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

DLM

Blink and you'll miss the flash of brilliant blue. You can probably get twitching help online nowadays, my YOC days are eons ago.

Musicwolf

It’s been three and a half years for me (1st Jan, 2020), where does the time go?

I walked out of work and into a pandemic, then the war and the cost of living crisis –  still the best thing that I ever did.  I was 56 when I retired, our son was in his teens and my wife hadn’t worked since he was born.  I was obviously concerned about the finances and I’d budgeted to withdraw £1k each month from savings in order to maintain a standard of living until our state pensions kicked in.  As it is we’ve not needed it and our savings have gone up.  What the pandemic taught me is that, if we ever need to pull our horns in, then cutting holidays and eating out are an easy win.

As to what I do with my time – it’s not about what I do, it’s about what I don’t do – I don’t have to go to work.  I did have a plan as to how I would spend my time including working on my fitness, recording in my home studio etc.  What I hadn’t considered was that your time isn’t entirely your own, you have to fit around other people’s calendars.  That was probably the big surprise for me.

axisus

RandallFlagg said:

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.

That's interesting. I look at my account about once a month on an ATM to see if I'm in the red. I'm not very money minded.

RandallFlagg

axisus said:

RandallFlagg said:

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.

That's interesting. I look at my account about once a month on an ATM to see if I'm in the red. I'm not very money minded.

A'll I'll say is detailed financial planning and budgeting doesn't make you poorer

Paul_C

I'd be quite happy to retire early (60 in Sept) but while I have the funds to do it, it would need me to stop buying Telecasters and I would have to watch my savings slowly vanish to pay the bills, which would be a bit disappointing.

So while there are days that I really want to pack it all in, it's not going to happen yet.

EricTheWeary

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.

We have kingfishers on the nature reserve by us although I walk around with the dog in a bit of a daze so am unlikely to spot one. Herons are easy to spot and I can hear the parakeets. It’s surrounded by industrial estates and housing so I’m amazed anything thrives. 

Don’t know what I can add about being retired. In theory we would have travelled more but family obligations have curtailed that to some extent. However, have been around bits of the U.K. plus a trip to France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Denmark and a trip to France-Belgium-Germany. Northern Spain is in the offing. These aren’t cost free but we are travelling in our camper which we own and mostly use cheap (sometimes free) places to stop, mostly self cater so apart from the cost of Eurotunnel and the dog (thanks a f*****g lot Brexit for making this more complex and expensive) our day to day costs aren’t huge. 

We are mortgage free which was facilitated by redundancy five years ago otherwise I’d still be going to the office. 

The big issue is probably having less social contact. I don’t have much of a circle of family and friends so speaking to people at work was a lot of my social interaction (for better or for worse). I am teetering on being the mad old man who strikes up conversations with strangers in the park but having a cute dog means it doesn’t appear completely mental. But I have a couple of things I go to most weeks and see strangers so that seems fine. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I'll hit State Pension age in April 2050, which seems an eternity away. Can't really imagine me retiring much sooner than that unless something dramatically changes in my circumstances.

However, I honestly don't think I could retire in my 40s or 50s like some people do, even if I had the funds. I just don't know what I'd do with myself. I guess that fact that I actually quite like my job so am not miserable every working day helps. But also I just think I'd struggle to fill my days. My parents retired in their early 60s but they're basically full time childcare for the grandkids, so they're always busy, and they love it. I don't have children though, so definitely won't have grandchildren to dedicate my time to. I think I'd just drive myself crazy!

roberty

fretmeister said:

Good luck.

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

I am hoping to drop dead before work

RandallFlagg

Paul_C said:

I'd be quite happy to retire early (60 in Sept) but while I have the funds to do it, it would need me to stop buying Telecasters and I would have to watch my savings slowly vanish to pay the bills, which would be a bit disappointing.

So while there are days that I really want to pack it all in, it's not going to happen yet.

Do you have a pension? Either way, savings or pension when invested well could see the growth over time, match or exceed withdrawals

Fishboy7

I think anyone born after 1985 will still be paying off their student loans and saving for a house deposit at age 60

usedtobe

There’s no feeling quite like not having to get up at the crack of dawn, to go to work..

TTony

usedtobe said:

There’s no feeling quite like not having to get up at the crack of dawn, to go to work..

Covid and the acceptance of WFH has made a big difference to that.

I used to be up by 5am for a 2hr commute in, and then home @1930 after a 2hr commute back.  4 or 5 days a week.  

Now I do it once a week/fortnight and it makes a huge difference to how I feel about working.

boogieman

usedtobe said:

There’s no feeling quite like not having to get up at the crack of dawn, to go to work..

This is true. Sadly it took about six months for my brain to realise the fact after I gave up work and it would still prod me awake at 6am. I still can’t stay in bed beyond 8am even now. 

I took redundancy at 58. I’d intended to do a part time job to boost my finances but couldn’t be arsed eventually. I got a decent release package which kept me going until I took my company pensions at 62. My state pension kicked in a couple of years back and helps a fair bit. 

The only thing about work I miss is like @EricTheWeary says, the lack of social contact through the job. Assuming you’re sociable, you do have to make an effort to either make new friends or keep up with your old ones. And yup, a dog is a great way of meeting people. 

I can’t emphasise enough, make plans to keep yourself (and your brain) busy or you’ll vegetate: it’s very easy to end up just watching crap on tv all day. Develop your hobbies or discover new ones, make some longterm plans and targets, go out to visit places, travel, do whatever you didn’t have time for while you were working. Although @RandallFlagg you sound pretty well sorted on that front already. Set up a countdown to retirement calendar btw, it’s a great incentive to see the days getting ticked off. 

Retirement was great for me, although it won’t suit everybody. I guess that depends how much enjoyment and reward you get out of your job. I honestly don’t know how I’d fit in working fulltime now. Since I retired I’ve renovated one house, nearly finished a second (and won’t be bloody doing it again!), travelled a lot, got back into photography, started getting into gardening. 

Philly_Q

I'm planning to retire at the end of March 2025.  Date chosen because I'll have been working for 40 years by then, and I'll be a few months shy of my 61st birthday, so 40 and 60, nice round numbers.

I'm still working a full five day week at the moment, plus a fair bit of overtime, but my immediate boss is trying to encourage a tapering-down to four then maybe three days a week over the next 20 months.  Whether that works out remains to be seen.

Whatever I do, I'll be fairly comfortable financially (touch wood), but I haven't got my pensions and finances sorted out in anything like the detail you have, @RandallFlagg. ; Although I'm an accountant tax isn't my area and I have bit of a mental block about the whole subject of pensions... but it's something I need to get to grips with.  I'll have money to live on, but taking an income in a tax-efficient manner is a whole other question.

Someone mentioned retirement coaching; it's not something my employer currently offers, but my department head, who's retiring at the same time as me, is pushing for it. 

To be honest, although I've had enough of work I'm already starting to get mixed feelings... I don't think I'll be short of things to do - I'm well used to my own company - but I do worry that I'll become very reclusive and, frankly, go fucking mad.  I'm not a natural socialiser and it's very easy for me to go into my shell, but I do like being around people and I'm going to miss that.  I think I'd be up for going back to work a few days a month - assuming of course, there was still work for me to do in the new regime.

Sporky

fretmeister said:

Good luck.

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

I've told you before about taking your practical jokes too far. 

tone1

I’m quite looking forward to being a recluse in my retirement…..I do get that retirement planning is important, but I can’t help of thinking about the famous Woody Allen quote…..”If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans”…..

Dominic

I think a lot depends on your culture ,peer group and family situation ie kids /grandchildren and how well they have married or their careers ,marriage stability and financial situation.
My social /friendship and cultural environment is very Jewish /Indian and Greek .......there is no such thing as retirement but a huge pressure to buy homes for children /grandchildren ,school or college fees etc etc.....and build family business' and investments .
It's a journey not a destination .

bobblehat

I'm 52 and planning on retiring at 60.  Never thought I'd be in a position to retire early but since the kids have left the nest I've  managed to start getting to grips with some financial planning. There's a fair bit of slightly misleading info online with regards to retirement planning. Lots of online calculators will tell you need £1M Pension pot to even consider having any sort of comfortable retirement. However dig a bit deeper and you find this often assumes you will live to 90+ , need money for a care homes and want to leave money for your kids. So before you decide you can never retire early its well worth spending some time to dig a bit deeper and do some planning. There are some great resources online . I would recommend you start with these two gents on youtube. Pete Matthews and Chris Bourne. Learnt loads from their Vids.

Iamnobody

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I'll hit State Pension age in April 2050, which seems an eternity away. Can't really imagine me retiring much sooner than that unless something dramatically changes in my circumstances.

However, I honestly don't think I could retire in my 40s or 50s like some people do, even if I had the funds. I just don't know what I'd do with myself. I guess that fact that I actually quite like my job so am not miserable every working day helps. But also I just think I'd struggle to fill my days. My parents retired in their early 60s but they're basically full time childcare for the grandkids, so they're always busy, and they love it. I don't have children though, so definitely won't have grandchildren to dedicate my time to. I think I'd just drive myself crazy!

I guess my retirement date will be 2047 - however I’ll be doing everything I can to make it earlier.

I’m mid forties now and could easily fill every day with interesting and active stuff. At the moment I don’t get enough spare time to do the things I want to do!

Fair play to all those that have already retired early, or are planing to imminently.

Everyone is different - but for me, as soon as it’s financially viable I’ll hope to do it. That’s not to say I wouldn’t work still.

I could easily be persuaded to do a couple of days work related to something I’m more passionate about than the current day job. And not necessarily for financial reward. 

RandallFlagg

bobblehat said:

I'm 52 and planning on retiring at 60.  Never thought I'd be in a position to retire early but since the kids have left the nest I've  managed to start getting to grips with some financial planning. There's a fair bit of slightly misleading info online with regards to retirement planning. Lots of online calculators will tell you need £1M Pension pot to even consider having any sort of comfortable retirement. However dig a bit deeper and you find this often assumes you will live to 90+ , need money for a care homes and want to leave money for your kids. So before you decide you can never retire early it's well worth spending some time to dig a bit deeper and do some planning. There are some great resources online . I would recommend you start with these two gents on youtube. Pete Matthews and Chris Bourne. Learnt loads from their Vids.

I have also found that some planning tools are quite crude and don't allow for the input of income part way through retirement such as state pensions or a defined contribution pension that may start paying out later on. Some of the tools assume that the pot you start with is all you will have, they don't take into account inflation, historical market returns for back testing etc.

Timeline does all those things, so, will show what a smaller starting pot will do once any other incomes come online, it also factors in historical inflation scenarios and adjusts your expenditure projections over time accordingly.