My favourite thread, where people talk of the fabled sun kissed uplands where work stress doesn't exist and we get to ride our bikes and have fun every single day.
Sun is shining today, fannying about with motorbikes this morning while Mrs Kilo went hill walking. Met her in the village later picked up sandwiches and went to the beach where she swam. Back home, did f all this afternoon, then out on bike to evening class. Home now, beer and pizza time. Might fire up the mini-digger tomorrow and mess around with that. Does that work for you 😉
Rode my bike today - had beer and pizza too. Swimming and riding tomorrow, Wednesday er riding, Thursday Swimming and er riding, Friday er riding- Saturday Park run! No work stress. Went out with some ex colleagues on Saturday - Bollox to all that....
Back to that endowment policy. Most endowment policies are invested very conservatively and I would be surprised if it lost the amount of value you fear. And it should be capital gains tax free if cashed out.
mean anthropic has annual recurring revenues of 30bn - that's real money... people paying them
Not really, ARR is a forward projection of a selected month’s revenue. Easily manipulated by picking a great month to x12 from. Easily wrong as it doesn’t count account attrition. and revenue is easily burned by costs and taxes leading to smaller profits or even losses.
I have decided to to take early retirement from April next year. I will be 55 by then. Worked out a finance plan with my IFA (one of the good guys) which is enough to keep us comfortable. We don't have extravagant lifestyles just now so it should be easy enough to maintain a sensible spending plan.
It is less than 200 working days until the date. I still enjoy being effective in my job but I don't just have motivation to work anymore. Now my first thought on waking is "One less day" 😁.
I joined the Early Retirement UK FB group a few months ago. It is largely extremely informative and helpful, though as is the norm a fair share of numpty questions and willy waving. It seems to be well moderated though.
We are into our 15th month of retirement and loving every minute of it.
Touring Europe again in the camper with the mountain bikes. Not spending much money but making memories riding and hiking in places we wouldn't have had time for when working.
Salad and fruit cost cents and we are virtually self sufficient in the van. Campsites are very cheap.
Only thing spoiling it is having to comply with the 90 days in 180.
For anyone not sure my advice is go for it before it's too late.
I have decided to to take early retirement from April next year. I will be 55 by then.
Well done! Retire early while you still can to enjoy the world.
My friend back home just did the same few years ago and enjoying every minute of it.
Hopefully I will strike the lottery jackpot to retire instantly, wait, hang on I need to buy the lottery ticket first. 🤣
Two single ladies we have spoken to who have nice houses and holidays reckon you need £30000.
Does that seem realistic?
After a year or so in the wind down phase, working three days a week (240hours a quarter contractually) I’ve now realised I’m getting paid part time money for full time grief and hassle so I’ve fully resigned. Last working day should be 24th of July. Seeing my pensions man this week and the models we have so far should see Mrs Rock and I with a decent enough monthly pot and a big holiday buffer fund.
A period of reflection really, and thinking that I left school at 15 and have worked ever since, 40 years on the treadmill is a decent stint.
you need £30000.
Does that seem realistic?
"it depends" is always the answer. Do you want to pay £££ to lease a shiny new car or have a billion TV channels that you never watch, or does a bike ride with coffee and cake give you enough satisfaction? Many will be comfortable with less than 30k, others will want more. (also kids, mortgages etc etc)
Two single ladies we have spoken to who have nice houses and holidays reckon you need £30000.
Does that seem realistic?
Net or gross? Income or expenditure? Early, mid, or late in retirement? What kind of lifestyle? As @thepurist says, it depends.
https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement. Some friends consider this excessive. Others not so much.
I'll probably give it another 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years (60 or 62) as these seem to be a good breakpoint for my pension. Not yet ready to go at 56 but wave a severance package at me and I would. MrsF just gone back to 4 days having had a couple of years off (sorting MIL's affairs etc plus a really bad employer - ended up with a settlement). I could consider 4 days but I'll end up doing the same work. Friday's aren't too bad as I WFH. I still have an adult child at home. One moved out last year.
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement.
Just "ok"? We're perfectly happy with half that.
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement.
Just "ok"? We're perfectly happy with half that.
we are doing ok on a quarter of that.................. #lesscashmoretime
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement.
Just "ok"? We're perfectly happy with half that.
we are doing ok on a quarter of that.................. #lesscashmoretime
Good to hear.
SO has a DB pension that they started taking about 5 years ago that makes the range achievable. Were it not for some surprises this year I expect we’d both be retired by now. Maybe.
Edit. I imagine our expenditure is excessive by many measures. But I suppose that’s a the question at the core of the thread.
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement.
Just "ok"? We're perfectly happy with half that.
I just can't think of how I'd spend that much money. I mean, I suppose it would be possible to think up ways if I had to, but I can't imagine it would really bring me that much extra enjoyment over my current lifestyle which already allows me to do whatever I want, whenever I want.
enjoyment over my current lifestyle which already allows me to do whatever I want, whenever I want
I guess that's the critical thing to look at, this thread prompted a chat with Mrs T and I reckon at the optimistic level we might be around the fifty k mark annually with our combined pension income assuming no further tax changes etc, but then I know the house will need work on it to make it sellable, our kids will have university debts, and assuming we're vaguely healthy still in ten years time and the world hasn't blown itself to pieces some overseas travelling might be nice 👍 lots of unknowns at the mo, I hope I'm still on the bike by then that's the main thing for me. I'd rather be time rich and cash poor if I have good health. I'll report back in 2036.
my SO tells me that we would be ok with £60,000 - £90,000 net income in retirement.
Just "ok"? We're perfectly happy with half that.
I just can't think of how I'd spend that much money. I mean, I suppose it would be possible to think up ways if I had to, but I can't imagine it would really bring me that much extra enjoyment over my current lifestyle which already allows me to do whatever I want, whenever I want.
TBH, it’s always a funny one.
I always giggle when Mrs DoD says how it would be nice to win the lottery and I say “and what move to Spain and retire” :-).
I think where you retire also makes a big difference, I’d probably like to spend life between Spain and the U.K. but tbh it’s involved and there’s just more to ride on the doorstep here and toys like Quads/Motorcycles are more pleasant to play with here and the playtime windows longer due to climate.
With regards to £60/90k what I’ve seen with parents and in laws is once they are less active all that happens is that money just builds up in the bank and brings no real enjoyment other than knowing they can cover the bills.
This then gets recklessly blown by the kids (well 60 year old kids) as it’s easy to spend money you’ve not slaved over.
Moving to Spain was oddly part of my retirement plan,as had family here and holidayed here for years so I’d bought property way in advance and before Brexit and Airbnb lets were a thing.
Brexit did make me push forward on the timeline and the requirements were much lower for me and I kept the ability to work.
I’d probably say I’d hedged bets on getting a property in Spain early as opposed to having some well thought out retirement plan and had a few options.
I’d bought before the golf course had opened and universal world was announced(then the golf course shut and universal world didn’t ) so my prices were good and exchange rate was good.
IMHO I think retirement planning is piling up options as opposed to a strategic plan or end target, there’s too many variables in life to treat it wholly as a financial thing.
Obviously there’s a certain amount of having the money to set these options up but TBH that’s retirement for you, it’s always going to revolve around the spondoolies and whether you own a property so live rent free.
I suppose it’s why these threads always seem willy waving because they are a money thing as they can’t be anything else.
Although I still think doing up a sensible place in Spain if your capable isn’t the worst idea and it gives you the dream to carry on the usual day to day and if you drop dead before retirement, you’ve had that dream to motivate you thru life so it’s a win win.
IMHO Money for moneys sake seems a boring thing to look forward in retirement,where a dream is worth so much more.
(hopefully I’m not waving my willy 🙂 as that’s not the intent of my rant)
where a dream is worth so much more.
+1 and living that dream too when retirement comes, which for me at least means spending more time being active outdoors, so my 'investment' now is in trying to focus on staying reasonably fit, watching my weight, core strength etc, I don't want to get to 66 or whatever and find my body can't do what I want it to do!
I guess this is kind of related to early retirement.
Has anyone been watching Paul Aston's youtube videos about buying and restoring a farm in Northern Italy? I had a look and there are a lot of very cheap looking houses (relatively) half and hour to an hour inland from the Ligurian coast.
Retiring within an hour's drive of Finale Ligure is very appealing.
https://www.youtube.com/@astonmtb2428/videos
where a dream is worth so much more.
+1 and living that dream too when retirement comes, which for me at least means spending more time being active outdoors, so my 'investment' now is in trying to focus on staying reasonably fit, watching my weight, core strength etc, I don't want to get to 66 or whatever and find my body can't do what I want it to do!
Definitely, there’s no much fun in a retirement when you can’t do the things you want.
I’m carrying more weight than I’d like but a 10kg loss will do me and I can achieve it but if I’d let my weight creep further then then it would have been a hard and long come back requiring a lot more time and the problem with that is dieting/exercising for a year or two is hard so I think you’ve got to thinking of that as well.
Oddly a set of dumb-bells turned up in the communal bin and I may have been seen with my legs in the air whilst balancing wedged between the lid but they cleaned up ok with some chrome polish and oil 🙂 so I can see an outside gym taking shape in the future 🙂
