What made you 'pull the trigger'? 9 January at 11:00AM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 289 replies 71.1K views

billywhizz1966

For me it just came down to finances and a change in priorities. I had a spreadsheet that tracked spending and always had an aspiration to retire in my mid to late 50's and do the travel so many of my friends did in their 20's after going to university whilst hopefully my health was good

I moved jobs at 53 as I was increasingly under pressure to deliver in a demanding job that gave me a great pension but also lots of stress and frustration. I therefore (having unsuccessfully tried to be made redundant) moved into a role in the private sector that paid fantastically well pre COVID but I slowly came to the conclusion that whilst the money was great I couldn't see I had the desire, hunger or drive that I needed to keep see myself doing it for many years.

So I basically ploughed as much of my salary into the DC pension as possible using available b/f allowances which saw me get a DC pot of some £150k in 2 and a half years alot helped by the tax man whose benefits I was not going to be able to exploit as well from January 2022 onwards. My wife who is 3 years older than me had finished her job in April 2022 and embraced her new found time and freedom so I worked out I could easily go with a combination of built up savings and pension (I will drawdown from April 2023 the £150k (now £140k in line with investment downturns) and a sizable pot of savings so pulled the trigger

I did have a backstop and agreed to do 18 days consultancy for my old employer (this has now finished) and also agreed to do another 15 days work that brought me in over £20k in the last 12 months but even that small amount of work and excellent recompense for my now endless free time isn't enough for me to think I want to do the same in 2023 and instead I would just rather concentrate/enjoy the things I want to do as none of us know what is around the corner and the grand old age of 57

We have the certainty and luxury of two DB pensions of circa £77k when they come into payment (my wife is already in receipt of her half) so not subject to the stock market performance but even the crash as had an upside as suddenly the cash pots I had to determine what to do with are earning good interest meaning I have more than enough to keep the wolves from the door so good luck in making the right decision for you which is I have found as much a mental one (not feeling guilty about not working full or even part time( as a financial one

horsewithnoname

I partly retired a couple of years ago. Sadly I can’t afford to fully retire, but it was a general “life’s too short” kind of feeling, so in the absence of the money to fully retire, I did the best I could. 

It’s brilliant, roll on full retirement, I say 😁

TadleyBaggie

The trigger was pulled for me. I was very unhappy in the job I had (was 62 at the time) and was strongly considering just jacking it in. I hadn't done much in the way of retirement planning but knew I had a final salary DB pension that would pay out over £30K pa. In addition I had about 5 other private pensions.

So I was called into a meeting and basically told I was being let go, with a 2 month lump sump (only been there just over 2 years). I snatched their hand off and never looked back. Now with DB pension, SIPP drawdown, 2 state pensions and a small Civil Service pension I have more income then I've ever had. Still manage to spend it all mind...

ex-pat_scot

GSP said:

Bet everyone has a different story to tell.

I worked for just one company in the City. Started when I just turned 16 until new management tried to performance manage me out after strong ratings year after year, and I walked out of the office one afternoon in February aged 53.

From there for the next nine months I was on mental health programmes, my salary was cut to half pay after six months, then to nothing with a mortgage and family with two kids.

Then after a grievance failed but my appeal won, that November I was offered redundancy and took it. I kept the £30,000 tax free and amount up to my personal allowance, and put the rest into my pension.


We have really enjoyed ourselves these past five years, but the 20% drop in our pension funds has been a real wake up call in 2022.
So much so with still 6 years to my state pension and 11 for hers, I am now looking for work because I want to try and protect our fund.

So this is where I am. With a pension that’s volatile and have no control over, and concerns it’s dwindling away too fast.

That word hindsight, what I would have done differently was still to seek work past 55 as it was too early to retire and given the volatile pension I have to rely on. I needed a steady income with only light withdrawals perhaps from the pension fund.

Thanks GSP.
I'm where you were - at 53, suddenly ground to a halt in the City (albeit I've been around many different firms, and not had the DB fortune).
I'm just trying to get back into work after 6 months off, but feeling a bit of trepidation to be honest. 
I think I have a few more years before I can pull the trigger. Certainly in another 12 months or so I will have the fallback of my DC money, but will still have 12m of school fees and several years of uni support.
I'm pretty confident that I could move out (back) into consulting, or get a senior SME role at any of my clients doing an easier version of what I do now.
Objectively, I have it really easy, but it feels awful. I'm trying to get away from feeling like I'm hanging on.

At some point the markets will recover and I suspect that will give me (us) the confidence to step away from current role. Whether to zero, or p/t consulting - not sure at present.
I've no idea what the markets are going to do in the medium term. I'm guessing that the next couple of years are going to be filled with nervous volatility as the "bottom" is called several times and the external factors develop.
Whether 2 years, or 3 or whatever, there will come a point where things improve, and psychologically once this happens it will also hopefully take me through the LTA and beyond. That's likely to be the trigger - a combination of LTA and confidence, with a side smattering of family issue as a possibility (caring for parents / children / etc).

EdSwippet

Hit the LTA ... or rather, the govt reduced the LTA so that it hit me. 2016. I had planned to work four more years, but calculated that I would lose around 25% in compensation over the period, either way: take fixed protection but lose my entire employer pension contributions and the added salary sacrifice NI uplift benefit on top; or, don't take fixed protection and lose 25% in eventual LTA penalty.

I have more self-respect than to work four years for effectively three years of salary. At the LTA, work becomes optional. I opted to stop. With close to a year of lifestyle planning already done, the transition was very easy to make. The pre-planning was crucial, though. Retire to something, not just from something.

leosayer

Great post OP and thanks for posting - it sounds similar to me.

Like you I have been employed by the same company for 30+ years and I spend a lot of time planning the financial aspects of retirement so much so that it's effectively a 2nd job.

My wife and I have a plan to stop working in March 2025 which is based on:

- Hitting age 55 meaning my wife and I can commence / drawdown pensions

- The start of the new tax year - simplifying income tax calcs

- The start of spring!

- We will have saved the amount we want to cover our spending needs for the next 3/4 years

- Expecting to exceed the LTA especially now considering the freeze

- We will no longer need to pay certain significant expenses  

Unlike you, I don't dislike my job and am quite happy waking at 5am to get an early start however on returning from lockdown I realise I enjoy the social aspect.  Having said that, my wife and I are both 'work to live' people so don't see the need to work when we don't have to - we could instead volunteer.

I remember someone on a forum saying that you shouldn't aim to retire 'from work' but instead plan to retire 'to something'. So what are your plans and goals when you retire?

For us, I expect that we will spend some time living abroad eg. some months in USA and Canada, some months in Oz and NZ etc. We may even rent our house out to help fund it. Beyond that - not sure!

michaels

For those who have been same employer for a long time and have a big DC pot, consider working for the civil service for a year or so as you can import a lot of your DC into the govt gold plated DB at generous rates which reduces SOR risk and lifetime allowance issues.

indiasign

OP, we’re in very similar positions - 38 years in the same job, not been enjoying it for some time, and the pandemic just made thing worse, with working from home breaking what few “team” bonds I had left.

So this year I’ve taken the first steps on what is going to be a fairly long “glide path” to retirement, taking one DB pension a year early, while dropping down to 4 days a week.

Then next year I’m taking my CS Premium pension, and dropping to 3 days, to ease myself into the idea of retirement.

My main issue then is deciding when I can finally pull the trigger, with enough coming in, and enough savings to cover the gap between taking my CS Alpha pension early, and SP kicking in

SouthCoastBoy

michaels said:

For those who have been same employer for a long time and have a big DC pot, consider working for the civil service for a year or so as you can import a lot of your DC into the govt gold plated DB at generous rates which reduces SOR risk and lifetime allowance issues.

That's interesting didn't know you could do that, how does it work?

Ainsty

SouthCoastBoy said:

michaels said:

For those who have been same employer for a long time and have a big DC pot, consider working for the civil service for a year or so as you can import a lot of your DC into the govt gold plated DB at generous rates which reduces SOR risk and lifetime allowance issues.

That's interesting didn't know you could do that, how does it work?

I've moved between the public and private sectors more than once. I don't think most people who have worked the majority of their lives in the private sector could make it in the public sector. The public sector is much more efficient and the performance expected is much higher. Just my experience of course.