Regret retiring too early with not enough money?

Techno

Me too I pop in every day. Well 18 working weeks tomorrow until we take semi-retirement (2 days per week for me and 3 for DH). We did umm and ahh about packing in completely but as I'll be 55 and DH 56 this seems a nice compromise - more time to do the things we want to but an income coming in so we don't need to pull down our savings too early. As we are both teachers we will get paid until the end of August so I am currently doing an OPen University finance course to make sure all my plans stack up. Doing an NVQ in food prep and cooking then the following year we are considering doing a ski season!
So glad everyone is happy! ��

AnotherJoe

jennyjj wrote: »

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.

)

What about me? JFDI-ing it in ....... hmmmm...... 138 days

Deneb

AnotherJoe wrote: »

What about me? JFDI-ing it in ....... hmmmm...... 138 days

80 for me

beaker141

A ski season - now theres an idea !

Browntoa

I'm hoping to retire this time next year , fully paid up Final Salary scheme and mortgage paid off


I'm looking to do the exotic holidays and get an old classic car for a few years (if im lucky the value goes up , worse case ill break even )


I'm also looking to do part time work like exam invigilator , friend does it at £8-10 an hour and it tends to be regular work over the year as they also use them for mock exams as well now. I don't want to actually stop work full stime , I just want to stop the long commute and stress of my current job

AnotherJoe

Browntoa wrote: »

I'm hoping to retire this time next year , fully paid up Final Salary scheme and mortgage paid off

I'm looking to do the exotic holidays and get an old classic car for a few years (if im lucky the value goes up , worse case ill break even )

I'm also looking to do part time work like exam invigilator , friend does it at £8-10 an hour and it tends to be regular work over the year as they also use them for mock exams as well now. I don't want to actually stop work full time , I just want to stop the long commute and stress of my current job

Good on you but why not planning rather than hoping?

Browntoa

I'm hoping to get a redundancy package before I go so the dates a bit fluid , I suppose planning by September 2018 but Hoping to go by March 2018

AnotherJoe

Browntoa wrote: »

I'm hoping to get a redundancy package before I go so the dates a bit fluid , I suppose planning by September 2018 but Hoping to go by March 2018

Ah that I understand, good luck. That's my hope also though my plans don't depend on it, but I think it's not going to happen, time is running out.

Popgirl

This is a question I battle with on a daily basis hence the reason why my husband and I haven't taking early retirement as yet although we are taking big step towards doing so. I play around with the numbers on spreadsheets and savings drawdown calculators frequently mapping out different scenarios and 95% of the time I think yes lets retire we have a big enough pot and a good strategy in place for the money to last a lifetime it's just that 5% doubt that is stopping me (not DH he would retire tomorrow). The doubt is all about our age as DH and I are only in our mid/ late 40's so the the pot and BTL income needs to last beyond the 15/18 years before our state and work pensions start (not planning to take any work pension at 55).

After keeping s spending diary for a few years now DH and I are confident we can live very comfortably on £20k a year as we plan to live 6 months of each year abroad in our holiday home where cost of living is cheaper generally. Frugal living for us would be £16k a year but we don't want to do frugal.

Our current pot is a combination of Shares, S&S ISA's , Investment Bonds total amount £350k
DH SIPP £26k
Trust £130k unable to access for sometime to come
Cash easy access £15k

Our savings haven't grown over the last few years as we have spend a large amount of money renovating our holiday home and helping our children

I have a current DB pension with a yearly expected income of £14k at 65
DH has a couple of small DC pensions with a estimated yearly pension of £6k at 60
SP forecast is £14k combined would need to continue to pay NI for 8 more years between us to get full SP

Once retired our monthly income would mainly come from 2 BTL properties which would be £1600 a month so we know we will need to drawdown a small amount from our pot each year to reach £20k. We do have mortgages on the BTL's but if all goes to plan we will sell the more valuable BTL in the future pay both mortgages off and be able to add £80k to the pot. At this stage we would need to increase the drawdown if we chose to sell before our pensions start.

On paper today our figures and plans seem doable to us but that small doubt won't go away! A lot can change in 15+ years

robin61

Popgirl wrote: »

On paper today our figures and plans seem doable to us but that small doubt won't go away! A lot can change in 15+ years

I guess most of us go through this thinking if we work another year or two we will have that bit more. For me a lot will depend on how work is going. If I'm feeling that I'm hating the job and am really stressed then that will be the sign for me to go. There is no point retiring with a bit more money but with your health shot to bits because of stress. Different decision if work is going OK.

What I would say though is that being confident I could retire if I needed to is now allowing me to think about work with a different perspective.