Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

uk1

michaels wrote: »

Not sure if this is the thread for it but I was wondering how age of having children has impacted on putative early retirement dates. I didn't think I was a particularly old dad compared to most these days but when my youngest is 21 I will be 59. Do many manage to retire before their kids have been through uni?

I am still aiming for 55 but I suspect the kids may get extremely expensive come driving lesson/uni time. In the past there might have been financial benefits to not being earning and living off savings when the kids were at uni in terms of their funding but less so now?

I hate to sow the seeds of pessimism, but many parents find that supporting their kids goes on for a lot longer than simply education. This is even more true if they leave home.

The gig economy and zero hours work has hit many kids with uncertain earnings and low government support and this is when the bank of mum and dad unexpectedly continues.

in_my_wellies

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

So for me the period between 55 and 60 would have been the ideal time to give up or maybe do consulting work on an ad hoc basis. I also realised that every year after 60 is very precious because your own mortality starts to loom very large on the horizon. So even going 3/4 years earlier than planned will make a big difference to me.

I so agree with this. My OH was 10 years older than me so I always planned to retire at 55 together with him at 65. During his working life he would buy books and items for his hobby which he stored carefully 'for when I'm retired'. He did retire at 65 and collected his state pension for just 10 weeks before he died unexpectedly.
I worked out how much I needed to live on and when my pension calculation reached this sum I retired, my heart wasn't in it any more. I was 55 and 5 months.
I'd advise anyone not to wait but to DO IT NOW!

shinytop

am still aiming for 55 but I suspect the kids may get extremely expensive come driving lesson/uni time.

I can confirm they do. Don't forget car insurance too :eek: I think two factors that are big influences in when you can retire are (1) when you start your family and mortgage and (2) whether you get divorced. It's going to be a lot harder being retired with a big mortgage and/or dependent kids.

Personally, I started (1) age 26 and (2) hasn't happened (so far )

michaels

uk1 wrote: »

I hate to sow the seeds of pessimism, but many parents find that supporting their kids goes on for a lot longer than simply education. This is even more true if they leave home.

The gig economy and zero hours work has hit many kids with uncertain earnings and low government support and this is when the bank of mum and dad unexpectedly continues.

I suspect I am selfish enough that I would not put myself through extra years of work just so my kids could choose not to

happyandcontented

michaels wrote: »

Not sure if this is the thread for it but I was wondering how age of having children has impacted on putative early retirement dates. I didn't think I was a particularly old dad compared to most these days but when my youngest is 21 I will be 59. Do many manage to retire before their kids have been through uni?

I am still aiming for 55 but I suspect the kids may get extremely expensive come driving lesson/uni time. In the past there might have been financial benefits to not being earning and living off savings when the kids were at uni in terms of their funding but less so now?

Our youngest is 21 and graduates this year after a 4 year course, but there have been three more before him to get through driving lessons and university!

We are just beginning to see to see the benefits of not having to support them all! Holidays seem cheap when you are only paying for 2 as opposed to 6!

We plan to work another 18 months and in that time save to supplement the cash reserves, then both retire at 60 and travel on some long haul holidays.

in_my_wellies

MallyGirl wrote: »

I did quite a bit of Y2K work and, as a result, there were no issues with any of the systems I was involved in. I did, however, choose to spend millennium eve in the middle of nowhere in Wales, under no flight paths! Just in case others hadn't been as thorough!
It worked out well as OH got down on one knee at midnight and we have been married for 18 years now

Congratulations!
My brother is in IT and had total faith in all IT systems. He emigrated to New Zealand from Heathrow at 00.10 on 1-1-2000 and watched the fireworks from the plane. He was totally amazed that there were only 7 passengers on the plane

michaels

shinytop wrote: »

I can confirm they do. Don't forget car insurance too :eek: I think two factors that are big influences in when you can retire are (1) when you start your family and mortgage and (2) whether you get divorced. It's going to be a lot harder being retired with a big mortgage and/or dependent kids.

Personally, I started (1) age 26 and (2) hasn't happened (so far )

So the stats say they average age of fatherhood is 33 and motherhood is 30 so it seems to me that I am not going to be alone in having dependent kids well into my 50s which would appear to preclude retirement before this age. I also assume the average is impacted by two groups, those who leave education early and have kids young and those who go to university and have kids old so some sort of bimodal distribution with a large cohort of above average earners who have their kids older than this average.

happyandcontented

michaels wrote: »

I suspect I am selfish enough that I would not put myself through extra years of work just so my kids could choose not to

Yes, we are with you on that!

Fortunately, all of our older children are in good (relatively) secure jobs with their own homes and the youngest has a 4 year grad scheme on a decent salary starting in September so none of them is/will be financially dependent on us.

in_my_wellies

When my youngest was born my mother gave me cash to build a 4th bedroom. She said it would be much more use then, when we needed it, than in 30-40 years time and left in her will.
How right she was. I plan to do the same for my children when they start house hunting to get them off to a good start.
As an aside, mum lives with me now and uses the said bedroom so it was an especially good return on her investment.
Thanks for the breakdown of expenses, I shall work out and post mine later, on a much reduced scale

michaels

shinytop wrote: »

I can confirm they do. Don't forget car insurance too :eek: I think two factors that are big influences in when you can retire are (1) when you start your family and mortgage and (2) whether you get divorced. It's going to be a lot harder being retired with a big mortgage and/or dependent kids.

Personally, I started (1) age 26 and (2) hasn't happened (so far )

Our pension entitlement is highly skewed, there might be massive tax advantages to getting divorced on retirement and having the courts split the pension pot....