Can O/h and I afford early retirement ?

balmaiden

Absolutely right Barnabysue,

I worked for many years for age concern and I have mentioned on other threads the amount of times I heard " I wish I had done x,y or z when I was younger/in good health." It made me absolutely determined that O/h and I would finish work as soon as we were able to financially.

This meant that from the age of 40 for me and 50 for O/h, we saved and planned for when he became 60 and I was 51 and we made the move. Not without trepidation as my opening post indicates!

Barnabysue

Hopefully it will happen for us too. The mortgage ends when hubby retires, the credit card is almost gone and we both have good private pensions. It can't come soon enough for me. If I work until I can officially retire he will be 70, I don't want to risk that.

Sue

harryhound

There are going to be a lot of compulsory "early retirements" in the next two and a half years. (Full doom and gloom story on the House Price (Crash) thread).

- How much will you have to live on? You cannot answer that question because you don't know how long you are going to live AND you don't know if the Government will take the easy way out "taxation by inflation" of debt free old folks in order to avoid bankrupting young folks. Economic history suggests that if you get a REAL 3% on your savings you are doing pretty well (Personally we have shovelled 75K into NSI index linked (the latest issue pays a "REAL" 1%.)

- What is your rate of inflation? Personally we don't buy a new flat screen TV every month. Inflation of the necessities is well over 10%. The inflation index for pensioners increases by age - the very old are being hit for double the "official" rate.

- Remember the "rule of 72": You divide the rate of inflation into 72 and that gives the number of years before the value of your money halves (EG Let us say the rate is 6% then it takes 12 years for the nest egg to be half as valuable).

- My sister has the task of visiting "the poor elderly of the parish", to give them a charitable Xmas bonus. "Oh it is so nice to see you dear, I've not seen anybody all week" and next door says the same thing:rolleyes: Keep looking outwards and down the generations - To put it politely you risk becoming a BOF if you don't.

- Study the rules of your pension scheme - if you are lucky enough to have one that has not gone bust. (Given the "How about a tax free year's salary now", I countered with "How about 3 months consultation, statutory redundancy, and a pension on "sickness" terms (ie not actuarially reduced)" I had to compromise a bit on the three months - obviously there was a time deadline that had to be achieved;). Pity as I had worked out that every extra day of employment was worth more than 1GBP per year inflation "proofed" for life:cool:

- I'm now self employed but only working about 1 day a week which yields a bit more than the state pension BUT it does mean I see people in their own homes, pay only 2.30 a week in NI (cheaper than voluntary contributions:T) Get to charge a significant amount of running the car against tax:j. Most of all I meet really interesting people aged 25 upwards in interesting parts of the country.

- Finally I am a bit worried about the number of pensioners claiming to be SKIing.
(I take this to mean Spending Kids Inheritance).
Many people's children are part of the IPOD generation:
Insecure, Pressurised, Over-taxed and Debt-ridden.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1567808/Ipod-generation-crushed-by-tax,-says-report.html

A note from economic history is appropriate here. Traditionally the cloth industry was centred in Yorkshire and the Cotswolds. However the new fangled cotton stuff developed into a global industry based in Lancashire. OK Liverpool faced towards USA and like Bristol was already active in the slave/wood/sugar trade but the plentiful low wage, union free labour was the clinching factor. A major part of that success was the ability for both partners to work. (Take the kids to the grand parents and grab fish-n-chips on the way home).

We are now in a global market, most IPOD couples are both working, so I can see the Lancashire pattern returning. There seem to be a lot of pensioners planning retirement as one long holiday because the pound is high and air fares are cheap.
Sorry, that decade ran from 1997 to 2007.
You might want to be "useful" to the IPOD's 'cos they get to chose the care home for the BOF's.

TTFN

Harry

Must go and get some exercise, because I don't think I will look as "fit" as this next summer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1035510/Helen-Mirren-bikini-queen-reigns-supreme-63.html

:beer:

Lets_Say_2

Thanks harryhound, if I had read this post back in July it might have made me sit up and take notice and I might have been able to avert the personal disaster that has recently occured - but then, would I have believed it? Also for explaining what SKI -ing means - been searching for that info!

seven-day-weekend

SKI -Spending or Squandering Kids' Inheritance

[Deleted User]

we have been watching a dvd called `the ascent of money` and it is truly excellent and very watchable. It is giving us a great insight into finance beyond our own circumstances. We have watched 2 episodes so far and I have already learned to take nothing for granted concerning money and income. Nothing but nothing is safe in present circumstances ie cash, shares, bonds and gilts and that means pensions of all types

ps we haven`t been on a holiday since I got a whiff of impending troubles in the financial markets and we are only spending what is needed with an occasional treat, so skiing we are not.

balmaiden

When we gave up our paid occupations. We put our money in various pots one pot is for travel and We will continue to travel until that pot is empty. That is probably not the most sensible thing we could be doing , I know, but it is one of the main reasons we worked so blimmin hard and went without. So I will not give up my SKIing.

We are far from rich and like many other posters we have seen a big dip in any interest on our savings. I know if we lost virtually all our money we would survive. Infact we have talked this over many times, extreme as it sounds we have food in our garden and hegerows. Fish in our sea, rabbits on our moors. A stream in our garden many trees that could supply our( proposed) woodburner for quite sometime.

I am questioning the wisdom of keeping any savings to be honest, as kittie says in her post "nothing is safe"

seven-day-weekend

Same here balmaiden, we have our 'allowance' for travel and that is what we will do with it. We only want to travel modestly in the UK and Europe, no long hauls and exotic places as we don't like flying.

[Deleted User]

I am tweaking within the sipp yet again today and this time 1/4 of the gilts are going. I have been share trading/investing ie buying /selling for some time in order to preserve the pension. Long gone are the days of buy and hold. Luckily the sipp is up whereas a normal pension would have lost a lot but that doesn`t stop me being `scared`. That dvd gave me a better insight into so called `safe` government bonds ie gilts. So now I am cutting and running at least with the 2 year gilts, which I believe are at their top right now

Thank goodness I learnt to trade, years ago

re holidays: well we love where we live, we have peace and tranquility and a lovely view and when the sun shines then our south side is a sun trap. I feel no need to travel far from home these days. Lol perhaps it is due to me always getting the bad tum or ear infections etc when away in exotic places

Newly_retired

What an interesting thread. Glad it has been resurrected. I am enjoying retirement far more than I ever imagined, as I loved my job. But the time was right and I have no regrets at all. Now I do 2 days voluntary work which I enjoy and meet all sorts of interesting people. I stopped work at 61, DH was 60. But he has taken on a part-time job, so called, which he has turned into a full-time one, so opportunities for trips are few and far between. I have had to accept, reluctantly, that this is how it will be until he is 65, so some of my plans are on hold. But I want to have some time together to travel, move house etc before we settle down into "old age" .