To ask when realistically your will retire?

[SleepDreamThinkHuge]

Do you think you can retire before 65?

And if you cannot retire before 65 do you think you will be able to work less hours (part time) topped up with your state pension and still afford life?

Anyone else think retirement will be a myth especially if you retire in the 2050s where the projection is that the retirement age will easily be 70 plus. The thought of people having to work at 70 is quite a sad sight.

Well, I turn 65 in October, so unless either I win big on Euromillions (unlikely) or my health collapses in the meantime (rather more likely), no. My state pension and one of my workplace pensions don't pay out for another year at 66, and, even though we paid off the mortgage with an inheritance, we still have children needing to be kept afloat, so the money doesn't work yet. And, quite frankly, I enjoy what I do, and the idea of having lots of time for gardening fills me with total horror.

More by luck than planning I was able to move to a part-time role (3 or 4 days a week) last year at the same or better money than the full-time job I left.

Realistically, as best I can currently predict, I'll retire fully in my early 70s, but will probably tail off over two or three years from my late 60s.

Honestly? When both DO and I are orphaned.
Both sets of parents are both considerably better off than we are. We might not inherit it all, if they have care needs - but nonetheless, I think it will free us up somewhat, to do things that we want to do, rather than always waiting for the next paycheque.

I think I'll go part time at 60 when I can take some of my civil service pension. I can't imagine not working so will stay part time for as long as I can.

55 last month handed in my notice and retiring end July can't wait when weighed everything up DH still working so no real changes in income as we now only have one child at uni rather than the three we were supporting.

@OrangeBananaFish

I would strongly suggest you try the pension tracing service

www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

Depending on the type of pension it might be worth transferring them into a low cost SIPP with someone like Vanguard.

For anyone wanting to know more about pensions Pete Mathews has a book, podcast and you tube series called Meaningful Money. I would strongly urge anybody to have a listen.

Also please log into your state pension forecast to check it’s all ok.

I’m 46 (US) In about 5 years my DH officially retires. Then we we both get to figure out plan B. I’m likely to leave my current career (management) and refresh my skills and step back into a previous career as an individual contributor. I can make similar money. DH is looking at his options which may mean a couple of bridge courses into nursing (home health, traveling, tele-health, or something similar. We both want something flexible so contract work would be best. I think we would consider us to be semi-retired at this point.

We’ve been ‘what-if’ planning for a couple of years, and depending on how things shake out we we have a rough outline of our plans. I’d expect us to be fully retired in about 15 years. So that would be 65 for him and 60 for me.

We’ll have his pension ((about 60% of his current salary) which we plan on banking)) plus whatever we make in our Plan B jobs, then when we fully retire we’ll have his pension + private retirement plans (we each have our own) + Social Security (the equivalent of your State Pension)

The timing will be interesting since I’ll want to wait to maximize the SS payment amounts by not drawing too early and we won’t be able to start drawing on the private retirement accounts until certain ages. But we should be ok.

When I get my state pension 😥

55, we’ll be mortgage free when I’m 45. I’m a type 1 diabetic, so I’m unlikely to reach a very old age, so I’m doing everything I can to make sure I actually get a retirement.

My current plan is 57 but that’s 20 years off so who knows!

I’m working towards retiring at 55.

I’m 58 tomorrow and wish I could retire now! I am knackered and work in a high pressure, intense environment. I have a pension from a previous career that will kick in at 60 and had hoped to save that but I think I’m going to have to drop down a day or two then as I know I can’t sustain the current pace. I actually need to sit down with someone who knows how to plan the next few years financially for me.
DH, 61, has been made redundant recently with a small payoff and there’s no chance of him getting another job. I’ve been the main breadwinner for the past 10 years. He has a good pension pot so may need to dip into it sooner rather than later to take the pressure off me. It’s all a bit daunting.

Currently 66 and dreading the prospect of 'retiring'.
I have seen my contemporaries stopping work 'for the easy life' and falling into an abyss of nothing.
Their big excitement is a trip to the supermarket to find the reduced food, social connections stop as work was the catalyst, family are living their own life, holidays just don't fill the day to day.
When asked what they do one relied 'well I do read a bit'. Dear God help me from that.
I'm lucky as I can do my own work at my own speed seven days a week. Useful to society and fulfilling to myself.

I'm 57, mortgage paid off May this year.
I will be leaving my civil service job in the next 6-8 months to become a full time foster carer.
I have an old public sector pension which I will claim at 60 or 61, this has a lump sum which will be my rainy day fund and a reasonable contribution to my son for a house deposit. It will only pay about 50% of the income I want so will have to carry on as a foster carer for a few years. I will claim my current civil service pension at 65
Assuming there will still be my state pension at 67.
I won't be in the lap of luxury but I won't be in poverty either

I retired at 58 three years ago on a voluntary early severance package. DH is 71 and still doing a bit of work but because he wants to.

I’m now 56 but I’m not likely to reach retirement age. I’ll never be able to retire. I feel a bit sad about it. I work full time.

I'm hoping to retire at 53, my mortgage will be cleared before I retire and both DH and I have good pensions. If I get bored, I'd happily go part time but I don't want to work full time after 53.

In about 3 years, I hope. I’m aiming to have enough savings to bridge the gap to 67 with a reasonable amount left over, but would have to live quite simply for that time. I might go part time for a few years instead though. I don’t think I could keep going to t67 and am lucky to have some options.

Same for me. It’s scary.

I’m in my mid 30s with two small children and I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be able to retire. I’m also acutely aware that circumstances can change in an instant after a series of health scares which worries me a lot. I think I’ll see a few property crashes and booms before my retirement age and maybe with luck we will be able to pay off our little house before the 25 year term. As a pp have mentioned, once the kids have moved out and the house paid off, then we’ll be able to save and plan our retirement. For now we will just keep contributing to our pensions and hope that we will both be able to work till retirement age. But for now, I’m worried about what the next few years will bring with the cost of living shooting up

I'm currently 37 and my DH is 34. My job is quite physical and our plan is for me to finish at 60 (when our main mortgage is paid off) and I will get a part time admin based job. My DH works for the NHS in an IT job which is pretty much stress free and requires no physical exersion so he is planning for working for as long as he can, with the aim of going part time when the mortgages are
paid off (we have a second mortgage for an extension). We do overpay the mortgage with the highest interest rate by £100 a month at the moment...we aim to increase this if we can. But who knows what the future holds! If I need to carry on in my current job then I'll have to!

Retired about 4 years ago, now mid 50s, but fortunate to own our house and have savings/investments. My husband works but is self employed and picks and chooses what he takes on. Also, not in the U.K.

Age 54 because DH had just received an inheritance and he can claim his forces/police pension at 55 so we’ll be mortgage free and have an income.
DCs will have finished uni.
without the inheritance it would be 60

I can only work 15 hours a week as was placed in esa support group due to my back problem and they let me do 15 hours permitted work. I think I will have. To do this till I retire at 67 as have no choice.

What’s retirement?

Not until I'm at least 75, all going to plan. I'm going to earn as much money as I can so that I can help my children out as much as possible. I also think people start to go into a bit of a mental and physical decline once they have retired, and I want to stay sharp.

I think people retire far too early, generally. Most don't put enough into the collective pot during their working years to fund 30 years or so of retirement - it's not sustainable. We are all going to be working until we are a lot older I think, like it or not.