Can we really stop next year??

EP456

Hi all, our plan was to both retire in September 2022, but lockdown has made us want to stop sooner, so we want it to be September 2021.  The age old question, do we have enough?

I will be 58 this September, and my husband just turned 62.
I earn £30k, and husband went from £50k to £25k in December 2019 when he went part time on receipt of his CS Pension. We have no dependants, are mortgage free and have no debts.

Between us, we have 4 pensions to live on before State Pension kicks in  at 67 for me and 66 for him. Both on track for full SP.
We currently have savings of around £36k to which I am adding around £2k each month.  We have a S&S ISA each which we pay a total of £500 per month to - currently sitting at a total of £32k .  We are both making AVC payments.  He had been paying £125.00 per week but when he went part time in December 2019, this reduced to £76 per week ( the maximum allowed).  I have been paying £100 per month for the last 13 months and have asked to increase to £500 per month from July and hope to increase again to maximise up until retirement.
Pensions
Husband
CS Pension in payment £9214.67
Current FS Estimate (NRA 62) if taken on 63rd birthday

Basic before options
Pension of £7728.21 with Lump Sum £14806.20 + AVC Lump Sum of £15099.47
Options
Pension of £6570.23 with Lump sum of £43801.50 (incl AVCs)
Pension of £7599.54 up until June 2024 then £5456.95 from when SP kicks in with Lump Sum of £50663.61
Pension of £8962.06 with AVC Lump Sum payment of £15099.47
Pension of £10563.22 until June 2024, then £8420.63 from when SP kicks in with AVC payment of AVC Lump Sum £15099.47
Me
Deferred Pension if taken Age 59
Options

Pension of £9097.65 with Lump Sum of £27292.94

Pension of £7885.73 with Lump Sum of £52571.54

Current LGPS Pension

Options 

Pension of £4999.10 with Lump Sum of £1489.47

Pension of £3293.51 with Lump Sum of £21956.55

All the pensions have a spouse pension.

I have calculated our monthly outgoings in retirement to be around £2k.
We are struggling to decide the best option for us. Maybe a mixture of higher TFLS on some of the pensions and higher Annual Pension on others.  Also, where best to put the lump sums?  Into the S&S ISA, open a SIPP ( have no real knowledge of these so have to educate myself)

I would welcome any opinions from the good people on this forum

Many thanks

frugal90

all i would say, is if you have enough to pay your bills and enough left over for a bit of adventure, then just do it
Life is just too short!

ffacoffipawb

EP456 said:

Hi all, our plan was to both retire in September 2022, but lockdown has made us want to stop sooner, so we want it to be September 2021.  The age old question, do we have enough?

I will be 58 this September, and my husband just turned 62.
I earn £30k, and husband went from £50k to £25k in December 2019 when he went part time on receipt if his CS Pension. We have no dependants, are mortgage free and have no debts,
Between us, we have 4 pensions to live on before State Pension kicks in  at 66 for me and 67 for him. Both on track for full SP.
We currently have savings of around £36k to which I am adding around £2k each month.  We have a S&S ISA each which we pay a total of £500 per month to - currently sitting at a total of £32k.  We are both making AVC payments.  He had been paying £125.00 per week but when he went part time in December 2019, this reduced to £76 per week ( the maximum allowed).  I have been paying £100 per month for the last 13 months and have asked to increase to £500 per month from July and hope to increase again to maximise up until retirement.
Pensions
Husband
CS Pension in payment £9214.67
Current FS Estimate (NRA 62) if taken on 64th birthday

Basic before options
Pension of £7728.21 with Lump Sum £14806.20 + AVC Lump Sum of £15099.47
Options
Pension of £6570.23 with Lump sum of £43801.50 (incl AVCs)
Pension of £7599.54 up until June 2024 then £5456.95 from when SP kicks in with Lump Sum of £50663.61
Pension of £8962.06 with AVC Lump Sum payment of £15099.47
Pension of £10563.22 until June 2024, then £8420.63 from when SP kicks in with AVC payment of AVC Lump Sum £15099.47
Me
Deferred Pension if taken Age 59
Options

Pension of £9097.65 with Lump Sum of £27292.94

Pension of £7885.73 with Lump Sum of £52571.54

Current LGPS Pension

Options 

Pension of £4999.10 with Lump Sum of £1489.47

Pension of £3293.51 with Lump Sum of £21956.55

All the pensions have a spouse pension.

I have calculated our monthly outgoings in retirement to be around £2k.
We are struggling to decide the best option for us. Maybe a mixture of higher TFLS on some of the pensions and higher Annual Pension on others.  Also, where best to put the lump sums?  Into the S&S ISA, open a SIPP ( have no real knowledge of these so have to educate myself)

I would welcome any opinions from the good people on this forum

Many thanks

You are younger than your husband and state pension ages are equal. So I suspect your state pension age is also 67, not 66?

His may possibly be 66, not 67?

If you have no specific need or home for the PCLS maybe take the higher defined benefit instead?

But you have more than enough to retire though, best of luck.

EP456

ffacoffipawb said:

EP456 said:

Hi all, our plan was to both retire in September 2022, but lockdown has made us want to stop sooner, so we want it to be September 2021.  The age old question, do we have enough?

I will be 58 this September, and my husband just turned 62.
I earn £30k, and husband went from £50k to £25k in December 2019 when he went part time on receipt if his CS Pension. We have no dependants, are mortgage free and have no debts,
Between us, we have 4 pensions to live on before State Pension kicks in  at 66 for me and 67 for him. Both on track for full SP.
We currently have savings of around £36k to which I am adding around £2k each month.  We have a S&S ISA each which we pay a total of £500 per month to - currently sitting at a total of £32k.  We are both making AVC payments.  He had been paying £125.00 per week but when he went part time in December 2019, this reduced to £76 per week ( the maximum allowed).  I have been paying £100 per month for the last 13 months and have asked to increase to £500 per month from July and hope to increase again to maximise up until retirement.
Pensions
Husband
CS Pension in payment £9214.67
Current FS Estimate (NRA 62) if taken on 64th birthday

Basic before options
Pension of £7728.21 with Lump Sum £14806.20 + AVC Lump Sum of £15099.47
Options
Pension of £6570.23 with Lump sum of £43801.50 (incl AVCs)
Pension of £7599.54 up until June 2024 then £5456.95 from when SP kicks in with Lump Sum of £50663.61
Pension of £8962.06 with AVC Lump Sum payment of £15099.47
Pension of £10563.22 until June 2024, then £8420.63 from when SP kicks in with AVC payment of AVC Lump Sum £15099.47
Me
Deferred Pension if taken Age 59
Options

Pension of £9097.65 with Lump Sum of £27292.94

Pension of £7885.73 with Lump Sum of £52571.54

Current LGPS Pension

Options 

Pension of £4999.10 with Lump Sum of £1489.47

Pension of £3293.51 with Lump Sum of £21956.55

All the pensions have a spouse pension.

I have calculated our monthly outgoings in retirement to be around £2k.
We are struggling to decide the best option for us. Maybe a mixture of higher TFLS on some of the pensions and higher Annual Pension on others.  Also, where best to put the lump sums?  Into the S&S ISA, open a SIPP ( have no real knowledge of these so have to educate myself)

I would welcome any opinions from the good people on this forum

Many thanks

You are younger than your husband and state pension ages are equal. So I suspect your state pension age is also 67, not 66?

His may possibly be 66, not 67?

Sorry, I got it the wrong way round!  I get mine at 67 and he at 66

Elmer_BeFuddled

ffacoffipawb said:

You are younger than your husband and state pension ages are equal. So I suspect your state pension age is also 67, not 66?
His may possibly be 66, not 67?

Thinking the same, I was 62 in Jan '20 and I'm definitely 66

EP456

ffacoffipawb said:

EP456 said:

Hi all, our plan was to both retire in September 2022, but lockdown has made us want to stop sooner, so we want it to be September 2021.  The age old question, do we have enough?

I will be 58 this September, and my husband just turned 62.
I earn £30k, and husband went from £50k to £25k in December 2019 when he went part time on receipt if his CS Pension. We have no dependants, are mortgage free and have no debts,
Between us, we have 4 pensions to live on before State Pension kicks in  at 66 for me and 67 for him. Both on track for full SP.
We currently have savings of around £36k to which I am adding around £2k each month.  We have a S&S ISA each which we pay a total of £500 per month to - currently sitting at a total of £32k.  We are both making AVC payments.  He had been paying £125.00 per week but when he went part time in December 2019, this reduced to £76 per week ( the maximum allowed).  I have been paying £100 per month for the last 13 months and have asked to increase to £500 per month from July and hope to increase again to maximise up until retirement.
Pensions
Husband
CS Pension in payment £9214.67
Current FS Estimate (NRA 62) if taken on 64th birthday

Basic before options
Pension of £7728.21 with Lump Sum £14806.20 + AVC Lump Sum of £15099.47
Options
Pension of £6570.23 with Lump sum of £43801.50 (incl AVCs)
Pension of £7599.54 up until June 2024 then £5456.95 from when SP kicks in with Lump Sum of £50663.61
Pension of £8962.06 with AVC Lump Sum payment of £15099.47
Pension of £10563.22 until June 2024, then £8420.63 from when SP kicks in with AVC payment of AVC Lump Sum £15099.47
Me
Deferred Pension if taken Age 59
Options

Pension of £9097.65 with Lump Sum of £27292.94

Pension of £7885.73 with Lump Sum of £52571.54

Current LGPS Pension

Options 

Pension of £4999.10 with Lump Sum of £1489.47

Pension of £3293.51 with Lump Sum of £21956.55

All the pensions have a spouse pension.

I have calculated our monthly outgoings in retirement to be around £2k.
We are struggling to decide the best option for us. Maybe a mixture of higher TFLS on some of the pensions and higher Annual Pension on others.  Also, where best to put the lump sums?  Into the S&S ISA, open a SIPP ( have no real knowledge of these so have to educate myself)

I would welcome any opinions from the good people on this forum

Many thanks

You are younger than your husband and state pension ages are equal. So I suspect your state pension age is also 67, not 66?

His may possibly be 66, not 67?

If you have no specific need or home for the PCLS maybe take the higher defined benefit instead?

But you have more than enough to retire though, best of luck.

Many thanks for your input.  We both think the higher DB Pensions are the way to go, but then we thought about if one of us was to pass away, would it be better to have some higher TFLS?

michaels

If you take the max lump sums you will be on 3.5k per month gross per month once SP kicks in (assuming you both have full SP) and with your savings and lump sums and the reduced pensions you would easily be able to bridge the gap to SP age from your reduced pensions up to this figure.

So you are looking at over 3k per month incoming and your expenses are 2k pm.  Your biggest problem seems to be figuring out what to spend an extra 50% of income on.

EP456

Many thanks.  Does anyone think we should add to our S&S ISAs, which are with Aviva and were set up via an IFA in 2018, or should we look at opening SIPPs?  Should we look at moving the S&S ISA? 

AlanP_2

Given that you have an active LGPS scheme I would consider paying as much as I could in to the associated AVC option, or at least as much as will benefit from tax relief.

Use as the tax free lump sum when taking the main LGPS benefits.

EP456

Thanks all.  We are now hoping we can stop in June 2021.  I have had pension quotes and appreciate they are not exact.  However, can anyone check that my calculation of our net monthly incomes looks right?  I have used the Salary Calculator website and ticked the boxes stating that we are resident in Scotland and that we won’t be paying NICs.

Husband’s gross annual pensions total £18176.75 - does this equate to a net monthly income of £1421.86?  My combined gross annual pensions total £13990.73.  Does this equate to a net monthly income of £1142.49?

Many thanks as always 

molerat

Assuming tax codes of S1250L then husband roughly = £1422.02 monthly net and you = £1142.44.