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.

I'm 56. Love my job. No plans to retire. I'll keep going as long as I'm able. Maybe 70 ish?

I doubt it's overpaying of the mortgage - more the total cost of the house - mine has half the value of some friends property

DB is still feeding through for many between 55 and 65 I think - but interesting question - I think it would affect job movers most as the scheme change with us was auto enroll with sweeteners

dad retired at 55 and it was the worst decision he could have made. my mum worked until 74 and still misses it a few years later.

I think it depends on the person but having purpose, whether that comes from paid work or any other pursuit, is crucial for good health.

I absolutely love my job. We are nearly done with the mortgage, DH has a great pension (and also loves his work), mine is less good but is now a priority BUT I will be wary of not working at all in later decades. I'm already part time over five days, maybe I would drop to three or four but I can't imagine not doing it at all.

I'm 48, plan to go part time or even retire at 60. Good pensions, house we can downsize. But I love my job so not sure I can imagine not working....

Am 61 and would love to retire but can't afford to. Hopefully can save enough to allow me to retire before state pension age, but I doubt it.

We've got to the point where we'd rather keep working PT and having lots of expensive holidays than retire and have cheap holidays.

That's basically our conclusion! (Working PT is LOVELY though.)

Ideally 50. But as we just bought a new house and have two kids to put through university. That wont be happening.

Both DC will be over 25 when I turn 60. So they would be dependent and by then I should have paid off the mortgage. So that sounds like a good plan.

Earlier if I manage to save more so that I can support them through further education without working.

Hopefully 55 - mortgage will have been paid off a few years earlier and our youngest DC would be 23.

62 and due to being a single parent to 4 for most of my life, and losing out financially to a devious exh, I will never retire.

We retired at 55 and 56 with DH retiring at the end of last year.

We have final salary pensions, defined benefits and defined contributions mix. We both started investing when very young, housing was much cheaper versus salary that’s the real issue these days as it’s gone crazy. We did some high risk investing around 20 years ago and it paid off our mortgage. But that mortgage was only around 60k. We also had jobs that put us in top 10% of households for quite a few years plus we briefly dipped in to top 5% for a while. We have had no mortgage or rent since our late thirties.

@wherearemypastnames we also didn’t uplift our house and used the extra money to invest. We will now move in a couple of years and end up in something better for us. DH also got a good severance deal of a years salary, had been planning on retiring but it brought his retirement forward a couple of years.

On a smaller note I will ask for a discount, I have even done it in John Lewis and Clark’s. I first did it as a teen as a joke when I negotiated a discount getting in to a nightclub as how could they not give 5 sisters a discount. My most recent saving was £200 on a mattress, in that bed shop I could see the guys screen and they were allowed to give a 10% discount, I got it. DS is about to buy a new car, DH will look at the mechanics and I will enjoy brow beating the discount because after all they are used car sales and I have them in the same bracket as estate agents. A national used car dealership told me at the weekend they never give any discounts. By the end he admitted they did in some very specific circumstances.

Learn to read upside down, understand compound interest, always ask for the best deal.

Why do you think you have to "put your feet up and take up knitting"?

There are loads of things people may want to do when they have the time, i.e. learn new skills, travel abroad, take up new hobbies, voluntary work, etc.

It's when you're 70/80 or so that you'd put your feet up and take up knitting!

People are rightly wanting a different lifestyle between working their arses off and dribbling in a care home. The 50s and 60s are an ideal time to do it.

I hope to be able to afford to drop to working 3 days a week at 60, if I can do that then I won't be in any hurry to retire. I don't earn a lot but I do a job I think benefits society and I don't want to give that up.

If I am in a position to do so then I would like to support my (adult) children in securing their own futures in terms of housing and/or pensions as their generation has it harder.

Retired at 57.

From the day I left school I knew I wanted to be retired by 60 and did everything I could to enable this (I ignored the SP in my calculations which meant that the increase in SPA did not affect me). Overpaid the mortgage so it was paid off early, paid extra into my company pensions, joined company share schemes, always made sure savings were prioritised etc.
OH is 3yrs younger than me and is working PT for another couple of years before joining me.😁

I'm 38 now. Planning to retire at 48 at the latest.

I'll be working in my coffin 🙈

Early 30s and can't really work with a child with additional needs. I've been self employed as well as part time employed when able to work. I've paid my national contributions so maybe I'll just have a very frugal retirement. Health allowing if I could find a job I loved id be happy to work part time till it felt too much into 70s maybe.

I would absolutely love some time to travel. I had children young so missed out on hobbies and travel as well as building a career. Having health issues and a child with additional needs I've certainly learnt that nothing is guaranteed so as much as possible i plan to enjoy what I can.

I'm hoping to retire at 60. I had my kids in late 30s/early 40s though so I have to make sure they're set up.

I have been prioritizing pension payments and have other investments too. I salary sacrifice half my salary into my pension. I extended my house rather than scale up and decided against private school.

So hopefully can retire in a decade or so.

When the mortgage is paid off and I am in receipt of state pension.

I was a ftb in my late 30s. We had to take a 29 year mortgage to pass the affordability requirements. SE so mortgage is high despite the little house (saving grace there is utilities and maintenance costs aren't too horrendous). If we don't upsize we can probably have the mortgage paid off by 60.

Dcs will be uni age in our 50s.

We pay what we can into pensions (and more than auto enrolment) but it's unlikely we'll be able to take more than £8k income each a year out of them.

No inheritance for me. Dp may get something but will be <6 figures.

Our plan is to reduce the term when we remortgage with the aim of being mortgage free at 60. Then can work p/t or move to a cheaper part of the country and release the equity. Full retirement at state pension age.

Tomorrow if I could , work for local government and it's a shit show. In reality probably 59/60 when kids are through uni and self sufficient

Will have to work till I’m dead, probably.

I'm 50 now and so is DH. We have three teens who are all planning to go to uni (first one is already there) and it's so expensive. So I can't see us even thinking about retirement until we're 56/57. I doubt I'll be ready to retire then but DH might be! (Hates his job.)

I doubt it's overpaying of the mortgage

Run your figures through a calculator, and see just how much money you save by shaving a few years off your mortgage.

Compared to investing that money in a tracker fund at a higher interest rate?

Editing to add I know some people get a lot of comfort or sense of security from knowing their mortgage will be paid off sooner which is fine. But I just look at it economically and think higher % = good.

That having been said our mortgage isn’t huge so it’s quite affordable.

Mid-sixties is the earliest I could go, I think. I'm on a 40 year civil service job and started when I was 24, 47 now. I could inherit before that but it would mainly be a property that I want to hold on to and which would require significant renovation even now, never mind in twenty-something years. I'm older than DH too, but I have taken a month or two of career breaks, and will take more in the future, so we probably won't be too far apart in retirement by the time it comes around.

Retired early. Once mortgage is paid off you have more options. Remember you'll probably want to spend more when you first retire and then taper off.

65 and three months. It isn't very far away. I didn't plan it but I like work.