The number

scobie

Have I reached the number?  I’m actually thinking I might have done. 

I’m 58 and still working and plan to retire to a house I fully own in South East Asia. 

I have two D.C. pension pots. One is around £61k with around £1k being contributed each month.  The second is currently worth around £280k. I also have a small pension pot in Australia which is worth around £22k. 

Separately I have Investments mostly wrapped in ISAs worth around £340k. 

I own my house in Yorkshire and current valuation is around £430,000. No mortgage. Rental value is c £1700 a month.   And I own an apartment in Bangkok which I plan to rent for around £900 a month. 

My plan is this: move over there in around 2 years when I hit 60. I will rent my two properties and hope to generate around £2500 a month from them.  I’d probably crystallise my D.C. funds and could probably income draw down or not depending on circumstances such as if I needed it. Maybe take £1000 a month to be safe. 

And I would keep my ISA’s largely intact. 

I expect a full state pension in 9 years time. 

Aside from tax considerations do people see any red flags? 

El_Torro

How much will you be spending per month when you move to South East Asia?

Rental income is fine when it all goes well. Remember that void periods, repairs and non paying tenants do happen. On the plus side you can sell one or both properties in future to release more capital. 

On the face of it you do seem ready to retire, financially speaking. My only real concern is that you seem to be relying on property income a lot, though you do have some buffer in case there are issues. 

scobie

I’m thinking £2500-3000 a month would be more than enough. It’s a relatively low cost country and that should provide a very comfortable lifestyle. 

Interesting comment re reliance on property income. To be honest I see it the other way round: they’re a nice bonus.  

I wouldn’t keep them forever.  I suspect I would use them largely to finance early retirement - the bridge years.  I plan to sell my UK place 4-5 years after retirement and, even with low house price inflation over the period, realise £480k for it, maybe £500k. 

The Bangkok property is likely to stay.  It would be just 100 miles up the road and easy to manage, and it’s in a very rentable area. 

Maybe I’d sell it 2-3 years after. 

As things stand I know my state pension would be fixed, but hopefully by then it would be generate close to £1000 a month. But I’m not really relying on it. 

SouthCoastBoy

It maybe worth considering the impact of the baht becoming stronger against the pound.

MX5huggy

Have you checked the cost of health insurance? 

scobie

Yeah. I lived and work there for many years before so I’m conscious of the health insurance costs. It’s not huge and I’ve factored it in. 

The baht issue is less of a concern but it is a factor and it’s one of the reasons I want to keep the Bangkok rental property longer as it ensures a decent proportion of income is locally generated. 

michaels

We are seeing average 10% inflation this year and next (possibly more?!), a UK state pension fixed in nominal terms is obiviously a risk.

scobie

Well as I don’t qualify for it until 2031 I’m not too worried about that and as I said it doesn’t form any part in my planning. 

Plus of course you are talking about the U.K. inflation rate.  If I’m living in Thailand it won’t impact me much and I will need to think more about the inflation rate there. 

FX issues will be more relevant than domestic inflation rates