My life expectancy has been reduced - is there any hope of retiring before I pass?

JayRitchie

dawnofthedave said:

JayRitchie said:

Hi

I'm so sorry to hear about your condition. There are some great people on this forum who will have suggestions.

A few queries if I may:

- how much do you currently have saved in pensions?

- what are yours and your employers current contributions? 

- does your employer offer a salary sacrifice scheme for pension contributions?

- how much is your student loan balance?

- how much is outstanding on your mortgage?

Thank you for this JayRitchie. Pension pot is currently 18k. Employer contributes about 84, I do 300. Student loan is about 17k but gets written off at age 46 ish. Mortgage balance is about 153.5k. I don’t know about salary sacrifice but I could discuss it with them if worthwhile. 

Please ask about salary sacrifice. Its really worth knowing this when deciding between pensions and other options.

One thing to keep in mind with pension if you have health conditions which might increase the risk of not enjoying a long retirement is that this will probably be reflected in annuity rates. You should be able to get a higher income at, say, 60 than a man of the same age without such conditions.

Albermarle

Save hard and live very frugally for the next 22 years to try and get a big enough pension together to retire around 57 (if that’s even possible).

Probably by the time you get there, the earliest age you could access a pension will be more like 59/60.
Although workplace pensions are normally the best way to save for retirement, due to the tax advantages and employer contributions, it is also useful ( especially in your case maybe) to build up money elsewhere that is more readily accessible at a younger age, even if it means paying a bit less towards your pension.
In the short term this means savings, but for the longer term means investments outside your pension, usually in a stocks and shares ISA.

o complicate matters further, I may inherit from my parents at some point, but realistically the amount could be anything from 0 to 400k depending on the tax regime at the time, their life circumstances, and whether they need care etc - so I can't count on that.

You are right that you can not count on this, but I do not think you can just discount it either.
Personally I think it would be sensible to take a realistic view on what there is a reasonably good chance of you getting, and at least incorporate this in your longer term planning without being too reliant on it. 

Grumpy_chap

I sympathise with the OP's predicament - it really can't be easy news for them to hear.
I also think, for now, the OP needs to carry on pretty much the same planning as though they would live a full life.  There is every possibility that medical science will progress in the next 30 years to improve the prognosis for the OP.  The OP can revisit their plans periodically, taking into account their own health and treatment advances as time progresses.

DullGreyGuy

dawnofthedave said:

I am a single in my mid 30s earning 40k per annum. I’ve got a flat with a mortgage and had spent most of my 20s/early 30s pummelling all of my savings into getting a deposit together.

So your worst case scenario is something happens in 20 or more years time? A vast array of things could happen between now and then, we could have all been wiped out after nuclear war or gene therapy may have developed a cure for your condition. 

I've known a number of family members making decisions based on their crystal ball and the majority got it significantly wrong and things didnt go to plan. I dont put a great stock in major changes in plans based on potential future events decades in the future. Small changes maybe, which over the time horizon could still have significant impact but thats it. 

What's your retirement plans? I mean, personally I enjoy work and wouldn't be the end of the world were I not to retire. Im sure at some point the hours will get to much but would hope thats well into 60s. I know some have massive plans that work would very much get in the way of so again its different strokes for different folks 

Albermarle

FlorayG said:

Gosh what difficult decisions to have to make. I can only  speak for my own circumstances; I've had a great life, done low-paying jobs that I really loved to do ( I worked with horses) until I was in my 40s so zero private pension options. I'm now at state pension age, still working in an admin job to pay the bills while many of my friends of my age are retired on a decent private pension
I DON'T REGRET A MINUTE OF IT
You can't have fun all your life and a decent retirement - you can have one or the other. You can enjoy life now and be a poor pensioner or you can do what one of my friends did and work in a well paid, pensionable job that you HATE until you are 55 and then retire on a nice pension. In your case with such uncertainty of living to old age I would be leaving the future to care for itself. Best wishes, hope you find a solution that suits you

You seem to have discounted the scenario, where you have a well paid, pensionable job that you like.

Cornish_mum

Hi 

I just wanted to add to your thread as I am in similar position myself, in my case I have just finished treatment for an aggressive form of cancer, I am currently in remission but no one knows how long for. My situation is different to yours that I am a bit older (now mid forties), have a young family and decided around your age to sort out my pension (so I have a bit of a pot already). These are some things that might be worth you considering (from my own recent experience).

Firstly, is there a charity associated with your condition who offer support? If so I suspect they may be a very helpful sounding board. I think in your original post you mentioned you have a 50:50 chance of having inherited the risk gene? They are likely to be a good source of information to talk this through and explain possible future options for treatment etc.

If you do succumb, what will that look like? I know that’s really hard to face up too but I found it really useful to understand what stage 4 (ie the terminal phase of my disease) looks like, what care I will need, for how long and what NHS, local charity and state support I might get. In my case saving into a DC pension will help in some cases with offering me better choices than the state will provide for this stage of disease. I also looked at what my current pension etc would provide in this scenario.

Do you want to have access to money outside pensions for top-ups to your lifestyle or to pay for approved but not NHS funded treatments, that might delay the development of the terminal phase? In my case there is already a great drug available on private prescription in the UK which could give me an extra 6-12 months of good health. To benefit from it I won’t be sick enough to access my pension. So I am saving outside my pension so I can buy some months of this drug - to give me a bit more time.

Now the toughest one, how to balance the above with living for today and for the possibility that I might not die in the next 5 years after all. It’s really really hard - I am just trying to do what feels right for me. 

Take care it’s a awful thing to find out, as is outside most peoples experience and just a tremendous shock. I have found a lot of solace  from a small charity run Facebook group of other people with my type (of v rare) cancer, as few people in my day to day life can fully understand my situation. 

dawnofthedave

FlorayG said:

Gosh what difficult decisions to have to make. I can only  speak for my own circumstances; I've had a great life, done low-paying jobs that I really loved to do ( I worked with horses) until I was in my 40s so zero private pension options. I'm now at state pension age, still working in an admin job to pay the bills while many of my friends of my age are retired on a decent private pension
I DON'T REGRET A MINUTE OF IT
You can't have fun all your life and a decent retirement - you can have one or the other. You can enjoy life now and be a poor pensioner or you can do what one of my friends did and work in a well paid, pensionable job that you HATE until you are 55 and then retire on a nice pension. In your case with such uncertainty of living to old age I would be leaving the future to care for itself. Best wishes, hope you find a solution that suits you

Thank you for this, I appreciate your insight and see what you're saying about getting the balance right

dawnofthedave

ali_bear said:

Being in your mid-30s and having little to no pension savings is not unusual at all. You are actively considering them now which is good. You are even thinking about passing some on to your relatives. 

Even with your health being what it is, there is always a balance to be struck between saving for the future and living life for today. Possibly this balance would not even be very different if you didn't know about your condition, or you didn't have it. So possibly think about splitting your spare income three ways roughly equally as a starting point. A third on pension savings, a third on rainy-day or non-pension savings (think ISA?) and a third on enjoying life. 

Thank you, that's good advice 

dawnofthedave

Marcon said:

dawnofthedave said:

JayRitchie said:

Hi

I'm so sorry to hear about your condition. There are some great people on this forum who will have suggestions.

A few queries if I may:

- how much do you currently have saved in pensions?

- what are yours and your employers current contributions? 

- does your employer offer a salary sacrifice scheme for pension contributions?

- how much is your student loan balance?

- how much is outstanding on your mortgage?

Thank you for this JayRitchie. Pension pot is currently 18k. Employer contributes about 84, I do 300. Student loan is about 17k but gets written off at age 46 ish. Mortgage balance is about 153.5k. I don’t know about salary sacrifice but I could discuss it with them if worthwhile. 

If you're earning £40K then salary sacrifice would give both you and your employer an NI saving, so more than worthwhile.

Two thoughts. I know nothing about your condition, but many previously untreatable/fatal gene-related conditions are now being successfully treated thanks to advances in medical science, so there's always a hope that whatever you have might be ameliorated before it ever has a chance to impact on your life expectancy.

If that proves not to be the case, and you become seriously ill/incapacitated, there is always a good chance that you will be able to start drawing any private (ie non-state) pension at any age - no minimum - on grounds of ill health if you are too ill to work again. You would also qualify for various state benefits, although as this could be 20 years away, I doubt anyone would be willing to venture what those could be by then.

Also remember that if you have a life-limiting illness, you are likely to qualify for an 'impaired life' annuity, which means whatever is in your pension pot would buy you an annuity (pension) at much better rates than someone in normal health.

Thank you, I hadn't thought about  'impaired life' annuities before, so that's something to consider! Because of the variability the only thing that is sure is that I will get it, not when. I imagine I will probably only know a few years beforehand when I get symptoms, but that does mean that I could probably get a better annuity then which is good

dawnofthedave

LHW99 said:

Also, not to do with money, there is a great deal of progress being made with geneic diseases. Over the next 20 years there will undoubtedly be more.

The current prediction is based on current knowledge / treatment. What would you have been told about survival from eg HIV 20 years ago?

This is very true!