Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

uk1

happyandcontented wrote: »

I am not sure I wholly agree with you.

We have fully financially supported all of ours through education to the stage they wanted to study to (Law Practice Cert, Masters, PhD, PGCE etc)and they all chose their own paths but we did make it clear to them that they needed to choose 'careers' with prospects, not just a subject to study at university without any clear cut idea of how it would be used or in what field.

I don't really buy into the 'not of their own choice' school of thought. I think it is more about advance planning and foresight as to what is likely to be the path to earn them a decent living in an area that they are interested in and can hopefully enjoy.

Obviously, some children have issues which preclude doing any of the above and will need support for much longer but generally, I think many are 'allowed' to drift into jobs which they are not suited for or to study subjects which lead nowhere.

I also accept that relationship breakups/job loss can cause issues and support may be required in those circumstances.

I suspect that this may not be a popular view, but as a family, it has worked for us.

You seem to be contradicting me and agreeing with me in the same post.

enthusiasticsaver

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?

Yes I suspect that having kids does impact on retirement dates. We overpaid into my husbands pension from his early 20s as he travelled a lot and did long hours. We were aiming for him to retire at 60 and for me to go part time when we had kids and work until my DH was 60 and I was 59. We had kids in our mid 20s and the next plan was repay the mortgage by the time they went to Uni which we did. Otherwise we could have retired then if we had not had kids or decided not to help them with cars, Uni, house deposits and weddings. We would have been 55 and 54 then. As it was we helped our kids up to and beyond uni until they had bought houses and then retired at 58 and 57 as our investments and pensions were sufficient to cover our living expenses, holidays etc. We are still helping our kids now though with childcare for grandkids.

happyandcontented

uk1 wrote: »

You seem to be contradicting me and agreeing with me in the same post.

I meant that I don't necessarily agree that life is harsher for our kids.

I think it may be for some, but I also think that much of that is down to lack of guidance, and their own lack of planning and foresight.

justme111

You don't need to feel you have to run down your money to 0, otherwise it would be lost - I am sure there are worthwhile people in your life that would remember you with gratitude or charities for worthwhile causes..

uk1

happyandcontented wrote: »

I meant that I don't necessarily agree that life is harsher for our kids.

I think it may be for some, but I also think that much of that is down to lack of guidance, and their own lack of planning and foresight.

Unless you are contorting my post into meaning that I suggested it was tougher for every one of our kids then your view is bewildering.

When we were younger less than 10% of our kids earned degrees and now there are more than 50% with degrees competing with each other for pretty much the same number oif professional careers. In order to make this happen we converted all Polytechnics to Universities. When Universities became money making businesses they produced courses they made students into customers and to achieve revenue success produced courses that were attractive to kids but that were unlikely to result in work. How many dancers and media graduates do we need? We created that situation and illusion for them and they did not.

Also, some of us were also lucky enough to be starting our work in a time of full emplyment and careers without zero hour contracts. We "worked our way up". We also created a DWP that enjoy dispensing sanctions to our kids.

These factors aren't a matter of their own lack of planning or foresight but a background our generation created for them in the mistaken belief that by creating the illusion that no one failed and everyone was clever, we were doing them and their "self-esteem" a favour.

My point is that I would not see my kids either homeless or without food and I would have to feel enormously agrieved by their behaviour to not support them as you seem to suggest you would do.

I cannot see why you cannot agree with the generalisation that we have basically made things tougher for our kids.:)

Brod

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?
....

Thank you, you've made me work out that I will be 69 when my youngest is 21.


:shocked::shocked::shocked:

in_my_wellies

Brod wrote: »

Thank you, you've made me work out that I will be 69 when my youngest is 21.


:shocked::shocked::shocked:

My son was 19 when his dad died suddenly aged 65. Fortunately he had a pension which paid 1/3 to me and 1/3 to child/ren until he finished uni. Fortunately he had started a 4 year course so it lasted until the end. My daughter took a gap year between Yr 3 and Masters and so didn't qualify.

**Lesson learned if the grades are good enough enrol for 4 years so funding continues - can always stop after 3 years but adding a 4th year is tricky and often self funded.

bugslet

Thorsson wrote: »

I see that my challenge to hear from some who retired early some time ago (to get a longer term perspective) only garnered one answer and that was only 7 years and OH was still working, so not really what I was after.

.

Thorsson, IIRC, gfplux, often found debating on the Economics board, retired early about 20 years ago.

You could try and find him and drop him a PM?

Post 1655 so you can click on his name

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5934401/if-there-is-a-second-referendum&page=83

Thorsson

uk1 wrote: »

These factors aren't a matter of their own lack of planning or foresight but a background our generation created for them in the mistaken belief that by creating the illusion that no one failed and everyone was clever, we were doing them and their "self-esteem" a favour.

Was that our generation? I've never believed it and my childen don't believe it either. I thought that view was a bit more recent.

As far as being worse off, I don't know about everyone, all I can do is compare those I know.
What's tougher: 1) Paying to go to Uni rather than being paid; 2) The cost of housing.
What's easier: 1) The cost of mortgages; 2) The support they've had.

I don't really accept that it's harder to get a job - there are a lot more professional jobs now than there used to be. Sure there are a lot of people that get second rate degrees from second rate universities, but back then they were called Technical Colleges and Polytechnics. The majority left school at 15 with no qualifications - they worked their way up because they started at the bottom.

Sure there are challenges these days that we didn't have, such as not being sucked in by the 5 minute celebrity culture, but there are also things that they have happily missed, like houses without a bathroom or an indoor toilet. And Engelbert Humperdinck.

Every generation has its challenges - they're just different.

MallyGirl

I'd forgotten (!) that I went part time till DD was 10 so that would have had an impact on retirement dates. The mortgage would be paid off now but we have chosen to address the imbalance between OH and my pensions by me sal sac'ing 45% of my salary into my pension for a few years. It keeps me just under HRT. It does mean the mortgage has actually gone up (the joys of a flexible mortgage) but we could pay it off tomorrow with savings & ISAs if we had to. Too risky for some but the 42% tax/NI boost is worth it to us.