Regret retiring too early with not enough money?

marlot

Bmth100 wrote: »

Oh mate, I turn 30 in a month and long for retirement; just 25-35 years to go! ��

Most of us were in your position 20 years or so ago. I've been saving 50% or more of my salary for a long time now, just so that I could make these choices in my early 50s.

When I was made redundant 4 years ago, I was nearly there. The savings buffer meant that I could take a job at 50% of my old salary, and still stay roughly on track.

Keep your eye on the bigger goal, but work out what makes you happy - it doesn't have to revolve around money. Family, the countryside, hobbies etc. And if you can find a job that you love, so much the better.

Triumph13

Bmth100 wrote: »

Oh mate, I turn 30 in a month and long for retirement; just 25-35 years to go! 😂

Not necessarily, try googling "The shockingly simple math behind early retirement" and you'll find you do have choices...but they may not be ones you'd be prepared to take!

michaels

Some stats on the BBC website - the average pension household income after tax/benefits is £21770 - less than most on this thred seem to be aiming for....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38568288

MacMickster

michaels wrote: »

Some stats on the BBC website - the average pension household income after tax/benefits is £21770 - less than most on this thred seem to be aiming for....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38568288

So average household income is about £1814 per month.

That equates to a little over £40 per day plus bills - pretty much what Mrs M and I find that we are spending and living quite nicely on (having budgeted for £50). Maybe I should change my username to MacAverage.

Bmth100

marlot wrote: »

Most of us were in your position 20 years or so ago. I've been saving 50% or more of my salary for a long time now, just so that I could make these choices in my early 50s.

When I was made redundant 4 years ago, I was nearly there. The savings buffer meant that I could take a job at 50% of my old salary, and still stay roughly on track.

Keep your eye on the bigger goal, but work out what makes you happy - it doesn't have to revolve around money. Family, the countryside, hobbies etc. And if you can find a job that you love, so much the better.

Yes indeed, sometimes I feel silly for coming on these forums and having so much interest in threads like these - it drives my family nuts when I mention retirement with so far to go.

Not wishing my life away by any means, but want to prepare just in case my wife and I do live a long time.

Opened an S&S ISA this month and have been fiddling with that + pensions calculations in Excel. It surprised me how quickly interest compounds.

Malthusian

michaels wrote: »

Some stats on the BBC website - the average pension household income after tax/benefits is £21770 - less than most on this thred seem to be aiming for....

Not many people on this thread will be unskilled labourers or the unemployable so that doesn't surprise me.

seacaitch

Bmth100 wrote: »

Yes indeed, sometimes I feel silly for coming on these forums and having so much interest in threads like these - it drives my family nuts when I mention retirement with so far to go.

Not wishing my life away by any means, but want to prepare just in case my wife and I do live a long time.

I made it my goal to 'not to have to work for a living if I didn't want to' (by gaining financial independence) aged 17 at around the time I was taking my A level mock exams.

I didn't fixate upon this goal, but it informed various decisions I took over the years. A background plan rather than an obsession.

Long term planning is useful, so long as you remain flexible in order to accommodate life's winding path, which will throw both good things and bad at you along the way. Such a plan does not imply mundanity either: by seeing where you currently are in relation to your goals may allow you to better assess any higher risk/return life opportunities that may come along from time to time. Take attractive looking risks that don't threaten the core goal, that sort of thing, ie. risk management applied to life.

Wenlock

michaels wrote: »

Some stats on the BBC website - the average pension household income after tax/benefits is £21770 - less than most on this thred seem to be aiming for....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38568288

That is 3 times the amount I easily live on.

I am single though!

ianthy

Your question is the same one that I have been trying to answer for years. Sometimes I feel like we have been saving for retirement all our lives .... my OH calls it jam tomorrow. Now that we are reaching the age when we would like to stop it does feel like the plans are finally paying off. As previously mentioned - you can travel cheaply and make savings on essentials. I will happily rummage in a charity shop for the odd bargain and recycle/ebay where I can. We will be comfortable in retirement but it doesn't mean that we won't have to budget and watch the pennies. What about a phased retirement go down to a few days a week and see how it really feels.

jennyjj

I love this thread.
I look in on this topic every day waiting for someone to pop up and say "I retired too early and I regret it". And all I see is a bunch of us confirming that it's never regretted and another bunch of people saying "Plan to retire in xxx months: Maybe just one more year"

To that latter group I say. JFDI.

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