Anyone taken early retirement and regretted it?

Bigmoney2

If you have a defined contribution pension then buying an annuity at 55ish will not give a lot of monthly income. Have you looked into exactly how much you would get from different suppliers.

In addition at state pension age you will get that assuming you have enough NI contributions, have you requested a forcaste to make sure you will get the full rate.

I have to argree that future inflation is a worry. In my case my company pension covers most expenses, but its tight. I do have savings and get interst and share dividends as well. But plan to downsize my house at some point to release extra capital if needed (no dependants).

I wouldn't think it is worth retireing if you then can't afford to do anything you like (hobbies, holidays etc), but it depends wwhether you like your job , is it secure etc. I retired as part of a redundancy exercise although it was voluntary, decided that the pension was more secure than the salary.

It's also worth logging your spending in a spreadsheet (I like them too) so you know where it all goes and where you could cut back.
Remember that pension income is taxed but you won't be paying NI or pension contributions, and currently the personal allowance increases at age 65 although there is guarranttee that this won't be eroded away.

Gatser

ericonabike wrote: »

So - no regrets it seems! Food for thought - just have to work out for myself how much is 'enough' when it comes to 'enough to live on'. Fascinated by responses - please keep ;em coming. Might be something for an MSE special article?

This neatly ties in with THE NUMBER! (see my NUMBER thread)
If we know how much we need/desire to live on, we are better informed to make the big "When do I retire?" decision.

Gatser

JoeCrystal wrote: »

I am all feeling envious reading all these early retirement posts! And I am not even remotely near it from distant lands of mid twenties.

Cheers

Joe

BUT...Joe... you are at an ideal age to plan ahead!
As I got older I talked more and more with retired/semi retired folks that told me "Don't put off retirement until your body/brain gives up!"

I am still some days off the "R" era, but that was probably the best bit of advice I've had....
Enjoy Youth in the meantime :beer:

hethmar

We are dithering at the mo - its ridiculous really, OH is 61 now, self employed in hard physical work, had a minor stroke before xmas and has dodgey knees and back and had a skin cancer lesion removed earlier this year, BUT he is worried that he will regret not taking on all the jobs offered to him, which are well paid - we have been in business 30 years and he has a wonderful reputation and jobs come via old customers and recommendations.

I would like to see whether he could take his private pension early or whether they will continue to pay in the premiums under the "waiver of premium" rights he has for ill health. If he takes the pension 4 years early he will miss the biggest increase of the last few years wont he? Ive calculated with my state pension, his state pension and small private pensions at 65 we would have a (taxable) income of about £400 a week. We have savings that would keep us for the 4 years til then.

I keep reassuring him that we have a mortgage free house and if the very worse happened we have a lot of capital sitting here in bricks and mortar - but I guess its an inbuilt fear of being poor, which we were when we were younger.