Best time of year to retire?

Shedman

What's your pension schemes rules about what Final Pensionable Salary (FPS) is based on e.g salary in final year, best of last 5 years, average of best 3 years in last 5 years, etc. If your current salary is the most advantageous it may be worth staying through to complete at least a full Scheme Year (often 1 April to 31 March but could be different) otherwise it might not be used as part of the FPS. It isn't always clear in the scheme booklets about this.

On the other hand a former colleague found that, as he had had his best salary year 5 and half years ago (by quite a margin as he downgraded job) and FPS is based on best year in final 5 years, he was actually better to go before end of March so that this highest salary year wasn't ruled out due to the current year coming into play and pushing it out of the 5 year rule.

I personally found going at end of May best for me. Earned enough to use PA, got some NI credited plus had the good weather to look forward to and plenty of outside jobs to get on with to keep me occupied. I certainly found the first winter retired quite hard (apart from not getting up in the dark :j ) so I was glad I had had summer to adjust to not going to work.