FIRE on £3,000/month — the power of extreme saving.

£3,000 per month — £36,000 a year — puts you on the extreme end of the UK FIRE spectrum. This is high-earner territory: typically £80,000+ salary or dual income, with annual savings exceeding what the median UK worker earns. With 7% returns and £25,000 annual expenses, your £625,000 FIRE number is reachable in roughly 10-11 years from zero. At this level, you're saving roughly 1.5 times your annual retirement expenses every single year. The annual allowance for pension contributions (£60,000 in 2025/26, including employer contributions) becomes the binding constraint rather than cash flow. Many people at this savings rate use a combination of pension (up to the annual allowance), ISA (£20,000), and a general investment account for the excess. The GIA introduces capital gains tax drag, but with the £3,000 CGT allowance and careful harvesting, the impact is manageable. Sequence-of-returns risk is lower when you retire in your late 30s because your time horizon is longer.