Early-retirement wannabe

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

Already on Day 8 of our roadtrip:

http://earlyretirefree.com/day-8-zion-national-park-to-death-valley/

Early Retirement rocks!

i've caugth up now lol

Lingua

Hi all! I've read through some (though not all) of this thread and have taken notes already!

Few things about me:
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Target Retirement Age: ASAP!
Target Retirement Income: £12k/yr

I'm planning on buying a house in an urban centre and work nearby for an easy (and walkable) commute, renting out rooms in the house to pay for the mortgage and bills. I should leave university with around £50k-£60k depending on spending over the next few years. Some is invested in S&S, with the rest as a cash or LISA deposit for the house. Playing it mostly by ear as I haven't even entered the world of work yet so no idea as to what sort of retirement age I can look forward to!

Lingua

DancingBadger

Marine_life wrote: »

Already on Day 8 of our roadtrip:

http://earlyretirefree.com/day-8-zion-national-park-to-death-valley/

Early Retirement rocks!

Seconded. We’re a bit further west of you - in Yosemite. Amazing place. We’re staying at Big Trees Lodge in Wawona; a step back in time - no TV, no radio, internet available only in the sunroom, and entertainment provided by the resident pianist. Fabulous! 👍

Apodemus

Lingua wrote: »

Hi all! I've read through some (though not all) of this thread and have taken notes already!

Few things about me:
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Target Retirement Age: ASAP!
Target Retirement Income: £12k/yr

While I am all for early retirement, I’ve had a very varied career, worked in some incredible places and with some great people. There has to be a balance between that sense of achievement in a job well done and the desire for a life of leisure!

bugslet

crv1963 wrote: »

It probably is if you think about it and your inner happiness but if you haven't thought about what you want retirement to look like for you it may not be obvious to you.


It also was acknowledged that sometimes retirement is a key to unlocking happiness from the workplace, the discussion was about how to make you think about yourself as an individual without a definition as in many- most? are defined by their roles (job title, father, son, husband etc) as it is easy to then take the title and role of retired thereby opting out of trying anything new- a common problem that can lead to just sitting around!


We had to the define how we would like our retirement to look like for us taking into account all aspects of life- financial, relationships, roles and spirituality needs (in the broadest sense not necessarily religious needs).


Many sort the finances but not the other aspects I retire wife works and earns more a reversal of our lifetime of marriage for example, how does that make me feel, how does it affect our relationship and what do we need to discuss?


CRV

I've two causes for hesitancy for retiring early. One is my loyal staff, of whom I'm really quite fond on the whole and there's a bit of guilt at 'leaving' them.

The second is as CRV says. I've things I'd like to do that I don't have time to do now, wether that would expand and sustain me I don't know, I think so. But I'd lose the kudos (such as it is) of being a. a business owner, b. one of the very few women that do what I do ( count them on the fingers of one hand) and c. by virtue of what we transport, I become that bit more interesting. I retire and all of a sudden, I'm adrift.

I also live alone and have absolutely no family. I do have a circle of friends and would have time to make more, but I'd miss the social element of work, staff and customers.

I'm fairly sure I have enough to retire, if anyone wants to comment:

387,000 in the business, but it's mine.
300,000 ish in pension. I'll be chunking some in at the end of the financial year to bring it up to that figure.
Some money will come from the end of the business; either just closing up, so sale of assets and whatever is left on the books, that would be conservatively speaking 300k gross - lose a load in tax possibly - accounting dark arts will come into play:p. Or possibly sell which would probably leave me with 600k +, tax liability significantly reduced.
Minor amount of personal savings, 20 k ish

Age 53, notional amount left on mortgage.

If anyone wants to use the word 'dithering', that's fine:o

Apodemus

Bugslet, could you organise a phased buy-out (either external or employee) to transfer the company across and ease your own departure? Possibly also tax advantages to the sale coming in over a number of tax years?

AnotherJoe

bugslet wrote: »

I'm fairly sure I have enough to retire, if anyone wants to comment:

387,000 in the business, but it's mine.
300,000 ish in pension. I'll be chunking some in at the end of the financial year to bring it up to that figure.
Some money will come from the end of the business; either just closing up, so sale of assets and whatever is left on the books, that would be conservatively speaking 300k gross - lose a load in tax possibly - accounting dark arts will come into play:p. Or possibly sell which would probably leave me with 600k +, tax liability significantly reduced.
Minor amount of personal savings, 20 k ish

Age 53, notional amount left on mortgage.

If anyone wants to use the word 'dithering', that's fine:o

I would say that's not enough at your age. I would want double that at least.

I would get at least another two years in, maximising your pension contribution up to £40k gross if you can, then it will be accessible to you immediately, which it isnt now, and you could have £750k by then and two less years to draw down for. (Or if the markets take a dive and you have say £500k you can carry on another year or two until a recovery)

This is predicated on;
You seem to like your job.
You probably are spending more than you could reasonably draw down from £600k (especially with a 40 year horizon on that)
You are ambivalent about leaving and it might be tough to get back to a similar position if after a couple of years you decided to start again

crv1963

bugslet wrote: »

I've two causes for hesitancy for retiring early. One is my loyal staff, of whom I'm really quite fond on the whole and there's a bit of guilt at 'leaving' them.

The second is as CRV says. I've things I'd like to do that I don't have time to do now, wether that would expand and sustain me I don't know, I think so. But I'd lose the kudos (such as it is) of being a. a business owner, b. one of the very few women that do what I do ( count them on the fingers of one hand) and c. by virtue of what we transport, I become that bit more interesting. I retire and all of a sudden, I'm adrift.

I also live alone and have absolutely no family. I do have a circle of friends and would have time to make more, but I'd miss the social element of work, staff and customers.

Age 53, notional amount left on mortgage.

If anyone wants to use the word 'dithering', that's fine:o

I don't think giving something serious thought is dithering. Your post does illustrate the point that I was making - we need to get our heads around the idea that we are something different when retired and need to find something purposeful to us to replace the 8-12 hours a day we spend working.


The social aspects of working are generally not considered everyone focuses on the financial, but we need to look at it in the whole.


We had a number of presentations, one from the volunteer sector was identifying that many people use volunteering as a way of replacing the social side of work, the loyalties and friendships. Church / Parish Councils are packed with former accountants and business people who share their expertise!


Another presentation was looking at boosting income, as an opportunity to start a business!


I'm no expert financially but would suggest bugslet that your figures show 1m- 1.3m as a pension pot so at a 3% draw down rate about 30-39k pa before tax, with SP kicking in at 67.


If you are looking a possible retiring bugslet could you use the time between now and actual retirement to look at the other areas of retirement, slowly step back from your business and maybe work part time, letting others pick up the slack? Or is it that you may want to disengage from it completely when you do retire and look at a different activity completely?


CRV

crv1963

This is what I like about this forum! The different perspectives everyone brings to the posts thank you bugslet, Apodemous and AnotherJoe.

bugslet

crv1963 wrote: »

This is what I like about this forum! The different perspectives everyone brings to the posts thank you bugslet, Apodemous and AnotherJoe.

Indeed, thank you all three!

Apodemus, of the two managers, I know one wouldn't, maybe the other one would want to. It's something that's been at the very back of my mind, I might drag it forward a bit. I suspect that he might not be happy with that big a financial undertaking.

I was approached last year by another company to sell, and upon (expected) renewal of contract next year, I will have a serious think about the implications - and if my main customer would let me.

Another Joe, thank you. I don't earn a huge amount, I keep myself under the 40% bracket, so currently take home about 31k. I'd look at wanting around 25k a year. I have absolutely no idea if I want to travel - I haven't really had a holiday since 1991 and I honestly don't know how to factor that in.

I suspect that if I don't sell next year and I don't think I will, it will be another two years of maximising the pension. I've thought 31.12.19 might be a good finishing date. I know I'd never get back to this position again.

crv, purposeful , that is a good word. I know haulage has a bad rap, but at the end of the day by haulage standards, I know I'm a good boss and it brings me a great deal of pleasure to know that I've provided solid employment - some of my staff have 20+ years in. And if it wasn't for people like me, you wouldn't have your yogurts and your, well everything;).

I suspect that I would start a little business, it's my nature to be busy. I used to volunteer, though as it was transporting dogs to non kill shelters it wasn't exactly sociable:rotfl:.

If I finish work, it will be finish and go. A sale would mean that I would be expected to be around to transition the company.

Thank you all, it's all gets put into the mix and churned around.