Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

MallyGirl

michaels wrote: »

I too much prefer time to money. One question is the home insurance sounds surprisingly high, your CT is double ours, your utilities about the same but our buildings and contents insurance is only about £200pa?

Well this thread might have saved the Mally household from a massive disaster. I thought I would check what our insurance cost was only to discover that OH paid the renewal last time (very unusual) and he did it in October 2016. It seems we have not had building or contents insurance since 1/11/2017 :eek:
Luckily nothing has happened to need it since. I have taken out a new policy today and it came in at £989.80 (with £57.75 TCB to come). Unlimited buildings and contents doesn't come cheap but I have no idea how much it would cost to rebuild (Victorian detached, orangery and coach house) and I know that the cost to replace contents would exceed £70k as I once walked from room to room and totted it all up very roughly.

AlanP_2

MallyGirl wrote: »

Luckily nothing has happened to need it since. I have taken out a new policy today and it came in at £989.80 (with £57.75 TCB to come). Unlimited buildings and contents doesn't come cheap but I have no idea how much it would cost to rebuild (Victorian detached, orangery and coach house) and I know that the cost to replace contents would exceed £70k as I once walked from room to room and totted it all up very roughly.

That is a shocking amount but I guess rebuild costs might be high as you suggest.

We have a 4-5 bed detached and pay less than £300 a year for Building & Contents.

Ganga

MallyGirl wrote: »

Well this thread might have saved the Mally household from a massive disaster. I thought I would check what our insurance cost was only to discover that OH paid the renewal last time (very unusual) and he did it in October 2016. It seems we have not had building or contents insurance since 1/11/2017 :eek:
Luckily nothing has happened to need it since. I have taken out a new policy today and it came in at £989.80 (with £57.75 TCB to come). Unlimited buildings and contents doesn't come cheap but I have no idea how much it would cost to rebuild (Victorian detached, orangery and coach house) and I know that the cost to replace contents would exceed £70k as I once walked from room to room and totted it all up very roughly.

I am sure i read something by Martin Lewis that re-building costs are a lot less than what people actually paid for their property.

fred246

My house insurance cost less than £100 for the year. Unlimited buildings and £75000 contents. I always put the excess up to maximum (£1100). It was so cheap that I find it hard to trust. We seem to live in a cheap area for insurance.

Kevin_Draper

Thanks for posting. It's a useful sanity check to see how other people budget.
We just UPSIZED (yes I know) to a nicer house in a better area but with room for grandkids to stay over and space for hobbies. Crafting, DIY, office, keep fit, guitar playing... I retired at 57 with a good redundancy settlement +DB +my wife's SP. My biggest bug is (still) wanting to do some part time work, but fitting it round holidays, gym, etc. I'm currently doing blog writing. Is anyone else struggling with NEED TO WORK (A LITTLE)?

Stirfry

I retired 3 years ago and am receiving a small DB pension. Sold family home and moved to a smaller property. OH was meant to retire but has decided is not yet ready despite two hours being added to his commute daily. We have money from house sale and inheritance. It is currently held 40% in investments 60% cash. Only started investing 2 years ago so seem to be doing things a bit back to front. My thoughts are to try and leave investments to grow for 10 years reinvesting dividends and living off cash. Hence I hope you don't mind me asking the following question.
OMG I am interested in what percentage of your funds are held in cash as opposed to your DC pension. How are you drawing funds?

jim8888

For home and contents insurance, a few years ago I was advised to go round the rooms in the house and total up roughly the replacement cost room by room for everything there. This would be an estimate of replacing everything if the house was burnt down in a fire. Doing this, I found I was under-insured versus the cover I'd taken, so I had to bump it up. I was told that insurance companies take a very dim view of people who have under insured on property and possessions.

westv

jim8888 wrote: »

I was told that insurance companies take a very dim view of people who have under insured on property and possessions.

Indeed. You are effectively paying less premium than you should.

Nullboris

jUST MY THOUGHTS

I would advise anyone who is thinking of retiring early (or at all) to try going part time first.
This allows you to keep your hand in and is also a bridge to full retirement.
the beauty is that some pl need a a few years of de-compression, so that full stress can wear off.
Also be wary as sometimes you can be retired early due to ill-health without adequate funds, and have to rely on the VERY generous Gov to support you , till SPA /s

kangoora

Teacher2 wrote: »

I would have to say that life is very good and we value every day we have. We live in a horribly expensive part of the country and, while it means that council tax is top whack, we have lovely places to visit and walk nearby and the supermarket knockdowns are often very high end products as are things in the local charity shops.

We used to be cash rich, time poor but we are coping quite well with cash poor, time rich.

We do not have anything like a £1000 a month fun fund and I notice that our expenses are considerably higher than the OP’s. We pay over £400 council tax a month, £200 on utilities and £100 on house insurance. The thing I fear the most is Corbyn’s Marxist government being elected and his aim of tripling the council tax being enacted. I do not know how we could cope with that as we are hanging on by our fingertips as it is.

Still, that is the future. Today is fine.

Those are incredible figures when on a low income. Have you ever considered moving to somewhere cheaper (or even downsizing) to free up some cash?

Where I live Band H (highest band) is 'only' £422/month. My band D home is £211/month.

I wouldn't be surprised, if you were prepared to move to a lower cost area of the country, that you could buy a better house AND still bank a couple of £100,000 which would go a long way to easing any financial concerns.

We had/have at least 3 pensioner couples from London who sold up and moved to our village, I assume they pocketed a large sum to ease their retirement.

As for nice places to visit, 15 minutes from Yorkshire Dales and 30 minutes to North Yorks Moors National Parks isn't too shabby

Just a thought.....