Retire at 51?

Triumph13

caeler said:

A few of you have mentioned capital that gets an income. Thanks @kempiejon @DRS1  I hadn’t thought about that before. I’ll have a think about that. 

With the caveat that many people would advise 3% or 3.5% rather than 4% withdrawal rate, I'm going to suggest you start your exploration by reading this:
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

Cus

SouthCoastBoy said:

Marcon said:

caeler said:

II just mean my job is hard and stressful and I can’t see me managing it long term. 

I’m not convinced I will actually retire at 51 but I think it will enable me to leave my current job and/or full time working. Maybe work part time or self employed or even volunteering. I need people and structure so I’ll need something to do. I crave less pressure and stress. 

It seems a real shame that you are struggling so much with your current job that you might want to retire after what is likely to be little more than 30 years in the workplace, with a potential 50 years in retirement (plenty of people hitting their century!). You've got the insight to recognise that you need people and structure, and quitting so young might mean you find yourself short on both.

Instead of apparently focussing so heavily on retiring, isn't there anything you could do now to reduce both the pressure and the stress you are obviously finding difficult to cope with?

Just to put into context about plenty of people hitting their century, using the ons calculator the chance of a 43 year old male getting to a hundred is currently given as 4.6% so the vast majority won't, I feel sometimes we are encouraged to save/plan for events that most probably won't happen which may impact decisions about retiring, it certainly has me. So much so I have decided I won't retire, until on my plan, I have at least 1million in today's money when I reach 100, ridiculous isn't it, but its the just in case scenario which totally contradicts what I have just written.

Also I imagine a lot of 100 year olds are in care homes, ive no evidence to support this, so if you are single and a home owner the home could be used to help cover care costs.

You could live to 130 with potential advances in science, who knows. Maybe your stress testing should cover that scenario?

The point is that there are always scenarios that are outside of prudent planning, the risk number that matters is what you can accept and live with. You'll know if you think your are being too risk averse compared to 'normal' I think.

400ixl

Are all of these figures including inflation? £20k today will not have the same buying power as £20k in the future.

michaels

TO cover your state pension (call it 12k from April) until it is payable you will need a pot of 17 years x 12k = 204k

To get 8k pa 'forever' based on an SWR of 2.5% will need a pot of 320k

SO if you have a pot of 524k at 51 you should be good to spend 20k pa 'forever'.