There's no need to drag FAs into the discussion

For the British Steel case we do because without advisers suggesting grossly inappropriate investments its easy to see that transferring is likely to make someone substantially better off.

It's clear from some of the coverage that instead of normal investments and well established drawdown approaches advisers who might best be described as sharks or perhaps even crooks have been chasing after the money.

The US study you linked to was interesting, given that in the UK it's typically irrational to buy an annuity at normal pension pot sizes and retirement ages.* Even for someone who does want a guaranteed income. State pension deferral for guaranteed, drawdown to handle drop over time, tend to outcompete until life expectancy is sufficiently reduced to help the annuities.

*A few tens of thousands and insufficient other money to retire until state pension age or close to it.

Speaking of annuities, it's only because of the pension freedoms introduced a few years ago that I can contemplate retiring early. With a annuities I'd need to work till at least 60 to then get by until SP. For that I'm grateful that a govt finally let people take responsibility for their own affairs.

At no point did I consider myself in competition with fellow students; the challenge was to reach a benchmark I set myself.

Regimens, schedules and competition in retirement? Not me guv. Sounds far too much like a description of my working life.

Not saying that you are like this chucknorris, but there seem to be many highly competitive people who don't really seem to grasp that not everyone is like them. This wouldn't be a problem, were it not for the fact that it tends to be the competitive people who end up in charge and defining the culture that other people have to work in.
I fully agree that an enterprise has to be competitive against it's external rivals, but within that context, many people thrive much better in a spirit of internal cooperation towards a joint goal than in a culture of cutthroat competition with their peers.

You make being in competition sound like a bad thing, maybe it is for you (we are all different), but I relish competition. Not just to help motivate me to achieve my benchmarks, but also for the competition itself. I have total respect (usually) for my opponents, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be enjoying the competition that they are providing.

Chuck.......chill! ;-)

About ten years ago, a group of us on a different (womans) forum decided to get our 10,000 and more steps a day. We diligently measured our stride lengths ( before fitbits etc were popular) and I averaged it out to equate to x many steps= 1 mile, so collectively we could cover 50, for example, miles a day. The following day, I'd post about where we were, nice pictures, snippets of info, nothing too heavy as it was all very light hearted.

We have covered many routes, round the coast of Britain, across Europe, east & west coast of the States, route 66, Oz and NZ, ( we have a Kiwi and a Yank), the odd pilgramige route, Argentina was enjoyable. Trouble is after all this time, we are running out of countries, so the mileage totting up has gone out of the window and we do things like visit World Heritage Sites. Currently we are doing the Silk Road and are in Baku, Azerbaijan.

As I said, after all that time, we have morphed from a group of fat middle aged women into 20 year old bikini babes, with a penchant for alcohol and fast living, and occasional imprisonment. To explain how bizarre it has become, we have a virtual RV driven by someone that wanted to be a Stepsister, but doesn't like walking, so she drives the virtual RV. Though not over bridges. It really isn't serious and the daily quality is highly dependent on finding a place that is worth talking about. Desert areas, sheesh.

You asked I hesitate to recommend anyone join us as it's bonkers really.

I'm grateful that I was a respondent to the survey that preceded them. I was able to explain how the GAD limit was low early on when it needed to be high and say that if they wanted me to increase pension contributions they should stop forcing me to use non-pension money to get a level income throughout retirement. They delivered, though I'll never know how much of a role that feedback played.

Back to blogging - hopefully now more regularly:

http://earlyretirefree.com/how-much-do-i-need-for-retirement-and-will-it-last/

once I reach 67 and get paid SP.

Assuming Brexit doesn't bankrupt HMG such that they means test state pension. "Saved some money up? Great, spend that first, and then try your luck again as there is no more money."

I have £0 in my plan for state pension as anything else is blind optimism.

My husband gets £20k Pension now and I will get £10k Pension at 60.
We have about £10k income from properties
We will have about £70k in a DC scheme in 3 years when I am 55.
Assume the 4% rule doesn't apply to us. Not sure if there is a formula to use in my circumstances to decide when to retire.

My husband gets £20k Pension now and I will get £10k Pension at 60.
We have about £10k income from properties
We will have about £70k in a DC scheme in 3 years when I am 55.
Assume the 4% rule doesn't apply to us. Not sure if there is a formula to use in my circumstances to decide when to retire.