FIREside Chats

Grogged

This article may be of interest to all you fire starters, some good links towards the end to plan your entire journey.
https://monevator.com/fire/

Retireinten

edinburgher said:

@Retireinten - spooky - you're like the future me! Basically same salary, likely DB pension size, targets, solar panels, interest in today's money

Still - how on earth are you getting £3k a year for your solar panels? I think we're on the "medium" rate for FITs and get about 2,500 kWh a year with our system (£400 give or take)

We have two systems, one on the house and a smaller one on an outbuilding. Maximum FIT rate of 50 something pence for a total of 25 years. We're not quite south facing unfortunately and we do have some shade in winter but otherwise a fantastic buy 9 years ago

Retireinten

perfume_waggon said:

Retireinten said:

 I'm currently learning about crystallised and uncrystalised pension funds and various ways to drawdown. 

Please share your knowledge about this once learnt!

I suspect there are people on here that could explain this better than me, but I will attempt an explanation once I've got the hang of it myself.  I've asked for a drawdown for dummies guide on the pensions forum but alas one is not forthcoming yet


It wouldn't be a bad thing to share some tips in normal English on here. For instance I hadn't thought to do the £2,880/£3,600 annual pension payment once we were in draw down as it would push us both into paying basic rate tax, so I'd assumed not worth it. But even basic rate tax payers gain £180 a year from doing this. As a couple that's £360 a year for a bit of pension admin, so in my book still very much worth it . 

gallygirl

Retireinten said:

At the time I had the vaguest idea of retiring at 55 on £30k net a year with no clue how to achieve this or what we had already saved.

That was me - except your plan was much more advanced as you had an income figure in mind! But ANY idea is a great starting point and it doesn't take long to start fleshing it out so to anyone reading who hasn't a clue how to start - the answer is very slowly and vaguely!

Your plan is very detailed and looks like you've had some great advice from the pensions board. The only note of caution I would sound is about relying on a SIPP to fund some of the intervening years. Pension drawdown used to be linked to 10 years before state retirement age and every now and then there is talk of increasing from 55 to 58 or above. Obviously decent notice would be given (you would expect ) but you're young enough that it's far enough away to possibly affect you. I retired at 53 but didn't rest easy with my SIPP until I put it into drawdown (I think I started the process the day after my 55th birthday!).

edinburgher

@gallygirl - I thought that was already happening? SIPP @ 58 is the assumption I'm basing retiring at 58 on (68 for state pension)

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

@gallygirl - I thought that was already happening? SIPP @ 58 is the assumption I'm basing retiring at 58 on (68 for state pension)

Yeah - they did announce it, but we are still waiting for the details on how it's going to be implemented. There is a question for example on whether it will just be new pension schemes entered into after a certain date with any existing ones grandfathered, or if it will just be everything you hold.

edinburgher

Ooh - grandfathering would be lovely - bring me forward to 55!

QueenJess

I'm hoping for the same as it'll really help!  Here's the consultation document link if anyone is interested: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/increasing-the-normal-minimum-pension-age-consultation-on-implementation

Consultation ends April 2021 so watch this space...

edinburgher

@QueenJess - the suggested protection sounds remarkably sensible and avoids a "cliff edge" situation of trying to put all the money in before 2028 👍

Retireinten

edinburgher said:

Ooh - grandfathering would be lovely - bring me forward to 55!

Yes please, I'll have some of that too . 


Our plans assume state pension will be 68 and private pensions 57.  Hoping that we are caught in the transition arrangements as we're mid 40's, so assuming for now we will be able to start drawdown at some point between our 57th and 58th birthdays. If not, then we will need to tweak the savings, main thing will be loss of tax relief