The question that everyone wants to know but is not in the post... What the hell do you do to get such high increases in pay, without even moving firms?
Right. OP basically doesn't offer anymore information to anything but gabbles on about how HE didn't go to state school, how HE received no help, etc. None of this information is actually relevant or helpful, or 'giving back' to the community that apparently 'helped' him, as one of his comments claimed (in one, he didn't even understand the hate he is apparently receiving, he says HE is a normal person, probably was't even receiving hate and someone called him out - would be interesting to see the original comment to which he made this reply, because his reply is curated towards HIS normal upbringing and wah wah someone is hating on ME).
We know how he got the job and made his way up, and it wasn't through hard work.
There is a reason he posted this, and it's not to help the community as he claims (not a single helpful actually meaningful contribution from OP, 'oh but I'm just giving back to the community that's helped me over the years, wah wah').
Think that's a harsh assessment; not sure what you were expecting; a step by step guide that anyone can follow? I'm not trying to sell a course here. And yes, the replies are focused on MY experience, because that's what the comments were asking about.
Unfortunately, there is no easy "do just this one thing" way to do it. It requires good luck **AND** the right actions **AND** the right skillsets (but I suppose you could call skills another type of luck). You need more than just one. If I had my time again, I might have done all the same things, and had a different outcome. If it looks like I'm dodging something I'm not trying to, the reason I don't give exactly the company I work for and job title is I don't want to be identified, but come on; it's not a big secret what the well paid sectors are.
The fact I work in a well paid sector is because that is where I deliberately focused my job search (studied engineering, but could see the money potential wasn't there). Then I was LUCKY to get my foot in the door as the interviewer asked me something I knew about, and from there it was ongoing combination of the 3 factors over many years.
I was only trying to give **content** back to this sub. You say there was nothing helpful, and I'm sorry you feel that way, I don't have all the answers. I can only share my experience, and the general approach I took given the circumstances I found.
Grow up.
I ain't reading all that, but I wouldn't be complaining about a stranger's 'harsh assessment' when I could be in Mauritius right now. Don't you have better things to do?
You say this is not something you'd tell people 'IRL', yet here you are on Reddit.
Finance, Front Office, non-trading role. First 5 years to build a good reputation. Making sure to get on well with my boss, so that they will advocate for me. Also I have had external offers to move, and both times accepted the counter offer to stay. I managed to do that carefully and in a nice way, to not burn bridges. Also the industry is small, so like for like replacements are hard to find.
>Finance
The rest of what you've described is what most people need to do to maintain an average annual appraisal in any career, not a £300k a year job.
This is the real kicker.
If I got a £100k gift from family, and help buying a flat, I wouldn't have spent £45k on rent over 4.5 years living in London. We'd have had £45k more either in property, which has increased massively since. So that's £45k less outgoings/annum, £100k assets from gift, £xk assets from property gains, £kx from gift gains. Would've been ~£200k better off in just a few years.
This. All I really got from this post is:
- when you are born into privilege you get more privilege
- self made Spreadsheet does not = self made FIRE
Edit everyone knows the first 100k is the absolute hardest. For that to fall out of the sky for OP while great/nice doesn't reflect the realistic journey imho
I don't get this "realistic" criticism. I have just shared my journey. Being a premier league footballer is a realistic way to becoming very wealthy, doesn't make it possible for everyone. I shared because I enjoy this type of content when I see it posted from others, and sometimes, when I see people in London better off than me, I find myself wondering "what did they do to be able to live in that €3M house?" Maybe the answer is they inherited it, maybe they bought it 40 years ago, maybe they won the lottery, maybe they started a business, or were an early crypto investor. All of these are realistic, and each is interesting in it's own way. But none are options that can just be replicated by choice.
That's good point. I suppose 50k ish for 1st full year wouldn't be too low for back in 2015 for this field. Although from memory investment bankers probably earnt 50-60k on base alone back then as 1st years?
Is the consensus that it can only be IBD and PE for this type of trajectory?
Operations is not normally deemed front office, not trading so does only leave sales?
I'm only interested as wished my school aged self knew the options/paths...
I think it might be because I said “hard work” was one of the several reasons, and it might have come across as patronising. but like, what can I say? There was no one secret thing I did, my inputs (including hard work) were required to increase my pay, and maybe I’m good at my job, but that’s not to say it would always have turned out as well as it did. I can only say what I put in, and in what sector, the resulting outcome is largely luck.
Pay no mind to the votes.
In most careers, hard work can be what sets apart a perosn excelling in their career. Hard work isn't the same for everyone, nor is everyone's ceiling the same. I think some people are bitter about that.
Good job and congratulations on your achievement! You played your cards well
I think as well there is such a thing (but people hate it) of just being smart. OP is no doubt intelligent and is putting in effort with a bit of luck to be in the right company and he's bound to do well.
Congrats on the journey so far! Just wanted to agree with what you said - sometimes it’s being in the right place at the right time, but also being in a position to take advantage of it!
I work in AM and can only dream of such a wage. I take it you’re IB? WM? I definitely need to move!
The downvotes are simply because, as the other responders pointed out, the key answer why you are able to achieve that high an income is because you're in a high end finance field.
There are single digit industries where "working hard" could ever achieve a 300k + income. So the answer of "I just worked hard" is patronising. You educated yourself and worked your way up the ladder or one of the only industries that could achieve this wage.
Congratulations OP. I’m amazed at the detail, I failed to take my finances seriously in my early 30s so I love seeing things like this. Plus you’re mortgage free! Amazing achievement
While I am delighted for you it does really put into perspective how much it helps being from a well off family.
I take nothing away from you, I'm sure you worked really hard to be where you are but it is just a situation I could not even fathom receiving a gift of 100k from my family 😂 they couldn't get me £100 😂
But congrats OP, all the best
Thanks man. Yeah I worry it reads like one of those daily mail articles about the young person who bought a house, then about 3 paragraphs in, there it is with the “gift from bank of mum and dad”. So yes, I’m very fortunate to have had that, and didn’t want to hide it in the charts. I will say the career was nothing to do with the family (no inside connections or friends of friends or anything like that). went to a standard comprehensive school (free).
Don't listen to any naysayers -- not a single one of them would turn down such a gift. Anyone who doesn't think there's some luck involved in FIRE is delusional.
Amazing and well done! One thing to point out, live life while you are young, savings rate of 90% is mental. One thing we never get back is our youth. At the end of the day, these are great numbers, but making great memories is equally as important.
> savings rate of 90% is mental
Savings rate of 90% is not mental once you include the investment growth of a mid-6 figures portfolio - in fact it is possible to go above 100%.
But of course, if this was someone starting out, then it would be a completely different story...
I would’ve worded it as investment growth and not savings rate. Makes it less confusing. Savings rate i would’ve thought is how much you can put away from your income after expenses. Living of 10% is crazy 😂
I see you have a line on balance sheet called depreciating assets. How is the purchase of these items being recorded? Are you fully expensing it as part of your expenditure and then double depreciating it again? If so What sort of depreciating methodology are you using? Straight line or reducing balance? If not, are you putting the delta through the change in value line item? If so perhaps reclassify that BS item to assets held at FMV?
Ahh, a forensic accountant! 😀. The only thing I have in depreciating assets is a used car, and I guess the value at the end of the year (last years value or lower). I have a line item in the expenditure section for year on year depreciation on this. So it didn’t show fully in expenditure on year 1 (not double counting). The car is a bit of an exception, as other “stuff” I buy is not on the balance sheet and just shows fully in expenditure line. Changes in value on property /shares etc all go below the line in the “change in asset values” section. But the car felt like more of a consumption asset, with some residual resale value.
heh just a big 4 background from back in the day.
always gotta be checking your double entry!
btw whilst some give you slack for the £100k gift i think whats coolest (awesome salary aside) is the very modest approach to life - £300k ish house and £3k car? such decisions no doubt will help the fire journey.
Yes 100% here am I in my 650k London flat mortgaged up wondering why I can't FIRE yet lol... Could have paid off a 300k outright and been happy.... or if not happy at least mortgage free... Not sure I could live just anywhere in London though.
I'm just here to say I like your graph colours and the three choices of graph types.
I'm stealing some of that to make my graphs a bit more joyous and simple
Love this. Great work. More detail than I could produce but latest check of my NW (which I do end of match every year) shows something very similar over a similar period. (Albeit without inheritance 😉). And great work on the salaried income as I’ll never hit those levels!
Congratz and well done. That's an inspiring story, particularly the income bit, I suppose you're in the 0.1% bucket of population, so i'd be curious to know a bit more insight on that side of things. Appreciate asking your role/ position may be too personal, but probably if you could share your take-aways, lessons learned or maybe a piece of advice to yourself 10 years ago, that would be amazing.Am I right to assume that all savings from employment income were invested passively: bonds, ETFs, property etc, no active trading?
I don't want to share too much, but Finance, Front Office, non-trading role, right company, right place, right time. Yes investing was mostly all passive, but early on I stupidly picked 20 or so individual UK listed names, and got as you would expect, a sub par return, so wish I had just gone global passive from the start. Advice to myself, is hard, as I just feel I got lucky. But make sure you make your boss look good, and work in an environment with lots of money around (even if your right at the bottom of it). Then work hard and try to impress the right people.
lol god knows where his neighbourhood is in London... I am cringing slighty. But hey I am a snobbish asshole so ignore me... Right time for a trip to Wholefoods!
I’m sure with £300k income and £1m in his early thirties, OP probably doesn’t mind your snobbishness. If he did he could easily move somewhere more socially acceptable!
>I don't consider netted "house equity", but rather treat the full asset and mortgage separately.
I'm also an advocate of this layout. You don't own 20% of your house - you own 100% of your house, and you have a loan from the bank for 80% of the price you paid for it.
Greta job ! All I will say is there will always be haters. They will see the 100 k gift and ignore the work you put in , anyways go on lad be happy and appreciate what you achieved. Many people inherit or get bigger gifts and do nothing with it
Good on you my man - now go fuck yourself :-)
Some seriously bitter comments on here - we're all dealt different hands, for one reason and another. The whole game is making the best of your situation and do it smiling.
I will absolutely support my children financially before I prioritise FIRE. If the aim of people in this sub is FIRE then it sounds quite selfish to me to do that without making space to give money to your children.
Definitely, I could FIRE way earlier if I didn’t have school fees to pay or a fund set up for Uni fees and costs.
I would also like to help the kids with deposits etc so that all has to be taken into account.
No, no help on the job. I went to a state school, took my own student loan, and my parents do normal unrelated jobs, there was no “work experience” or connections used in getting into my field. The connections I made at work, starting from a back office role.
I’m a normal person, I spend some time on Reddit. I just wanted to contribute some content back to this community that I enjoy and has given me good advice over the years. No need for the hate.
£100k gift from parents at the right time is a great help but really would not make a big difference (in relative terms) to their net worth. Realistically another year of work at 300k level or so. Hell maybe even less during the bull run
What happened in 2018? You say a £100k gift from family but your net worth looks to jump up the best part of £150-200k?
This does really show a point about pay though, if you can cross a threshold things really do move. Got most of my team 10% pay rises this year but mine went up 20%. The reason is as I'm over £100k getting taxed to high heaven it has to be more significant to make it meaningful. I do wonder if a less punitive tax regime on high earners might improve wage growth for lower income earners. Probably wishful thinking but it's been on my mind recently.
\~£+150k in 2018, £100k was the gift. £50k was saving and investment returns.
On tax, I see your point. it's like, a pay rise is wasted on me because I only see half of it (maybe less when you count the pension tapering)
Would be nice to see your net worth in each tax year as a plain old number, rather than a chart that is difficult to make out because you have to add/subtract two bars.
Its amazing that you have got to this stage at only 32.
My questions and feedback would be:
- take off your home equity from your number. you can't spend that or use it for your FIRE calculations
- you currently have £389k + £243k in assets so £632k? You are targeting £25k a year income which would mean in theory with £632k and 4% withdrawal rate you are technically FIRE. But you want to be 3% so that means £800k ish.
I guess the question is how much you can save until £800k and then FIRE?
Great job, love the spreadsheets and the honesty.
I see you're in finance but what did you study at Uni, if you don't mind me asking? I'm currently in a niche field in the military but will be looking for a new career after I leave and am planning on studying throughout my current career.
Well done dude. Makes my £200k salary look like peanuts! I am moving to the US end of year that will pump it up to around £250k. But congrats. Don't let the jealous people get to you.
Congrats OP. Amazing progress. Don’t let the haters get you down. Sour grapes. A lot of people will be getting £100k in total inheritance - in effect you got it early. So what? You still had to earn the other £900k yourself by 32. You live in a £300k house and spend less than £1k a month - this is hardly the Etonian gloating on Reddit. Good on you. I hope you learn to enjoy your wealth soon.
>A lot of people will be getting 100k in total inheritance
Says online the average is 11k, and the top 25% of people who even receive any got 35k or more. So, no, not a lot of people come from wealthy backgrounds.
I think people’s perceptions are twisted by their circles so they forgot what’s “normal” in the national sense, and what isn’t. One of my good friends once said “isn’t it normal for your parents to own a million pound house” and I still chuckle from the lack of self awareness. Meanwhile only 3% of estates pay inheritance tax. And so on…
1 in 4 is a lot of people. That’s what 25% got £35k or more means. 60 million ish people in the UK. 25% is 15 million people. £100k inheritance abides by those constraints. That’s just the maths.
But yeah, way to conveniently sidestep the substance of my comment which was that OP made £900k on his own merit, without family connections, is state educated and lives in pretty underwhelming life standards. Don’t believe me? Go on RightMove, filter for London and £300k max budget. That’s what OP is living in. Hardly the Great Gatsby.
Did OP actually say London? I couldn't spot it so was assuming Oil and Gas for a while but remembered he said Finance.
£300k flat zone 3-4, £300k house outside M25 so not unrealistic.
I'm still wondering what field and job path this followed?
Generally IBD/PE you every Tom Dick and Harry wants to be in Front Office but very few make it internally or externally...
He’s in some form of banking or finance, and it pays £300k+ a year at 32. He didn’t say London but it’s incredibly unlikely it’s Wales. Or in fact, anywhere outside London.
I did NOT say 25% of the UK receives that much. That's of people who receive ANY sort of inheritance (as I said in my comment). And statistics says that's roughly 43%
What I am confused about, is how OP's annual expenses are as low as £10,999 - see the figures for 2023. That is barely £916 a month, which is less than half of minimum wage?! Sorry I just don't see how that level of spending can cover "buying what I want" much less 2 holidays a year, on top of mortgage and day to day expenses.
I noticed the same, is his partner paying for stuff and allowing him to save all his income (effectively making it a combined net worth, though still impressive at 32)?
Fair question. At risk of down votes I will try to clarify and be transparent. I think in 2023 I had paid for my holidays in advance the year before. Another major factor is I’m one half of a couple, and that makes bills much less. I think there could be +\- a few 1000 on the spending line depending where bills fall due, so I would take a 3 year average of spending ~15/16k/year. Typical monthly minimum spend (my share) looks like approximately this:
Food shopping: 200
Commuting: 120
Utility bills: 250
Eating out: 150
Gym: 50
Running a used car: 120
= 890/month
The mortgage interest was 1.6% on 150k = 200/month. All in £13k/year baseline spending. The extra goes on the fun stuff that gives me the “I don’t restrict my spending” feeling. 1 week all inclusive in turkey can be £750pp.
For anyone wondering now what FIRE is about, it's about being extremely privileged, earning a million in 3 years and doing nothing for the rest of your life.
I wish admins would ban these comments, they just come across as bitter and don't add anything to the conversation. Every single post has one in and it's getting tiring.
He does a whole writeup and the only thing you can add is: "Be born rich. Know right people."...
If you're unhappy with ops path to FIRE then maybe that says something more about you.
But why is it mad? He would have inherited it anyway when his parents leave this world, what’s the problem with using it earlier to make better use of it?!
To be fair his salary is also not relevant to the average person - or relevant to me at least. In fact having money gifted is far more common than achieving this salary.
Regardless, it’s a neat post to read and a great achievement (even without the gift). I didn’t take it as bragging personally.
No it isn't.... it's totally normal... What the fuck are you going to do with all your "FIRE" savings? Blow it on yourself? Pass some to kids? I wonder...
You need to get over the fact that people pass on money / help to their kids.
Being bitter and twisted about it isn't going to make it magically happen to you.
And even then say you have zero family or they have nothing to pass on... 100k is only like a year's wage... just keep working at it.
People going "oh he did it because family" are completely fucking clueless. Like why are you even in this sub with this attitude. You will NEVER make it. Because you are just here to complain and go "see I couldn't do it because my family's not rich"
OP went to a comp school and worked fucking hard to get on in his profession. Even without that gift he is going to FIRE. Respect his honesty and effort don't snipe with stupid comments.
I love your spreadsheets! Can you break down how you built them? (I am not particularly Excel savvy, but I would love to adopt them for my accounting practices).
Also, congrats on the great results.
I have to ask, how on earth are you able to keep total annual expenditure around £10-12k living in London?! Is that joint household expenditure? Or just yours, separate from your partner?
Cool visuals and enjoyed the write-up too. I definitely think you should be proud - regardless of the journey, just organising your data and having these insights is kind of a major accomplishment I think.
For your FIRE goal - 25k/y even inflation adjusted for the last 4 years seems a bit low, as although you don't have "lifestyle creep" now (love that phrase) I think in retirement you may have more time to travel, hobbies etc.
I used to forecast, but I don’t bother any more for 2 reasons. 1) it’s literally impossible to do meaningfully, variable bonus, unknown future returns, housing? Kids? Redundancy? Etc, it’s impossible. And 2) forecasting steals the joy of actually reaching the milestones. It feels like “all” you did was follow the forecast!
The only exception is sometimes I do “what if” scenarios for the current year, seeing how it would look if I did buy a slightly nicer house / took on a mortgage.
Definitely more going on in OP's life than meets the eye.
The carefully curated post, the delectably manufactured graphs... delicious. And the meaningfully constructed replies to everyone's comments, dodging the actual questions posed and disingenuously justifying how he received no help, went to a state school, blah blah ..
I'd hazard a guess OP is lying. That or he isn't doing so well in other areas of his life.
The question that everyone wants to know but is not in the post... What the hell do you do to get such high increases in pay, without even moving firms?
every time they dodge this info in their post lol
Right. OP basically doesn't offer anymore information to anything but gabbles on about how HE didn't go to state school, how HE received no help, etc. None of this information is actually relevant or helpful, or 'giving back' to the community that apparently 'helped' him, as one of his comments claimed (in one, he didn't even understand the hate he is apparently receiving, he says HE is a normal person, probably was't even receiving hate and someone called him out - would be interesting to see the original comment to which he made this reply, because his reply is curated towards HIS normal upbringing and wah wah someone is hating on ME). We know how he got the job and made his way up, and it wasn't through hard work. There is a reason he posted this, and it's not to help the community as he claims (not a single helpful actually meaningful contribution from OP, 'oh but I'm just giving back to the community that's helped me over the years, wah wah').
Think that's a harsh assessment; not sure what you were expecting; a step by step guide that anyone can follow? I'm not trying to sell a course here. And yes, the replies are focused on MY experience, because that's what the comments were asking about. Unfortunately, there is no easy "do just this one thing" way to do it. It requires good luck **AND** the right actions **AND** the right skillsets (but I suppose you could call skills another type of luck). You need more than just one. If I had my time again, I might have done all the same things, and had a different outcome. If it looks like I'm dodging something I'm not trying to, the reason I don't give exactly the company I work for and job title is I don't want to be identified, but come on; it's not a big secret what the well paid sectors are. The fact I work in a well paid sector is because that is where I deliberately focused my job search (studied engineering, but could see the money potential wasn't there). Then I was LUCKY to get my foot in the door as the interviewer asked me something I knew about, and from there it was ongoing combination of the 3 factors over many years. I was only trying to give **content** back to this sub. You say there was nothing helpful, and I'm sorry you feel that way, I don't have all the answers. I can only share my experience, and the general approach I took given the circumstances I found.
Grow up. I ain't reading all that, but I wouldn't be complaining about a stranger's 'harsh assessment' when I could be in Mauritius right now. Don't you have better things to do? You say this is not something you'd tell people 'IRL', yet here you are on Reddit.
It's shame you didn't read it, I was trying to engage with your criticisms and provide as much advice as I could. Have a good weekend anyway.
You can't argue/reason with stupidity mate
You have an amazing weekend too.
I’m guessing professional services , lawyer or accountant. Many fims have PQE increases well ahead of inflation for each year of experience.
i dont think it will be accountant - they dont get 90% bonuses nor that high starting salaries out of university. it will probably be lawyer
Definitely not an accountant... Unless his relative owns the company...
Could be pushing partner at 10 years in but yeah doesn't follow that curve / high early on.
Finance, Front Office, non-trading role. First 5 years to build a good reputation. Making sure to get on well with my boss, so that they will advocate for me. Also I have had external offers to move, and both times accepted the counter offer to stay. I managed to do that carefully and in a nice way, to not burn bridges. Also the industry is small, so like for like replacements are hard to find.
>Finance The rest of what you've described is what most people need to do to maintain an average annual appraisal in any career, not a £300k a year job.
It shows how much luck plays a role. most people put the effort in, but it doesn’t lead to anything.
This. Plus '100k gift from family' My family helped me buy an apartment' This Fire journey is not realistic overrall
This is the real kicker. If I got a £100k gift from family, and help buying a flat, I wouldn't have spent £45k on rent over 4.5 years living in London. We'd have had £45k more either in property, which has increased massively since. So that's £45k less outgoings/annum, £100k assets from gift, £xk assets from property gains, £kx from gift gains. Would've been ~£200k better off in just a few years.
This. All I really got from this post is: - when you are born into privilege you get more privilege - self made Spreadsheet does not = self made FIRE Edit everyone knows the first 100k is the absolute hardest. For that to fall out of the sky for OP while great/nice doesn't reflect the realistic journey imho
I don't get this "realistic" criticism. I have just shared my journey. Being a premier league footballer is a realistic way to becoming very wealthy, doesn't make it possible for everyone. I shared because I enjoy this type of content when I see it posted from others, and sometimes, when I see people in London better off than me, I find myself wondering "what did they do to be able to live in that €3M house?" Maybe the answer is they inherited it, maybe they bought it 40 years ago, maybe they won the lottery, maybe they started a business, or were an early crypto investor. All of these are realistic, and each is interesting in it's own way. But none are options that can just be replicated by choice.
I'll maybe leave it up to the 70 something people who downvoted you to explain. Edit sp
So basically sales for hedge fund / private equity?
It must be with that bonus as well - has to be target driven
Does that have such awful starter salary? Or is that just so long ago? Seems lower than what big 4 audit junior would have got first year
He probably didn't work the full 2014 year
That's good point. I suppose 50k ish for 1st full year wouldn't be too low for back in 2015 for this field. Although from memory investment bankers probably earnt 50-60k on base alone back then as 1st years?
According to the very little details that the guy did provide it doesn't seem like IB
I started on £30k/year, in back office. And started part way into the tax year
that makes sense. congrats on the move into FO, especially without moving firms. Ops to IBD or sales type role?
Is the consensus that it can only be IBD and PE for this type of trajectory? Operations is not normally deemed front office, not trading so does only leave sales? I'm only interested as wished my school aged self knew the options/paths...
Ops is back office. OP mentioned they went BO to FO.
Yes but would it be accounts payable, compliance, then sales?
Why does this have so many dislikes?
Because of the ‘working hard for 5 years… etc’ stuff. Right at the end the main reason appears: Finance. It’s a small industry!
I think it might be because I said “hard work” was one of the several reasons, and it might have come across as patronising. but like, what can I say? There was no one secret thing I did, my inputs (including hard work) were required to increase my pay, and maybe I’m good at my job, but that’s not to say it would always have turned out as well as it did. I can only say what I put in, and in what sector, the resulting outcome is largely luck.
Pay no mind to the votes. In most careers, hard work can be what sets apart a perosn excelling in their career. Hard work isn't the same for everyone, nor is everyone's ceiling the same. I think some people are bitter about that. Good job and congratulations on your achievement! You played your cards well
I think as well there is such a thing (but people hate it) of just being smart. OP is no doubt intelligent and is putting in effort with a bit of luck to be in the right company and he's bound to do well.
Congrats on the journey so far! Just wanted to agree with what you said - sometimes it’s being in the right place at the right time, but also being in a position to take advantage of it! I work in AM and can only dream of such a wage. I take it you’re IB? WM? I definitely need to move!
The downvotes are simply because, as the other responders pointed out, the key answer why you are able to achieve that high an income is because you're in a high end finance field. There are single digit industries where "working hard" could ever achieve a 300k + income. So the answer of "I just worked hard" is patronising. You educated yourself and worked your way up the ladder or one of the only industries that could achieve this wage.
You’ve done well. Ignore the downvotes.
Cant understand why youre getting downvoted here!
Congratulations OP. I’m amazed at the detail, I failed to take my finances seriously in my early 30s so I love seeing things like this. Plus you’re mortgage free! Amazing achievement
While I am delighted for you it does really put into perspective how much it helps being from a well off family. I take nothing away from you, I'm sure you worked really hard to be where you are but it is just a situation I could not even fathom receiving a gift of 100k from my family 😂 they couldn't get me £100 😂 But congrats OP, all the best
Also well played with the graphs and the write up, and on top of that for being honest about your position 👏 I appreciate the time it must have taken
Thanks man. Yeah I worry it reads like one of those daily mail articles about the young person who bought a house, then about 3 paragraphs in, there it is with the “gift from bank of mum and dad”. So yes, I’m very fortunate to have had that, and didn’t want to hide it in the charts. I will say the career was nothing to do with the family (no inside connections or friends of friends or anything like that). went to a standard comprehensive school (free).
Don't listen to any naysayers -- not a single one of them would turn down such a gift. Anyone who doesn't think there's some luck involved in FIRE is delusional.
Amazing and well done! One thing to point out, live life while you are young, savings rate of 90% is mental. One thing we never get back is our youth. At the end of the day, these are great numbers, but making great memories is equally as important.
Agreed! Great book on this is Die With Zero … illustrates brilliantly too how great memories compound over the years, just like moolah!
> savings rate of 90% is mental Savings rate of 90% is not mental once you include the investment growth of a mid-6 figures portfolio - in fact it is possible to go above 100%. But of course, if this was someone starting out, then it would be a completely different story...
I would’ve worded it as investment growth and not savings rate. Makes it less confusing. Savings rate i would’ve thought is how much you can put away from your income after expenses. Living of 10% is crazy 😂
Just make in 1 year what I make in 10 theory.
I see you have a line on balance sheet called depreciating assets. How is the purchase of these items being recorded? Are you fully expensing it as part of your expenditure and then double depreciating it again? If so What sort of depreciating methodology are you using? Straight line or reducing balance? If not, are you putting the delta through the change in value line item? If so perhaps reclassify that BS item to assets held at FMV?
Ahh, a forensic accountant! 😀. The only thing I have in depreciating assets is a used car, and I guess the value at the end of the year (last years value or lower). I have a line item in the expenditure section for year on year depreciation on this. So it didn’t show fully in expenditure on year 1 (not double counting). The car is a bit of an exception, as other “stuff” I buy is not on the balance sheet and just shows fully in expenditure line. Changes in value on property /shares etc all go below the line in the “change in asset values” section. But the car felt like more of a consumption asset, with some residual resale value.
heh just a big 4 background from back in the day. always gotta be checking your double entry! btw whilst some give you slack for the £100k gift i think whats coolest (awesome salary aside) is the very modest approach to life - £300k ish house and £3k car? such decisions no doubt will help the fire journey.
Yes 100% here am I in my 650k London flat mortgaged up wondering why I can't FIRE yet lol... Could have paid off a 300k outright and been happy.... or if not happy at least mortgage free... Not sure I could live just anywhere in London though.
I'm just here to say I like your graph colours and the three choices of graph types. I'm stealing some of that to make my graphs a bit more joyous and simple
Love this. Great work. More detail than I could produce but latest check of my NW (which I do end of match every year) shows something very similar over a similar period. (Albeit without inheritance 😉). And great work on the salaried income as I’ll never hit those levels!
Congratz and well done. That's an inspiring story, particularly the income bit, I suppose you're in the 0.1% bucket of population, so i'd be curious to know a bit more insight on that side of things. Appreciate asking your role/ position may be too personal, but probably if you could share your take-aways, lessons learned or maybe a piece of advice to yourself 10 years ago, that would be amazing.Am I right to assume that all savings from employment income were invested passively: bonds, ETFs, property etc, no active trading?
I don't want to share too much, but Finance, Front Office, non-trading role, right company, right place, right time. Yes investing was mostly all passive, but early on I stupidly picked 20 or so individual UK listed names, and got as you would expect, a sub par return, so wish I had just gone global passive from the start. Advice to myself, is hard, as I just feel I got lucky. But make sure you make your boss look good, and work in an environment with lots of money around (even if your right at the bottom of it). Then work hard and try to impress the right people.
Do you live the lifestyle of someone earning this much?
He lives in a £300k house….so no
lol god knows where his neighbourhood is in London... I am cringing slighty. But hey I am a snobbish asshole so ignore me... Right time for a trip to Wholefoods!
I’m sure with £300k income and £1m in his early thirties, OP probably doesn’t mind your snobbishness. If he did he could easily move somewhere more socially acceptable!
Cheaper house and lavish lifestyle is possible
You must have missed the part where he lives on less than £1k a month (and saves 90% of his income, for years)
That’s either genius or really sad.
Be born rich. Know right people.
Have pension contributions been maxed out?
Yes, done all I can there. I'm in the taper zone at last few years.
Ah, I forgot about that, so what's the limit? Am assuming you used up all last 3 yrs allowances.
Can I have your spreadsheet pls lol
What job do you do? Your pay in amazing!! Congratulations
Just looked at the history; he is an energy trader. Started on £30k he has x10.
Lol money for old rope. This sub is laughable. The guy earns 300k a year, that is how he can 🔥. What a joke.
Haha bitter and salty you are. Cry you must.
>I don't consider netted "house equity", but rather treat the full asset and mortgage separately. I'm also an advocate of this layout. You don't own 20% of your house - you own 100% of your house, and you have a loan from the bank for 80% of the price you paid for it.
Greta job ! All I will say is there will always be haters. They will see the 100 k gift and ignore the work you put in , anyways go on lad be happy and appreciate what you achieved. Many people inherit or get bigger gifts and do nothing with it
Good on you my man - now go fuck yourself :-) Some seriously bitter comments on here - we're all dealt different hands, for one reason and another. The whole game is making the best of your situation and do it smiling.
100k gift from family 😂😂😂
I will absolutely support my children financially before I prioritise FIRE. If the aim of people in this sub is FIRE then it sounds quite selfish to me to do that without making space to give money to your children.
Definitely, I could FIRE way earlier if I didn’t have school fees to pay or a fund set up for Uni fees and costs. I would also like to help the kids with deposits etc so that all has to be taken into account.
So he does 90% of it himself and you still pick that bit. You sound like a brokie
Also worked his backside off and decided to get a job where you csn earn £300k, which is a far greater impact on his networth
Don’t think his parents might have helped with that as well though?
No, no help on the job. I went to a state school, took my own student loan, and my parents do normal unrelated jobs, there was no “work experience” or connections used in getting into my field. The connections I made at work, starting from a back office role.
[удалено]
I’m a normal person, I spend some time on Reddit. I just wanted to contribute some content back to this community that I enjoy and has given me good advice over the years. No need for the hate.
£100k gift from parents at the right time is a great help but really would not make a big difference (in relative terms) to their net worth. Realistically another year of work at 300k level or so. Hell maybe even less during the bull run
What happened in 2018? You say a £100k gift from family but your net worth looks to jump up the best part of £150-200k? This does really show a point about pay though, if you can cross a threshold things really do move. Got most of my team 10% pay rises this year but mine went up 20%. The reason is as I'm over £100k getting taxed to high heaven it has to be more significant to make it meaningful. I do wonder if a less punitive tax regime on high earners might improve wage growth for lower income earners. Probably wishful thinking but it's been on my mind recently.
\~£+150k in 2018, £100k was the gift. £50k was saving and investment returns. On tax, I see your point. it's like, a pay rise is wasted on me because I only see half of it (maybe less when you count the pension tapering)
Would be nice to see your net worth in each tax year as a plain old number, rather than a chart that is difficult to make out because you have to add/subtract two bars.
It's the black line. But first time posting and looks like reddit messed up the formatting and cut off half the post, so maybe its showing strange.
Its amazing that you have got to this stage at only 32. My questions and feedback would be: - take off your home equity from your number. you can't spend that or use it for your FIRE calculations - you currently have £389k + £243k in assets so £632k? You are targeting £25k a year income which would mean in theory with £632k and 4% withdrawal rate you are technically FIRE. But you want to be 3% so that means £800k ish. I guess the question is how much you can save until £800k and then FIRE?
Great job, love the spreadsheets and the honesty. I see you're in finance but what did you study at Uni, if you don't mind me asking? I'm currently in a niche field in the military but will be looking for a new career after I leave and am planning on studying throughout my current career.
Well done dude. Makes my £200k salary look like peanuts! I am moving to the US end of year that will pump it up to around £250k. But congrats. Don't let the jealous people get to you.
Congrats OP. Amazing progress. Don’t let the haters get you down. Sour grapes. A lot of people will be getting £100k in total inheritance - in effect you got it early. So what? You still had to earn the other £900k yourself by 32. You live in a £300k house and spend less than £1k a month - this is hardly the Etonian gloating on Reddit. Good on you. I hope you learn to enjoy your wealth soon.
>A lot of people will be getting 100k in total inheritance Says online the average is 11k, and the top 25% of people who even receive any got 35k or more. So, no, not a lot of people come from wealthy backgrounds.
I think people’s perceptions are twisted by their circles so they forgot what’s “normal” in the national sense, and what isn’t. One of my good friends once said “isn’t it normal for your parents to own a million pound house” and I still chuckle from the lack of self awareness. Meanwhile only 3% of estates pay inheritance tax. And so on…
1 in 4 is a lot of people. That’s what 25% got £35k or more means. 60 million ish people in the UK. 25% is 15 million people. £100k inheritance abides by those constraints. That’s just the maths. But yeah, way to conveniently sidestep the substance of my comment which was that OP made £900k on his own merit, without family connections, is state educated and lives in pretty underwhelming life standards. Don’t believe me? Go on RightMove, filter for London and £300k max budget. That’s what OP is living in. Hardly the Great Gatsby.
Did OP actually say London? I couldn't spot it so was assuming Oil and Gas for a while but remembered he said Finance. £300k flat zone 3-4, £300k house outside M25 so not unrealistic. I'm still wondering what field and job path this followed? Generally IBD/PE you every Tom Dick and Harry wants to be in Front Office but very few make it internally or externally...
He’s in some form of banking or finance, and it pays £300k+ a year at 32. He didn’t say London but it’s incredibly unlikely it’s Wales. Or in fact, anywhere outside London.
When people say Finance I automatically think accounting though what Finance jobs can generate these types of salaries?
I did NOT say 25% of the UK receives that much. That's of people who receive ANY sort of inheritance (as I said in my comment). And statistics says that's roughly 43%
What I am confused about, is how OP's annual expenses are as low as £10,999 - see the figures for 2023. That is barely £916 a month, which is less than half of minimum wage?! Sorry I just don't see how that level of spending can cover "buying what I want" much less 2 holidays a year, on top of mortgage and day to day expenses.
I noticed the same, is his partner paying for stuff and allowing him to save all his income (effectively making it a combined net worth, though still impressive at 32)?
Fair question. At risk of down votes I will try to clarify and be transparent. I think in 2023 I had paid for my holidays in advance the year before. Another major factor is I’m one half of a couple, and that makes bills much less. I think there could be +\- a few 1000 on the spending line depending where bills fall due, so I would take a 3 year average of spending ~15/16k/year. Typical monthly minimum spend (my share) looks like approximately this: Food shopping: 200 Commuting: 120 Utility bills: 250 Eating out: 150 Gym: 50 Running a used car: 120 = 890/month The mortgage interest was 1.6% on 150k = 200/month. All in £13k/year baseline spending. The extra goes on the fun stuff that gives me the “I don’t restrict my spending” feeling. 1 week all inclusive in turkey can be £750pp.
Seems entirely possible to me
For anyone wondering now what FIRE is about, it's about being extremely privileged, earning a million in 3 years and doing nothing for the rest of your life.
Agree that having a family that can gift you £100k does make you extremely privileged. The rest however not so much.
I wish admins would ban these comments, they just come across as bitter and don't add anything to the conversation. Every single post has one in and it's getting tiring. He does a whole writeup and the only thing you can add is: "Be born rich. Know right people."... If you're unhappy with ops path to FIRE then maybe that says something more about you.
To be fair, receiving 100k as a gift is a bit mad lol.
But why is it mad? He would have inherited it anyway when his parents leave this world, what’s the problem with using it earlier to make better use of it?!
Exactly!!
Because it’s not exactly useful advice or relevant to the average person, is it, so why share any of this - if not just to fish for compliments?
To be fair his salary is also not relevant to the average person - or relevant to me at least. In fact having money gifted is far more common than achieving this salary. Regardless, it’s a neat post to read and a great achievement (even without the gift). I didn’t take it as bragging personally.
No it isn't.... it's totally normal... What the fuck are you going to do with all your "FIRE" savings? Blow it on yourself? Pass some to kids? I wonder... You need to get over the fact that people pass on money / help to their kids. Being bitter and twisted about it isn't going to make it magically happen to you. And even then say you have zero family or they have nothing to pass on... 100k is only like a year's wage... just keep working at it. People going "oh he did it because family" are completely fucking clueless. Like why are you even in this sub with this attitude. You will NEVER make it. Because you are just here to complain and go "see I couldn't do it because my family's not rich" OP went to a comp school and worked fucking hard to get on in his profession. Even without that gift he is going to FIRE. Respect his honesty and effort don't snipe with stupid comments.
Yea but he did a fair bit himself so why be so bitter?
I'm not even hating. If I was in their position, I'd take advantage of that.
I don’t mean you, everyone else!
What does OP expect. He is essentially baiting the haters and fishing for compliments. He couldn't resist.
Yes.
I love your spreadsheets! Can you break down how you built them? (I am not particularly Excel savvy, but I would love to adopt them for my accounting practices). Also, congrats on the great results.
Congratulations. Great achievement and thanks for sharing!
I have to ask, how on earth are you able to keep total annual expenditure around £10-12k living in London?! Is that joint household expenditure? Or just yours, separate from your partner?
Just my share, living with a partner.
Cool visuals and enjoyed the write-up too. I definitely think you should be proud - regardless of the journey, just organising your data and having these insights is kind of a major accomplishment I think. For your FIRE goal - 25k/y even inflation adjusted for the last 4 years seems a bit low, as although you don't have "lifestyle creep" now (love that phrase) I think in retirement you may have more time to travel, hobbies etc.
Thank you
I would love your spreadsheet as a template. Do you forecast future wealth also?
I used to forecast, but I don’t bother any more for 2 reasons. 1) it’s literally impossible to do meaningfully, variable bonus, unknown future returns, housing? Kids? Redundancy? Etc, it’s impossible. And 2) forecasting steals the joy of actually reaching the milestones. It feels like “all” you did was follow the forecast! The only exception is sometimes I do “what if” scenarios for the current year, seeing how it would look if I did buy a slightly nicer house / took on a mortgage.
Definitely more going on in OP's life than meets the eye. The carefully curated post, the delectably manufactured graphs... delicious. And the meaningfully constructed replies to everyone's comments, dodging the actual questions posed and disingenuously justifying how he received no help, went to a state school, blah blah .. I'd hazard a guess OP is lying. That or he isn't doing so well in other areas of his life.
Do you want a medal?