Shall we stay or shall we go now

Mistermeaner

I would say anything is possible it depends how much you need to live as you want to. You can do your own calcs.

Personnaly i dont think you have enough and would keep workinga couple more years, thus reducing the time your savings need to last whilst boosting your pot and pensions.

Either that or quit now, have a few years out but accept one or other needing to work / earn in some capacity in the future

Seanymph

Instead of cashing the house in that you currently live in, and whittling that away, why not rent that out instead?

You say you 'own' it, is that mortgage free? If it is then there is your income. Add a little, part time, something in your travels and you are away.

Personally I wouldn't cash in the house - I'd keep the capital there (and somewhere to come home to) and use the income.

Do you want to live in your holiday house or 'travel'?

If it's 'travel' then as suggested a motorhome and a year travelling may hit all the right buttons for you - with your home rented out to come back to.

kangoora

Not enough information really. You will have £200k, 1 property in UK (BTL) and a property in Italy. You don't mention if your BTL will provide any extra income.

You believe you can get by on £15k year for 15 years when company pensions of £15k kick in. You'd also get another (presumably) £15k when state pensions kick in. £30k in pensions IMO is a good retirement income, same as what I am aiming for.

As other people have pointed out, £15k/year wthdrawal rate will deplete all your £200k over 13 years. Also, £15k/year seems low to me to maintain a property and, also, go travelling around/maintain hobbies when a couple have 2 'good' jobs with presumably, the income to go with them.

My gut feel is you might want to consider setting a date 5 years in the future, try living on £15k/year (excluding any work related costs) and throw as much money as possible into either additional pensions you can pick up at 55 (to avoid taking company pensions early and taking the actuarial reduction) or enhancing your company pensions. If you go early and find out after 3 years it isn't going to work it will be difficult to get employment with a 3 year gap in your CV.

It may be you'll find that you can retire in 2 years time, or it could take 7-10. This will be completely dependent on whether you can survive on £15k and how much you can save in the interim before taking the plunge.

Personally, it all looks a bit close to the wire from the information given and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it, however, your choice

Edit reason: Changed a month reference to year

Pincher

The travelling side is not as expensive as some people think.


In 1990, I spent two months in China, for less than £2,000. Travelled the length of the country, train and bus, went down the Yangtze river (before the dam drowned everything) on a cruise boat. Took a cruise from Shanghai to Hong Kong.


On some islands in Thailand, not so popular ones naturally, you used to be able to rent a hut for £1 a day. A guy told me he had a friend who leased a "mountain" for £5,000.


I was on a bus with some backpackers, they were Catholics, and they had this vast database of churches (the WHOLE world!) where you can get cheap accommodation, not available to unbelievers. Makes you want to convert right there and then. I stayed in a paying hostel 200 meters away, and met them next morning coming out of the church.


There are communes you can join, some of them won't even brain wash you. You can volunteer for aid work, so you don't even pay for transport.


Travelling used to be so romantic, you get held up by the Khyber Pass for winter. You have to fight bandits on the Silk Road. Get captured as slaves and sold to gladiator school, and then you have to organise a revolt and run away, and buy passage from Silesian pirates. Good old days.

Stubod

..well done Penguin....I am well impressed...could do with some tips!! If we could learn to live off 8k we could pack in work tomorrow! I have re-visited our accounts, and council tax / electric / water / insurance / car tax, insurance and MOT, (no fuel), phone, and food comes to more than that.

Ref post from Peacefull my longer term plans also suggest ideally about 2k per month (+YoY inflation).

Spanish_Escape

Thank you all for your replies and advice. As you can see from people's responses not an easy decision and people have different views. We are planning to speak to a new financial advisor (been told St James Place are good but not cheap to invest with....would be interested in people's views on this company?) and see what plans we can put in place to help us meet our goals. In parallel working out if we can take extended time out of our jobs.

PeacefulWaters

Spanish_Escape wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies and advice. As you can see from people's responses not an easy decision and people have different views. We are planning to speak to a new financial advisor (been told St James Place are good but not cheap to invest with....would be interested in people's views on this company?) and see what plans we can put in place to help us meet our goals. In parallel working out if we can take extended time out of our jobs.

See a proper IFA.

Not SJP.

tejero23f

This time last year i gave in my notice at 54yrs, fed up with the grind of work and dreaming of another life. decided to have the gap year i never had. Jan 2nd flew off to NZ leaving my house rented out and car stored in a friends garage. had booked a small chalet outside auckland for $1200 (£600) per month and hired an old banger at £160 per month, add another £150 per month on fuel and £80 on food my £1000 budget worked. Soon found out that buses are the best way to see the county and a day ticket for the small train system was only £7.00 a day! used Auckland central library for free Wi fi. Return open ticket was £1700 in total.
For 3 and a half months of a marvellous adventure all in all around £7000-if i really scrimped maybe a grand less, and i have not regretted a minute of it. life is really short especially at 50+ you never know what's around the corner so make the most of it-Money is for enjoying life with! For two persons i suggest at least 20k a year to live on for an average life style-good luck

Spanish_Escape

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and views on our plans. A side from preparing for Christmas we have been seriously working out our finances including setting up spending and savings spreadsheets. Since doing that we have agreed 15k to live on is just not enough without big compromises and I am not willing to do that just now. We have agreed to continue to save even harder for the next 3 Years and re look at retiring in Nov 2017 (that's only 35 more months). We have committed to up our savings to £2500 a month which we believe we can do comfortably if we cut back on non essentials, how many handbags and shoes does a woman need! ?..my husbands phase not mine! That should give us another £87k ( without any interest) We have set up a savings bond which we need to pay £1000 a month in to it for a min of 3 years as well as investing in some low/medium risk investments.
We have always thought we would sell our main home when we retire but after reading people's view we are now seriously thinking of renting it out so we would have two rented houses in the UK. If we can save just that bit extra we should have enough to pay off the outstanding mortgage so any rent we recieve - costs each month should give us the bulk of our needed income drawing down on our savings less.

Once again thank you for taking the time to share your views. Merry Christmas.

ColdIron

Spanish_Escape wrote: »

how many handbags and shoes does a woman need! ?

Evidently, approaching £87K's worth