Early-retirement wannabe

michaels

Thanks - just thought of a question. You appear to be part of a couple, are the income figures quoted household or for you alone, just to give us an idea of 'scale'? Thanks

stoozie1

@hugheskevi no financial gems from me, but a small tip from someone who relocated from England to Wales 25 years ago. I have found it great for community and relationship-building to try to learn some Welsh, it communicates a lot of respect and is a great ice-breaker and people appreciate it here. You come across very bright, and so an app like duolingo could help you pick up some basics very quickly.

hugheskevi

Thanks - just thought of a question. You appear to be part of a couple, are the income figures quoted household or for you alone, just to give us an idea of 'scale'? Thanks

All figures are based on household income, after tax. Our Defined Benefit and State pension incomes are pretty evenly divided, so no danger of higher rate tax. However, DC wealth is predominantly with me, so drawing it down whilst staying basic rate tax will take a while, but that shouldn't matter.

Our financial commitments should be minimal due to no mortgage, debts or children. We still have 3 parents alive, so that gives potential for some unexpected responsibilities. We don't have any expenses tastes aside from possibly travel (playing music, running, computing, gym, bridge) , and once the big travel trip is over we plan to have several pets which will prevent overseas holidays (and indeed even UK holidays, at least together).

@hugheskevi no financial gems from me, but a small tip from someone who relocated from England to Wales 25 years ago. I have found it great for community and relationship-building to try to learn some Welsh, it communicates a lot of respect and is a great ice-breaker and people appreciate it here. You come across very bright, and so an app like duolingo could help you pick up some basics very quickly.

Aye, my wife is keen to learn Welsh. I went to school in Wales, so spent 5 years learning it...but aside from counting to 10 and very basic phrases I've forgotten it all.

We will probably be living in areas where Welsh speaking is more common, so agree it is something we should do.

I also plan to spend some time in Central America learning some Spanish, probably in Guatemala, which I hope will be useful to travel around South America in particular. That can go with my GCSE French, which a couple of years proved good enough to arrange over the telephone a group trip to a snake handling/exhibition/demonstration in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

michaels

I would like to build (well have built for me) an eco home when I retire. I understand that this is much easier in Wales where certain planning rules are waived for carbon neutral houses, whereas in the UK whilst the build costs are manageable (say 300k) getting a site with planning permission pushes the overall bill up towards £1m

westv

Originally I was going to jack it in when I was 58 (March 21). Then I decided 57, when my current FTC is due to end (June 20). However, as time goes on I am more and more thinking Dec 19. I have to give 1 months notice.
Based on starting drawdown at the same time my total pot wouĺd be around £430,000 leaving next year and £420k if leaving Dec so only around £10k difference.
My wife claims she will be happy whatever I do. We'll see LOL!

Triumph13

I can’t believe that it's a year to the day since we ‘retired’ at the age of 52 (me) and 54 (DW). I’m using the inverted commas as a sop to the internet retirement police because, whilst my wife stopped work entirely, I agreed to stay on for a year, 1 day a week, term time only working from home. The main driver for this was to make my last few months of full time less stressful as in so many areas I was the man who knew where they kept the coal. As we have two teenage boys in high school the work isn’t much of a bind.
Financially all has gone embarrassingly well. Markets tanked immediately after I retired, just to try and freak me out, but soon recovered. We had deliberately over-saved before pulling the plug so were able to go in with a budget of £48k pa vs average spending in the preceding few years of about £38k (CPI inflation adjusted).
It's been a fairly expensive year as we spent 20% of it on holiday including 5 weeks in nice gites in France and Spain in the summer plus various UK holiday cottages to hit the hills. There were also a few indulgences like a woodfired pizza oven, a robot vacuum cleaner and a flight to Aus for OH's trip next year. The final total comes out at....drum roll...£39k. I've ended up doing a small amount of paid overtime making my 1 day job more like 1.5 day and by the time I add all that up my net earnings for the year were £36k so net expenditure for the year is £3k. And there's one year less of class 3 NIC to buy too! I really haven't got the hang of this 'spending' lark yet.
We keep busy, the garden is looking better than it has for years and various DIY projects have been done. Not as many as we had hoped, but there's always next year. The pile of books waiting to be read has grown rather than shrunk despite some very pleasant days curled up in the conservatory, in a hammock in the garden or by the woodstove. I'm looking forward to the leaves falling so I can get back to cutting more wood for the fire. All in all life is good.

cfw1994

Sounds very good!
Two questions.....
Which robovac?! I feel one needs to be in my life
& on the part time working....did you continue to be paid by them, or did you set yourself up as a sole trader or suchlike?
Winter is coming: enjoy the books!!

JoeEngland

Triumph13 wrote: »

I can’t believe that it's a year to the day since we ‘retired’ at the age of 52 (me) and 54 (DW). I’m using the inverted commas as a sop to the internet retirement police because, whilst my wife stopped work entirely, I agreed to stay on for a year, 1 day a week, term time only working from home. The main driver for this was to make my last few months of full time less stressful as in so many areas I was the man who knew where they kept the coal. As we have two teenage boys in high school the work isn’t much of a bind.
Financially all has gone embarrassingly well. Markets tanked immediately after I retired, just to try and freak me out, but soon recovered. We had deliberately over-saved before pulling the plug so were able to go in with a budget of £48k pa vs average spending in the preceding few years of about £38k (CPI inflation adjusted).
It's been a fairly expensive year as we spent 20% of it on holiday including 5 weeks in nice gites in France and Spain in the summer plus various UK holiday cottages to hit the hills. There were also a few indulgences like a woodfired pizza oven, a robot vacuum cleaner and a flight to Aus for OH's trip next year. The final total comes out at....drum roll...£39k. I've ended up doing a small amount of paid overtime making my 1 day job more like 1.5 day and by the time I add all that up my net earnings for the year were £36k so net expenditure for the year is £3k. And there's one year less of class 3 NIC to buy too! I really haven't got the hang of this 'spending' lark yet.
We keep busy, the garden is looking better than it has for years and various DIY projects have been done. Not as many as we had hoped, but there's always next year. The pile of books waiting to be read has grown rather than shrunk despite some very pleasant days curled up in the conservatory, in a hammock in the garden or by the woodstove. I'm looking forward to the leaves falling so I can get back to cutting more wood for the fire. All in all life is good.

Blimey, you must be in a good profession if you can earn the equivalent of a decent salary by only working 1.5 days a week!

Triumph13

cfw1994 wrote: »

Sounds very good!
Two questions.....
Which robovac?! I feel one needs to be in my life
& on the part time working....did you continue to be paid by them, or did you set yourself up as a sole trader or suchlike?

The robovac is a Eufy 11S. DW did all the research and choosing so I can't tell you much about it apart from that it seems to work very well indeed.
On the PT I continued to be directly employed. Not only was this less hassle, but my small DB with them (closed years ago) revalues at RPI while employed vs CPI when I leave so that should be worth another £100+ a year when it comes into payment as a result.

Winter is coming: enjoy the books!!

I read the Game of Thrones books - largely in the hammock so the stories are now indelibly linked to lying in the hammock in my mind!

Triumph13

JoeEngland wrote: »

Blimey, you must be in a good profession if you can earn the equivalent of a decent salary by only working 1.5 days a week!

I am indeed very fortunate. Accountancy may be dull, but it can pay quite well.