How old were your children when you retired?

[pollypocketss]

Did their age/needs impact your decision of when to retire?

Please share your experiences and thoughts :)

DH 62, me 60; DS 24, employed (prof) 1 year, living at home; DS 22 just starting his final year at uni.

We did do the maths to ensure we could support him and us through that year; but in the event, I'm doing a better paid bank job so we do have spare cash.

I should add both my two have £60k each as an inheritance.

Our DS will be about 10 when we both retire.I was mid 40’s when he was born and DH late 40’s.

I have a very high income so we are working until we have enough spare to fund all the school fees and then we’ll retire.

Mine were 23 and 21. If I had known when I retired that I would support them through postgraduate study I might have worked a couple more years.

Just wondering if you'd consider re-training to do a different kind of job further down the line?

That's what I've done and I'm self-employed so can work the hours that suit me. Admittedly it's more precarious than a salaried job but I think I can happily continue until I'm 70 working around ten hours a week. It means that I can keep my savings and supplement my pension when I need to further down the line.

I’m 57 and my youngest has just started at uni, I don’t plan to retire for many years and probably not before state retirement age, which will be 67 for me. The kids’ ages are extremely important to my plans, DH and I expect to need to provide quite a bit of financial support in the next 10 years. I also have a DS who is 22 and now living back at home rent free, it’s likely to be a few years before he is financially self supporting. Sadly we rent rather than own property but we hope to be able to purchase a small flat when we retire and this does seem doable on current salaries, outgoings and savings, my DH is full time and I work 4 days a week, and may increase this to 9 days a fortnight next year, as I do have more time to spare with my youngest away.

Should add that I consider myself lucky in that I can wfh 2 days a week and enjoy my job!

Can't retire until I get my state pension in 5 years (just really bad lack of financial planning on my part and dh not much better). At that time, dd will be 24 and I sincerely hope she will be financially self-sufficient as we will not be able to help her further (currently paying uni rent). That does worry me (quite a lot) - but if I were able to - I'd retire tomorrow! Hoping I might go PT.

My mum retired at 60 and then looked after my DS and my niece for 1 day a week each. So I would have been 28/29.

My dad only retired at 76 as he enjoyed the social part of his job and only left as it was physically too much for him. I would have been about 44 I think.

My DS is already 18 and starting to earn his own money so he's probably not the main factor in the decision - although paying the mortgage off definitely is! Mortgage should be gone by the time I'm 48 to maybe mid 50s? I love my job though although I would like to potentially go part time and more time to do stuff I enjoy.

DH and I are in our mid-40s and discussing this as we want to ttc (ivf) one last time (we also have dsd who is almost finished at uni, and ds who is 4 who I had when I was 40).

We accepted we were going to be older parents than we liked during our ivf struggles and so maximised pension and ss isa investments. We didn’t buy the biggest house we could afford because we wanted to leave room for regular savings and investments. We started this in our early to mid 30s so not much younger than you.

As a result of this we’re now in a far better position now than we planned for. We have approx 700k in pension / isa / non-isa / sip investments right now and might be in a position to retire a bit earlier (late 50s/early 60s instead of mid-60s) and live comfortably while still paying for school fees / uni costs / weddings.

We’re independantly researching our options as financial advisors have recommended we don’t make any changes or seek paid advice until we reach the 1m mark as our funds choices are broadly good. They’ve asked us to sit down and properly plan what a decent retirement would look like for us and work backwards off that - so that might be an option for you?

It might be useful for you to begin investing if you haven’t already. Hargreaves Lansdown is a good option for newbies if needed.

Thank you, that was very sound advice.

My husband and I started investing into properties when I was in my 20s, we have a little portfolio now and hope to clear the mortgages with rental income and they'll be a stream of income when we do choose to retire and then a stream of income for our children when they do inherit.

We save into ISAs/Bonds/pensions etc but have a long way to go before I feel ready to retire just based on that. Guess it depends on what I want for my children and how much I want to support them - enough to give them a head start at least...

Am 51 and can't see me retiring (health issues aside) for another 10 years minimum when kids will be mid/ late twenties - my mortgage runs til am 74! My partner is aiming for 60 when his kids will be 25 & 22. Am amazed at how many are retiring before 60!

Retirement age next month.
Mine are 40 and 32.
But l retired years ago.
When they were 9 and 3.

Hoping to go in two years, when the youngest leaves university.
I might go for more of a slow drift into fewer projects, though, rather than a strict date (I'm self employed).

I'm retiring next year (from teaching but will be doing some part time work) I'll be 56 and 6months.

My kids will be 25 and 22.

So you retired in your 30s?

I’d say that’s more being a SAHM who never went back to work! Or do you mean you had accumulated so much money up to that point that you had an income to last you the rest of your life?

Mine will be 46 and 43 when I hit retirement age! Although hope to retire sooner than that, my kids won't have any impact on my retirement age. Grandkids maybe 🤷‍♀️

Kids are 8 and 10.

DH and I are both retired. I'm late 40s, he's 50s.

I retired this year.

Yes..
I got thrown under a bus and left for dead by an ex ( he got jailed for attempted murder) l was in a coma for 6 months and was left severely disabled.
So yes l became a single SAHM.
16 years later l got a few million pay out.

@P0intsearching ooops!

Indeed! What are the chances?!

I’m currently planning to retire at 60, when the kids will be 29, 27 and 22. I’m 37 now.

I’ve always prioritised pensions (20% of income since I was late 20s) so have/should have a healthy pot. I’m going to focus on ISAs now as well (have c£40k savings which doesn’t feel enough for my income, but have been hammered by childcare). DH is basically penniless but his job is his passion so he will probably never retire!

Retired at 58, children aged from mid 20s to early 30s, all working and largely self-funding with sporadic handouts.

The other interesting question is, when you retired, were your own parents still alive?
Mine died years ago, but DH and I both felt that while his were still alive it seemed wrong that our adult children (in their 20s, just starting out in their careers) were having to support (through their taxes), two generations of retired people. We both retired a few months after DH's last parent died (we were in our mid 60s).

I've been retired for over two years and my parents are still alive. They were quite young when they had me. I'm not going to keep working into my seventies for no better reason than my parents' longevity.