I want to retire early

XRAT

Hi Molly,
I retired in 2015, I kept a budget knew what my likely expenses were and did the maths.
I made the assumption that no benefits are guaranteed to last (including the state pension) any government could remove them at any time.
Most importantly I decided that whilst it would be nice if I could retire early, I did not want to be forced back to work at 90 having run out of money. Good luck with your plans.

Molly4

Thank you for your message. It is nice to get some friendly advice. I hope your enjoying your retirement whatever age you are. I hope I won't be too old and tired to enjoy mine when the time does come.


Regards

weenie15

molly57. wrote: »

Perhaps I could work from home as well as keeping my job or taking on a new part-time job. Any ideas that are legal, clean and don't pay peanuts per hour?

Have you considered matched betting? Not everyone's cup of tea but could compliment your part-time work as something you could do at home and bring in tax-free profits.

Here's the original forum thread, if you fancy a read: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/325861

cats_123

Do you own your own property? Is there any equity to release?

ejbg2001

Hi Molly, some people on the forums have discussed pensions and retiring. One I picked up on was where a poster knew what pension/PT income they would have (or at least an approximation of it) and they then lived on that amount in preparation. The excess money was then put into their pension and other savings, clearing debts and mortgages etc. As a result they knew how to manage what little they had, they got a little extra in their pension pot and they didn't need to worry about big bills. Why not try living on that amount for a couple of months to see what you need, what you can do without and what changes (like downsizing etc) that you will need to make in order to make early retirement a reality.

I hope this helps.

grimbler

The word troll is coming to mind are you an SJW trying to make a propaganda point??

wiggers

The first thing to do is work out how much your expenses are. The MSE Budgeting spreadsheet is very good for working this out. Include everything, including things you only buy every few years, new phone, car that kind of thing (divided by the number of years).

Then work out what you would save by retiring, not travelling to work, expensive sandwich & coffee at lunchtime, that kind of thing.

Once you know what your total expenses in retirement will be you can then see how that might be funded. Until you start getting the State Pension you will need to cover that also, although maybe you can put off larger purchases and make other savings in the short term.

As a previous post mentioned, see if you can live as frugally as possible for a few years and save like mad into a pension pot, ISA or SIPP, something like that. Make full use of any work pension where they match your voluntary contribution. If for example they will contribute up to 10% if you contribute 5% then make sure you're giving it the full 5%. If you're getting less than the maximum employer contribution you're throwing away free money!

The Escape Artist has lots of good blog posts on early retirement and investing:
https://theescapeartist.me/

Lois_Lane

Triumph13 wrote: »

As a way to make your 'pipe dream' more exciting and if you don't have family ties keeping you where you are, have you considered heading off into the sunset and being a beach bum in a low cost of living country(ies) for a couple of years to help your money stretch? If you are a home owner and can rent your house out for a year or two, then that would probably cover your living expenses in some places. Planning your trip might also make your job a bit more bearable in the short term!

This is a great idea, you could live in a camper van.

syco1

It is possible to live on a minimal amount of money, it depends what your expectations of a decent life are. I became too I'll to work and get around £128 a week on what is now ESA. That hasn't gone up for nearly 4 years. My wife worked part time but also became ill and was forced to give up her job, and she isn't entitled to anything but was expecting her pension and bus pass at 60, but now that is 66. We have modest savings so don't qualify for any council tax relief or income support, and to be frank, the way you are treated by DWP and councils means we wouldn't claim anyway. So we live off £128, don't have central heating on, and stay in bed with the occasional hot water bottle. TV is our entertainment, and at least we get free prescriptions. Expecting my ESA to be stopped soon, not sure what we will do then. Suffering from autism as well as physical problems, I can't bring myself to deal with DWP anymore. Probably die in bed...But at least we have funeral plans paid for.

jamesd

You appear to be 55 or older so you can pay money I to a pension and take out the 25% tax free lump sum a few weeks later, leaving the remaining 75% in a drawdown account. Take even a penny of taxable money and your annual allowance for pension contributions will be reduced to £10k, likely soon to £4k.

You can also pay up to £10,000 gross into a pension and take everything in the pension out under the small pots rule without causing the reduction. You can do this up to three times per lifetime. Must be everything in the pot and must be no more than £10k.

As well as the annual allowance you are also limited to paying no more than your gross pay into pensions each tax year.

Either of these options effectively makes 25% of your pay tax free. Probably all of it if you can afford to wait until you can withdraw the taxable part within your income tax personal allowance.