Fire Bull UK

Fire Bull UK – Blogging My Journey to Financial Independence

Category: My Journey Updates

  • September 2025 Update – I Quit!

    The month started off with me being best man at one of my best mates from school’s wedding. A few beers the night before preceded the big day that started off with torrential downpours. As any bride rightly would be, she was worried about the outdoor ceremony being spoilt/moved indoors, but thankfully the skies managed to do a 180 by the time of the ceremony which was overseen by bright sunshine. The only stumbling block was the groom’s emotions, who couldn’t stop himself being a blubbery mess. He’s always said he wears his heart on his sleeve, proved throughout the day.

    The whole day went smoothly. The entrées and Pimm’s were delightful, speeches were received in good humour without anyone being offended. Even the groom nailed the dance after 10 pints of Guinness which was a shock to all there!

    Change is Upon Us

    Later in the month, my biggest personal event (besides Charlton Millwall) was resigning from a company I have been at for 3 and a half years to start my working holiday next month. When telling my boss I was leaving, there were mixed emotions.

    Obviously there is the excitement of going back to Australia, a country I’ve longed to head again since leaving in 2018, but things change, and I was pretty happy and comfortable where I was in my job, slightly upset to be leaving. I started my first real accounting role as an assistant management account after years of toiling away in accounts related positions, invisible to the hierarchies above. In this company I have worked my way up with 2 promotions, had decent relationships with management and gained my chartership in the process.

    I have grown and the environment here, whilst not being perfect, was suited to my needs and wants from an office in my local area Providing a professional enough environment to work effectively and learn, whilst also not having to be too corporate, allowing a social environment that was neither hamstrung by politics nor that of a rowdy boys club.

    Whilst I have learnt at the company, it had also gotten to a point where I became too comfortable with the tasks, and the saying goes comfort breeds contempt. I was able to meet the tasks of my position with ease. Staying in the role would hamper my development with no more opportunities to go further up the food chain; not where you want to be as a newly qualified accountant. Bearing this in mind, going to Australia, into a city environment and role where continued growth and learning could occur will be best for my career.

    Finance Update

    The end of September marks the 5 year anniversary since I first started logging my liquid assets and documenting my progress going forwards. Fitting, my liquid assets assets have now increased by over £100k for the first time since documenting my progress. I’ll put my full 5 years document down below along with comments through the years for any changes/fluctuations.

    With the trip coming up in October, I have sold some ISA shares for the first time since investing. There was a small internal debate as to whether I should keep them in, allow them the chance to grow further and only take some out if necessary. However, not knowing the costing of the upcoming trip too well and for peace of mind, withdrawing less than 5% of my ISA value for peace of mind, knowing I’d be more disappointed having to withdraw money at a later point, if the shares do finally experience a longer drop in price, as per many forum expectations since the beginning of the year.

  • July 2025 Net Worth

    July 2025 Net Worth

    The month started with a stag to Dublin. It was a small group with a few of the boys not knowing each other, but it didn’t take long to click at all with the stag’s outfits to break the ice and our shared love for Guinness, apart from James!

    As cliché as it is, the Guinness factory was most of the boy’s highlight from the trip. The bar there included traditional Irish Dancing (the dancers made a few jaws drop in the crowd), a live band whose rendition of foggy dew will never be beaten in my mind, and some interactive drum bashing. Even James enjoyed it there, despite gagging on a freebie!

    It’s incredible how many excellent pubs and bars there are within a small area, particularly when thinking about all the pubs that have closed down in my local area in recent years. The Dubliners were all welcoming and happy to have a natter. It probably helped that the Stag was wearing an electric dog collar, so maybe they all went on the charm offensive to get hold of the remote and give him a good zapping, which happened quite frequently.

    Even with the number of pubs and bars, it was a nightmare getting into places. We didn’t know at the time of booking, but it was the Hurling Semi finals on the Saturday and Sunday. The whole of Cork out in full force on the Saturday night after they demolished Dublin on the day. The sea of red gave me flashbacks of the Addicks faithful around Wembley in May. When we finally got into Devitt’s top floor on Camden Street, the first song that greeted us on our arrival was “Up The RA”. Upon hearing that, we had our Guinness and fucked off quicker than the time it took to get in there.

    Temple Bar - Of course we went in!
    Of course we went in!

    The Finger is still in it’s splint after breaking in June, so I haven’t been able to play cricket. Even though it’s just one measly finger, It’s been hard doing any sort of exercise as I can’t grip onto any weighted items with my left hand and the splint slides off the finger when sweating, so even running has been difficult. Walking to dog has been the one form of exercise that hasn’t been inhibited, so he’s been happy at least.

    Whilst not playing cricket, I did get to day 2 of the England v India test Match at Lords. Lords is known as the home of cricket, which is the perfect description of the ground with all of the history and tradition on display around the ground. Just a warm and fuzzy feeling from being there. My writing doesn’t do it justice.

    Highlights from the day included Joe Root reaching his hundred from the first ball of the day, Bumrah’s peach of a delivery to Stokes and the return of Jofra Archer sending down thunderbolts in test cricket, including a wicket in his first over. A non cricketing highlight from the day was my mate trying his best to avoid the sun as much as possible, given his pasty complexion. As you can see there wasn’t much cloud cover, so he didn’t stand much of a chance. Wrapping himself with newspaper was quite humourous at least….

    Whilst these were decent highlights, the real action of the test started on day 3, with all of the drama around the time wasting at the end of day spicing the match up. This was followed by 2 of the best days of cricket on days 4 and 5. Spare a thought for Jadeja running out of batting partners. Ben Stokes is some guy too eh. Nothing beats test cricket at it’s best!

    The Home of Cricket – Peach of a day

    July 2025 Financial Position

    My financial independence portfolio saw some different movements this month. An increased cash position in the build up to Australia, not investing in July and selling some old workplace and Tesla shares, all without exceeding the capital gains tax threshold.

    It felt a bit sad getting rid of most of my old work shares as I’ve had them for almost 10 years now, weirdly having some sentimental value to them. The Tesla shares not so much. I suppose I still have plenty in my index funds.

    I paid for my flight to Singapore in July, which pushed the cash down, just missing out from having £10k. It likely won’t go up higher, if at all before going Australia, with other things to buy in preparation for that.

    Gains in the ISA in July eased the thought of not paying into it. The price has gone up around 10/15% from the drop in April, when I threw in a bit more than usual, I missed out slightly compared to how much I could’ve put in. Trump’s liberation day has since meant shares have gone down again at the beginning of August. What a ride!

  • June 2025 Net Worth

    June 2025 Net Worth

    A busy June and July has seen this post come late, but due to the lack of activity on the UK Lean Fire Reddit weekly updates thread, I thought why not engage in some productivity and throw something on there myself.

    June’s spending was pretty crazy, including a wild night after a great T20 cricket game between Kent and Surrey, as well as a last minute trip away.

    With planning to be out of Europe next summer, my diminishing youth and FOMO, I booked a 4 day trip to Split. Flights and the Hostel were cheap enough, but I was shocked at the price of pretty much everything in Split (excuse my ignorance). It is a lovely place with some amazing architecture, food, beaches and weather (got some great burn lines whilst there), but the frugal in me was beaten and defeat was accepted.

    The Gravitas hostel was lovely with some nice people staying there. Big Brisbane Lad Chris (sporting an incredible farmers tan) being my 3 day bestie. Hoping to meet him down under when I’m there. At the hostel I even got told how I look much younger than my age, so shout out to you Daria, even though you’ll never read this!

    The highlights of my trip were the tubing on the River Cetina and the boat trip around the Islands. Tubing was a fun day lazily heading down the river, with a stop off point to cliff jump and slide down little waterfalls. Only downside was that the only other people on the tour were families. Third wheeling at it’s worst!


    The boat trip started off a bit iffy, with me and Chris being on different boats, with the other people on my boat being with a bunch of couples (continuing the third wheel theme of the trip). However, after a few lethal blue lagoon drinks at the first stop (reunited with Chris), we got chatting to this lovely couple on my boat and we ended up staying with them on every stop, then heading out for drinks with them later on. Sadly I got no photos from these activities. Instead are some poorly taken ones of the city and a nice bar!

    The waiter was happier than he looks here… Promise!

    In other news the cricket season has hit a speed bump due to breaking a finger. I managed to take a catch but the ball clipped the top of my middle finger in the process, taking off the tendon and part of the bone with it. Not sure when I’ll be back.

    2025 Goals

    At the beginning of the year I made myself some financial and non financial goals. With it being halfway through the year, it’s a decent time to look at the progress of these:

    Non Financial Goals

    • Do 5 sessions of Portuguese a week in the lead up to my Brazil trip – This one I was roughly there or there abouts for my Brazil trip, making some small conversation when out there: Will say this was a success
    • Score 10 goals for the season – This definitely didn’t happen with a change of position and missing a fair amount of games. A fail
    • Get 10 wickets in the few games I play in the summer – Only 4 Wickets in 4 games at the minute, so 6 to get in 6 or so games. Wasn’t particularly happy with how I was bowling before the injury if I’m honest. Fingers crossed
    • Read 1 autobiography of an interesting life – Not yet
    • Get back to Australia in some capacity – Holiday Visa Obtained and likely to go later in the year

    Financial Goals:

    • Sell down my GIA investments within the capital gains allowance (£3K profit)– I haven’t done this yet. Stocks are looking good at the minute so might do this in July
    • Increase my Easy Access Savings Amount to £11,500, roughly in line with tax-free interest allowance (£500 for the tax year) – Interest rate went down and a dip in the market meant I invested a bit more, so savings account amount has actually lowered
    • Continue to invest into my ISA where possible, without setting a target deposit value which I would unlikely hit – Not really a goal is it if I’m being honest. Sorry

    Looking back I’m pretty happy with how I’m fairing upon reflection – Must get more wickets!

    June 2025 Financial Position

    Stocks went up a little bit in June, now being back to a similar position as I was in January before the little blip in the market. As mentioned briefly above, this might the month I cash in on my GIA Investments to build up some cash in preparation for Australia.

  • May 2025 Net Worth Update

    May 2025 Net Worth Update

    April was followed up by another great month in May. Whilst there were no holidays away, the 2 bank holidays meant that there was enough fun to be had. 

    Football

    As usual I will start off on the football front, but this will not be the case going forward! 

    I managed to get back for my final game of the season after my holiday. We lost (who cares by this point) but it was nice to have our final night out with the boys before I pack it up. 

    Ironically my final match of the season was against a lot of my teammates on a Saturday. Bragging rights were up for grab and maybe more needle in the game than was expected. Love the boys but there are one or two who believe they’re too good for our team on Saturday, so there was no way I wanted to allow that ego to extend any further by allowing them to lay a smackdown on us. Thankfully age overcome beauty with the Brexit tactics on top of some good football being played. Up the old boys! 

    Onto the professional football, the best part of the season is definitely the playoffs! After the blistering form in 2025, Charlton had their semi final legs against Wycombe. If you haven’t seen it I’d suggest not bothering viewing any highlights over 5 minutes in total as they were 2 truly dreadful games. Despite this the atmosphere was amazing and we were on our way to Wembley, meeting fellow Londoners Leyton Orient after the impressively knocked out Stockport. 

    Despite my lack of moderation when it comes to alcohol at times, I’ve never actually one to enjoy getting drunk for a football match. Losing your voice and not remembering the match has never appealed to me. That especially for this game as going to Wembley with your club is a truly special moment. With all that said, there was only really the goal to remember from the match, with it being another defensive masterclass from the Addicks, sending us back to the CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! 

    I went to the Sunderland Play Off in 2019 and whilst this game didn’t have the dramatic end like in 2019, the afterparty was brilliant. We ended up in Boxpark where the Charlton fans and players were both celebrating to the feelgood tunes of Shakira et al (Waka Waka still blaring in the head). 

    Shout out to Alex Gilbert as he was loving life, despite being a loan player. By the looks of it you wouldn’t want to have a drinking competition with Alex Mitchell either, unless you’re a top LAD like myself…. 

    2nd Leg of the Play Off Semi Final vs Wycombe (picture doesn’t do it justice)
    Boxpark Celebrating Promotion

    Life Updates

    Other goings on in May was a lovely weekend in Canterbury, birthdays, catch ups, a return to cricket and the biggest news from the month, my Working Holiday Visa to Australia has been approved! 

    I’ve been wanting to go much almost immediately since I landed back in the UK over 7 year ago now. Blimey that’s gone quick. However, the ‘need‘ to go back has waned with the improvement in my career, personal life and finances over the last 2ish years, so now I’m not escaping anything. I’m still looking forward to it and have the excitement, it’s just knowing how I’ve changed as a person and understanding it will be a different experience to when I was there in my early 20s. 

    It will be interesting to see how the financial independence journey goes during this Working Holiday. In a way the delay has helped my finances as I’ve been holding off moving and buying a car waiting for the time to come and get out there again. Last time I blew through my savings and if it was to occur again to would hit harder now being in my 30s. 

    Then there has been an internal debate regarding have I just wasted some of my best years waiting to go back only to find out it’s not what I actually wanted: Time will tell. 

    More Goslings by the office
    Canterbury Punting

    Finance Update

    With the markets picking back up in May, my investments have gone back in an upwards direction. Although, the weak USD is holding back the level of gains.  

    Cash is low this month after paying out on my visa, 2 bank holidays and paying for some stag stuff in July. The interest on my savings account has gone down by an entire 100 basis points since November, so not missing a whole lot in interest from the lack of cash. Will be looking to find a new provider soon. Whilst the bank rate has gone down by 50 basis points, the extra 50 reduction is an absolute libertyyyyyy. Hang your head in shame Vanquis! 

    Figures

  • April 2025 – Bring on Summer

    April 2025 – Bring on Summer

    April 2025

    This was a month I was looking forward to and it exceeded expectations: Brazil, Rome and a cup final for my Sunday team made it a memorable month. There was one that ended in disappointment though (no prizes for guessing which one!)

    Brazil is massive so whilst we only visited a small part of the country, it was truly beautiful. You hear the stories about safety and whilst we was cautious, booking taxis and not using our phone when out in public, we didn’t have any real issues with the Brazilian people and they came across as friendly, inviting people.

    It was great seeing some of my old friends from my days back in Australia after 7 years. After that time away from eachother, I was a little anxious to see how we would all get on but it was like we’d never been away. With them being Irish they were as happy as ever with no awkward silences had, apart from when waiting on them to turn up. Timekeeping was never a strength of theirs but as imperfections go there are a lot worse 🙂 

     The wedding was beautiful and the switches between English and Portuguese in the ceremony were almost seamless. How much the Brazilian contingent got of the best man speech I’m not sure, but likely more of what we understood of the bride’s side speeches. 

    After the Wedding there was a night in Sao Paulo so didn’t get to experience the city with the rest of the time being spent between Rio and Ilha Grande before finishing the trip in Rome. Football, hiking, beaches, sightseeing, quality food, quality people and DOGS!

    The perfect holiday to get over winter blues and rubbish back home, coming back with a change in headspace. Would love to be able to getaway and clear the head more often and this is a ‘why’ for striving towards financial independence. 

    One of my goals was to learn a bit of Portuguese to help get by when we got there, and immediately was required checking in to the first hotel and their English was as good as my Portuguese! Between us we made it work, which was pretty rewarding. Will continue to carry on with Portuguese for the meantime and see how I can enhance it further. 

    Doesn’t need any introduction….
    The Wedding Venue
    The Infamous Maracana
    A lovely Caipirinha on the beach
    One of Many Beautiful Beaches on Ilha Grande
    Are you not entertained?! (By my substandard blog)

    Liquid Assets

    Midway through the month it was looking very gloomy for the assets, with my ISA value even being under £90K, but the recovery at the end of the month limited the damage, albeit still down again this month. Lumped a bit into the ISA in April but sadly not at the time the value was at it’s lowest. 

    I must go to waste some more money on alcohol, with it being the bank holiday this weekend (but I do need to write a post on this as it is the worst spending habit I need to address). Hope everyone has a great one! 

  • March 2025 – Biggest Losses So Far

    March 2025 – Biggest Losses So Far

    Sigh! 

    Before we go into the finance side of the month, I’ll start with a little rant about how my Saturday football has gone in the month, culminating in multiple head losses, a 3 match ban and a hefty fine for the month. Football truly is the beautiful game but has been completely poisoned by the attitudes of people within the game. Even getting to a final with my Sunday team hasn’t sweetened the bitter taste. 

    This obviously isn’t aimed at everyone in these positions as a disclaimer (for any refs reading lol). The governance from the top is poor at best/corrupt at the worst, Referees don’t understand the game with an ever increasing level of arrogance, Manager’s who have watched too many punditry shows think they’re geniuses and the players; I can’t believe how many big timers and cheats there are at amateur level. 

    Rant over and I’m looking forward to a fun April, travelling to Brazil then stopping over in Rome for a few days on the way back. The break from work (and football!) is needed, with the batteries needing a recharge before year end and Audit.

    Liquid Assets

    With all the uncertainty coming out from the US in March it was a bad month for the USD and Shares. This made March my worst ever month since tracker my finances. In fairness it’s not really life changing money and it’s all on paper, but seeing my S&S ISA go back down to 5 figures is slightly annoying, but buying at a lower price beats that slight emotional attachment to 6 digits. Inconveniently, the price of the shares when I purchased in the month had a little spike meaning I missed in on a bit of a discount, but such is life. Paid into my vanguard account at payday, which I imagine is similar to a lot of people, although not sure this is the reason for that little spike. Time in beats timing blah blah blah 😀 

    Sorry this isn’t the greatest post ever, just trying to get this out quickly.

  • 2025 Goals and January Monthly Update

    2025 Goals and January Monthly Update

    It’s been a busy start to 2025 which is part of the reason for not getting this out earlier (Sorry Joe!). A wet and gloomy start to the year has meant there hasn’t been much going on in terms of football and other outdoor activities. However, it still hasn’t been a cheap month with booked flights for a stag later in the year and Brazil in April. Flights are spenny!

    The Brazil trip is for a friends wedding I lived with in Australia and haven’t seen for 7 years, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing some familiar faces after such a long time. With the possibility of heading back to Australia in the summer, it’ll be nice to rebuild on these friendships and carry them on for when I get back out there. It’s a shame it’s been so long as when you live with people away from your family, it becomes a really strong bond and they become you’re family away from family. It just can’t be helped at times. I have also started trying to pick up a little Portuguese in preparation for my trip. Pimsleur is the app I’m using and from what little I have done so far I’m pretty impressed by it. 

    2025 Financial Goals

    The pot has been building nicely over the last 18 months and whilst it still needs my contributions to continue in the long term to create financial independence, this year I will looking to reduce my level of investment activity in the year and increase my cash allocation. With this, my goals for 2025 are as below:

    • Sell down my GIA investments within the capital gains allowance (£3K profit)
    • Increase my Easy Access Savings Amount to £11,500, roughly in line with tax-free interest allowance (£500 for the tax year) 
    • Continue to invest into my ISA where possible, without setting a target deposit value which I would unlikely hit. 

    No rabbits being pulled out the hat with these goals, and they are more concerned with the new tax years in April as to the 2025 calendar year, but if I am able to do these I will be happy with the action taken on my side, even if the markets aren’t favourable in 2025. 

    2025 Non Financial Goals

    • Do 5 sessions of Portuguese a week in the lead up to my Brazil trip (will do this on the journey to and from work)
    • Score 6 more goals until the end of the football season to get 10 for the season (managed 1 of these in January)
    • Get 10 wickets in the few games I play in the summer
    • Get down to 12 Stone at some point in the year (preferably before Brazil)
    • Read one autobiography of an interesting life
    • Get back to Australia in some capacity (holiday/working holiday)

    January Liquid Assets 

    Another good month for my investments, with a gain of over £2000 excluding my contributions in the month, though there’s been a few jitters in February already with everything that’s going on. Cash was down due to paying out for the flights and will continue to take a hit going forward with booking hotels, activities, travel etc. 

  • 2024 In Numbers

    2024 In Numbers

    Happy 2025 Everyone!

    Hope Everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year break. This Post will summarise the key numbers of my 2024 financial year and how my position has changed from the beginning of the year. I will use this to assess my performance in the year regarding spending activity and contributions, as well as how my investments did in the year . Going forward I will use these 2024 figures to assess 2025 activities.

    Hopefully this can also be of use for anyone reading this in the context of their own numbers, especially for readers in the early stages of their finance journey, who might be wondering how they can save without making their lifestyle miserable and start their path in creating wealth.

    Context of the Numbers

    • 31 year old Male – Started Investing at 27 – In the accumulation phase building my Fire Portfolio, but with a mindset of wanting to enjoy the years of freedom I have left before real adulthood responsibility will occur.
    • No real need for having nice things currently, but want to enjoy more experiences and travel without burning the funds needlessly. Doing this reducing my house outgoing by living with my family. This isn’t for everyone but works for me and the family.
    • Working full time in accountancy in my local area where I drive to work. I am able to save a decent portion of my income to invest into my ISA.

    2024 Spend

    My total expenditure for 2024 was £18,779 for the year, excluding investments and transfers to savings accounts. Rent is low due to the family mortgage being paid off and my contributions going towards groceries and bills. The main areas of my spend are covered below, but I’m not sure I have the allocations 100% correct.

    Holiday Spend
    In this the cost of flights hotels and spend away is included. Flights were almost £1.5k of this and the rest consists of hotel and spend when out there. The years travels consisted of some stag doos (Sofia , Barcelona and Butlins!) , and some trips away with the girlfriend (Bali, Oxford and Amsterdam)

    Being able to enjoy my youth is a priority so not grumbling at this being my biggest spend. Only complaints is felt like I hardly got away! 2025 already has some trips in the pipeline with Brazil, Portugal, Dublin with the plan to finish the year over in Australia, so this spend is looking to dwarf this years spend.

    Food/Drink
    This spend relates to eating out or takeaways throughout the year and the odd drink in the day at the pub. At almost £3k this is a hefty chunk of the expense. As I don’t have sole ownership of the house and and the grocery shopping, this is higher than it would be if I was to have responsibility for this.
    I can’t say I’m the greatest kitchen, so I will need to brush up on some of my culinary skills when the time comes again.

    Drinking/Nights Out

    There’s always a few drinks after football and after a good result we usually do head to the local for a few extra after to celebrate. There have been a couple of 30th birthdays in 2024 so on the whole this is a pretty reasonable spend considering.

    Sports

    This spend consists of my gym membership, memberships and equipment in the sports I play, and tickets to certain sporting events. Being a Charlton Fan, tickets are busting the bank, but I do enjoy a purchase of new football boots. The biggest gripe are the yellow/red card fines. There have been one or two head losses on the pitch, but refs are just so card happy. I would love to know what the FA are doing to put this money to good use, but I’m sure it just lines the pockets of people who do not deserve it.

    Fire Portfolio @ 31 Dec 2024

    From the above, 2024 was a great year for me in my quest to build my Fire Portfolio, increasing by almost £34K! This is almost in line with my net salary income in 2024. The different investment performances will be covered in more detail in the below paragraphs.

    ISA Performance


    The biggest investment in my portfolio is my S&S ISA, with almost any surplus cash in going toward my ISA. In 2024 I managed to get 2 small pay rises which went a long way to helping my increase my contributions towards this.

    As with 99% of people investing in the year, the investment returns for this were very good, giving me over £13K of gains in the year. Part of this gain includes dividends that are automatically reinvested by the ISA provider as well. The overall gains compared to my contributions throughout the years are summarised in the below graph.

    Whilst this year has been very good, it makes me pessimistic on the returns of the stock market for 2025/26. The plan still remains the same, to dollar cost average and contribute to my ISA on a monthly basis. As Buffman says, time in the market beat timing the market.

    Workplace Shares

    In my first job out of university, I was fortunate to be able to enrol to a Workplace Share Scheme that allowed me to gain 2 free shares for every 1 I purchased. I enrolled for the maximum amount which was little in value, but allowed me to gain a great performing investment.

    This year was the first time I actually withdrew funds from my investments so far. This was to make use of the capital gains tax free allowance. I can’t remember how much I contributed all those years ago, but would’ve been around £1-1.5K. So a brilliant gain and a realised one in there too 🙂

    GIA Performance

    I opened my GIA in 2021 when fresh to it and easily impressionable. The YouTube Finfluencers convinced me that it would be silly not to purchase at least an individual stock in Tesla. Not long after a listening to a Lewis Morgan (Gymshark Co-Founder) Podcast, I decided to purchase a share in Coinbase to get some exposure to the crypto market in Feb 2022. 

    As you can see from the below gain/loss graph covering the time I’ve had a GIA, these investments haven’t been exactly the rags to riches investment I thought I was undertaking. For the majority of time holding them they have been at a loss, and a sizeable one at time in percentage terms, but I didn’t sell it and 2024 was the year they went back into the green. I am soooooooo wise!

    If I’m honest this is was a bad investment decision and if I just put the money into a tracker it would’ve been a smoother ride. I will probably sell these in the new tax year and move the funds into my ISA for simplicity. It’s been an interesting little journey though….

    Cash

    Cash is up currently as I have some big expenses to come out soon for flights and organising a stag do. Most of this is in an easy access savings account with any interest received being below the tax allowance for the year.

    Net Worth!

    I don’t usually do net worth updates but I will include it in this post to give you an insight. The only extra things I need to include are my pension and my student loan as I do not own a property or high value car. This will give you an insight to my low pension, but mainly highlights how ridiculous the student loan system is and why my net worth is pretty irrelevant.

    My Pension is currently £29,087, between my SIPP and current workplace pension. I have consolidated my old work pensions into my SIPP and have also done a partial transfer from my current workplace pension to my SIPP. this was to reduce to fees paid, but I ensured with the provided there would be no issues with fees for the transfer and it wouldn’t disrupt my employer contributions to my pension going forward. As in my last post, I want to use my pension as a top up of funds instead of investing heavily in this and relying solely on my pension in the later years.

    My Student Loan Debt has gone up from £50,942 to £52,490 in 2024. When I left university I believe my debt was around £30,000 and I contribute to loan repayment through my payroll every month, yet it still rises. This actually makes me laugh looking how the debt has gone, and I am genuinely curios to see it’s value when it is due to be written off after 30 years. What a party that will be.

    With these 2 items included, my net worth as at the end of 2024 is around £89,437, £24k smaller than my Liquid Assets incredibly. Hope 2025 is brilliant for everyone reading this post!

  • November 2024 Update – Trump Is Back!

    November 2024 Update – Trump Is Back!

    General Life Update   

    Making myself sound very boring now, but it was another quiet month. To be honest it was welcomed with open arms with Christmas coming up and plenty of socials throughout December. My football continues to disappoint and a hamstring injury limited my playing time. Probably being a good thing for myself and the team, but I still managed to miss some sitters along the way. Still, the one win in the month meant a big night out was needed, an opportunity we couldn’t put wide of the post, but  there were some shots over the bar! Drinking is so expensive now, but sometimes you need to celebrate the wins. 

    Highlight in the month was an Alpaca walk with the missus. Already forgotten the fun facts the guide told us but I will forever remember them as being stubborn and greedy sods, much like our doggo! Her future dream for a house farm will only be bolstered by the experience, with the inclusion of alpacas now. 

    There has been time for self reflection in this period: Looking back on the finance journey so far, the main reflection point is judging whether I have been depriving myself in the quest of speeding up my path to FIRE at expense of necessary life enjoyment. Listening to an old Aussie Firebug Podcast with the Author of the infamous book “Die with Zero”, they discussed the importance of creating ‘Life Dividends’ to reflect on throughout your life, along with the different life stages to create these memories. This made me debate what experiences I should ensure I undertake in the near future. 

    In Bali I realised my window to experience the hostel/party world is closing ever and ever quicker. Some things are even beyond being socially acceptable for myself to be involved in. No one wants to be the oldest in the room and become that guy who is the creep (Unless your surname is Lineker). The next 2 years are big and I want to create plenty of memory dividends with my close people within this time so will be planning trips/events what will achieve this. This might include a certain stag organised by someone, if they are reading the link I sent them…….

    Finance Update

    With it being a quiet month, this correlates to a bumper month for my savings rate. 66% of my income was saved in November. Happy for this in grim November, but if this is the case in for the summer I will be letting myself down with all that was said above. 

    For the first time ever I sold some of my shares. My old work shares reached a peak that they haven’t seen for 4 years and felt it was a good time to cash some of it in. Looking at the capital gains threshold, I was shocked to see the tax free allowance has been slashed to £3,000, so it made sense to cash out some of these and make use of it. 

    This month has been crazy in terms of gains in the markets after Trump’s win, with the Market agreeing with some of his team appointments. Even my Tesla shares are back in the green (which I may look to cash out also). With this and my healthy November savings rate, my total gain in liquid assets for the month was the biggest I have seen by some distance, increasing by over £7,000. This takes the gain over the last 12 months to £38,000. 

    How long this run will last, I’m not sure. 

  • October 2024: What’s Your Early Retirement Number

    October 2024: What’s Your Early Retirement Number

    Hello! 

    Hope you are well. October was a pretty quiet month in the grand scheme of things. It was the girlfriend’s birthday, so went out for some nice food but I was left behind whilst she celebrated with the girls in Dublin. Her present is a getaway in the countryside, so looking forward to getting away with her over new years 🙂 

    Autumn is now upon us with the dark nights approaching again, which means the good boy will be limited to street walks in the evenings now 🙁 On the upside the cats are in the house a whole lot more and are actually happy to snuggle up, instead of looking at you like you’ve insulted their whole lineage when trying to stroke them. Fickle but you’ve got to love them!  

    Personally, on the football side Charlton and my Saturday team had a poor month. Legs are starting to feel a lot older these days with constant aches and the thought of retiring from the game I started playing 25 years ago is becoming more prevalent in my mind. Didn’t feel it would end on such a low season as how it’s been so far, but plenty of time for it to change…..

    The Goslings by the office enjoying the Autumn Sun whilst mother watches on,

     My pumpkin carving for the work comp. Safe to say I did not make the podium…

    Your FIRE Number and the 4% Rule

    For Example, if the total of my essential and discretionary spend for the month was £2k and this is generally the average monthly spend, for the year I would need to save enough money to cover £24K annual expenses (£2k x 12 months). Using the 4% rule (explained brilliantly in the below link) I would need £24K times 25 (inverse of 4%) which would be £600K to be able to infinitely cover this spend going forward, in line with inflation, in a usual market return. 

    https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/29/how-much-do-i-need-for-retirement/

    For this I have gone through my monthly bank statement and categorised the spend as below. I am putting it into a P&L format, because I am a boring accountant and this brings me joy. It also makes me treat the FIRE thing more seriously and helps me improve my decision making. 

    Monthly Spend 

    Looking to track my monthly spend on a regular basis going forwards, with the below reasons coming to mind: 

    1) Understand where my money is going to see if I need to change any habits or reduce spend in certain areas

    2) Prepare future spend forecast for budgeting and investing purposes. There will be some months I will be paying out flights, insurance, presents etc and will need to make sure I have enough in my current account for these. 

    3) Get a better understanding of what my FIRE number could be. When I’m out of work it’s likely there will be a lot of change to my spending habits, but it will help create a more accurate yearly spend can I can input to the 4% rule to get a rough figure to aim for. 

    Income – This is my net salary I receive form my full time employment. Any dividends are reinvested either manually or automatically so I do not include this in income

    Essentials – Spend I need to live or occur from my work activities. I have included my Huel Subscription within this for work lunches, with any other lunch spend falling into discretionary spend. Whilst I don’t need it to survive, haircuts will be included here as in reality I need someone to sort of this awful mop on my dome for the good of humanity, even if I still own a dodgy barnet! 
    Investing – This is left out of the P&L Format as this will not be part of my expenditure after FIRE
    Discretionary Spend – Spend incurred outside of work for fun or other non enjoyable activities (football) 

    Fire Portfolio October 
    I was able to save and invest a decent portion on the months leftovers into the ISA before the chaos of Christmas occurs. Some positive movements in my ISA and Workplace shares increases my net worth in October. Looking to make some adjustments to my portfolio as will be discussed in next month’s update.