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.

That’s good that they have some inheritance and presumably your house must be worth something too? Would you consider downsizing later down the line and freeing some money that way if they needed it? Without a dad to help financially they most likely would need yours at some point I imagine.

I think if you have a contingency then it puts less pressure on preserving the whole £250k… what about investing some into a property and renting that out for some income, and getting a part time job too? Ideally you would also get a return on the investment down the line and still be able to keep at least half untouched just in case.

I am 65. 2 years ago I retired from my very stressful self employed business in the service industry. I took a year out to help my sister who had cancer at the time. After that I needed to go back to work. Like you, I was worried that I was unemployable. I applied for a receptionist job for 2 days a week, not holding out much hope. I got an interview and offered the job 2 days later. I love it. Gives my week structure and tops up my personal pension.
Do it! I love my work balance now. In fact when I am 66 later this year I’m not retiring!

@caniquitwork if you were to invest the £250k in a dividend based EFT, you’d get about £15k/year in dividend. Plus any increase linked to share price increase.

It would protect your capital if you can live on that. (And you dint feel your youngest dc will need you anymore financially),

Don't even think about leaving it to your dc - we are taught that dc owe nothing to the parents, so I think that parents owe nothing to the grown-up children, so enjoy your life, don't die at work so they could inherit and spend some of it on going to a shrink with 'my parents did not do this and that right'. Enjoy!

She’s in the fortunate position because she inherited.. with that attitude you have, she’d working well into her 60s……

Do it. Just keep yourself busy and interacting with people.

Totally agree with this . In my opinion you are way too young to just stop working . Especially when you have 3 kids - some may still be in education ?
You are so lucky to have 250k but to burn through that before even reaching retirement age would be wasteful.
Surely while you are young and healthy you should do some other job . You could definitely get something .
I'm a teacher but in Ireland and it's a different job . Am also 52 .

OP is 52. The maximum that state retirement age will increase to for her is 68. No need to make.out that it will suddenly increase to 71. It just dosent happen like that. Any change to SP age has a very long lead in time. Even the change to 68 may not happen before she gets to that age. She has also said that she would be happy to work in another part time job so she has no need to touch the capital. She could draw down at 4% a year top up up with a job working a couple of days a week and still have her capital intact at 68 when she will get both state pension and teachers pension. It is more than doable.

That’s what I plan to do, OP- I’ll retire at 50.

I’m 42 now and earning well but in a very stressful senior corporate role, and contributing massively to pension. By the time I’m 45, I’ll have three mortgage-free properties (my home, a buy-to-let, and a third home that my parents live in). Plan is to retire at 50 and sell the BtL which should give me c. £450k and allow me to live off of that and also continue to service the pension until I’m 60. At that stage, I’ll start drawing down the pension. Once I’m no longer paying a mortgage after 2027, I’ll divert that money into investments. Currently have a decent investment portfolio and also planning to cash that in after 60.

My parents are in their 80s so, when the time comes, I’m likely to also sell my current home and move into the one they live in, but that’s not 100% yet. Depends on where I went to be at that stage.

I’ve been working full time since I was 16 and I really don’t want to work into old age. I’ve been planning for my retirement most of my working life.

I can see why you want to do it, but based ob what you’ve said here, I’m not sure the sums work?

Do it!

As someone of the same age I do think it's too young (& not enough money) to stop working altogether forever more but use the time to retrain in something that interests you, will keep you active & sociable and can be done PT/flexibly. What about swimming teacher? Bikeability instructor? Tutoring sounds an obvious one and with so much online now you don't need to worry about finding a local market just register with some of the online agencies. Or 11/13+ entrance exam tutoring if it's needed in your area. School holiday camps? Short assignments you can pick & choose.

Take up a new hobby, volunteer and enjoy yourself - life's too short for working like a dog to have a big fat pension only to drop dead from a heart attack at 65.

Projecting...much...

you may be interested in the YouTube channel Ali Lives Well On Less. She’s a teacher who took early retirement.

I’m as entitled to give an opinion as you are. I used to encourage my Mum to spend her money, I’d much rather she was comfortable and happy.

I don’t think it’s selfish per say but I think I’d personally feel a bit bad spending £250k inheritance on myself unless I knew I’d be able to hand some down to my kids eventually. I suspect when they’re 52 life will be harder and more expensive and their pensions will be much worse so I’d be inclined to put even a small amount away for each of them too.

OP how's your NI contributions looking? You might need to buy some extra years, or make sure you work a few more years to get a full state pension - check your record online.

But I still think it's possible to leave teaching and live comfortably in your situation. You'll have your teachers pension, state pension and the income you draw from the £250k, which if invested well, will last at least until your pensions kick in.

OP does say in a later post that her kids also had money from the same inheritance which would go towards a deposit

Who says she is going to put herself out to pasture?

(the quote from a PP saying she is too young to ‘put herself out to pasture’ hasn’t worked)

Without the constraints of work, the world is your oyster.

I retired last year at 50. I went through my finances VERY carefully with my financial advisor.

also, have a look at the retirement posts on here, and MSE.

Look at the Retirement Living Standards figures (although written by pension companies so not exactly independent)
https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk
and Which? also do retirement surveys
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/the-price-of-a-comfortable-retirement-20000-a-year-which-research-reveals-aNKPz6x07swU

I never say never about returning to work of some kind, but at the moment I’m too busy/have too many trips planned.

My husband died at 36. I don’t have children. Retirement is wasted on the old. I have inherited my Mum’s dodgy knees so I want to get out and enjoy life/travel/experiences while I still can. No point in working to 67 if I can’t get out and about easily by then.

Also, I would look for a change rather than giving up work completely. But, at our age it’s not easy having our experience and knowledge respected.

I completely get it, I'm in the same profession, but a few years behind you.

Life's too short to be miserable.

Go for it, you could always do some tutoring or work part time doing something else, if you found you needed a bit extra.

Get your notice handed in and be happy.

Good luck.

I'm on the Life after Teaching facebook group and half on there seem to find a job easily while the other half never even get an interview!

Yes, she inherited - which means she got something when the person died (presumably OP's parent).

The equivalent will be when the OP dies she passes money on to her children, which she will probably do.

It doesn't mean she has to give them money now, She needs to think of her own care/ needs for getting older.

The OP also owns a property outright that her DC will likely inherit (contrary to what MN always says, the percentage of people who's assets are 'wiped out' by care home fees is tiny so even if the OP needs care, it's still likely her DC will receive a substantial inheritance).

Plus in most cases, people don't inherit until they're in their 40/50/60s so will be wanting to buy houses way before they'd likely receive an inheritance.

This is what I did when I left work at 52. Personally I would advise against doing this unless you really know your stuff. It's a difficult economic landscape with the new laws coming in.

Is buying an annuity with some of the capital an option?

@caniquitwork

In your position yes I would go for it

I would have a couple of months off altogether and then find a small job just a few days a week to give me some security and extras for emergencies so your not dipping too far into your investments

Life's too short to spend it doing the same thing out of fear op

Oops fair enough I missed that!