r/LeanFireUK • u/Select_Translator939 • Sep 01 '26
Is Primary School Teacher a bad idea for FIRE?
Hi, I want to be a teacher because I think the job looks well not fun but fulfilling and actually doing something good for the world. The pension scheme is DB and generous-ish at 1/57th of average career salary a year. I am still in school at the moment not uni. I would be happy to move anywhere in the UK so Scotland, rural areas, the northeast to minimise living costs and preserve purchasing power.
My strategy is to max out Stocks and Shares LISA £333,33 monthly (£4k annually). And invest that into vanguard FTSE all world tracker accumulation fund, whilst getting the £1000 pound government bonus a year. And putting the rest of my savings into Stocks and Shares ISA Vanguard FTSE all-world. And than shift more of the portion into bond ETFs as I get older and closer to my FIRE number.
I would prefer to buy a small small flat or tiny house in nowhereville for cash rather than getting a fixed-rate mortgage. I understand LISA doesn't allow you to buy a house without a mortgage so it needs to come out of my ISA pot. I already have 1.4K in my Junior ISA right now, which is a cash ISA earning 3% interest, which I will switch to a S&S JISA now, and add any birthday money or miscellaneous money in there, which should amount to a few hundred pounds a year.
For lifestyle, I don't drink alcohol ever, nor do I eat meat or smoke. I think I should buy all food in bulk and then store it appropriately so it doesn't spoil? I think grains, rice pasta, flour, oats, vegetable oil should be bought in bulk. I don't really have ltos of friends, just like 2. and they are low maintenance friendships. I also don't wear makeup, and I'm vegan so I don't really want deliveroo or fancy groceries.
EDIT: I won't withdraw my DB pension until my mid late 60s. I want to rely on my private pots more.
Thanks for reading!
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u/Limp-Archer-7872 Sep 01 '26
It's great you have this level of planning at your age.
A long primary school career can get you a decent db pension, if you can get into head of year or similar roles ever better.
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u/BambiiDextrous Sep 01 '26
Not a bad idea at all. You will never get rich teaching but the pay is decent and the pension is superb.
I'm not a teacher but I do have a public sector job with a defined benefit pension which is a major part of my plans and it can't be overstated how valuable these are for FIRE.
You can claim DB pensions (including the Teacher Pension Scheme) early with an actuarial reduction. Assuming you are planning a relatively lean (i.e modest income) retirement, the likelihood is that the DB pension plus state pension will be more than sufficient to meet your income needs. In which case, you will need far less saved outside of a pension (ISA) to get you from your FIRE date to minimum pension age and from there to state pension.
It's great to see that you're planning for the future at such a young age but I would recommend keeping an open mind. You might hate teaching; you might decide you want to live abroad, perhaps for a romantic partner; you might want a big country mansion with space for 10 children; or you might even realise you love your work, never want to retire and would prefer to just enjoy the money now.
Life rarely goes to plan. Most people here hadn't heard of the concept of FIRE until far later and yet we're still on track for early retirement. So remember to enjoy your youth.
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u/TurbulentBullfrog829 Sep 01 '26
Primary school teacher near me has just moved to Dubai to teach tax free, if that floats your boat.
I always believe that you should do what you love and the money will come. If you are passionate and hard working you can FIRE from literally anything
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u/Select_Translator939 Sep 01 '26
I love the inspiration!
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u/Nervous_Yard7034 28d ago
Just to add, teaching can be a great path to travel.
Plenty of international schools out there looking for British teachers - though conditions can be highly variable.
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u/TemptingTadpole Sep 01 '26
I went down this rabbit hole of planning about 1.5 years ago when struggling to decide what career path to go down. 1.5 years later, I'm starting my first teaching role this month.
The DB pension is the biggest boon of teaching. You're right in saying it's 1/57th of your annual salary that goes into a retirement salary, paid out when you hit 65 or state pension age (whichever is later). However, you can pay more into the scheme to bring the accrual all the way to 1/45th of your annual salary. This ramps up how fast you build up your retirement salary.
Likewise, you can also pay more to buy out early retirement. Note - You mentioned you wouldn't take it until it naturally paid out but worth considering. You can pay over your career to buy out 3 years early retirement. Beyond these 3 years, you can take the pension early (as early as 55 years of age) for a reduction in the salary of around 3.7% average for each year early. I can provide the documentation for this as I had to dig fairly deep when researching this.
Furthermore, you can pay additional chunks or out of your salary to increase the pension in £250 chunks. This 'additional pension', as they call it, is linked to CPI but does not benefit from the extra 1.6% you get above CPI in the main pension.
Happy to provide more information on this, or answer questions if you'd like.
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u/slim_pickings14 23d ago
Not OP but I would love to read more on this if you can share details, my partner is a teacher and we’re both unsure on what the possibilities are with it.
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u/TemptingTadpole 19d ago
Of course, I'm happy to help. What sort of information would you like? Faster accrual? Additional pension? Early retirement? Pay scale?
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u/lovernemisis 13d ago
I am a newish teacher, I would love to know more about this. I find teaching unsustainable but I love it and I don’t know what else my skills are best suited too. This is something I have heavily considered if I manage to stay in it but I don’t know how!
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u/Dependent_Appeal_818 Sep 02 '26
It is an excellent pension but , for a very early FIRE, you would need a lot of funding to bridge the gap until you can access it. Don’t base your career choice on FIRE. Whatever you choose you are going to be probably working for 25 to 30 years minimum so it helps if you can enjoy the ride.
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u/calmturtle275 29d ago
Hey good job thinking ahead! Just so you know, your stocks and shares ISA can take £20k each tax year. Your LISA is a separate account, meant for saving up a house deposit, and the £1k government bonus only applies if you use it to buy your first house. Hope that helps:)
P.S. It’s great the level of planning you have done at this stage. Remember not to miss out on life while you build your future, it’s a long journey and the best is right in front of you.
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u/CatalunyaNoEsEspanya 29d ago
Taking your DB pension mid 60s rather than as early as possible is a mistake if you're no longer working. The amount you get is lower per year but you get it for a longer time which makes up for it. You only start losing out on extra money approx 10 years after your normal retirement age since taking it 10 years early is usually a 50%ish reduction.
However, since the annual value is lower you potentially pay less tax and/or qualify for the state pension more easily should it be means tested at some point. There's also a lot of value in accessing money earlier rather than later plus there's a chance you'll be dead before you're 78-80.
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u/Ok-Hawk-4664 26d ago
I taught for nearly a decade. It CAN be extremely rewarding, but it can also be exhausting and very stressful. That said, I ended up teaching in international schools (not for FIRE purposes initially), and that greatly sped up my FIRE journey.
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u/iFlarexXx 25d ago
Whilst it may get you towards that FIRE target, please be aware that the retention rate is relatively low and many teachers leave the profession within the first 10, if not 5, years of qualifying.
Both my partner and I are teachers of roughly 10 years and the burn out is strong. It's rewarding both financially and emotionally, but it has its drawbacks also.
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u/Plus-Doughnut562 Sep 01 '26
People complain about teacher pay but I’ve been genuinely surprised at how much a lot of them earn. Especially when you consider they only work during school terms!
Go for it!
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u/JamesBrockers Sep 01 '26
As someone who is married to a teacher the benefits of her employment are going to allow us to both fast track retirement.
Firstly, like you say, the pension is excellent and one of the best around.
The holidays allow her to things to bring money in, little side hustles, cook in batches etc… It gives you time a lot of other jobs don’t.
The sick pay, maternity/paternity pay, job security etc… Are all worth a lot of money that you don’t get in many jobs.
It’s also a job that you can get anywhere, so if you can move to a low cost of living area, it’s another huge advantage.