Early Retirement viewpoints

andy001

Nice planning Mr CRV

andy001

You could simply have LifeStrategy 40 or 60 - it woulda voice keeping close eye on funds??
DIY means you may have to be very vigilant..

andy001

Eco-house sounds fantastic. What would be the initial cost? Are there any builders helping people build such on large scale?

pile-o-stone

andy001 wrote: »

Eco-house sounds fantastic. What would be the initial cost? Are there any builders helping people build such on large scale?

Initial costs are difficult to calculate because passive houses are nearly always self built or at least self-managed builds. The large building companies have no interest in spending money to help their customers save money so they always just about meet building regs (most don't because of the shoddy way they fit insulation and seal around the windows/doors).

So while passive house building is often quoted as costing anything up to 25% more than a standard building...

"Passive house is often perceived as “very nice – but rather expensive.” But is passive house really unaffordable? While some have put the extra cost as high as 15 to 25%, other estimates tend to be lower, with estimates of the ‘cost uplift’ for building to passive house estimated anywhere from around 12-15%, down to 0% – or even below."

https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/insight/the-cost-of-building-passive

.... because you're building your own house, the costs are reduced from buying a home from a builder, especially the larger building chains.

"But self-build can also get you a house substantially cheaper than an existing home. The savings can start on day one as your stamp duty bill should be low as tax is due only on the cost of the land, not the value of a completed house. Other savings can be built in along the way. You can reclaim VAT on much of your materials, giving you 20 per cent back on allowable costs.

BuildStore’s Pyne says completed homes can be valued at 20 per cent higher than the land and construction costs, so you can end up owning more for less."

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-4637808/Here-s-join-self-build-boom.html

So essentially you get a bespoke eco home with zero heating demand and very low utility bills, for a similar cost to buying from a builder. You're then shielded from the trials and tribulations of the economy and fluctuating energy prices.

If you look historically at what has impacted pensioners, you see a huge amount of concern about them keeping warm, with many having the choice between heat and eat. With a super insulated house, you will never have these issues.

While you may think - well I won't have those issues because I have a lot of retirement savings. Remember that companies go bust, the stock market crashes and people commit financial frauds. A mortgage free passive house will give you the level of security that investments never can.

EDIT: BTW, you don't necessarily need to build a new house to get the benefits of high insulation and low utility bills. External insulation added to the outside of a house, then rendered can be retro fitted to an existing house and get you close to passive and certainly a mile further forward than existing building regs.

andy001

Pile-o-stone
Sir You’re a legend!:T
Excellent summary.:money::beer:

[Deleted User]

pile-o-stone wrote: »

...3. What are your plans ?
I want to buy some land and build an eco house that is as off-grid as I can possibly get without it being too uncomfortable.

The ideal would be 3 acres with 2 given over to willow trees or other fats growing wood and the rest would be an allotment. The house would be built to passive standards - so no heating required, with electricity supplied by solar, wind turbine and (hopefully) occasional import from the grid. Sewage would be reed bed and water from rain and borehole. The willow trees would be harvested on rotation to supply wood for cooking and hot water via a rayburn stove. Food would come from the garden (and from a four season passive greenhouse).

This would mean zero utility bills and low food bills. Outgoings would be council tax, buildings insurance and not much else...

This is something that we are thinking about also.

Just to say though that willow makes really poor quality fire wood. You probably need to grow something else.

rebuswad

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire? 48 or 49

2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement? £25K is comfortable,aiming for £30K (in todays money) for additional travel and contingency. Have tracked spending for a couple of years to give confidence in the figures

3. What are your plans ? Decompress and travel, maybe look after doggies. Don't want to plan it really, just do it.

4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies? Yep, have strategies for funds outside pensions to see through to 60ish, which changes each year to lower sequence of return risks and another allocation for within pensions.

5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs? MrMoneyMustache, Escapeartist, Monevator. Also several podcasts, FI Europe, Meaningful Money, ChooseFI

6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers? No, generally I don't think they are value for money if you already have a good idea what you are doing, and have a character well suited for investing. For some others (like my OH) they would be invaluable.

7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement? Make a plan and create an investment statement of how you will achieve that plan. Sounded like overkill to me but has been incredibly useful to keep me on track. The plan will change but you will stay on track. The investment statement helps takes any short term factors out of decisions.

8. What would you do after retirement? See 3

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement? Maintain fitness, read , video games, code, walk dogs, speak to the wife, cook, travel, study personal finance,community work, political activism, drinking coffee

andy001

rebuswad wrote: »

1. What's the retirement age in your mind?/ or What age did you retire? 48 or 49

2. What is sufficient amount in your mind for a comfortable retirement? £25K is comfortable,aiming for £30K (in todays money) for additional travel and contingency. Have tracked spending for a couple of years to give confidence in the figures

3. What are your plans ? Decompress and travel, maybe look after doggies. Don't want to plan it really, just do it.


4. Do you have any Asset allocation strategies? Yep, have strategies for funds outside pensions to see through to 60ish, which changes each year to lower sequence of return risks and another allocation for within pensions.

5. Do You follow any F.I.R.E. blogs? MrMoneyMustache, Escapeartist, Monevator. Also several podcasts, FI Europe, Meaningful Money, ChooseFI

6. Have you taken any professional advice for retirement planning? Was it useful? Could you share some important pointers? No, generally I don't think they are value for money if you already have a good idea what you are doing, and have a character well suited for investing. For some others (like my OH) they would be invaluable.

7. Any specific advice you can share which would help others to achieve early retirement? Make a plan and create an investment statement of how you will achieve that plan. Sounded like overkill to me but has been incredibly useful to keep me on track. The plan will change but you will stay on track. The investment statement helps takes any short term factors out of decisions.

8. What would you do after retirement? See 3

9. Have you got any hobbies which would keep you busy after retirement? Maintain fitness, read , video games, code, walk dogs, speak to the wife, cook, travel, study personal finance,community work, political activism, drinking coffee

Hi rebuswad
Thanks a lot..
What's would an ideal investment statement entail? Could you give some pointers or examples please?
thanks

rebuswad

andy001 wrote: »

Hi rebuswad
Thanks a lot..
What's would an ideal investment statement entail? Could you give some pointers or examples please?
thanks

There's a decent guide on Morningstar, https://www.morningstar.com/articles/808692/how-to-create-an-investment-policy-statement.html

For me it's a mechanism to remind me what I'm aiming for, what I want to invest in, when to rebalance etc. If I want to do something that goes against the statement then it makes me think twice. Here is part of mine as an example:

I want to have enough money to retire in 2023, good markets or saving may bring date forward 1 year
I want to have £xK in ISA's and £yK in DC Pensions, in addition to DB schemes.
I want to take an initial £zK income for 11 years reducing to £nK at 60.
I want to ensure enough is available for either of us should the other die.

To achieve this I will invest mostly in index trackers, low cost funds within tax efficient wrappers. Slight UK bias
Do not exceed 60% Equity allocation to end of 2019.
Use bond tent from May 2020, 3 years fixed rates for tax efficiency
Equity allocation includes 5% Property
Rebalance if out by > 5%, check monthly.

Keep pensions at 80/20 until 2025, then reevaluate - current plan is keep allocation until 2029

andy001

Hi All
Hope you're all well and safe
With market changes, how are we holding the investments?
Have you changed your plans? Have you modified your investment strategies?
Would this be a setback for early retirement?
Andy