Should I stay or should I go - teacher

Kim1965

How long is your child at uni for?
What level of house hold income do you need? 

GrubbyGirl_2

If you have a final salary pension it's calculated on the best of the last 3 years, so just take a part time teaching role for 2 years then leave and freeze your pension or take a smaller hit if you draw it early.  I'm only familiar with the NHS pension but I would imagine it's similar.  If you take your pension early at 55 it falls by 21% but if you retire at 57 it falls to 14%.  Or you could just freeze it and only have to live off your savings for 3 years instead of 5

MikeJXE

Can't imagine being in a job I wasn't happy doing, I'm 82 years old and loved every minute of mine. You're young enough to get out and retrain 

DT2001

As theoretica says look into Student Maintenance Loan assessment to see if you earnings dropped from when you were 54 would your child get more and you then have to provide less than £550 per month. Your income is assessed after pension contributions so you could use some of your savings to fund a SIPP (remembering to look at LTA if delaying taking your pension) and end up below the lower threshold.