60 this year. Frugal retirement or carry on?

[EmeraldJeanie]

I'm support staff at a school so not mega bucks! I have a small pension and lump sum I can claim at 60 (started ball rolling on this). Had 8 years not working (regret financially) but have been working in this role for getting on 11 years.
Work is tough. I am touch wood fit but just feel jaded. A TA in her 60s retiring this year and I am tempted!
Back of the envelope calculations means could do it if frugal. State pension would help increase income at 67.
I would do pre 2008 pension plus 10 years early taking one, topped up over 7 years by lump sum.
My husband needs to be on board. He is 58 so I want him to do back of envelope calculations as well for 60. He is much less impulsive than me!
We have paid off our mortgage though house could do with TLC. Have enough savings for new boiler/ bathroom etc if need be. To be honest, bathroom could stay in 70s glory as far as I'm concerned!
I have elderly parents, an unwell best friend and life seems short. However...and this is the big one...I have a child at University and another in sixth form and there are accommodation costs etc.
If I continue working it will be til 62 max. I will look at my numbers again! Whatever we do and whenever, it will be a caravan holiday retirement not a cruise one!!

However before leaving I did look at my investments, savings as well as pension forecasts.

@EmeraldJeanie look at your current outgoings. Would your retirement income cover it? How much of your savings will you need to dip into to bridge the gap to state pension? Could you find another job outside teaching?

I’ve just retired (2 months before 63rd birthday), my youngest finished uni in the summer and started work in September so I held on till then. However my husband is still working (also only 58) and I was bought out of my business so have a good cushion to live off. If you can manage another couple of years at least it probably would help long term but failing that it might be worth looking for a part time job somewhere else.

Thanks all. I shall look deeper into this.
Although a TA, expectations are high. There is absolutely no wriggle room or time to rest at any point. I have my unpaid half hour for lunch (trimmed at either end as no wriggle room). I am really bad at drinking so that can be my only drink of the day. Going to the toilet is not always easy! TA roles vary, but I always seem to be with tricky cohorts. I am also seen as easy going and each year I wait with trepidation with where I shall be. I may signpost this year my preferences more clearly...for what its worth. I am on my toes, physically and mentally.
Just a bit of context!

Retire now! The more you earn, the more you will be asked to contribute to your kid's university costs. I have friends who made a strategic decision to retire early to avoid exactly this problem.
Plus, you'll never get these years back. If you wait longer, you're less likely to have a long retirement to enjoy.

I used to work as a Business Manager in a primary school so I know what a hard job you have and the pay isn’t great. I’d definitely be thinking of retiring and getting something p/t if I found money was a bit tight.

I’m 62, also support staff at a school. I’m hopefully dropping to 3 days in September and then will retire fully at age 65. DH will be getting the state pension by then. I also have another pension that I could have taken at 60 but I’ve not touched as I am getting c.10% bonus for leaving it untouched. I will start taking it in September this year. I won’t take the lump sum. I will leave school pension in until I fully retire and take the c.9% hit for taking it early. I will have the option of a lump sum then too.
I am tired and have other things I want to do. DCs have graduated but not found career jobs yet but are working in hospitality, so they aren’t fully dependent but live at home still.
My boss is 75 and can’t understand why anyone would want to retire!

Why not quit the TA job and find something else that you might like more. You might even enjoy working at Waitrose. It doesn't have to be FT or paid well. It would give you a small income and keep your mind active

Do two more years.
But reassess one year in.

I have had 62 in my head for a while. Just need to keep my cool 😎 at work and see how things go.
Also, dh and I need to talk. He knows how I feel about us not wasting our 60s or time left with older relatives etc.
We need to check finances to see what feasible considering we have university considerations etc. Definitely at that squeezed age!

Several of us have asked the same question.

• How would you manage without your income? Where does it go now? Into a savings account for a rainy day or into the pot for daily expenses?

That's the key point to consider.

If you lose £1500 a month what will change?

And if you carry on working for 2 more years, how much will you save that you can make good use of when you retire?

2 years of work to 62, if you saved all your income, would be £36K.

That's a lot to throw away.

And it's a lot not to have if you spend most of it now each month.

There is so much more to this than you appear to be considering.

eg savings- do you have a good amount? If you have £250K in a nest egg, fine, stop work. If you have only £20k maybe not!

Inheritances- you can't 'bank' on any but is there a possibility of those down the line?

Long term you need to think of replacing cars , maybe having £12k each put aside for a hip replacement, (or wait 11-2 years on the NHS), ongoing repairs to the house (£2K for a new boiler fitting), family events you might want to help with like weddings or house deposits.

Have you done any longer term financial planning?

I do manage to save but not been keeping track properly so need to look more into what I am doing. I am not always careful but am trying to be more so. Got rid of unnecessary subscriptions recently. Trying to food shop more carefully/ sensibly etc. I have looked at how much I would have on pensions plus divided lump sum over 7 years.
It is doable but need to discuss with dh as depends on him too. Also, would freeze my savings as they stand whilst eating into lump sum getting from deferred pension this year.
It would be sensible to sit down and work it out together whilst still working at least another year in current job.
My dh and I have kept money separate as deal with it so differently. Since children he pays bills and I do food/ clothes/ top ups to kids etc. I paid first year accommodation for ds out of my savings. Dh 2nd year. He is paid more than me but has more expensive hobbies. We need to talk! I am back of envelope he will use modelling tool and is less impulsive than me.
My impulsiveness not aways bad! He was travelling with his brother when I bought our first flat in my name. It was a good buy. In part due to my see it and move quickly approach means we have now paid off mortgage on our jointly owned terrace as did so well on sale of flat. He dots every I and crosses every t which is often good but sometimes not!

I wish had 250,000 savings! Boiler is old as are electrics and plumbing. God life can be boring when being sensible!!

Inheritance is not going to happen dh side (too personal and boring to explain why). On my side at some point will get something but fortunately my Mum is hail and hearty and her Mum lived til her 90s. My Dad, unfortunately is not so good at the moment hence my thinking about spending more time with him.
I have a number of siblings so any money will be shared widely. Not counting on it or considering it in any calculations.

Track every expense for a year (ideally) but a six months, at least.
Colour code for work expenses, regular payments, irregular but you still want to do payments (like an unexpected wedding, a friend's big birthday lunch, whatever).
Estimate what your monthly pension income is likely to be and pay the excess into a savings account now.

I don't think you can really make an informed decision until you do the above. And maybe change your mindset to "I'm only ever [notice period away] from retirement" to give you a sense that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, if you need to go through Capita for your pension, you may not be paid for months. May be worth waiting until that has settled down a bit more.

When you say work aren't keen on part time, do you think you've anything to lose by asking?

I retired at 57 from secondary teaching so I understand school life can be tough but I'd never have retired unless I was financially secure and DH still working full time with decent salary. If I'd had a DC in Sixth Form I'd gave waited until they had finished their Sixth Form studies and probably completed at least 3 years of Uni. If you retire your youngest DC would have to take a larger student loan at uni than your eldest DC did and I wouldn't see that as fair on younger DC. If you didn't he AVE DC in the mix I think it would be different.

I do need to develop a more spreadsheet mentality. Doesn't come naturally!
Thanks everyone. I am not going to rush into anything.

I am 61, and always thought of retiring at 62/3 but I was walking down the corridor at work a fortnight ago and thought "I would miss this". Admittedly I do love my job, my colleagues are also great so I concluded whilst I still feel this way I will continue. I am so lucky to be perfectly fine health wise, I am a bit forgetful but have always been so no one has really noticed!
I am also fortunate to be single so I don't anyone else to consult.
Additionally I have a young adult still at uni but I don't have to contribute to him, if you were to give up work would that take you below the threshold to contribute? Because that would make a trade off more reasonable.

Mumsnet is full of parents who think their financial responsibility to their kids never stops. If you are comfortable, yes absolutely help them but you shouldn't impact your old age financial security when they are adults.

They could take a gap year and work and save for university. They could find a part time job whilst at university. Infact, they dont have to goto university they could take the apprentership route.

You say you feel jaded, so I wonder if the thing to do is to just find something different?
I may have missed it in one of your follow-ups but giving up work just because you’re jaded leaves you with a lot of space and time and will you feel you are purposefully filling that? Something that will keep you active and engaged?

With school a change of year group may well happen thus a change of cohort. We shall see.

I’d continue to work, OP, even if it’s not in your current job. I think that life is getting more expensive in more difficult. You’d need to have enough to deal with household maintenance and emergencies as well as care needs in the future

I really don't see how operating as single people re, finances it doable.

Your relationship sounds rather skewed- he pays less for some things because he has an expensive hobby.

You can't continue to do that if you are retired.

We've had a chat. I clearly want to retire more than he does. Reasons from him is that he would get bored and also wants to keep up with expensive hobbies. No issue with me retiring earlier than him. Still thinking of going til 62.
We have got enough for boys and university at present but me and dh need to plug figures in and, with up and coming household stuff on cards, be sensible.

Plan if don't throw in the towel!

1. Fill my deferred pension paperwork in. (ASAP. Got it all so just need to do).
2. Once that is all sorted arrange to pay more into my active pension through monthly pay. Looks like that should work. LPGS. Likely start for extra payments this September.

Thanks all for making me think! In the meantime will talk to work about where I might be next year expressing preferences.