Early-retirement wannabe

Clive_Woody

barnstar2077 said:

I didn't read or see anything regarding the government forcing everyone to be vaccinated.  I just assumed that they would, the same way they closed restaurants, made people stay at home etc.

Sadly at the moment too many people are making assumptions based on little or no evidence. Closing restaurants is significantly different from forcing everyone to have a vaccination.

JoeEngland

cfw1994 said:

Clive_Woody said:

There will not be a legally mandated vaccine, stop taking everything you see on YouTube seriously.

The vaccines that are currently being developed are in many cases based on already approved vaccines (very similar underlying structure), hence they are able to look at accelerated development pathways as safety exposure data is already available. Regulatory and ethical reviews are as rigorous as ever, as they should be.

The Daily Mail, Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, Trump, etc....etc not reliable source of news or updates, especially when it comes to drug/vaccine development. It is depressing to see how many supposedly intelligent people believe any old nonsense they see shared around.

People are frightened by this pandemic and this is promoting irrational and often idiotic behaviour from once rational people. Scientists/medics want to help, they are not out to get you. Forget Hollywood and it's portrayal or the Pharma industry as the Big Evil.

Well, I hope you are right.....but there is zero way I would be the first volunteer for a vaccine trial.
I am NOT a "conspiracy theorist", but I do think things are being rushed in order to try to get a solution, and even if a shiny new vaccine may hold the key to preventing Covid-19 from killing me, I do not believe the trials will in any way be lengthy or thorough enough in the next 6-9 months to give decent guarantees there will be no other, perhaps serious, issues caused by taking them.
Yes, one can point to them being based on known existing medicines, but not in the concoction that will be presented for use.

This is one interesting read - perhaps a little slightly conspiracy-theoryist for some of you, but do read up (google is your friend, plenty of articles when I looked last week) on Moderna's Chief Medical Officer (& the CEO too) selling most of his shares in the company - would you really do that whilst bringing a solution to market to solve the World's huge 2020 problem if you trusted in it?
Then perhaps read this article - "Moderna, a company that (this is not a joke) has never once successfully brought a drug to market".
Big Pharma is a challenge to keep up with.  Follow the money.

& thanks to those of you who do take up trial places, I seriously wish you all the best - there will be a solution, & I hope that my reticence is overly cautious.

I think the Moderna CEO selling shares was probably just a bit of profit taking:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moderna-executives-increased-stock-sales-after-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-data/

barnstar2077

Clive_Woody said:

barnstar2077 said:

I didn't read or see anything regarding the government forcing everyone to be vaccinated.  I just assumed that they would, the same way they closed restaurants, made people stay at home etc.

Sadly at the moment too many people are making assumptions based on little or no evidence. Closing restaurants is significantly different from forcing everyone to have a vaccination.

Obviously I don't wan't to be forced to take a vaccine, but only time will tell.  It is a win win for me, as I will either be right, or won't have to get vaccinated for a while.

tigerspill

cfw1994 said:

paulo10 said:

What happened to Marine Life? I haven't seen him posting recently. Did he ever retire or did he continue to put off each year?

& yes, this has gone WAY off topic eh!
I believe they did, and checked in, but we seem to have taken this thread to new galaxies!!
I see from his profile he has 'hung up his suit' and last posted in Jan.....I wish him well!

I think when he retired he reinvented himself under a new username.  Cant remember what it was tho.

shinytop

barnstar2077 said:

I am in no way an anti vaxxer either.  Nor have I ever used social media for anything more than swapping the odd cute dog picture (I don't mean the dog is odd.)

I didn't read or see anything regarding the government forcing everyone to be vaccinated.  I just assumed that they would, the same way they closed restaurants, made people stay at home etc.

I am glad that a lot of people are eager to get vaccinated in record time.  I would prefer to wait a while first though, each to their own.

I'm not eager to get vaccinated in record time for myself. I am however eager to take part in a trial so that everyone can get vaccinated quicker.  

I would be 100% against a compulsory Covid-19 vaccine.  But I might support laws that said if you want to use or work in a supermarket/restaurant/theatre/public transport, etc. then you need to be vaccinated (with appropriate exceptions).  

mark55man

can we stop with the corona/vaccine talk please - I know its difficult without all the boards being open, but just going on way too long now.  and is way off topic, except it being the single most likely cause of not being able to retire early one way or the other

cfw1994

mark55man said:

can we stop with the corona/vaccine talk please - I know its difficult without all the boards being open, but just going on way too long now.  and is way off topic, except it being the single most likely cause of not being able to retire early one way or the other

As a guilty party....I agree!
(*cough* although you & tigerspill started it  )

1813

Marine_life said:

I would like to create a topic (don't see it at the moment - other than the NUMBER thread).

Who is aiming for early retirement (or who has retired early already)?
When did you begin planning and what drove the decision?
What is the strategy for getting there?
How much of a relative decline in income are you prepared to take / did you take?
What are your main concerns?
For those already in early retirement - how is it progressing? What have been the good and bad surprises (financial and otherwise)?

I will post my strategy but wanted to get some thoughts

I would like to try and retire by 60 if possible.
I began planning quite recently and I think that to be honest there needs to be a point where you need to enjoy life - not saying you cant do this when you are working but you do need to work toward a goal and i believe a certain period of working is enough as long as it is respectable ( i think 35 years for example- ive been working on and off since I was 21 - took a few years off as I had a debilitating illness).
The strategem is quite simple - you need to try as best you can to estimate your future costs based on your current ones and save as much as you can to ensure any built pension pot reflects those costs and enough for an emergency in case things go wrong. You need to find the best investment strategem but not take too much of risk.
Im not quite sure what you mean by relative decline in income but at retirement i would draw down only what is necessary to maintain my standard of living and maintain as much of my pension pot as possible.
Well being 38 how much would i need to save to maintain my standard of living at 60? Will the 25% lump sum still exist? I wish to be able to have enough to draw down on until I get to State Pension age. There is always a slight risk the current pension company may go bust but that is not likely. Therefore will future costs be sustainable from my pension pot? That is the problem with the future. You cant predict it which makes it more trying to establish a pension pot target. Saving as much as you can would be good but its not always that straightforward.
Ill let you know on the last point come 22 years

Clive_Woody

1813 said:

Marine_life said:

I would like to create a topic (don't see it at the moment - other than the NUMBER thread).

Who is aiming for early retirement (or who has retired early already)?
When did you begin planning and what drove the decision?
What is the strategy for getting there?
How much of a relative decline in income are you prepared to take / did you take?
What are your main concerns?
For those already in early retirement - how is it progressing? What have been the good and bad surprises (financial and otherwise)?

I will post my strategy but wanted to get some thoughts

I would like to try and retire by 60 if possible.
I began planning quite recently and I think that to be honest there needs to be a point where you need to enjoy life - not saying you cant do this when you are working but you do need to work toward a goal and i believe a certain period of working is enough as long as it is respectable ( i think 35 years for example- ive been working on and off since I was 21 - took a few years off as I had a debilitating illness).
The strategem is quite simple - you need to try as best you can to estimate your future costs based on your current ones and save as much as you can to ensure any built pension pot reflects those costs and enough for an emergency in case things go wrong. You need to find the best investment strategem but not take too much of risk.
Im not quite sure what you mean by relative decline in income but at retirement i would draw down only what is necessary to maintain my standard of living and maintain as much of my pension pot as possible.
Well being 38 how much would i need to save to maintain my standard of living at 60? Will the 25% lump sum still exist? I wish to be able to have enough to draw down on until I get to State Pension age. There is always a slight risk the current pension company may go bust but that is not likely. Therefore will future costs be sustainable from my pension pot? That is the problem with the future. You cant predict it which makes it more trying to establish a pension pot target. Saving as much as you can would be good but its not always that straightforward.
Ill let you know on the last point come 22 years

To be blunt I don't think it is healthy to spend too much time worrying about the what-ifs. You can only really plan based on the information in front of you and adapt as life evolves.

TFLS, SP age, LTA, etc could all change and there will be little any of us can do to predict when, how and in what ways they might change. We can speculate, but trying to make plans based on endless speculation is a thankless task.

Put away what you can, invest as wisely as you can, and then live your life. Many people do not make it to retirement so enjoy today too.

gfplux

While I think planning for early retirement is a very good thing to do. Sometimes life gets in the way.
When I was 52 I was offered a pay off (paid to go away) At that point I had not considered stopping working and effectively retiring.
I took the pay off and jumped into “doing nothing”
Now 23 years later it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
It was scary at the time.