Early-retirement wannabe

uk1 wrote: »

Have I misunderstood your challenge?

Jeff

No you haven't misunderstood because I didn't really articulate clearly. My challenge is to make sure that when I voluntarily give up a highly paid job, I (we) will have enough to keep us in the lifestyle we desire (not extravagant) in an uncertain world over the next 30-40 years (hopefully). I have not had a particular figure in mind but as I have told Mrs A, I'm pretty confident we will never be destitute. I know I should worry about IHT (in fact I did worry enough about it to get married after 18 years together!) but that's for our security rather than inheritance for (my, not our) kids. There's a lot of water to flow under the taxation bridge before I'll really think about it again.

I suspect I should pay for some advice as to how to structure our assets before I finally stop. They're split 300k cash and equities (her), 500k C&E (me), 300k pension (her), 500k pension (me) and a flat in London worth about 400k (her) plus our main home (us). I also have a final salary pension worth 19k pa when I'm 62. I'm not sure when we should drawdown from pensions rather than live off of the cash (capital and accrued).

"fat flogged" ?

aldershot,

I had exactly the same conversation with my wife when we were discussing me leaving a decently paid job to start a business. I said that the worst situation we would be in was to live in a caravan. Thankfully .....:D

I think there is a point of sufficient wealth where if you are in the fortunate position of having "enough" ... and £2m should be enough realisable wealth where it should "last you" then that being so, apart from "doing what you can" I think you can in retirement safely just run things from a simple sinking fund spreadsheet where you look at a snapshot every so often just to reassure yourself that you are unlikely to run out of cash and spend "within reason" whatever you feel like. I think many of the people that do make it to that situation that they have so conditioned themselves to micro manage things they often fail to recognise when they reached the point that they can actually relax a bit more about their finances. I basically run our finances that way and think of a second home we have as being a buffer against any disaster that happens much later in life. I think some people have struggled so hard to get where they are, they sometimes fail to realise that they have cracked it and their job now is to focus on spending it.

For example I think I earn more out of spending time with getting the best quality of travel from our cash than I would from moving cash around all these different accounts which makes my head spin.

Jeff

melanzana wrote: »

There is a Skiers thread here somewhere, i.e "Spending Kids Inheritance"

(Still can't remember what the SKATERS are lol)

Brilliant to read. A lesson to us all.

I am a skier, even though I don't have any children, still,I have no intention of leaving anything behind me except a few bob for necessities, like cremating me or summat. LOL.

I don't know really when you can get to that stage though. Everyone needs a Rainy Day Fund. But what the heck, as little as possible will be left behind, as I worked hard, I earned it, and to hell with the heirs!

"The last cheque you write should be to your undertaker, and it should bounce"

I do have 2 kids and the way I have thought about it is to try (within reason) to help them now rather than when they are 60. Allowing them to leave university debt free made me feel good anyway. Interest free loans for cars. The odd holiday paid for. If there is any left at the end when we're both gone, that would be nice for them but I hope it's not on their spreadsheet.

aldershot wrote: »

Thanks. Nice post and I know you're right. I didn't get us to the position we're in by being stupid or reckless so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to continue the process in retirement and not worry about every last drop. I could walk out of here today and not come back but actually knowing you are financially secure whatever actually make you relax at work and not to worry about it any more. It does make the job easier which has kept me here for another year. One day, I will have to step out. We did think that not both stopping at the same time was a good idea and her job was reorganised which made leaving easier for her first.

We have travelled lots (turning left which is nice) but now all I really want is the freedom to see the 90% of this country that I've not seen before. When it hit 27c in the Western Isles a couple of weeks back, I wanted to be able to jump on a plane (or train) and be there tomorrow. I think we would be able to do that.

Similar situation except that our business had reached a point where I'd milked a new market so much that I felt we'd either have to stop then or make a large risky change of direction. I realised that we could actually stop. My wife worked in the business with me so we both stopped on the same day. I say day but actually I wound down over a period and one day there was the final invoice and "that was it".

My main "hobby" for a while was "miles" and we have around 2m BA miles which supplemented by the 241's get's us in F a couple of times a year. Luckily most of our travel whilst working was set against the business, so decent travel is now our main indulgence like you.

Having retired at around 50, now it is a very simple spreadsheet which simply manages cash as a snap shot. In simple terms if what I have depleted the cash by over the last year "isn't too much" when divided into the total; balance ie number of years I have left, then I do not bother much to manage things to any greater level of detail. If it seems healthy then I don't worry. One years warning is enough to rope things in a bit but I don't believe it will happen. Future increases will come from deferred pensions etc and two properties are our long-stop buffer although the current plan is to leave them to the kids.

I've had as friends a couple of highly successful IT industry people and the thing they seem not to understand is that feeling of release you touched on when you realise that you have reached the point where you are working because you want to and no longer need to and everything now are options from which you are free to choose, and the other point when you stop and work out that you have enough to see you out and it is time to get on with life. That is a very fortunate position to be in.

You are now in a situation (it sounds) like you can make choices and need to make the move from having life do things to you to doing things to life.

Get on with it!

Jeff