or so.

Live near Cambridge, family of 4 with two late teens, one off to university in a couple of months (fingers crossed.) I'm an engineer, my wife was a SAHM for about 15 years, now doing some occasional work, not enough to pay income tax though.

Just had a month on holiday and not used the internet or phone at all in that time, highly recommended!

[MostlyBearded]

Without wanting to derail the thread into my own personal Stashtown UK finder (OK I do slightly want to a bit). I went up to Manchester for the weekend to check it out. All in all, seems a cool place and quite different to my expectations however I'm not sure if it feels right for us as a place to live. I think we would like somewhere a bit more rural. Although on the plus side we were able to enjoy some amazing views driving through the snake road in the peak district on our way home!

My stepsons are away at their father's for the whole summer, so we are using the opportunity to get out there and explore our potential locations. Next up this weekend.... Durham!

Will report back with our findings :)

Appreciate all the advice you guys have given us so far

MB

[climbgirl]

Also adding support for a UK sub-forum, great idea!

We're based in London, 40 and 35 and about 9 years away from FIRE - depends on a few variables and there are ways to bring this down (exploring side-gigs and renting a room at the moment). We have pretty well-paid jobs and reasonable housing costs, so definitely staying put for the short-term. We're exploring possibilities of going part-time or remote working/travelling in a few years, so we're not 100% sure yet if we're chasing total RE or looking for more flexible, remote-based work which would allow us to travel long-term a lot sooner. So many possibilities - either way, we're working on getting our finances to a place where the options are feasible!  Currently working on building passive income streams as we have our expenses largely under control (could always make improvements, especially when it comes to the food bill!).

I just spotted that Vanguard have opened up ISAs in the UK so we can invest directly in Vanguard funds, happened at the end of May 2017 - no more minimum investment of £100k!!  Such great news, will be transferring to them immediately.  It was quite a low-key launch, so posting here in case other UK people missed it as well.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/home

A few more details here: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/16/vanguard-funds-investment-isa-uk-fees-hargreaves-lansdown-fidelity

[Monkeytennis]

a reminder that UK based MMM cohort are using https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/uk-tax-discussion/ as their mini forum

[Slanhirn]

Joining in!

28f living in London, currently saving around 50% every month but expecting that to increase over the next year as I take advantage of the fact that London generally has higher salaries available (ie pay rise or new job!).
My biggest decision at the moment is whether to try and buy a place or not. I probably would have previously looked at buy to let (somewhere else than London) but with the recent tax changes it's just not feasible.

Looking to FI in around 6-7 years with £500K.

[Helium]

Joining in!

28f living in London, currently saving around 50% every month but expecting that to increase over the next year as I take advantage of the fact that London generally has higher salaries available (ie pay rise or new job!).
My biggest decision at the moment is whether to try and buy a place or not. I probably would have previously looked at buy to let (somewhere else than London) but with the recent tax changes it's just not feasible.

Looking to FI in around 6-7 years with £500K.

Hello - checked your other posts and saw you had a net worth of around -£2k as of July and are aiming for £10k in Spring 2018. What career are you in where you are looking to FI in 6-7 years with £500k? This is not intended at all as a criticism - I'm just curious!

[SpreadsheetMan]

Joining in!

28f living in London, currently saving around 50% every month but expecting that to increase over the next year as I take advantage of the fact that London generally has higher salaries available (ie pay rise or new job!).
My biggest decision at the moment is whether to try and buy a place or not. I probably would have previously looked at buy to let (somewhere else than London) but with the recent tax changes it's just not feasible.

Looking to FI in around 6-7 years with £500K.

Hello - checked your other posts and saw you had a net worth of around -£2k as of July and are aiming for £10k in Spring 2018. What career are you in where you are looking to FI in 6-7 years with £500k? This is not intended at all as a criticism - I'm just curious!

Investment Banking / Finance? 0k to 500k in 7 years is about £53k per annum saved @ 4% growth. Would need a high salary and good bonuses I would have thought (and not buying London property).

[EarlyRetirementGuy]

Hello fellow Brits!

I'm 30 and living in the home counties.

Haven't got an exact date/amount for FIRE yet, focusing on paying off the mortgage which should happen in the next 7ish years, will then go into full saving mode with a view to retire sometime in 40s.

Current personal networth including house equity is around 150k. I have a decent job and a couple of side hustles, one of which is making about 20k per year so far so that's all going straight into mortgage overpayments and investments.

I've been blogging for 3 years now over at www.earlyretirementguy.com. It's interesting to go back and see that my NW when I very first started in July 2014 was £43k so going up by around £35k a year.

[EarlyRetirementGuy]

Some of the non-hobby side gigs that get discussed around FIRE sound awful. Matched betting sounds horrendous.

I personally really enjoy Matched Betting. The strategy, calculations and numbers aspect of it just appeal to me and I see it more of a game to be played which rewards with real money instead of points. I guess as others have said; its very subjective. I know of people who tried matched betting and said it felt like too much hard work, probably in much the same way some people enjoy running a marathon whereas others would rather eat their own shoes.

[force majeure]

IRELAND based discussion group;

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/meetups-and-social-events/anyone-in-dublin/50/