Is it all too good to be true?

Sarahspangles

SouthCoastBoy said:

cfw1994 said:

Doesn’t your other thread show you are WAY above a safety net with what you have now?

My wife was VERY supportive of me stepping away asap - how does yours feel?

My wife says I should retire, its me who is the problem

This and another active thread at the moment make me wonder if anxiety about retirement is more prevalent than we think. The abolition of standard retirement age has introduced choice and some personality types will then consider risk and mitigatations in a way they may not have if the calendar made the choice for them.

FIREDreamer

SouthCoastBoy said:

NoMore said:

I honestly think the op will never have enough in their eyes, way too worried about the downside.  

Unfortunately I think you may be correct.

You sound like me last year.

I ensured that my DB pension plus an uncapped RPI joint life annuity (bought last October) were set at a level needed to guarantee needs plus possible wants and a few luxuries. These are about £38,000 pa in total plus we are mortgage free and we live up in t’North like you know, mate. 😀

I can leave the rest of my DC pot to grow but I am keeping £100k in cash plus £50k in premium bonds just in case. The cash will be drip fed into a cash ISA. My shares ISA contains enough equity investments now when added to my DC pension investments.

This enabled me to take the courage to retire this summer. I have already had to spend £20k on house updates and repairs with probably another £15k to go.

It’s a bit annoying to have to spend so much savings so soon. However I have no regrets in giving up a stressful job for a much healthier state of mind.

I intend to take another £12,000 pa from my drawdown pot until SPA to use up the 20% tax band.

So this is £50,000 pa.

I never took home more than £25,000 pa whilst working as I was hammering money into my pension so to be honest I feel really rich right now.

There is a lot more in my drawdown pot that I am going to struggle to extract without paying 40% tax on it which I am loath to do, but it might be worth doing as inheritance tax might be an issue later on if I don’t.

I am not an investment whizz. I just went 100% global shares / investment trusts, no bonds until I bought my annuity, and a benign investment environment.

Bobziz

SouthCoastBoy said:

NoMore said:

I honestly think the op will never have enough in their eyes, way too worried about the downside.  

Unfortunately I think you may be correct.

But isn't the ultimate downside dying before retirement or soon after ?

Hoenir

Bobziz said:

SouthCoastBoy said:

NoMore said:

I honestly think the op will never have enough in their eyes, way too worried about the downside.  

Unfortunately I think you may be correct.

But isn't the ultimate downside dying before retirement or soon after ?

I have a friend who retired at from 55 from her post in the NHS. 15 months later she was diagnosed with early onset dementia. To watch her deteroriate over the years has been truly heartbreaking. Having money to spend means very little. 

NoMore

SouthCoastBoy said:

NoMore said:

I honestly think the op will never have enough in their eyes, way too worried about the downside.  

Unfortunately I think you may be correct.

Look at it this way, you worry about running out of money, which with your planned expenditure and available assets is extremely unlikely to happen. You will however 100% run out of time.

cfw1994

Sarahspangles said:

SouthCoastBoy said:

cfw1994 said:

Doesn’t your other thread show you are WAY above a safety net with what you have now?

My wife was VERY supportive of me stepping away asap - how does yours feel?

My wife says I should retire, its me who is the problem

This and another active thread at the moment make me wonder if anxiety about retirement is more prevalent than we think. The abolition of standard retirement age has introduced choice and some personality types will then consider risk and mitigatations in a way they may not have if the calendar made the choice for them.

That’s probably about right 🤷‍♂️

One thing to remember is every year you work is one less you are retired.

Time. Health. Money.
The balance throughout your life 
See what the very smart James Shack says - https://youtu.be/OuDCDp9Z9Y4

A smart cookie 😉

Starmer24

this thread resonates a lot with me - i have been thinking of retiring for a while, primarily because i dislike my job, the long stationary hours sitting at a desk, the stress and the impacts this has vs the opportunity cost in terms of spending time doing sports / hobbies i enjoy (not possible now clocks changed) and quality of family time etc.

i wonder if the issue is related to DC pensions...My analogy is that i have been blowing up an inflatable ball for 35 years...very vigorously in the last 20, and now it feels like a real "leap" to stop pumping it up, and indeed pull the valve out and start letting all the air out....not knowing if you have inflated it enough or not (what will inflation do, what % will my investments grow, will there be a catastrophic stock market impacting event, how long will i live etc, that are all a gamble compared to a DB pension) - and there is no CLEAR ANSWER.

i did some basic modelling at the weekend - but i think people (like me) need re assurance having worked 13 hrs a day for decades that yes, its okay to now let the air out!   Or i think often times it needs a trigger event  - such a redundancy or a medical issue that kinda pushes the button - but thats not ideal.

im going to share my model in a seperate thread this evening - needing peer review to tell me its okay to deflate!

Ciprico

A cautionary tale, I retired from a cushy, well paid job in June aged 61.

Had all sorts of plans...

Hadn't planned for cancer treatment in November...

Never smoked or been over weight, aways done lots of sports .. 

Not life threatening but all other plans put on hold for months, and travel will be "difficult" afterwards

I know this is a pensions forum, but I urge any men over 50 to get a PSA test....

squirrelpie

Starmer24 said:

i wonder if the issue is related to DC pensions...My analogy is that i have been blowing up an inflatable ball for 35 years...very vigorously in the last 20, and now it feels like a real "leap" to stop pumping it up, and indeed pull the valve out and start letting all the air out....not knowing if you have inflated it enough or not ... - and there is no CLEAR ANSWER.

You may be right. We think we're lucky. My wife was a nurse, so has a reasonable DB pension. My last job happened to have a DB pension and I happened to have been there 13 years. And we both have state pensions. So that covers pretty much all our needs. We have some other savings and I have a SIPP, but at present we don't need those much.

If we didn't have the DB pensions, I'd seriously consider buying an annuity or two to provide for the necessities. (it wasn't a teribly sensible option when I retired, but I think it is now). That might reduce the stakes and the stress in the decision somewhat.

squirrelpie

Ciprico said:

I know this is a pensions forum, but I urge any men over 50 to get a PSA test....

But be aware of the downsides of a PSA test before you book one, and be sure you can cope in your own mind. (not the test itself, but subsequent investigations given the high false positive rate of the test)