Dad on FIRE

Tax return done, pension tax relief received and reinvested Market dip, net worth hit Holidays, from Denmark to Doncaster! Unpaid Parental Leave Allotment? A-llot-of-work-ment more like! Books and board games Finance update: My net worth took a bit of a hit this month, down £2.5k. This is the biggest drop since September 2022 so I've done well going this long without a little trip!  The biggest reason for this has been a market dip in the middle of April. This happened shortly after I had chucked in £10k to my ISA. I also put in a further £4k once I had received my pension tax relief on my tax return, and the saving grace is that despite me filling in my tax return in the middle of April, it took HMRC a good 2 weeks for them to make the payment. By that time the market drop had bottomed, enabling me to add it at this point, and has increased a bit since.  So on the above graphic, although my ISA pot has effectively gone up by £12.6k, I've actually put in £14k to it (£4k of whic

  Amazon link I'm a big fan of dystopian novels and films; 1984, Brave New World, We, In Time , The Road etc...which, given my interest in finance makes it strange that I haven't come across Lionel Shriver's 2016 'The Mandibles' before. Set in the near future of 2029 during a debt crisis in the United States, it follows the lives of one family and how they navigate through the financial turmoil, the spiralling cost of necessities and the inevitable social breakdown thrust upon them. The second part of the book jumps forward to the year 2047 to see where our protagonists end up what with nearly 20 years of the Government in chaos, a currency in absolute freefall and freedoms being snatched quicker than tins of beans at the corner shop. I've read books in the past on the hyperinflationary environment of the Weimar Republic, namely 'When Money Dies' by Adam Fergusson, and although I found it interesting to find out what the governments did and the various i

Over the past few years I've really got into reading more.  I've been doing a challenge on Good Reads where I read 22 books in 2022, 23 in 2023 and so on.  I have achieved my targets for 2022 and 2023 and am on target for meeting my 2024 one! Books I've read so far this year: Mort Terry Pratchett My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ Meet the Frugalwoods Elizabeth Willard Thames My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work Simone Stolzoff My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Wool Hugh Howey My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ Pathfinders: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence―And How to Join Them JL Collins My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I'm a 37 year old father of 2 young children. I  currently live with my wife and kids in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and work  in Cyber Security.  I've always been obsessed with frugality, getting the most from my money and have recently discovered the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early) Over the past few years,  I have pursued a heavy savings rate (currently around 75%) and have directed this into savings, investments and paying off my mortgage. Twitter Account:  https://twitter.com/Dad_on_FIRE Key milestones: 2022 - Mortgage free!  10 years after buying our 1st house. There is currently around £330k in equity in the house 2023 - Coast FIRE In 2023 I had enough in my pension that it would coast up to a figure I would be happy with (circa £1m) 2024 - Hit  £1m net worth My Net Worth journey: Most people pursuing people have a figure, an overall number to achieve. My FIRE aims however, are currently not set in stone, largely down to having 2 kids!  I would be hap

Here's a calculator I made a while back, mainly out of frustration that the vast vast majority of online pension calculators made some huge assumptions. Namely, that you will carry on working until at least your private pension age, and that your contributions will be exactly the same each year, or at least that they will increase with inflation. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iltETWM5FcgGA_TIOTcurNqdBoqAkh4y/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113724788594386554052&rtpof=true&sd=true So, here it is, the 'lumpy' Pension Calculator . Which lets you input a custom amount each year, to see what effect 'front loading' your pension will have. Spoiler alert...it's pretty good!! How to use: Click on the link and download a copy for yourself (that way it avoid people inputting amounts into the online template!) Input your age, current pension pot and what returns you think you'll get on average Have a mess around with some annual pension contributions in Colu

  In this update we have: Reached Millionaire status on my net worth Harvesting gains from Crypto Platform Incentives Holiday plans Overview: (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge) Net worth update:  Current net worth: £1,030,167 Up £28k from last month, and up a massive £70k from 2 months ago!!  My last blog post was probably a bit premature as a couple of days after it, I breached the millionaire net worth figure!  When I started out on this journey less than 10 years ago with a rough net worth of just over £100k I didn't think I'd be saying that as a 37 year old with two small kids that I'd be a millionaire! Also I'm not sure whether it is mainly due to "millionaire" status not being the same as it was when I was young (thanks inflation/money printing! #BitcoinSolvesThis ), or whether it is testament to our concerted saving and investing over the past few years, probably a mix of both. Either way I'm extremely proud of what me and wife have achieved, and