What age are you planning to retire?

[MooFroo]

Who is actively planning to retire way before statutory retirement age?

I know a few people who have retired in their 50s - they’ve mainly stayed in the same job at the same company for many years and have a decent pension stacked up when they hit pension age. They can take out 25% tax-free at age 55, which seems to be happening more and more.

I spoke to a friend about it the other day and he said he wanted to enjoy his life after working for over 30 years. He has some health issues that have started to bother him now and he couldn’t see himself working for the next 15+ years until state pension age.

I’ve been looking online and lots of early retirees tend to travel in this pre-retirement age while you still have your health and are well enough to make the most of the adventures. That’s what DH and I’d like to do, so trying to work out how to afford it and what we need to do differently now in our 50s.

We both have very small private pensions, no ISA or any stocks/shares, no inheritance to come and will need the state pension. We do have a buy to let property which will be mortgage free in a few years and give an income.

Just wondered if people have planned an early retirement age and how you will be funding your lifestyle once you stop working. Be great to get some ideas and inspiration

Thank you

Hopefully 60 or soon after.
Good DB NHS pension most of which I can take at 60 without penalties.
DH will be 59, but he had a heart attack 2 years ago so we want to retire as soon as it's financially viable. DS should be finished with further education too and be fully independent
4 years and counting

My retirement plan didn’t work out as planned. I was made redundant at 50 and never got back to work due to life circumstances but I would have gone to 58 if I could have.

I know two people who retired at 50 but they were very well off and saved to be able to do so. Most people in my profession retire between 55 and 60 (just googled) although that might change in years to come.

REIT portfolio apparently, that's pretty much all I know.

Hoping to retire before state retirement age, but need to save more. Hoping to go in just under three years, but not sure if will hold onto current job long enough to save enough. If not, will look at doing something less demanding but will need to do it for longer. Keener on being in a position to finish sooner than have to work. Not entirely sure how much I need to make the figures work either.

In general do like work so would like to do a few very part time roles before and after state pension age.

There are no guarantees - the system is no longer funding itself properly, meaning it is at risk of total collapse if something isn’t done to course correct. The longer government waits to intervene, the more drastic the course correction required, but by the same token today’s government doesn’t want to pay the political price solving a future problem. At some point it will come to a head and benefits will have to be cut - options include means testing, delaying retirement age or reducing benefit. The big question is when not if - in theory it is easier to take a benefit away from a group not yet receiving it, so the further you are from retirement the more sceptical I would be of any ‘social contract’, but then they could also remove the triple lock and stop adjusting for inflation which would devalue the benefit of current recipients without actually reducing the amount paid.

in any case, if you are still working I would prioritise a personal pension or isa and not count on state pension to provide a basic standard of living.

Thank you for sharing OP. Also a teacher. 27 years clocked. Paying into AVCs since I was 26 years old and had to stop as had paid in too much. Hoping to go at 55 years.
absolutely love my job (but finding it more and more difficult to deal with the ‘entitlement’ mentality). No mortgage but three children who have a way to go through private school and college). Never took Parental Leave (though I had three under 3 including twins), job shared or took career break. I’ve always listened to the women who walked the path in front of me …

Hopefully never, I like my job

I hope 65. My pensions are not great but I am working towards 14k per year in addition to State pension and for the two years before the state pension kicks I will use savings.
There may be some inheritance to come but it's not a given.

60 is the plan. I bought my house really young and my mortgage was started before house prices went crazy so I managed to pay it off by 40. Also had kids young before endless snacks and constant expensive activities/days out were the norm.

Since paying off my mortgage, I've generally managed to save a mortgage sized payment every month towards my retirement fund and expect to cash out on at least one pension at 60. If I do decide to work after 60, it will be a very part-time hobby type job not working in IT like I do now.

I haven't ever had a parental leg up and inheritance is never guaranteed so I've been working towards this since I turned 40. The timing re house prices worked well for me but obvs having kids really young held me back career wise for many years.

Have you worked full time since you were 22?
I see those who work on at 66/67 - they all took 10/15 years out to raise their children. While those who worked 5 days a week since they were 22 years (with children) are “done” by age 55-60.

Hoping to retire at 60. Will probably need to downsize to pay for it (also have a private pension too)

I'm too busy trying to keep a roof over our heads and food in our plates right now ( and petrol in the car and all the other things). It'll be 67 or 68 for me. Another 20 years for me.

If I'm lucky I'll get to retire before I die....

Im 37 (f) and DW is 41. We are both planning to retire at 60 and making sacrifices now in order to do so, e.g. running just one car, overpaying the mortgage, not upsizing, contributing to private and work pensions and choosing riskier investments for some of that. We have a pretty frugal lifestyle naturally because all our hobbies are cheap/free. Eg reading, hiking. I manage all of our finances as DW has no real interest in it although I insist on teaching her the basics in case i die suddenly. We're middle earners so it does take some managing to be able to forecast a decent pension, but we are both pretty naturallt frugal although far from obsessive, I myself absolutely hate working and am a naturally lazy person so am highly motivated to take retirement at 60 if not before. We'll both get state pension (if it still exists) too. We plan to spend a lot of time motorhoming around the world. We had children young and the end of parenting is in sight with two teenagers, so we want to travel while we are young enough to enjoy it.

Would happily retire tomorrow, realistically it's going to be 68 :(

60, final salary pension. I know it’s unusual these days.

I retired at 58. Employer’s voluntary early exit scheme. Been retired 6 years now and never been so happy.

Hopefully 60

I started a job with a great pension at 39, so figured if I pay into it for that long, I should be ok

I saw a fact/chart recently that demonstrated if you save £5k a year for 10 years only age 25-35 you will be a millionaire at retirement but if you start age 35, £5k a year is not going to get there by 68. !!!!

this shocked me as in 40s and I only started in 30s as I never understood benefits of tax efficiency, stock market growth and compounding. This got me maxing my pensions and ISAs, and making sure I use salary sacrifice as much as possible as possible to put the money in my pension instead of to tax!

I found Rebel Finance on you tube and Facebook a great source of info.

i learnt most that fees and the right investments matter, as such I’ve been using Investengine as £0 fees and really easy to use. Had a lucky year with markets (world, S&P and gold) and ISA is up 29% since last April: https://investengine.com/share/portfolio/95c99e15cbfd26ed8c1bdf632c26adebb3d17dca/