DH and I are hoping to semi retire next year. I’m 58 and DH is 57. We are now mortgage free and have paid off all our debts. DH has started some whizzy spreadsheet which is beyond me but on paper it looks as though semi retirement is feasible but I find it very hard to trust an excel spreadsheet!
I have a small pension pot of around £110,000 which is currently in a SIPP. We plan to take out a £25,000 tax free lump sum as we would like to redo our kitchen so the house would then be retirement ready - ie will only require general maintenance and repairs. I may then drawdown on my remaining pension but this will depend on how much I earn part time. My DH has been in receipt of a good pension from his previous job for the last 5 years ago. He now works full time but in a different sector as he felt he was too young to semi retire 5 years ago. He has asked his current employer to reduce his hours to 3 days per week and they are very open to this. We should both get full state pensions when we reach our state pension age of 67.
I just wondered if anyone else is considering or has already done this and wonder how you went about planning and preparing for it. We have looked at all our bills and have swapped a few suppliers to get better deals. We run two cars (and would like to continue doing this) but one is finance free and the other is a lease car which we may consider buying when the lease is up at the end of the year. I know that everyone’s idea of what a sensible yearly income in retirement/ semi retirement will be different but I would be so interested to hear other people’s stories.