A Paupers Pension Tale (Not many nuts to dig up)

barnstar2077

I think what Gambleruk is saying is that he has his own funds that he could use to contribute to the household, but that he hasn't needed to use much of it as his partner's wage has covered the bills and his hobbies etc are not expensive.  So he is very much retired.

sgx2000

SouthCoastBoy said:

I agree about retiring early, my problem is I'm never confident enough to do it. 58 early next year maybe I will have the courage to do it

Same here.....

DT2001

sgx2000 said:

SouthCoastBoy said:

I agree about retiring early, my problem is I'm never confident enough to do it. 58 early next year maybe I will have the courage to do it

Same here.....

I think the key is how much you like/dislike work and how flexible your budget is.
If work is ok then OMY (or two) isn’t a great burden…
If to retire, as you want, and a 10/20% drop in income would make you unhappy then you ‘need’ to carry on.

My upbringing was middle class followed by redundancy and parents working beyond SPA. My mother lived off her SP (not full), a small private pension and dipping into savings (under 10k p.a. income) yet she did all she wanted. Having said that OH is still working as she enjoys it and being self employed we travel as often as we can. When you should go is when you are ‘happy’ to and only you will know that.

Great thread Gambleruk and I do like the off tangent additions. I drew my (£8k) DB pension at 51.5 and we could live off that plus other unearned income (as proven during lockdown) but with our youngest still at college I do not see myself as retired.

Albermarle

I think the key is how much you like/dislike work and how flexible your budget is.
If work is ok then OMY (or two) isn’t a great burden…
If to retire, as you want, and a 10/20% drop in income would make you unhappy then you ‘need’ to carry on.

I agree with this. OMY can effectively mean more than OMY in financial terms, as you have covered expenses for one year, and added to your pot as well. Having a bigger pot can aid restful sleep in retirement, especially if you are the worrying type.

sgx2000

Gambleruk....

Thank you for starting this thread.
I only came across it last week and have read the whole thread.... 

I loved the earlier statement...
Standing under a tree in the rain but realizing I have never been happier.......
Brilliant..

I am 62 
Knackered knee
knackered chest

Still working... saving £1000+ per month

And always have in the back of my mind, that if I work to 66,  I will be earning £120,000 extra...

Oh!  and of course...
The fear everyone seems to have at the moment, that banks and pension funds will collapse....

I wonder if anyone ever (apart from the exceedingly wealthy) enters retirement totally confidently....

comeandgo

Expotter said:

I'm really sorry if I offended anyone by touching on a sore point there and I really couldn't care less what people call themselves. What I was trying to get at was that, in my opinion, retirement means financial independence, and as happy and content as the OP may be, he's dependent on his wife (and son) really, were any of them to change their minds about the current arrangements he would probably have to reassess the whole situation.
And I don't think this thread is unrealistic at all, the opposite really, it's actually proof it can be done when everyone involved is willing. My point was a reference to the FIRE movement, with emphasis on the Financial Independence, which I don't believe the OP has realistically achieved for the time frame involved.

I totally agree with you expotter and a sentence taken from OP’s opening post sums it up I think,
”So here’s the plan so far, live off the wife’s wages for as long as possible”.

sgx2000

Cambridge dictionary
Retirement
the act of leaving your job and stopping working, usually because you are old

lol

gambleruk

Looks like the discussion on whether I am retired or not will not go away lol, if a sports person says they are retiring at 35 years old then how would you describe them a couple of years later if they had decided not to take another job ? Surely they are retired. My thoughts are if you work for a considerable amount of time then decide you are not going to work again then it is retirement no matter what your financial status is. 

Anyway time to crack a beer open and crank the record player up to some Counting Crows (who were awesome on Tuesday in Manchester by the way) and enjoy my retirement 

Albermarle

Oh!  and of course...
The fear everyone seems to have at the moment, that banks and pension funds will collapse...

There is not even the slightest rumour that any bank is in trouble, in the UK or elsewhere, and after the reforms after the last crash it would be very unlikely to happen to any bank, except maybe a very small one with a specific issue.

sgx2000

gambleruk said:

I was walking one of the dogs on Tuesday morning finding new local footpaths and had to shelter under a tree from a rain shower but I just stood there thinking how lucky I am that I am able to do this during the week when once upon a time I would have been stuck behind a desk, no extra money in the world could have made me feel any happier than I felt at that moment.

The best quote on the pensions forum - by a long long way...........