Redundancy and then Early Retirement?

hyperhypo

Voluntary redundancy... settlement agreements..are often possible particularly in large companies where tranches of cash become available  from time to time to ultimately lower headcount. It doesn't necessarily queer your pitch either by making discrete enquiries as to whether one might be considered. Although individual company culture might indicate otherwise. Need to work out ones own minimum amount before any first call to HR. Good luck!

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CloesUnc

Marcon said:

CloesUnc said:

Hello.

Ive been lurking on here for a good long while to get hints and tips about my future. and have now plucked up courage to post haha.

I am 53 years old and I may be leaving work soon. my situation is that I have a defined benefit pension with normal retirement age of 60, worth about  £17,500 before tax, but will increase with CPI from now. Also another DB that I plan to take from 55 probably worth £5300 per year, again before tax. I have a SIPP that I plan to draw from at about £16,000 per year or so from age 55 to save tax. I will also have about £100,000 in various investments. My partner is five years younger than me and works in a good job (£40k per year) and has plenty of savings and investments herself. We have no kids and no mortgage, and lead a modest life, cheap cars, cheap holidays , shop in Lidl, probably £1000 ourlay of necessary costs per month.

Sorry I don't want to go into much more detail than this but what are peoples' gut feelings about these figures. I would very much like to walk away from this job now as I cant cope with the stress of it anymore.

If you can't cope with the stress, and have what seems to be a decent amount of cash saved for retirement, then why would you stay?

You say 'there is a chance of redundancy' but if the job is so awful, is it worth hanging on to see if you can get a payout - and possibly doing your health serious damage in the meantime?

Thanks Marcon, these are wise words and I have certainly been thinking about this.

I meant to say my SIPP has enough for tax allowance drawdown from 55 to 60 whereupon it will run dry and a DB pension kicks in for slightly more per year. I think this is still enough though.

CloesUnc

Thanks all for your comments. Very much appreciated.

My future plan now includes buying extra NI contribution years.

TVAS

It is always better to use the DC funds first before you start taking DB benefits early. So always take the non guaranteed funds first before even thinking about taking non guaranteed benefits especially if you want to go early and will therefore take a reduced pension.

So the question is can you defer taking the DB to later than age 55. Sit down with wife, have all your investments/money to hand, look at your expenditure, what will disappear (as you want to stop working), what will increase (as you will have stopped work) what can you get rid of, what can't you get rid of. E.g. I have a sim card only phone at £10 a month, you can get better deals as little as £5 a month these things add up. 

Taking benefits from a DB at 58 is so much better than at 55. Request a quotation for both ages to see the difference.