Time or Money or Happiness - What is your choice

warrenb

I was just sitting here looking at the spreadsheet I have created about my pension, and the thought crossed my mind.

What target do you set to retire.

Is it a time, so a certain age or year.
Is it a target value of the pension.
Is it happiness levels and work.

Mark_d

It's a combination for me -

I want to be young/healthy enough to really enjoy life in retirement (age 65 at the latest).  I want to be able to buy a nice villa for my retired life (£2m on rightmove).  I do enjoy my work as a consultant but I could continue on a part-time adhoc basis into my retirement.

DE_612183

I think it's probably all three.

Certainly 1 & 2 for me are important - but that's because 3 is not an issue - if it was it may be a bigger driving factor.

MeteredOut

I can't believe many people's answers will be anything other than "its a balance/all 3".

Kim1965

Without enough in the pot, the other criteria are wishfull thinking. 

MeteredOut

Kim1965 said:

Without enough in the pot, the other criteria are wishfull thinking. 

I guess thats option 4.

- When I can no long physically or mentally work any more

michaels

I have a 'If I retired today what constant real terms income for the rest of my life would I have' number I update frequently.  So I can always know the answer to the second part of the question but it is how this trades off against time and happiness that is harder to judge. 

As I asked a few weeks ago, is it worth doing one more year of work and thus giving up a year of retirement to increase my spend every year by 5%?  Would the extra 'utility' resulting from the increased spending power more than offset the lost utility of spending another year working?

LHW99

You can (within limits) determine the money part and the happiness part. Time is something no one can determine, so you have to wing that one IMO.

As long as what you are able, and have the money, to do makes you happy - no problems.

Albermarle

warrenb said:

I was just sitting here looking at the spreadsheet I have created about my pension, and the thought crossed my mind.

What target do you set to retire.

Is it a time, so a certain age or year.
Is it a target value of the pension.
Is it happiness levels and work.

If you are unhappy at work, then it brings forward the retirement date, as soon as you can afford it.
If work is OK then it takes the pressure off.

itsthelittlethings

State pension age although if they made that too old, and I could afford to I might go early even if it meant scrimping and saving.

Nebulous2

michaels said:

I have a 'If I retired today what constant real terms income for the rest of my life would I have' number I update frequently.  So I can always know the answer to the second part of the question but it is how this trades off against time and happiness that is harder to judge. 

As I asked a few weeks ago, is it worth doing one more year of work and thus giving up a year of retirement to increase my spend every year by 5%?  Would the extra 'utility' resulting from the increased spending power more than offset the lost utility of spending another year working?

That's something which will only become clearer the further into the future you go. If you get 30 years hale and hearty where the extra 5% makes a significant difference to your lifestyle, then it will be worth it. If however you or your family hit a critical turning point as soon as you retire, you will always regret not having that extra year. 

My own gut feeling - is that you'll find it difficult spending in retirement, continuing the frugal path you have been on, and the 5% will mean very little. 

I'm convinced that people's ambitions and spending inevitably shrink and expenditure in retirement is less than most of us expect it to be.