Retiring at 60...ish

OakesCokes

After turning 50 last year (now 51) and having dipped in and out of retirement planning over the years, I’m now starting to turn a serious head towards my and my OHs plans. OH is 49

We have 3 grown up children – A is 3rd yr uni student, J is a 2nd uni student and S is 2nd yr at college (possible off to uni Sept 2025 but unsure yet)

We both work, have a mortgage-free house (paid mortgage off on my 50th birthday which was always the plan, what a day that was!!), both in good health and with positive outlooks on life. We both like the idea of retiring when we each reach 60ish, although we’ve told each other we’d need something in place to keep us occupied and busy.

This is our current position

Salary

Me – 30k OH – 50k

Pensions (projected annual in today’s money)

Me:

DC – 1.5k @ 60

Stakeholder – 6k @ 60

Final Salary - 2.7k @ age 65

Clerical Medical – 2k @ 65

Current (local govt scheme) – 3.5k @ 67

State – 11.5k @ 67

TOTAL – 27.2

OH:

Final salary – 7.4 @ 60

Personal – 5.3 @ 65

State – 11.5 @ 67

TOTAL – 24.2

Savings

S&S ISA – 3k

Cash ISAs – 2.4k + 40k

Available cash (sitting temporarily in high earning current account) – 104k

A quick bit of background to available cash figure….OH sold her business early 2024 which generated 110k, with 2 more payments of 58k due in March 2025 and March 2026. Total CGT due in region of 28k

So available cash minus CGT as of March 2026 (with no spends from it) @ 198k

We plan to support children with some of their expenditure though uni – total of 79k up to early 2028

198k – 79k = 119k (ignoring any growth for now)

We did have a thorough review of all the above recently with an IFA we have known for ages (he helped me combine several smaller pensions into the Clerical Medical one) Some of the pensions need reviewing as they’re underperforming, some have high AMC’s, plus we need to make the available cash and Cash ISAs more tax efficient with an eye on what we need to support uni fees over the next 3.5yrs. All plans in the pipeline!

Our IFA has indicated with the various pensions and cash from business sale, we are in a relatively strong position. We feel 3k per month spend when we retire is more than enough based on current spend

Once I’ve polished the pension situation and got at least a 5 yr plan for the cash, I can then turn my attention to a planned retirement age.

Happy for any comments on my figures – pleased be kind!

I will share my figures and intend to post regularly with updates on how my finances are holding up.  

Albermarle

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

dunstonh

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

There is some IFA software that will lay out as value range and allow selection within that range depending on your viewpoint (e..g worst case, pessimistic, median etc).   Then the software can show the income amount either by total or broken down by source based on that viewpoint.

Like most things, the outputs can be adapted to suit what the client wants to see and are not limited to one method.  Ultimately, it's likely the unsecured pensions will be consolidated into modern plans as several of them appear old-fashioned and likely to be expensive and/or not support drawdown.  So, another split often used is secure and unsecured income.

OakesCokes

Albermarle said:

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

The figures provided are taken from each pension's statement and not what the IFA produced. I do have the fund values, I just didn't post them

SouthCoastBoy

OakesCokes said:

Albermarle said:

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

The figures provided are taken from each pension's statement and not what the IFA produced. I do have the fund values, I just didn't post them

For DC pensions I would always be interested in the fund values, as the rest is just a guess, I would prefer to use my own guestimates.

NedS

OakesCokes said:

After turning 50 last year (now 51) and having dipped in and out of retirement planning over the years, I’m now starting to turn a serious head towards my and my OHs plans. OH is 49

We have 3 grown up children – A is 3rd yr uni student, J is a 2nd uni student and S is 2nd yr at college (possible off to uni Sept 2025 but unsure yet)

We both work, have a mortgage-free house (paid mortgage off on my 50th birthday which was always the plan, what a day that was!!), both in good health and with positive outlooks on life. We both like the idea of retiring when we each reach 60ish, although we’ve told each other we’d need something in place to keep us occupied and busy.

At your age, we were in a similar position. Aged ~50, hoping to retire by ~60.

I had a rough idea what we would need and a target figure in mind to meet our needs.

We spent the next few years pushing as much as we possibly could into pensions (actually started this in our late 40's), and we have just reached our target figure now at 56, a few years ahead of the plan. Each year as our investments increased, our potential retirement date came forward from 60, to 59 to 58, to 57 until now where we find ourselves at 56 with sufficient assets to retire. For us, I think the last 10 years of saving will be worth it - we now get to enjoy the next 10 years unconstrained by work and I can't wait. Working until 67 is definitely not something I wanted to do.

Good luck with your journey over the next few years. Hopefully your plan will develop as well as ours has for us.

Albermarle

OakesCokes said:

Albermarle said:

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

The figures provided are taken from each pension's statement and not what the IFA produced. I do have the fund values, I just didn't post them

In that case you will be pleased to know that these projections tend to be overly pessimistic. Based on lowish investment growth, taking account of inflation and based on taking out an annuity.
In the past they were too optimistic and now it has gone the other way.

OakesCokes

NedS said:

OakesCokes said:

After turning 50 last year (now 51) and having dipped in and out of retirement planning over the years, I’m now starting to turn a serious head towards my and my OHs plans. OH is 49

We have 3 grown up children – A is 3rd yr uni student, J is a 2nd uni student and S is 2nd yr at college (possible off to uni Sept 2025 but unsure yet)

We both work, have a mortgage-free house (paid mortgage off on my 50th birthday which was always the plan, what a day that was!!), both in good health and with positive outlooks on life. We both like the idea of retiring when we each reach 60ish, although we’ve told each other we’d need something in place to keep us occupied and busy.

At your age, we were in a similar position. Aged ~50, hoping to retire by ~60.

I had a rough idea what we would need and a target figure in mind to meet our needs.

We spent the next few years pushing as much as we possibly could into pensions (actually started this in our late 40's), and we have just reached our target figure now at 56, a few years ahead of the plan. Each year as our investments increased, our potential retirement date came forward from 60, to 59 to 58, to 57 until now where we find ourselves at 56 with sufficient assets to retire. For us, I think the last 10 years of saving will be worth it - we now get to enjoy the next 10 years unconstrained by work and I can't wait. Working until 67 is definitely not something I wanted to do.

Good luck with your journey over the next few years. Hopefully your plan will develop as well as ours has for us.

Well done, sounds amazing. And very interesting to hear your story. It's something I'm keen to focus on to try and see if I can bring the retirement age down 

OakesCokes

Albermarle said:

OakesCokes said:

Albermarle said:

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

The figures provided are taken from each pension's statement and not what the IFA produced. I do have the fund values, I just didn't post them

In that case you will be pleased to know that these projections tend to be overly pessimistic. Based on lowish investment growth, taking account of inflation and based on taking out an annuity.
In the past they were too optimistic and now it has gone the other way.

So I should really be using the pension fund values to give me a total figure?

Hoenir

OakesCokes said:

Albermarle said:

OakesCokes said:

Albermarle said:

It is unusual to define DC pensions and other investments in terms of a projected income ( a guess in other words). Maybe the IFA did that to try and give you a better picture.

Most people would quote the guaranteed income as an annual income ( obviously) and then list the fund values of the DC pots , S&S ISAs, cash savings etc 

The figures provided are taken from each pension's statement and not what the IFA produced. I do have the fund values, I just didn't post them

In that case you will be pleased to know that these projections tend to be overly pessimistic. Based on lowish investment growth, taking account of inflation and based on taking out an annuity.
In the past they were too optimistic and now it has gone the other way.

So I should really be using the pension fund values to give me a total figure?

You could use an annuity calculator to provide an estmate of what the pots would buy currently (i.e lie about your age). As with anything investment orientated values will rise and fall. Generally forecasts for the next decade counterbalance those achieved in the more recent cheap money era. There's no free lunches. 

Gary1984

Knowing the total pension fund values rather than annual projections will be more useful as you may wish to take them in their entirety between 60 and 65/67 to bridge the gap before your DB pensions become payable.