Early Pension Access

kidmugsy

Malthusian wrote: »

Marry someone 5 years older than you and put money into their pension.

At last, a constructive comment.

ermine

atush wrote: »

And also make sure you have enough extra to pay off any mtg on your home.

But preferably do this from the pension commencement lump sum of your pension (after 55) so you pay off the mortgage capital from gross income.

I paid off my mortgage around 50 which was a bad move. It meant I was a lot poorer between retiring early at 52 to 55, and conversely have more now. I should have kept the mortgage and used the net income I used to overpay it to pay more into the pension and used the pension to discharge the mortgage after 55.

atush

In which case you still need to save that much more, as the TFLS usually provides a capital slump that you can draw from when emergencies happen, when you have large payements to make such as a new car etdc.

If you use all the TFLS to pay off a mtg, you dont have a slump fund so need to build one via cash or S&S isas etc.

It also means carrying a mtg 5 year into retirement as we are speaking of retireing before age 55, at 50.

LHW99

Best to pack the ISA(s) with as much spare as possible, which can be used tax-free to cover the gap between 50 & 55.
But remember that if the pension is DB, then its likely that the annual amount available at 55 will be reduced considerably, since most schemes have designated RA's of 60 / 65 (or later now) and will have an actuarial reduction applied if taken early.

Alexland

Rather than packing an ISA for early retirement there may be more benefit by sticking more money into a pension (especially if you can save national insurance and/or 40% tax) and living off debt (as long as you are certain to get access to it?) for a few years until the pension can be drawn to repay. Just watch out for the lifetime allowance or drawing so much in the first year to repay debt you end up paying 40% tax. If you are going to do this you might want to gradually move some of your pension into cash in anticipation of a withdrawal to minimise the risk of taking a lump sum when markets are low.

I loved the suggestion to marry someone older - have just realised that's what my wife did!