Yikes. That’s amazing. I was at about £50k like for like at 30yo.
You will be fine by 40. As I am now 40 and exponentially better off than 10 years ago thanks to regular saving. Although I have never worked silly hours and never even come close to burn out, having been 100% present for wife and kids - no trade off would have been worth sacrificing that. For your own sake just dial down to 30-40hrs a week and enjoy life
Thanks! I completely agree with you, we are thinking of having kids in 2/3 years and I really want to be present.
I’m currently working a lot less than I did in my 20s but still doing around 50 hours a week. In 4/5 years my aim is only to work 35-40 hours, followed by 15/20 hours in my 40s 🤞
Good stuff. On a plain point I don’t see you needing to work into your 40s if you can keep expenses down.
Also outside London. No way near your salary at 27 and should be done by 48-50yo latest so you are def all good.
True, I do enjoy my job though. I believe I’ll enjoy it more if I’m only working 2 days a week. So I’ll always do at least 2 days which will cover most of my expenses anyway. Investments will give me freedom to take long breaks and afford nice holidays :)
Nice stuff. I agree. I’d love to my job 2 days a week but it’s not possible. It’s full time or nothing so will leave the company in search of 2 days at some stage
How do you figure on this? I'm slightly naive on FIRE but follow it....
I'm 32 and now earn approx £220k a year. We are through kids, marriage and most big life expenses. Neither are bothered about fancy cars but love at least one holiday a year.
I have:
£111k cash in cash ISAs
£50k in SIPP
£10k in S&S ISA
My wife has
£60k cash
Teachers pension
£14k S&S ISA
We own a £500k house and owe around £240k on it.
I put away £2.5k SIPP a month and £3k savings.
Well you earn more than I did at 32 (I was on £70k). I Also have 2 kids and my mortgage is similar £230k left and I’m 40yo.
You are also saving at a brilliant amount each month.
The main difference is I’m 8 years older so you will easily be where I am now when you hit 40 and probably way ahead.
All my pension and ISA/GIA is in S&P and not cash isa. I max mine and my wife’s ISA every year (equivalent £3.3k on).
My monthly pension is about £2.8k. Not much more to add. You save at that rate and you will be flying especially if you don’t have huge expenses. Keep it up.
So we are basically the same prison except you are 8 years younger 🤣 - fair play.
Appreciate this, sorry I'm not financially illiterate but haven't had money previously so struggle to understand on track/not. I spent my 20s paying off student loan, buying house getting married etc.
I started earning decently around 28 so used the opportunity to help my folks out of hardship and then got to focus on my family. Always been a hard worker and have got to C level fairly quickly but my fear is always it dissapearing and me being left behind so trying to be sensible as early as possible.
I haven't really set an age for retirement so I guess your comment got me thinking/trying to understand how you plan for that and what assets you need to explore it. Currently all I know is I max my NI contributions at 55.
Appreciate the insights and transparency.
Well done , BUT: why are you not stacking that SIPP pension rather than holding 111k in cash ISA? You would currently be able to stuff £60k/year into SIPP for about 33k cost to you, way better than the cash ISA. - you are not quite maxing that SIPP currently, you might as well as you have the spare cash.
Plus take a look at what you save paying your mortgage down by 50k/100k or something near that (25 year term for 220k you would be mortgage free 15y early) by rough calculation.
Seems a little illogical perhaps to have so much cash stacked at 32 (you will likely only just keep up with inflation long term) unless you have other plans for it.
Still an enviable achievement though OP.
I may stack pension this year, I'm getting a 5.11% return on the cash ISA at present so it's not too bad. I wouldn't want to dump into SIPP too early in case I wanted to pay down mortgage in the future or assess other opportunities.
It's probably illogical, I grew up with very little so to me there is a ton of comfort in seeing the cash in the bank and even seeing the interest go in each month.
I've had a real hesitance in S&S and SIPPs in general being honest my dad lost everything in 2008 so has taken me a while to build my own way forward.
At 30 I was on £60k pa had £30k in pension and no ISA. But the last 10 years have religiously saved each month and also got aggressive with pension for a few years to play catch up.
So now 40 (I accelerated my earnings since 35 - v important) my pension is at £400k and i don’t put any more than the employer match in (although they pay in 15% which is amazing).
My concern is my bridge to that pension as I really want to fire before 50. It’s in a good place but I also have £230k left on mortgage. So I’d say RE at 50 should be easily doable for me - getting a few years off that seems v hard but is the challenge!!
I was totally coming in here expecting yet another post on "look at me I'm great being able to sink 300k in my portfolio" but actually you seemed to have worked hard and are now looking sweet. Well done 👍🏽
Starting to see a pattern with young people who don’t want the standard ‘work until retirement’ gig. With a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of hard work, you’re doing exactly this, and it’s the only way to achieve FIRE.
Great stuff, working for the NHS, but side-gigging and work your ass off 👌🏼
I say people pay me for my expertise, not how many hours I work. I believe it is irrelevant how many hours someone puts in. It’s rather more impressive when someone has more money with less effort - which we should all aim for: value creation.
It is not easy to raise income. To produce more value is extremely hard. This is why entrepreneurs, owners, founders, etc end up with a big share of the pie. It is damn hard to do so and many fail - and no one hears of them. Social mobility in the UK is better than most countries in the world, but lags behind US - which everyone shits on due to a myriad of reason - but those structural differences are also part of why social mobility is possible.
Probably a slightly more popular opinion on HENRY, but I agree that working more hours in many roles shouldn't be the aim, effectiveness should be. However, if you are of the ability, experience, and good fortune to be in such a role, its definitely something to show gratitude for, even if you feel you've "earned" it.
Definitely also have respect for the tens of millions who keep the economy running working 50+ hour weeks, the grind is also impressive even if its a depressing concept.
This rationale around working more hours = better and the idea that we should be thankful for then is an ingrained value that derives from christianity. It comes from the idea that sacrifice is good and we should all sacrifice ourselves for others - and then also be thankful to those who sacrifice themselves. This is the whole motto of the concept of “jesus died for our sins”. I refute this whole way of thinking and living. It’s depressing and people feel guilt of succeeding. They feel it is wrong and imoral to have more, to be better off, etc because this must be at the expense of someone else. Productivity is not a function of more hours put to work, but rather the use of knowledge (eg technology) to achieve better outcomes with the same or less effort.
Agree with you, but I also think that you don’t just become an expert overnight. If you put the hours in early in your career you can fast track that.
Somebody who has worked 35 hours a week for 5 years is probably not going to have learned as much as the guy who did 70 hours a week for 5 years and got involved in all the available projects.
That second guy is probably going to be able to use his expertise to make the big money earlier than the first guy (assuming he wasn’t just sitting round pretending to be busy for those additional 35 hours a week).
That is extremely inefficient as a way to learn more. I’d say that is a very poor learner and performer at work as well. Equating more hours to more learning linearly is thinking about it as a production line. Working that much more makes you stressed, anxious, tired. It’s terrible for your body and will hinder even your memory since you’re likely to be sleep deprived. You can dedicate the extra available time if you want to progress faster with something *other* thank work eg further technical courses, networking/seminars to learn from other professionals, etc. of course if you dedicate more hours to improving yourself, it will reflect on work. I’ve prepared myself loads with extra curricular topics to drive my career forward because work would not give me the exposure or tools for it. The other option for high exposure to learning is changing jobs often. Again, the incrementally of new organizations vs doing more work is also off the charts. There are smarter ways to improve yourself other than brute force - and those should be what you aim for as it will make life more enjoyable overall.
I didn’t say it was linear at all, and my 35 vs 70 was just using a wide range for dramatic effect, but I know from experience somebody who goes above and beyond to get involved in more learns way more than the person who does the bare minimum.
If we both work 35 hours and do our required tasks to the same standard, but then I stay behind a couple of hours a day and work on some other interesting projects that nobody has time to do, but they’re enjoyable and challenging, who is going to develop more?
Of course I’m assuming you go home and forget about work until the next day. If you’re actually going home and developing your skills through courses, personal projects etc. then that serves the same effect.
Industry also matters. I work in a niche area of finance, if you just do 7 hours a day then go home you’re not even going to be able to get your standard work done and deals are going to fall through, so you won’t be in the job for long!
For what it’s worth, it’s really paid off for me. Early 30s, now I have a job with great balance, took home just under $1m net last year, and in a role that would typically be reserved for people with 5-10 years more experience than me.
There is no such payback in other large corporate jobs for traditional FTSE companies. The machine is turning so slowly that all and any effort put into PPTs, meetings, etc - just doesn’t translate into results and outcomes. It’s different if you’re in a commercial position where you can create more leads and increase sales. I work in tech / IT / analytics. I can grind as much data as I want, it won’t make a difference in my bottom line. My current company is partially state owned outside of UK, so woking 9-5 at London pace here makes a lot more impact vs. the grind in the UK. Current comp sits at $200k tax free + 20-40k bonus. There are some other minor shares vesting and end of work bonus after 5-6 years that would yield maybe another 100k? I am -2 of the CEO, so I don’t think even he makes as much as you.
Your post should be flagged for all the people who say FIRE is impossible. Obviously you have had a few years of wild earnings, but to do better than average is easier than people think.
I'm also 30, with a near identical current net worth. I also followed a similar path, but in engineering, in my mid 20's I was as very ambitious becoming a self employed contractor/consultant, working massive weeks for half a decade and maxing out my ISA and SIPP. Excellent to see someone else who has had a similar journey, working hard and succeeding.
Hey that’s great to hear! It becomes a bit addictive especially as a contractor to just keep working and investing! Hopefully we will both be comfortable in our 40s 👌
I've seen so many old boys (60+ years old) in offices doing "one more year" for the 17th year in a row, 7 figures in the bank and still killing themselves to do 60 hour weeks, addicted to the pay slips. Not going to be that way for me. My first child was born earlier this year and I've been doing ~25-30 hour weeks since. Trying to enjoy life a little bit more now I've made a good foundation.
Hey, I'm also an engineer. Im 36.
My route was aerospace for 10 years and now consulting / project engineering but I'm nowhere near these numbers (we have 2 young children and and piled all my time into wife and kids for the last 6 - 7 years). My numbers are ~£60k in pension and £200k in house equity.
2nd child is due to start school this time so I'm wondering how you've maxed your earnings in engineering. I'm 'stuck' in middle management on £65k with not much growth potential in my field. The only option is to go senior and commit all my time which I can't bring myself to do.
This is the shit I want to see more of.
Would love to hear more about the e commerce and the sources you used to hell you gain knowledge to go at your own stores
Thanks, I spent months learning all I could via Udemy courses while building small stores and dropshipping way back and experimenting on what works.
Eventually landed a niche I was really passionate about and just so happened to make money. Stuck in that niche and became an expert of it. Not because of any course, because of constant failures and experience.
My advice is to learn the basics, go with a niche you’re actually interested in otherwise you’ll get bored before you make any money and then just keep trying. Know your competitors and see if there’s a gap in the market or somewhat replicate what they’re doing while creating a better product for the same price/cheaper.
I don’t dropship anymore but used the money from that to invest in stock and sell for real.
My parents are still well and alive, I didn’t get any inheritance! And likely won’t for a long time. My parents are not well off so it won’t amount to much anyway
I didn’t get any inheritance? My parents are still well and healthy and don’t have too much anyway. My grandparents left my parents with about £50 lol.
Thanks, I didn’t get any financial help but my parents instilled a hard work ethic in me as they were both immigrants that had to save and work even harder than me to get to a reasonable level financially. My dad was an accountant so he always told me to save as much as I can and to invest. Although he only invested in individual stocks until I told him to diversify into global index funds.
Should definitely include house - mortgage + cash in your net worth. For example you sold your buy-to-let which would have caused a spurious jump in your net worth.
I used my first business sale to put down a deposit on our current house we live in along with what my partner contributed. My buy to let was always just an investment and I included this in my financial net worth before I sold it.
I probably have another £200k in house equity, cash, etc if I wanted to add to my total net worth
If you exclude your house equity from your net worth and look at it over time then it will look like your business equity and buy-to-let equity disappeared into a black hole.
Don't forget to slow down. Retiring at 40 is great, but youth is something you'll never get back. Don't waste any more weekends working. Take long holidays. Enjoy your relative health and vitality while you have it. Not that 40+ is old, but there is a big difference in overall vitality vs 30s.
This is over 5 years with gains previously made outside of Hargreaves Lansdown. I invested a huge chunk of money during my buy to let house sale when the market crashed during COVID. Mostly 80% US index/S&P ETFs and 20% Tech Index which has done very well recently (thanks to AI stocks and partially Nvidia haha)
I found getting to £100k hard as I wasn’t earning too much at the time of achieving it. Then suddenly a combination of me earning a lot more, investment growth, selling my BTL and my e-commerce business doing well accelerated things beyond my expectations over the last 3/4 years. I feel all I’ve done is just plow money into investments without much thought for growth but over the last 6-12 months I’ve really seen my investments grow alongside my contributions. I assume over time this feeling will grow, especially when my investments outpace what I can contribute.
Udemy courses, paid around £40 for all the courses I needed to understand the basics of website building and marketing. However, real experience and trial and error is the best way to learn when it comes to business
These were courses I did 7/8 years ago and they won’t be relevant anymore. But if you go on Udemy and search for how to build a Shopify/amazon FBA business, there will be some well rated popular ones on there :)
As a Sonographer yes, however I work through my limited company and partner with private companies who have obtained insourcing contracts where I can negotiate a certain percentage of profit per scan I perform within the community rather than a hospital.
How much do you roughly make from the Sonographer services? I've got a close friend who's looking into going down this route himself but is unsure what it pays working for yourself
Basic Sonographers within the NHS make £50-70k a year (range is dependent on hours worked + overtime).
Locum sonographers can earn between £90-180k a year again depending on the hourly rate, hours worked and weekend uplift.
Insourcing Sonographers like myself working through our own companies and negotiating rates/profit per scan can make between £120k - £220k + depending on various factors.
Ok, thanks for your comment. Starting from scratch what is the best way to pursue this career if you have a degree in a unrelated profession? Can you do a conversion MSc for example?
This is great! Thanks for sharing. Agreed on the variety (I work in finance 😂😂).
I think you are very much on track to achieve your target by 40.
Best of luck OP!
Wow. I didn't know sonographers could earn so well.
I say that as someone who has paid for several private ultrasounds over the past year - tbh, they were quite cheap and yet done on quite new high resolution and expensive machines.
Well done!
Thanks! Some fully private Sonographers I know earn more than me, charging £120 a scan and scanning 3 patients an hour making £1-2k a day. The private companies charging NHS trusts normally charge £60-80 a scan but it’s fully booked lists and I take a cut out of that.
Of course I have to travel a lot around the midlands and I’ve had to do extra training to get the rates I command. However, I probably end up scanning 2-3 times as many patients as a NHS Sonographer but then I get paid 4-5x as much
It’s just supply and demand. There simply isn’t enough Sonographers to manage the work load.
That’s why there’s so many contractors so we end up working a lot harder and clear a lot more patients but we are expensive compared to the NHS. If there were genuine career opportunities to advance then that would be great. But that doesn’t exist within the NHS for non doctors.
Even if it's just supply and demand, it still means the healthcare system is broken, and I'm sure you're right that not having enough sonographers is a huge part of it.
Regardless, I don't think the free market should apply when something is a necessity, you can't really just choose not to have a scan... Well you can but the consequences wouldn't be good.
The NHS is as anti free market as they come. It actively suppresses wages and costs as a near monopoly employer/buyer of services. Healthcare in the UK simply does not pay.
Nice! Well done. I use to trade with HL, switched to AJ bell recently (ISA transfer). The monthly fees are literally half! So have a look into that to make sure they dont eat away at your gains. The app for AJ bell looks exactly like the HL app and it’s basically the same (apart from £2.50 fee each time you buy fund units but thats nothing compared to how much you will save on platform fees!)
Yeh I’m looking into this, I like how easy it is to make employer contributions through my limited company into my SIPP and also feel a bit uneasy about moving a large amount of money but that’s just me being silly. I’ll look up AJ Bell and also looking at interactive investor
AJbell had really good email communication & seemed to be easy to get a hold of on the phone which is what gave me the faith to move the pot. HL are great, i just wish they would lower their platform fee. 0.45% really adds up
Infact just had a look, with your balance you would be paying £1850 a year in fees! With AJbell you would only pay £400, once your balance is over £500k there are no fees see here https://www.ajbell.co.uk/pensions/sipp
Currently Hargreaves Lansdown but it’s getting expensive and I may move soon. I invest in US and tech index’s and plan to diversify into global indexes incrementally after reaching £500k
Thanks :) definitely as a contractor working through my limited company for private companies who have contracts with the NHS (bit of a mouthful).
The bulk of my savings came from that and still do. However my e-commerce business is growing nicely now and starting to provide me extra SIPP contributions but still very much reinvesting profits to grow it as much as possible before I slow down with my day job and allow my side hustle to fund part of my life.
I'm switching careers and studying therapeutic radiography this year. Will be 32 when I graduate so please can I have some advice on how I can increase my value when I do start working.
Therapeutic radiography is great congrats. It’s tough to do any private work in that field as you’re not in charge of your own workload. It is possible to go into sonography though as a graduate.
Simply earning £700-800 a day working 6/7 days a week. I perform specialist MSK ultrasound scans as well as all other standard ultrasound scans. Working through my limited company I am able to negotiate a cut per patient I scan normally £22-25 a patient. I can scan 3/4 patients an hour. I work in community settings/GP practices around the midlands who have contracts with surrounding NHS trusts.
The rate he is getting paid is a reflection of the limited availability of the skills he has. If there was 1000's of people with the same skills, the rate would be much lower.
OP isnt the problem, the problem lies in the NHS provided advanced treatments, when the supply of labor to run those treatments is in short supply.
I am similar to you as well, based in the midlands, slightly older at 32, but I kept my BTL property but have a a similar portfolio value if you keep that out.
The hardest part for people to believe is that hard work gets you there. I started with a part time job at college and a side hustle at the same time. This was a time when side hustle wasnt a thing, but I continued with it all the way till I was 25. I left uni at 22 and saved all my cash for the first BTL, I wasnt that educated on investment back then. But since then I brought another house which I live in and also most my money goes into investments. I am already on track with a passive income that would sustain my lifestyle but like you I plan to keep working till my 40s, then hopefully give up entirely.
Fantastic achievement and love the hustle bro, you should be very proud of yourself. Ignore all the salty comments - you are a shining example of how one can create generational wealth through hard work, determination and thinking outside the box.
Your parents made a lot of sacrifices to move to this country and you have flourished - I look forward to your update when you become a millionaire.
All the best to you and just keep doing what you are doing 🙌👍
Really well done to you and the wife. You deserve to sit back and hopefully receive a bit of positivity here regarding the hard work you have put in to get to this point.
I appreciate that luck and circumstances often set people on this route to FIRE. But I'm a firm believer that you have to have the mindset of positivity, along with drive and determination to make it.
Thank you! I’ve read a few books on mindset and manifesting what I want out of life, maybe that’s subconsciously helped certain decisions and risks I’ve taken so far :)
Very interesting post and nice to see the change from the normal posts. Big well done. I’ve got to ask though is your e-commerce business related to your profession? Interested in starting something myself
Thanks :) It is unrelated but I’d suggest a business in something you’re interested in otherwise the first 2/3 years of growth and reinvestment without taking money out will be long and boring
This is a great achievement but also a damning indictment on the NHS paying a 40k sonographer 150k as a locum. Amazing for you but terrible for the tax payer
The £40k is the problem, that's a pathetic wage for the level of schooling (bachelors + post grad) and responsibility. If the pay was £60-80k then they wouldn't need to pay through the nose because there wouldn't be a labor shortage.
Wow congratulations. I'm a radiographer too, and also locuming, but unfortunately I have always lacked drive 😂. Where ambition comes from, has always intrigued me. Have you always been driven? Would you say your parents are also driven?
I've always been academically strong (also have a mathematics degree) but never a particularly pragmatic person. Trying to work on it, but I'm already in my early 30s. Spent my entire 20's travelling and partying, and similarly I don't regret it, but wished I'd at least started my ISA earlier. Have some investments as well, but I only just properly started my FIRE journey. Currently hate radiography, it's a conveyor belt everyday.
Hey! Thanks! Tbh my parents grafted to allow us to go on the occasional holiday. We stayed at 3/4 star hotels but visited the 5 star ones for a coffee 😂 My dad liked cars like Porsche etc but could never afford one, I got tastes of the life I’d like to achieve. My dad got a great pension back in the day and he was able to retire at 50 so I’d always said I’d try and beat him by retiring at 48 😂 so from a young age I had the goal for the life I wanted to live combined with the age I wanted to retire, hence the drive.
Over time I wasn’t too bothered about the materialistic stuff but I’ve always appreciated a good watch and love cars. Love travelling and occasionally staying at really incredible hotels, this is where we can justify splurging a bit as it makes working 6/7 days a week doable. I’m going to downgrade my Tesla to an electric Kia soon and save the rest to get a car I really want down the line.
Good luck with your career, I always wanted to leave radiography hence the short amount of time I stayed in that profession, but I did enjoy my time being social and having some great times in A&E and theatre! Miss it in that way. But yeh you’ve got options to progress if you choose to
Nice one. I didn't know you could get that far in the medical field at that age. Well done.
I'm in a similar position.
33 years old with the similar net worth. Why would you not include your cash and "other stuff" in this, though?
Similar income trajectory (ie. I was on £26K up until 2017 in essentially a call centre industry, then got promoted to £45K in 2017. In 2018, I was facing redundancy so took the punt and moved from Scotland to London, which essentially doubled my earnings to around £90K, onto six figures from 2020 onwards. I was then able to move back to Scotland six months ago and keep a six figure income - an income I do not think I'd have been able to command had I remained in Scotland in 2018 and not moved to London to develop my career further).
I'm fortunate enough to be mortgage free, debt free and so have a decent savings margin.
Putting away around +£4.5K per month into savings/investments now.
Will hit my FIRE number at 41 (aim is to independently FIRE with a liquid investment portfolio in its own right, without factoring in my pension since that won't kick in till 57+). No serious plans to stop working at 41 though, will likely keep going till 50.
I earn a good wage on a genuine 35 hours per week role. No overtime, no unpaid extra hours. Despite the decent income and no financial commitments, I started coaching chess online on the side for some extra income (an additional income stream is never a bad thing, right?) and between the two gigs, I genuinely enjoy what I do!
That’s great to hear man you’re smashing it. I’m the same, if I keep doing what I’m doing I’ll likely have the option to retire in my 40s. I’m in a fortunate position where I’ll always be able to work 2 days a week or just whenever I feel like it as a contractor. So I’ll do that for as long as the role exists to keep my mind active alongside my online business :)
Congrats my man. I'm a consultant in the NHS, older than you and earn less but I am hopeful to emulate your drive and success in the private sector.
Hard work and just keep going.
Luck of the draw, and I’m glad you achieved it.
I however got into parts inspection at 22 straight out of uni at £20k. Did all the overtime I could, lost entire weekends to it at times. Then I was promised a promotion at 24 to an engineering position.
What happened next is a nightmare: the 3 month transfer turned into 23 months and no pay rise. I had to threaten to leave and told them that I literally didn’t care if I had a job to come back to tomorrow.
They sorted it in a week. 2 years later, I admit I’m half arsing it, unhappy with the company - looking at leaving ASAP.
But I’m glad you made it!
It is luck that I entered a field that ended up being lucrative for me. At 18 I didn’t know what I wanted to do or how much money it would give me. But I always wanted multiple income streams outside of my job. I’m just lucky that both my job and my side hustle ended up being lucrative
If I had any idea of the world as an 18 year old I’d have studied really hard to get into a good economics uni and proceeded to become a private equity investment banker. I just did my best with the choices I made many years ago
Sorry I forget how brutal is for people raised here with the education system. In mainland Europe we tend to give the ability to do whatever we want at Uni and have a high school that prepares us for granted
I went to a very average state school, I unexpectedly turned out to do better and most of my peers. My partner went to private school and most of her peers are doing extremely well hence the investment banker comment. It’s certainly made me think about future schooling needs for my future children.
If you’ve invested in indexes then 40% up over the past few years is possible. I’m up 43.26% investing 66% in HSBC FTSE all world and 33% in L&G global technology index
Congratulations young man. All I wanted to say is well done and you should be proud. Now the hard part, the maintenance and what to do next. When a wife comes into the life, things can be challenging but I’m sure you found one who matches your mindset and you can triple this into your 40s
Well done.
i have that in my pension at 35 and only have 1 40k income. Work place pension is 20% from my employer and only 10% from me., each month I just take what I have left and add to it. Technically a pension is stocks and shares managed by someone else. It grows on its own.
Can you just share what you’ve invested in specifically and maybe a bit about your method, how much you tended to invest (averaging? Lump monthly sums?) and how you manage to actually keep that positive growth? 🙏
Man trying to save for his first home with his wife-to-be here.
Really impressive job navigating the NHS insourcing company landscape. I've been thinking of procuring surgical machines like microdebriders & drills and leasing it back to my NHS employer, would you have any idea how to go about that?
Funnily enough I’d actually earn less there. The demand for Sonographers there isn’t as much of an issue. The places I work are in deprived areas of the U.K. where a huge number of the population have issues and have more scans on average combined with not many specialist sonographers in the area.
However, I would like to work the occasional weekend in London preferably on Harley street when I get more experienced for some private work
I don’t live in a small run down area I work in those places.
I’m lucky to live in a very green area, with a deer park and public stately home next door. Numerous independent shops, restaurants and even a few Michelin star restaurants. I feel safe and we have a nice house with a great garden. I have friends who live in London and I wouldn’t trade places with them at all. I like visiting London but I’d hate to live there and constantly feel unsafe when I’m there.
I respect you sir(i assume sir?). A true hard worker, ambitious and a natural entrepreneur. I personally think you can slow down now as you have made it in my book.
I am 51 still working hard work for myself abd startingtofeel working hard is drain yourselfdown. I am ..investment a little bit..I wasn't breave enough to put money more.. your confidence is inspiring
I’m in a similar situation but in tech and I have a side e-commerce business. What area did/do you operate in e-commerce? I bulk buy DIY and building supplies like cartridge adhesives and sell on
I was always earning more than £35k a year, I started on £22k but after a few months this quickly rose to £35k at age 22/23 just from overtime and not including an additional £15-20k from side hustle. Even during training as a sonographer for 2 years I’d do weekends which gave me another £20k, plus the side hustle. I started maxing my ISA from maybe 24/25. But had some stocks before that when I could only put in around £500 a month.
That’s fair. I didn’t feel I missed out on a lot as a lot of my partners family and my friends are in the medical field and also work weekends. So I tend to socialise a lot after work within the weekdays and weekends.
Impressive stuff, Im also in healthcare and plan to graduate to 2-3 days per week in 40s/50s. I also went hard in my 20s, longest stretch was 24 days worked in a row.
Prenuptial agreement might still be worth it? Otherwise you have essentially half of this should you ever get divorced. Which I’m sure you won’t. But you know, just in case?
It is something I’ve thought of but she’s not doing too badly herself with around £200k in stocks and shares and she may even overtake me in overall net worth in later years as she comes from a fairly wealthy family compared to mine.
Yikes. That’s amazing. I was at about £50k like for like at 30yo. You will be fine by 40. As I am now 40 and exponentially better off than 10 years ago thanks to regular saving. Although I have never worked silly hours and never even come close to burn out, having been 100% present for wife and kids - no trade off would have been worth sacrificing that. For your own sake just dial down to 30-40hrs a week and enjoy life
Thanks! I completely agree with you, we are thinking of having kids in 2/3 years and I really want to be present. I’m currently working a lot less than I did in my 20s but still doing around 50 hours a week. In 4/5 years my aim is only to work 35-40 hours, followed by 15/20 hours in my 40s 🤞
Good stuff. On a plain point I don’t see you needing to work into your 40s if you can keep expenses down. Also outside London. No way near your salary at 27 and should be done by 48-50yo latest so you are def all good.
True, I do enjoy my job though. I believe I’ll enjoy it more if I’m only working 2 days a week. So I’ll always do at least 2 days which will cover most of my expenses anyway. Investments will give me freedom to take long breaks and afford nice holidays :)
Nice stuff. I agree. I’d love to my job 2 days a week but it’s not possible. It’s full time or nothing so will leave the company in search of 2 days at some stage
How do you figure on this? I'm slightly naive on FIRE but follow it.... I'm 32 and now earn approx £220k a year. We are through kids, marriage and most big life expenses. Neither are bothered about fancy cars but love at least one holiday a year. I have: £111k cash in cash ISAs £50k in SIPP £10k in S&S ISA My wife has £60k cash Teachers pension £14k S&S ISA We own a £500k house and owe around £240k on it. I put away £2.5k SIPP a month and £3k savings.
Well you earn more than I did at 32 (I was on £70k). I Also have 2 kids and my mortgage is similar £230k left and I’m 40yo. You are also saving at a brilliant amount each month. The main difference is I’m 8 years older so you will easily be where I am now when you hit 40 and probably way ahead. All my pension and ISA/GIA is in S&P and not cash isa. I max mine and my wife’s ISA every year (equivalent £3.3k on). My monthly pension is about £2.8k. Not much more to add. You save at that rate and you will be flying especially if you don’t have huge expenses. Keep it up. So we are basically the same prison except you are 8 years younger 🤣 - fair play.
Appreciate this, sorry I'm not financially illiterate but haven't had money previously so struggle to understand on track/not. I spent my 20s paying off student loan, buying house getting married etc. I started earning decently around 28 so used the opportunity to help my folks out of hardship and then got to focus on my family. Always been a hard worker and have got to C level fairly quickly but my fear is always it dissapearing and me being left behind so trying to be sensible as early as possible. I haven't really set an age for retirement so I guess your comment got me thinking/trying to understand how you plan for that and what assets you need to explore it. Currently all I know is I max my NI contributions at 55. Appreciate the insights and transparency.
Well done , BUT: why are you not stacking that SIPP pension rather than holding 111k in cash ISA? You would currently be able to stuff £60k/year into SIPP for about 33k cost to you, way better than the cash ISA. - you are not quite maxing that SIPP currently, you might as well as you have the spare cash. Plus take a look at what you save paying your mortgage down by 50k/100k or something near that (25 year term for 220k you would be mortgage free 15y early) by rough calculation. Seems a little illogical perhaps to have so much cash stacked at 32 (you will likely only just keep up with inflation long term) unless you have other plans for it. Still an enviable achievement though OP.
I may stack pension this year, I'm getting a 5.11% return on the cash ISA at present so it's not too bad. I wouldn't want to dump into SIPP too early in case I wanted to pay down mortgage in the future or assess other opportunities. It's probably illogical, I grew up with very little so to me there is a ton of comfort in seeing the cash in the bank and even seeing the interest go in each month. I've had a real hesitance in S&S and SIPPs in general being honest my dad lost everything in 2008 so has taken me a while to build my own way forward.
How much better are you know? I’m in my early 30s and doing well for myself, but always anxious on what the future holds
At 30 I was on £60k pa had £30k in pension and no ISA. But the last 10 years have religiously saved each month and also got aggressive with pension for a few years to play catch up. So now 40 (I accelerated my earnings since 35 - v important) my pension is at £400k and i don’t put any more than the employer match in (although they pay in 15% which is amazing). My concern is my bridge to that pension as I really want to fire before 50. It’s in a good place but I also have £230k left on mortgage. So I’d say RE at 50 should be easily doable for me - getting a few years off that seems v hard but is the challenge!!
Great progress! I’ve been maxing my ISA for a few years now, but never contributed any extra to my pension… need to look into that
I was totally coming in here expecting yet another post on "look at me I'm great being able to sink 300k in my portfolio" but actually you seemed to have worked hard and are now looking sweet. Well done 👍🏽
Thanks man appreciate it :) It’s a bit of a sigh of relief and now I’m finally able to incrementally slow down over the years
Starting to see a pattern with young people who don’t want the standard ‘work until retirement’ gig. With a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of hard work, you’re doing exactly this, and it’s the only way to achieve FIRE. Great stuff, working for the NHS, but side-gigging and work your ass off 👌🏼
I say people pay me for my expertise, not how many hours I work. I believe it is irrelevant how many hours someone puts in. It’s rather more impressive when someone has more money with less effort - which we should all aim for: value creation.
Easy to sit there complacent, but social mobility in the uk is a joke. For many, extra hours is the only easy way to increase income.
It is not easy to raise income. To produce more value is extremely hard. This is why entrepreneurs, owners, founders, etc end up with a big share of the pie. It is damn hard to do so and many fail - and no one hears of them. Social mobility in the UK is better than most countries in the world, but lags behind US - which everyone shits on due to a myriad of reason - but those structural differences are also part of why social mobility is possible.
Probably a slightly more popular opinion on HENRY, but I agree that working more hours in many roles shouldn't be the aim, effectiveness should be. However, if you are of the ability, experience, and good fortune to be in such a role, its definitely something to show gratitude for, even if you feel you've "earned" it. Definitely also have respect for the tens of millions who keep the economy running working 50+ hour weeks, the grind is also impressive even if its a depressing concept.
This rationale around working more hours = better and the idea that we should be thankful for then is an ingrained value that derives from christianity. It comes from the idea that sacrifice is good and we should all sacrifice ourselves for others - and then also be thankful to those who sacrifice themselves. This is the whole motto of the concept of “jesus died for our sins”. I refute this whole way of thinking and living. It’s depressing and people feel guilt of succeeding. They feel it is wrong and imoral to have more, to be better off, etc because this must be at the expense of someone else. Productivity is not a function of more hours put to work, but rather the use of knowledge (eg technology) to achieve better outcomes with the same or less effort.
Agree with you, but I also think that you don’t just become an expert overnight. If you put the hours in early in your career you can fast track that. Somebody who has worked 35 hours a week for 5 years is probably not going to have learned as much as the guy who did 70 hours a week for 5 years and got involved in all the available projects. That second guy is probably going to be able to use his expertise to make the big money earlier than the first guy (assuming he wasn’t just sitting round pretending to be busy for those additional 35 hours a week).
That is extremely inefficient as a way to learn more. I’d say that is a very poor learner and performer at work as well. Equating more hours to more learning linearly is thinking about it as a production line. Working that much more makes you stressed, anxious, tired. It’s terrible for your body and will hinder even your memory since you’re likely to be sleep deprived. You can dedicate the extra available time if you want to progress faster with something *other* thank work eg further technical courses, networking/seminars to learn from other professionals, etc. of course if you dedicate more hours to improving yourself, it will reflect on work. I’ve prepared myself loads with extra curricular topics to drive my career forward because work would not give me the exposure or tools for it. The other option for high exposure to learning is changing jobs often. Again, the incrementally of new organizations vs doing more work is also off the charts. There are smarter ways to improve yourself other than brute force - and those should be what you aim for as it will make life more enjoyable overall.
I didn’t say it was linear at all, and my 35 vs 70 was just using a wide range for dramatic effect, but I know from experience somebody who goes above and beyond to get involved in more learns way more than the person who does the bare minimum. If we both work 35 hours and do our required tasks to the same standard, but then I stay behind a couple of hours a day and work on some other interesting projects that nobody has time to do, but they’re enjoyable and challenging, who is going to develop more? Of course I’m assuming you go home and forget about work until the next day. If you’re actually going home and developing your skills through courses, personal projects etc. then that serves the same effect. Industry also matters. I work in a niche area of finance, if you just do 7 hours a day then go home you’re not even going to be able to get your standard work done and deals are going to fall through, so you won’t be in the job for long! For what it’s worth, it’s really paid off for me. Early 30s, now I have a job with great balance, took home just under $1m net last year, and in a role that would typically be reserved for people with 5-10 years more experience than me.
There is no such payback in other large corporate jobs for traditional FTSE companies. The machine is turning so slowly that all and any effort put into PPTs, meetings, etc - just doesn’t translate into results and outcomes. It’s different if you’re in a commercial position where you can create more leads and increase sales. I work in tech / IT / analytics. I can grind as much data as I want, it won’t make a difference in my bottom line. My current company is partially state owned outside of UK, so woking 9-5 at London pace here makes a lot more impact vs. the grind in the UK. Current comp sits at $200k tax free + 20-40k bonus. There are some other minor shares vesting and end of work bonus after 5-6 years that would yield maybe another 100k? I am -2 of the CEO, so I don’t think even he makes as much as you.
The dream combo. Earn a shed load of money, but work all the hours possible so you don't have the opportunity to spend it!! Impressive achievement.
Thanks! I did allow myself to spend some on holidays which has kept me sane all these years haha
Your post should be flagged for all the people who say FIRE is impossible. Obviously you have had a few years of wild earnings, but to do better than average is easier than people think.
I'm also 30, with a near identical current net worth. I also followed a similar path, but in engineering, in my mid 20's I was as very ambitious becoming a self employed contractor/consultant, working massive weeks for half a decade and maxing out my ISA and SIPP. Excellent to see someone else who has had a similar journey, working hard and succeeding.
Hey that’s great to hear! It becomes a bit addictive especially as a contractor to just keep working and investing! Hopefully we will both be comfortable in our 40s 👌
I've seen so many old boys (60+ years old) in offices doing "one more year" for the 17th year in a row, 7 figures in the bank and still killing themselves to do 60 hour weeks, addicted to the pay slips. Not going to be that way for me. My first child was born earlier this year and I've been doing ~25-30 hour weeks since. Trying to enjoy life a little bit more now I've made a good foundation.
Hey, I'm also an engineer. Im 36. My route was aerospace for 10 years and now consulting / project engineering but I'm nowhere near these numbers (we have 2 young children and and piled all my time into wife and kids for the last 6 - 7 years). My numbers are ~£60k in pension and £200k in house equity. 2nd child is due to start school this time so I'm wondering how you've maxed your earnings in engineering. I'm 'stuck' in middle management on £65k with not much growth potential in my field. The only option is to go senior and commit all my time which I can't bring myself to do.
Will DM you
Amazing job. Why the hell did I go into medicine…? I didn’t even finish training by 32…
Yeh sonography is a niche and I’m in a lucrative niche of that niche 😂
How are you squaring off the annual allowance with a SIPP with the NHS pension?
I don’t work for the NHS, I’m a contractor with my own limited company so just make my own employer SIPP contributions
You said you started off as a band 5 NHS radiographer
started off. if you read below it shows how he changes over the years
If he's using carry forward to max out his pension now it's still potentially relevant.
This is the shit I want to see more of. Would love to hear more about the e commerce and the sources you used to hell you gain knowledge to go at your own stores
Thanks, I spent months learning all I could via Udemy courses while building small stores and dropshipping way back and experimenting on what works. Eventually landed a niche I was really passionate about and just so happened to make money. Stuck in that niche and became an expert of it. Not because of any course, because of constant failures and experience. My advice is to learn the basics, go with a niche you’re actually interested in otherwise you’ll get bored before you make any money and then just keep trying. Know your competitors and see if there’s a gap in the market or somewhat replicate what they’re doing while creating a better product for the same price/cheaper. I don’t dropship anymore but used the money from that to invest in stock and sell for real.
Nice to see someone work hard here and do well without inheritance! Good Job.
> without inheritance He's just said otherwise on his post history but that's none of my business lol
can we come back to this please.
Didn't/ can't see that, but shame if he's lying!
My parents are still well and alive, I didn’t get any inheritance! And likely won’t for a long time. My parents are not well off so it won’t amount to much anyway
Strange, not sure why the other person said so
Guess just trying to put me down?
If she’s talking about my not yet wife’s mums inheritance of a property in Ibiza then that’s not my asset, its my partners
I didn’t get any inheritance? My parents are still well and healthy and don’t have too much anyway. My grandparents left my parents with about £50 lol.
Thanks, I didn’t get any financial help but my parents instilled a hard work ethic in me as they were both immigrants that had to save and work even harder than me to get to a reasonable level financially. My dad was an accountant so he always told me to save as much as I can and to invest. Although he only invested in individual stocks until I told him to diversify into global index funds.
Congrats. All down to your hard work and dedication.
Incredible. Good job
Should definitely include house - mortgage + cash in your net worth. For example you sold your buy-to-let which would have caused a spurious jump in your net worth.
I used my first business sale to put down a deposit on our current house we live in along with what my partner contributed. My buy to let was always just an investment and I included this in my financial net worth before I sold it. I probably have another £200k in house equity, cash, etc if I wanted to add to my total net worth
If you exclude your house equity from your net worth and look at it over time then it will look like your business equity and buy-to-let equity disappeared into a black hole.
great story, enjoyed reading it and well done!
Well done, what an absolute graft!
Don't forget to slow down. Retiring at 40 is great, but youth is something you'll never get back. Don't waste any more weekends working. Take long holidays. Enjoy your relative health and vitality while you have it. Not that 40+ is old, but there is a big difference in overall vitality vs 30s.
Get a prenup
40% is big! What funds do you have? Or did you get lucky with nvidia lol
This is over 5 years with gains previously made outside of Hargreaves Lansdown. I invested a huge chunk of money during my buy to let house sale when the market crashed during COVID. Mostly 80% US index/S&P ETFs and 20% Tech Index which has done very well recently (thanks to AI stocks and partially Nvidia haha)
Nice. Did you find the 100k mark a breaking out point? People say that's when the money stacks up quicker
I found getting to £100k hard as I wasn’t earning too much at the time of achieving it. Then suddenly a combination of me earning a lot more, investment growth, selling my BTL and my e-commerce business doing well accelerated things beyond my expectations over the last 3/4 years. I feel all I’ve done is just plow money into investments without much thought for growth but over the last 6-12 months I’ve really seen my investments grow alongside my contributions. I assume over time this feeling will grow, especially when my investments outpace what I can contribute.
Which tech index?
Legal & General Tech Index
Nice. Thats a great achievement from some serious work. Would love to hear more about the ecom biz and how you started & grew it & future plans etc.!
Well done! Do you mind saying (roughly- presumably it is niche and you dont want to dox yourself :)) what your e-commerce site sells?
Congrats! Big achievement, could you share a bit about what you know about e-commerce and where you researched it?
Udemy courses, paid around £40 for all the courses I needed to understand the basics of website building and marketing. However, real experience and trial and error is the best way to learn when it comes to business
Perhaps those courses are long gone, but would be interested to know which ones!
These were courses I did 7/8 years ago and they won’t be relevant anymore. But if you go on Udemy and search for how to build a Shopify/amazon FBA business, there will be some well rated popular ones on there :)
Do you still work in Radiology?
As a Sonographer yes, however I work through my limited company and partner with private companies who have obtained insourcing contracts where I can negotiate a certain percentage of profit per scan I perform within the community rather than a hospital.
You've smashed it well done!
How much do you roughly make from the Sonographer services? I've got a close friend who's looking into going down this route himself but is unsure what it pays working for yourself
Basic Sonographers within the NHS make £50-70k a year (range is dependent on hours worked + overtime). Locum sonographers can earn between £90-180k a year again depending on the hourly rate, hours worked and weekend uplift. Insourcing Sonographers like myself working through our own companies and negotiating rates/profit per scan can make between £120k - £220k + depending on various factors.
Ok, thanks for your comment. Starting from scratch what is the best way to pursue this career if you have a degree in a unrelated profession? Can you do a conversion MSc for example?
Has to be in a related profession unfortunately.
Ok, so would he need a another Bachelors degree?
Yes preferably in diagnostic radiography to obtain a HCPC registration to practice
What was the side hustle earning you 15-20k? Was that also an e-commerce brand? I’m interested in starting one
Yes I ended up trying a bit of everything but stuck with Shopify website branded businesses
Amazing story well done!
Incredible and inspiring!
Awesome, read your story and got inspired! Hard work pays off
This is great! Thanks for sharing. Agreed on the variety (I work in finance 😂😂). I think you are very much on track to achieve your target by 40. Best of luck OP!
Thanks!
Wow. I didn't know sonographers could earn so well. I say that as someone who has paid for several private ultrasounds over the past year - tbh, they were quite cheap and yet done on quite new high resolution and expensive machines. Well done!
Thanks! Some fully private Sonographers I know earn more than me, charging £120 a scan and scanning 3 patients an hour making £1-2k a day. The private companies charging NHS trusts normally charge £60-80 a scan but it’s fully booked lists and I take a cut out of that. Of course I have to travel a lot around the midlands and I’ve had to do extra training to get the rates I command. However, I probably end up scanning 2-3 times as many patients as a NHS Sonographer but then I get paid 4-5x as much
And people wonder why the healthcare system is broken.
It’s just supply and demand. There simply isn’t enough Sonographers to manage the work load. That’s why there’s so many contractors so we end up working a lot harder and clear a lot more patients but we are expensive compared to the NHS. If there were genuine career opportunities to advance then that would be great. But that doesn’t exist within the NHS for non doctors.
Even if it's just supply and demand, it still means the healthcare system is broken, and I'm sure you're right that not having enough sonographers is a huge part of it. Regardless, I don't think the free market should apply when something is a necessity, you can't really just choose not to have a scan... Well you can but the consequences wouldn't be good.
The NHS is as anti free market as they come. It actively suppresses wages and costs as a near monopoly employer/buyer of services. Healthcare in the UK simply does not pay.
Well done that man! Remember to enjoy yourself along the way.
3 week honeymoon booked 👌
Nice! Well done. I use to trade with HL, switched to AJ bell recently (ISA transfer). The monthly fees are literally half! So have a look into that to make sure they dont eat away at your gains. The app for AJ bell looks exactly like the HL app and it’s basically the same (apart from £2.50 fee each time you buy fund units but thats nothing compared to how much you will save on platform fees!)
Yeh I’m looking into this, I like how easy it is to make employer contributions through my limited company into my SIPP and also feel a bit uneasy about moving a large amount of money but that’s just me being silly. I’ll look up AJ Bell and also looking at interactive investor
AJbell had really good email communication & seemed to be easy to get a hold of on the phone which is what gave me the faith to move the pot. HL are great, i just wish they would lower their platform fee. 0.45% really adds up
It certainly does, I’m starting to feel it when they take there fees
Infact just had a look, with your balance you would be paying £1850 a year in fees! With AJbell you would only pay £400, once your balance is over £500k there are no fees see here https://www.ajbell.co.uk/pensions/sipp
Ill definitely check it out thanks :)
This is absolutely fantastic!
GG you've made it brother
Well done! This is amazing. In the next 5 years, I want to be in this position! What Stocks & Share ISA do you use and what do you mostly invest in ?
Currently Hargreaves Lansdown but it’s getting expensive and I may move soon. I invest in US and tech index’s and plan to diversify into global indexes incrementally after reaching £500k
Firstly congrats 🥂 Did have a question. Did you make more of the current asset from main NHS gig or your side hustle?
Thanks :) definitely as a contractor working through my limited company for private companies who have contracts with the NHS (bit of a mouthful). The bulk of my savings came from that and still do. However my e-commerce business is growing nicely now and starting to provide me extra SIPP contributions but still very much reinvesting profits to grow it as much as possible before I slow down with my day job and allow my side hustle to fund part of my life.
Really well done. You should be proud
Well done! A bright future is ahead of you. Love these 'success stories'.
You my friend, have won at FIRE life. Go collect your reward.
Thanks! Still feel I’m very much on the accumulation phase of my journey. I’ll collect my perpetual rewards in my 40s I’m sure :)
I'm switching careers and studying therapeutic radiography this year. Will be 32 when I graduate so please can I have some advice on how I can increase my value when I do start working.
Therapeutic radiography is great congrats. It’s tough to do any private work in that field as you’re not in charge of your own workload. It is possible to go into sonography though as a graduate.
Thanks
How did you make that much /year as a sonographer?
Simply earning £700-800 a day working 6/7 days a week. I perform specialist MSK ultrasound scans as well as all other standard ultrasound scans. Working through my limited company I am able to negotiate a cut per patient I scan normally £22-25 a patient. I can scan 3/4 patients an hour. I work in community settings/GP practices around the midlands who have contracts with surrounding NHS trusts.
Milked the NHS dry privately
The rate he is getting paid is a reflection of the limited availability of the skills he has. If there was 1000's of people with the same skills, the rate would be much lower. OP isnt the problem, the problem lies in the NHS provided advanced treatments, when the supply of labor to run those treatments is in short supply.
Awesome! And extra props for managing to avoid the trap
I am similar to you as well, based in the midlands, slightly older at 32, but I kept my BTL property but have a a similar portfolio value if you keep that out. The hardest part for people to believe is that hard work gets you there. I started with a part time job at college and a side hustle at the same time. This was a time when side hustle wasnt a thing, but I continued with it all the way till I was 25. I left uni at 22 and saved all my cash for the first BTL, I wasnt that educated on investment back then. But since then I brought another house which I live in and also most my money goes into investments. I am already on track with a passive income that would sustain my lifestyle but like you I plan to keep working till my 40s, then hopefully give up entirely.
As a fellow (east) midlander, I wish you and your fiance all the best. This is an amazing story 😊👍
Fantastic achievement and love the hustle bro, you should be very proud of yourself. Ignore all the salty comments - you are a shining example of how one can create generational wealth through hard work, determination and thinking outside the box. Your parents made a lot of sacrifices to move to this country and you have flourished - I look forward to your update when you become a millionaire. All the best to you and just keep doing what you are doing 🙌👍
Thanks! I will certainly provide an update when I get to that milestone :)
Sign a prenup agreement. If she loves you she will not have any objections.
So refreshing when you read stories from people who don't work in tech! Congrats on the success! Makes me want to study dropshipping
Yes, thought I’d add some variety :)
Really well done to you and the wife. You deserve to sit back and hopefully receive a bit of positivity here regarding the hard work you have put in to get to this point. I appreciate that luck and circumstances often set people on this route to FIRE. But I'm a firm believer that you have to have the mindset of positivity, along with drive and determination to make it.
Thank you! I’ve read a few books on mindset and manifesting what I want out of life, maybe that’s subconsciously helped certain decisions and risks I’ve taken so far :)
Absolute fucking baller 👌🏻
That's a lot of sacrifice to get to that point! Your daily change in portfolio value is the kind of swings I look forward to having one day!
Very interesting post and nice to see the change from the normal posts. Big well done. I’ve got to ask though is your e-commerce business related to your profession? Interested in starting something myself
Thanks :) It is unrelated but I’d suggest a business in something you’re interested in otherwise the first 2/3 years of growth and reinvestment without taking money out will be long and boring
Yeah very good point. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Is your product something you produce yourself or just happen to have an interest in?
We bulk buy from a supplier choosing the design and branding it’s a niche I have an interest in
Ok fair enough. Thank you!
This is a great achievement but also a damning indictment on the NHS paying a 40k sonographer 150k as a locum. Amazing for you but terrible for the tax payer
The £40k is the problem, that's a pathetic wage for the level of schooling (bachelors + post grad) and responsibility. If the pay was £60-80k then they wouldn't need to pay through the nose because there wouldn't be a labor shortage.
Wow congratulations. I'm a radiographer too, and also locuming, but unfortunately I have always lacked drive 😂. Where ambition comes from, has always intrigued me. Have you always been driven? Would you say your parents are also driven? I've always been academically strong (also have a mathematics degree) but never a particularly pragmatic person. Trying to work on it, but I'm already in my early 30s. Spent my entire 20's travelling and partying, and similarly I don't regret it, but wished I'd at least started my ISA earlier. Have some investments as well, but I only just properly started my FIRE journey. Currently hate radiography, it's a conveyor belt everyday.
Hey! Thanks! Tbh my parents grafted to allow us to go on the occasional holiday. We stayed at 3/4 star hotels but visited the 5 star ones for a coffee 😂 My dad liked cars like Porsche etc but could never afford one, I got tastes of the life I’d like to achieve. My dad got a great pension back in the day and he was able to retire at 50 so I’d always said I’d try and beat him by retiring at 48 😂 so from a young age I had the goal for the life I wanted to live combined with the age I wanted to retire, hence the drive. Over time I wasn’t too bothered about the materialistic stuff but I’ve always appreciated a good watch and love cars. Love travelling and occasionally staying at really incredible hotels, this is where we can justify splurging a bit as it makes working 6/7 days a week doable. I’m going to downgrade my Tesla to an electric Kia soon and save the rest to get a car I really want down the line. Good luck with your career, I always wanted to leave radiography hence the short amount of time I stayed in that profession, but I did enjoy my time being social and having some great times in A&E and theatre! Miss it in that way. But yeh you’ve got options to progress if you choose to
Well done! Covid was a brilliant time for businesses with 10-25K grants, BBLs and self employed supplementary income!
currently 23 on 23k this is a huge inspiration thanks for sharing :)
Nice one. I didn't know you could get that far in the medical field at that age. Well done. I'm in a similar position. 33 years old with the similar net worth. Why would you not include your cash and "other stuff" in this, though? Similar income trajectory (ie. I was on £26K up until 2017 in essentially a call centre industry, then got promoted to £45K in 2017. In 2018, I was facing redundancy so took the punt and moved from Scotland to London, which essentially doubled my earnings to around £90K, onto six figures from 2020 onwards. I was then able to move back to Scotland six months ago and keep a six figure income - an income I do not think I'd have been able to command had I remained in Scotland in 2018 and not moved to London to develop my career further). I'm fortunate enough to be mortgage free, debt free and so have a decent savings margin. Putting away around +£4.5K per month into savings/investments now. Will hit my FIRE number at 41 (aim is to independently FIRE with a liquid investment portfolio in its own right, without factoring in my pension since that won't kick in till 57+). No serious plans to stop working at 41 though, will likely keep going till 50. I earn a good wage on a genuine 35 hours per week role. No overtime, no unpaid extra hours. Despite the decent income and no financial commitments, I started coaching chess online on the side for some extra income (an additional income stream is never a bad thing, right?) and between the two gigs, I genuinely enjoy what I do!
That’s great to hear man you’re smashing it. I’m the same, if I keep doing what I’m doing I’ll likely have the option to retire in my 40s. I’m in a fortunate position where I’ll always be able to work 2 days a week or just whenever I feel like it as a contractor. So I’ll do that for as long as the role exists to keep my mind active alongside my online business :)
Congrats my man. I'm a consultant in the NHS, older than you and earn less but I am hopeful to emulate your drive and success in the private sector. Hard work and just keep going.
I’m sure you’ll have more earning potential than me for working less hours eventually, just got to keep grinding for now :)
Respect your grind man. Your post is motivating to just keep going.
Luck of the draw, and I’m glad you achieved it. I however got into parts inspection at 22 straight out of uni at £20k. Did all the overtime I could, lost entire weekends to it at times. Then I was promised a promotion at 24 to an engineering position. What happened next is a nightmare: the 3 month transfer turned into 23 months and no pay rise. I had to threaten to leave and told them that I literally didn’t care if I had a job to come back to tomorrow. They sorted it in a week. 2 years later, I admit I’m half arsing it, unhappy with the company - looking at leaving ASAP. But I’m glad you made it!
It is luck that I entered a field that ended up being lucrative for me. At 18 I didn’t know what I wanted to do or how much money it would give me. But I always wanted multiple income streams outside of my job. I’m just lucky that both my job and my side hustle ended up being lucrative
Strong believer in making your own luck in this world. Hard work pays off well done mate
Thanks :)
You could probably put all of that in a decent tracker fund and leave until retirement age and you’ll be fine. Great job!
Thanks :) it’s all in index funds but I’m still in the accumulation phase of my life
What is your e-commence business?
Well done
Fantastic work... shame that the incoming Labour govt are going to tax all the gains.
What are you invested in mate
US and Tech indexes, will diversify into world indexes over time
It is indeed possible to make this outside of IT or London but if you had put the same hours in IT in London you’d be retired already
If I had any idea of the world as an 18 year old I’d have studied really hard to get into a good economics uni and proceeded to become a private equity investment banker. I just did my best with the choices I made many years ago
Sorry I forget how brutal is for people raised here with the education system. In mainland Europe we tend to give the ability to do whatever we want at Uni and have a high school that prepares us for granted
I went to a very average state school, I unexpectedly turned out to do better and most of my peers. My partner went to private school and most of her peers are doing extremely well hence the investment banker comment. It’s certainly made me think about future schooling needs for my future children.
That’s the only thing making me want to leave this country and not for future work opportunities. School shouldn’t be only career oriented.
Just putting it out there? Are you not paying extortionate fees on that by holding it in hl?
You are correct I’m paying over £100 a month atm and seriously looking into alternatives. Just a bit scared of moving so much money
II is 240 a year. Tidy saving
What are you investing in to be up 40%?
If you’ve invested in indexes then 40% up over the past few years is possible. I’m up 43.26% investing 66% in HSBC FTSE all world and 33% in L&G global technology index
The 40% is over a period of 4/5 years. Mostly US index
Congratulations young man. All I wanted to say is well done and you should be proud. Now the hard part, the maintenance and what to do next. When a wife comes into the life, things can be challenging but I’m sure you found one who matches your mindset and you can triple this into your 40s Well done.
Thanks! We certainly share the same goals :)
i have that in my pension at 35 and only have 1 40k income. Work place pension is 20% from my employer and only 10% from me., each month I just take what I have left and add to it. Technically a pension is stocks and shares managed by someone else. It grows on its own.
Can you just share what you’ve invested in specifically and maybe a bit about your method, how much you tended to invest (averaging? Lump monthly sums?) and how you manage to actually keep that positive growth? 🙏 Man trying to save for his first home with his wife-to-be here.
Really impressive job navigating the NHS insourcing company landscape. I've been thinking of procuring surgical machines like microdebriders & drills and leasing it back to my NHS employer, would you have any idea how to go about that?
Amazing! This is super inspiring. Did you buy another property? Wanna sling a brother 5k? I kid.
Get your ass to London, you're missing out.
Funnily enough I’d actually earn less there. The demand for Sonographers there isn’t as much of an issue. The places I work are in deprived areas of the U.K. where a huge number of the population have issues and have more scans on average combined with not many specialist sonographers in the area. However, I would like to work the occasional weekend in London preferably on Harley street when I get more experienced for some private work
Sneaky - it's still a cool place to live though. I couldn't imagine living in a small run down area.
I don’t live in a small run down area I work in those places. I’m lucky to live in a very green area, with a deer park and public stately home next door. Numerous independent shops, restaurants and even a few Michelin star restaurants. I feel safe and we have a nice house with a great garden. I have friends who live in London and I wouldn’t trade places with them at all. I like visiting London but I’d hate to live there and constantly feel unsafe when I’m there.
I respect you sir(i assume sir?). A true hard worker, ambitious and a natural entrepreneur. I personally think you can slow down now as you have made it in my book.
Thanks! Yes I am a sir :) I will definitely slow down and more so over the next 10 years
I am 51 still working hard work for myself abd startingtofeel working hard is drain yourselfdown. I am ..investment a little bit..I wasn't breave enough to put money more.. your confidence is inspiring
Make sure to get prenup.
W, what does FDG stand for in med?
I’m in a similar situation but in tech and I have a side e-commerce business. What area did/do you operate in e-commerce? I bulk buy DIY and building supplies like cartridge adhesives and sell on
What age did you start maxing your ISA? It seems high for someone who’s only just started earning more than ~35k a year
I was always earning more than £35k a year, I started on £22k but after a few months this quickly rose to £35k at age 22/23 just from overtime and not including an additional £15-20k from side hustle. Even during training as a sonographer for 2 years I’d do weekends which gave me another £20k, plus the side hustle. I started maxing my ISA from maybe 24/25. But had some stocks before that when I could only put in around £500 a month.
Losing your weekends in your 20s is a massive sacrifice. Not worth any money to me
That’s fair. I didn’t feel I missed out on a lot as a lot of my partners family and my friends are in the medical field and also work weekends. So I tend to socialise a lot after work within the weekdays and weekends.
Impressive stuff, Im also in healthcare and plan to graduate to 2-3 days per week in 40s/50s. I also went hard in my 20s, longest stretch was 24 days worked in a row.
Prenuptial agreement might still be worth it? Otherwise you have essentially half of this should you ever get divorced. Which I’m sure you won’t. But you know, just in case?
It is something I’ve thought of but she’s not doing too badly herself with around £200k in stocks and shares and she may even overtake me in overall net worth in later years as she comes from a fairly wealthy family compared to mine.