Retirement

[LadyInBed]

Of course with current annuity rates, to get an annuity pension of £20K for a couple at 55 (index linked) needs a pot of pretty much £1,000,000.

It is all very depressing

When I was made redundant in 95 (when I took my first 6 month holiday) then started contracting, I decided not to put money into a private pension but to save and invest, as I didn't like the idea of being beholding to some company or other to buy an annuity.

Looks like the Government has come round to my way of thinking :ambivalence:

 

[Uricanejack]

I'd like to pass on something important I learned about retirement, by observation.

As a photographer for BAe one of my less glamorous tasks was photgraphing retirement parties in the subsidised social club on the airfield; less glamorous than poncing about in flying gear, but a privelege.

Among the colleagues and usually friends I photographed were Ray Grayston, a Flight Engineer on the Dams Raid and member of the Caterpillar Club for baling out of a stricken Lancaster on a later trip.

Frank Smith, blind in one eye after his tank was blown from under him in the desert.

Dennis Warren, one of the design team on the Fairey Delta 2 ' Faster Than The Sun ' project, first aircraft to sustain 1,000mph.

I photographed the handshakes, presentations and goodbyes to these and a great many other really good people, and I quickly learned they fell into two categories;

When asked ' What are you going to do, Fred ? '

If they answered ' I've got this to build, that to restore, then we're off abroad, thenwhen we come back...' they went on forever, my Father is an example, at 90 he's fitter than me and helping get ready for launching my boat ( which he originally built ).

When asked and the reply was ' I'm going to put my bloody feet up for a change, I've worked hard all my life ' - no matter that being true and being great people, they were usually dead before my prints reached them.

This comment strikes me.

I was looking up some old colleagues a while back and saddened by the number who retired and just didn't,the last long. It seams to be a common thing.
To some extent there is an element of luck. To another its life style. The work hard play hard life often ended short. With all sorts of health problems far to soon.
I know smokers and heavy drinkers who lived into there 90s not many but a couple. I know active fit 40 yr Olds who dropped suddenly or got the big C.

My dad passed away at 67 my mother in law also at 67. My mom is still going in her late 70s she is like the energizer bunny retired 20 years ago but always busy. My father in law is in his mid 80s I think his hobie is going to funerals every time I see him he tells me who has died.
A retired batailion chief from the city fire department over 20 years ago most of his pals have gone
When I visit he is likely to be up on his roof fixing it. He is always doing something.

I think you are right the key to a good retirement is stay active. With a healthy dose of luck.

Personaly I stay active if not fit and healthy. Hope it lasts long but expect it won't. I dealt with the big C when I. Was in my mid 30 s. I got lucky really I beat it and am still going.
Spent my savings on a nice boat when I hit 50. Stupid decision financial. Changed my job from a big shot to no so big.bwith a lot more fee time.
I'm going sailing now while I can. Not retiring just yet I like what I do. I just want more time to do things and go places on my terms when I feel like it.
Fortunately I can be financial foolish. A life smart. You can't take it with you.
I keep kind of figured I past my due date and it's all a bonus. In the end the only real important thing was being able to take my kids and enjoy it with them while they grew up.

Don,the put it of till tomorrow it might never come. And time is to short to let it slip by doing nothing.

 

[duncan99210]

Been reading this thread and thinking about how I faced retirement: it was with glee. OK, I didn't get the option as regards leaving the army, your sell by date is fixed at 55. But that knowledge was there from the start, so we planned ahead. The sums said that the pension was enough to live on, so why work any longer? Savings and gratuity were enough to buy the boat, so why stay still any longer? Shortly after my last working day we sailed south until the butter melted, turned left into the Med and we're still here five years later.

I can't get my head round the folks who say that they need to work to give them a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I get up to do the jobs on the boat that need doing, or to move to our next destination, or go ashore to do the shopping, or just to sit in the cockpit and watch the world go by. Between the demands of keeping the boat up to scratch, getting to where we want to be and meeting the requirements of visitors, there is more than enought to prevent any hint of boredom. And we sit here in Crete with a group of like minded folk with a busier social life than I've had for years.

I cheerfully admit the life isn't for everyone but I look at my parents retirement as another example. My Dad retired at about the same age as I did. He also didn't work again but found life to be full of challenge and enjoyment, as did my mother. They were busier in retirement than when Dad was working and enjoyed themselves to the full for over 30 years.

So, if you have the money, why wouldn't you take control of your life and do what you want to do when you want to do it and stop dancing to the tune of others, be they employers or customers? Seize the day and take back your life. Enjoy.

 

[dslittle]

Been reading this thread and thinking about how I faced retirement: it was with glee. OK, I didn't get the option as regards leaving the army, your sell by date is fixed at 55. But that knowledge was there from the start, so we planned ahead. The sums said that the pension was enough to live on, so why work any longer? Savings and gratuity were enough to buy the boat, so why stay still any longer? Shortly after my last working day we sailed south until the butter melted, turned left into the Med and we're still here five years later.

I can't get my head round the folks who say that they need to work to give them a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I get up to do the jobs on the boat that need doing, or to move to our next destination, or go ashore to do the shopping, or just to sit in the cockpit and watch the world go by. Between the demands of keeping the boat up to scratch, getting to where we want to be and meeting the requirements of visitors, there is more than enought to prevent any hint of boredom. And we sit here in Crete with a group of like minded folk with a busier social life than I've had for years.

I cheerfully admit the life isn't for everyone but I look at my parents retirement as another example. My Dad retired at about the same age as I did. He also didn't work again but found life to be full of challenge and enjoyment, as did my mother. They were busier in retirement than when Dad was working and enjoyed themselves to the full for over 30 years.

So, if you have the money, why wouldn't you take control of your life and do what you want to do when you want to do it and stop dancing to the tune of others, be they employers or customers? Seize the day and take back your life. Enjoy.

My sentiments exactly. Five years down the line, I don't know where I got the time to go to work. VERY occasionally, I go to leaving do's. Generally there are two groups of people there - the harassed looking ones saying 'what job have you got now?' and the chilled out ones saying 'isn't retirement great?'. I think the ones that are still working ten hours a day have a little bit more money than me!!!
Oh, and reading threads like this take up some of my busy retirement...

 

[bedouin]

This thread is beginning to demonstrate the great pensions divide. Those who were able to build their pension pot and retire before the worst ravages of Gordon Brown seem to be relatively comfortably off, whereas those still working are facing an uphill battle to achieve the same level of retirement income.

Since 2000 annuity rates have halved, and GB's stealth pension tax has stolen £100bn from our pension pots. In spite of saving very hard retirement does not seem to be getting much closer for a lot of us.

 

[cloud7]

This thread is beginning to demonstrate the great pensions divide. Those who were able to build their pension pot and retire before the worst ravages of Gordon Brown seem to be relatively comfortably off, whereas those still working are facing an uphill battle to achieve the same level of retirement income.

Since 2000 annuity rates have halved, and GB's stealth pension tax has stolen £100bn from our pension pots. In spite of saving very hard retirement does not seem to be getting much closer for a lot of us.

+1

 

[Leif-J]

Very interesting thread. Demonstrates how different we all are.
My wife and I will stop working in one month, we are both turning 60 later this year, and our plan is to cast off on June 1 for a long(ish) journey.
Many of the thoughts expressed in this thread are similar to ours, and for us it is the realization of a dream we have nourished for quite some time. First time we put words to it was on our way back from a six weeks sailing vacation 13 years ago.
At this stage we are of course not able to share any experience, but our expectations are, that we will be able to do well with a considerably lower level of expenses, than what we have been used to. But again this is a very individual thing. We do not need (or even wish) to go out dining every night. We will have lower costs for transportation, our mooring cocts at home are gone, the loads of money we have put into fitting our boat out are hopefully not an ongoing cost etc.
And if we finally find out that long time and distance cruising is not what we want to do for the rest of our days, we have lots of other activities waiting for the appropriate time.
So we are confidently looking into the future and are firmly decided to make the best of it for as long as we have the Health to go along.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts everybody.

 

[Seajet]

Leif,

I hope you realise how lucky you are that your SWMBO shares the same dreams.

Unless I trade mine in - or get traded in - I'll be alone; still bl**dy well going though !

 

[gordmac]

Interesting comments. I used to work away from home and took a redundancy deal a few years ago (too young to get early retirement deal) and moved home permanently. I knew it cost quite a lot to work away but I was quite shocked to discover working was actually costing me more than £1K a month from my income.
I make a living with bits and pieces and I would say £1K a month is enough for a person to get by on including running a car and having a boat, not living well but living ok. If you have more money you can always find something "essential" to spend it on but each person needs to balance the benefits of those "essentials" against the time and grief needed to make the money. That balance will give you the idea of when to retire, I can't yet as I am too young to get my pension!

 

[Capt Popeye]

Just like to say that the recent treads on here make a lot of sense to those approaching retiring from regular employment.

Although I would suggest that as well as remaining active tis important to remain 'involved', in family, interests, local goings on etc, as depending upon the 'health card' dealt one, active just might not be possible, but 'involved' might be essential to as good a health as you might get.

Oh, and having retired from my small business some seven years ago, apart from my small 'personal' savings pot, that was transformed into an Annuity (just before the big decline), I had the fortune to be employed by Govt for a good bit of working life so had a Civil Service pension or two, I would suggest that that was better than a personal saving plan

 

[Leif-J]

Leif,

I hope you realise how lucky you are that your SWMBO shares the same dreams.

Unless I trade mine in - or get traded in - I'll be alone; still bl**dy well going though !

Very, very well aware of that, and I am not going to trade her in for anybody/thing!
And I also do not miss any opportunity to tell her.

 

[interloper]

I feel sorry for anyone who can't think of anything better to do with their life than go into work. That being said, my daughter won't graduate from college until I'm 68. My plan for retiring before then involves winning the lottery.

 

[PhillM]

I feel sorry for anyone who can't think of anything better to do with their life than go into work. That being said, my daughter won't graduate from college until I'm 68. My plan for retiring before then involves winning the lottery.

"Find a job you love, you’ll never work again" Winston Churchill

 

[AntarcticPilot]

"Find a job you love, you’ll never work again" Winston Churchill

Best advice there is. I worry a lot about youngsters who make educational choices on the basis of what pays well; I advise that they should consider what they want to spend the rest of their life doing. Noteworthy that Vicars come top of the job satisfaction survey recently reported on the BBC! Vicars are notoriously badly paid, but of course, "the benefits are out of this world"

 

[bedouin]

I feel sorry for anyone who can't think of anything better to do with their life than go into work. That being said, my daughter won't graduate from college until I'm 68. My plan for retiring before then involves winning the lottery.

And I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't find their job fulfilling

Certainly my "retirement" plans are more to do with working less and being more selective in the projects I undertake rather than giving up working all together.

 

[KellysEye]

I retired at 50 to go ocean sailing we lived on the rent from renting a house and flat. I took my private pension at 65. Both of us left highly paid jobs so we didn't need to work when we got back. We also had a couple of young friends die young and that's why we decided to go.

 

[mjcoon]

... Noteworthy that Vicars come top of the job satisfaction survey recently reported on the BBC! Vicars are notoriously badly paid, but of course, "the benefits are out of this world"

Hardly surprising; fully logical! Vicars "feel the calling" (by all accounts) and are rarely pushed or seduced into it by money, ambition etc. Hence satisfaction may not be guaranteed but is more likely...

Mike.

 

[interloper]

And I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't find their job fulfilling

Certainly my "retirement" plans are more to do with working less and being more selective in the projects I undertake rather than giving up working all together.

Don't get me wrong. I truly enjoy my job and feel fortunate to have it. I'm an engineer at a NASA research center. The people are great and the work is fascinating; however, there is a long list of things I would like to do that I won't have time to do until I retire.

 

[rwoofer]

This thread is beginning to demonstrate the great pensions divide. Those who were able to build their pension pot and retire before the worst ravages of Gordon Brown seem to be relatively comfortably off, whereas those still working are facing an uphill battle to achieve the same level of retirement income.

Since 2000 annuity rates have halved, and GB's stealth pension tax has stolen £100bn from our pension pots. In spite of saving very hard retirement does not seem to be getting much closer for a lot of us.

+2. I've always been a big saver and been buying Isas since they came up and paying into defined contribution schemes often with AVCs. Despite that it is looking like I won't even get a quarter of the average salary I've earned over that time (let alone final salary). Some of my ISAs bought around '99, '00 still have yet to reach the amount I paid into them. A PEP I bought is now only worth a 10% of what I bought. All my best investments by far have been simple tracker funds. Overall my investments have probably done better than cash, but it is close call....

 

[blampied]

As a very rough estimate I guess a couple can live comfortably on £20K a year, assuming the house is paid for. That would cover housing, food, car and basic social/holiday/entertainment - how does that fit with other people's estimates - I have a niggling suspicion it may be a bit low.

Then you need to add on top the costs of the hobbies to take the place of the work - running a boat would add a lot on top of that...

Both Retired me 53, wife 50.
Both worked for same company that closed local office, last year.
We were both given early retirement pensions, the two pensions combined are not much more that the 20k.
Mortgage paid off but one child at uni.
Wife's brother 50 (2 years younger than me) died of heart attack near enough the same time as we were advised we were being made redundant, it focused our minds.
33 motor boat, we hope our small pensions and some savings will last us for at least 2 years.
Taking the boat through the French canals to the Med.
Will probably have to find some part time work when the savings run out in about 2 years time.
But who knows what will happen over the next 2 years?
Can we stretch the 2 years out to 14 years when the state pension kicks in?