paulfromcamden
Baffled
State pension (in whatever form it exists) plus, say, £30k private pension. I guess a £1m pot would be needed to cover it. Not going to happen for most people.
Early retirement… who did it?
- Thread starter JTC
- Start date
State pension (in whatever form it exists) plus, say, £30k private pension. I guess a £1m pot would be needed to cover it. Not going to happen for most people.
PhilofCas
pfm Member
clivem2
pfm Member
Probably concerned about the 5 in 6.
Ponty
pfm Member
Circa 85% won’t be able to afford a moderate level of income in retirement.
Does that surprise you though? People have barely enough to keep afloat never mind piling loads into a pension or retirement plan.
clivem2
pfm Member
Yes….if a couple need £30k net of tax to achieve moderate…how many earn this when working?
Very few.
Ponty
pfm Member
Which is why it’s so important to start investing as young as possible, however little (particularly with the tax relief). The earlier you start, the less you need to put in (generally speaking). That £50 a month phone contract, £250+ a month PCP and money wasted on tat every month by someone in their 20’s could be a very decent sum by retirement age. Don’t get sucked in by consumerism and make compounding work for you, not against you.
Mynamemynaim
38yrs a Naim owner
So true
And how often do you see obese couples on TV with iPhones on the table and cigarettes in the hand saying....I can't afford to cloth the kids
And how often do you see obese couples on TV with iPhones on the table and cigarettes in the hand saying....I can't afford to cloth the kids
Ponty
pfm Member
The reality is, parents opening ISA’s for their kids and investing in something like SMT, EWI, PCT etc could, with a prevailing wind, already have their kids future retirement sorted. It’s a question of choices and time.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
We're probably midway between a 'moderate' and 'comfortable' pension income, but everything's so dependent on individuals' wants and needs that comparisons are a bit meaningless. Looking at the table PhilofCas posted above, we last had a new kitchen 25 years ago, and a new bathroom 20 years ago (though we had a new shower unit put in about two years ago). We've only ever owned one car, and went for a few years without one. I've no idea how much we spend on clothes, but I reckon it's in the low hundreds rather than the low thousands.
Darren L
Egalitarian
I'm two years older than you @JTC but I've no intention of retiring and to be honest no interest in retirement just yet. I think I would find it quite boring and I like working, in fact I love being outside working around people's houses.
My Dad retired when he was 53 after 28 years working for the NIE, he was lucky in a sense that he was of the generation of NIE staff that had the opportunity to join a superannuation scheme, this meant he got 1 & 1/2 times his last years salary as a lump sum and a 1/2 salary pension, he was a 1st engineer on shift work so a very good salary, he stayed retired for one year, basically to get the unemployment benefit he felt entitled too as he had never signed on but paid plenty in, he then worked for the next 22 years and only retired again whenever he had a heart attack, he now works every day in his garden but spends a fair bit of time looking after my niece and nephew, eating out and holidays, all with my Mum, she keeps him on his toes, lol
My Dad retired when he was 53 after 28 years working for the NIE, he was lucky in a sense that he was of the generation of NIE staff that had the opportunity to join a superannuation scheme, this meant he got 1 & 1/2 times his last years salary as a lump sum and a 1/2 salary pension, he was a 1st engineer on shift work so a very good salary, he stayed retired for one year, basically to get the unemployment benefit he felt entitled too as he had never signed on but paid plenty in, he then worked for the next 22 years and only retired again whenever he had a heart attack, he now works every day in his garden but spends a fair bit of time looking after my niece and nephew, eating out and holidays, all with my Mum, she keeps him on his toes, lol
raysablade
pfm Member
Partially retired last June at 59 and now doing my old job for 3 days a week rather than 5. Because there is no NI on the portion of my pension I'm drawing I take home more for 3 days a week than i did for 5. Could easily see me doing this for another 5 years. If they had refused to let me go down to 3 days I would have taken my whole pension and finished at 60.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Yes and no. I agree that it's super important to start early but I know folk who even in middle age are, through no real fault of their own, struggling to get by on minimum wage zero hours contracts. Pensions just aren't even on the radar when financial planning means working out how you're going to pay the rent this month.
I have reasonable, if modest, pension provision - but it's more through luck than because of the choices I made.
No boxes for hi Fi in the low/moderate/comfortable estimated expenses table? Needs revision, IMHO.
Seriously though, I am struck by the absence of any provision for medical expenses. Here in the US one could easily spend over $10k per annum on premiums, dental and medical expenses, etc after retirement.
Seriously though, I am struck by the absence of any provision for medical expenses. Here in the US one could easily spend over $10k per annum on premiums, dental and medical expenses, etc after retirement.