Early-retirement wannabe

marlot

My wife buys me a dilbert calendar each year. I used to take the most pertinent in to work and put them on a board. But they started getting too true to life!



https://dilbert.com/strip/1993-06-15

kidmugsy

This thread is called "Early-retirement wannabe". And yet I don't see a pseudonym that might disguise Mrs May. What can the explanation be?

Johnnyboy11

Brexit deal = Norwegian Blue

JoeEngland

kidmugsy wrote: »

This thread is called "Early-retirement wannabe". And yet I don't see a pseudonym that might disguise Mrs May. What can the explanation be?

Since you brought up Brexit (sigh), maybe May wasn't mentioned because she has a sense of duty to get the job done even if it means other politicians are going to mess the country around for even longer.

Terron

kidmugsy wrote: »

Thank you: so top-spin presumably. I used to bowl top-spinners though they were often failed attempts to bowl leg-breaks.

I found leg breaks easier to bowl than top-spinners.My googlies rarely pitched in the intended place.

kidmugsy

Terron wrote: »

I found leg breaks easier to bowl than top-spinners.My googlies rarely pitched in the intended place.

Watchagotta do is when the puck comes from left field slam-dunk it into the end zone.

I'm sure we can all agree on that. At the end of the day.

cfw1994

justme111 wrote: »

DQ, I already remarked on your expenses before . I will try to paraphrase what I said back then : all of them are optional. You CHOOSE all of them because of the upsides those choices offer and because you can afford them . My conviction is that there will ALWAYS be calls on one's money like that just by the virtue of one having an option to use that money; ie those are not curved balls but the normal position of one with disposable income. So your hope that the next decade will be less expensive may not meterialise- opportunities to spend happen even quicker than funds do . Mind , I guess it depends on character - I remember some of the posters (was seashell one of them?) that have funds enough to cover their expenses like 5 times but still manage not to find what to spend them on:eek:

Harsh....but true. & I speak as a prolific spender in our house.

Have hopes of at least having the choice to give up the corporate grind in about 18 months, but the release of an electric car with decent range that isn’t Tesla-prices appears to have taken over my obsession, so an order for one has gone in, & rather than cash things in at this low point in the markets (*yes, it could go lower!), I’ve found myself taking a low rate loan....

Kids will be done with Uni then (unless a Masters beckons!), but who knows.

I think the trick (at least for me) is to pace things and stay healthy. 2 funerals to attend next week, both 60s men.....now that kind of event is a proper bad curve ball googly. My dad used to say “it’s a good job it’s only money” when something went wrong/broke.....I’m starting to understand what he meant.

DairyQueen

cfw1994 wrote: »

I think the trick (at least for me) is to pace things and stay healthy. 2 funerals to attend next week, both 60s men....now that kind of event is a proper bad curve ball googly. My dad used to say “it’s a good job it’s only money” when something went wrong/broke.....I’m starting to understand what he meant.

Your dad knew a thing or two.

Most of us consider falling off the perch a few years south/north of retirement as the (unlikely) worst case scenario, but the stats suggest that this isn't so unusual.

Planning retirement on the assumption that my life expectancy will be the current average of the general population is akin to planning other life stages on similar assumptions. Did I have two children? Nope. Did I stay married to my first spouse? Nope. Did I earn the prevailing average income throughout my working life? Nope. Did I move seven times? Nope.

... and so on.

Many of us plan against the possibility of living beyond the current average (mean? median?) and therefore exhausting our funds, and/or our ability to maintain independence. We are encouraged to do so and, let's face it, the thought that we could be in the 90+ cohort is appealing. I guess on the basis that being frail and dependent is still preferable to the alternative.

Far fewer of us consider the consequences if we fall significantly below the average. The most common age of death is currently 85/89 for males/females respectively but, as is usual with stats, the devil is in the detail.

The reality is that 33% of males, and 25% of females, who died between 2012 and 2014, were aged between 60 and 79 (ONS stats for deaths registered 2012-2014). In 2016 (ONS again), less than 1% of the population were over 90. There is much media chatter about the increasing numbers of nonagenarians/centenarians but their numbers are still statistically small. The sudden rise in numbers over the last decade is partly explained by the birth rates during, and immediately after, WW1.

If you live in England, are female, have no family history of certain diseases, and/or follow a healthy lifestyle, then your chances of making it to 80+ are significantly increased. However, it is still much more likely that any individual will die pre-80 than live to 90+.

Annuity rates are calculated based on personal life expectancy so more accurate estimates are available to each of us. Should we therefore plan retirement accordingly? Should IFAs apply more weight to personal life expectancy in the advice they give in the lead-up to retirement?

I have taken the bull by the horns and understand that I am likely to die around 80. This has made a big difference to my retirement planning and to my attitude toward life, spending and major decisions.

It's actually liberating to plan drawdown over only 20 years and to strike the need for care home fees. My future widower (bless him) is less enthusiastic at the prospect of surviving me but there is plenty in his pot to support him in his dotage, and he had the foresight to produce a very caring daughter.

I've realised that I feared living to an advanced age more than dying prematurely. Go figure.

gadgetmind

To try and keep this thread on track, I'm about to become a pensioner!

My first SIPP payment is due in the next few days (full PCLS taken, TAA and LTA charges paid, <sigh>) and I'm keeping within the shiny new £50k PA+BR thresholds so that I pay effectively 15% tax, which is a fraction of what I paid when working.

My wife has also done full PCLS and will start drawdown next tax year, which will help despite her pension pot being <10% of mine as all tax free.

Income from unwrapped pots should all *just* be tax free and ISA will be stuffed as fast as the rules allow.

I'm still doing some (currently unpaid) work for a couple of days a week, which feels about right as zero feels as scary as full time TBH!

crv1963

Hi gadgetmind

Have a great time, all my friends and colleagues who've retired tell me I'll never know how I fitted time in to go to work. Keeping active and socialising seems to be the trick- it's hard tracking down my mother this time of year at almost 80 she's got so many "do's" to go to!

Best wishes

CRV