Do we have enough for Early Retirement

downshifter98

We are in a pretty similar position. It's nice to run the numbers but sometimes you can play it too safe - life is short! So I always keep in mind our 'safety net' level and the minimum we would need to survive on (ie cover all the basics of living). The roof over your head is paid for so that's a big tick. Basically would the pensions (DB plus state) cover your real 'old age' living and clearly they will which leaves you drawing down from your savings pot (£350t) between now and the pensions - don't stress too much about preserving the capital; in the extreme unlikelihood it ran out you would be able to start the pensions. Life is short! (always worth repeating).

downshifter

May12

downshifter98 wrote: »

We are in a pretty similar position. It's nice to run the numbers but sometimes you can play it too safe - life is short! So I always keep in mind our 'safety net' level and the minimum we would need to survive on (ie cover all the basics of living). The roof over your head is paid for so that's a big tick. Basically would the pensions (DB plus state) cover your real 'old age' living and clearly they will which leaves you drawing down from your savings pot (£350t) between now and the pensions - don't stress too much about preserving the capital; in the extreme unlikelihood it ran out you would be able to start the pensions. Life is short! (always worth repeating).

downshifter

Thank you. I totally agree with you.

May12

kangoora wrote: »

I'm planning on retiring at much the same age in a couple of years time, with very similar savings and forecast outgoings.

Looks OK to me on my spreadsheet, utilising (drawdown + savings + DW wage) to get to 60, then (lesser drawdown + DB pension + DW drawdown) to get to SP age.

4% withdrawal on £350k (minus £50k for camper van) gives £1k/month, with your £800 you'd be a little short of the £2k but you could easily drawdown extra and deplete savings a bit to get you to his DB pension age, at which point it will be plain sailing @ £2.5k income/month before tax just on the DB pension alone. Presumably he'll get his SP one (or maybe 2) years after his DB pension also and you'll also have what's left of your SIPP/savings.

I had assumed not touching the capital when I ran my numbers initially. On closer look, it meant I was delaying retiring unnecessarily and my income at 67+ would have been a lot higher than <67 due to SP, especially when DW qualified for hers. So, I redid figures based on drawing down capital and knocked 2 years off my forecast retirement date.

Only you can make the final decision (or him ) but looks to me like you'll be fine. You don't mention any potential for downsizing or possibly inheritances, if these are possible then you potentially have a good emergency fund.

Thank you for your advise. We will certainly downsize. It does not make sense to me that to keep so much money in a property and we don't need 4 bed detached house for 2 of us.

Hope you all the best with your retirement plan.

robin61

madeinireland wrote: »

I'm in a similar position to the OP - maybe slightly better - and I think you will be fine.

I plan to retire in a couple of months - six months short of 55 but I will have a redundancy payment as well which helps.

I suggest putting all your info into https://www.retireeasy.com as I found that to be a really useful tool to help plan for retirement. Once you have all all your info in - which takes a while - you can play around with the numbers to help you plan.

Good luck !

Congratulations on making your escape. I agree about the retireeasy website. Very useful and easy to use.

Brightspark87

Good morning

Can I suggest that you see an IFA and look at something called Cash Flow Modelling? I do this with lots of clients and mainly it makes them see how much they can afford to spend rather than the doom and gloom of not having enough to retire! Really great information and although you may have to pay some ££ for it, worth it in the long run.

bigadaj

Brightspark87 wrote: »

Good morning

Can I suggest that you see an IFA and look at something called Cash Flow Modelling? I do this with lots of clients and mainly it makes them see how much they can afford to spend rather than the doom and gloom of not having enough to retire! Really great information and although you may have to pay some ££ for it, worth it in the long run.

If you are an ifa then you should declare this in your footer.

Cash flow modelling isn't difficult, and to be undertaken sensibly needs an appreciation of risk, both from an investment input perspective and flexibility in terms of how much people can flex their spend to take account of variations in income.

Not a concern with final salary schemes or the old fashioned option of an annuity, but risk and reward are inherently related.

madeinireland_2

soperman wrote: »

Hi MadeInIreland

Thanks for the mention but the site address is https://www.retireeasy.co.uk (not.com).

Changing subjects, my wife has found some Irish in her and we have tickets for 2 of the Ireland Rugby matches and she has bought the shirt!!

Whoops sorry - I just access from a link now so don't need to enter the full address.

I'm insanely jealous that you have those tickets. Have a nice time!!!

madeinireland_2

robin61 wrote: »

Congratulations on making your escape. I agree about the retireeasy website. Very useful and easy to use.

Thanks Robin61 - if you are in TSO there is a new scheme coming out on Monday which I think I will be going for. I'm running the numbers this weekend.

robin61

madeinireland wrote: »

Thanks Robin61 - if you are in TSO there is a new scheme coming out on Monday which I think I will be going for. I'm running the numbers this weekend.

I am not unfortunately. But I think unless there was a better deal than the usual 9 months on offer personally I would probably like to put in another 16 months before going (not that I am counting). If a better deal was on the table then I would go earlier. After nearly 38 years I think I can probably manage another 16 months. Hopefully just a matter of keeping my head down and being patient. I think when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel it helps take a bit of the pressure off psychologically.

Best of luck with the numbers this weekend.

May12

Hello everyone, Thank you very much for all comments and advise.

Just give you some updates of our situation:

Hubby took the voluntary redundancy when the opportunity came up. So at 54 he just becomes a pensioner without pension.

I am still doing part-time art design from home, I try to do a few hours a day. My income has improved a lot (about £2000 to £3000 a month depends how hard I work .

So at the moment, hubby will not draw the pension, we will wait and how it is going.

I have not done the figure yet. I will try to update the figure soon.

All best.