Xela Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 I'm 44 this year, and over the last couple of years, i've been thinking more about retirement/pensions/options etc. My state retirement age is 68, but there is no way I'm working until then. I don't think I physically could! My private pension access will be at 57 (increasing from 55), but ideally I want to be winding down from my early 50s. By that, I mean, not working in the same stressful role I am now, and doing something I can switch off from at 5pm, perhaps part time? I get the feeling there are a lot of people on this board that are around my age, and slightly older and was wondering whether anyone else was thinking about it, or had a plan? The days of final salary gold plated pensions are almost gone, and a lot of people are going to have a shock about how much you need to pay into a DCS pension in order to get a comfortable retirement. Its not a subject thats ever really discussed when you are younger and by the time you start taking notice, it can be too late. So, what are peoples plans? Downsizing property? Planning on working until you drop? Waiting on inheritance (a lot of people do!), Head in the sand? For me, its a combination of 20%+ into my pension every month, a chunk into a SAYE scheme at work and saving all my dividends/bonuses and investing them into index funds/cash ISAs. Then keeping my fingers crossed! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted June 1, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 1, 2023 7 minutes ago, Xela said: I'm 44 this year, and over the last couple of years, i've been thinking more about retirement/pensions/options etc. My state retirement age is 68, but there is no way I'm working until then. I don't think I physically could! My private pension access will be at 57 (increasing from 55), but ideally I want to be winding down from my early 50s. By that, I mean, not working in the same stressful role I am now, and doing something I can switch off from at 5pm, perhaps part time? I get the feeling there are a lot of people on this board that are around my age, and slightly older and was wondering whether anyone else was thinking about it, or had a plan? The days of final salary gold plated pensions are almost gone, and a lot of people are going to have a shock about how much you need to pay into a DCS pension in order to get a comfortable retirement. Its not a subject thats ever really discussed when you are younger and by the time you start taking notice, it can be too late. So, what are peoples plans? Downsizing property? Planning on working until you drop? Waiting on inheritance (a lot of people do!), Head in the sand? For me, its a combination of 20%+ into my pension every month, a chunk into a SAYE scheme at work and saving all my dividends/bonuses and investing them into index funds/cash ISAs. Then keeping my fingers crossed! Get yourself a SIPP and pm me for investment ideas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 1, 2023 Author Share Posted June 1, 2023 Just now, Follyfoot said: Get yourself a SIPP and pm me for investment ideas I'm not investing in your 'Cockney Geeza' film production vehicle. HMRC have clamped down on them! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted June 1, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 1, 2023 4 minutes ago, Xela said: I'm not investing in your 'Cockney Geeza' film production vehicle. HMRC have clamped down on them! Muggy caaant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dAVe80 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 See what happens. If we don't get a socialist revolution, it might be a shotgun in the woods job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 1, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 1, 2023 Our pension provider at work has just changed. This month I'm moving my current pension into it and then I'm going to move over my pensions from previous Employees and see where I am. The provider has an app that let's you do some modelling based on what you're likely to have on the date you choose. I'm also going to start putting more in, ii was hoping to really ramp it up but only known current daughter has decided to go to University which will cost me a bomb. A guy I work with is just retiring at 60. I'm guessing he would earn a lot less than you and he's had a son / money sink. He still needs a part time job at 60, just wants to get out of the pressure of the job which I totally understand. I'd like to think I could do it at 60. I didn't realise how much I was piling into my pension until I did a cost saving exercise when the kids went to nursery. I wish I hadn't cut it then looking back but needs must. However I had a good few years in my 20's to early 30's where I bet I was putting away a lot more than most people that age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 I think I’m going to keep working. Unlikely to be on the roofs in my 60s but want to keep the body and brain working and also appreciating the days off I have instead of every day being the same but you never know. Would like something a little bit more less straining in my 60s and would be open to part time work just to keep myself and money ticking over. Life isn’t cheap anymore and it’s harder to retire I think. I pay into a Vanguard fund and will continue to do so , but I don’t want to rely on that when I’m older. My wife will have a very good pension as she works for the MOD, but yeah hopefully we are ok. See what happens down the line. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 I’ve always had a pension, sometimes a decent one, sometimes not so much. Sometimes paying the minimum whilst I funded a lifestyle for the kids to get a leg up in life. Over the course of the next 21 months I will be free of all loans, credit cards and mortgage. So I’ll have substantially more money for planning. I’m gonna go on a drink drugs and minge binge and the rest of it I’ll just waste. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 I'm 49 and have been paying into a pension since I was 17. I'm reasonably confident that come 60 I'll be able to retire on something like around 80% of my salary. Thing is my wife is 6 years younger and I can't see myself retiring years before she is likely to so I'll almost certainly carry on working. Having said the above though who knows. My dad never lived to see retirement (died when he was 60) and likewise my mother in law died when she was 55. I try to live life as full as I can now and not put things off to do in a retirement that may never come. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mjmooney Posted June 1, 2023 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted June 1, 2023 I'm nine years into retirement now, and I bloody love it. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post StewieGriffin Posted June 1, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted June 1, 2023 My current plan involves my parents, my sister, my in-laws, my brother-in-law, and a meticulously plotted "tragedy". I cant say anymore than that at this stage 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 I’ve had a bad back all week and I’ve woken up for work and it’s as bad as it’s been all week . Scrap what I said about continuing to work well into my 60s . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post delboy54 Posted June 2, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted June 2, 2023 I am 65 this month (21st June if you all want to buy me a pressie ) but not able to get state pension until 66 (next year). When covid struck I was on furlough at 80% of salary for about 2 - 3 months, once I was back at work I requested to work only 4 days a week as we could manage on less money and it was a planned gentle slide down to retirement. Working 4 days a week has worked out well over the last couple of years. I recommend this gradual slowing down as you approach retirement. Fast forward to now and I have decided to stop work in September. I am fortunate that mortgage is paid off and I have some savings, a company pension with Sottish Widows that I wont touch yet....probably access via drawdown and another pension being paid due to my time with Anglian Water. Deciding when to retire is a big deal to be honest, but sometimes events help that decision. Earlier this year I was admitted to hospital with pneumonia, a scary time for me without the wonder drug of antibiotics and the wonderful staff at the NHS hospital the nurses said I would have died.....I was at the time training for the Cambridge Half Marathon! This experience made me realise there is more to live than work and when you stop work you have to be able to be mentally and physically fit to enjoy it. As long as I can still afford my ST for the Villa and be able to drive from Cambridge to VP......... I cannot work out how people in hard physical jobs are going to be able to work until they are 68 or older.....probably the same idiot who decided that NHS front line staff have to work 12 1/2 hr shifts...... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 Yeah we made a lifestyle decision a good few years ago. When we had kids my partner originally only went back to work 2 days a week. This felt like a good compromise of having lots of time with the kids and school activities and being able to go to the park at 3:30 most days. But the 2 days in work kept contact with adult humans and kept the CV and experience ticking over. Over time 2 days turned in to 3 and then 4, but never went back to 5. This means that the drudgery of the supermarket shop, the washing machine, house admin and chores, all that is done in my absence on a weekday. The weekend, is for weekend stuff. As a system, I highly recommend it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted June 2, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 2, 2023 I'm 55, I pay 30% of my salary into my pensions, one a DB and another with Scottish Widows. I check my pensions weekly, would like to retire ASAP but unfortunately my lifestyle would have to take a right hammering to do it. Realistically it's going to be around 62, health dependent. The most important thing, for me, is to have a plan on what your going to do. I plan to buy a narrowboat and tour the UK for a couple of years at the start of retirement. Then maybe a touring caravan, stick it on a site in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall for the summer months and live between that and home. I did plan to long term rent a villa in greece but brexit sort of torpedoed that idea, with the 90 day rule. Could get a visa but it complicates matters. I can't retire and have nothing to do other than sit around and watch the TV and drink 7 days a week or look after grandchildren, life is to short. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 2, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 2, 2023 10 hours ago, StewieGriffin said: My current plan involves my parents, my sister, my in-laws, my brother-in-law, and a meticulously plotted "tragedy". Vindaloo... vindaloo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheltenham_villa Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 I've been sorting my dad's pension recently. He's retired last year having waited until he's 67. He and my mum are mortgage free and live quite comfortably on the state pension. We've taken the tax free limits out of his pension but I doubt he'll spend them. I've look at annuities but the rates are now so low it just doesn't make economic sense. Current plan is to keep the money in a fund, take a small amount out each year and wait until I need to spend it all on one of them going into a home. He's got so bored he's taken a part time job to keep his brain ticking over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 2, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 2, 2023 34 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said: He's got so bored he's taken a part time job to keep his brain ticking over. Christ, I couldn't even imagine such a thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 16 hours ago, Xela said: Head in the sand? Yup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheltenham_villa Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 13 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Christ, I couldn't even imagine such a thing. That's what I thought. Maybe it's a generational thing. He's just so used to being around people and feeling useful he didn't want to stop. I think he's also got in his head that my grandad went downhill when he stopped. He's happy and enjoying his partial retirement so maybe he's got it right after all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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