Plotting for an early retirement - anyone want to join me?
Comments
-
JoeEngland wrote: »For me, getting PT work would just be for financial reasons to reduce drawdown on savings and pensions for a while. I don't want to work at all. To me work has only ever been a necessity and a means to an end. What I want now is time to live my life instead of work my life.
Me too - I definitely 'work to live' not 'live to work'. I'd retire tomorrow if I had enough stashed already. Sadly I don't yet.I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
& Credit Cards boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.0 -
do you really know what enough is? I think for me enough may well prove to be less than I might think considering what now is like - but no mortgage, kids independent, one car, and time to fulfil my inner MSE may make enough less than I might thinkMe too - I definitely 'work to live' not 'live to work'. I'd retire tomorrow if I had enough stashed already. Sadly I don't yet.I think I saw you in an ice cream parlour
Drinking milk shakes, cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine0 -
Would love to retire sooner but i don't see my finances stacking up to enable me to do that, mortgage is currently over another 27 years i think which i'm hoping to try and reduce and would love to have it cleared by 55 but we will see from there.
Kev
I used to think like that about the mortgage, but then I realised while I'm making good money and can pay a high mortgage why not live in the best house I can afford, so Iv'e bought 2 high-end new & almost-new builds last 10 years , enjoying great area and living spaces, not having to do any DIY whatsoever and seeing my winter bills halve, and about to upgrade again, and I'm quite a bit older than you! The fact that it looks like 25-30 years of debt doesn't worry me, if and when it becomes unafforadable I will downsize to a 2bed bungalow or small town house and should have a lot of equity as the types of houses I am looking at increase in value more than the cheaper ones.do you really know what enough is? I think for me enough may well prove to be less than I might think considering what now is like - but no mortgage, kids independent, one car, and time to fulfil my inner MSE may make enough less than I might think
Nice philosophy. When I finally do, Ill be like that, a day a week in charity shop and out walking doing photography and growing veggies to stay fit, probably wont even run a car. Kids have already promised me a luxury care home when I'm totally done, in return for all Iv'e done for them"It is not the critic who counts..." - Theodore Roosevelt0 -
do you really know what enough is? I think for me enough may well prove to be less than I might think considering what now is like - but no mortgage, kids independent, one car, and time to fulfil my inner MSE may make enough less than I might think
I have a budget spreadsheet that changes as we age so I have some idea what 'enough' is. We still have £160k left to pay on the mortgage and DD will be at uni till 2025 or 2026 when we will be 58/59 which are the big costs for a bit. I don't know when we will drop from 2 cars to 1 - will depend on how we choose to spend our time as I want to go to the gym and ride horses, neither of which are of interest to DH, but would need transport. We also want some more 'big travel' at the start while we still can.I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
& Credit Cards boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.0 -
I find that having an early retirement goal really sharpens the mind where unnecessary purchases are concerned. We have started evaluating things - such as replacement cars - in “time” rather than financial cost. Is it worth working another x months or years to have whatever it is that has caught our eye..... we are not being frugal by any means, if it ticks the box for enjoyment and we think it is worth it then we go ahead, but it does make us think more objectively about it compared to when we were younger with all the time in the world....0
-
Interesting thread, i'm 44 in a high-pay, high-stress job, and starting to come to the realization that retirement could be much closer than I'd thought, so will watch with interest.
Mrs L has a good DB pension (she's a university professor) and I've been fairly aimlessly shoveling money into pensions for a while now, while the mortgage will be gone in a little over 12 months. After finally paying attention, crunching the numbers, and adding everything up I was stunned to find that house + pensions currently total a bit over £1.2M and liquid assets add close to £100k more, which is far better than I thought it was. We're adding about £80k per year to that at present, so I need to start to look ahead and work out where the exit is.
You're in a very strong position. I'd imagine that within a couple of years you'd be able to retire or choose something less stressful if you desired.
Having a good understanding of your annual costs and therefore amount of income required once retired is key.0 -
Workerbee999 wrote: »I find that having an early retirement goal really sharpens the mind where unnecessary purchases are concerned. We have started evaluating things - such as replacement cars - in “time” rather than financial cost. Is it worth working another x months or years to have whatever it is that has caught our eye..... we are not being frugal by any means, if it ticks the box for enjoyment and we think it is worth it then we go ahead, but it does make us think more objectively about it compared to when we were younger with all the time in the world....
I totally agree. Since I've started to think about early retirement I've tended to think about most purchases in terms of "how long do I need to work to pay for this?" :rotfl:0 -
This thread has been a good read
I am indeed planning to retire earlier than the SPA whenever it is allowable to access your pension. So that is 55 atm or in 2041. Of course, it almost certainly is higher than 55 in the 2040s. My goal is going to be 12k in today's money which should be more than enough to cover my living costs once I paid off the mortgage, stop investing & paying into a pension. I should be able to get £8500 state pension in 2054, so it is a matter of saving enough to cover the 13 years gap hopefully. Ideally, it would be nice to have an annuity, but I recognise that it is vastly likely to be drawdown pension instead. 0 -
Happy New Year to all
I know many on here use Retireeasy and I received an email from them on Friday to say they are raising funds on Crowdcube - I can't see any listing on Crowdcube yet but it may be worth keeping tabs on their development.
Let's hope by the end of the year and preferably by 29th March the dreaded Brexit debacle has been sorted..somehow I think not!!!0 -
JoeCrystal wrote: »My goal is going to be 12k in today's money which should be more than enough to cover my living costs
That's an incredibly low level of outgoings. I assume that's for one person rather than a couple?Money won't buy you happiness....but I have never been in a situation where more money made things worse!0
Categories
- All Categories
- 343K Banking & Borrowing
- 250K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.6K Spending & Discounts
- 235.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 607.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173K Life & Family
- 247.7K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards