To retire. Or not to retire. That is the question?

[C8RKH]

2 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

@C8RKHThe downside of you retiring is the rest of us here will no doubt have to put up with even more of your old tosh.

I've actually been posting less during my "retirement taster" as away from the computer as not working!

 

[USAndretti42]

10 hours ago, C8RKH said:

@Spinney - interesting re Brooklands. I was looking at doing the Marshalls training and then volunteering to help at Knockhill (get in to see the BTCC for free lol) and possibly other locations like Oulton Park (just a few miles from my mothers house).

Ubergruppenfuhrer Bibs can give some insight on this as he spent some time as a fully-trained marshall at Brands Hatch.  I don't know whether he got to see many races, though, as he had to concentrate on his bit of track.

[Colin P]

13 hours ago, Spinney said:
Importantly though, it filled the male banter gap in my life, so it is just one more thing to consider when thinking about retiring. 

You’re not allowed banter any more. It’s not D&I. It’ll just land you on a course, or worse. 

[Spinney]

22 minutes ago, Colin P said:

You’re not allowed banter any more. It’s not D&I. It’ll just land you on a course, or worse. 

Not when you own the company, it won’t. 😉😁

[Chillidoggy]

13 hours ago, USAndretti42 said:

Ubergruppenfuhrer Bibs can give some insight on this as he spent some time as a fully-trained marshall at Brands Hatch.  I don't know whether he got to see many races, though, as he had to concentrate on his bit of track.

 

Dunno about Bibs' experience, but I used to do some marshalling for the MGCC and MGOC years ago. I only ever saw one bit of the track, and the 'Runway Crossing' post at Silverstone ain't no fun when it's about 7 degrees and blowing old boots. If you take it seriously, it's not as glamorous as it sounds.

[Bibs]

Enjoyed it very much but ran out of time. I ended up as Pit Lane/Start Line which was much more interesting that the bank as there was always stuff to do

 

[C8RKH]

So I hit, for me personally, a very important financial and work milestone today that means despite what happens at work I can, if I choose to, retire at the end of January 2022 at the grand old age of 55!  I've been working and paying my way (taxes) for 39 years, so 40 years by the time I am 55, so it's been a long time coming.

It's lifted a huge pressure of my shoulders as I now know that if work decided to kick me out, then I have three months notice (which would take me to my 55th birthday) and enough in the tank to not have to worry about paying the bills.  That's a massive reduction in stress so who knows, I may now rant a lot less and be less of a grumpy bugger! (but where would the fun be in that?)  Got a nice bottle of French red breathing to celebrate (even after Brexit I knew I'd still be able to get my beloved French reds....) and to cap it all, my nice new Black and Gold British, non EU, passport arrived this morning....

So as of now, I shift from working because I need to, I must do. To, working because I'm enjoying it.  Anyone pisses me off too much, I can just say "thanks and bye".

The only other time I felt like such a weight being lifted off me (well, apart from the "crushing" fetish nights  ) was when I finally managed to pay my mortgage off 6 years ago - an event that allowed me to buy my first, beloved, Lotus!

So, probably should have posted this in the "what made me happy thread". But maybe I'll post in there later on, about the French red I celebrated with 

This year I've been buying some tools in preparation for the retirement - so far that includes a belt sander, a bench saw, a mitre saw, a drill press, bench grinder, an impact wrench, a 6 ton log splitter, a nice vice, a router and quite a few other bits and bobs.  I've used these to experiment and make "cabinets" on wheels for my mitre saw (which folds away for a clean top), my bench saw with integrated guides, my drill press, and bench grinder, etc.  They all clip together too, all at the same height to form a "block" or line of cabinets that I can wheel around the garage, or join together for a nice flat bench etc.  I've also been making my own French Cleat system too, and am just starting to make the attachments for drill bits, screw bits, tools, storage etc. One thing I won't be, when i do actually retire, is bored!

[Chillidoggy]

Oh, bugger. That means you’ll be spending even more time on here.

[C8RKH]

2 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

Oh, bugger. That means you’ll be spending even more time on here.

Every cloud.....

[Chillidoggy]

12 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

Every cloud.....

......is a potential downpour.

[Kimbers]

Thats great news Andy.

I was talking to my friend who owns the local village shop. He's 60 and had a stroke last year. He still isn't 100% but he's better than he has been. 

We chewed the fat a little and came to the conclusion that the whole pension thing is a scam to keep us working and pay taxes, you genuinely don't need to, though you would need to change your lifestyle a little. Look at it this way. Your "Official" retirement age is 67 now. Even if  you hit the national male expectancy of 81.7 years thats only 14 years of retirement. £150 a week, £7800 a year, £109,200 before you croak in State Pension. My National Insurance last month alone was £526, . I have worked virtually all the time since I was 18 and paid in roughly £250,000 in NI as I have done 2 pretty much since I started working. So I will get nowhere back as much as I paid in (Yes I understand I will need the NHS more and more as I get older). There is of course no guarantee I won't croak at 72 like my best friends parents or have a stroke like John at 60!

But my real bugbear is Private pensions. We are always told "You must save as much as possible for your retirement". This is my issue. I currently have a poor pension as I had 4 young children and was the main bread winner and couldn't afford to pay for a pension. So I currently only have around £120,000 in my pension. My statement says, even if I carry on my income will be about £270 a month on retirement. I would have to live to 104 years old to even see my £120,000 investment back! Surely I would be better off retiring early and drawing a fixed amount out every month. Even at £500 a month I would have 20 years worth of money! Then if we downsize the house I could have at least another £150,000 to add to it so could easily draw £1500 a month for 20 years. 

So the plan is this. Downsize, buy a nice apartment of small Villa away from the coast somewhere hot and spend 6 months of the year there and 6 here. Draw part of my pension out every year and top it up whilst at home by doing a simple driving job like Taxi or working locally in a non stress part time job...... plus it helps Wendy has an NHS pension she can retire at 55 and her paintings sell for £1000 a time! 

[exeterjeep]

2 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

Oh, bugger. That means you’ll be spending even more time on here.

So @C8RKH, As your still young then you will not need to be queuing up for your pension or using a bus pass and waiting until the bus comes.

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, exeterjeep said:

So @C8RKH, As your still young then you will not need to be queuing up for your pension or using a bus pass and waiting until the bus comes.

Wife just got her bus pass!  Saved us a tenner last weekend as we used the park and ride to get into Edinburgh!   Unfortunately, I need to wait another 5 years..... 

 

@Kimbers - you are spot on. It's not quite a con but the devil is in the detail.  Most of the pension advice you get will centre around two things 

1. Working out how much you need to live for xx years

2. Subliminal messaging around what a great tax haven your pension is and how any "unspent" funds can be passed on outside of inheritance tax - in other words, they want and encourage you to have a huge pot of money with the main goal if incentivising you to pass it on (and of course they'll be there to sell financial products to your kids at the time!!!).

I've built up my pension pot, but also, invested significantly in ISA's etc (any income I draw down from the ISA's is "tax exempt". Any income I draw down from my pension is taxable earnings so subject to tax after I have used up my personal allowance of around £12.5k per annum (so i intend to limit my pension drawdown to stay away from higher tax rates). The current UK pension would pay me £9500 pa, leaving me £3k of private pension "income" before I started paying tax and I'm still liable for the higher rates of tax depending on the income I draw down. My wife hasn't worked since we had kids put we "topped up" her NIC contributions so she will get a state pension.  So when we are both on the state pension we will get c. £19k a year between us with little outgoings.  Not too bad really and provides a solid foundation from when I hit 67! Going forwards my plan is to "legally" pay as little tax as possible once I am "retired".

In terms of income, well, I currently take home, thanks to being an employee on PAYE, 51% of my gross earnings. So the next mindset change is that I don't need to "earn" that same gross figure in retirement, I only need to earn 51% of it to have the same amount of cash each month.  But the reality is, I have worked out I actually only need to earn 30-40% of that gross as I will not be stashing loads into ISA's, my pension pot, travelling to work etc.  So basically, a third of my current gross income would give me the same standard of living as I have now.  Realising this was quite an eye opener to be honest.

So using conservative figures re future growth of my pension and ISA pots (4%) I have worked out I could take out c. 6% of my total "investments" (so a net 2% pa draw out) and I'd have enough to live until I was 91 (not likely to get there as burned the candle at both ends too much), accounting for modest inflation of 2-3% pa.  I'd take my 25% tax free pension up front, and load that at the maximum of £40k per annum into the ISA's (£20k into my ISA and same into my wife's) until it had been cleaned out which would be topping up the ISA's as i was drawing the income from them.  All this effectively means I would not need to touch my remaining pension pot for 9 years - at that time I would be 64 (which during that time the untouched pension pot would have  grown at c. 4% a year for those 9 years so around a 41% compound growth - meaning I would have more than recovered the tax free lump sum when I actually started to income draw down from my pension).

My intent is to use all the savings and pension I can, factoring on me living to 85, my wife 90.  Frankly, my needs after that would be minimal and NOT having savings means the state would need to provide lol. 

I'm not bothered about leaving my kids a huge inheritance so i intend to use up my ISA and pension pots to enjoy our retirement.  I have given each of them a substantial deposit for their first homes, bought their cars, and will continue to help them financially whilst I continue to work.  I'd rather give it to them when they need the help, rather than in 10, 20, 30 years time.  they'd still get the house and anything else left over which would be a considerable sum in itself for each of them at that point.

So @Kimbers, chances are you don't need as much as you might think.  Do the maths. Do the planning. And do what is right for you and Wendy. Work is great. But it is a means to an end, not the meaning of life. It's taken me 35 years to work that out. I'm a slow learner.

[exeterjeep]

20 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I have used up my personal allowance of around £12.5k per annum. The current UK pension would pay me £9500 pa, leaving me £3k of private pension "income" before I started paying tax

I think that you can also earn 1k tax free of interest for a basic rate taxpayer and £500 for the next band, and the top bank there is no additional interest allowed (this is on top of interest from ISA's)

[oneshot]

I retired at 55 (6 years ago). I had a private pension (which the employer paid into as well as me). I took my 25% but haven't touched the rest since. I have recently had a statement and it is increasing at around 10% per annum. I will eventually start taking a pension but there is no need at the moment.

[C8RKH]

That's great news @oneshot and good for you for taking the plunge.  I intend to work until I stop enjoying it or they piss me off enough so I say "bye".  Have you "enjoyed" your retirement to date and any hints or tips on what to do, not to do, to make sure it stays enjoyable?

[Bibs]

Cats. Lots of cats

 

[oneshot]

46 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

That's great news @oneshot and good for you for taking the plunge.  I intend to work until I stop enjoying it or they piss me off enough so I say "bye".  Have you "enjoyed" your retirement to date and any hints or tips on what to do, not to do, to make sure it stays enjoyable?

We decided to buy a cattery! You have to have something to occupy your time otherwise it gets boring.

I was fortunate that I worked for a University and they offered a package for people to go - so I took the money and ran!

[C8RKH]

34 minutes ago, oneshot said:

We decided to buy a cattery!

Ah, so not so much a retirement, as a switch from working for someone else to working for yourself. (with all the options, flexibility etc that that entails).

 

[oneshot]

We employ someone to run the cattery during the week.