How did you feel when you committed to retirement?

InvesterJones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091355#Comment_82091355

I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. I think 'paying' myself at a regular interval might help, as I'm used to a set of regular actions following payday. When I get to the age I can access my SIPP this will probably be easier, but right now it's psycologically hard to break into my ISA when I've trained myself over the years never to do that! Moving it to a flexible one might help, but the bulk of it isn't.

mrklaw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091389#Comment_82091389

this feels like a separate question as if you weren’t planning to spend below IHT you wouldn’t be saving 40%. Regardless of how much you spend you’re spending legacy/estate stuff

entirely your choice to do so of course but ‘saving’ 40% on IHT is also your beneficiaries losing 60%.

Gifting while alive if it’s not needed by you may be a happy medium

kempiejon

@mrklaw not me, I'll not bother IHT nor have inheritors. I've heard it said though, hope that's clearer.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091434#Comment_82091434

However if your offspring/OH/charities will be well catered for anyway, then thinking that your £3000 holiday only really costs £1800, is a good way get those purse strings loose for those that do not find that very easy.

hugheskevi

I have always considered that non-essential spending when older is much cheaper than spending the same amount when younger, even without any Inheritance Tax considerations.

If the non-essential money was not spent, a young person could put it into a pension, get income tax and maybe National Insurance relief, and decades of compound investment gains followed by withdrawing 25% of it tax-free and the rest possibly at a lower rate of tax than they would have paid when young.

Whereas when I spend non-essential money now I am older, my loss is just a far shorter period of compound gains in an ISA, far less than I had available to me in my youth.

Hence I have happily increased spending on non-essentials considerably as I have got older, as the opportunity cost is so much lower than it used to be.

ali_bear

It was a bit like getting off a bicycle and onto a bus.

I had planned it financially and told them at work well in advance, trained up my replacement there. I think my timing was good and I don't miss it.

The culture at work had changed since the pandemic, the office was now less than 40% occupied, there was little in the way of cameraderie or water cooler chat anymore. Being retired at home vs working from home a lot of the time doesn't feel so different.

MacMickster

I almost retired by accident. My wife and I received a good offer to sell our business and so we decided to take a few months off before deciding what to do next. In those few months it gradually dawned on us that we didn't have to do anything next. It took a while to get used to the idea that I was now retired.

Phossy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091280#Comment_82091280

That made me smile

Intoodeep

Now 20 months in (60 when I retired) and one of the best things I ever did.

Was not even thinking about retiring, but the colleague and friend who I had worked with for 42 years passed away at 68, I notified my boss on the day of my friends funeral, 8 months notice and down to 4 days a week, then for first 6 months of retirement was on a paid retainer (only did 1 days work).

The first thing is NO alarm clock at stupid o'clock.

Have had a great time gigs, cricket, socialising, reading, still involved with local cricket club etc.etc

mrklaw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091458#Comment_82091458

ah ok, I see the angle there. thats useful I think.