When do you plan to retire?

[deebyhi]

Just thinking... I'm 40 and the thought of this job full time for another, what... 20-30 years is filling me with horror.

We have a small mortgage as we've only had one house (about £150k left).

I pay the minimum into my pension.

I have three young kids.

What's everyone's plan? What should I be doing now? Clearing debt? Overpaying mortgage? We do have a credit card that we are paying off (few thousand).

The thought of doing my job at 70... it just can't happen haha

Mid-40s. I still have a final salary pension, a rare beast now 😱. I won't draw my state pension until 68 😭 but I plan to retire a bit after 60. There's not much difference in the amount between 60 and 65. Good lump sum too.

We are going at 55. Without a doubt.
I can get most of my NHS pension plus lump sum penalty free then, and I invested an inheritance several years ago for this very purpose.
I've also got my 35 years NI contributions in already.
2.5 years to go.

Planning to die at my desk

We moved heaven and earth to pay mortgage off by 50. Tbh I wish I'd been a bit more balanced.
We are now putting 20k a year into pensions at 56 and 57. We should have £200k at 60 between us. If we make it to 67, we will have £40k pa using my private pension plus state. Trying to work out if we can fund 60 to 67!

I’m 50 and plan to totally up my career for the next 10 years and then take a view as to whether to carry on full time or do 5 years part time. My mortgage is already paid off and I have a range of pensions and significant investments. I could retire today but have no interest at all in even considering it

Me too. I have worked for 25 years ( mostly ft) with only breaks for maternity leave. NHS "old style" pension. Going at 55 will give me £33K/ year plus the lump sum. I will wait till both DCs are through Uni. Too many people I know have had cancer diagnoses in their late 50's early 60's. DH had DC quite young, I would like to travel while still fit. Going at 57 on current plans.

I am 48

Retired at 51. Mainly thanks to inheritance. Just as well. My memory is terrible and so is my eye sight. Spend the days bumbling about watching documentaries, growing plants/veggies and entertaining his furry majesty. No mortgage obviously. I'm a real homebody so don't spend alot apart from essential bills etc. Apart from my food bill which is bloody astronomical and needs serious work done on.

Planning to work until 67, unfortunately. I say unfortunately but I work part-time in a proper job plus extra stuff. So I'll probably drop the stuff before then and continue part-time. I don't have a private pension, though. 😥

I am 38 and plan to pay off my mortgage next year when my fixed rate finishes. Then I will concentrate on saving so can retire as early as possible. I think the earliest can get LGPS is 55

70! Unless ill health

If you feel like that at 40 you should aim to change your job. I retrained in my late 40s as I didn't want to be doing my job for another 20 years. I now work freelance and I'm in my late 50s but have no plans to retire. I earn much less than I used to but I have more than enough and I love my job. Providing my health remains good I won't be thinking about retirement until I get my state pension at 67.

I'm telling myself 55 (44 now). Hoping that by then we will have paid off the mortgage and I can either take a break or reduce hours/responsibility. I'm in the higher tax band and do salary sacrifice for my pension to take me to the lower bracket. This should give my pension a big boost.

I don't. My family keep dying before they get there or soon after, it's bloody tragic.

Upside is I don't work anyway, although I'm looking at starting my own business so that'll be fun!

I have an nhs pension which I doubt will be much more as I’m trying to get out…. 18 years ish. I can take part at 60 then rest at 67/8 there has been changes due to the judgement last year.

The mortgage is being aimed and overpaid for asap by 55 latest. We have no other debt.

im hoping to go part time then until I can retire which . No kids so no uni or help towards that!

I'm the same age as you OP, with similar left on my mortgage. It will (hopefully) be paid off when I'm 65. But the way things are, I think I will be working forever.
I've actually just left my demanding job as I realised I can't do it forever and hate it. I'm looking for less stressful roles and hopefully can continue those indefinitely.

I’ve always earned just enough to live on. In fact not even enough really. I’ve never been able to afford to voluntarily put money into a pension. I need that money to buy food today!

It’s been exacerbated by modern employment practises. My employer did everything possible to avoid having to pay pension contributions, or sick pay or maternity or anything else. At one point they ended our contracts then hired us back through an agency as “self employed” doing the same job. This seems to be a standard trick for greedy employers and I have no idea why the government hasn’t cracked down on it!

I’ve paid the absolute minimum contribution ever since private pensions became compulsory. I have enough in my pension to pay out perhaps a £2k lump sum as a one-off. Certainly not enough to live on. So I’ll be working till state pension age unless I develop a health condition that makes me unable to work and therefore eligible for benefits.

If the government wants people to be able to retire and support themselves they need to focus on eradicating shoddy employment practises, starting with zero hour contracts and false self employment. Everyone should earn enough to pay into a decent pension and employers shouldn’t be able to wriggle out of contributing.

we dont have a mortgage, we rent from ha
so i have no idea how we will manage
i imagine i have 9 more years of working until i am 67, although i could take a lump sum at 60 and retire and return if agreed
dh already retired and cant imagine what his health will be like in 9 years.

I was hoping 58, but in reality it'll be 60.

When I was in my 20s I worked for a company that offered a really good final salary pension (didn't even know what that was then), and the chap I sat next to was in his 50s and encouraged me to pay extra into it, for some reason I took his advice and did.

Add that to the fact I started paying in between 300 to 400 into a private pension in my early 40s now means I'll be in a position to pay off my mortgage with the lump sum, and retire on a decent amount. If I could find the ex colleague I'd buy him a large drink, his words of wisdom have set me in good stead

yes I’m in Lgps but they reduce its value by 4% a year (so by nearly half if you go at 55 rather than 67) unfortunately. Not like the NHS it seems when you can take it in full?

I'm 36. Married with 2 kids (16 and 7). Joint household income of £130k. Mortgage of £180k (approx 35% of house value) with 12 years left- we overpay. I have a good local government pension scheme I've been in for 13 years.

I plan to go part time (3 days) at 50 and retire at 60 but not claim my pension until 67. The plan is that we would sell the family home, move to somewhere smaller and more rural and live off the savings and house equity for a while until pensions kick in without reduction.

However, I'm not naive. The plan could change with different life events- inheritance if we lost our parents sooner than we'd hope, illness, divorce, redundancy... I try to live in the present although it helps that DH and I both have jobs we enjoy.

do some research into how much you need to retire. It’s more than you think….you need some money for things like house repairs, new car etc when no income comin in. The telegraph has some good info on this. And put a plan together. See a financial adviser about pension and savings. You might decide to get a better paid job, or more fulfilling job you can do for longer.

im 55 and if I stay in my current job till 60 I get a decent pension. We also have savings and the mortgage should be paid off in 3 years time (we remortgaged on a low fixed rate before it went bonkers…very lucky).

husband has private and occupational pensions, he started younger than I did.

we sat down and did the maths.I don’t particularly like working but I’m going to drop a day a week, then 2 to make it more bearable. Dh loves working and will probably stay in work till 64 or so.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/how-you-can-become-pension-millionaire/

In 5 years. If all goes to plan we will have mortgage paid off, enough savings to get to 57 and enough private pension from then (plus state and a DB pension from 67).

I’m cautious about giving everything up though- I’d like to do some writing and volunteering.

I am early 40s now and think retirment in my late 60s at the earliest. I have some decent private pensions but my family live long and in good health (all grandparents lived til their 90s and my dad is still fit and working at 75).

I plan to taper work in my 60s and and then look at consultancy and part time work.

Around 60 we think, DH will then be 64.

That's in 8-10 years.

We will have our mortgage repaid next year but then DD will start uni. That means another 3-4 years financial help as she will only get the minimum loan.

We severely overpay the mortgage and also pay into a private pension pot to supplement the work pension. All funds we have extra after DD is taken care off will go to more pension saving.

When I turned 40 I really thought retiring at state pension age is normal. But now after several years of struggle with DD's mental health and subsequent ASD diagnosis, health issues through stress, I really want to enjoy some time before my own old age hits me.