Early-retirement wannabe

Linton

gfplux wrote: »

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However it is not ALWAYS about the money.

After 10 years retirement I agree very much. Retirement should never primarily be about money. Money is merely a facilitator. When you leave work you enter a totally different world. Your status and relationships in the world of work will probably mean absolutely nothing. Your technical skills become, if not irrelevent, certainly far less important. All you bring into your new world are life's lessons learnt over the previous years. Once there you need to build a new framework for your life with people you would never have met previously.

For successful retirement you need to retire to do something, not merely escape from something. Its no good retiring and then saying "what do I do now?".

scaredofdebt

I am hoping/planning to retire at 55 once I have access to my company pension, assuming the rules don't change before then, about 8 years to go.

Any comments on my plans, are they feasible etc?

I will have around £160k in my pension pot by then assuming average stock market conditions, this may not be the case of course!

I intend taking the cash over 3 years or so maximising the tax free allowance and buying property with that money to then rent out. Where I live currently I can buy 4 modest rental properties for this kind of amount and would return around £1,600 monthly which is enough for me to sustain a relatively good standard of living, plus my other incomes, more on that later.

I realise the hassles of BTL as we currently rent out my wife's old house, I am also aware of the costs involve ie the rental income is gross and not net!

I realise property prices and rental amounts can change, so that is another caveat.

I aim to have paid off all debt and mortgage etc by then also, if not I cannot afford to retire!

Finally I have my own business that I work part-time on alongside the employed day job I have - this is building me a residual income and it is something I enjoy doing so happy to carry on into retirement/semi-retirement.

I currently earn about £300 a month from this doing 5-10 hours a week but it is getting busier and I would estimate having an income of about £800 a month by the time I am going to retire, this will help sustain my whilst I get the BTL properties up and running. I can live on around £1,000 a month so would need to top this up with a part-time job or some ad-hoc work to begin with.

Does this sound at all feasible?

Thanks for any comments etc.

greenglide

Our big problem is actually finding people who want to start the transition to management and who also have the people skills for it (or give the impression of being able to acquire them.)

Having been a techie in IT since 1972 (there were some computers around in those days but most of them were huge!) I have never understood why somebody who is a true techie / scientist /engineer / etc would want to "progress" into management.

It tends to be obvious (to me anyway) who is and, especially, is not going to be good a manager or not at a very early age in their career. There arent many who excel at both, those that genuinely do are like gold dust.

gadgetmind

greenglide wrote: »

I have never understood why somebody who is a true techie / scientist /engineer / etc would want to "progress" into management.

Not all do, which is fine. However, I find managing projects and teams to be something where I get to use my engineering skills at a different level, because a team that works well is like a machine in many ways, and this machine needs designing, building and maintaining. (I give a university guest lecture on exactly this subject.)

There arent many who excel at both, those that genuinely do are like gold dust.

On the one hand this is great as it means we're very well paid, but I could do with more strong managers in my org chart.

blizeH

Just curious, what are your favourite blogs and resources for early retirement? I really like Mr Money Moustache, but would like something based in the UK if possible

atush

Monevator, Simple living in suffolk, here

weenie15

blizeH wrote: »

Just curious, what are your favourite blogs and resources for early retirement? I really like Mr Money Moustache, but would like something based in the UK if possible

http://www.retirementinvestingtoday.com/

The closest I know to 'extreme' earning, saving and investing and about a year away from early retirement at 45 (or 46).

DesG

http://theescapeartist.me/ is my favourite

edinburgher

Monevator would be the main one if you're looking for advice as a 'normal' person (i.e. you're not one of the captains of industry with a six figure salary who frequent this thread)

Simple Living in Suffolk can be a very entertaining read on occasion, but I find that Ermine can be a little blinkered based on his own experiences and a bit on the preachy side. For example, some of you may have read the back-and-forth between him and The Investor on the Monevator article about compound returns.

Retirement Investing Today is probably the one to read if you're a captain of industry, he's very 'on' when it comes to reducing tax, expenses and coping in a high cost of living area. That said, he does have a fairly chunky salary from memory (£90k?) which makes everything flow a bit more smoothly.

No offence intended to the aforementioned captains of industry, I am sure that you work *very* hard for your salary.

gadgetmind

I know a fair few people with 6 figure salaries who have no-one reporting to them and who work from home. If you've got the skills then you can command the salary.