Early-retirement wannabe

atush

ams25 wrote: »

Long time lurker...love this thread. Finally joining in!!

Stopped working nearly a year ago now (age 52) after 30+ plus years of a mostly intense and stressful work (do we get more burned out than we realise or acknowledge?). Honestly can say I've not missed work for a single second which for an one time (not lately though) workaholic surprises me a bit. Still have quite young kids (primary age) and my wife just went back to work after a career break (she's younger) so not sure I'm retired really but I have retired from the corporate world and it feels great.

Congrats Marinelife on reaching your (final) destination...look forward to reading the blog about your journey onwards.

No, you arent retired. You are a househusband lol! Ok, home care provider

Do you have enough nics? If you need more, get the CB in your name?

Marine_life

fatbeetle wrote: »

18 weeks to go for me. Then 5 weeks of paid leave, before I retire officially. (I'll be 59.) :j

We will live on a savings pot for 6 years, before our pensions/superannuation kick in.

Well done!

Those remaining weeks will just fly by.

Marine_life

ams25 wrote: »

Long time lurker...love this thread. Finally joining in!!

Stopped working nearly a year ago now (age 52) after 30+ plus years of a mostly intense and stressful work (do we get more burned out than we realise or acknowledge?). Honestly can say I've not missed work for a single second which for an one time (not lately though) workaholic surprises me a bit. Still have quite young kids (primary age) and my wife just went back to work after a career break (she's younger) so not sure I'm retired really but I have retired from the corporate world and it feels great.

Congrats Marinelife on reaching your (final) destination...look forward to reading the blog about your journey onwards.

Thanks ....and well done.

Regarding your comment "not sure I'm really retired" I think there are many definitions but leaving the corporate world sounds like just about the best one!

ams25

atush wrote: »

No, you arent retired. You are a househusband lol! Ok, home care provider

Do you have enough nics? If you need more, get the CB in your name?

yes, house-husband is my new formal job description. Not always an easy job (or well paid) but beats the hell out of corporate BS!! (and many lovely times to be enjoyed)

Already moved the CB to my name when I stopped working. I have 35 yrs of full contributions but can't help think that by the time I get to SP age (67??) then you may need 40 yrs to get the max. CB should get me there just in case.

davieg11

Linton wrote: »

Wow! You are quoting a posting from 2010.

I wouldnt claim to be anywhere near the most knowledgeable person on the board. Others have a far deeper knowledge than me - check anything I say before acting on it! My main advantage is that I am one of the early people to have gone through the process since the current flexibilities became widely available.

I dont think there is anything fundamentally wrong with P2P. Its two main disadvantages at the moment are the restricted availability of ISAs and the fact that it has yet to experience a serious economic downturn so the level of risk is unclear. For these reasons I dont see it yet as a mainstream part of retirement investing.

I adopt a strongly top down asset allocation approach rather than trying to pick lucrative shares or funds. For that reason my particular choice of investments shouldnt be seen as a recommmendation. Each investment bought should have a well defined and ideally unique objective. As there are three quite distinct objectives I have set up three different portfolios:

1) Growth
2) Income
3) Wealth preservation

Of these only (1) is really relevent to long term investing prior to retirement.

The funds/% allocation in the Growth poerfolio is:

Artemis Global Growth I 20.3
Schroder QEP US Core Acc 15.5
Threadneedle Euro Small Co Z 11.7
F&C US Smaller Companies C Inc 7.8
Jupiter European Opportunities Trust 7.5
Fidelity Asian Values PLC 7.1
JPM Nat Res C 6.5
Baillie Gifford Japan SC B 5.1
Marlborough Special Situations P Acc 4.9
Stewart Invest Asia Pac Leaders B Acc 4.2
Neptune UK Mid Cap C Acc 4.1
AXA Framlington Health Z 2.8
Blackrock Frontier Trust 2.5

People may notice there is some duplication of funds within the UK, Asian and European sectors. This is largely due to indecision as to which way to go. The global Artemis fund mainly exists to provide general large company exposure as most of the other funds are heavily weighted to small companies. The Schroder US fund exists to provide extra US allocation as small company investment there is not particularly advantageous.

Some overall statistics:
US/Canada: 37%
Europe (ex UK): 25%
Asia/Pac (ex Japan): 16%
UK: 15%
Japan: 7%

Large companies: 45%
MidRange: 30%
Small: 24%

My next rebalancing will probably increase the Large Company % somewhat possibly via industry sector funds.

Thank you for that. My IFA put my other pension in Royal London Governed 7 Portfolio and I would like something different.

fatbeetle

Marine_life wrote: »

Well done!

Those remaining weeks will just fly by.

I live in hope mate.

So much to do in that time, as we are returning to Blighty to live from Aus. (I'm a pom, been out here 16 years, wife is an Aussie.)

gfplux

fatbeetle wrote: »

I live in hope mate.

So much to do in that time, as we are returning to Blighty to live from Aus. (I'm a pom, been out here 16 years, wife is an Aussie.)

Good luck with the return to the UK. Hopefully you will not find it changed too much and you and your wife will settle in easily.
Having also left the UK a long time ago I find I don't recognise the country of my birth.

atush

My OH didnt recognize the UK after living abroad for a decade.

Now I dont recognize the USA after leaving several decades ago.

Marine_life

fatbeetle wrote: »

So much to do in that time, as we are returning to Blighty to live from Aus. (I'm a pom, been out here 16 years, wife is an Aussie.)

What's making you want to come back?

We've been away from the UK for 18 years and although we make regular visits back I am conscious that it some areas it has changed a great deal.

westv

westv wrote: »

Just found out today that the company I work for will be taken over so, depending on how things pan out, I might be taking early retirement a little earlier than I might have.
Will get a nice sum from the company share save scheme too.

And today I found out the landlady of my Monday to Friday lodging is moving. She'd like me to carry on in the new place when she moves there but it'd be a swap from a 20 min walk to work to a 30 min tube.
Are the early retirement stars starting to align?