To give up working at 52?

[caniquitwork]

I am a teacher, but I've had enough.
I have a small teacher's pension- small because only paid in 15 years and even then mostly only part time. Have some other private pensions which will eventually pay out about £1000 a month, but not till I'm 60. Would not touch teacher's pension until then either.
So here's the aibu part - I have a house I own outright so no mortgage, but to live on until 60 I have about £250000 I inherited. Would obviously invest but don't think interest would be enough to live on, so would also just withdraw from the pot iyswim.
Would that work? Would it be selfish- should I keep this money safe for my children?
No dh in the picture. Keep
going round in circles. Wouldn't mind working in another job to supplement but worried if I could even find anything.

@caniquitwork as you don’t have a mortgage, why not get a job that just supports you? Anything. Coffee shop. Buy and sell on EBay. Support worker. TA. Reduce your stress and make your income/available pot of money go further, maybe spend it on things like amazing holidays rather than bills. I stepped all the way back from teaching after breaking down a few years ago- now I have bits and pieces of nice, interesting teaching work that came my way by chance, and other work, and my quality of life is amazing. I’m quite poor and retirement (although still a long way off, minimum of 20 years) will probably be tough, but I’m really enjoying life now- and who knows how long I have anyway!?

For me, it wouldn’t be enough money. What’s the use in retiring at 52 if you don’t have enough money to do anything and your life is spent in front of the telly with the heating off.

If you’re retiring so early it should really be to enjoy a full, varied, active life, which requires money. £250k to last you what could easily be another 40 years is not that much.

@MumCanIHaveASnackPlease the 250k would have to cover 8 years, there are pensions coming in then.

@DoNotBringLulu German

It doesn’t seem enough money for me either. I will buy a small property and rent it and look for a part time job or maybe Teacher Assistant., tutoring, shop or cafe a few days per week

But the pensions are small OP. They’re not really enough either. You’ll have to supplement from your inheritance to live a half decent lifestyle and not beans on toast.

The trouble with that is that in a couple of years you might decide to just work a bit more for more security etc - and suddenly you've got to retirement age anyway and maybe feel too ill/tired/stressed to do much then.

I've not read the 200+ posts @caniquitwork but my advice with any financial dilemma is get yourself a good independent financial advisor.

You need help with the £250K- how to best invest it.
How to protect it from almost 10 years' inflation.

If you're asking about the emotional side of it and spending what could be your children's inheritance in 40 years, forget it- anything could happen by then.

Well it's completely under her control.

I'd suggest another job if she wants to continue working.

Take the leap OP!

I think you need to consider a career change.

52 is young and you could live to 92.

You can't rely on the state pension which won't kick in till your late 60s- and would you have paid enough into it anyway for the full amount? Probably not. Have you had a prediction of that?

What do you intend to do with your next 40-odd years?

You won't be able to afford much.

£250K over 10 years - that's £25K a year - isn't a huge amount. Although I appreciate it's a topping up fund.

You'll need to fund house repairs, cars, replace white goods, day to day expenses.

Have you done the basic sums of your outgoings now and what you need to live on in reasonable comfort?

FAs put it at around £25K pa to have a 'decent' standard of living, not luxurious.

We've done all of that planning as we're close to retirement. We worked out that to live fairly simply (this doesn't include overseas travel but a couple of UK holidays) we'd need at least £25K pa . We don't eat out, I don't buy many clothes, we have older cars etc.

You need to make a very detailed list of all your outgoings, money needed to repairs, any private health care/ dentists, travel etc etc.

Okay what if the national retirement age does reach 71 as some commentators are saying - you’d have 18 years to get through before your state pension kicks in. You’d have £1,000 a month to cover absolutely everything, as you’re planning to spend your £250k over the next 7 years - then what? Equity release schemes? £250k isn’t enough in this situation- also what happens if we have a huge rise in inflation? Saving account interest rates never cover the price rises on the actual shelves. You need to do the sums properly and not “I could probably do a weekly shop for £30” type sums - actually create a spreadsheet and track it and average it over a few months - then build in inflation of up to x percent per year - can you get to 71 on that?

Definitely go for it! Lucky you! I’m a tutor- primary maths and English and loads of demand for that. Even if your subject is not in demand (presume secondary?) you could do ks1 and 2 English and maths. Just do the hours that you need.

The opposite is true, though. She retires and 10 years down the track finds she's out of money - and is too unwell to work.

Would you consider tutoring? I have started tutoring online to supplement my teachers salary and around 8 hrs per week turns over around £1000 -£1500 per month. I am partly building the business up so I can retire from the classroom earlier than I would otherwise have been able

I would. Right now at age 34 if I could. I'd go for it without question if I could afford

Exactly.

We looked over our credit card statements for a year. We put almost all spending on those and pay it off in full each month.

You need to look at basics like council tax, water rates, utilities, phone, insurances, car repairs etc.

And assume anything up to 5% or more inflation on those.

Then you need your non essentials, like new clothes, holidays, gifts for people, entertainment, etc.

Tutoring can be a good way of earning money but be aware that you will need to still work term times (parents want reliability ) and it will cut into your day so you will need to be available from 3pm through to 6pm-ish.

Parents are also quite picky so unless you're experienced in the subject and topic you offer, you might struggle. I've seen posters suggesting you offer KS 2 etc but if this isn't your expertise, it's a bit disingenuous to offer it.

I would look for the middle ground option. Invest the £250k and plan to live on the interest. Roughly £10k per year so you're not eating into the capital. That would give you the flexibility to look for something part time and low stress. I'd be walking into my local Waterstones and asking if they had any jobs!

A friend quit her stressful job (NHS) and now works part time in an independent women's clothes shop and loves it. It keeps her active and sociable and some money is still coming in.

No brainer, go for it, you're a long time dead as they say.
There's always part time work if you need it/get bored.

I switched from being a teacher after 18 years to being the senior caretaker at the same school, I now earn quite a bit more than most of the teaching staff and get a lovely 4 bedroom house with the job so I can let mine out.

There is a happy life in education, but after teaching.

It’s literally in the title.

My SIL and I have both left teaching early, although late 50’s rather than early. She now does supply but only in a school that she used to work in so she knows the systems, staff and students. Most weeks she works a max of two days and she is a language teacher who can teach French, German and a bit of Spanish. This gives her enough income when supplemented with her teacher pension.
My children are all independent adults so I have space at home to host foreign teachers for a local language school. I do a week or two a month. You can earn up to £7500 tax free by letting out a room like this or to a lodger.

That's around a 4 % interest rate. That's about the highest around ATM and mainly for ISAs. Banks etc are more like 2%.

And she'd lose 20% of tax on it- kicks in with low earners once interest is over £5K.

Agree with the Waitrose job- they get a good discount on food and JL shops!

Yes do it! Life is short. But if you do it, make it count. Wishing you all the best

But why would she leave her money in a low paying account and in all in cash for that matter when she can get around 5%, quite a bit tax free in an ISA and also likely get a better return on investments?

Hopefully the OP has the sense to see a financial planner or at least learn from somewhere like Meaningful Money or Rebel Finance rather than taking much notice of some of the nonsense on this threads from people who think it's not possible because they're financially illiterate spendthrifts rather than someone desperate to escape from a job she hates and has the means to do so by making sensible choices and being realistic with her spending.