{"id":161,"date":"2025-09-30T22:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T22:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2025-10-01T00:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:08:29","slug":"11-years-13-days-to-fi-september-2025-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/30\/11-years-13-days-to-fi-september-2025-update\/","title":{"rendered":"11 years 13 days to FI Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CKNYDG0fYmE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Watch it on Youtube<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether you&#8217;re reading this on the blog or watching on YouTube \u2014 welcome. This is my monthly check-in on the road to FI: 11 years and 13 days left, and I\u2019m 18.21% of the way there. I track this to stay honest with myself. Because if you don\u2019t measure it, how do you know you\u2019re moving? There\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll reach financial independence sooner than planned \u2014 and I\u2019ll explain why. So stick around till the end, because I\u2019ll share the actual numbers behind my sub-trajectory: the calculations, assumptions, and what they mean for my timeline. I hope this will inspire you to track your journey too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Highlights<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Life isn\u2019t just about money.  I try not to lose sight of that \u2014 and to live fully, not just efficiently.  Here\u2019s what stood out for me this month, beyond the spreadsheets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a310k!!! In my ISA!!! What a milestone! I\u2019ve finally crossed the \u00a310k mark in my ISA. It took a little over two years, but I\u2019m really proud of this achievement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"690\" height=\"404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ISA-account.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176\" style=\"width:301px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ISA-account.jpg 690w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ISA-account-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I\u2019ve increased my regular ISA contribution by \u00a350 to speed up my progress toward financial freedom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I negotiated one hour less of work without a pay cut. Every Friday that extra hour lets me walk my children to school \u2014 a small step, but my first taste of financial independence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We went on a family trip to Saltdean and then walked all the way to Rottingdean for some ice cream. A simple day out, but definitely one of the highlights of the month!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This month I had some health issues that really gave me a wake-up call. It made me stop and look at life from a slightly different perspective, and I feel like I\u2019m approaching things with a new mindset now.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whenever I can, I bike to work to stay healthy and save money. This month I managed to save \u00a310 on commuting, and I deposited it straight into my Trading 212 account as a little extra motivation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We visited Amberley Museum \u2013 a whole day dedicated to exploring vintage buses and their history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-1024x469.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-1024x469.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-768x352.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-1536x704.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/amberley-busses-1-2048x939.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My Portfolio &#8211; \u00a31k quest<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Quick disclaimer:<\/strong> I\u2019m not a financial advisor. This is just my personal journey and what\u2019s working (or not) for me. Always do your own research and speak to a qualified professional before making financial decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What\u2019s the \u00a31k Quest?<\/strong> My goal is to reach financial independence \u2014 which, for me, means generating \u00a31,000 a month in passive income by the age of 57, when I\u2019ll gain access to my&nbsp;<strong>workplace pension<\/strong>. That\u2019s roughly the amount of the UK state pension, and I call this target the \u00a31k Quest. It might sound modest, but it doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ll stop working or investing once I hit it. And remember \u2014 when I do retire, the state pension will come on top of that. This is about building a solid, flexible base. The rest is optional upside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By following the 4% rule, withdrawing 4% annually from a \u00a3300,000 portfolio would give around \u00a31,000 per month in passive income. This gives me a clear target to work toward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So let me show you where I\u2019m at \u2014 and what\u2019s under the hood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I plan to accumulate this sum from three main sources, and this is what I have in each of them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Workplace Pension<\/strong> &#8211; <strong>\u00a343847.45<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>ISA \u2013 Stock And Shares <\/strong>(Regular Monthly Contributions) &#8211; <strong>\u00a310276.73<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund &#8211; <strong>\u00a37261.72<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF &#8211; (VHYG) &#8211; <strong>\u00a3195.66<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sterling Short-Term Money Market Fund &#8211; <strong>\u00a32757.23<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cash (uninvested) &#8211; <strong>\u00a362.12<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>ISA &#8211; Stock And Shares <\/strong>(Pocket Money Contributions) &#8211; <strong>\u00a3514.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Main Street Capital (MAIN) &#8211; <strong>\u00a3204.05<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) &#8211; <strong>\u00a3177.46<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Realty Income (O)<strong> <\/strong>&#8211; <strong>\u00a376.40<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tesla (TSLA) &#8211; <strong>\u00a35.12<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield ETF (VHYL) &#8211; <strong>\u00a350.74<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dividends<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This month, my investments started generating some passive income:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Main Street Capital (MAIN) \u2013 <strong>paid me<\/strong> <strong>\u00a30.75<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Progress So far<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"779\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Invested-Income.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Invested-Income.jpg 779w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Invested-Income-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Invested-Income-768x477.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This chart shows when my portfolio is theoretically expected to generate \u00a31,000 per month, represented by the yellow line. The red line illustrates the planned path to reaching my goal by the time I turn 57, which will be in October 2036. The blue line represents a statistical projection based on the percentage growth from the period for which I have real data, indicating that I could reach my goal as early as October 2029. This will certainly be adjusted over time and will likely align more closely with the red line. I hope it will turn out to be more parabolic and reach the target earlier \ud83d\ude42 It\u2019s important to remember that the portfolio will only be able to generate the projected \u00a31,000 once I gain access to my workplace pension, which will become available at the age of 57!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The total across all three of my sources stands at \u00a354,638.69. If I had access to my workplace pension today, applying the 4% rule would allow me to withdraw \u00a3182.13 per month. It\u2019s a modest but steady stream that highlights the importance of long-term planning and diversified savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch it on Youtube Whether you&#8217;re reading this on the blog or watching on YouTube \u2014 welcome. This is my monthly check-in on the road to FI: 11 years and 13 days left, and I\u2019m 18.21% of the way there. I track this to stay honest with myself. Because if you don\u2019t measure it, how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[44,5,42,3,50],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-fi","tag-financialfreedom","tag-financialindependence","tag-personalfinance","tag-worklifebalance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daystofi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}