Would you retire really early and burn down most of your DC pension assets?

quirkydeptless

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

This guy could give her some tips...

tigerspill

thickasabrick said:

Thrugelmir said:

thickasabrick said:

ajfielden said:

snip

So what to do? Burning most of the pension assets seems scary, but then it looks like I've massively over provisioned in terms of pension schemes if they aren't used. After all, they are there to provide us with financial support in retirement.

Btw I'm getting seriously fed up with work, even though it's a job I've loved most of my career, I get somewhat jaded by the poltics and dealing with unreasonable people. That is one reason I've been looking into pensions recently.

I'll be burning my DC pension pot at a faster rate for the next couple of years to cover some travelling we want to do.

There's certainly plenty to visit in the UK. 

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

Where was your trip?

Nebulous2

thickasabrick said:

Thrugelmir said:

thickasabrick said:

ajfielden said:

snip

So what to do? Burning most of the pension assets seems scary, but then it looks like I've massively over provisioned in terms of pension schemes if they aren't used. After all, they are there to provide us with financial support in retirement.

Btw I'm getting seriously fed up with work, even though it's a job I've loved most of my career, I get somewhat jaded by the poltics and dealing with unreasonable people. That is one reason I've been looking into pensions recently.

I'll be burning my DC pension pot at a faster rate for the next couple of years to cover some travelling we want to do.

There's certainly plenty to visit in the UK. 

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

I've yet to learn to limit myself to that. We have about 600 miles driving to reach the channel ports. When I was limited to a fortnight's holiday I used to work on a Friday, drive all night, cross around 5am then drive several hundred miles into France, arriving about tea time. It was a bit of an adventure on the way away, but quite wearisome on the way home. Now with a caravan we will stop in a service station overnight and take a bit longer to go. I still need to accept that the journey is part of the holiday and not just something to be endured to get there. More recently I've been getting better at shorter distances between campsites and a more leisurely journey. We have taken a longer crossing to Bilbao to cut out driving all the way down through France and that worked. 

At home it is different. We would generally pitch for 3-4 nights rather than 2 and we are happy with a 50-70 mile trip between sites. Those have generally been shorter breaks rather than our main holiday so we don't feel the need to pack more in. 

trevjl

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

Not reversing I hope

cfw1994

trevjl said:

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

Not reversing I hope

Are you planning some formal training on it? 

We waver about on the camper/caravan thing.
I like the look of the Barefoot one…..already have a tow bar, but have never towed.  Relatives got an Eriba, then within a year chopped it in for a VW van: the wife flat-out refused to tow after a scary wobble incident….

Fresh back from a fabulous Latitude festival, decided we are pretty happy for the time being with our stand up Vango tent!    We have some decent air beds and comfy bags, various bits of kit…picked up a £40 Aldi ‘backpack gazebo’ which was brilliant too!
Pals had a camper there: even further for them to walk (family camping or ‘van is closer).  

They do get their own loo and full mattress.  On the flip side, we didn’t have to empty & clean the loos we used, which were generally pretty well kept, & they wasted about 90minutes each day walking back & forth 🤪
We also got to nip into Southwold, park easily and have a Monday swim & cafe stop before heading back…

Some advice I saw on vans v caravans was if you planned long stays (5+ days), a caravan is good…if you stay only a couple of nights, a campervan.  Probably puts us in campervan territory….but then I figure the upfront cost covers a lot of hotels or B&Bs, especially if combined with a bit of camping.

Have I gone off-topic again? 🤪

LV_426

cfw1994 said:

trevjl said:

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

Not reversing I hope

Are you planning some formal training on it? 

We waver about on the camper/caravan thing.
I like the look of the Barefoot one…..already have a tow bar, but have never towed.  Relatives got an Eriba, then within a year chopped it in for a VW van: the wife flat-out refused to tow after a scary wobble incident….

Fresh back from a fabulous Latitude festival, decided we are pretty happy for the time being with our stand up Vango tent!    We have some decent air beds and comfy bags, various bits of kit…picked up a £40 Aldi ‘backpack gazebo’ which was brilliant too!
Pals had a camper there: even further for them to walk (family camping or ‘van is closer).  

They do get their own loo and full mattress.  On the flip side, we didn’t have to empty & clean the loos we used, which were generally pretty well kept, & they wasted about 90minutes each day walking back & forth 🤪
We also got to nip into Southwold, park easily and have a Monday swim & cafe stop before heading back…

Some advice I saw on vans v caravans was if you planned long stays (5+ days), a caravan is good…if you stay only a couple of nights, a campervan.  Probably puts us in campervan territory….but then I figure the upfront cost covers a lot of hotels or B&Bs, especially if combined with a bit of camping.

Have I gone off-topic again? 🤪

Happy to go OT, I started it
I may in time have a go at reversing the thing, but that's what motor movers were invented for. Makes manoeuvring the van easy.
I'm also planning on fitting an ATC to provide extra stability. I've never towed before, so literally the first time will be when I collect it and hitch up to the back of my car.
Fortunately easy route back, along motorways. 
Might consider some formal training before I pick it up, that's a good idea.

george_jetson

cfw1994 said:

trevjl said:

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

Not reversing I hope

Some advice I saw on vans v caravans was if you planned long stays (5+ days), a caravan is good…if you stay only a couple of nights, a campervan.  Probably puts us in campervan territory….but then I figure the upfront cost covers a lot of hotels or B&Bs, especially if combined with a bit of camping.

VW Caddy California mini camper might be a compromise that works for you. Due out next year I think

Lostweekend

ajfielden said:

cfw1994 said:

trevjl said:

ajfielden said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

This will be me pretty soon. Just got to train the Mrs up on how to tow a caravan.

Not reversing I hope

Are you planning some formal training on it? 

We waver about on the camper/caravan thing.
I like the look of the Barefoot one…..already have a tow bar, but have never towed.  Relatives got an Eriba, then within a year chopped it in for a VW van: the wife flat-out refused to tow after a scary wobble incident….

Fresh back from a fabulous Latitude festival, decided we are pretty happy for the time being with our stand up Vango tent!    We have some decent air beds and comfy bags, various bits of kit…picked up a £40 Aldi ‘backpack gazebo’ which was brilliant too!
Pals had a camper there: even further for them to walk (family camping or ‘van is closer).  

They do get their own loo and full mattress.  On the flip side, we didn’t have to empty & clean the loos we used, which were generally pretty well kept, & they wasted about 90minutes each day walking back & forth 🤪
We also got to nip into Southwold, park easily and have a Monday swim & cafe stop before heading back…

Some advice I saw on vans v caravans was if you planned long stays (5+ days), a caravan is good…if you stay only a couple of nights, a campervan.  Probably puts us in campervan territory….but then I figure the upfront cost covers a lot of hotels or B&Bs, especially if combined with a bit of camping.

Have I gone off-topic again? 🤪

Happy to go OT, I started it
I may in time have a go at reversing the thing, but that's what motor movers were invented for. Makes manoeuvring the van easy.
I'm also planning on fitting an ATC to provide extra stability. I've never towed before, so literally the first time will be when I collect it and hitch up to the back of my car.
Fortunately easy route back, along motorways. 
Might consider some formal training before I pick it up, that's a good idea.

I would recommend the Camping and Caravan Club training. I did two mornings over a weekend and it was invaluable, not just reversing but general guidance on towing. It was really useful and gave me loads of confidence. Couples also attended together.

Motor movers can fail sometimes!

thickasabrick

tigerspill said:

thickasabrick said:

Just back from a two week trip in the UK.  Will be glad when I don't have to rush back for work as we skipped a few places and reduced some of our stopovers to 1 day due to distance and time constraints. Total driving time 41 hours, total distance travelled 1500 miles. There is a 2/2/2 rule for RV/motorhome travel, stop every 2 hours, max 200 miles, stay minimum of 2 nights. I think for the UK probably better to stop and swap driver every hour, max 2 hours driving which equates to 100 miles which is more suited to Great Britain.

Where was your trip?

1. Arkwright Arms, Chesterfield Rd, Duckmanton, Chesterfield S44 5JG

2. Stump Cross Caverns, Greenhow Hill, Pateley Bridge, Harrogate HG3 5JL

3. Edinburgh Caravan and Motorhome campsite, Marine Dr, Edinburgh EH4 5EN

4. Loch Rannoch

5. Findhorn West Beach Motorhome Stopover, Findhorn, Forres IV36 3YE

6. Calgary Bay, Isle of Mull
7. The Inn at Argour, Corran, Fort William PH33 7AA

9. Loch Lomond

9. Aira Force, Ullswater, Lake District

10. Halfpenny Green Vineyards, Tom Lane, Halfpenny Green, Bobbington, Staffordshire, DY7 5EP

Britstops p186

11. White Mark Farm, 82 Hill Rd, Watlington, OX49 5AF

Mixture of Britstops, searchforsites, park4night and some of the Facebook groups such as UK Pub stopovers for motorhomes & campervans, Campaign for Real Aires UK - CAMpRA, the Caravan and Motorhome club and the Camping and Caravanning club.

Ian_Brown_3

green_man said:

If you’ve run the numbers and it works then sure, that’s what it’s for.  I retired at 47, burned through savings and redundancy until 55, then started on DC pots supplemented by ISA income.   My asset size is higher now than when I retired (I’m using around 2.5% of current pot size per year), but obviously stock market fluctuations do impact that.

That’s really interesting. I’m on the brink of 50 and considering doing something similar. Really useful  to see how it’s gone for you.