To think it's perfectly understandable that a high-paid, child-free couple could retire at 50?

[LoomyDee]

Someone I work with is retiring in a couple of years aged 50.

I have the same plan but I'm only just 40.

We were chatting about it the other day at work, and a couple of people were or acted completely befuddled by the situation. When the lady in question went to the toilet, a couple of people starting up with "But how on earth will she afford it?"

I don't get it.

Surely it's not extraordinarily strange and incomprehensible to realise that a couple with high-paid jobs, a fairly normal lifestyle and no children will be able to retire very early?!

Am I missing something? I've run my own numbers and 50 seems very comfortable but I worry I've completely overlooked something with how incredulous these other colleagues were!

Agreed, @Choccyp1g @Bjorkdidit. We are childfree by choice so with no dependents to leave money to we intend to spend what we can & will downsize to liquidate assets when the time is right.

That may have happened anyway to be honest, and at least they would've enjoyed some of their retirement feeling good.
My dad retired at 55 because he was getting very sad about his colleagues and friends passing away shortly after retirement at 65, never getting to enjoy any of it. Dad passed away aged 73 so he got 18 years of retirement rather than 8. Good on him.

I took early retirement/voluntary redundancy from my media job at 50 with an immediate occupational pension (inland revenue rules have changed now, you have to be aged 55) and my DH was made redundant/took early retirement at 45 from his Civil Service-adjacent job, again with an immediate pension.
We have one DC, now an adult.
I haven’t worked since I retired and have never regretted it for a second but DH retrained and worked for another 15 years or so in his second career.

I had never been a SAHM and subsequently enjoyed it very much after basically burning out in a high stress job.
We realise we have been very lucky in some ways and are now comfortably off but on the other hand suffered personal tragedies that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. (Not that the sad events were in any way linked to our occupations or occupational decisions . )

I was mid 40s when i retired. I am now pushing 60 and i have never for one moment missed work and i have never had a moment's boredom. Life is full and exciting. I didn't have a million in the bank.

It's amazing how much you save by not going to work.
No work clothes, no commuting, no coffee here/new top there/bottle of wine and a takeaway on the way home to cheer you up after a shocker of a day. You have more time to seek out discounts, can get off-peak memberships, cook from scratch etc.

Err no, being wealthy is the key.

Well yes. but if you don't have children you can spend more time on your career, are more flexible and aren't spending your money on your children. I wouldn't replace my children for the chance to retire at 50 but I could have done it if I didn't have to pay for them. I'm not rich and didn't come from a rich family but people in their 50's now like me with stable jobs could easily have bought a flat 30 years ago like I did for 3x their salary, have lived through huge house price rises and had minimal student loans.

The thing with being child free generally too is that you can release equity from your house too if all else runs out. No need or desire to pass a penny on in most cases!

Husband and I both went to University, but both worked before and during our courses (easy to get part time jobs in the 90s if you were a student), so we both already have our 35 years of NI contributions in and we're in our early 50s.

I’d be more surprised if they didn’t.

People need to just accept others have different situations.

We have children, I’m 47 and have already finished work. My husband plans to retire in the next few years at 50/52. He is still enjoying working at the moment.

We have friends who earn as much as us and plan to work longer either because they have different circumstances or they just want to continue working. We also have friends who retired earlier than us and ones that will need to work much later.

Thank you!

The way these colleagues were going about "how on earth can she afford it?" made me think I'd missed something absolutely fundamental.

I'm aiming to retire at fifty as well. So it gave me a horrible sinking feeling that I'd somehow fucked up my own plans.

Fabulous. This is what I'm aiming for (though more like 50 than mid-40s)

Absolutely. I'm child-free, no mortgage and I've just retired at 60. We moved when I was 52 so we took on additional mortgage, but if we hadn't I could have definitely retired at 52 as previous mortgage would have been paid off then.

It depends on the age of the colleagues asking. Those of a similar age should understand it but don't forget it got a lot harder to get on the housing ladder after 2008 and that massively changed the game for those who didn't already have a mortgage at that point.

If you're paid high enough, you could retire at any age, with or without children to consider!

However, for general high salaries, 50 doesn't sound implausible. A consideration is what lifestyle you want - if you are happy with a modest lifestyle it's much easier to retire than if you want the kind of lifestyle often associated with a high income, and that might be the sticking point for some - does not having to work compensate for giving up some or all luxuries?

The answer might well be yes, as treats/luxuries are often a way of making life bearable when you have to work!

Gosh I do have kids and I'm aiming for us both to be retired by 50!

I’m half of a highly paid couple and am planning to retire at 53. We’ve also had two children.

It’s certainly doable with planning but obviously depends on the lifestyle you want in retirement. OP, if you post a bit more on here about your pension, ISAs etc, and the level of income you need, people will be able to say whether you sound as if you are on track. People sometimes either overestimate a safe withdrawal rate or forget to take account of inflation etc.

That's all work though.

Not everyones working life is like that though. Sone people have uniforms or don't need fancy work clothes. Others get fed at work for free or very cheap. Sone work from home or walking distance so no commuting costs

As for coffees, new tops, takeaways are all luxuries. Many full time workers can't afford them and done people choose not to waste money on such stuff

Yes of course. It’s not having children that’s key to making this possible.

Also if you have kids I think it v depends when you have them. I had a 1 year old when I was 40. He will still need housing and feeding until I'm in my mid 50's at least. If I'd had my kids 10 years earlier the oldest would be knocking on 30! Again I wouldn't give up my 10 years of career progression, work hard/ play hard/ travelling in my 20's for early retirement now, but people make their own choices.

Perfectly understandable.

I used to be a pensions consultant. Practically half my time was taken up making arrangements for this to be possible for people.

(The other half was splitting pensions on divorce).

With two DCs I only managed to retire at 57.

An employer near us had a redundancy programme at the same time as a new Tesco Metro opened in town. It was a scientific research company and, as a result, I knew 3 PhDs who were stacking shelves in Tesco simply to earn their beer money and get out from under their DW's feet!

late 40's and if i had another salary similar to mine and the same sort of lifestyle / housing costs then I think it would be easily achievable if you're savy when younger. People in my age group were lucky enough to be able to afford property at a relatively young age compared to today's younger folk. Many of my friends bought on their own just before the housing market went boom (in 2 years my flat went up by 50%!) and then sold to buy with a partner in a similar position so they had a large amount of equity in their combined property. By that age people could also have inheritance too.