Early-retirement wannabe

Liffy99

Well, I had intended to retire once I reached 60 in October (earliest I could get my modest NHS pension) but the lure of possible redundancy shortly after that date made me stay on for another 4 months. It worked - managed to grab redundancy with the equivalent of over a year’s salary to say goodbye with.
Then celebrated by really busting my leg during my notice period and have spent the last year either pretty much housebound / on crutches and now waiting for a replacement hip.
The thought of being able to get back on the bicycle, go for long walks, get fitter and leaner etc. Is slowly fading.
What a great start to ‘early’ retirement . . .
Just shows you never know what’s going to hit you !

GreatEscaper

I'd love to retire early! I'm 39 and we have only started the process of saving for retirement in the last three or four years. We also bought a house three years ago (our third) that was a big step for us. We owe £360K on the mortgage and the house is worth £475K. We bought it for £420K.

We've spent the last two years really pushing ourselves and have basically built a pot of £200K. Most of that is via the property increasing in value. We roughly have £60K in pensions and savings. Which is a good start.

We both work for ourselves and make a decent living. For now. We appreciate this can change at any time so we're making hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

Our strategy is to keep working hard and putting as much money away as possible. This year, before we pay our corporation tax, we'll be able to overpay the mortgage and whack a lump sum into our pensions too. It'll be the first time we've been able to do so.

In terms of retirement, I want a comfortable one but I'm prepared to downsize and cut back considerably. My concern is that we've started too late. I also wish we could downsize now and live in a much smaller property in a less expensive area. But husband says we're best staying where we are for another three or four years. The longer we leave it, the better off we'll be. Assuming house prices still go up. But then we'll still be paying off too. And repaying the mortgage is another way of saving, after all. Just forced saving, as we like to put it.

Like I said, I do dream of downsizing now. I think we'd be ok if we did. We'd be able to work two or three days a week now, and semi-retire. Take the pressure off. Enjoy a much quieter lifestyle. I'm so tempted to take the leap now. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer.

gadgetmind

k6chris wrote: »

Feb is when I jump out of the plane and hope my spreadsheet fully deploys!

Utterly excellent and I know exactly what you mean!

enthusiasticsaver

I have been retired 3 weeks now and all my pension paperwork has been processed and my first pension payment due next week and my lump sum any day now. It has been wonderful not having to get up in these dark wet mornings and go to work. I have always hated January so this has been nice with neither DH nor I having to get up for work.

I am gifting part of my lump sum to my youngest daughter and son in law as my son in law was very ill and in hospital for six or seven weeks before Christmas. He has only just gone back to work on phased return so has been on half pay for a few weeks and they are having a new baby in the spring so money is tight. They didn’t ask for help but we can more than afford it so I like to give them money to stop my daughter worrying. The rest of the lump sum will be saved to complement my pension for the next 2 years until another DB pension kicks in. I am under the PA so no tax or NI.

westv

Found out today my role is likely to be TUPEd by 30/6. Not clear yet what the location of the role will be. If same area as now will probably stay on. If not then I'll might have to say bye, bye to them.

pinknsparkly

GreatEscaper wrote: »

I'd love to retire early! I'm 39 and we have only started the process of saving for retirement in the last three or four years. We also bought a house three years ago (our third) that was a big step for us. We owe £360K on the mortgage and the house is worth £475K. We bought it for £420K.

We've spent the last two years really pushing ourselves and have basically built a pot of £200K. Most of that is via the property increasing in value. We roughly have £60K in pensions and savings. Which is a good start.

We both work for ourselves and make a decent living. For now. We appreciate this can change at any time so we're making hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

Our strategy is to keep working hard and putting as much money away as possible. This year, before we pay our corporation tax, we'll be able to overpay the mortgage and whack a lump sum into our pensions too. It'll be the first time we've been able to do so.

In terms of retirement, I want a comfortable one but I'm prepared to downsize and cut back considerably. My concern is that we've started too late. I also wish we could downsize now and live in a much smaller property in a less expensive area. But husband says we're best staying where we are for another three or four years. The longer we leave it, the better off we'll be. Assuming house prices still go up. But then we'll still be paying off too. And repaying the mortgage is another way of saving, after all. Just forced saving, as we like to put it.

Like I said, I do dream of downsizing now. I think we'd be ok if we did. We'd be able to work two or three days a week now, and semi-retire. Take the pressure off. Enjoy a much quieter lifestyle. I'm so tempted to take the leap now. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer.

Hi GE - I follow your way of thinking rather than your husbands. My aim is for my husband and I to get to a position where we can take early (or semi) retirement as early as possible if we want to. I LOVE my job at the moment but he hates his. For us, I envisage "early retirement" as being a situation in which we can afford to work the hours we'd like in jobs we love (i.e. be able to afford to take drastic paycuts to ensure we enjoy our work) as I'm not sure either of us are cut out for a life of complete leisure! He has more of a "live for today" and "what will be will be" approach to life which does make future planning a little problematic but fortunately he is generally quite happy for me to organise our finances

And sorry to be a bit dark, but I work in the NHS with (mostly) cancer patients and have come across too many patients who saved and saved and saved for their retirement dreaming of moving to the sun / travelling the world / whatever floated their boat, only to be hit with cancer diagnosis shortly after retirement and not being able to live the life worked and saved so hard for. It's strongly influenced my life planning: I'm all about saving for the future, but not at the expense of living for today!

gadgetmind

Well, that's 1st week of not working under my belt, and boy have I been busy! We've got nine people staying this weekend and I seem to have spent the whole week cooking and cleaning to get ready.

I have no idea how I ever found time for work.

Sipowicz

^^^^^^^^^^^
You'll soon get the hang of it!

jerrysimon

Almost a year for me now. I will post an update in March. Initial few months I was on cloud nine but then lots of thoughts to deal with. Not negative or bad just nostalgia I guess as I always enjoyed work mostly. Miss some of the people but I have been back to visit for coffee etc. I wouldn't change retiring early and never work full time again!

Just a heads up that if you are like me you may find yourself replaying your working life in your head a bit which was pleaseant but also kinda saying goodbye to a chapter in my life.

I have a new grandson and a grandaughter on the way in April so like you said its busy and certainly not dull!

ams25

Over 18 months for me. I have missed working for precisely 0 seconds. Sometimes the day is a very productive flurry of activity leading to the 'how on earth did I have time for work' thought, while occasionally the day is a pleasurable and relaxing day of doing not very much. Had a drink with a friend the other day (he's closing in on 60) stuggling with a high paid but very stressful job and wondering how long he can go on but not having a plan to stop or even sure he can afford to anytime soon. Helped me to appreciate how lucky early retirees are.....although of course it was not all luck!!