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Since we are about to end the 2022-23 tax year in the UK, it’s the time of year I always calculate my net worth. I also did this in December, but since I had just sold my rental property and was calculating expenses, taxes and so on I kept some back for those purposes. Now the dust has settled, I have a much clearer picture.
This time last year I was writing about how it feels to be at almost $1 million net worth. Interestingly, and largely thanks to changes in FOREX rates and that I have my investments in sterling, my dollar net worth hasn’t changed much and now stands at $980,000. But the true amount has increased: from £ 717,677 to £793,000 or an overall growth of £75,324 over one year.
That equates to an increase of more than £6,250 per month which I can feel pretty proud of! It has also been a shocker of a year in terms of the markets, soaring cost of living and a whole bunch of other apocolyptic doom feelings.
And it’s a reminder that time in the market rather than timing the market, and keeping consistent, is more important than looking for tricks.
So what is my portfolio made of?
With the sale of my rental, this is now much less heavy on house equity. I have split my savings into two here – one is the investments I have, and the other is a chunk of money which I intend to use to buy a rental property, and about £100,000 set aside for other investments and savings opportunities.
Pensions
£ 288,826
Savings
£ 68,711
House Equity
£ 90,464
Money to invest
£ 345,000
TOTAL
£ 793,001
The main growth has been in ‘money to invest’ – largely because I worked out all the house sale costs and this is the final figure – and also in pensions. I pay a significant chunk to my employer pension which is also matched, and I also added to my SIPP when I sold my rental.
I always find it interesting how people calculate their FIRE number and what they need to live on. In theory I need £30,000 per year in retirement. Using the 25 x income calculation, would mean aiming for a net worth of £750,000 which I am already above.
But there are a couple of issues with this. One is that my pensions can’t be accessed until 67 (or if all the pensions changes proposed come to pass, 100 years old by the time I get there). The other is that retiring on that money assumes that my kids are financially independent. I spend a lot more than £30,000 at the moment (I would say largely on them though I am sure they would disagree), and it’s an interesting moment of reflection about the choices I am making for me and the kids, and what our options are. My net worth also doesn’t include a paid for house any more, and my calculation of income required on retirement assumes that I have one and therefore don’t have a mortgage or rent.
So that’s it. There are other very small pots in there like crypto and angel investments, but these are the real pillars of my financial plan. But the pot is growing, and I am staying on the path. Kudos to all of you following your dreams of independence!
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So I have missed writing this blog for two weeks. This seems like pretty poor form, especially so early in the year, but honestly it was an act of radical self-care. I was in Kenya for work and took some time to connect with friends and loved ones, and really think about where I’m going. It also made me look back on where I have come from, so this post explores some of the feels I’m experiencing about getting so close to another net worth goal and what it all means. TL:DR – it’s not what I expected.
Lots of people are finding things hard at the moment. The world is (I was going to say ‘feels’ but let’s cut to the chase) unstable and scary; we’ve spent two years away from normal connections; the cost of the day to day is soaring – basically, it can feel like we’re all screwed.
View from my window this morning. No matter how bad, the sun still rises.
I’ve written a lot about gratitude but usually as more of a warm fuzzy rather than an actual practice. But gratitude is the antidote to stuckness, anxiety and fear, so when it feels like the world is screwed it’s the obvious place to go. Then someone on my Facebook asked – is there even any point starting a FIRE journey after 40? After taking a minute to feel sad about all the limiting beliefs society and ourselves live to, I had to answer HELL YES. And it also made me take time to be grateful for how far I have come, and how I now get to encourage others.
There is always a point to taking control of the things in our lives within our grasp. Being mindful with money – or work or whatever – instantly converts those thoughts and activities to a meaningful engagement with the world. It sounds obvious but getting intentional about your decisions and actions really does make a difference. It is so easy to float about thinking you will get around to something, whilst all the time you are building up a life you don’t want. So – being intentional will positively impact your life, regardless of whether it equates to your FIRE goals.
In preparing to reply to her, I checked my numbers – and realised I am at $950,000 – so almost $1 million net worth.
mmmmmhhhhmmmm
I mean, I pay close enough attention to know I was heading there but changes in the housing market in particular have really made a difference.
Ironically, my first thought was – I thought it would feel better than this.
Hear me out. I worked my backside off to get here, and I really am grateful. But perhaps there is something about having an iconic goal, and one which is actually a proxy indicator rather than the goal itself, which doesn’t feel that special? It might also be hedonic adaptation – if I went from zero to this, perhaps the feels would be different? Or perhaps I’m just an asshole.
I will run through my numbers properly next week but I also note that this net worth is not enough to retire early on: or at least it isn’t in the portfolio I have which is very largely pensions and real estate. What it does give me though, is a sense of achievement and possibility. What I need to guard against now is the hedonic treadmill and striving for more and more. And also against being ungrateful to the point that I don’t even smell the roses.
And I need to get back to what really matters. My two weeks away highlighted to me that I am less prepared to keep waiting and making compromises than I have been to date. Hoping to pile up some more money when it isn’t even making me happy – and I have enough to be financially secure to the point where I can think about taking risks – is starting to feel like the wrong bargain. But that feels like a success. I started this journey wanting to make FU money. Maybe I’m just a lot closer to saying FU.
Schools have gone back here in Denmark, and even though it’s August it’s clearly heading towards autumn. Maybe September will be beautiful, but there is a chill in the air.
We have settled into the new house, and done the first week of school with the new route and routine, and I am getting to understand all the costs associated with this home (clue – it’s more of a mystery than it should be). I’m getting ready to reset my financial goals and as part of this I wanted to review my net worth. Buying a home definitely made my savings take a hit – some of it went to equity but some also to lawyers, removal men, registration fees and so on.
Whilst I usually do this in either April with the end of the tax year, of December, right now I have that new-school-year feeling so thought I would have a look!
So here are the totals and the comparisons, showing that I have a current net worth of £628,532.
Value July 2021
Value Dec 2020
Value April 2020
Value April 2019
Pensions
£ 193,164
£ 163,540
£ 134,240
£ 105,675
Savings
£ 25,368
£ 83,287
£ 68,500
£ 26,000
House Equity
£ 400,000
£ 343,000
£ 323,223
£ 304,000
Emergency Fund
£ 10,000
£ 10,000
£ 15,000
£ 3,500
£ 628,532
£ 599,827
£ 540,963
£ 439,175
Three of my four pensions are ‘defined benefit’ meaning that increases here come from money paid in to my current work pension (also defined benefit); and money paid in plus changes to investments on my SIPP. The projections for all my existing pensions, those from previous employmet plus the SIPP, comes to an income of around £11,881 per year. In my current job, if I leave before 2024 then I just get my contributions refunded so I won’t include a projection from that until I’ve worked out my time.
Over this time, my house in the UK hasn’t increased in value, and I slowed down additional mortgage payments to prepare for the new house purchase. I also put a solid deposit down on the Danish house, meaning my overall equity in property has increased to £400,000. This feels like a lot in terms of the balance, but as one of the houses is rented out and brings in a net income of around £10,000 a year, I am ok with it for now. The main part of that deposit was pulled out of savings, which is why that went down.
Either way this shows an increase in net worth of £28,705 over sevenmonths – an average of £4,100 per month. I am pretty pleased with that, especially with the significant amount of money spent on the house purchase, and it also shows me the need to bolster my savings and keep up the ‘set it and forget it’ aspects of my pensions. It also shows an increase of more than £200,000 in a little more than two years, which I am really proud of!
How is your net worth looking these days? I’d love to hear from you!
Following a chat with a friend this weekend, I realised that I don’t have a single post on here which actually talks about the basics of FIRE. To be fair I’m quite like this in real life as well – just starting sentences wherever I had reached in my own head and assuming everyone else was there with me. As my mum once said, “it’s like your train of thought is half way out of the station and off down the track before I realised you were speaking to me”. But as with saving (see what I did there?!) it’s never too late to start a new habit, so in these next two posts I am going to outline some of the basics.
So, what is FIRE?
There is a whole movement out there, so I start with the caveat that this is my personal take. Financial Independence, Retire Early (or FIRE) is all about becoming financially free from the need to do things you don’t want to. This includes spending money on things you don’t really want or need; and for most people, means being free to give up paid employment. There are different kinds of FIRE to aim for, which relate to the extent of your freedom and whether you need an income at all, and a few main steps.
FIRE!!! And/or the kind of delightful beach-side evening you could enjoy if you didn’t have to go to work tomorrow. Photo by Nathan Lindahl on Unsplash
Where do I sign up?!
The brilliant thing about FIRE is you can start from wherever you are. All the steps are simple to work out (or there are simple versions at least).
Step One: Start with your ‘why’. This is so important, but it could be anything. You hate your job; you want to spend more time with your kids; you have an amazing idea for a world changing small business but you can’t get started with the debts and commitments you have; your dad died before he could retire and you don’t want that to be you. FIRE is simple but it’s not always easy – having a ‘why’ to come back to really matters. And it might change which is totally fine. My why is about being able to live my dream life, with my kids, and a balance of the work, environment, community and service that means to me.
Step Two: Focus first on financial stability. I don’t talk much about this here because it’s not where I am at on my journey, but getting out of debt, and making the lifestyle changes needed to ensure that you are self-funding, is the first building block. Dave Ramsey is a good place to start, with a plan designed around simple steps.
Step Three: Work out what you need. There are some basic tips on how to do this which centre around two rules: the 25% rule for calculating how much you will need, and the 4% rule for calculating how much you can take out in retirement. You only need to do one sum, though the first part takes a bit of work. You need to work out how much you will need to live off in retirement (whether that’s at 65 or ASAP). This will be different for everyone, with two big factors being whether you have children or family members to support: and your accommodation costs.
Do a rough calculation of your monthly fixed essentials – utilities, transport, accommodation and so on, remembering to factor in giving up work so whilst your commuting costs might go down, your energy bill might go up. To be fair, you could probably use your in-COVID costs for this.
Estimate what are essential but not fixed, so groceries, charitable giving, entertainment. People have these in different categories, but I work to a ‘basics’ budget which includes e.g. good internet and some money for books, movies and whatnot but not much.
Get real about what you want out of your retirement. If you want to spend it all on cruises around the Caribbean, your costs will be very different to someone who wants to potter about at home and spend some time each year visiting family in the same country. There are also lots of different kinds of FIRE, some of which aim to cover all the basic costs but assume some additional income stream to cover luxuries – for now though, just start somewhere.
Once you have these total costs, multiply them by 25. I worked out that I will need £30,000 – so I should need £750,000 invested.
Step Four: calculate your net worth. Whilst it can be disheartening to feel like you need to save an unfeasibly large amount of money, hopefully, you won’t be starting from zero. Working out your net worth can take a little while the first time you do it, but recalculating it annually is easy peasy. You essentially need to work out your assets: capital on your home, cash in the bank, money invested in pensions or non-retirement funds, premium bonds, money down the back of the sofa – all of it. This might take some digging, but make those calls to find out where your old pension fund went, it’s your money after all! Then work out your debts (mortgage, student loans, other debt) and minus this from your assets. Voila! Net worth. I share my net worth annually.
Once you know your net worth you can also revisit the figure that you are aiming for since there might be other things to take into account. For example, since I have two small defined benefit pensions which will are already projected to bring in £9,000 per year in retirement that means I actually need £21,000 more, or £525,000 saved and invested. If I add in the state pension (which frankly feels like magical thinking the way things are going, so I don’t count it – if I was closer to retirement then I would do) then I would have an additional £8,970 per year and only need to save £300,000. My calculations are also based on owning a home outright though, which is a massive additional aspect in terms of either saving enough to pay it off between now and retirement, or needing a lot more invested to cover your costs.
And that’s steps one through four! Realistically if you are in a lot of debt, then these steps will take a while. But if you are an average person with a reasonable income, puttering along and thinking about how to get more out of life, you might have just moved into a whole new frame of mind. A quick moment to recognise that these are really hard times, and with the average British person being more in debt since COVID than ever before, this might all feel impossible. But I really believe that the tenets of the FIRE movement, some of the thinking and the simple actions to make a difference, are valuable wherever you are in your journey. More on all of these, and steps five through seven next week.
PS: If you want to find out about FIRE and get all fired up yourself, Mr Money Moustache’s ‘start here’ post is a great one. MMM is the hipster uncle of the movement (which also has grandparents, coming to that another day) and is all kinds of inspiring, though one of the reasons I started this blog was that, whilst I love his writing, he doesn’t resonate with me much.
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