I feel like retiring at 60 - 65 is too old

Pollycat

You can retire at whatever age you like - as long as you can fund the lifestyle you want.

Over to you...

cfw1994

CreditCardChris said:

cfw1994 said:

CreditCardChris said:

(a bit of a rant)

Did you have a question for anyone here?
Only there are a bunch of helpful smart people here to ask....
Your life is in your hands.  Be super frugal if you want....earn lots, spend little, you can retire in 10 years.   

Enjoy life along the way though: so far as we know, we only get one chance!  

Not really a question, just voicing my thoughts with the hopes of receiving some feedback from the elder folks here. 

And as far as enjoying life, for me enjoying life is waking up every morning whatever time I feel like, not having to answer to anyone, going for drives in the sunny weather, hitting the gym, going on hiking holidays, playing video games for hours on end etc.

Kinda hard to enjoy life properly when you have work 6 days a week.

Many of us would desire the same...and the vast majority of us also have (or had) to earn a living.....lives to live, homes, food and families to pay for.
The trick is finding the balance with all of that going on AND enjoying life.    Be kind, build good relationships, live healthily (maybe go veggie.....both healthy and cheaper!).
Hopefully the useful words posted by a good few here will help you in your direction.  I’ve been a fan of MrMoneyMustache for a few years now: a good link posted above!
Good luck!

ProDave

I felt a bit similar to the OP in my earlier life.  I came up with a compromise.

At age 40, I sold up in the SE of England and moved to the Highlands.  Bought a plot of land and built a house. That meant at age 40 we were mortgage free and had some spare cash, that we used for 2 buy to let properties.

Since age 40 I have only worked part time.  I will be fully retiring in the next 3 years by age 60, but the closer I get to 60, the less I work so it it a more gradual thing.

It really makes a BIG difference living in a far nicer place, with a far better lifestyle and much more leisure time. You no longer begrudge the smaller number of hours that you are working.

AnotherJoe

ProDave said:

I felt a bit similar to the OP in my earlier life.  I came up with a compromise.

At age 40, I sold up in the SE of England and moved to the Highlands.  Bought a plot of land and built a house. That meant at age 40 we were mortgage free and had some spare cash, that we used for 2 buy to let properties.

Since age 40 I have only worked part time.  I will be fully retiring in the next 3 years by age 60, but the closer I get to 60, the less I work so it it a more gradual thing.

It really makes a BIG difference living in a far nicer place, with a far better lifestyle and much more leisure time. You no longer begrudge the smaller number of hours that you are working.

Yeh, probably the one major thing you could do is move to somewhere where the general cost of living is lower, and that really comes down to housing, but it is also job dependent which mean adjusting your job to fit with location unless the job can be done remotely and C19 will likely make that  a wider choice with employers.

If you are going to live/work in central London its going to be much tougher to get FI than if in "the north" simply because housing costs will chew up so much of your income.

grumiofoundation

CreditCardChris said:

cfw1994 said:

CreditCardChris said:

(a bit of a rant)

Did you have a question for anyone here?
Only there are a bunch of helpful smart people here to ask....
Your life is in your hands.  Be super frugal if you want....earn lots, spend little, you can retire in 10 years.   

Enjoy life along the way though: so far as we know, we only get one chance!  

Not really a question, just voicing my thoughts with the hopes of receiving some feedback from the elder folks here. 

And as far as enjoying life, for me enjoying life is waking up every morning whatever time I feel like, not having to answer to anyone, going for drives in the sunny weather, hitting the gym, going on hiking holidays, playing video games for hours on end etc.

Kinda hard to enjoy life properly when you have work 6 days a week.

Judging by how you respond to “feedback” on all your other threads I am sceptical that you are actually interested in people opinions unless they agree with your preformed views. 

As other people have said - if you don’t want to work into your dotage you should looked at investing/saving/paying off mortgage to enable you to retire early (of course your obsession with investing solely in the US could Add/remove a few years to the date you will be able to retire early). 

steampowered

It's entirely a choice based on how much you save during your working life, and what level of income you are prepared to accept in retirement.

If you don't save properly for your retirement, you could be working until you are 70+.

If you save perhaps 10-15% of your income into a pension, you might be able to retire at 60.

If you save significantly more, you can retire earlier.

penners324

The average life expectancy in the UK is nearly 80. That's 20 years after you turn 60.
How do you propose that people you consider as 'old' live without decent pension provision? Most people can only do that by retiring at 65 or 70....
I fully expect your retirement age will be between 70 and 75, just to get the government pension...

ProDave

IF you think you can live entirely on the government state pension, then your savings / pension question only becomes a matter of accumulating enough to see you from your retirement age to state pension age.

Personally I don't think state pension is enough but I have enough flexibility in my pensions to draw more between retirement age and then reduce what I draw from private pensions when the state pension starts.

fred246

ProDave said:

IF you think you can live entirely on the government state pension, then your savings / pension question only becomes a matter of accumulating enough to see you from your retirement age to state pension age.

Personally I don't think state pension is enough but I have enough flexibility in my pensions to draw more between retirement age and then reduce what I draw from private pensions when the state pension starts.

There are thousands of people with excellent occupational pensions eg nurses and teachers who could retire many years early with a relatively small amount of DC investments. If they retire early their reduced occupational pension is too low. Reduced occupational pension PLUS state pension is fine. So you just need some DC to bridge the gap to state pension.

georgehere

Set out a target for yourself, work out what it would take to reach it and then see how you feel about the compromise. The compromise will be spend vs save - or crudely, lifestyle now vs lifestyle later.
At your age, setting a target is tricky, but don't regard it as set it is just a starting point that will flush out some numbers and possibilities. My suggestion for your target would be: SP @ 68, plus the same income again from a pension accessible at 68. Stop work at 58, by which time you need to have £350k  in additional pension/savings designed to be accessible from that age.
It's just a start - flex things a bit if that makes you more comfortable - but work it through and see where it takes you.