When did you feel financially secure?

Workerdrone

Ok so I'm 49. Recently had an unexpected windfall and paid off the mortgage. I thought I would feel different, but nothing. I have probably about 7-10 years left at work. I don't really enjoy my job but it's secure and trying to match my current wage at nearly 50 is unlikely. Pension currently growing nicely with about 400k in it. Some money in ISA's and savings, (not massive, probably around 50k). The wife and myself are just below the 40% tax bracket and intend to stay there. 

Im just interested to hear from others, was there a point where you looked at your pension pot, looked at your age and thought, you know what, I could tell work to do a running jump if I wanted to now?

subjecttocontract

At the risk of stating the obvious, we are all different. 
I had at least one mortgage outstanding every year from age 21 until 65. It's difficult to feel financially secure when you have a large debt. It also depends on your lifestyle, background, expectations, business involvement etc. I retired from full time work at 52, I can definitely recommend it. It gives you the freedom to do other things. The question you ask is about financial security and for me that IS all about money. Once you have enough and adding more to it won't improve your lifestyle or feeling of secuity, then you must surely have arrived.

poseidon1

Pension pot was not the deciding factor.

 It's when I sold my house and traded down, retired 3 months later at age 57 living off investment and rental income ever since .

Pension pot ( Sipp)  remains untouched ( now age 67) but has increased to a more meaningful £450k from the modest £275k at retirement.

Do I feel secure?  Subjectively not especially, state pension is the only guranteed income source, so constantly managing and enhancing non guranteed income sources to meet needs and wants.

  That said cannot perceive a circumstance where I may starve or not have a roof over my head,  if that can be taken as an objective definition of 'security'.

Albermarle

Workerdrone said:

Ok so I'm 49. Recently had an unexpected windfall and paid off the mortgage. I thought I would feel different, but nothing. I have probably about 7-10 years left at work. I don't really enjoy my job but it's secure and trying to match my current wage at nearly 50 is unlikely. Pension currently growing nicely with about 400k in it. Some money in ISA's and savings, (not massive, probably around 50k). The wife and myself are just below the 40% tax bracket and intend to stay there. 

Im just interested to hear from others, was there a point where you looked at your pension pot, looked at your age and thought, you know what, I could tell work to do a running jump if I wanted to now?

I was in a similar position at that age. A bit less DC pension, but more outside the pension and a modest DB pension waiting in the wings.
A couple of years later my employer got taken over by a large aggressive, cost cutting competitor ( the Boss now runs Man U )  and my job was in jeopardy. I survived miserably at a demoted level, but felt it was too early to walk away, and as you say difficult to match a good salary by moving in your 50's.
Luckily there was another big shake up/sell up 4 years later and I ended up in a better job than I had before, and enjoyed my last few years of work, partly I guess because I knew I could have walked if necessary.
So I was in no rush to leave, which meant in the end that with hindsight, that I probably worked three more years than I needed to from a financial perspective, but I do not particularly regret it.
In fact having more than I need has helped me loosen the purse strings, which is a common problem for many forum members !

DoublePolaroid

I'm 44, but I'm confident enough in my modelling to be fairly certain that my subjective sense of financial security will be less to to with my projected DB income, the size of my ISA investments or the amount of discretionary spending in retirement I wish to allow for and more to do with how long it takes for my two (currently young) kids to stand up on their own two feet.

Cobbler_tone

Probably stating the obvious but money in isolation won't bring security, happiness or contentment. People like Stephen Barlett talk about it a lot. A millionaire at 23 but didn't bring him happiness. If he had made different business decisions I'm sure it wouldn't have guaranteed security either. How many lottery (pools winners in the old days) end up skint due to poor decision making? Or many having damaged relationships and unhappiness due to the windfall.
You see relatively wealthy people pop up on here but I am sure some of those with just their state pension are happier with a secure roof over their head.
I guess having money and relative security takes one of our worries away.

ali_bear

I'm financially secure and retired months ago, but I'd never tell work to do a running jump. I could go back if I need to, or if I get bored enough. Possibly the same company but more likely a different company and definitely for a limited time only. 

Phossy

I'm in that position where I could stop work today and have been since I really started looking in detail about 3 years ago. I feel more secure for sure, but I don't feel really secure, if that makes sense. I always worry at some level about the pension scheme going t#ts up, be that my work pension, personal pension or state pension in due course. I know a lot of these worries would disappear if I stopped watching the news and loitering around pension forums.. I just don't think I have the mental make up to feel secure.

BridgetTheCat

DB pensions help a lot.

Workerdrone

BridgetTheCat said:

DB pensions help a lot.

I suppose cashing the final sum in for an annuity would probably do a similar thing. I just cant right now see myself handing over a big pot for a yearly amount. mind you, if a lot of it is going to end up with a government who wastes it I might as well

Barralad77

As per others, everyone is different but agree that having no debts/mortgage is a big one.

Personally, I have spent the last few years making additional contributions to my pension via salary sacrifice. This left me with a net monthly income that I’ve lived off quite comfortably. Let’s call this monthly income ‘X’.

I then calculated what my net monthly income would be if I retired. Now, my net income would be made up of pension plus interest on cash savings. Call that ‘Y’.

It was when I worked out that ‘Y’ would be more than ‘X’ that I knew it was time to retire with no need to worry. 

Yes, there were a couple of other considerations (specifically, the fact that I’d still have another pot of money held in investments and have the State Pension to come in a few year’s time) but they’re just icing on the cake.