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.

I thought it was taxed as income

it is isn't it? So £10,000 wouldn't even be taxed as it would be her only income

people saying 52 is too early to retire - not at all. Working life is long enough. If you get the chance, be like the pp who feels like they're on holiday. That's my plan but I don't have children.

I'd drop 'excess' at work, go half time/job share for a few more years, do tutoring or supply work, because at least you'd still have more time off than picking up a job in a different area. And keep putting money away.

Definitely. Make sure you have enough to last you until your pension kicks in and that you will have enough to enjoy your life.

You can always pick up some extra, exam marking or invigilator, baby sitting, tutoring, some hours in a coffee shop.

If you want to gift the kids some see what you've got left when your pensions kick in.

I’ve told my parents to spend any inheritance they were planning on giving me. They’ve worked hard and I want them to enjoy their life. They’ve just booked a dream cruise. I’m pleased for them.

The letting property thing sounds incredibly stressful, which puts me off.

I think with a mortgage paid off and savings of £250k the OP is not in ‘borderline poverty’. She can always take a bit of time off then get a part time job to tide her over if needs be

Just looked at the teachers pension calculator and it seems to say I can get a pension of £7000 a year from age 55? That seems a lot for just £15 years of contributions?

My partner works in education; overwork, terrible management structure and the endless stress were all contributing factors to the stroke they suffered at Christmas.

Put your health first, we only get one shot at life.

For me, I would want the inheritance to go straight to my kids.
so I would keep working.

It's your choice. Ten thousand is not enough to live on.
Can you work for five more years then cut down to part time?
Can you invest in another house; make your money work for you?
I would seek professional advice.

I retired at 57. Divided up my savings into 4 lumps and invested each one in a different tracker fund using AJBell - although there are plenty of other online portfolio managing apps. I'm just about living off a little bit less than my funds are earning, so my capital is growing slightly (although, obviously, inflation is eating away at it too)

You obviously need to have an idea of how much you need to live off. It's a bit scary to start with, but once I realised that I wasn't going to run out I just relaxed. I'm 65 now so my state pension kicks in next year and then I'll definitely be ok🤞

I haven't missed work for even one second

I've retired at 59. Had to stay till then as I had kids late, my DD just left school. I can't 'afford' it I suppose but I'm taking £800 a month from my private pension, and I've rented out my house as it wouldn't sell. Plan is to I downsize if I can sell it. I will make sure I leave my kids enough for a small flat each, I hope. I was a single parent most of my kids' childhood, have told their father he has to pay for uni costs as I did everything else. Dunno if he will though so I might have to fund that somehow. I am staying with my parents part of the time, they need support anyway, long distance hiking some of the time (so, a tent), staying at partner's place some of the time, till I can sell my house. i might have to work a bit, but if I do I'll look to work flat out for 3 months and then be free the rest of the year, if possible.

Can you tutor 11+ verbal and/or non-verbal reasoning?

Or my MIL did supply for a few years after she officially retired as she became bored. She said it was far less stressful then being KS4 lead and teaching GCSE and A-levels. She quite liked it. She gave that up after a while and is now a voluntary governor of a school to keep her busy.

Join the David Fountain Facebook group and use their spreadsheets - better than the tps calculators! You will know for sure then.

Is your handwriting good? If so being a part time registrar of births, deaths and marriages is one of my semi-retirement thoughts (my handwriting is terrible though) but it may be less essential these days...

No you can only earn £5000 in interest before you are taxed.

Those 15 years would have accrued at 1/57th of your salary per year. Plus increases for inflation.
Is the figure of £7000 ar 55 taking into account any reduction for taking it early?

@friendlycat please can you link ro legislation? I'm looking at this a lot because of my own retirement plan and I interpreted it completely differently. I don't even know where you got the £5000 figure from.

Do it!!! If you want to help your kids could set aside 15K or so each for house deposits, so they get a bit of a head start in life. Then enjoy the rest!

Be aware that teachers pension is I think career average so if you drop to part time that will have an impact on your pension.

@friendlycat ignore me, it is sorted

I'm not sure if we're allowed to do links or screenshots at the moment.. even if we are, MN crashes every time I try and do it.

.I have just found it on the government website. It says "you can use your personal allowance to earn interest tax-free if you have not used it up on your wages, pension or other income."

£5000 is your starting rate for savings interest. You can also use your personal allowance if you don't have other income. That makes £17500 in savings interest, free of tax, if there is no other income. I think that's why some teachers retire at Easter, so it's pretty much a new tax year. Op can give notice by the end of Feb and leave at Easter. Might leave the school in the lurch, though.

Can you maybe do part time supply teaching?
Or invigilating?
11plus tutoring if there are grammar schools nearby.
Family learning officer in a museum.
You might be surprised how transferable your skills are.

Go for it.

We live on in less than 10k a year. Much less to be fair but we don't holiday other than with relatives for family visits. No mortgage to worry about.

Not correct if it is the OPs only income they would have their personal allowance,of £12570, starter rate for savings of £5000 and personal savings allowance of £1000. So tbey could earn £18570 from savings before paying any tax as long as that was their only income.

From https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings

Your allowances for earning interest before you have to pay tax on it include:

• your Personal Allowance
• starting rate for savings
• Personal Savings Allowance