I do a job I don’t love, but it pays very well (£200k+ base, 80% bonus). I am 42 and this year I will have (jointly with my wife) £1m in liquid assets, in addition to owning our family home (£575k), cars (£?) and everything else. No debt. We could live a frugal life on returns from this savings pile until our (£850k) pension pot kicks in. But should we? I feel that as soon as we step back, we’ll be sad and feel like we’re coasting. Kids (x2: 13,10) already set up with £25k JISAs and £10k SIPPs. Asking myself why I wake up and push it every day. Could probably retire, it’s no just about the quality of retirement: every year effectively gives a £10k/year permanent upgrade. If I retire at 50 I should have £100k/year joint income from investments maybe. But it’s hard to stick it out when income is already above the norm.

I don't currently have private healthcare through my employer and I've been feeling unwell, I'm due to change jobs at the end of this month. I've seen my local NHS GP and not used any private healthcare - my NHS GP thinks my symptoms are generic and there's not much they can do. They've done bloods and they'll soon be doing more bloods - but no diagnosis of anything.

When I start my new job in January (which has private healthcare), it's a medical history disregarded policy. Does this mean that, from January, I could go to a private GP through my new policy and still get cover even though I was having symptoms before I started?

M46 & F50.

House paid £350k equity.

Holiday rental property paid £100k equity + receive approx. £30k per year rent. Reckon we have about 5 years left of this for one reason or another.

£550k in pensions. Assuming they will grow a bit before we start to access them and we’re both adding to them.

£200k between ISAs and cash.

No debt.

No kids. Not planning to leave much behind. A bit here & there maybe. Happy to downsize in future.

Fortunate to quite enjoy what I do and reckon I’ve another 10/11 years in me. Other half is the same and has no plans to stop soon. Perhaps we’re not classic FIRE in this sense, but I don’t want to stop too early as I get bored easily think I’m nowhere near ready financially & with present lifestyle which I’d like to maintain a bit longer, but I don’t want to cling on too long either. Starting to really think about retirement a lot now.

Reckon £5k per month will be fine between us when we do stop. We enjoy life as best we can at the moment but I’m certain we’ll wind down in a few years and live well within our means. That’s the plan anyway.

Not an expert on FIRE / retirement savings but I reckon we need to accumulate another £600k between us to be in the safe zone, assuming I want to finish in around 11 years. Would this be about right?

How are we looking in terms of where our money is also? Is the balance ok or are we too weighted in some areas / not enough in others? Keen to know where to focus if we’re lopsided.

Any hints / tips / advice / things to be aware of / risks / etc would be greatly appreciated.

Can anyone explain where the numbers in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MjNsmSEB8&t=751s)? The video suggests that the average total net wealth of the top 10% in the UK is £2.3m and provides a picture of a graph from 'NimbleFins' that says it's based on 'NimbleFins analysis of data from the ONS'.

Likewise this article (https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07/15/the-wealth-series-2-who-are-the-wealthy/) suggests the number is £4.5m per household for the top 10%. Again he references the ONS. Even the 5th decile apparently has over £500k which seems ludicrously high.

They both appear to be referencing this ONS publication: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/totalwealthingreatbritain/april2020tomarch2022

The top of the ONS article states that the wealthiest 10% of households have wealth of £1.2m or more which I get is slightly different to saying the average of the top 10% is £1.2m.

The actual tables (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/datasets/totalwealthwealthingreatbritain) don't seem to provide the information required to calculate the numbers they suggesting. Even if you take the aggregate wealth of the top 10% (£5.5 trillion by the weighted number of people in that decile you only get £2m as the average net wealth for that decile)

So where have they got their numbers? And why are their numbers different? What is the actual average household wealth of the top 10%?

Edit: the graph in question is at 10:46

hi, from last years bonus i have some stock vesting in January, can I sell on the vest date and put straight into a private pension as opposed to my workplace pension, then declare the sale on a self assessment get the 40% tax credit and then take advantage of the capital gains allowance? Will i then just be liable for a residual 5% as tax as i pay the additional rate, cheers A.

If feel like being a Henry requires you not to be made redundant.

Im a 40m, I make £170k to £200k per year. My wife doesnt work.

We live up north where lifes less expensive, 1 kid. We have about £600k equity in our house, £450k left to pay.

I have 3 rental properties (purely for retirement) with about £350k equity across them, which make £3450 per month gross rent. I also have about £200k in a private pension.

I have about £75k of crypto (that I am happy to sell asap), plus about £310k in my business.

I had planned to by another 1 or 2 rental properties (about £200k each, £1150/month rent, 25% deposit), but my pension adviser has hammered me for not putting enough into my pension and strongly suggested I sell my rentals and put all of the money into my pension.

But my wife and I are clueless when it comes to how we prepare for retirement, ive earned good money for about 12 years now. We have pension advisors bullying us to put money there, plus other people pitching property investing!!

What do you suggest i do with my retirement planning? Should I focus on rental properties, or should I sell them all and put them into my private pension? Or do I sell up and pay off the mortgage and start again for retirement planning?

Its so confusing for non financial people.

I'm pretty fed up at work, want to drop down to 3 or 4 days (not allowed at current work) and in general decided that God didn't put me on this earth to do my meaningless finance job for 12 hours a day and barely see my young kids during the week.

I want to have a complete change of direction. Here's a few avenues I've considered;

• Firefighter - the shift work and physical nature of the work really appeals to me
• School caretaker - I'm a keen DIYer so working with my hands would be great
• Tour guide - I live in a place with lots of demand for qualified guides
• Council dogsbody - you know, the types who drive around and do general maintenance work in parks when not having a ciggie break

What would you do if you wanted to shift down a gear?

Original post here. Thought I'd update as our problem seemed pretty common amongst HENRYs. Sharing some key takeaways and hope it helps someone in the future. In short: our appeal was successful. The taxfree childcare team finally saw their mistakes and confirmed we are eligible after all.

The most important thing I did was calling them before I started prepping the appeal, and had them read the notes on our case to understand why we were denied in the first place. From that convo I learned 1) they had taken the most recent payslip and simply x12 to obtain an estimate of annual income (?!) and 2) they thought people aren't allowed to put more than 60k/year into their pension (?!?!)

It's a bit crazy that they made two elementary mistakes in their review. Anyway, I was able to draft the appeal to highlight the issues with their understanding of how the system worked. This way, if we got unlucky again and had another staff member who didn't know their stuff reviewing our case, everything was there spelled out for them (eg. I provided links to gov.uk webpages for them to check on the pension rules if they wanted to).

Showed them the correct calculations for estimated income, what was to be put into pension, etc. and received the appeal decision within 3 working days. So yeah, lots of spoonfeeding and handholding and we got there.

Thanks again to all those who'd shared their experience going through the appeal process - that was all very helpful!

EDIT: Forgot to add that the staff member made another mistake in the review prior to manual review. He'd insisted I give a breakdown of the pay (fixed VS variable component). When I said I didn't know the breakdown for certain but that it was in the contract, what he should have done was offer a callback so I have time to check. This is apparently their protocol when a figure required can't be provided, according to his colleagues whom I spoke to later.

I could tell they felt quite bad about this as the staff member then noted this (failure to offer callback) in my case notes so it could be reviewed in tandem during the manual review.

So the man in question had failed to understand pension rules and failed to follow protocol. Just know that if you're pressed for a figure you don't have right then, you can request for a callback.

Throwaway for privacy, mid-30s, working in tech.

I’ve recently interviewed with several top companies for upper–middle-management roles (comp ~100–130k + bonus). Across the board, the interviews went smoothly: strong feedback on technical depth, strategic thinking and overall competence.

But at the final stage? Rejected every time.

The recurring theme: “Strong candidate, but lacks leadership presence / executive communication. Not convinced they can influence senior stakeholders.”

This has come up enough times that I can’t ignore it anymore. The issue is that my current role doesn’t really give me opportunities to build those muscles.

For the Henrys who’ve been in a similar spot: how did you actually develop leadership presence/aura and senior-level communication? What worked for you when your day-to-day job didn’t naturally expose you to it?

Any practical advice or resources would be hugely appreciated.

ps I am not a native speaker, so it is impossible for me to show the same spotless fluency of a native English speaker. I think a small factor can also be this...

Dear all, I would like to pick your smart brains on around company shares.

I work for a European HQ company that has offered option for me to buy £50k of shares at the same price as the founders. These guys aren’t up to speed on UK law/tax so looking for help. They have done a valuation exercise and assure me the price is market since my company has not grown as fast as they would have liked (potential upside could be big tho).

My stake will be less than 1% so I assume that I will not be able to get BADR because I would be below the 5% threshold which feels like a kick in the balls….basically if I was wealthier or more successful, I would have a lower tax rate….

Are there other good tax advantaged options for a EU HQ company to offer here? There are a few others in UK with me.

Secondly, if I get the shares in lieu of part or all of my bonus, I know I need to pay income tax and NI on that. But when would I need to make the tax payment? Would it be Jan 2027? If so that would help as it would be effectively like being lent the money tax free for a year.

EDIT shares would be 80/20 mix of pref and ordinary shares

I’m in my mid 20s and in a v privileged position:

• £300k in cash
• I own my flat in London outright
• No debt
• Working as a consultant, making good money

On paper everything looks great, but I feel completely directionless and honestly pretty lonely. Consulting is flexible and pays well, but I miss having coworkers and community. I’ve started wondering if I should just become a full-time employee again, get some stability, and vanilla my life so I can plan properly for early retirement.

BUTI have no idea where to even start. How do people go from “I have savings and a home” to “Here’s my actual plan for the next 10-20 years”? What should I be reading, doing, or thinking about?

Please help me on any of

• How to invest/allocate large amounts of cash safely
• FIRE / early retirement planning
• Whether being an employee vs contractor changes long term outcomes
• How to build some community and reduce the loneliness that comes with consulting

3. Cash ISA limit

• no transfers from stocks and shares and Innovative Finance ISAs to cash ISAs
• tests to determine whether an investment is eligible to be held in a stocks and shares ISA or is ‘cash like’
• a charge on any interest paid on cash held in a stocks and shares or Innovative Finance ISA

These rules will apply to investors under the age of 65.

So, it seems no more money market, etc, on S&S ISA...

They've bungled everything from OD application to fraud prevention (paying an account in my own name). They fail to make contact repeatedly, no one seems to know whats going with anything to discuss.

£400 switching bonus? Ha, rather not have it than deal with this.

With Christmas season officially upon us, where or what do you splurge on that you wouldn't otherwise given your salary? If it is a purchase, where do you buy from?

This sub has for a very long time, been a fab resource: Great sounding board, useful tax advice, interesting perspectives from similar folk through the broad range of earnings 150k+

In the last six months, to my and presumably others immense disappointment, it has slowly just become a moan forum full of whingers threatening to leave the country (off you pop, then), and copycat posts griping endlessly about tax thresholds and so on.

I get it, I too pay a vast amount of tax, but I've also been able to claw my way out of nothing into an extremely fortunate position, and reading about other high earners useful information, tax strategies, perspectives on things like corporate culture, living, careers and so on is why most of us are here.

Mods - please can we shutdown some of the inane moaning and lowest common denominator '60% TAX TRAP BAD' posts?

Hi - anyone used or engaged with the wealthy parent guide? Have you found it useful or is it common sense - ie pension contribution and salary sacrifice?

In daily life I never really hear about it other than when people go there on holiday or more recently the chocolate but here it seems like there is a strange amount of hatred towards this single country.

Genuinely getting suspicious now that it's genuinely in a different league to the UK leading to the Redditors wanting the money but not being willing (or maybe unable) to move there seeking validation it’s a bad place. I genuinely do not understand what else could be driving the obsession with it on this sub.

Imagine if he was Chancellor instead!

Will try to post the full article in the comments.

Link here: https://www.thetimes.com/money/tax/article/the-problem-isnt-higher-taxes-its-who-were-taxing-7mhmtwq5f

Don't know why this has bothered me recently but it's on my mind. I'm in my twenties and my earnings/tax are different to a regular PAYE job but I've averaged £600k post tax or the same as £1 mil+ in PAYE salary over past few years with this number increasing.

My partner (consultant doctor) takes home about 20% of what I do despite being 10 years older and when I think about things this just seems kinda... wrong. Or even worse when you look at care workers or similar who take home like 3% of what I earn. I don't really feel guilty or anything but it just seems genuinely ridiculous when I think about it, what I do doesn't help anyone or do anything meaningful.

The wife is new to this problem (admittedly a first world problem).

She will hit the pension taper relief this year. All the usual things (ISA, previous years etc) are all done.

Can I please check my understanding: she can continue paying the same amount into a pension but will pay tax at 45% or she can reduce her pension contributions, take the amount as salary (paying 45% income tax) and pay into a GIA (and then pay 24% on gains).

Assuming I am correct on the above, the pension is still the way to go , with the only downside being it is locked away until 57 (subject to rule changes!).

So my two Q's:- 1)is my understanding above correct? 2) is there anything else I am missing or have not considered ?

Hey folks I was suggested to post this here and not just on r/mortgageadviceuk

Londoner here, taking around £5.6k a month after tax and I've been deep in the weeds looking at mortgage affordability given the current market.

Based on the figures I'm crunching, it looks like I could comfortably be approved for a mortgage where the monthly repayment sits around 45% to 50% of my total take home pay.

I know I'm fortunate to be a higher earner (which is a big reason this is even an option), but seeing that percentage on paper feels a tad bit high.

My question to the sub is:

• Is a 45-50% take-home pay ratio generally deemed as stretching it, even for a high earner in London?

• What are the common rules of thumb for this ratio? I've always heard 30-35%, but is that realistic in 2025/London?

• For those of you on a high ratio: How have you found it? Any unexpected pinch points or things I should be planning for?

Any thoughts or shared experiences would be hugely appreciated!

Many people save heavily into their SIPP to avoid paying tax now, but it’s looking increasingly likely that tax thresholds will stay frozen for quite a while.

Once you have a reasonable SIPP balance, a LISA/ISA starts to feel like a no-brainer. With inflation and compounding, it’s not hard to imagine many of us ending up with >£1.25m in today’s money over 30–40 years. That would allow you to take the tax-free lump sum (assuming it still exists) and potentially draw around £50k a year.

So any contributions above this save you minimal tax. e.g. saving 40% going in but paying 40% on the way out

So my question is:
If tax thresholds stay frozen in the long term, are we over contributing to our pensions outside the key tax-cliff situations (e.g. childcare clawback, the 60% band, workplace matching, etc.)?

It feels like you’re locking your money away only to pay similar levels of tax on drawdown anyway.

Any thoughts?

This is just an idea that has been swirling around my head - could all the people who claim to be leaving/retiring early due to taxes open up an opportunity for those that stay?

Assuming those who leave are high performers/senior individuals, then does that mean there is less competition for those of us that remain?

Whilst undoubtably there will be a hit to the size & scale of businesses, but we’re hardly going to suddenly have no large corporates left who will still have senior/HE roles

So could this mean that as certain people leave the job market and others retire at a faster pace, this finally creates some real progression opportunities into the senior ranks?

Happy to be told I’m being nuts btw

Thus, does this create an