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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. 



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