Early-retirement wannabe

westv

jimi_man said:

westv said:

jimi_man said:

I concur with the luggage aspect. We used to take a large case everywhere for a holiday, but now would never dream of it and use hand luggage only for every trip - even two or three week holidays and still bring back clothes we haven't worn. Doing a two week flydrive to the US in a couple of weeks and will just have a wheelie carry on and a small rucksack which should be plenty.

Sounds like a great trip, do start a thread and I'd read it. 

How on earth do you get away with clothes for a three week holiday using just hand luggage? Martin's famous multi pocketed jacket?

Careful packing and don't take too much stuff. When we used to take large cases it was always a temptation to take 'extra' clothes just in case', but the truth is we just don't need them and used to bring them back unworn because we tended to wear the same stuff most of the time. Most people know that rolling clothes is far more efficient than flat packing and means you can get a lot more in. 

My wife flies for a living and is used to being restricted to a carry on. 

I think it's a 21st century issue that we've all got far too much stuff. 

I would normally take underwear for every day, t shirts for 1 every 2 days and the same for shirts in the evening.

DT2001

westv said:

jimi_man said:

I concur with the luggage aspect. We used to take a large case everywhere for a holiday, but now would never dream of it and use hand luggage only for every trip - even two or three week holidays and still bring back clothes we haven't worn. Doing a two week flydrive to the US in a couple of weeks and will just have a wheelie carry on and a small rucksack which should be plenty.

Sounds like a great trip, do start a thread and I'd read it. 

How on earth do you get away with clothes for a three week holiday using just hand luggage? Martin's famous multi pocketed jacket?

We are off around the world for 7 weeks and have only added 1 hold bag as we are taking two internal flights in the US where your free bag is more like lap top size. It is cheaper for a hold bag than a large carry on. In fact the flights for all 4 of us from Vegas to SF we’re cheaper than 1 hold bag.
We are mainly staying in Airbnb, S/C units in hotels and doing house swaps so will have access to washing machines.

frugal90

In June and July we did a cycle tour in Europe, everything our tent, cooking gear was carried on our bikes, we have just finished a trek in the Pyrenees and everything we needed, tent, cooking gear was carried on our backs. Travelling slow is great, realising how little you really need is amazingly refreshing. Slow travel is great!!

sgx2000

Lol... Perhaps this thread should be re-titled to "my retirement holidays" l o

Only Jealous......

Wednesday2000

hugheskevi said:

We will be limited by wi-fi/internet availability until our Anchorage to Vancouver cruise finishes, which will be 23rd September, but after that, I plan to upload two YouTube updates per week. That will show what we are doing and how long it took us.

I just have to learn how to use my GoPro Hero 9 and how to edit video for YouTube in the next few weeks!

I just caught up the last few pages as I was sitting around for half an hour. I would be interested in the YT videos too.:)

I follow Steve and Courtney Adcock on YT who retired very early. They are always in articles about early retirement/financial independence. They were recently in Alaska on a cruise.

hugheskevi

Wednesday2000 said:

I just caught up the last few pages as I was sitting around for half an hour. I would be interested in the YT videos too.:)

What great timing!

The YouTube channel is now up and running - available at https://youtu.be/ASFAH54YTrk. It is my first go at YouTubing, so there are some rough edges as I'm very much learning as I go. 

To complement the channel, there is a map of the route traveled to date, as well as a detailed log (including all expenditures!) at this link. 

I'll keep an eye on this thread, but will probably be quicker to answer any questions on the YouTube comments, as I plan for that to be the main trip document.

tigerspill

hugheskevi said:

Wednesday2000 said:

I just caught up the last few pages as I was sitting around for half an hour. I would be interested in the YT videos too.:)

What great timing!

The YouTube channel is now up and running - available at https://youtu.be/ASFAH54YTrk. It is my first go at YouTubing, so there are some rough edges as I'm very much learning as I go. 

To complement the channel, there is a map of the route traveled to date, as well as a detailed log (including all expenditures!) at this link. 

I'll keep an eye on this thread, but will probably be quicker to answer any questions on the YouTube comments, as I plan for that to be the main trip document.

Great start!  I am looking forward to seeing about your adventures!

barnstar2077

Well done, a really good start indeed!

Edit:  Also, I love dogs too, so a perfect channel for me!

hugheskevi

We've now had one month on the road since arriving in Anchorage on 9th September and have now reached Las Vegas following a bit over 6,000 miles of overland travel. The trip map is now looking a lot more detailed and interesting.

The total spending on the trip to date is £9,133 (see this link for complete details of travel and spending).

Within the total, some big-ticket categories are £264 on passports, £823 for insurance, £775 for flight, £537 for vaccinations and malaria tablets, £507 for food and drink, £292 for activities (entrance fees, etc), £1,030 on an 8-day cruise, £1,778 on accommodation, £2,036 on car hire and insurance (not including fuel). Note that this includes car hire up to 1 November, and accommodation bookings to 20th October.

Given we spend about £30-35K p/a living in London and will receive rent of £22,500 I still expect us to spend less traveling than living in London, as I doubt we will spend £1,000 per week on travel once the big ticket items get averaged out over a longer period and we start moving at a slower pace through less expensive countries from November.

Still keeping the YouTube diary of the trip, the latest episode is at this link.

In terms of wider finances, in the coming week, both my wife and I will end paid leave and commence unpaid leave. We have £41,300 p/a expenditure until age 55 based on existing savings - I had expected this would be higher at this point, but poor investment returns over the last month or two and the exchange rate debacle have put downward pressure on that figure. We still have income tax refunds along with monthly rent to come though which should give some improvement, and if returns pick up then that would be very helpful. If nothing good happens, we just go back to work for a short period which would rapidly close the gap between our pre and post- age 57 income (£60,900 - but really don't need that much).

GazHol

GazHol said:

I wasn’t aiming for early retirement, but I’ve now been aimed due to changes in our pension scheme that come into effect 1st Oct. The changes mean that I will retire at end Nov 2022 at 58.5, rather than my preferred 60. If I stayed on, I’d have to reach 62 to get the same yearly pension as at Nov 2022 (indexed at RPI up to 3% and 5%).

I’ve been preparing for this for the last 10 years or so, these Forums have helped immensely since I joined in 2014. I also prepared for this particular change by sitting on the Pension Consultation Forum, you really get to see the inner workings of a corporate pension scheme (as well as negotiations on behalf of several thousand people).

My strategy has been to use voluntary contributions, as well as moving a SIPP into the DC part of the scheme (SIPP was set up as an insurance as I was under threat of redundancy four years ago. Moved into the DC scheme will allow me to take it tax free as part of the TFLS in 2022).
I’m about to reduce my hours by 10% and will go down to four days per week in Summer 2022, I will maximise my AVC whilst keeping the DC pot =<25% of the total.

My DB will cover 75% of our spend in a normal year, so 125% in a lockdown year! DW gets her DB at 60 unreduced in 3 years, so we shouldn’t need to tap into our ISAs anytime soon. We’ve made sure our ISAs are evenly split, and that we each have less than 3 years NI left to get.

Main concern is inflation, I lived though the 70’s and vividly remember the three day week. We paid our mortgage off many years ago - an 8% interest rate was too frightening…

Well, I “retired” yesterday having not applied for any of the remaining positions with the result that my employer gave me 2.5 years pay as compensation for being made redundant. 

I wasn’t able to maximise company DC contributions as I hit the 25% TFLS (over this, single life was only 22:1), however this helps me keep below the Threshold Income figure as I can add to a SIPP (and draw down when a basic rate taxpayer).
A nice position be be in, I would make significant charity donations anyway, which now will ensure I don’t loose the Annual Allowance for my SIPP contributions.
My learning from this experience is to keep a conversation with your manager, you never know when wider circumstances will align with you own wishes.
Also, be prepared to wait for your first pension, from what I hear from ex-colleagues, even a FTSE 20 pension scheme appears incapable of starting pension payments quickly.