Retirement

I had a couple of friends die young so I started working part-time at 50. My complete retirement was delayed through complications at work but I eventually stopped completely at 58 because I could afford to.

How much you need to live on and the security of that income is different for everyone. Some stop early for as long as they can when they are fit and then go back to work. Only you can decide. There's no such thing as too young.
 
I would be very interested in any ideas about how much it costs to live an active retirement (excluding boat costs).

At one point I had pencilled in retiring at 50 - but Gordon Brown well and truely put paid to that. Now not much chance of winding down until the kids finish school at least - and possibly Uni if I want to help them through that.
 
cloud7 said:
Interested to see the views of the Forum on when to retirement , Age , financial , etc
thanks
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Too many variables to be able to give meaningful advice. So here goes.

Stop when you don't enjoy your job anymore. That's if you can afford to; if you can't, then at least find another job that you will enjoy.

My grandfather worked until he was 83, my father worked until he was 78. Both were made redundant following company takeovers (no TUPE Regulations then). I let the side down by retiring at 72 but I did have the excuse of having a boat to sail and restore.
 
bedouin said:
I would be very interested in any ideas about how much it costs to live an active retirement (excluding boat costs).

At one point I had pencilled in retiring at 50 - but Gordon Brown well and truely put paid to that. Now not much chance of winding down until the kids finish school at least - and possibly Uni if I want to help them through that.
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At least as much as you spend now, your utility costs will at best stay the same, food, clothes, family as well. Then there is extra time for entertainment, holidays, visiting friends, motoring costs, inflation.
Savings are a finite sum, when it's gone, it's gone.
 
I'm hoping to carry on working till 70 at least - got a boat habit to support - crack cocaine would be cheaper!
 
I will retire when my mortgage retires. My income about half what it is now but my morgatge is about half my income.
Not much of a plan no financial adviser and no thanks to Maggie and private pension plan. Equitable life. I think it's worthbabout a. Tenth of what they said. Oh well I was young enough to start over.

Truth is even if I retire I will still want to do something. I might take up instructing again just to ocupy my time or occasional fishing guide if I feel like it.

I used to work part time on dinner cruise boat. Paid peanuts but most of the crew were retired and it was more a social club than a job..might do that again.
 
Decide whether you actually want to stop working or (like in my case) you just want to spend a bit less time at it. I "semi-retired" about 3 years ago and still do between 2 to 4 days per week, depending on the time of year. My objective was just to have more leisure time, but at about 50 I was not ready to leave the world of work completely, just do a bit less of it. So rebalance the leisure/work time to about 50/50. I do plan to pack in completely in say another 4-5yrs, but who knows.
 
As mentioned it's virtually impossible to advise others; all I would say is several of my ex-colleagues younger than me are dead now through natural causes, so do go for it as soon as you possibly can; freedom and leisure time are priceless.

If you can manage to set up in a winter job which keeps summers free that would be handy.
 
I think the first critical stage is when you decide that you can afford to stop saving for your retirement - so the house is paid for and the pension pots / savings are large enough. Then you can switch into "subsistence" mode - earning enough to cover costs but not having to save. I hope to be able to drop down to about half-time working (e.g. Winter months) for a number of years before starting to use my retirement savings.

The critical decision is how large the savings need to be - I don't want to drop dead the week after retirement and leave SWMBO to spend my savings on toy boys :)
 
vyv_cox said:
Don't do it! You get no weekends, bank holidays or annual leave. It's hard graft from morning to night.
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In a funny way, there is truth in this comment. Retirement looks like a wonderland to those still working but it isnt. You lose to some extent your place in the community / society and become just another pensioner. You have not got the discipline of working hours , fixed holidays etc and the days and weeks merge into one. Either you have no holidays or its all holiday, take your pick. And dont you get fed up of holidays and want to get back to doing something useful.

I retired at 51. It was too early . I had a final salary pension so money wasnt and isnt an issue. Purpose is an issue. With hindsight I feel that I have wasted part of my life pottering around with the boat, bikes, cars etc. OK thats my view of my life, but I guess what I am trying to say is that retirement isnt the nirvana you sometimes think when doing the daily grind. I suppose that depends on what your daily grind is
 
I am in the process of gradually retiring over a number of years. I work as an academic in a well known University and have been able to take advantage of a scheme which allows me to draw part of my pension in exchange for reducing my working hours. I went to the equivalent of 3 days a week at 62, and now after 2 years I am going to 2 days a week. I was at work this morning and glad to be there doing interesting and useful things. I don't envisage retiring completely for some years yet. There are only so many documentaries about Hitler that one man can watch without going bonkers, after all.

Do I get points under Godwin's Law?
 
Interesting comments to reflect on , i can support 51 being too young , at 56 i think its just about right.Kids settled , house paid . 40k pension . However its the same old story , can't live with work / live without work.
 
cloud7 said:
However its the same old story , can't live with work / live without work.
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You can quickly forget about work - even if your job was of a type that was your main reason for being. Losing the responsibility is key - like Ken Mc above I went half time for 2 years which was good for adjusting to not having the responsibility that came with the full time job. Then did another 2 years freelance in similar area before realised that work was no longer a necessity.
 
My Dad died at the age of 66, and all the plans he and my Mum had made for their retirement went undone. That was at the back of my mind when I was offered early retirement at the age of 59; that coupled with the thought that I would be making way for a younger member of staff, and that I was beginning to find the continual moving staircase of keeping up with the latest software developments harder.

I had hoped to be able to do contract or part-time work, but it simply hasn't happened; the recession hasn't helped in that regard! Finance-wise, I'm probably about the same as I was before retiring - much diminished income, but also much diminished outgoings - no more mortgage!
 
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