3,4 or 5 year journey to financial freedom

frugal90

Still waiting for my tax rebate for this year before I share my final fire numbers. Feels great to be in control of every hour of every day.

bostonerimus

Congratulations on Financial Independence. It's a little scary to be out there sailing all on your own, but after a few months you'll get use to it. Having a pension coming in makes things a lot simpler as it takes some pressure of your other investments.....you can be a bit blase when the markets turn south knowing that a monthly cheque is coming in .

atush

I missed your post in July as I was in France (w/o the wifi signal promissed!).

Will look forward to the numbers. What have you done so far in your 2 months of retirement?

frugal90

final numbers coming soon, just waiting for my tax rebate to come in.

quick response to the other question,

my wife had an ankle injury just before we finished, so we have been getting that sorted. It is much better now fortunately but has taken a while and lots of physio. Have lost 4kg in weight through being more physically active, bought a new camera, cycle every day to the pool then swim a mile and also enjoy a jacuzzi/papers etc, joined a choir, learning spanish with the u3a, been camping, climbing mountains, gardening, jam making, wine making, house maintenance, catching up with family and friends. Never really a dull moment to be honest. Blood pressure also down quite a bit. Going off for 6 weeks come October to a warmer place and planning adventures for next year. Life is very very good away from the chalkface.:j

westv

Re the U3A, I looked up local ones the other day but I'm not quite sure if it'd be my sort of thing when I get more free time sometime between early 2019 and 2021.
The photos showed people who liked quite old (don't mean to be rude!) and some of the activities seemed focused on older people.

atush

frugal90 wrote: »

final numbers coming soon, just waiting for my tax rebate to come in.

quick response to the other question,

my wife had an ankle injury just before we finished, so we have been getting that sorted. It is much better now fortunately but has taken a while and lots of physio. Have lost 4kg in weight through being more physically active, bought a new camera, cycle every day to the pool then swim a mile and also enjoy a jacuzzi/papers etc, joined a choir, learning spanish with the u3a, been camping, climbing mountains, gardening, jam making, wine making, house maintenance, catching up with family and friends. Never really a dull moment to be honest. Blood pressure also down quite a bit. Going off for 6 weeks come October to a warmer place and planning adventures for next year. Life is very very good away from the chalkface.:j

That doesnt sound like 2 months- sounds like 2 years lol

robin61

westv wrote: »

Re the U3A, I looked up local ones the other day but I'm not quite sure if it'd be my sort of thing when I get more free time sometime between early 2019 and 2021.
The photos showed people who liked quite old (don't mean to be rude!) and some of the activities seemed focused on older people.

We popped into my local U3A monthly meeting. Decided not to stay for the same reason. I'm 57 my wife is 56 and we were a lot younger. It seemed to be very well attended though. Perhaps we should have given it more of a chance but just felt it wasn't for us.
I've only been retired now for a few weeks and am keeping pretty busy anyway. It's taken a few weeks to get into the swing of it but I'm feeling a lot more relaxed than when I was working.

frugal90

Right atush, our final numbers albeit an estimate for my tax rebate. Me 56 and wife 50.

Total portfolio £576 139 + two teachers pensions to come down the line.

We have to cover between now and May 2022 when my teachers pension kicks in. Should be just over £20 K pa and lump of £60K.

We plan to do this with cash holdings. I have a SIPP of £80K (in cash) which I will drawdown from the beginning of April 2019. I will draw down £26667 each year on a monthly basis which should net me about £2 K per month after tax.

We each have an ISA, mine £124107 and my wife's £128194- mostly income bearing IT's.

We are also holding £153000 in cash. We plan on taking £12k per year from this and maybe more for some adventures. If there is a crash then some of the cash will be used to buy income bearing Investment trusts.

At age 60 I'll use my pension and lump and cash to take us through to my wife hitting 55 when we'll draw here SIPP, currently invested and sitting at £90.3K. Then she'll take her teachers pension five years later at 60- should be about £16 K per year.

We pan to buy the shortfall in NI years to max out the state pension.

All feels good at the moment and not missing the job one little bit.

regards

frugal90

frugal90 wrote: »

Right atush, our final numbers albeit an estimate for my tax rebate. Me 56 and wife 50.

Total portfolio £576 139 + two teachers pensions to come down the line.

We have to cover between now and May 2022 when my teachers pension kicks in. Should be just over £20 K pa and lump of £60K.

We plan to do this with cash holdings. I have a SIPP of £80K (in cash) which I will drawdown from the beginning of April 2019. I will draw down £26667 each year on a monthly basis which should net me about £2 K per month after tax.

We each have an ISA, mine £124107 and my wife's £128194- mostly income bearing IT's.

We are also holding £153000 in cash. We plan on taking £12k per year from this and maybe more for some adventures. If there is a crash then some of the cash will be used to buy income bearing Investment trusts.

At age 60 I'll use my pension and lump and cash to take us through to my wife hitting 55 when we'll draw here SIPP, currently invested and sitting at £90.3K. Then she'll take her teachers pension five years later at 60- should be about £16 K per year.

We pan to buy the shortfall in NI years to max out the state pension.

All feels good at the moment and not missing the job one little bit.

regards

Update on things.

Started drawing from my SIPP. Drawdown this year will be £26000, which have me an initial lump sum of £6500 and gives me just over £1500 each month. Next year will be a drawdown of £27000 then last year before teachers pension kicks in will be £28000.
Mrs Frugal SIPP still 80% invested and 20% cash and values at £95800.

My teachers pension has been valued at £21200 per year and £63600 lump sum. I start to draw that at age 60 in 2022. Mrs Frugal's teachers pension values at £18000 from age 60 and £54000 lump sum. Plan to draw this from 2028 so no actuarial reduction. SIPP from age 55. Hoping for between £18000 up to maybe £20000 per year to run this down.

Cash reserve is £122825 at the moment, between atom bank, NAI and current account.

My IS A at £152358 and Mrs Frugal at £158022

Total portfolio at the moment is £581605, up from £576139 just over a year ago.

Changed the car earlier this year. 3 year old Honda with 7000 miles on the clock. Total cost to change £6k.

Will buy extra NI years to max out state pension for both in future.

I need 5 years and Mrs Frugal 6 years.

Observations since last post:

Much happier, laugh more, blood pressure down significantly, time to listen to people, much more active and thus weight down.

Had a two month cycle through Europe this summer and currently enjoying warm weather training in warmer climes.

U3a is great in winter along with gym classes, decorating and day time walks (keeps SAD at bay).

Good luck everyone with your own journeys!

Johnnyboy11

I'd be tempted to start both DB pensions at age 55 and take the actuarial hit. Lots of reasons why...
The actuarial reduction is not supposed to be punitive.
You'll probably get a much higher return on your investments than the CPI uplift of your DB pensions.
You'll still have your investments to leave to someone in your will, and there are tax advantages too.
You'll still have your investments, which you can access if you ever want to.
You might pay less Income Tax overall, particularly when State Pensions kick in.
You could reduce the back-end loading of your retirement income when SP kicks in, and you might not need so much income as you get older.
Our circumstances are not dissimilar, and we're leaning towards starting the DB pensions at 55, then possibly heading off to Portugal or Cyprus for the tax breaks