Is this good enough?

Audaxer

sgx2000 said:

Fairly obviously, I will retire substantially earlier than my wife.

If I dropped dead tomorrow her income, and later pension, would easily enable her to live comfortably.

Interesting thread. Am I right in thinking your calculations are based on your wife working right through to her State Pension age? If so, are you sure she is going to continue to be happy working for another 21 years or so while you are enjoying retirement? My wife decided to retire earlier than planned after I had been retired a few years. No regrets though as it's great that we can enjoy retirement together.

sgx2000

My wife is something of a workaholic,  but you never know.
She would get bored very quickly

My calculations are built around her working probably until she is probably 57

But, no matter what I am fairly sure we will live comfortably

Like most people, if worse comes to worse, we will cut out cloth acordingly ...

And as mentioned before I am sure I could always earn a little extra.

sgx2000

At this moment I am thinking that I will start the annuity ball rolling this week...
Still havent decides rpi or not........

Then probably see if I cqn cut my days to 4  and see how I get on..

Cutting my days would also have the added benefit of keeping my income just below the 40 % tax bracket.

Also, with the new added pension, I can probably save £2k per month

I dont know how much longer I will work....
But I will know that I can just walk whenever I want.....

cfw1994

I’m a big believer in stepping away from work as early as you can, provided you have things to fill your time, your family (wife & offspring) are genuinely happy & of course if the money allows.  

None of us know how many years we have left.

So my first response is ‘yes, retire!’.  Live your best life.  You will be well placed to help your son when needed, & it sounds like you ought to have the means to earn a bit here & there if needed.  

On the annuity front: I am curious how you got the annuity numbers.  

@dunstonh has pointed out that a good IFA ought to be able to get the best rates for annuities, and maybe even offer options you haven’t considered if you went ‘direct’.  Might be worth investigating, provided the numbers don’t get smaller 👀

On the timing…might be worth spending one last winter at work and planning to free yourself early in spring.  Mentally I found that was a good incentive to aim for, as the days get longer 🤪👍

sgx2000

Thanks for the reply

The Hargreaves Lansdown website has an excellent annuity calculator.

The important thing is to give all of the relevant medical details correctly.
I asked my GP surgery for my full medical history, and finished up with almost a full ream of paper. lol

They need to know
What conditions you have
When they started and what medication you have
When any medication has changed
Etc.  etc.

I am in the process of getting a quote from my current pension provider Aviva
But, on the HL calculator,  L&G have come out top over the last couple of weeks..

I think if my pension fund was over £100-150k
I probably would have seen an IFA  
But on a smaller pension, and provided you give thorough medical details, and shop around...
There probably is very little difference.

I don't know if Dunstonh would agree...