Early-retirement wannabe

Reue

Marine_life wrote: »

Some thoughts on the channel 4 program - How to retire at 40 in the blog:

http://earlyretirefree.com/so-can-you-retire-at-40-the-not-so-simple-math-of-early-retirement/

What a terrible show that was, and has been suitably blasted by the online early retirement blogging circles. Such a shame that it portrayed those aiming for early retirement as having to resort to 'extreme measures' while also giving absolutely no real information on savings %s, investments and safe withdrawal amounts.

aldershot

aldershot wrote: »

I've kept of this thread for a while but I'm hoping it's only about another 6 weeks for me. I will report back!

The !!!!!!!s have made me redundant :j

Last day will be the 11th August (if I can be bothered to go in).

Mrs Aldershot retired a year ago and now she's going to have me for company. She said she's fine with this as long as I'm out of the house between 9 and 6 We'll be 55 and 54 later in the year. I put some numbers on another thread last year so I won't repeat them here but I think we we'll be OK. I think it's going to take me a few months to get my head around this as I've been stressing about this for about a year and it's not gone away.

How do others answer the endless number of people (friends, relatives and (soon to be ex) colleagues) who ask "what are you going to do, as if going to the office is the only function one can possible have?

justme111

Say what you are going to do - list all you wanted to do but never had time to !:beer:

ex-pat_scot

aldershot wrote: »

The !!!!!!!s have made me redundant :j

Last day will be the 11th August (if I can be bothered to go in).

Mrs Aldershot retired a year ago and now she's going to have me for company. She said she's fine with this as long as I'm out of the house between 9 and 6 We'll be 55 and 54 later in the year. I put some numbers on another thread last year so I won't repeat them here but I think we we'll be OK. I think it's going to take me a few months to get my head around this as I've been stressing about this for about a year and it's not gone away.

How do others answer the endless number of people (friends, relatives and (soon to be ex) colleagues) who ask "what are you going to do, as if going to the office is the only function one can possible have?

WHat you are going to do is try very hard not to keep breaking spontaneously into song and dance routine, until 11/8.
That will be tough!

AnotherJoe

aldershot wrote: »

The !!!!!!!s have made me redundant :j

Last day will be the 11th August (if I can be bothered to go in).

Mrs Aldershot retired a year ago and now she's going to have me for company. She said she's fine with this as long as I'm out of the house between 9 and 6


@AJ - > nice one:rotfl:

We'll be 55 and 54 later in the year. I put some numbers on another thread last year so I won't repeat them here but I think we we'll be OK. I think it's going to take me a few months to get my head around this as I've been stressing about this for about a year and it's not gone away.

How do others answer the endless number of people (friends, relatives and (soon to be ex) colleagues) who ask "what are you going to do, as if going to the office is the only function one can possible have?

First of all, congratulations !!! That was my plan but it didn't happen and became obvious wasn't going to happen, at least in a timescale i could live with, so i left anyway. This is the end of week 3 of freedom for me

As to that Q, yep that was pretty much the first and often only Q I was asked.

In the end i boiled my answer down to "whatever the **** I want whenever i want"

EDIT: Which has now turned out to be "whatever the **** I want whenever i want - as long as it doesn't interfere with any of the many chores Mrs AJ has decided I now have time to do"

" **** " being variable depending who I was speaking to

coyrls

AnotherJoe wrote: »

First of all, congratulations !!! That was my plan but it didn't happen and became obvious wasn't going to happen, at least in a timescale i could live with, so i left anyway. This is the end of week 3 of freedom for me

As to that Q, yep that was pretty much the first and often only Q I was asked.

In the end i boiled my answer down to "whatever the **** I want whenever i want"

EDIT: Which has now turned out to be "whatever the **** I want whenever i want - as long as it doesn't interfere with any of the many chores Mrs AJ has decided I now have time to do"

" **** " being variable depending who I was speaking to

Now into my third year and it's still often the first and only question I get asked. I have sometimes given a detailed account of how I spend my days but it doesn't seem to satisfy; I think they expect me to be saving the world in some way, so I think your answer is the best one.

madeinireland_2

Well I figure I'm going to be asked that question myself quite a lot very soon.

I posted on here about 3 years ago and through some great advice my position has improved from a very good position to an excellent position. I was told by my boss the other day that I would soon be getting a voluntary redundancy offer from the company and I'm expecting it to be good enough for me to finally retire at the age of 56.

I expect to be free within the next couple of months. My wife (who is younger than me) will continue to work for a few more years.

I'd just like to thank everyone for their wonderful advice over the last few years. It has helped immensely.

Just one other question. Is there anything else that people would recommend that I should be doing as a last minute thing to prepare?

Thanks...

ex-pat_scot

madeinireland wrote: »

Well I figure I'm going to be asked that question myself quite a lot very soon.

I posted on here about 3 years ago and through some great advice my position has improved from a very good position to an excellent position. I was told by my boss the other day that I would soon be getting a voluntary redundancy offer from the company and I'm expecting it to be good enough for me to finally retire at the age of 56.

I expect to be free within the next couple of months. My wife (who is younger than me) will continue to work for a few more years.

I'd just like to thank everyone for their wonderful advice over the last few years. It has helped immensely.

Just one other question. Is there anything else that people would recommend that I should be doing as a last minute thing to prepare?

Thanks...

Sugest anything income -related should be sorted out before you leave.
These things might include:


- car loans or indeed any loans
- remortgaging
- whack the absolute max into your pension, so that you can access shortly after you retire (eg immediate withdrawal of 25% TFLS)
- I don't know whether being retired gives you better insurance rates. If so (easy to check), then consider cancelling existing policies then apply afresh as a pensioner. Otherwise if much more expensive, then consider ensuring you renew before retirement.

jamesd

It's been confirmed that the lifetime allowance will be increased by CPI from 2018 so in about three years that would take it above your protected allowance level.

Given current stock market valuations you might see a drop in investment value before taking all of the DC money in the hope that you can avoid the lifetime allowance charge without taking the DB early.

Of course look into VCTs if you haven't already since there's little point in paying tax when you don't have to and you have a nice long planning horizon.

madeinireland_2

jamesd wrote: »

It's been confirmed that the lifetime allowance will be increased by CPI from 2018 so in about three years that would take it above your protected allowance level.

Given current stock market valuations you might see a drop in investment value before taking all of the DC money in the hope that you can avoid the lifetime allowance charge without taking the DB early.

Of course look into VCTs if you haven't already since there's little point in paying tax when you don't have to and you have a nice long planning horizon.

So you know if you have Individual Protection does the sum you have protected get increased by CPI or just the actual LTA figure?