So obsessed with retirement that I'm finding it hard to live for today

Lois_and_CK

jamesd wrote: »

What are the costs of the house? Any mortgage? Your'e quite close to 55 so one option might be an interest only mortgage then repaying out of the pension commencement lump sum some time from age 55. That'd get the repayment money invested and doing more for your wealth than just saving mortgage interest - like getting tax relief on the repayment money.

Yes we've still got a mortgage which is due to finish at age 55. Loan to value is around 55%. Interest-only is something to think about and something I hadn't considered - thanks for the suggestion.

Lois_and_CK

penrhyn wrote: »

Have you got a pension pot then OP. If you want a pension of 20,000 /year you'll need a pot of around £400,000.

Yes, we both have pensions through our employers, as well as ISAs for retirement, and emergency savings too. Being in debt isn't something I want to happen again so I carefully manage these :-)

penrhyn

Thats good news, I doubt you would be able to take them until you are at least 60 so you'll need to cover the period up till then, and the state pension is being pushed back as well.

jamesd

In general I take the same view as you. Cheap rented place then cheap purchased place. Leaves lots of free income to invest to allow me to now be able to live without benefits if I couldn't work and later with nice safety margin to probably be able to retire at 55 if I want to. Saving and investing more than 60% of net pay plus gross pension contributions for about six years to get there so far. At the moment the value of those is about 85% of my total net pay plus gross pension contributions over the years since I became able to do it.

You're right that it's more efficient to invest early on because the expected return on investments is greater than the expected return on property (about 6% long run average). But now is a good time for equity investing and a bad time for residential property because share prices are depressed while property prices remain higher than their historic average. So given a completely free decision I'd want that equity invested as soon as possible.

Interest only and investing is a sort of half way house, slower getting the money invested so nowhere near as efficient but CK still keeps the quality of life value that the place has for CK.

Given your past debt situation it is quite likely that CK hasn't yet had a chance to switch mindset to see the potential of money to get things done. One thing I did and do is keep spreadsheets that track expected time until I can support myself and until I can retire at various target income levels. Those let me make that planning more concrete and see that my goals really are achievable and on what timescale. That sort of thing might help CK to see the potential to achieve something different.

Part of the catch here is that different people have different values for future benefit vs current benefit. You seem to have a value system that's closer to mine than CK's. But that doesn't make CK's wrong, just different.

CK could usefully read the whole NUMBER topic to see that you're not actually unusual, just different from what he happens to know.

For your weekends, try thinking what you can do to free time. Washing say. Would doubling the quantity of clothes or just underwear or washers reduce the time cost? If so, that may be a good quality of life bit of spending to do. What is the cost of someone else to tidy? What do you do about dish washing, a machine? If not, that may be a good idea, to spend money to buy time. What can you do with money as a tool to buy you more time?

System

If I were Graham Norton writing his agony aunt column I would advise CK to get out now, rather than face death by contagious ennui

pineapple

jamesd wrote: »

Your'e quite close to 55 so one option might be an interest only mortgage then repaying out of the pension

Is 39 close to 55 then? :eek:

jamesd

Given mortgage terms of 25 years, yes. The mortgage isn't due to end until the pension money is available and 55 is now in "hmm, that's a real age, not old" territory. Had they been 18 with 55 37 years away it'd be a different story.

xylophone

55 is now in "hmm, that's a real age, not old" territory.

For this relief much thanks....

I'm thinking of changing my user name to Methuselah....

jamesd

Just imagine what 18 year olds must think about those who reach state pension age...

cashbackproblems

I think you are wasting your life away worrying about this now, the only thing you have is the present the future doesnt exist so you need to make the most of it, you could get cancer and be dead by 45. That doesnt mean you shouldnt be taking provisions but i would not sell the house. You are assuming stock markets will rise more than property prices which might be the case but you can downsize in your 50's as already mentioned, by then prices will have increased and you are currently paying into a pension. Maybe visit at IFA to make sure your getting the best deals

It sounds like you need to re-evaluate your life purpose and career, as escaping life rather than solving the problem is not going to make you happy.