What age are you planning to retire?

[GutsyShark]

As the thread title states - what age are you planning to retire? I'm a long way away (decades) but would like to retire at 60 and currently trying to figure the finances out!

Anyone who has or is planning to retire before state pension age any tips on how you managed it are very welcome.

How ?
Always overpaying the mortgage.
Never buying things I couldn't afford.
Lucky enough not to have any expensive addictions
Not really interested in latest gadgets.
Not at all interested in paying 10x as much as you need to for something because it has been made by a 'designer' brand
Kept working when dc were small
Prepared to move out of comfort zone to get a better paid job a few times
Lucky enough to be married to a good man, so we've stayed together, so not had to start again, or fund two homes.

I took a 3 day part time job at 50 with a view to reducing gradually to retire about 55.

It's not quite worked as I'm now 56 and working 4 days. Hoping to retire by April 27 (so 57/58).

Mortgage is paid off and we have good pension/savings but still 2 teens going through A level and Uni so DH is nervous of s'taking his pension just yet.

However I have no plans to slow down (or knit) if I retire. I have lots I want to do and places I want to go whilst I have the health.

Just working on persuading DH he needs to plan ahead but he's not keen on change so just keeps on plodding on.

I forgot the how bit-similar to @CarpetKnees.

Paid mortgage off early then loaded pension although it helped that we have not moved since 1999 so never had a massive mortgage.
Never used pay rises to up standards of living.
Buying expensive stuff including cars and tech second hand.
Dont buy new clothes every season just buy decent stuff that lasts.
Negotiate a good deal for everything we can.
Generally being quite frugal although we have do splash out when we want to eg on holidays and we both have nice bikes which we use all the time.

I took my PP aged 58, and then. promptly found a wee PT ( 20 hrs ) job just 3 miles from the house - just ordered an e-bike so I can cycle in, big steep hill in-between all the smaller hills between me and work

TBH I think I would end up sectioned if I retired right now. Im also a carer for mother - 86, lives with us, and when you have someone of age sharing your home, you tend to live to their age, so going out for 4 hrs a day amongst young people keeps me smiling and sane

DH is the same, he still works 24hrs a week

Finally in. our 60's we have found a work life balance

Yeah, we talk about it a lot. Would give up very well paid jobs BUT with that mindset we could work till 70...
I want to see my retirement and so I my husband so we can actually enjoy fruits of our very hard labour. My mum passed away at 68, worked till the end, didn't see any of her retirement.

Feel the same.
DH sort of retired at 58 after he sold his business. By the time Covid was over we were climbing the walls!! He went back to work full time in a similar line of business he’d been in and loves it and plans to go part time at 70…health permitting 🤞🏻 We’ve got a new lease of life and are upsizing soon 😁
Good on anyone who wants to retire but it just didn’t suit us.
I watched my Dad become a shadow of himself after he retired at 65 & my mum gave up a job she loved to join him.
The retirement word fills me with dread tbh.

I retired at 52. No regrets. I paid off my mortgage at 50. I have a lot of friends who have retired or work part time so I have a great social life.
My partner will retire at 54 (this year) My sister and her husband both retired at 56.
My partners dad died at 48 so never had a retirement. My dad retired at 70.

Plan is at 55/56. Technically we (DH and I) could afford to do it sooner, but I just don't think I'll be ready - I love my job and get a lot of satisfaction from it.

I'm pretty sure DH will retire before me - that's fine as he is 3 years older anyway.

I suspect the way it will pan out is that DH will retire and I'll go part time for 3 years before I stop working, but who knows?

To be honest I'm just pleased we planned ahead and have been maxing out our pensions for a very long time (since our late 20's) and paid off the mortgage quite a few years ago now.

We've been fortunate in our careers and both have very healthy pension pots now and no debts (house/cars etc all paid for). We've also been spending a lot on the house recently to make sure it's super well maintained and up to date so we won't have any "big ticket" jobs like new bathrooms/kitchens/windows etc.

We've been banging the drum with the children about the importance of long term financial planning and it seems to have taken root with one, the other is a work in progress...

• Retired at 54, highish earner, husband "retired" aged 49 (redundancy and never went back, had children and grandchildren to care for so it sort of worked). Have actually gone back into work aged 57 for a year because I sort of missed it. It all depends on your circumstances, but if you do want to retire early I would say these are things you can do, for example, pay the full whack into your pension, and I don't mean just what you get from your employer, I mean putting the fullest amount ever that you can afford that does not break the tax rules
• pay your mortgage off
• have a wide spread of investments, and do the max on ISAs
• get a quote from the government pension forecasting - takes 2 minutes to do

I would add, spread your risk, not all the money in one "camp" i.e. property. You also have to do some lifestyle choices if you really want to retire early, esp in respect of some things (cars, hols, your house in particular) but realise this will annoy everyone who is struggling with energy bills, but the ask was how young can you retire, and how do people do it. We had to sacrifice a fair bit early on, but have got it back now. Anyway, hope this helps x

I'm 60 and retired, I absolutely love it. My early 30s son and wife plan to retire early 50s, have been paying the max into their pensions, overpaying mortgage etc to enable that to happen. My 2 siblings are self employed professionals but didn't think about pensions till much later, they think they'll be working till 70 but reduce their hours.

I’ve just turned 49. If I could I would retire today. I think maybe if all goes incredibly well I can retire at 56. Basically, as soon as financially possible. Kids are only in Grade 7 & 8, so at least 6 more years until they finish school, then there’s uni. Ideally I would like to downsize and move out of the city, but that kind of feels like abandoning my children. Where I want to move there are not good job opportunities.

In short, I don’t know but ASAP! I’m willing to change/sacrifice a lot to make it happen but I don’t want it to be at the cost to my children’s future.

Planning to semi-retire / go part time / do different bits and bobs from my current job when I’m 55

Will pay the last batch of mortgage off this year - life is short my DM died in her early 50s so I see no need to continue to save up etc once the DC are through uni and have a first job

Compound interest is your friend (early regular saving even if not loads) and the old story of spending less than you earn - don’t get sucked into social media and believing that everyone has enough money to pay for what they are showing they have comfortably

Im planning on retiring from my quite well paid job with loads of pressure in 2027 but then will look for something possibly two days a week with no pressure. I will be 60.

I’m 54 planning to retire this year - sell the business we’ve built - dh will continue to work because he enjoys it - I will do my hobbies, keep fit, hang out with friends who are also retired and travel. My life is a little too full at the moment - I am done with running the business, it’s been fun and stressful at times but I feel the need to move on. Financially we met our retirement goals a few years ago - we’re now just increasing the inheritance pot - I think our kids will do well enough out of us.

plan was to retire at 60. Sold my business at 55 and halved my hours, had agreed to stay on part time at work for 2 yrs for continuity of business. Was diagnosed with breast cancer at 57. Had time off but decided to further cut hours on return, I still enjoy working.
Sale of business meant we maintained income and could reinvest in house ( replaced lots of stuff and hopefully now have no big costs going forward).
Took pension at 59, and work 1 day a week to support DS until he finished Uni and will give up totally at 63/64.
I would recommend a gradual slow down so you can gradually adjust.
I was a high earner and have a substantial pension. I have a further private pension I can draw down to top up until state pension kicks in. If I earn over 51k any excess goes into private pension so I’m not paying 40% tax on any earnings.
The plan is to keep pension under 20% tax limit.
House running costs and maintenance now low cost. Plenty of money so we don’t have to slum it.
DH gave up at 58, with sufficient savings for spending money, we have always lived off my earnings. At 60 he started to draw down his pension but only up to tax limit. Our total projected pensions are around 60-70k which is ample for our lifestyle.
Good planning early on and investing in pensions rather than ignoring the future has paid off.
DH had a stroke at 60 so neither of us could have continued full time past 60.
I recently lost my DSis (56) before she had applied for pensions. This has definitely altered my attitude to the future. You can’t always plan for the unexpected.

I’m 50, DH is 54. We are aiming to retire when he is 60 (so I will be 56).

we have both had well paid careers and live in a cheapish part of the country so we have a decent level of savings etc. If both of us suddenly couldn’t work tomorrow we’d be ok (although would need to adjust our lifestyle)

I'm 50 and we've paid off our mortgage but that's not making heaps of difference. Probably work till 67. Can't believe all these early retirees!!

I'm hoping I have the health to keep working until 70. But not working full time, high stress.

I have pensions but not enough to live off and the state pension isn't likely to be until 70 or even 75 by then, or reduced in value or means tested so every penny I saved is offset anyway.

Ha same. I assumed most replies would be from wealthy and privileged posters though

I retired at 58...mid 60s now. Dh still working maybe for another 6 months.
We own house outright and I have a good pension.
I love my life

24% of the top 20% wealth wise retired early compared to 9% of the bottom 20% - and those were mostly medical related

Interesting for me - Ten years ago the proportions were much more balanced across the wealth groups and there has been a marked drop in the middle incomes who are retiring early - guess why - housing costs - if you haven't paid if the mortgage you can't

That fits with my anecdotal experience - in my peer group ( middles ) - those with the big expensive characterful houses are the ones still working. Those who didn't uplift their home have mostly retired ( ok there was a HUGE redundancy program which pushed quite a few of us )

And also - the wealthiest are also more likely to be in work in their 70s - self employed doing what they love often shortish hours

Dh is 8 years older than me and hoping to retire about 63. I work for myself (consultancy type role) so our plan is for me to reduce my hours to 1-2 days per week and spend 3-4 months per year in the canaries.

As soon as possible-looking like mid 50’s. My sibling died in her 50’s & I have 3 friends with cancer, so I don’t want to spend anymore time working than I have to. We have lots of plans though, travel, hobbies, volunteering. We won’t be sat around the house bored!

Interesting. We’ve chosen not to overpay our mortgage because we think we’ll be better off financially - mortgage is 3.5%, should easily make more than that in the stock market, especially with the government top up and long term power of compounding. Not saying others are wrong if they don’t agree, interesting to read different points of view.

Do you think the gap has widened in part because of the gap between older style DB and pre auto enrolment? There is surely a generation “missed”, it used to be that a pension came with your job and you didn’t have to think about it, people now need to plan their own retirement, which I think is great if you are able to/wired that way, not so good if you’re not.