FIREside Chats

hugheskevi

Suffolk_lass said:

@KajiKita - I think they only credit you until age 19 now (the same as child benefit if in FE not HE) - not through the Uni years. It was different in the 1970s...

Between 1975 and 2010 everyone got credits for the financial year they reached age 16 and the two subsequent years. After 2010 credits were abolished.

Full details are at this link.

savingholmes

@Suffolk_lass

I think it is fine... This is from a year ago

"Contracted Out Pension Equivalent (COPE) Your COPE estimate is £36.18 a week. This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government."

From my NI record:
"You have: 32 years of full contributions
16 years to contribute before 5 April 2037
3 years when you did not contribute enough. " 

Ironically it didn't give me NI credits while at uni - but did from age 16-18.

hugheskevi

Update on my plans, as today is exactly 2 months before we fly out to start our Americas travels. I expect to come back to London after about 2 years of travel and work for up to a year whilst selling house and buying retirement property (or longer if markets have plummeted or we spent more traveling than planned), so this isn't quite yet FIRE, but it is very close to it and I view it as the start of retirement in most respects.

The plan is mostly unchanged from my last update on this thread a couple of months ago, flying into Anchorage then heading mostly down the west coast of the Americas all the way to Ushuaia. We fly on 8th September, and should get to Mexico in early November and then the plan is to take a bit over a year to cover all of Central and South America.

We now plan to do a side trip off over to Cuba from Cancun when we get to Yucatan peninsula which should be good. Once through Central America we will get a boat from Panama via the San Blas islands over to Colombia. We might also go over to the Corn islands in Nicaragua as now we don't think we will visit the Caribbean (aside from Cuba) as we will be seeing plenty of islands off the coast of mainland Americas.

The other major detour will be to take boats down the Amazon from Peru to Manaus, and then back to Cusco. That will take quite some time, but should be an amazing journey. Aside from that we will be taking a fairly obvious route through Central and South America.

One thing which is completely different to when I last traveled in my late 20s, back in 2006, is just how much of this trip is pre-booked and pre-funded due to more internet availability. This time, I have loaded my AirBnb account with gift cards from our employer as I get 5.5% discount which is great given how much we will be spending on that, so I now have around £3,000 deposited there which should last until around Guatemala. I've also prebooked 6 weeks of car hire and an 8 day cruise, so most transport from Anchorage to Mexico is sorted. Insurance, flights, new passports and vaccinations have now all been sorted and paid for too. Pictures below are of cruise ship, the car I'll be using in Alaska and the car I'll drive around western USA. Interesting how much more you can plan and prepare nowadays.

On the income side, due to a combination of remaining leave and tax refunds, we should get about £15,000 of salary and tax back after we leave. We'll also get rental income of a bit under £2,000 per month, and I've just found tenants who seem perfect earlier this week which was a big relief. Taking this into account along with the pre-booked/pre-funded stuff, we should have a higher cash balance in April 2023 than when we leave in September, which is astonishing after 7 months of travel. I guess that demonstrates the "FI" part of FIRE.

savingholmes

Sounds exciting @hugheskevi

Cornish_mum

Brilliant plans hugheski, very inspiring CM

Cornish_mum

Thank you for all the discussions of COPE, extremely useful. I was also contracted out (2007-16) but I am young enough to catch up the years, I am planning to do this after I retire by whichever method of contribution is most economical. CM

Willow1983

Hi, just jumping in with a quick question hopefully someone will be able to answer.  Myself and my husband have worked since leaving school and have over 40 years contributions and qualify for the full state pension.  However, we are looking to stop work early around 4 - 5 years before qualifying pension age of 67. If we do and don’t pay any more contributions will we still get full pension or will we need to buy years we don’t work?  Thanks in advance 😊

hugheskevi

Willow1983 said:

Hi, just jumping in with a quick question hopefully someone will be able to answer.  Myself and my husband have worked since leaving school and have over 40 years contributions and qualify for the full state pension.  However, we are looking to stop work early around 4 - 5 years before qualifying pension age of 67. If we do and don’t pay any more contributions will we still get full pension or will we need to buy years we don’t work?  Thanks in advance 😊

40 years doesn't matter as you may have been contracted-out in the past and require more than 40 years. Ensure you have checked your State Pension - read carefully, don't just look at the headline figure.

If you have already accrued a full State Pension then you will get full amount at State Pension age regardless of whether you work the intervening years or not.

Willow1983

Hi Hugheskevi, thanks for reply. I was contracted out and this is what it says - 

Your COPE estimate is £12.60 a week

This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.

In most cases the private pension scheme you were contracted out to:

• will include an amount equal to the COPE amount
• may not individually identify the COPE amount

The total amount of pension paid by your workplace or personal pension schemes will depend on the scheme and on any investment choices.

I assume it won’t effect my state pension?  🤔

hugheskevi

Willow1983 said:

Hi Hugheskevi, thanks for reply. I was contracted out and this is what it says - 

Your COPE estimate is £12.60 a week

This will not affect your State Pension forecast. The COPE amount is paid as part of your other pension schemes, not by the government.

In most cases the private pension scheme you were contracted out to:

• will include an amount equal to the COPE amount
• may not individually identify the COPE amount

The total amount of pension paid by your workplace or personal pension schemes will depend on the scheme and on any investment choices.

I assume it won’t effect my state pension?  🤔

Ignore anything about COPE, it is irrelevant and confusing. Just look at what it says about the State Pension you have accrued, and what you will have if you work to State Pension age. Hopefully it will say something like you cannot improve the amount already accrued further, which means you have a full State Pension.