… and what is it? I’m quite interested in the process of how people are actively working toward an end goal based on retiring for work.

Two reasons – I’ve quite actively become interested in owning a proverbial “place in the sun”, but also finding a happy place once our work lives are over.

put what I can away, hope for the best, see what I inherit? work till my brain gives in then off to dignatas?

Currently my plan mikewsmith – same then but with no planned outcome.

I have a very simple plan, saving every penny I can, whilst I can. Max out pension and ISA allowances every year…

Inheritance wise, I have two brothers, who don’t have pensions, and 5 nephews (mainly why they don’t have pensions), so I expect my parents to leave their money to them rather than me.

put what I can away, hope for the best, see what I inherit? work till my brain gives in then off to dignatas?

This basically. I’ve also accepted I will never retire in the way that most of baby boomers have.

44 years old, mortgage £1350 an month which runs ’til i’m 66, no savings, no prospect of any inheritance as parents live in a rented flat.
Kids currently 7+10 so another 15+ years supporting them..

Retirement? – hahahaha!!

I was chatting to my Dad yesterday about his pensions (now retired), one of his had a guaranteed increase of 8% per year over it’s life. Paid out in full as well!

You won’t see the like of that ever again……..

Hopefully, we’ll be mortgage free by the time the kids go to uni, so we can help them out with the spare cash. After that, we want to go part time and spend long weekends walking, camping and cycling. So, not a retirement plan but a “work/ life balance” plan.

I have a very simple plan, saving every penny I can, whilst I can. Max out pension and ISA allowances every year…

I wouldn’t say every penny, but definitely saving for retirement and overpaying mortgage

Retiring at 55, in just under 5 years. Based on a mix of pension, investments and property.

Sold two properties recently so that pays off the mortgage on our home with the rest going into investments. I also have another property that I’ll sell when I do retire, again the income from that will be invested.

When I do retire I’ll then change my investments from growth to income.

My wife retired this year (teacher) so we also have her lump sum invested.

Plus over the next 5 years I’ll be saving hard.

A ‘place in the sun’ appeals, Pollensa in particular, but we’ll need to see what happens post brexit.

And I’ll add that we’re in a very fortunate position.

I’m paying into a not-as-good-as-I-signed-up-for Teacher’s Pension and so is my wife, though she’s only paying in at 0.7 of full time.

15 years left on our relatively small mortgage, which is also how long the is until our youngest theoretically finishes uni.

No hope of any substantial inheritance and anything that does come out way will probably be used to help our kids get on the first step of the housing ladder, which is a lot higher up than it was in 2000 when we bought our first house.

Public sector gold plated pension in 2 yrs time

Erm. Bascially just pension at the moment. But even that isn’t fantastic.
I’m paying about all I can afford at the moment & the company I work for makes a generous payment on top.

But, the predicted income from that isn’t going to be particularly amazing.

With a 2 year old daughter, a mortgage & my Wife not working for another couple of years, then there won’t be much in terms of savings or overpayments on the mortgage!
The mortgage has got about 18 years to run, I think. I’d like to overpay & get shot of it but with the low interest rates, I think I would be better off putting any ‘excess’ into the pension.

My wife’s dad died in 2008, 6 months after retiring aged 61. My dad died at the start of this year, 7 months after retiring aged 66.

I have no intention of working towards a retirement at those ages. I am currently looking at trying to drop days and work less. Ideally, find something that doesn’t feel like work.

34 here. No inheritance to look forward to, but maxing out my ISA allowance (all in low-cost index linked trackers) and putting in as much of my salary as required to keep me below 40% tax threshold as additional contributions to my civil service pension. No mortgage and very modest house owned by girlfriend.

My real plan is a win on the premium bonds.

As jonba above, my mum died less than two years after retirement, so there’s no way I’ll be working until 60, nevermind 68. I’m aiming to get to a point where I can expect c. £10k/yr passive income from stocks and shares (hopefully 40), and then packing in my civil service job and topping that up as necessary with the odd job here and there.

Needless to say, I don’t have a car on PCP or a phone on contract…

Plan A = win at least a million on the lottery
Plan B = blow all my money (inc. pension lump sum) on travelling around the world then top myself
Plan C = survive off a fairly meagre pension and become more and more of a burden on the NHS/relatives

Currently in the process of getting a financial adviser to sift through my pensions and look at the best option.

As for actual “retirement” I’m not sure that this is something I’ve really considered. Plan to work full time as long as possible then taper rather than quit completely.

My plan:

Will get a Piss poor pension if any so I am seriously looking at selling house car etc and buy a widebeam canal boat and live on that till I’m too old, frail or mad to carry on…. then I might just get drunk and fall into the canal and do everyone a favour.

Widebeam boat all fitted out should be under £100k (current prices) which will leave the same or more as equity from sale of house which I could live off topped up with said piss poor pension.

I’m quite looking forward to actually and would consider doing it earlier and just working part time or as and when I need to (freelance) until full retirement. I’m 44 and can’t get my head around another 20-25 years of this grind.

Boat living can be fairly cheap if you continually cruise and don’t pay fixed moorings. PV covered roof would mean free lights and a radio then some solid fuel for the stove, ditch the car for just a bike and spend my days fishing, walking dog, and pottering about on the boat…. the dream sounds bliss… reality maybe not so idyllic but I’ve nothing much to loose really.

1. Hit 60.
2. Jump off bridge.
3. Erm….profit?

taking decisions now like not building a massive extension we don’t need, not financing new cars etc.

minimising outgoings and making our house as energy efficient as possible (tricky when it was built in 1885).

living a good, balanced life now rather than flogging myself to pay for a dream of retirement. I enjoy my job now, I’m good at it and I get paid reasonably well. don’t see why i won’t enjoy it in another 20yrs time.

theres no prospect of myself of the other half retiring.

massive mortgage till im 67 (im 38 now) just had a little one to support.

Will wait till the little one has flown the nest then when i get to a point im loosing it go for a long walk somewhere.

soon to hit the big 40. been overpaying the mortgage for many years and while it’s gone now, it will return once we’ve extended the home.

every month I’m trying to balance:
– maxing ISA contributions for the wife and I
– topping up company pension contributions
– overpaying mortgage (when it come back)
– over pay the mortgage on a couple of BTLs
– enjoying life & not being a total scrooge

apart form the extension we’re about to embark on that we probably don’t need (just a strong want) we try to live a fairly frugal existence.
– pay cash or we can’t afford it (excl extension!)
– avoid ‘subscription payments’ where possible (sky, phones, Netflix, etc etc)
– think hard before frittering $ away on gadgets/gizmos we don’t really need
– focus on progressing at work…if I’m going to work I might as well try to climb the greasy pole and get paid better

Aim to be out of the game comfortably about 50-55 if all goes to plan.

My job, whilst great fun, will begin to take its toll as I approach retirement age. (Jet lag, nights out of bed, irregular meals). Fortunately it comes with a good DC pension scheme (company puts in 12% of salary, me 6%) and I have a RAF deferred pension from 60.

I have no intention of working past 61 (1 year after mortgage paid off) but no definite plans. I imagine walking dogs, riding bikes & helping with grandkids will fill most of it!

Plan:
Sell our house in Oxford for £££s
Buy a house in Barnoldswick for £s

Live on the proceeds plus the 3 fragmented pensions I have, and the 2 fragmented pensions my wife has.
We should be mortgage free by 45 so save, save, save after that and retire at 55 or 60.

Was speaking to an actuary about retirement generally. Stats for men show that if you retire at 65 you get ill and die quicker. if you carry on working and make it through 65-70 you live longer! Seeing more and more people working beyond 65 – some because they have to and some because they want to keep going. My ideal would be part time at 60 and keep going in a different and less stressful job (haven’t worked that bit out yet)

I’d be very cautious about this ‘place in the sun’ business. Since I took early retirement 3 years ago, our trips have been something like: Bratislava, Helsinki, Talinn, Malaga, Lisbon, Milan, Malaga, Seville, Milan, Marrakesh, London, Paris (got sun tanned there last weekend). None have been super expensive and I would hate to be tied down to one place and have money tied up in it too.
Bit of a toss up between paying down a mortgage and paying into pension funds/AVCs. I do feel sorry for the crap financial position many younger people are facing.

Top tip for an early retirement: look after a childless elderly relative esp if they have a house

Just saying like

I’d be very cautious about this ‘place in the sun’ business. Since I took early retirement 3 years ago, our trips have been something like: Bratislava, Helsinki, Talinn, Malaga, Lisbon, Milan, Malaga, Seville, Milan, Marrakesh, London, Paris (got sun tanned there last weekend). None have been super expensive and I would hate to be tied down to one place and have money tied up in it too.

Having a home somewhere sunny and going on other holidays aren’t mutually exclusive. We have a caravan in south west Scotland, we go there but still go on other holidays.

Other plans involve that job that will pay off all the bills

put what I can away, hope for the best, see what I inherit? work till my brain gives in then off to dignatas?

^^another vote for this I’m afraid.

Apart from I stand to inherit nothing and my brain appears to be knackered already. Therefore a casino visit might be in order

Quite a few years ago I looked at how much we were saving (dinkies on good incomes), how much we already had and worked out that another 5y would set us up for life. After the 5y we walked away from our increasingly dead-end (but still well paid) jobs and it’s turned out pretty much as hoped. Part-time work for fun and the occasional return to an office environment for a month or two is plenty to convince me I wouldn’t want to go back full time!

If you think about it, a traditional single earner family had one income for about 40y, so it’s not that outrageous that 2 incomes for 20y is enough earning too.

Probably not really an avenue open to a couple with one proper income and kids to bring up though.

I’m with BillMC I think. Goal is to perhaps rent on a long term basis wherever you fancy, whilst still living in the uk. So maybe 3 months in Mallorca in the spring, summer in uk, autumn somewhere sunny, winter somewhere snowy. Not all necessarily in the same year!

I’m thinking that we can be done proper working in 5 years time just before 50. After that it’s just about quality of life really. It’ll be interesting to see how much money you need to enjoy retirement without penny pinching too much. Wife is worried that we won’t be able to afford the very expensive holidays that she likes, my point is that hopefully she won’t feel that she needs them without the stress of work to escape from. And wouldn’t 3 months in Mallorca be better than 2 weeks in a posh hotel somewhere?

Pension HHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

I CAN BARELY AFFORD TO PUT PETROL IN MY CAR AFTER GETTING F***D BY THE OIL PRICE AND BREXIT.

That little rant aside, I was paying anything above inflation on my pay rises into the pension with the aim of switching to a contract role at some point in the hope that I could just be more and more picky over contracts as my career progressed (plenty of managers/consultants on 3-4 day weeks).

For actual retirement the plan was to hope the house price difference between the SE and everywhere else remains and move upto North Yorkshire. Not banking on the money from that to retire on, it’s just the backup.

31, the OH is currently bankrolling my half of the mortgage, no kids yet.

If you think about it, a traditional single earner family had one income for about 40y, so it’s not that outrageous that 2 incomes for 20y is enough earning too.

Yea………. That worked brilliantly whilst the babyboomers were happy building houses for themselves. As soon as they got their half acre in the subburbs with a view they went all NIMBY and blamed immigrants for the lack of housing.

Some economic growth (more jobs), more people could work, so households had two full time jobs, and competition in the undersupplied housing market sucked up all that extra money.

Some people say we squandered the north sea oil money, I think we squandered 50 years of economic growth on the boomers equity release retirement plans.

Father in Law has a holiday home somewhere nice. We’ve enjoyed visiting every year or two for the past decade or so, but have also worked out that the annual costs of keeping it (once it inevitably becomes our responsibility) would also pay for a nice long stay in an airbnb (or hotel or whatever) anywhere else in the world for plenty of holiday fun and variety.

(Though it could also be rented out, which he has always refused to consider.)

46 now but I always kind of expected to work in some form till I am at least 70, I’m hoping sweet Lady Death embraces me before Mr Pension Reality does.

Having paid off the mortgage and only sizable outgoing will be supporting one or maybe both the kids through Uni over the next few years, I’m attempting to slide into semi-retirement.

30 weeks working a year is all we need to pay the bills and live comfortably. As I’m freelance, part of the job is to find that work hopefully split between a few customers. Spend the rest of the time riding/doing other interesting stuff that’s not paid work.

Having hit 50 this year, it’s a firm decision not to ‘waste’ the next who knows how many years where I can be active and do what I’d rather be doing rather than working. Did okay with pensions and stuff so should be able to move from gradual to total in 10 years or so.

Not sure I’ve ever want to fully ‘retire’. Might change my mind tho – we’re only 3 months into the plan!

I wouldn’t rely too much on inheritance if your parents need extended period of residential care. £700+ per week will soon eat through savings and equity in property.

Personally, I’m on the right side of history and will get a reasonable pension at 60 (and another bit of a pension at 65 and a state pension at 67 as things stand). We also got our house pre the inflationary insanity of the last 15 years so mortgage paid off and been able to save and make some through investments.

What I’m doing is scaling back my working life to 60, I’ve seen to many people of my parents generation and colleagues (uncomfortably close to my age) plan for retirement and either die in harness or have plans completely derailed by ill health. So I’m doing my best to enjoy my life whilst I still can.

Just about to retire.

The civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67 is Retiring at 61 with a £1.8 million pension pot he will receive £85000 a year and lump sum of £245000
He’s permanent secretary for Department for Works and Pensions. His name is Sir Robert Devereux. Hope you all share this, shows what the establishment think of ordinary people who can work till they drop while tossers like him just pen push and ruin people’s lives.

#notme

Bit of a half arsed plan, as it seems a long way off at the moment (currently 36), but basically boils down to 3 key ingredients.
A) Don’t waste cash on frivolous stuff I don’t need
B) Use surplus from A) to pay off mortgage by mid 40’s
C) Once B) nearly complete figure out where to make investments

Some interesting reading. We’ve been looking at the “place in the sun” option (or possibly Wales). Ideally something that’ll pay its way as a rental then gives a little get away. The numbers seem to add up so it may be an option. Other than that we have a mix of paying off the mortgage, isa, BTL and traditional pension. Not enough yet but heading in the right direction. Still want to enjoy life now though as dying young(ish) is still an option