Bold leap into retirement

Smudgeismydog

This is why I decided to pay myself every month, I’ve even kept the same ‘pay day.

I put an amount into my current account every month, from this I pay a standing order into the joint account to fund my share of the household bills, and the rest is my allowance for the month. It’s worked quite well for me, and stopped me wanting to save from this. I understood that if I had capital to just draw from, I would still be wanting to preserve it.

katejo

Smudgeismydog said:

This is why I decided to pay myself every month, I’ve even kept the same ‘pay day.

I put an amount into my current account every month, from this I pay a standing order into the joint account to fund my share of the household bills, and the rest is my allowance for the month. It’s worked quite well for me, and stopped me wanting to save from this. I understood that if I had capital to just draw from, I would still be wanting to preserve it.

I already intend to treat my DB pension as a salary and may reduce my lump sum slightly to increase the regular monthly income. Yesterday i got my 1st reduced monthly income due to reducing to a 3 day week but I have been 'practising'  with a lower amount in my current account since June.

Smudgeismydog

I reduced my salary through salary sacrifice prior to retiring to ‘practise’ living on my equivalent retirement income. 

This approach has worked well for me, as in effect I’ve given myself permission to spend my monthly allowance, without feeling I need to save anything from it.

another_day_closer

I've just had a wonderful evening reading through all of the posts in this thread (all 134 pages) and thank you to @Smudgeismydog for not only getting it started but keeping it going for so long. 

I made my first forum post last week and with hindsight I knew it should have been in this thread as it was more related to my Bold Leap Into Thinking About Retirement. In that post there was reference to me now being firmly within the final 12 month window before the Leap but the key driver is how the employer will handle the transition, that could make it sooner or later hence thinking about it as timeframe window. 

  

What I see repeated and mutually agreed upon across this thread is:

- Not many have regretted the decision to take retirement as soon as they felt the numbers were holding up

- How precious time is when weighed up against the vast amounts we have given to the workplace 

- Without tempting fete and inviting unexpected costs there has been a few nods in the direction of finding out you need a bit less than what was thought in your draft retirement budget plan 

- Whether the "retire to" plan has been a packed schedule or a do nothing first few months, you all seem to have just settled in very nicely

- How much of a mindset change is needed between the saving up phase and the drawing it back down and spending it phase, that is something that I am going to have to really think about

I keep pinching myself and asking how one day only a few weeks back I was a dedicated and forward thinking motivated employee who started playing around with some cashlow models, started getting excited as to what they were telling me and then spinning in a completely opposite direction with a focus now firmly on the light at the end of the tunnel.    

I'll keep reading the posts of course and hope to come back at some point with a date and the countdown timer on. 

 

 

Smudgeismydog

Thank you so much for your post @another_day_closer, I’m so glad you found this thread helpful, and I shall be eagerly awaiting your update.

cfw1994

another_day_closer said:

I've just had a wonderful evening reading through all of the posts in this thread (all 134 pages) and thank you to @Smudgeismydog for not only getting it started but keeping it going for so long. 

I made my first forum post last week and with hindsight I knew it should have been in this thread as it was more related to my Bold Leap Into Thinking About Retirement. In that post there was reference to me now being firmly within the final 12 month window before the Leap but the key driver is how the employer will handle the transition, that could make it sooner or later hence thinking about it as timeframe window. 

  

What I see repeated and mutually agreed upon across this thread is:

- Not many have regretted the decision to take retirement as soon as they felt the numbers were holding up

- How precious time is when weighed up against the vast amounts we have given to the workplace 

- Without tempting fete and inviting unexpected costs there has been a few nods in the direction of finding out you need a bit less than what was thought in your draft retirement budget plan 

- Whether the "retire to" plan has been a packed schedule or a do nothing first few months, you all seem to have just settled in very nicely

- How much of a mindset change is needed between the saving up phase and the drawing it back down and spending it phase, that is something that I am going to have to really think about

I keep pinching myself and asking how one day only a few weeks back I was a dedicated and forward thinking motivated employee who started playing around with some cashlow models, started getting excited as to what they were telling me and then spinning in a completely opposite direction with a focus now firmly on the light at the end of the tunnel.    

I'll keep reading the posts of course and hope to come back at some point with a date and the countdown timer on. 

 

I think that is a decent summary 👍
Despite being one species, we are all different, as you suggest.

One (retired) pal suggested to me to get as many major things done with the house before stepping away, & whilst I’m sure some might disagree, it made sense to me 🤷‍♂️

For us (over perhaps the decade before), we did windows, doors, a bit of landscaping, solar, got home battery, some smaller works needing trades, some internal improvements etc 💪
Once you have retired, anything costing towards the £1k ‘barrier’ become things you might hesitate to pull the trigger on 🫣

Clearly, once you have retired, you have all the time to do what you like….but once you have that time, you might be amazed at the things you find to fill it 😜

Good luck on your journey 🙏

NormalNorman

Threads like this do keep you going as I have a bit to go. Today I received the first pay packet from a new evening job. Guess what I'm trying to do is explore the world of PT jobs for when the main job is ditched in a few years. Meantime it provides more income to salary sacrifice on the main job. It is a role that does not involve endless soul destroying meetings on MS Teams! How did the workplace become this bad! Cheers!

another_day_closer

cfw1994 said:

One (retired) pal suggested to me to get as many major things done with the house before stepping away, & whilst I’m sure some might disagree, it made sense to me 🤷‍♂️

For us (over perhaps the decade before), we did windows, doors, a bit of landscaping, solar, got home battery, some smaller works needing trades, some internal improvements etc 💪
Once you have retired, anything costing towards the £1k ‘barrier’ become things you might hesitate to pull the trigger on 🫣

This is sound advice and definitely something that has been at the forefront of my thoughts as I have entered this stage of the grand plan. Windows just replaced and fortunate to know a few trade friends who have been out to survey a few things from a longetivty point of view

I guess it will feel a lot easier to pay for things like this out of a monthly wage than the (dreaded) dip into savings and (here I go....) I suppose I could always work that extra month or two to cover anything unexpected. 

What I have also made a note of to myself is that when decorating over the coming months, instead of it being a rush job just spend that little bit of extra time doing anything repair wise in the vicinity that would otherwise be put to one side due to time pressures. That eye to detail now may well prevent issues further down the line. 

michaels

Bucking the trend, I am dong house stuff now I have time to organise properly and do as much as possible myself.  There was never enough time to even properly contract these jobs whilst working.

SouthCoastBoy

My argument is if you are worried about paying for these things in retirement you are probably not financially ready for retirement.