{"id":365600,"date":"2026-03-30T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/365600\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:30:07","slug":"manager-on-3300-a-month-who-aims-to-retire-by-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/365600\/","title":{"rendered":"Manager, on \u00a33,300 a month, who aims to retire by 50"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our How I Manage My Money series<\/a> we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals. <\/p>\n

This week we speak to Lamar Mangal, 29, who lives in Manchester with his partner, Yanique, 29. Lamar, an account manager at an IT company, wants to retire by 50 and has nearly \u00a330,000 saved up in pensions. He thinks he\u2019d have to work until he died if he was solely living off the state pension<\/a> in later life. <\/p>\n

Monthly budget<\/p>\n

My monthly income: I take home about \u00a33,300 per month from my full-time job as an account manager for an IT company. I make about \u00a3400 a month working as a children\u2019s football coach every weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My monthly outgoings: Rent, \u00a31,300 \u2013 my partner pays \u00a3800 on top; council tax, \u00a3160; groceries, \u00a3350; electric, \u00a3130; water, \u00a350; parking for the two of us, \u00a3135; car on finance, \u00a3160; gym, \u00a355; subscriptions like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify and Microsoft, \u00a353; money into cash savings for wedding, \u00a3400; money into investments, \u00a3600; money into cryptocurrency, \u00a3400; money into work pension, \u00a3150; eating out and takeaways, \u00a3100.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I grew up in Jamaica, where I lived with my parents, grandparents and my sister. At the age of 10, I came to the UK to live in Milton Keynes with my dad. He worked at quite a few different companies, and while we weren\u2019t well off, we were comfortable. I didn\u2019t go to university when I was younger, but am now studying part-time for an undergraduate degree in economics at The Open University.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m earning around \u00a355,000 a year working full-time as an account manager at an IT company. I\u2019m basically a software reseller. <\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been in debt and have always been careful with money. When I was younger, I\u2019d save 80 per cent of my pay, even if I was on \u00a318,000 a year. I\u2019d walk rather than get the bus to save a couple of quid. I\u2019m a little more relaxed now, but still use my money wisely. <\/p>\n

Cash savings are eroded by inflation and don\u2019t allow your money to grow as quickly as investing does. I knew nothing about investing until I was 23, but then started to watch videos on YouTube and X about it. I also read an online book on the topic. I started posting about my approach to budgeting and investing on TikTok via @lamarmangal last year.<\/p>\n

Over an eight-year period, I\u2019ve managed to build up my total investing portfolio, including my pension, to more than \u00a3100,000. I add \u00a3600 a month to investments. I\u2019ve got \u00a372,000 in investments, including about \u00a342,000 with an exchange traded fund and the rest in individual stocks like Amazon, Meta and Nvidia. I have \u00a317,500 in a lifetime ISA, also invested in the stock market, and \u00a33,000 in a cash savings account with an interest rate of 6 per cent.<\/p>\n

I add about \u00a3400 a month to a cryptocurrency account and am comfortable taking a risk with my investments.<\/a><\/p>\n

My partner, who works as an NHS nurse, and I are getting married in a manor house in a few months. I\u2019m putting aside \u00a3400 a month in cash savings for the wedding. Once the wedding is over, I\u2019ll put the \u00a3400 a month into investments. <\/p>\n

I used to want to buy a house in my early twenties, but that\u2019s proved difficult to achieve. I\u2019m renting a two-bedroom flat with Yanique in Trafford, Manchester. We\u2019ve been here three years and I always fight any proposed rent increase. The rent increased by \u00a325 this year, but the landlord initially<\/a> wanted to put it up more. I like the flexibility of renting and am not in a hurry to purchase a home immediately. If we did buy, we\u2019d probably look for a property in Manchester or Milton Keynes. <\/p>\n

To date, I have nearly \u00a330,000 saved in pensions and am adding \u00a3150 a month to my current workplace pot. The latest age I want to retire by is 50. I want a soft retirement by this point. If I continue working beyond the age of 50, I only want to be doing something because I really enjoy it. I certainly do not believe I could rely solely on the state pension in later life, which is why I am putting as much money as I can into investments now. If I was living solely on the state pension, I\u2019d have to be working until I die. <\/p>\n

I like the freedom that comes with having money. If I continue investing at the rate I am doing and continue seeing my salary increase, I believe I will be able to retire by the age of 50. Ideally, I would like to be earning a six-figure sum within the next few years and would like a \u00a31m pension pot to feel financially comfortable.<\/p>\n

Want to take part in How I Manage My Money? Please email money@theipaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,4141,46,5898,266,267,688],"class_list":["post-365600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-investing","tag-israel","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}