Retiring early

Litchielou

Yes, also need to be finished by mid march 2 of our grandogs George and Cookie coming to stay for 10 days. The latter is only a puppy so will need eyes in the back of my head.
At least if it's nice weather I can leave the back door open for them to come in and out between walks. xx

LameWolf

I was forced to take medical retirement a long time ago, aged 41, having been on sick leave for two years, I'm now 56. DH retired last March, aged 66.

We have been amazed at how little we actually spend now that we don't have to buy petrol for him to do a 64 mile round trip every day, (nowadays a tankful lasts best part of a month) and "decent"shirts and trousers for the office (he lives in jeans and t-shirts these days). I'm also doing less washing because he used to have a clean shirt every day and clean work trousers every 2 days, and change into jeans and a t-shirt when he got home.

Heating costs have remained the same because I was here all day in any case.

One thing we've noticed: his work pension is paid calendar monthly, and his state pension every 4 weeks, which makes it difficult to tie everything up to a monthly budget. So I always put the state pension on "hold" ie don't include it in the "money available for use" til the end of the month, no matter when it comes in. This means about once a year there will be a month when he gets 2 lots of SP; one right at the beginning, and another, 28 days later, right at the end - the "extra" one will be added to his savings when that occurs.

Goldiegirl

I agree about the petrol, recently we've only needed to fill up once every six weeks.

My husband started getting his state pension in October, and after a lifetime of monthly pay, it is a bit confusing to suddenly have a payment coming in every four weeks. I've adopted a similar approach to Lamewolf. The month with 2 payments is coming up in March, so that'll be a bumper month for savings.

Wicked_Lady

It's a great time of year to be finishing LitchieLou with Spring just around the corner and the lighter evenings approaching.


I'm one of those who've had their State Pension age adjusted twice but I retired (early?!) at age 60 and then did a bit of temp work for a couple of years. Finally stopped work Easter 2016 and I currently have another 2 years to wait for my State Pension.


Wishing you all the best in your retirement and will be watching with interest to see how you get on.

Dia_Pita

My OH was made redundant in August 2016 at 54 (now 55), so we decided that I at 56 (now 57) would take early retirement and handed my 8 weeks notice in at work. Two weeks prior to my leaving date I was dithering should I leave my job or not, going into the unknown. Then heard that a close childhood friend who was the same age as me, had died of an aneurism.


Dithering over, we are enjoying being at home together, having time do all the things we never had time to do, not everything costs money. We also get to see the new grandchild of 5 months nearly every day, which is the best thing ever.


We also have more time to see our grown up children (DS & two DD's) and their families on a regular basis. Also see MIL who lives over 60 miles away on a regular basis. At first I felt as though I was playing hookey from work lol

moneyistooshorttomention

I seem to recall that having the State pension paid every 4 weeks is their default option - but it was possible to opt for it coming in weekly instead? I would have thought it's possible for people to get it changed from 4 weekly to weekly even after payment of it has commenced.

One way or another - mine is coming in weekly - as I felt it would make my budgeting work out more easily.

So - my job pension is monthly. I pay the direct debits for bills/Council Tax/etc out of that and figure that what is left over after that is "mine" to do as I decide with. Reason being that I take the money I require to live "week to week" - food/social life/etc out of the State part of my pension as it comes in.

It makes it easier to see what money I actually have available for me after dealing with the basic necessities. I can safely spend up to the last penny of my work pension - knowing that it will be a maximum of 6 days before some money comes into my account again.

As I'm (still) not financially straight yet - then its easiest for me to "sweep up" leftover money in my bank account every few months or so and get whatever is next on The List (as I call it) of things still to get (eg work to do on the house/savings to replenish/etc).

LameWolf

I think personal budgeting is a very individual thing - what suits one wouldn't suit someone else. I am so used to working on a monthly budget that I wouldn't want weekly payments.

We have separate bank accounts (long story - short version is we both got taken to the cleaners by our respective Ex's) but I'm "in charge" of the household finances.

I've already said how I deal with Mr LW's money, (he's happy to leave it to me to do), but my own money comes in in strange ways too; my job pension is calendar monthly, ESA is fortnightly, and PIP is four-weekly. I use the pension for day-to-day living - the way we split it is he covers the Direct Debits, and I buy groceries etc. PIP I put by for my medical needs (next expense will be a new hearing aid, as mine is 7 years old and needs replacing - that'll be north of £1500 :eek: and my prescription pre-payment will need renewing soon) and ESA I put in savings.

I am happy to say that we are debt-free and mortgage-free. :T

Caterina

Just my bit: do it, retire as soon as you can possibly afford it, and live life to the full!

My DH had planned to work long after his retirement age, to see a project he was working on to completion, which was to be finished sometimes in 2017. But there was the option of staying on for part 2 of the project, so potentially he could have been working for several years more.

He was born in 1951 so would have been 66+ by the time the main project ended. This caused many an argument, I said I had worked hard all my life and looked after my family, but really wanted to spend some free retirement time with him before we got too old and health issues might have come in the way of having a jolly good time travelling etc.

Two years ago he started having speech difficulties and last year he was diagnosed with a life-limiting, incurable neurological condition, and after being on sick leave for a long time he was forced to retire for medical reasons, age 65.

However, he is happier than he has ever been. Mercifully his illness is not progressing fast, he only has a speech impediment but the rest of his body (so far, may it last!) has not been affected. He lives life to the full, does so many things that give him pleasure, he has since got his black belt in his beloved martial art, has run the Great North Run half marathon and got a lot of sponsorship for the charity that researches into his illness. He is doing an art class that he loves, goes out to the allotment regularly and lives better than he has ever lived while in work. He is an active volunteer in our church and even volunteers to do bits and pieces of design (he was an architect in his career) so he is keeping his mind occupied and active. In spite of his slowed speech, he is happy and does not miss work a bit, in fact I have never seen him so relaxed and content.

Sometimes we are so used to being on the work treadmill that thinking about getting off seems a very scary thing. Also financially, so scary not to have a full salary! But anyone on this board will confirm that life is so much cheaper when you are not working than when you are in a job, especially for people after a certain age, with grown up kids who no longer live at home.

Retire, enjoy your life, have the best time of your life. As many others have said, and I can only add through my DH's experience, we don't know what's around the corner, live for now!

Best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

LameWolf

Caterina wrote: »

he is happy and does not miss work a bit, in fact I have never seen him so relaxed and content.

That says it all! :T:T:T

Farway

LameWolf wrote: »

. PIP I put by for my medical needs (next expense will be a new hearing aid, as mine is 7 years old and needs replacing - that'll be north of £1500 :eek: and my prescription pre-payment will need renewing soon) and ESA I put in savings.

LW, not sure but would you be eligible for NHS hearing aids? Personal choice of course, maybe you prefer private, but I and others have NHS and they are same digital ones these days, not just amplify all sounds but individually tuned to boost specific problem with hearing frequencies

I find birds now chirp & keys jangle again :T