Bold leap into retirement

Cobbler_tone

IndianaDR said:

A small experiment I started earlier this year has given me a lot of confidence: from April, I upped my pension contributions to 50% (with employer contribution around 5%). To my surprise, I’ve managed to live quite comfortably on the reduced take-home pay. It’s been a great trial run for retirement spending, and reassuring to see that life doesn’t have to feel restricted.

That's what I do (64% total contributions) and I seem to be managing fine on less than what I will have in retirement (in the first 10 years before SP), although not saving outside of the pension. It's common sense really as we should all know what we actually spend each month outside of saving any.

I like 'nice stuff' grocery wise, which is definitely counter acted by not eating out often (I found a meal out could be £100 and I cook better at home!), this is the area where costs have hiked dramatically. A £90 weekly shop for two of us now costs £120. It is an easy area to cut down on if needed but can see why many people are struggling to buy some of the basics.

cloud_dog

Having leapt boldly at the end of March, and on my 6 month anniversary (🤗) of joining the non-workers I commented to my partner today that retirement has given me everything I had hoped for!   Primarily relaxation from the stress of work, but also a calmness about the finances (what we do / do not spend).  Travel is our thing in the early years of retirement so we will be progressing this more and more next year. 

We still have a final year Uni student, who is already planning the Masters to 'accommodate' 😁

Smudgeismydog

IndianaDR said:

Hello Everyone

Yet Another Newbie here (YAwN 😄) !!

I’ve been quietly following this inspiring thread since last year, soaking up all the wisdom, tips and encouragement. It’s been a real motivator while I’ve been weighing up my own retirement plans.

This September, I finally took the plunge and told my manager that I’ll be retiring at the end of October 2025. So the wheels are now firmly in motion, and I’m now in the final countdown to my last working day. It feels both exciting and slightly surreal to say it out loud!

A small experiment I started earlier this year has given me a lot of confidence: from April, I upped my pension contributions to 50% (with employer contribution around 5%). To my surprise, I’ve managed to live quite comfortably on the reduced take-home pay. It’s been a great trial run for retirement spending, and reassuring to see that life doesn’t have to feel restricted.

I’m still fine-tuning the numbers, looking at how best to bridge the gap before State Pension kicks in, and thinking through how to structure my days once work stops. Reading how others have made the leap has been really helpful, so thank you to everyone who shares their stories here.

Looking forward to joining in more on “the other side” very soon!

You are very welcome on board @IndianaDR, huge congrats and I’m so glad that this thread has been useful. Please keep posting and let us know how you are getting on in the run up to retirement.

If you are comfortable posting your figures and anticipated plans, then please share, and not only might we be able to offer some tips, but it can also be of use to other people reading.

Smudgeismydog

cloud_dog said:

Having leapt boldly at the end of March, and on my 6 month anniversary (🤗) of joining the non-workers I commented to my partner today that retirement has given me everything I had hoped for!   Primarily relaxation from the stress of work, but also a calmness about the finances (what we do / do not spend).  Travel is our thing in the early years of retirement so we will be progressing this more and more next year. 

We still have a final year Uni student, who is already planning the Masters to 'accommodate' 😁

Hi @cloud_dog, I feel calm about my finances too, and it’s been over a year now. How brilliant to hear you say retirement has been everything you had hoped for!

I do continue to sit with my cuppa, trusty pen & paper and calculator with my partner once a month for our budget review, and this has also helped us to review our plans.

We would like to undertake some travelling, but with an elderly dog, it’s not on the cards immediately. My daughter has just started at Uni, and I will be providing her with some financial assistance, but that is all budgeted for.

chuffinnora

I can only echo those sentiments for this thread and others. 

Also should add that the detail posters write on here for the huge variety of methods, circumstances and calculations on how they fund their retirements is fantastic. It really does help when trying to decide on such a landmark point in life.

Pat38493

Smudgeismydog said:

cloud_dog said:

Having leapt boldly at the end of March, and on my 6 month anniversary (🤗) of joining the non-workers I commented to my partner today that retirement has given me everything I had hoped for!   Primarily relaxation from the stress of work, but also a calmness about the finances (what we do / do not spend).  Travel is our thing in the early years of retirement so we will be progressing this more and more next year. 

We still have a final year Uni student, who is already planning the Masters to 'accommodate' 😁

Hi @cloud_dog, I feel calm about my finances too, and it’s been over a year now. How brilliant to hear you say retirement has been everything you had hoped for!

I do continue to sit with my cuppa, trusty pen & paper and calculator with my partner once a month for our budget review, and this has also helped us to review our plans.

We would like to undertake some travelling, but with an elderly dog, it’s not on the cards immediately. My daughter has just started at Uni, and I will be providing her with some financial assistance, but that is all budgeted for.

As I am just about to finish work I am feeling pretty comfortable with the plan, but I did make a small adjustment to my drawdown strategy - generally my strategy was to have 3 years of cash available, refreshed annually, so it would be down to 2 years at the next rebalancing.  I am now looking to have a "rolling" 3 years at times when the global stock markets are "hot", which I define as being within 5% of their all time high values.  In view of this I have just rebalanced back to 3 years after only 6 months of the period.  Given that my drawdowns are heavily front loaded due to bridging to state pension age and a number of additional planned spends in the first few years, this leaves me at just over 60% equities but this will increase over time.

Looking forward to a 3.5 week big retirement holiday starting mid October.  

AltaNate

I’ve read this thread since the beginning and interesting seeing similar sentiments having been one of the early adopters of Bold Leap before it became a 136 page thread on MSE! It’s now over three years since the leap having gone at nearly 53 and have recently taken first small DB pension. Married with no children, mortgage free by 40 through lucky timings and over payments, maximising salary sacrifice all of which helped get to this point. At the same time other half wrapped up self employment as that had been very up and down for several years.

I used to really enjoy my role working in IT but promotions to leading a team with more and more HR bureaucracy and indecisions, meetings upon meetings, still having to deliver on the day job just didn’t do it for me anymore. In the final year things came to a head with recruitment of three new graduates, three additional resignations and related HR activities - strike one. Despite a new technology and interesting last project, it was being managed by a poor project manager and regretfully I didn’t see it through to completion six months later - strike two. Finally when I looked back over the past 5 years and worked out all my days annual leave had been wiped out by the unpaid additional hours worked (and that is only the time booked not everything else out-of-hours, no flexi or TOIL) - strike three I’m out!

With three month notice period, resignation was submitted end of January to finish end of April. Turned out the extra month in the new tax year was beneficial as HR attempted to screw me over one final time. Pay reviews were finally awarded end of March to arrive in salary end of April and back dated to start of the year. Except as I had resigned HR said I wasn’t getting any increase despite working for those four months and should have been already in place at resignation. Fortunately when my boss found out he fixed this along the lines of “they’ve given 23 years and this is how you want them to remember the company”. Ultimately it benefited me with 4 months back dated salary increase, 15 days leave owed meant a nice final pay package and claimed tax back from HMRC. After leaving  there were multiple offers of employment from contacts elsewhere (and door remained open where I’d been) but needed to step back for a while and realised it could become a permanent leap with stars aligning at the right time.

Do I miss it? No, and as a surprise to my other half and myself I adjusted very quickly. I miss the mental challenge and already fixing that, miss working with the great colleagues and some customers, but only remain in regular contact with a few people despite my efforts. I worked right up to the last minute and even completed several handovers the following week. 

For those considering the bold leap into retirement… if you can afford it, and it’s right, just do it. For those considering giving additional notice period*, they might still screw you over. For those thinking of timing, there can be benefits pushing into a new tax year especially if not drawing other income. For those wondering how they will fill their time, I actually wonder how I managed to do a job and still get all the stuff at home and garden. A slower pace of life with more outdoors activities if I can stop injuring myself around the garden. I may volunteer to help some local organisations utilising my IT skills for their benefit if they’re interested. We had travelled during working life as an escape from work, often enjoying some longer haul winter sun, so extensive travel isn’t on the cards. However an Australia trip will be taken at some point probably around 60th due to a COVID induced cancellation of 50th trip.

Financially living a simpler life funded by cash, savings interest though rates are dropping, dividends from S&S ISA, and small DB pension. Looking at further drawdown making use of tax allowances from next year. This will bridge to SPA where we’ll both get full SP.

Thanks for all the other people posting their experiences which often resonate with mine and I’ll continue to enjoy everyone’s stories. 

*Three months notice and HR still hadn’t done anything about filling my role. They offered it to one of the three people that had resigned who politely declined.  They never recruited so I was clearly dispensable!

Storcko14

I retired at the end of June so thought I'd post a brief update and some general thoughts and reflections....  

Things I've Done:
1) More volunteering - definitely helped ease the transition from employment (latterly 3 day/wk for me) to retired
2) Learning how to spend - allocating cash for things in the budget like travel, house upgrades, bike stuff and making sure its spent
3) Took more risk off - shifted a bit more to ILGs and STMM - but net worth ex house still ended up up mostly due to luck
4) More spontaneity - e.g., short bikepacking trips when the weather allowed, nights away with OH
5) Signed up for a 12 week Uni course 
6) Cooked more.... and more interesting, healthy and time consuming things
7) Caught up with friends more frequently

What I Hoped To Do But Haven't Yet:
1) Start to learn a new skill.  Anything - new language, new subject etc
2) Slowed down - still seem to be carrying on at the same pace
3) De-cluttered the house - thought I'd have loads of time but maybe the weather was too good this summer
4) Check portfolio less frequently

Lessons Learned:
1) Once you've made your number, be comfortable with it and ignore others' numbers.
2) Spending is actually easier than I expected - just do it and enjoy it.
3) Limit screen time - it's too easy to fritter time - and read more.
4) There's less time than I thought - don't procrastinate too much.
5) But equally, sometimes just chill with another coffee.
6) The joy of mid-week nights out.

Yorkie1

I'm still about 5 years away from probably taking retirement, but it's been really helpful to start thinking about 'retiring to' something, rather than 'from' work or just because the age of 60 has been reached.

I like your list of lessons learned, @Storcko14. At the moment it's all too easy to waste a day on a screen of one type or another. It's not good for my mental health, and I don't get anything done (yes, decluttering is on my list too!).

I had a long weekend just gone, and was intentional about meeting up with a friend and doing a local activity. I must remember how much better I felt, having done those things, and hopefully will be able to take that forward into reassurance that I will be able to cope with the lack of structure in the post-retirement world.

Storcko14

Yorkie1 said:

I'm still about 5 years away from probably taking retirement, but it's been really helpful to start thinking about 'retiring to' something, rather than 'from' work or just because the age of 60 has been reached.

I like your list of lessons learned, @Storcko14. At the moment it's all too easy to waste a day on a screen of one type or another. It's not good for my mental health, and I don't get anything done (yes, decluttering is on my list too!).

I had a long weekend just gone, and was intentional about meeting up with a friend and doing a local activity. I must remember how much better I felt, having done those things, and hopefully will be able to take that forward into reassurance that I will be able to cope with the lack of structure in the post-retirement world.

Actually @Yorkie1 that's another one - think really hard before knocking back an invite. 

And you're spot on - "retiring to" is so important especially if you don't hate your job.  We invest a lot of ourselves in work / career - how many times on a weekend I'd think about what i need to do next week or about what happened last week - and it takes a while to properly shift from that.  But, today I had a regular volunteer session and am still laughing out loud at the banter with a diverse bunch of people I would never have encountered in the day job.  That didn't happen so often before.