Early Retirement viewpoints

andy001

Hi All

I am thinking of early retirement for years, but not able to focus myself and wondered if MSEs ( planners/already retired ) could give some view points please? I plan to retire at least 8-10yrs before SPA.

I'm sorry , if there is similar thread already!

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
3. What are your plans ?
4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?
8. What would you do after retirement?
9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?


Let me start with my answers:

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire? - 57Yrs (13YRS from now)
2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement? - 25k pa
3. What are your plans ?- Put lot of money in pension
4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?- Property, ISAs, Pension
5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?- NO, I find these planners very intriguing as it's near impossible to do what they are doing...!!
6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?- NO
7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement? - My father always said- Live within your means!. Think if you really need something before purchasing?
My FIL used to say- Live life comfortably..not life of luxury!!.. Have enough life insurance in case for family...
8. What would you do after retirement?- See different parts of the world ..
9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement? -Playing Cricket / gardening..
Thanks
Andy

geoffers4

andy001 wrote: »

I am thinking of early retirement for years, but not able to focus myself and wondered if MSEs ( planners/already retired ) could give some view points please? I plan to retire at least 8-10yrs before SPA.

5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?- NO, I find these planners very intriguing as it's near impossible to do what they are doing...!!

But isn't the point of FIRE blogs to show that it is possible, if you make some changes??

I'm sorry , if there is similar thread already!

Yep lots of threads already cover these questions - e.g. check out:

The NUMBER thread (over 1300 posts):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2146737/pensions-planning-the-number

Early Retirement wannabee (over 5000 posts):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2840632/early-retirement-wannabe

Retirement plans/dreams:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5986414/non-financial-retirement-plans-dreams-discussion

tacpot12

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
I retired at 53 and a half.
2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
I had a budget I created prior to retirement so I could understand how much I needed to save for annual expenses and how much spare money I had for discretionary spending. As I approached retirement, I revised this budget to see what expenses would drop away when I stopped working, and what extra money I would need to allow me to do the things I wanted. This determined the amount I needed for retirement. I also had to save enough to allow me to stop working before I could draw on any of my pensions.
3. What are your plans ?
Drawdown on main DC pension, and then draw my two DB pensions at age 62 & 65 and then my state pension at 67. I have nearly a full pension entitlement already with just one year of NI payments to make to make it a full pension. I have the amount saved and just need to decide when to pay it.
4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
I have a couple of residential properties I own that I rent out (these bring in about 1/3 of my retirement income), and my DC pension has a mix of Equities, Bonds and Commercial Property. I have 14 funds I am invested in in order to get exactly the asset allocation I wanted. I intend to reduce the Bond holding over a ten year period so that by age 66, the portfolio is about 90% equities and 10% commercial property.
5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
I follow Early Retirement Now (ERN) and this informed my thinking about safe withdrawal rates significantly.
6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
I considered transferring the two DB pensions to a new SIPP, and paid for advice from a Pension Transfer Specialist at an local IFA. Their recommendation was not to transfer these pensions and I took this advice. It was useful. My initial thought was to take all the pensions at age 55 and just accept the actuarial reductions on the two DB schemes. The IFA suggested the better option was to leave the DB schemes until their normal retirement ages, and plan to take more out of the DC scheme.
7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?

• Save hard and early for your retirement.
  
• Be prepared to accept some investment risk in retirement and a lot of risk in the early years of saving for a pension.
• Don't worry about having pensions with many providers (unless they are all very small pension) - a simple list is sufficient to keep track of the pensions you have.
• Read a lot and ask questions on forums.

8. What would you do after retirement? I've taken up dinghy sailing and volunteer two days a week at a local charity. I also have been able to visit and support my parents more since retiring. I'm also going to try golf and want to resume playing badminton. My retirement income should also allow me to take a foreign holiday every year.

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?
See previous answer.

andy001

tacpot12- thanks for detailed reply
Lot to learn from you. Many thanks for sharing this valuable information

Andy

andy001

geoffers4 wrote: »

But isn't the point of FIRE blogs to show that it is possible, if you make some changes??



Yep lots of threads already cover these questions - e.g. check out:

The NUMBER thread (over 1300 posts):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2146737/pensions-planning-the-number

Early Retirement wannabee (over 5000 posts):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2840632/early-retirement-wannabe

Retirement plans/dreams:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5986414/non-financial-retirement-plans-dreams-discussion

Thank you. I'll look at these threads
Regards
Andy

bugslett

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
3. What are your plans ?
4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?
8. What would you do after retirement?
9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?


1. No particular age, just when it felt right. It felt right last year and I put notice in to my largest customer last June. It took till April this year to stop trading so that they could tender out etc. I am now doing winding down stuff until the end of June but the 20/25 hours already feels a lot better than the 55 hours +.

I'll be 55 in a few weeks.

2. I was working on having 25 k as a minimum. House is all but paid for, work has been done to future proof it, I'm not a big traveller and my hobbies are not particularly expensive. I have however distinctly more fortunately:)

3. To have none! I want to spend the summer thinking about what to do. I think it was ermine on here that said, don't make serious plans with your work head on, make them with your retirement head on. I have ideas, but none that I want to commit to for sure just yet.

In terms of finances, my IFA suggests I take the 25% out of the pension and put it into investments, which will be done shortly. I'll be able to live off those comfortably for longer than my pension ages ( personal pensions can be drawn at 60, state at 67). I am happy to run down my money to little as I age, I have no family to leave anything to.

4. I'm/was! an expert in my field, my IFA is an expert in his, so I left it to him!

5. Have done for a number of years, ermine's simple living in somerset, though he keeps going off at such a Brexit tangent that I wander by occasionally, but he started me off reading. Retirement Investing Today, Sex Health Money Death - though both have achieved their goals now, were favourites.

6. I have an IFA, but really the strategy was just to max the pension in the years that I could. I have very limited emergency savings, the plan was always to wind the business down and see what was left, hence my plans have always been a bit nebulous.

7. For me not being a confident investor, it would be to spend time finding an IFA that you are comfortable with and comes with a good recommendation. Personally, I have never really lived in a posh house and only done the flash car thing once. I currently drive an old van ( dogs, makes it easier), I think the big purchases are what eats your money up.

8 & 9. Once I knew I had an end date in mind, I did a list of hobbys I have now that I would like to do more of - reading (371 books waiting to be read:eek:), dog walking, gardening. A list of things I used to do but dropped due to lack of time/energy - crochet, bellydance, millinery and finally a very long list of everything that I have ever thought of doing but didn't - learning to play the harp, places to visit ( Norway, Vienna, Argentina, Japan), gliding, garden design course and the list goes on and on. I got to over an A4 on the three lists. Some things I know I will never do, but it did show me that I have a lot of options.

I am pretty sure I will get a narrowboat though, been a long term dream.

I may also consider some part time work if it appeals and is flexible, but who knows!

Good luck with your retirement.

Anonymous101

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire? As early as possible. Planning at the moment for that to be in around 9-10 years time which will put me in my mid to late 40's. This would have been at an earlier age if I'd found out about FIRE before my mid 30's.



2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement? Current expenditure is around £40k combined bewtween me and Mrs. Anon. That does include paying a mortgage though.

3. What are your plans? We've found a life style which allows us to enjoy life and not worry about money whilst saving at a relatively high rate, very high for non FIRE people! Plan is to continue this until we've accumulated around 20 times our annual expenditure then reassess working full time or stepping away from full on careers where we are now. Our current thinking is to stick at it until we're morgage free and have 30 times our expendature at that time.

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies? Currently pedal to the metal 100% equities in low cost trackers.



5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs? Yes lots. Mr. Money Mustache, Monevator (not strictly FIRE), The Escape Artist, Ditch the cave, Early Retirement Now, Quietly saving. Loads more.



6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers? I've not taken any professional advise. I would consider it but would need to choose carefully as it would need to be someone familiar with the FI mindset and goals.



7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement? Pay yourself first! I've kept a budget and used zero sum accounting for years. Once I discovered FI I put this to use to ensure I saved my target amount each month. I'd also say pushing your career and how much you get paid as hard as possible helps but the biggest thing is keeping a lid on the lifestyle inflation. The last 3-4 years pay rises have been put 100% into savings. I've got a life I'm happy with I don't need to spend any more no matter what the TV or my colleague or anyone else tells me.



8. What would you do after retirement? There's a whole world of things to see and do. I've traveled a lot when I was younger and I'd like to do the whole slow travel thing again. Learn to speak Spanish or French. Perhaps start a business. I'm also quite an outdoor type so a lot of hiking. I'd like to do the coast to coast type long treks.



9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement? As above.

Terron

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire? My target for a long time was 60 (early because I am a man). When I was 54 I lost my job and it did not look like I could get anything similar. So I went into BTL. I pay for full management by letting agents so I was pretty close to being retired then. I work about 100 hours per year mainly doing the accounts. I am 60 now but don't see any reason to stop.


2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement? After I loss my job my income dropped then gradually recovered. When it reached £1500pm I no longer had to supplement it from savings. So that is my Number.


3. What are your plans ? I have applied for 4 of my 6 pensions and will do so for a fifth soon. The last is my SIPP. That should give me an extra £17pa on top of my current £25kpa from BTL and I plan to spend much of the extra on travelling over the next few years.

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies? The pensions I am taking will provide a good base, though only partially indexed linked. I am selling a former home (so effectively CGT free) amd will use the proceeds to reduce the mortgages in my own name to prtect me from interest rate rises and the reduction in mortgage interest relief. With those as a safe base my SIPP will be 80/20 equities/bonds.



5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs? I have dipped into several but don't folllow any regularly.


6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers? I got an IFA to look at my pensions.and provide advice. I haven't always followed it, but it has been useful. I did move my DC pot to a lower cost SIPP. It had been in a scheme with discounted costs for current employees.


7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement? I did it the lazy way. No detailled budgets. Just allocate money to savings first and don't spend what you haven't got.


8. What would you do after retirement? I want to travel, specifically on archeological tours, which are not cheap. I used to go on a dig in the summer which was a cheap holiday, but having injured my knee I can't manage that any more.


9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement? My BTL business feels like a hobby. I live neat a national park so go wlking there when the weather is fine. I also like to read. I like to watch cricket (again my knee stopped me from playing). I never normally have a problem finding something to do,

bugslett

@ Anonymous 101, I'd not heard of Ditch the Cave, quick peruse and it's a cracking blog :beer:

Anonymous101

bugslett wrote: »

@ Anonymous 101, I'd not heard of Ditch the Cave, quick peruse and it's a cracking blog :beer:

Yes its fantastic! Its a close call between DTC, MMM and TEA for which is my favourite.

ex-pat_scot

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
55 to 57, depending on life (critical event, health etc) and size of pot.



2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?


£4,000 per month net for us as a couple.

3. What are your plans ?


Max the annual contributions £40,000 pa for the next 5 odd years, until I reach LTA or run out of health or a "life event" happens (parent requiring care, spouse health etc)

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?


Yup. Global diversified equity fund. 100% equity. Think VWRL or similar.
Traditional wisdom would be that I am only 5 years away (ish) from accessing my pension, so should derisk. However I plan on liquidating a small portion 4-5% each year, so would rather the majority of my money be put to a longer term profitable investment strategy.
I might derisk a small portion of the pot as I near the point of access, if I am perhaps in the fortunate position of reaching LTA early, or if I believe that I should have one year's requirement in near cash equivalents.

5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?


The Escape artist.
Simply Living in Sussex/Somerset.
MMM
Monevator

6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?


Nope. I work in the industry and am sufficiently arrogant to believe I know enough to get me where I want to be.
(I've not read up on "hubris" for a while)

7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?


Lots of things:
- make a plan. Doesn't matter how accurate or not. Any plan is better than no plan.
- the only person with your best interests is YOU.
- build a model.
- understand each assumption (asset allocation, asset returns, inflation, costs, salary projections, duration)
- work out the various boundaries: contribution levels to optimise company match, to optimise /reduce HR tax, to reduce Child Benefit clawback, to maximise benefits (eg working family tax credits), to optimise other things like deemed salary (for child's student loan purposes, or any number of other reasons).


That's all the clever stuff.


The IMPORTANT stuff however is as follows:
- what's your life plan? What do you actually want to do? What will this mean in terms of money requirement? When? What does your partner want?
- what are you retiring TO, not FROM?
- what are you willing to do, and put up with? For how long? (eg I work away from home, doing stupid hours and even stupider travel, but I can't do it forever)

8. What would you do after retirement?


technically - be dead.
DURING retirement, however (!) I have a long list of things, including in no particular order:
- serious amounts of DIY on house, garden
- build a workshop
- learn the cello
- sing in choirs
- learn to swim properly
- race triathlons
- get a GB age group vest for triathlon, duathlon and possibly ultra running
- lots of running and cycling
- keep active like my life depends on it (hint: it does)
- read. and read. and read.
- explore. There's a lifetime of travel on our doorstep, quite apart from the glamorous overseas stuff.
- mountain walking. Doing all the Munros (then the Corbetts…)
- travel
- spending more time with ageing parents and family

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?


Per 8. above.