the fire place

Many people have heard of the 4% rule which states that if you withdraw 4% of your portfolio in the first year of retirement and increase this by inflation each year, the pot should last at least 30 years. But this rule originated in the United States and doesn't account for our UK state pension - can those retiring in the UK afford to take more? We look at some scenarios such as those retirin...

Andy has reached his retirement anniversary, having finally left work one year ago. We discuss the challenges in preparing for and leaving work, as well as what lessons can be shared with others in a similar position. How do you fill your time? Is your spending more or less than expected? Is it difficult to move from a saving mindset to a spending one? What can you do to find purpose in retirement...

Pensions are the main way to fund retirement and we look at Nest, a government scheme that offers pensions to small companies that do not manage their own. However, Nest has several shortcomings: it's expensive; it's not very flexible and it's restrictive. Is there much you can do about these? What are the alternatives? And what happens when you change jobs? For more information on wor...

In this episode we discuss some of the most common ways to spoil your happy and financially stable retirement. Some of these came from our recent meet-up event at Caernarfon and some of them from discussions in our Facebook group (see below). What can you do to avoid these traps? And if you're in them, what can you do to get out? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support the show⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the fire place community

A bit of a clickbaity title maybe, but we thought we might try and game the algorithm a bit and direct some new listeners to the podcast. What are the five biggest mistakes for those looking for financial independence or retiring early? And what can you do about them? We keep it simple and focus on the handful of areas that you can easily address now and that will help you reach your goal more qui...

This time we have our regular guest John and we are looking at questions posted in our Facebook group (see the community link below) covering a wide range of FIRE areas including: What are the trade-offs in retiring early and how important is it to understand tax? How do you deal with one partner having a much larger pension? Should you include the state pension in your planning and what if it nee...

As a follow-up to the last episode, in this one we talk in more detail about Richard's investment approach, which involves a mixed portfolio of property, index funds and investment trusts. When does index investing become 'active'? What are the advantages of investment trusts over mutual or exchange-traded funds? How do you known when to buy and sell investment trusts? More information...

In this episode we talk to Richard who started very early and reached FIRE before 50. We discuss his early life where while working in a number of jobs he quickly learned about investing and how it could eventually free him from work - and how this affected his attitude to both work and life. We then cover his attitude to investing, including property and investing in individual companies and how...

In this episode we talk about index-tracking investment funds and their relevance to people looking at financial independence and early retirement. What are indexes? What are index funds? What should I look out for? We look at popular funds, like global trackers and how they compare across indexes and platforms. And we also go a little deeper into how index funds work and what risks they may entai...

In this episode we talk to Man Tai who reached FIRE and retired early, then became a counsellor and has helped many people deal with the psychological issues of retirement. We cover his upbringing in an immigrant community and how that affected his views of money and work; his career in business; and what lessons he has learned from counselling both for himself and his clients. Links to topics cov...

Following earlier episodes on 'bridging' (#10) and how pensions work (#12) we take a deep dive into a typical retirement journey from work to early retirement and beyond. In this we look at: using ISAs to fund the period from retirement until access to a company pension or SIPP; then drawing down from that pension; incorporating a defined benefit pension and whether to take it early; and then deal...

Does running a business make FIRE easier as the tools and skills are transferable? Or does it make it harder as businesses take up so much of your time? For this episode we're talking to Anne-Marie and David who own and manage two businesses. We talk about how they first heard about FIRE and what their future goals are, along with managing a healthy work/life balance including managing employe...

This is a follow-up to episode 17 where we discussed forthcoming changes to inheritance tax with John. In this episode we discuss what practical measures you can take now, such as setting up pension drawdown to ensure more of your estate gets passed on to your dependents. We go into more detail on the different approaches to gifting and how these can help avoid inheritance tax later on, along with...

For this episode we're joined by John to discuss inheritance tax. Coming changes to tax law mean that many more people will have to deal with inheritance tax and we discuss ways to maximise how much of your inheritance gets passed on to your dependents. What is changing in April 2027 and how does it affect inheritance tax? What can I do to minimise the effects? ⁠⁠ Support the show ⁠ the fire p...

This episode is a follow-up to episode #12 where we discussed How Pensions Work. This time we look at the practicalities of drawing down an income from a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). The SIPP has been chosen for simplicity although many occupation defined contribution pensions will behave in a very similar way. We again cover the difference between flexi-access drawdown (FAD) and uncryst...

Can you reach financial independence by your 30s if you start early enough? We chat to Lucy and Kieran who are still in their twenties with a house and family but expect to reach Coast FI - where their investments are established and they can work fewer hours to meet their spending - in their early 30s. They talk about both having a frugal mindset from an early age and meeting up with shared goals...

In the News section we cover the introduction of SIPPs by the Trading 212 platform and the new platform Prosper which offers a free SIPP and a global tracker fund with no fees. In the main section we chat to William about looking at FIRE in your 30s. We deal with the challenges of accommodation, balancing pension and ISA investments and dealing with job uncertainty. Is FIRE easier for younger peop...

This episode is a live Q&A special at our recent FIRE in the Forest event where over 50 members met at Center Parcs in the beautiful surroundings of the English Lake District: people hung out together, went on hikes and enjoyed the facilities while chatting about their FIRE plans. Our panel included a few members as well as Andy and Mike and we had a wide variety of questions covering topics s...

In this episode we first cover the difference between defined contribution and defined benefit pensions and then we look out the the principles of a defined contribution pension such as a workplace pension or a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) . We discuss how to take advantage of the 25% tax-free portion and explain the difference between flexi-access drawdown (FAD) and uncrystallised funds...

In this episode we talk to Chris about 'Coast FI' - when you're financially independent or nearly there and decide to prioritise quality of life over work. We chat about his background and when he became aware of the financial independence on retiring early (FIRE) movement. Along the way we cover the career choices he has made and using unpaid parental leave to get more time with his family. How d...

We talk often on the show about 'bridging', which is how you build a pot of assets to provide you with an income until you can get access to another source like a pension. A good example is retiring before pension access - the bridge fund would then need to be big enough to pay for your outgoings until you reach the age when you can access the pension. We also talk about bridging the gap until acc...

Frugality is a key part of the financial independence and early retirement community, but it's not necessarily all about wearing hair shirts and eating mung beans. We talk about good and bad frugality and the key metric that defines your progress - the savings rate, or the proportion you save compared to how much you earn. Is it easier to increase your savings rate by reducing your spending? Or by...

We chat to Bex, who is a regular at the Sheffield and Nottingham community meet-ups (for details of these, see our community link below). She is a civil servant and is looking at retiring early so that she and her husband can enjoy more free time together. Bex's retiring early means that she may have to wait for access to her civil service pension and we talk about building a 'bridge' fund to prov...

We've used this episode to make a Q&A special to answer a number of questions that regularly come up with our guest John, who is a regular in our Facebook group. We look at 'one more year syndrome', where it's very tempting to delay your retirement, along with dealing with how to generate an income to bridge the period between retirement and access to pensions. We then deal with how to optimise pl...

This episode's News covers the planned rise in dividend tax rates for the 2026-27 tax year and   In the main section our interviewee is Evelyn from one of our Nottingham FIRE meet-ups. We talk about how you know when you've reached financial independence and finding a healthy work/life balance. And in the Q&A we talk about using dividends as a source of income and whether the free investments plat...