I've finally decided on a retirement date from work...31/12/2024

RandallFlagg

I've been getting more frustrated with commuting (2 hours in the car on crap A roads each day) and the daily tedious nonsense of work in Management over the last few years and have been working hard to get debt and mortgage free and save into my and my wife's pensions. I have now finally set a retirement date of 31/12/2024!

This video popped up on my YouTube feed this week and really brought home the decision to set a date:



I have been using a software application designed for Financial Advisors called Timeline and input our pension and savings details, what we are invested in, planned future contributions, set a planned withdrawal during retirement with some drawdown rules for increasing/decreasing spend plus a lump sum to buy a new electric car in 2026. I have also used my own spreadsheet calcs and another software too called FiCalc and all say the same thing so I don't feel I need to seek an IFA to confirm what I already know.

Following Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps and taking charge of our pensions instead of ignoring them and investing in low cost index funds for the long term was a huge transformation, as well as maximising salary sacrifice, we spent far too may years with our pensions trundling along in default funds.

The computer now says "yes" to a retirement date of end 2024 with the current portfolio and contributions back tested against 108 years of stock market data and inflation and our plan passes all scenarios with running out through to 100 years old (unlikely we will live that long  )


So...531 days to go, I will be 57 (a few months off 58) and wife will be 54. I am really excited and a little scared. There is a good chance my company will want me to give some ad hoc support through an agency, which I may well do a few days here and there if they need me, but the chains will be off and I won't have to get involved in all those tedious meetings and bullshit and can decide what days I am available.

I feel incredibly lucky and humble to be in this position, we won't be living a lavish life of world cruises 6 months each year but a moderate and hopefully happy journey through our 60s with time to get round some of the places in the UK I want to see, stop in a few AirBnBs and perhaps get away overseas once a year.

Anyone else recently retired, or about to, care to share some thoughts on life on the other side?



 

fretmeister

Good luck.

I'm not expecting to retire. I'll drop dead at work I reckon.

Chris.B

During the last few years of work I became increasingly resentful of the amount of time I was spending tied to the corporate laptop, endless conference calls, watching it get light and then go dark again whilst still at my desk. 

At 57 I decided that was enough, looked at the numbers and decided it would work. I had to buy my first car, having had company cars since I was 17,that was a shock to the system!

Soon after walking away from work we had covid, followed by Brexit, those events had a negative effect on savings and investments, despite that, it was the best thing we ever did. 

5 years on, I'm certain that it was the right decision, I really enjoy not having my time controlled by work. I felt a little guilty about declining requests from my old boss to go back to work to help out with new projects, but it's my life and I've spent more than enough time at work. 

Good luck with your plan, I hope it works as well for you as it has for us. 

MikeC

Great! Makes a lot of sense.

I'm on a slow glide path to retire - now on 4 days a week in my current role and have told my boss that when I turn 60 September next year I will go down to 3, but maybe that wont work in my current role, so will need to see what happens. Its been liberating taking control of my working days. slowly tidying up the pension side through various very painful transfers so that will also be self managed at some stage. 

RandallFlagg

Chris.B said:

During the last few years of work I became increasingly resentful of the amount of time I was spending tied to the corporate laptop, endless conference calls, watching it get light and then go dark again whilst still at my desk. 

At 57 I decided that was enough, looked at the numbers and decided it would work. I had to buy my first car, having had company cars since I was 17,that was a shock to the system!

Soon after walking away from work we had covid, followed by Brexit, those events had a negative effect on savings and investments, despite that, it was the best thing we ever did. 

5 years on, I'm certain that it was the right decision, I really enjoy not having my time controlled by work. I felt a little guilty about declining requests from my old boss to go back to work to help out with new projects, but it's my life and I've spent more than enough time at work. 

Good luck with your plan, I hope it works as well for you as it has for us. 

Thanks @Chris.B that's encouraging! 

Woodandwires

Thanks for sharing that, it was really interesting. I recently finished work as it was having a profound effect on my physical and more importantly my mental health, I am 62, I was shitting it that I wouldn’t find a job etc. I have applied for some, but the strange thing is we are managing just fine, my wife works three days a week ( she is younger than me! ) we are completely debt free, we have savings, I get two lots of pension payments every month. The real advantage is quality time together, because I am the househusband, meals are cooked, cleaning etc done. So we are both less tired than having to do all those tasks when getting home from work. We have been away more Air bnb long weekends. It is early days at the moment, I may have to find a part time job but at moment life is good and so is my mental health

RaymondLin

Congrats!

Short of winning the lottery or getting a huge inheritance i will be working until I die !

rolls1392

Congrats on your decision. I retired in 2004 aged 49. Just prior to finishing I did a pre retirement course. Biggest point made in the Course was what to do to fill your day. Don't make the weekly shopping trip the highlight of the week.
I'm lucky as I have plenty to do( not diy or gardening) with horses, golf, running and guitar stuff.
It's not as easy as people think.
This retirement game can hard work!

RandallFlagg

Woodandwires said:

Thanks for sharing that, it was really interesting. I recently finished work as it was having a profound effect on my physical and more importantly my mental health, I am 62, I was shitting it that I wouldn’t find a job etc. I have applied for some, but the strange thing is we are managing just fine, my wife works three days a week ( she is younger than me! ) we are completely debt free, we have savings, I get two lots of pension payments every month. The real advantage is quality time together, because I am the househusband, meals are cooked, cleaning etc done. So we are both less tired than having to do all those tasks when getting home from work. We have been away more Air bnb long weekends. It is early days at the moment, I may have to find a part time job but at moment life is good and so is my mental health

Lovely story, well done, and yes being less tired and getting stressed and frustrated at work is big part of this for me.

rze99

Read with keen interest. Thanks for providing some hope! 

Hattigol

Am I reading that right - the median scenario is that you will have £2.49 million at 100?!

RandallFlagg

rolls1392 said:

Congrats on your decision. I retired in 2004 aged 49. Just prior to finishing I did a pre retirement course. Biggest point made in the Course was what to do to fill your day. Don't make the weekly shopping trip the highlight of the week.
I'm lucky as I have plenty to do( not diy or gardening) with horses, golf, running and guitar stuff.
It's not as easy as people think.
This retirement game can hard work!

Thank you. I've been making a bucket list of things to do in retirement. Not lavish things, just simple things that are easily achievable with the time that will be available. 

On the list are:

• Read the 100 books I have backed up on my iPad
• See a Kingfisher in the wild (that will need patience!)
• Spend some time around the colonies of Red Kites fairly nearby and get some close up pics
• I bought a DJI drone in January and have only found time to fly it twice so, get out and get flying more
• Cooking…but not stew!
• Gardening
• Walking
• Go to a really good model railway exhibition
• Learn some guitar solos that I have always wanted to get topside of
• Get the big Lego Millenium Falcon and make it
• See more of my wife's aunties and uncle, who are lovely people but don't live nearby

RandallFlagg

Hattigol said:

Am I reading that right - the median scenario is that you will have £2.49 million at 100?!

Yes, that's the effect of decades of compound interest and dividend reinvestment on low cost index funds, but is based on the modest planned drawdown I have input, especially after our state pensions kick in, if we depart in our early-mid 80s it will show a lot less. Who knows what our real spend will be beyond the foreseeable next 5 years or so? 

RandallFlagg

rze99 said:

Read with keen interest. Thanks for providing some hope! 

I would encourage everyone to get a plan together, there are tools available to help but you need to be a little tuned in to pensions, funds, taxes, drawdown options and debt. Plus you really need a detailed budget to be able to project how much money you will need in retirement.

I have a detailed budget monthly, which is updated daily with actual spend as it happens and have projected this out monthly through to March 2026 with all expected income and outgoings! But I am OCD with money and love spreadsheets.

TTony

I've retired before, and I'm now a pensioner (though not by the Govt definition).

I managed to get my work commitments down to 3 days/wk for the last couple of months, with a view to decreasing that further by year-end, creating a gentle glide path into full-time retirement rather than a hard stop.

But after some conversations yesterday and this morning, I've now got demand for about 7 days/wk.

There are 2 challenges;

1. The work is interesting, fun, satisfying and I actually enjoy it (I don't do it if it's not)
2. It's fairly renumerated (ditto)

And I also don't feel that I've "finished" in my work world yet - there's still stuff that I can do, and maybe make the eventual retirement a little more comfortable and financially insulated from the unexpected (I've been in the place of having to check bank balances before buying relatively inexpensive stuff, or having to borrow to cover necessary expenses, and prefer not run the risk of going back there through the retired years).

OTOH, I don't want to leave retirement until I'm only capable of dribbling from various orifices whilst watching daytime TV ....

Grampa

I had a plan like yours, decided I wasn't willing to wait that long so handed in my notice, 12 days left in the workplace, can't wait to finish. Reckon I've got enough to do at home to take me well in to my dotage. 

The only advice I've taken is SKIN....Spend Kids Inheritance Now.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

DLM

RandallFlagg said:

See a Kingfisher in the wild (that will need patience!)

I saw my first on the River Skerne in Darlington (by the old Feethams football ground) around 1990 when I believe it was the second-most polluted river in Britain. Incredible.

fretmeister

RandallFlagg

Grampa said:

I had a plan like yours, decided I wasn't willing to wait that long so handed in my notice, 12 days left in the workplace, can't wait to finish. Reckon I've got enough to do at home to take me well in to my dotage. 

The only advice I've taken is SKIN....Spend Kids Inheritance Now.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

Thanks gramps, 12 days…fantastic! 

With regards the kids inheritance, I did suggest to my wife that if we get into 70s and there is an excess I will be browsing the Ferrari website…and if things are going tits up we will be equity releasing the house…sorry kids!

RandallFlagg

DLM said:

RandallFlagg said:

See a Kingfisher in the wild (that will need patience!)

I saw my first on the River Skerne in Darlington (by the old Feethams football ground) around 1990 when I believe it was the second-most polluted river in Britain. Incredible.

Nice one, we were on a boat cruise down the River Wye last week but no Kingfishers seen…

TTony

Grampa said:

The only advice I've taken is SKIN....Spend Kids Inheritance Now.

I think that's a very sensible approach.

Otherwise you could spark all sorts of arguments about whether each got an equal or fair amount.  Better to avoid all of that disharmony and leave them all the same £0.