Plotting for an early retirement - anyone want to join me?

MallyGirl

I still have them all too - starting in 1985

Turtle

Me too, from 1991.

shinytop

I haven't had a paper pay slip, bank statement, utility or phone bill for years and have long since binned all the old ones. I thought I was normal!

westv

shinytop wrote: »

I haven't had a paper pay slip, bank statement, utility or phone bill for years and have long since binned all the old ones. I thought I was normal!

Same here.

crv1963

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

Mind you, I still have every payslip I have ever received since 1978. Is that weird or just good record keeping?

Snap, all of mine since 1980! I thought I was rich and well off on £35 pw when I started work. Which I was given the economic situation in 1980 and that I only had to pay my parents some board!

Think of them as social history- your great grandchildren will be amazed that you lived as well and bought a house on as little as they spend on a night out!

Edit: My sons can spend more on a single round than I earned in a week at their age!

Slinky

I found my old payslips from my first ever job today. All but 4 have been shredded, just kept enough to be able to prove NI contributions if required.


I'm planning the great escape from work, will be sometime this year between May to November. Depends on if we sell our house sooner rather than later, if at all. Whatever happens I'm stopping this year.

Mrs_Z

Hello, thought I post a little update for February as the month is almost up.
There were suggestions from the forum members to actually try out the retirement budget for real and although it's also been in my mind to do so, I decided to actually DO IT. Whow! It certainly clarified few things for me such as 1) that 'the figure' I have in mind and have based my calculations to live on pcm as an early retiree is NOT sufficient. It'll allow me to exist but not to 'live'. I would need to watch every penny. The expenditure for the month went on to minus in the region of about £200 due to an annual car insurance being due. Not a huge amount, and more of a cashflow issue perhaps, but it felt very uncomfortable. There was no extra expenditure on clothes and holidays with such a budget would definitely be out of the question. 2) my 'approximate spreadsheet' of monthly expenditure that I've been keeping for a year or so, turned out to be rather accurate in fact if the experiment is to go by. It was pretty much on the spot to the average figure of the spreadsheet.
3) It's easy to be 'relaxed' about couple of hundred pounds here or there - when you got it. When you haven't, it's a different ball game altogether. And a great source of anxiety (at least was for me).
So where does this leave me? I would definitely need to find a way to increase the monthly figure, either by working part-time (say 3 days per week would be fine), or find an alternative way to (substantially) increase the contents of the 'savings pot' to draw from.
Still, working say 3 days a week would be an acceptable compromise. The other difficulty which some have also mentioned is the mental switch from a saver into a spender. That will definitely take getting used to.
On the relocation front... need to finalise the accommodation arrangements next month and then the back and forth travelling will start.
How's everyone else been?

k6chris

Mrs_Z wrote: »

Hello, thought I post a little update for February as the month is almost up.
There were suggestions from the forum members to actually try out the retirement budget for real and although it's also been in my mind to do so, I decided to actually DO IT. Whow! It certainly clarified few things for me such as 1) that 'the figure' I have in mind and have based my calculations to live on pcm as an early retiree is NOT sufficient. It'll allow me to exist but not to 'live'. I would need to watch every penny. The expenditure for the month went on to minus in the region of about £200 due to an annual car insurance being due. Not a huge amount, and more of a cashflow issue perhaps, but it felt very uncomfortable. There was no extra expenditure on clothes and holidays with such a budget would definitely be out of the question. 2) my 'approximate spreadsheet' of monthly expenditure that I've been keeping for a year or so, turned out to be rather accurate in fact if the experiment is to go by. It was pretty much on the spot to the average figure of the spreadsheet.
3) It's easy to be 'relaxed' about couple of hundred pounds here or there - when you got it. When you haven't, it's a different ball game altogether. And a great source of anxiety (at least was for me).
So where does this leave me? I would definitely need to find a way to increase the monthly figure, either by working part-time (say 3 days per week would be fine), or find an alternative way to (substantially) increase the contents of the 'savings pot' to draw from.
Still, working say 3 days a week would be an acceptable compromise. The other difficulty which some have also mentioned is the mental switch from a saver into a spender. That will definitely take getting used to.
On the relocation front... need to finalise the accommodation arrangements next month and then the back and forth travelling will start.
How's everyone else been?

It's an eye opener isn't it! I still can't get my head around where all the money goes even though I know EXACTLY where every penny has gone over the last 24 months! There are really two questions; could we reduce spending on xxxxx and do we want to reduce spending on xxxxx? Well done for trying the experiment and sharing your findings.

JoeEngland

Mrs_Z wrote: »

Hello, thought I post a little update for February as the month is almost up.
There were suggestions from the forum members to actually try out the retirement budget for real and although it's also been in my mind to do so, I decided to actually DO IT. Whow! It certainly clarified few things for me such as 1) that 'the figure' I have in mind and have based my calculations to live on pcm as an early retiree is NOT sufficient. It'll allow me to exist but not to 'live'. I would need to watch every penny. The expenditure for the month went on to minus in the region of about £200 due to an annual car insurance being due. Not a huge amount, and more of a cashflow issue perhaps, but it felt very uncomfortable. There was no extra expenditure on clothes and holidays with such a budget would definitely be out of the question. 2) my 'approximate spreadsheet' of monthly expenditure that I've been keeping for a year or so, turned out to be rather accurate in fact if the experiment is to go by. It was pretty much on the spot to the average figure of the spreadsheet.
3) It's easy to be 'relaxed' about couple of hundred pounds here or there - when you got it. When you haven't, it's a different ball game altogether. And a great source of anxiety (at least was for me).
So where does this leave me? I would definitely need to find a way to increase the monthly figure, either by working part-time (say 3 days per week would be fine), or find an alternative way to (substantially) increase the contents of the 'savings pot' to draw from.
Still, working say 3 days a week would be an acceptable compromise. The other difficulty which some have also mentioned is the mental switch from a saver into a spender. That will definitely take getting used to.
On the relocation front... need to finalise the accommodation arrangements next month and then the back and forth travelling will start.
How's everyone else been?

How did you arrive at your PCM estimate? I've estimated the annual cost of all the essentials, then dividing that by 12 gives the average per month. In reality some bills aren't paid monthly so some months would be under or over the average. On top of that we have a budget for discretionary spending, then some contingency in the long term plan.

bluenose1

I have been trialling living on less than what my pension will be for the last year or so.

After paying bills and monthly food shop I give myself living money of £800 per month. Put £400 per month of this away to cover regular expenses- petrol, Netflix, contact lens subscription, birthdays, Christmas, meals out, clothes, union and phone subscription.
Budget cash of approx £50 per week which I spend on helping my dad out a bit with his budget and a couple of coffees etc.
On average I am spending about £600 - £700 per month.
I have really become quite frugal but not sure if the novelty of my "mindful" spending will wear thin over time.