Early-retirement wannabe

In 2013 I lost my job. I worked in IT, My main skills were near obsolete so there was little chance of my finding another similar job. I had been aware that this was likely to happen sometimeso I had been saving a lot. I believed in living below my means and not borrowing, except for my mortgage but as it was an endowment one I had paid most of it off (just £4k left).



I looked at my savings and realized I had more than enough to live on until my pensions were set up to pay out at 60. But living off my assets just did not feel right. I continued to try to live off my income - which had dropped to £300pm conttributory JSA. I failed but kept trying.


I decide rather than live off my savings I would put them to work. I bought some properties to renovate and let (for cash as I couldn't get a mortgage). I was tranferred to the NEA as I was starting a business, which cut my benefit a bit, but as soon as my first property was let I was making £400pm - still not enough to live on without dipping into my savings.After the seconf onw was let I was making £900pm and the benefit stopped soon after. I could then cover my normal expenses but big yearly bills still required dipping into my savings. With the third property my income jumped to £1500pm which I could live off and even relax the frigality a bit. That made me feel more comfortable.


Next year I will start taking most of my pensions. Two are old ones with GARs so I will take the annuities and live off the income. Two are DB pensions so again will provude an income I can live off. Obe is a small AVC attached to one of the DB pensions which I will rake as a TFLS. The other DB pension is actually a hybrid scheme. I will be taking the DB part, as much tas free as possible and transferring the rest into the flexible scheme I transferred my fibal pension into.


The TFLSs I will mainly use to pay down mortgages I now have, converting them into income. Though I am intending to replace my car which will be 12 years old.


I took a small amount tax free out of my flexible pension last year mainly to pay for my first holiday abroad since I lost my job/ It was also to try to get used to spending more ahead of my income rising. I had intended to repeat that but have been unwell this summer. I may do it early next year.


Changing the financial habits of a lifetime is not easy.

crv1963 wrote: »

Similar for us too. My wife does the household budgeting, I just transfer across on payday (usually the same amount) that she tells me I need to pay my share. Then pretty much everything we both have left is ours to do with as we please.


With our interest in retiring in a 3-5 year timespan, she is leaving to me the pension planning as it "is too complex to follow, just tell me when, how much and what I need to pay/ sign now".


I could retire this month but am working longer as her provision is dismal compared to my DB scheme. We married only a few years ago so have for our age a large outstanding mortgage, so working a few years more allows us to i) get the mortgage paid down a bit and ii) boost her pensions savings.


Everyone has to work it to how it best works for them, I don't think there is a "right way" to do it.

Similar to our situation, only we have no mortgage. I'm the one doing the planning. My partner has started investing, but her pensions are a longer way off than mine.

My husband is the main earner. I don't need to work, but I do. We have two small children.
My (part time) wage just about covers childcare and my discretionary spends but, for me, it is important for me to keep my career going:
1. I know too many people (mainly women) shafted if their husband leaves
2. I pay my entire salary into my pension (my husband has 5x the amount of my pension - this needs evening up).
3. My job has far more potential for part time/ flexible working. My husband is a few years older than me - our plan is for him to retire before me and for me to continue to work part time for a few years to ease us into things (and so I get my full NI credits).

I manage our money (and it is mostly in my name - it started out for tax reasons but now it is admin - he doesn't want to do any of it). However we each get a sum into our sole accounts each month to spend how we please but we also have a joint savings account for larger/ joint spends (such as my husband needing a new work suit/ car repairs etc). I would hate him to think I "controlled" the money. Everything is laid out in a spreadsheet and I have given him a power of attorney in case anything happens to me.

I am doing all this so that he can retire early and I can continue working part time but my husband wants to send our children to private school so that will delay his retirement by about 5 years - his choice!

Kit_Katt wrote: »

I'm in a money purchase scheme and it's dropped in value over 4% this calendar year.
Has it deferred any of your plans to retire waiting on market recovery and those who's funds that are in draw down your buckets all a bit lighter will you have to make adjustments to spend levels.?.

Anyone who has to reduce spending when funds drop 4% shouldn't have retired just yet (if they had the choice of course)

The market drop means that I'm reigning in my spending on petrol, road tax, and parking, but having spent some of my tax free lump sum on a Tesla Model S helps with this. :-)