How much to live on

Smudgeismydog

What a wonderful post annielyn, thank you so much for sharing.

helensbiggestfan

Same here, Annielyn.  Lovely post.  So glad everything has worked out so well for you.  Love that John Lennon quote.  He was bang on with that one. 

I too retired early and unexpectedly (to become my husbands carer). I was too young to draw my pension at the time and although we did struggle financially I don't regret it for a moment. Some things, like quality time with loved ones, really are more important than money.  

If necessary, one can always find a way to get money, but time, once spent, can never be regained.  

Feeling quite autumnal here today......

BrilliantButScary

annielyn said:

I've been looking back at old posts and found where I'd posted on this thread in May 2021. We were 4 years into DH's early retirement then after the job he had done for 40+ years became too much for him and we realized we needed to act before it was detrimental to his physical and mental health. I posted that our annual outgoings at the time were around £27k.

Once he had made the decision to leave work we started to plan.  Pension freedom was a relatively new thing at the time he left in 2017 and we took advice from an IPA. After working out what our  annual outgoings were, we were confident with taking some of the TFLS, the level of drawdown we arranged, and our savings, that we could live on this for the 8 years till SP kicked in.

I realize that in the context of this site, and the many threads there are about retirement planning, that this would have seemed irresponsible to many. We may not have planned for him to leave at that age but I have always been careful with our finances and we had already paid our mortgage off early after following advice on this site.

I have, over this time, also reduced my SE hours considerably so we could spend our retirement together and we have managed perfectly well on the reduced income.

The time following his retirement has had ups and downs. We have both lost parents during this time but the fact that he had finished work meant we were able to be there to help as their health deteriorated. I know if we had both been working full time this would have made dealing with this even more difficult than it already was.

There have been plenty of good times too. Spending time with family and being able to be on call to help out with grandchildren whenever needed has been a big bonus. We have travelled a bit as well and also spent a lot of time at our static caravan which has made for a lovely life balance.

We are now both a couple of months away from SP. Our average annual expenditure is now around 29k and looking back at our finances over this time, our total assets (pension included) are only 10k down on where we were in May 2021. Bearing in mind we have financed a good life during this period, and the external pressures on the markets, I think this is pretty remarkable.

We haven't obsessed over depleting the pension pot or worried too much about saving or leaving an inheritance. We are gifting to grandchildren when we can now and I know our family are not counting on a large inheritance and have told us to just enjoy life while we can.

I know we were lucky to be in this position and I have to say we have no regrets in doing what we did. It has worked out for us and I do think, if we had had a retirement plan in place, it would have been completely derailed by circumstances anyway.

In the words of a certain Beatle 'Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans'.

 

Great post @annielyn ,
Funnily enough, I was going to use the John Lennon quote in response to a poster contemplating retirement on the Pensions forum. I also refrained from posting 'Lets go fly a kite' from Mary Poppins!

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Let's_Go_Fly_a_Kite

I am 2 years into retirement and these have been my 'Halcyon Days' and like others on this forum I enjoy the 
'Simple Pleasures' .