Early-retirement wannabe

atush wrote: »

And the LTA will get a small rise

Unfortunately I'm likely to have to crystallise most of mine before the April 6th rise as I need to get £400k back into our ISAs by the 5th. Other options are inlaws sell old house (ISAs drawn down to provide bridging loan) or we take out mortgage our property for a short period, but this is expensive. PITA!

gadgetmind wrote: »

Other options are inlaws sell old house

They've sold it and buyer claims he can complete before xmas! Mind you, this is the 3rd time they've "sold" it ...

Assuming all goes ahead, then I might be retired by mid-2018.

Wow.

Time for a mid-year update...2017/18 has been interesting, starting off with a 3 month trip across Africa. The trip route is at this link for anyone interested. Having previously spent the best part of a year traveling across Africa there weren't many surprises, although there was some great gorilla viewing, and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was very good too.

The main thing which surprised me was the impact on fitness levels. After 13 weeks of no real exercise the effects were significant when I got back, losing a staggering 6 minutes off my usual 5K running time. That in turn led to overdoing exercise to recover resulting in an achilles injury I'm recovering from now. My wife and I may only be 40 and I will recover in full and hopefully manage to get under 20 minutes for 5K soon, but it has been a warning about what lies further down the road Previously my worst injury only took about 4 weeks to recover from whereas this will be about 3 months in total. I think a lot of people neglect fitness at this stage of life, and although I cannot temporarily run, I can fortunately go 100% at cycling, swimming and aqua-jogging so am in good shape, making sure I get in around 10 hours of decent fitness training a week ideally.

Financially, it now feels a bit like the beginning of the end. I have reached the point where I have sufficient pension, and could repay all debts (including mortgage) if I wished. So that just leaves the period between retirement and age 55 to fund (58 if minimum pension age is increased to SPA minus 10 years and planned SPA changes for 2037-39 are enacted). I don't have a firm exit date planned, but I think it will be between 2021 and 2023, by which time I will be getting on for 45 years of age. I very much doubt I'll still be working at the age of 46 (lots of plans for then, including a long trip around the world, not sure how long, probably 1-3 years).

Current accrued pensions are:

[IMG]http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/<img src='https://i.imgur.com/lBxtgIK.jpg' />[/IMG][IMG]http:///i.imgur.com/lBxtgIK.jpg' /[/IMG]

Household expenditure over the last few years has been a bit under £28,000 p/a (excluding saving, debt repayment, taxes and mortgage, ie, that is what we spend on consumption and would expect to spend in retirement). In hindsight, we are over-pensioned now (or I suppose you could say we are under-consuming from an optimisation perspective), but I was keen to put a lot away in fear of Annual Allowance and tax relief restrictions. It does mean we will be very likely to commence our pensions with protected minimum pension ages of 50 at age 50, particularly as our DB pensions are increasing each year by over £4,000 p/a of new accrual. But that is the type of pension problem it isn't too bad to have.

I have very high hopes for a consultancy business I plan to start in the new year, although I'll remain in full-time employment. It is the perfect missing piece to our financial affairs, as I can retain assets within the business and then decumulate them after we leave employment but before pensions commence which would be extremely tax efficient. It is by no means essential to my plans, but would be a very welcome boost if it is successful, with most revenues likely to come in mid to late 2018.

There might also be some games to play with re-mortgaging house, letting it out when traveling and porting mortgage to new property upon return and paying mortgage from pension to effectively bring forward pension income. That is a bit complicated by wanting to travel overseas for several years, as I doubt I could be sure of being able to port mortgage if I had left employment. But it may well be possible to take unpaid leave (with no intent of return) which could make things easier. Something to consider closer to the time.

I think plans are all on track. I can't see any major risks, and there is the possibility of a few positive financial shocks (redundancy as we both have excellent cover, inheritance or new business doing well).

[QUOTE=dunroving;73489879Who is aiming for early retirement (or who has retired early already)?
- I have recently taken voluntary severance/early retirement (in September), at age 60.

When did you begin planning and what drove the decision?]



Hi there.

I took early retirement mid fifties. There was a package available and all good.

But I knew there would be one of those incentives for a few years. So I paid down debt, cleared the mortgage, did all the house maintenance while on full salary, and when I departed I had no outgoings apart from the usual bills etc.

However, what I did was to cut down my hours at work for a year before going, my income on reduced hours was nearly the same as my pension would be. Took an actuarially reduced pension just to mention.

I'm four years in now and it is all great. Life is short, go for it. But you do have to plan a bit.

My reasons for going are many. The main one is I had realised that working and the stress of the politics of it all for no real return were ridiculous.

I have never looked back. Honestly.

Best of luck to you. It will be fine.

No more Sunday night angst is one of the major advantages!

Fitness and health!

I retired when I was 52, that was 21 years ago so at 73 I have some insight into fitness and health.
While working I had no time in every way to think about fitness and health.
In fact if you have good fortune to be healthy in your early 50's it does not and did not get very high on my agenda.
Luckily when I retired I did a lot about it. Of course my lifestyle changed dramatically no longer on a plane 2/3 times a week, eating and drinking too much. High stress levels and terrible sleeping patterns.
I began to live a normal (retired) life and focused more on my body.
You can not avoid fate but If I had not retired when I did (because I could) I could have left it too late to look after ME!
Time takes it toll and my advise to anyone wanting to retire early or otherwise is not forget your body.

In all the budgeting and spread sheets there should be a line that says HEALTH. Some people are naturally keeping fit and looking after themselves. Many don't give it any thought.
Spend money on health for both you and your partner. That may be simply gym membership but it can include Dental work, blood tests, regular visits to the Doctor for check ups. Etc, etc.
This post is not a lecture, just advise from an old geezer.