Early Retirement viewpoints

cfw1994

I'll take a stab at these!

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
Currently approaching 55, with a view that in the next 12-24 months I will "pull the trigger"!

2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
Everyone will be different: I can spend money like water when I want, but the option to seriously spend time doing whatever I do (or don't!) want is compelling. We have a budget for non-negotiable mandatory spending (around £750pcm), then everything above that is up for grabs! I think £3k pcm will give us a comfortable life.....

3. What are your plans ?
Relax! As many have said, spend the first 6-12 months essentially doing nothing important, then take it from there!
We also have a holiday property - that could do with us spending a few months off season enjoying and 'tidying up'

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
Dropped 20% some of my pension to gilt/bonds last summer, might increase that. Plan to withdraw the 25% TFLS later and likely secure that into safer savings (but still want some growth).
I'm a believer in eggs & baskets....so will keep a weather eye on other funds we have, and precisely when we might want to move from the accumulation phase to a decumulation one for the pension pieces - would like to defer that for a few more years: *that* is perhaps the hardest bit to get my head around!


5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
I dip into a fair few, similar to others. MrMoneyMustache one of my favourites, but hadn't found Ditch the Cave before today - looks good!

6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
Met with Pensionwise: clarified the LTA (which I am fortunate enough to be dangerously close to!). Meeting with another fella very soon from a company I know & respect: likely to mean I may shuffle some things about a bit....
Kind of wish I had thought more in past years to put more into Stock ISAs, and also perhaps to SWMBO's plans, but overall happy with the position we are in today.

7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?
Having not yet retired, perhaps take this with a pinch of salt!
It starts with this: take an interest! I have no end of pretty well paid friends who are relatively clueless about pensions and retirement: some actively want to keep working, which is fine for them, but I really don't want my life to be defined by what I did solely with work between 22-67 (heck, the jobs I had from 10-22 make for FAR more interesting reading!)....I'd rather have more going on from 55/56-onwards!
I read a bunch of fact sheets on funds our Aviva plan can chose from and shuffled my choices about a bit: no earth shattering changes, but the 20% I put into North American funds blew away the rest of them for the past 10+ years, & led to what I believe is an average annual gain of over 10% (in the funds themselves - obviously I am contributing which makes actual calculations trickier for an amateur!).
Equally, last year I moved some down to the gilt/bond option & it helped smooth the minor crash last autumn. I'm either a genious or very lucky :rotfl:

8. What would you do after retirement?
Chill for a year. Enjoy time with my soul mate!
Get house things done that have been put off & off: tidying, decorating, clearing garage, freecycle some, charity other, perhaps even ebay a bunch of stuff!
Travel (UK & abroad), including visiting friends and family around the world.
READ MORE - if I try to read a book at night now, I'm asleep in minutes....
Be around a bit more to help our "kids" as they find their way in the world.
Maybe sort a van/camper out, under the faint pretence that it will help with moving the kids stuff about, etc!

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?
Volleyball, cycling, walking, camping, skiing (not necessarily in that order!)....& plenty of other things! I enjoy DIY: more time could find me making more and better things....gardening: ours is in fair shape, but more time would help

Key to all of this is TIME - the one thing you cannot buy, & that work takes away!

DairyQueen

Yep, there are lots of similar threads - as has been noted.

I'll have a go in order to offer a slightly different perspective. Worth bearing in mind if you and/or spouse have parents:

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
Accidentally retired at age 52 eight years ago. Catalysed by the unforeseen need to provide support for parents. Mother is disabled, father was taken ill. No intention then of retiring before 60.

2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
Lordy, there's a question. It's so specific to an individual's circumstances and those change over time. When single I could manage on £1500 per month. However, I am now six years into a marriage and spouse isn't the greatest at budgeting. Fortunately, he is a high earner so can afford to prioritise his time over seeking cost savings. Right now we run two, small homes to facilitate OH's work and my support for parents. He is a self-employed consultant. We spend around £4k net each month and aim to continue that into retirement (less than two years now for OH). Ironically, our expenses will reduce when he retires and we upgrade to one home. We have calculated that our income will be up to £5k per month depending on market conditions.

3. What are your plans ?
Move house is first on the list when OH retires. We are in a quandary as to location as we are constrained by the needs of my elderly parents and OH's mother, currently in residential care. Our parents are the biggest constraint on our plans.

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
I manage our portfolio and have just positioned it to begin deaccumulation. We are fortunate that we will have guaranteed income sufficient to cover all of our non-discretionary expenses once OH's DB and SP kicks-in for us both. However, we will need to drawdown from SIPPs to bridge the gap to SP age.

The current allocation is 70% equities, 7% bonds, 23% cash. The cash %age is so high as bond prices are inconsistent with historical norms. I have therefore substituted bonds with cash to a large degree.

5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
Nope. I already retired early.

6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
I tried to engage an IFA in our retirement planning last winter. This proved to be a wasted effort as he fobbed me off over Xmas and never got back to me in the New Year (as he had promised). I am sure that this is not the usual IFA experience as we have used an IFA previously when seeking guidance on OH's pension contributions. He was very good. However, that experience has left me reluctant to bother engaging with any more professionals. I am no expert but sufficiently confident with finances to cover the basics and avoid disasters.

7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?
Forego your short-term 'wants' in favour of adding more to the pension pot. This isn't rocket science. You either spend it now or save it to finance early retirement.

8. What would you do after retirement?
Indulge yourself. I successfully completed a Masters degree in the year after I retired - highly recommend education of any kind in later life. I now volunteer 1/2 days per week and OH intends to do likewise. Giving something back keeps you a productive member of society and feeds self-worth. Retirees are the back-bone of volunteer organisations and save the public purse a small fortune. Younger age groups please note that your tax take would be much higher without the efforts of active retirees. I watch the news these days with a different agenda.

I am a member of a walking group and love the natural world. I need a bigger garden to indulge my love of 'growing stuff'. I try and learn something new each year and, this year, it's Bridge. Next year I will choose something different,

I sail but OH doesn't. That means no yacht in retirement but I feed my interest by volunteering as crew at the local sailing club.

I was lucky to travel extensively prior to retirement and, strangely, have little interest now in long-haul travel. Our plans include lengthy, leisurely travelling across Europe and the UK. A motor home is a possibility. Another option is winter rentals in various places.

It really doesn't matter where your interests lie. The aim is to fulfil the objective of being healthy in mind and body.

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?
There are not enough hours in the day. How on earth I found the time to work is a question I ask myself frequently. I now have time, and the interest, to manage our investments. With the help of this forum, and other research, I have slowly gained sufficient knowledge and confidence to manage our portfolio. I am by no means an expert but feel comfortable that I can do a reasonable job until age forces my retirement from portfolio management. At that point our pot may be part-annuitised. In the meantime I have gained a huge amount from taking control of our assets and this has catalysed an interest in the factors that move markets.

mbarge

1) I'm 57. I retired 4 years ago.

2) At 57 I calculate I need an investment fund (not a taxable pension fund, that would be more) of about 23 times my annual income requirement (which needs to be inflation linked). That figure of 23 times rises to about 28 times at age 52. These numbers require a significant amount of investment risk (ie. 60% - 70% equities in well chosen investment funds). If you have it all in ISAs then well done, you can knock about 3 times off those numbers above (i.e. 20x and 25x). These funds have about an 80% probability of lasting throughout your life... 20% chance of having to tighten your belt later in life.
If you have more funds than this then you can improve those probabilities and invest more cautiously (or increase your early retirement income with a view to reducing it if needed in future years). But always remember if your liabilities are "real" (inflation linked) in nature, then so too should be your assets.
I make no allowance for the state pension here, so that's a bonus on top.

3 - 4) Asset allocation strategy
Desperate to ensure a financially secure retirement I've spent a lot my time since retiring writing financial software for myself so that I could (stochastically) monitor my assets against my impending liabilities.
I also use my software to analyse about 13,000 managed and index investment funds available in the UK and have chosen a portfolio of 10-15 funds widely spread (and as uncorrelated as I can achieve --- which is about 10%-50% between any two funds).
(BTW cheap index funds and ETFs are great but I can't resist a few of the superbly managed Managed Funds I've found).

5) No

6) No, except on tax management, wills and trusts.

7) If you have insufficient funds to buy an inflation linked annuity then you'll need to take risk.
I would say be very cautious when you get advice from anyone who is unable to show you a stochastic holistic projection throughout your lifetime of all your assets and liabilities and how they will run off in drawdown. Such assets should include the possibility of downsizing your main residence later in life if you consider that to be an option.
I couldn't find any such adviser.
If you take risk you need to be able to analyse the outcomes stochastically... you need to know realistic probabilities of outcomes and have a plan to cope with an "unlucky" result. IMHO simplistic empirical projections (the kind usually provided by insurance companies) are of little use and often very misleading.... markets never go anywhere in a straight line.

8) I moved to Spain, still with a youngish family. To us it's paradise.

9) Sailing and more recently kitesurfing. Oh and learning to speak Spanish

buggy_boy

andy001 wrote: »

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

1. I retired age 35
2. Personally I never really thought about the total pot more about the cash flow, investments that make you money and you live off that income, if you look at it that way its much easier to work out when you can retire.
3. I have wanted for a while to retrain to be an electrician, the hardest part I have found as a male is losing my identity and I wanted to be able to be useful, plus it means I can always fall back on being able to earn a bit of extra money if I want/need
4. I invested in property and even with all the changes, its not as profitable as it was infact im not sure I would recommend it any more but if you have the cash I dont know many investments that pay an income plus increase in value.
5. I have read some FIRE blogs but find most of those retiring around my age are either living so frugally or sold some tech start up for x millions. I worked my !!! off in my 20s working 70-80+ hrs a week, I didnt spend a massive amount (I couldnt I was working all the time), I made a lot of sacrifices that most people would not be willing to make in their 20s and it was hard.
6. Try to maximise your income while minimising your outgoings, I know it sounds simple, grab overtime if its available especially if its at a higher rate of pay, don't stop spending but every purchase think "Do I really need this, how much am I going to use it, is it worth it"
8. There is no point in retiring early with just enough to live on, retiring early does not mean though you have to stop making money.
9. I have various hobbies but honestly I have only been retired 5 months and Ive had a few quite weeks but other than that I don't know how I got everything done while also working.

Retiring early is all about sacrafice, think about everything you buy puts hours/days/weeks/years of extra work you need to do till you can retire.

jimi_man

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. Planning for 58 for me, just under for my wife. (54 and 53 now).
2. £3K net per month for a comfortable time.
3. I already have one DB pension in payment - for £2200 net per month. Saving hard into a SIPP at the moment to provide the extra £800 for the 7 years until my wife's DB pensions kick in.
4. Not really. Mainly invest in Lifestrategy funds, but with higher bond allocations due to the short timescale until we stop working.
5. No. Occasionally look at Monevator.
6. No. We were lucky with our DB pensions, which will form the majority of our retirement planning. When the State pensions kick in then it will take us to around £4k net per month, more than enough.
7. The key to saving more is to spend less! I read it on here I think. Sounds obvious but it isn't.
8. Plan to do a lot of walking, and sailing.
9. As 8.

[Deleted User]

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire?
55 - next year - counting down the days
2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement?
I am aiming for around 3k net a month maximum but going down by around 1% per year until 70 (and being very flexible especially since moving to a low cost of living country). Even though I work away from home, the expenses I currently have will be cut by 40-60%. No posh backpacks, no suitcases every year. No company car... etc We don't spend a lot in reality. All in all I will probably have between us around £800k plus SP for me of £8.9k and £7.3k for her (currently - am paying in Class 3s each month)
3. What are your plans ?
Sell the house, release 240K in equity and retire near Albox in Spain
4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies?
I use and plan to use an IFA - the asset allocation is a mixture of bonds, global, equities, uk equities, emerging markets, property, commodities etc. I have been following their three portfolios and any new ones for years. They have around 23-24 items within each of three portfolios
5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs?
I am fairly new to this - Mr Monevator I read every week
6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers?
Yes - see the IFA quote above. His platform fee is 0.25% and his fee is actually static per year - around £2500 for tailored service
7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement?
I know enough to know I don't know enough. Can I be a DIY investor - probably, but I have spent 35 years in a career and my IFA has spent around that as well. I know who I would trust with my money
8. What would you do after retirement?
Get used to the heat!
9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement?
Geology, always wanted to take it at A level

andy001

bugslett- I agree- when feels right ,one should pack- but plan before! :j
Anonymous101- 20 x annual expenditure is a good way to look at retirement pot. :money:
Terron: Lazy way -is what I planned too till read some of the above messages!:rotfl:
ex-pat Scott- What's MMM Blog?. You have fab sense of humour!:T
cfw1994: Pull the trigger at 57, Great!- chill for a year sounds fantastic :beer:
DairyQueen: Enjoy your retirement :A
barge- lucky you- retired at 53.great!. Is your retirement software available for wider public on sale? Ola :beer:
buggy_boy- OMG 35yo and retried..lucky lucky man!:cool:
jimi_man: 4 more years to go! best luck :staradmin
Deleted_User: Ola- Spain is beautiful place to retire. Do you have to worry about Brexit? Please Get used to the heat!!:money:

DT2001

andy001 wrote: »

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?

1. I am a 59 house husband with some self employment. Our youngest will be 18 in 7 years. So technically retirement at 66 however eldest 2 are already 18+ so semi retired. OH, 54, she’ll retire whenever she does not enjoy work (also self employed and has a number of different sources of income).

2. Very vague and occasionally ashamed as I do not budget/check with the diligence of many on these forums. Best guess £20-22k will cover all bar travel. We house swap so travel, that we enjoy is not expensive and OH loves a deal!. Comfortable + figure £35-40k.

3. See what happens. Income in a dip at the moment so hope investments grow.

4. Down to IFA

5. No

6. IFA. Sensible strategy used rather than my riskier one which suited when younger.

7. Look at all forms on generating wealth. I’ve dealt in new shares, SAYE, property renovation, BTL, rent a room, 2+ jobs. Build up assets when young and have loads of energy.

8. More travel, reading and maybe grandchildren.

Anonymous101

andy001 wrote: »

bugslett- I agree- when feels right ,one should pack- but plan before! :j
Anonymous101- 20 x annual expenditure is a good way to look at retirement pot. :money:
Terron: Lazy way -is what I planned too till read some of the above messages!:rotfl:
ex-pat Scott- What's MMM Blog?. You have fab sense of humour!:T
cfw1994: Pull the trigger at 57, Great!- chill for a year sounds fantastic :beer:
DairyQueen: Enjoy your retirement :A
barge- lucky you- retired at 53.great!. Is your retirement software available for wider public on sale? Ola :beer:
buggy_boy- OMG 35yo and retried..lucky lucky man!:cool:
jimi_man: 4 more years to go! best luck :staradmin
Deleted_User: Ola- Spain is beautiful place to retire. Do you have to worry about Brexit? Please Get used to the heat!!:money:

Generally the US based FI people regard x25 annual expenditure to be the point at which you could live for an indefinite period of time without ever running out of money. This is based on the 4% rule (of thumb) Google that if you haven't heard of it before but basically its an assumed safe withdrawal rate based on US market returns. That may be a little too adventurous for UK based retiree's.


I mentioned 20x as a review point. This wouldn't be the point where I'd be happy to retire fully, I think that may be closer to 30x, but it could be the point where I'm happy to reduce my earnings through changing jobs or working 3-4 days per week.


As I mentioned my current thinking is that I wouldn't choose to do that but instead just continue to work full time until I reach 25-30x then just take a year or two totally relaxing whilst I decided which of the several hobbies I'd like to put most time into. I wouldn't need to ever make any more money after that point.


By the way the MMM is an acronym for Mr Money Moustache

Terron

Anonymous101 wrote: »

Generally the US based FI people regard x25 annual expenditure to be the point at which you could live for an indefinite period of time without ever running out of money. This is based on the 4% rule (of thumb) Google that if you haven't heard of it before but basically its an assumed safe withdrawal rate based on US market returns. That may be a little too adventurous for UK based retiree's.

The 4% rule from which x25 comes was based on retirement lasting 30 years, i.e. on a normal retirement not an early one. It may be used for early retirement but that is very likely a mistake. See https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-1-intro/