Early retirement help appreciated

Triumph13

It looks like the answer is going to be 'just about'. It would be nice to have a little more headroom and to get that you are looking at one of three options:

1. Spend less long term. £2k a month is a suspiciously round sum. Have you worked out a retirement budget? Would say £1.9k or even £1.75k work just as well?
2. Earn more. Can you get part time work of some kind until the pensions kick in and largely live on that?
3. Have an adventure. Rent your house out and go be a beach bum in SE Asia living on the rent. Or do some voluntary work overseas that pays bed and board for a couple of years.

The years between stopping work and your pensions starting are the ones that really eat into the capital. If you can find an alternative (and fun) way of financing them then the whole thing gets much easier.

atush

I like this last post.

As your income is going to be tight as it is,redoing your budget down a little, and doing some part time work (not to mention becoming a beach bum lol) could all help you out and not drain your pot too much for the future?

montehampster

Thank you all for the replies - certainly food for thought!

Well the good news is a) my redundancy package is coming in higher at c £14,300 and b) I have spoken to my IFA who advises my fund is now likely to be c £350,000 (some of the pots he can look up on line others have to be requested).
Not so good is the fact I leave at the end of April so will have 3.5 years to my 65th birthday. I have requested a Pension Statement as recommended.That said I am sure I can manage thanks to your advice - the £2,000 a month was a "rounded up" figure and I now have to go through my spending in detail (I have over the last 12 months switched banks, energy supplier and moved to a water meter but I'm sure there are further savings to be made).

I certainly don't want to rush into another job, certainly not full time and definitely not one that involves a commute into town ever again! Will see how the summer pans out with finance and boredom and reassess then. Family commitments mean the "beach bum" idea is only valid for two weeks a year!

One area I would appreciate further advice on is where to go for the "buffer account" which enables me to transfer income by DD. My current account is a Santander 1-2-3, which I started last March, having been with Lloyds for over 40 years and I'm delighted with the ease of transfer, quality of service and the interest/cashback earned.

Thanks again for all your advice.

jamesd

Santander 123 would be my first choice because it pays interest on all of the money you need. You have one so you could just monitor the balance once a year to see whether it's higher or lower. In this case I'm assuming that you won't have any trouble knowing that most of the balance you keep in the account isn't spending money. Not quite as clear cut to manage as the split accounts but it'll do the job.

Good to read that the amounts are higher than expected. If the state pension amount cooperates or gets anything close to the assumed amounts you should be fine.