When to retire

jp2026

Thanks everyone, great comments and questions. Really helpful.

Spouse - yes, has full SP and a small pension and SIPP the 48K figure is not counting any of this. He wants to carry on working but 48k will be enough for us both if he doesn't.

I have tried the guiide website and put the figures through which seemed to indicate I would be ok but not good with  spreadsheets.

Love the bag of fag back calcs, lots of food for thought, thank you.

The DB scheme does not allow the TFLS to be converted into additional pension unfortunately, conversely I could get more TFLS but I think everyone is saying that cash is not a good option.

If I worked to 56 it would be more like 34k DB and 95k TFLS and then another 20k on the SIPP which feels tempting but I also think I will just keep saying one more year!!Some of my friends are starting to retire so hopefully lots to do with them.

Triumph13

Another back-of-fag-packet for you:
Ignoring both the downsizing money and the mortgage, after you take 25% tax free from your SIPP you will have roughly £150k in the SIPP and £450k outside it in ISAs / being moved to ISAs if you go next year.

DB + SP is £42k pa, which is £36k pa post tax.  The £150k left in your SIPP nicely covers the missing SP in the 12 years from 55 to 67.  That leaves you £12k pa short of target.  At 3.5% drawdown that would require an ISA fund of £350k.  Leaving you with £100k spare.  Looks pretty good to me

I would suggest that you also model the numbers leaving the DB deferred for various lengths of time, so you get a smaller actuarial reduction, and living off some of the cash in the meantime.

jp2026

Thank you. Loving these back of fag pack calcs. Will look at deferring too. 

jim8888

Do you enjoy your job? Can you go part time? Have you given much thought to what you're going to do with your time in retirement while your spouse keeps working? I'd start planning that side as the financial part seems well taken care of. It seems that you've worked for a long time and, in my experience, the challenge of going from full time, engaging work with people I liked to "every day being like Sunday" was something that was a lot more difficult than I thought (I retired at 50, went back to work after a year, and then retired again at 57. Then took a part time job!) 

jp2026

Thank you. All good questions. Job is ok, hard to go part time in my role. I am good at keeping myself busy, you are right though in that I have been full on in work for over 30 years with long hours. I think the one more year thing may be a bit of not wanting to go just yet. Had always planned on 60 but then I did a bit more planning and realised I could go earlier.