What made you 'pull the trigger'? 9 January at 11:00AM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 289 replies 71K views

sgx2000

I really appreciate posts like this....

While all the pensions, tax and investment advice is invaluable....  (thank you everyone who helps)

The more personal help with the decisions and outcomes is also invaluable...

I am 62 and am at the point of wanting to go,  but really struggling to make the jump.....
My finances are a fraction of most of the posts on the forum... So making the decision a little harder....

I do laugh at the posters who say they have pots of £700k and dont know if they can afford to retire...lol

bigfer

From my many spreadsheets, discussion with OH and IFA, I realised we had enough funds for me to retire in 2018 at 57, the OH left work 2019.
Although I enjoyed working with my colleagues, the management and clients were wearing me down, I was sick of the commute and annual appraisals, so I went.
4+ years on, Brexit, a pandemic and cost of living crisis later, I still wake up in the morning with that conundrum "what will I do today, oh yes, I'm retired, anything I want to". It's great.
I don't have a huge list of hobbies, but I cook properly everyday, go to the gym, walk and travel. None of which are particularly costly.
The budget is, fingers crossed, holding up.
If you are lucky enough to go earlier than you thought, I can certainly recommend it. Running out of money is optional, running out of time is mandatory.
Ex colleagues often ask if I am coming back as a double dipper. I possibly might, only so I could leave work again. Best day of my working life. I'm still working my way through all the stationary I took!!
Good luck to all.

GSP

sgx2000 said:

I really appreciate posts like this....

While all the pensions, tax and investment advice is invaluable....  (thank you everyone who helps)

The more personal help with the decisions and outcomes is also invaluable...

I am 62 and am at the point of wanting to go,  but really struggling to make the jump.....
My finances are a fraction of most of the posts on the forum... So making the decision a little harder....

I do laugh at the posters who say they have pots of £700k and dont know if they can afford to retire...lol

Some really good posts and accounts on here.

I currently have around that amount of funds you mention, but I can tell you I’d much prefer a DB pension if it was enough. An annuity wouldn’t be enough if I convert it.

Relying on this fund as my only income and having seen nearly £200k disappear in just a few months I can assure you is no laughing matter.

We still have more than six and 11 years to go before state pension and I am currently thinking about trying to return to work to protect the fund we have.
If it gets below a certain level soon, it will dwindle and deplete faster being the only income.

As it stands, I do worry on a daily basis and I just can’t relax as our future still feels so uncertain.
But things happened and we are where we are, there’s not too much hindsight we should have done this or that because there weren’t any real options at the time.

billy2shots

horsewithnoname said:

billy2shots said:

sheslookinhot said:

Ainsty said:

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.

Not sure if serious 🧐 

I chuckled when I read that. It's either great sarcasm or a minority viewpoint. 

Yeah, slag off the under resourced public service where pay has gone down, trading is virtually non existent and you’re a political punch bag. 

Or, don’t fall for divisive propaganda and look to where the actual problem lies, which apparently you can’t mention on this site, so I’ll leave it there. 

Nobody is slagging off the public sector and I'm sorry if it came across that way. 
Myself and another poster were just curious as to whether something was said with tongue in cheek or not. 

There is a consensus that the rewards are better in the private sector but only if you break away from what is perceived to be the safety of the public sector. 

We can only compare our particular sectors to the equivalent public/private role. 

I had Christmas day off this year (because it fell on a Sunday), I worked 62 hours last week, I continue to work when I get home in the evening/ night or in the morning before I get to work. 

In the public sector, my equivalent role would have had a week or two off over Christmas, clock out when their contracted hours were up 37.5/40, and would close down at the end of the shift until starting again at a 'start time' the next working day. 


I'm sure that in other roles public sector employees get the harder time but it seems on the whole the scales are tipped in favour of the public sector taking into account pay, pension, working conditions, responsibility, time off etc

Luckily for us we all have a choice and it's good to experience alternatives for ourselves. 


Private social care is a barrel of laughs, I can tell you. 

rickenbacker330

I had the trigger pulled on me (via Zoom!) in 2020 at age 55 (tech job for a city bank). But luckily I had already reached financial independence so there was no panic. Retiring earlier than I intended has worked out well. I'm able to pursue a "hobby" that I used to do in the past - play in a band! Played about 30 gigs last year and the plan is to continue with that for a few more years until my wife retires, kids go off to uni and then we can go travelling.

SouthCoastBoy

GSP said:

sgx2000 said:

I really appreciate posts like this....

While all the pensions, tax and investment advice is invaluable....  (thank you everyone who helps)

The more personal help with the decisions and outcomes is also invaluable...

I am 62 and am at the point of wanting to go,  but really struggling to make the jump.....
My finances are a fraction of most of the posts on the forum... So making the decision a little harder....

I do laugh at the posters who say they have pots of £700k and dont know if they can afford to retire...lol

Some really good posts and accounts on here.

I currently have around that amount of funds you mention, but I can tell you I’d much prefer a DB pension if it was enough. An annuity wouldn’t be enough if I convert it.

Relying on this fund as my only income and having seen nearly £200k disappear in just a few months I can assure you is no laughing matter.

We still have more than six and 11 years to go before state pension and I am currently thinking about trying to return to work to protect the fund we have.
If it gets below a certain level soon, it will dwindle and deplete faster being the only income.

As it stands, I do worry on a daily basis and I just can’t relax as our future still feels so uncertain.
But things happened and we are where we are, there’s not too much hindsight we should have done this or that because there weren’t any real options at the time.

I'm in a similar position, no DB and it means I carry on working as there is no certainty wrt to my financial position. I can't see me stopping any time soon, sad really

enthusiasticsaver

chubsta said:

To say I am 'planning' my retirement is a bit of an understatement - I have multiple spreadsheets dealing with historical and future outgoings, projected pension income, inflation rates etc. To be fair, I often have a bit of spare time in the morning so often spend an hour or so adjusting figures and making small changes to prospective dates so it doesn't get in the way, and whatever happens I want to be able to say that at least I covered all the bases when I make my final decision on when to leave work.

I dislike the place I am working at but have been there for over 38 years(!), the job has changed a huge amount recently though so I just want to leave, the plan is to then get a part-time, minimum wage job for a few years just to keep me busy for the two days a week I will have spare.

But as my prospective date gets closer and closer it is actually becoming quite scary - I have had the safety net of doing a job for decades that I can do easily so the idea of not doing it any more, as much as I dislike it, is very unsettling. But I am definitely going to leave in the next year or so, so my question to others is, what made you settle on a date to retire?

Was it:
I have enough money
I am fed up with my job
I want more spare time
a significant birthday (60 etc)
health

I would imagine for most people it is a combination of the above, but which was the actual one that made you think the time is right? I am at the point where I am working out whether I should go on X date, or 5 weeks later but perhaps I am going into it in such detail as a form of delaying tactic, as I can always think of a reason why I should go slightly later, then I work out that actually, sod it, I may as well go a month or two earlier!

I am guessing this sort of anxiety is recognisable to a few of you?

The actual one which made both DH and I opt for early retirement was the second (I am fed up with my job)but we knew we were at the point of being able to afford it as like you we had planned for early retirement but did not know when we were going to push the button.  We had a rough plan of going between 55 and 65.  The exact date was determined when we were no longer happy to continue with our jobs.  Up until then I had been happy at work but went part time to ease into retirement and I carried on until 2018 when DH had been retired 2 years.  He had struggled with changes of working practices and worked through company changes for a year then decided enough was enough and retired in 2016. He could not work part time (company don't allow p/t working)  so gave up completely. We were and still are both healthy, have lots of hobbies and are enjoying having more time to do what we want now. Luckily though we planned financially from young (mid twenties) by saving a higher proportion of our income than most into long term savings like pensions and ISAs. 

enthusiasticsaver

sgx2000 said:

I really appreciate posts like this....

While all the pensions, tax and investment advice is invaluable....  (thank you everyone who helps)

The more personal help with the decisions and outcomes is also invaluable...

I am 62 and am at the point of wanting to go,  but really struggling to make the jump.....
My finances are a fraction of most of the posts on the forum... So making the decision a little harder....

I do laugh at the posters who say they have pots of £700k and dont know if they can afford to retire...lol

pots of £700k have further to fall at times of stock market dips.  A drop of 10-15%  (very common at the moment) can knock £100k easily off larger pots. We have DB pensions so luckily we have  a more secure drawdown plan but our S and S ISAs and SIPPs are about 15% down on 2021 valuations.  That is our supplementary pot to cover our early retirement years though until state pensions kick in to boost our DB pensions. 

MankyVegSoup

Great thread!

I had planned to go at 60 when a small public sector DB pension kicked in. But when covid struck a couple of years before that, my freelance business dried up overnight. I decided I wouldn't try to keep things going or rebuild, correctly predicting it would be at least 18 months before things recovered (my clients were mostly wedding industry).

OH is 6 years younger than me so still working and also plans to continue till he's 60.

Financially we're comfortable. I have a DC pot which I started drawing from this year, plus that little DB pension. And one of my old clients contacted me to do a few hours a week which has been helpful.

But the active retirement I envisaged has been scuppered by a bad accident 18 months ago which has left me with a problematic ankle. So I'm in a bit of limbo at the moment as I try to work out what I want to do and what I can do. But I definitely don't regret going.

Albermarle

enthusiasticsaver said:

sgx2000 said:

I really appreciate posts like this....

While all the pensions, tax and investment advice is invaluable....  (thank you everyone who helps)

The more personal help with the decisions and outcomes is also invaluable...

I am 62 and am at the point of wanting to go,  but really struggling to make the jump.....
My finances are a fraction of most of the posts on the forum... So making the decision a little harder....

I do laugh at the posters who say they have pots of £700k and dont know if they can afford to retire...lol

pots of £700k have further to fall at times of stock market dips.  A drop of 10-15%  (very common at the moment) can knock £100k easily off larger pots. We have DB pensions so luckily we have  a more secure drawdown plan but our S and S ISAs and SIPPs are about 15% down on 2021 valuations.  That is our supplementary pot to cover our early retirement years though until state pensions kick in to boost our DB pensions. 

A number of posters have mentioned that the recent drop in markets has made them nervous about retiring, or are now nervously newly retired.
This is fully understandable from a psychological/ emotional point of view, but from a more purely financial view it is not very logical. During a 30 year retirement markets will go up and down  many times, and for sure at least a couple of the drops, will be a lot more dramatic than the current one. Also if you take into account the very good years of the previous decade, then it still looks pretty good.
Basically it means if a drop of 15% or thereabouts scuppers your plans, you probably did not have enough in the pot to begin with.
Caveat is that the current inflation at the same time as a market drop, is particularly painful, but I think the logic still holds.