Early-retirement wannabe

peterg1965

gadgetmind wrote: »

Ah, that's different as you can get people to do the changeover when you can't, and agents to help with emergencies.

Go to the "Lay My Hat" forums for a wealth of information on this.

http://www.laymyhat.com/

Thanks Gadgetmind, will go over and take a look.

Marine_life

peterg1965 wrote: »

My wife and I (age 47 and 50 respectively) are beginning to think we need a lifestyle change to take us into the next stage of our lives leading to retirement. We are well provided for in terms of pensions 'in the bag' but for a variety of reasons we have begun to talk about doing something different and maybe giving up our current jobs to change direction. No minute details but the children and just about grown up but we have a dependant disabled 22 year old and I have spent my career mostly away from home. I did have the next 7/8 years (until I am 55) all mapped out from a financial/career perspective, but we may not want to wait that long.

We want to look into the in and outs of running a business, maybe a high quality B&B/guest house or a holiday complex or something similar. Maybe an established business of some sort. A venture that is enjoyable and profitable and will enable us to maintain and improve on a high quality standard of living. We have looked on Rightmove and a few other websites and there is a range of options in our potential price bracket. Both of us are unafraid of hard work and commitment.

Has anyone else thought of doing this or actually done it? I hope this isn't too off topic for this thread....but I would view this as sort of semi retirement!

Are you me in disguise?

We are broadly the same age as you (48 and 50 - except I am the baby!) and to be honest I have often talked with my wife about throwing in the job and doing something else.....including running a holiday let business. Unlike you however, my wife does not want the work (and I am under no illusion how much work it is which I could handle now but in 10 years?).

We have made two big moves.

The first was leaving the UK for Germany. That was actually quite a good move as there are so few expats here that you have an automatic group of friends - however, long term you need to make friends with the locals (which isn't so bad either!).

Second big move was to Australia - which I have to admit we did with rose tinted spectacles having visited for a holiday. We managed a year in Australia before returning to Germany. I could write a book on why Australia is great.....and a sequal on why it wasn't right for us.

Comment someone made above about "you always feels the pull home" which is true. However, for me that's whereever the family is. When we were living in australia I could not believe I was homesick for Germany (!!) so on a business trip to England I stopped off in Frankfurt. To be honest as soon as the wheels hit the Tarmac i felt like it was home.

I digress.

I definitely can't retire from my current job until I am 50 but after that I have toyed with the idea of getting into teaching or 'guest' lecturing. I have done a lot of teaching which i really enjoy and only didn't become a teacher because it did not pay enough money.

On the other hand.....we love the mountains and we love Austria. We already have a holiday home there and I can imagine spending lots of time there (walking, skiing etc.) and maybe find a job as a tour guide, van driver or whatever.

Difficult choice.....and to be frank...I feel very fortunate that we have some choices.

Marine_life

gfplux wrote: »

Marine life makes an interesting and important point about health costs.
We live in Luxembourg and I/we have been retired for quite some time. Our health costs are just under €400 per month. I have always made voluntary payments as I was never directly employed in Luxembourg. This figure is based on the minimum wage in the country and perhaps Marine life should check as his health care costs may be lower when he retires.
Those costs may sound a lot, but frankly the service here is first rate and as good if not better than "private" in the UK.
We will not return to the UK (other than holidays) as amongs many other reasons the NHS is just too frightening to contemplate. (That is not a critism of the many fine people who work in it)

Yes I think you are right. At the moment the healthcare costs also include the children so I imagine once they are standalone that those costs will come down significantly.

The service in Germany is something I would not want to give up (can you believe my GP gave me his mobile phone number!).

In all seriousness, last year I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I saw my GP on Monday at 8:00 am, by 10:00 am I was with a specialist and by 7:30 next morning I was being operated on! When I hear about the waiting list in the UK it scares me. Ok so the German system is a huge money making machine (for the doctors!) BUT well off people like me are happy to pay to get top quality service. Its a big problem for the UK.

peterg1965

Marine_life wrote: »

Are you me in disguise?

We are broadly the same age as you (48 and 50 - except I am the baby!) and to be honest I have often talked with my wife about throwing in the job and doing something else.....including running a holiday let business. Unlike you however, my wife does not want the work (and I am under no illusion how much work it is which I could handle now but in 10 years?).

We have made two big moves.

The first was leaving the UK for Germany. That was actually quite a good move as there are so few expats here that you have an automatic group of friends - however, long term you need to make friends with the locals (which isn't so bad either!).

Second big move was to Australia - which I have to admit we did with rose tinted spectacles having visited for a holiday. We managed a year in Australia before returning to Germany. I could write a book on why Australia is great.....and a sequal on why it wasn't right for us.

Comment someone made above about "you always feels the pull home" which is true. However, for me that's whereever the family is. When we were living in australia I could not believe I was homesick for Germany (!!) so on a business trip to England I stopped off in Frankfurt. To be honest as soon as the wheels hit the Tarmac i felt like it was home.

I digress.

I definitely can't retire from my current job until I am 50 but after that I have toyed with the idea of getting into teaching or 'guest' lecturing. I have done a lot of teaching which i really enjoy and only didn't become a teacher because it did not pay enough money.

On the other hand.....we love the mountains and we love Austria. We already have a holiday home there and I can imagine spending lots of time there (walking, skiing etc.) and maybe find a job as a tour guide, van driver or whatever.

Difficult choice.....and to be frank...I feel very fortunate that we have some choices.

Maybe I am your alter ego, as I re read the first line of my post, it is me Who is 47 and may wife 50! She has always hankered after emigrating and wishes we had done so years ago. It is too late for us now though, we have a disabled son and trying to assure his care and support in a new country would be a huge risk, so it's off the menu.
Now we want to start looking at options, maybe through ros! tinted spectacles but we want to check out the art of the possible.

There is lots to investigate, like mortgages secured on business and pension income etc, but we have sent off for some property information just to get a feel for it.

Gatser

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've thought of a complete change, but more along the lines of writing or running cycling tours. This is because from 13 until 21 I worked in hotels waiting on tables, washing dishes, working in a kitchen, working reception, and much more. It's *very* hard work and it's totally inflexible regards the hours.

You'll also find that no matter what "class" you pitch to, many will treat you and the place with very little respect, and you'll also struggle to find employees you can trust.

However, that's just my sixpence 'apenny and others may have very different views.

Totally agree.... do go into the hospitality trade with eyes open!

Sister & BiL built up successful pub/hotel business in London commute belt.
The business travellers stole expensive fixtures etc
Hooray Henries discharged fire extinguishers... for a larf what?
Staff retention/loyalty/honesty was stressful
BiL died in his 50's so never reaped from the overall success
For them not a rewarding retirement.

Marine_life

peterg1965 wrote: »

Now we want to start looking at options, maybe through rose tinted spectacles but we want to check out the art of the possible.

I would say go for it - the last thing you want in 10 years time is to look back and wish you had done it.

For me the Australia thing ate away at me for years and to be honest I made my wife's life hell as I would not let it go. It was horrible when I was the one who wanted to come back!

I have to say - when I was ill last year it was one of those defining moments when you really reflect on what your life is and (largely) I had not regrets. That's the key. No regrets.

gadgetmind

Marine_life wrote: »

(can you believe my GP gave me his mobile phone number!).

Can you believe that I'm in the UK and have my bank manager's mobile number?

This is one obsolete account that I'm not giving up!

atush

Good one gadget, I only have my guy's direct line office number lol.

I used to to do B&B 2 weeks a year, and it was VERY hard work. Not something to think about doing when you are retired.

Marine_life

I spent a fair bit of time over the weekend reading early retirement investment blogs and particularly the bits around investments and how much people think they need to retire.

Most of the blogs are from people in the US which makes it a little frustrating to do a like for like comparison as a lot of the discussion is around 401K's etc. etc.

However, it got me to thinking - a lot of those blogs also talk about assuming investment returns of 7-9% on average over a longer period of time (i.e. 4-6% real after inflation) but looking at how things have developed over the last 5-6 years does that seem like a reasonable long term target still? It seems quite aggressive to me and I suspect actually getting 1-2% above inflation may be a more realistic goal and matching inflation probably the more conservative strategy.

What do others think?

Secondly does anyone know of a really good online calculator which enables calculations to be made when retirement income comes from a number of sources?

gadgetmind

Firecalc is also US based but lets you model for a pension (social security in their parlance) arriving later.

I think that 2% after inflation is a sensible return to put into your model for a fairly worst case long term return.