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Retirement

The trading time for money is a very succinct way of putting it and I'm almost done with that.

I'm also sick up.to the back teeth of people arguing over money. Every bloody project I work on has some greedy sod trying it on for shoddy workmanship or a cheeky b*gger charging for something they've not done.

The way some go on is dishonest to the point of criminality, e.g. theft.
Money can change people for sure , surprising how many are obsessed by it , seen It myself at work, some folk change when money is involved
 

Love to go for a long winter sun break but the wife won't go for more tham 2 weeks.

Interesting but the example they give of someone at 60 wanting to take out a fixed term annuity bridging the state penison till 67 and needing 500K is eye watering. I doubt most 60 year olds on this board would have that sort of money but I stand to be corrected.
How much did £500k pay over 7 years? Sounds a ridiculous amount.
Yes I'm too lazy to watch it :D
 
I’m still in my early 50s and I’m still disinterested in my job so I’ve been pondering …

Whether to semi-retire at 55 before the age increases to 57 in 2028.

I could use £££ from a SIPP and shares/cash ISAs and perhaps supplement that with a part-time job.

I could defer my main local government pension until I am 60 because the terms would be better.

A sort of staged approach.

Or I could take from SIPP, ISAs and local government pension when I’m 57.

There are conundrums and choices. The big factor stopping me from retiring at 55 or 57 is that I wouldn’t have much of a lump sum for emergencies or big purchases.
That’s exactly what I’m planning except for the part time job bit as I can’t help think I’d resent working for minimum wage when I could have stayed on part time at current pay. Have cut my income down now to what I’ll have if / when I do go at 55 by putting half my pay into an AVC and still managing to do everything I need and save some plus mortgage is done in 5 months.

The debate for me is leaving CS pension til 60 or even 67 and depleting savings instead - would get about £6k a year at 55 versus £12 at 67. If PIP stays a thing would deffo leave it for at least a few years like
 
That’s exactly what I’m planning except for the part time job bit as I can’t help think I’d resent working for minimum wage when I could have stayed on part time at current pay. Have cut my income down now to what I’ll have if / when I do go at 55 by putting half my pay into an AVC and still managing to do everything I need and save some plus mortgage is done in 5 months.

The debate for me is leaving CS pension til 60 or even 67 and depleting savings instead - would get about £6k a year at 55 versus £12 at 67. If PIP stays a thing would deffo leave it for at least a few years like
Thanks for that 👍

I’ve been investing via AVCs too so could take it all tax-free when I take the local government pension. I was planning to use it to clear any remainder of the mortgage but it would come in handy as a cash fund for big purchases.
 
Thanks for that 👍

I’ve been investing via AVCs too so could take it all tax-free when I take the local government pension. I was planning to use it to clear any remainder of the mortgage but it would come in handy as a cash fund for big purchases.

I would check the rules of your scheme.
I was in the civil service pension scheme and had also started an AVC.
When I went on a retirement course, run by Deloites, I was informed that I could combine the two pots to calculate the 25% tax free sum, which would mean i could take the AVC as tax free cash..
However when I was due to retire and I enquired with the CSPS and my AVC provider I was advised by both that I could not effectively combine the schemes and take the AVC as tax free cash. The scheme rules did not allow this.
This was an unpleasant surprise at the time but didn't change my retirement plans.

I hope that your scheme does allow you to do as you wish, but may be best to check.
 
That’s exactly what I’m planning except for the part time job bit as I can’t help think I’d resent working for minimum wage when I could have stayed on part time at current pay. Have cut my income down now to what I’ll have if / when I do go at 55 by putting half my pay into an AVC and still managing to do everything I need and save some plus mortgage is done in 5 months.

The debate for me is leaving CS pension til 60 or even 67 and depleting savings instead - would get about £6k a year at 55 versus £12 at 67. If PIP stays a thing would deffo leave it for at least a few years like

Just remember at 67, youll lose 20% in tax, so taking early youll pay less tax on it
 
I would check the rules of your scheme.
I was in the civil service pension scheme and had also started an AVC.
When I went on a retirement course, run by Deloites, I was informed that I could combine the two pots to calculate the 25% tax free sum, which would mean i could take the AVC as tax free cash..
However when I was due to retire and I enquired with the CSPS and my AVC provider I was advised by both that I could not effectively combine the schemes and take the AVC as tax free cash. The scheme rules did not allow this.
This was an unpleasant surprise at the time but didn't change my retirement plans.

I hope that your scheme does allow you to do as you wish, but may be best to check.
The AVCs are ran by prudential but are a part of the LGPS. I’ve have a email somewhere from the scheme that explains what I should receive.

Tax-free cash​

If you take your AVC plan at the same time as your main Scheme benefits, you can take up to 100% of it as tax-free cash. You can do this as long as your total lump sums from the LGPS are not more than:

  • 25% of the total value of your LGPS benefits, including the AVC plan
  • £268,275
  • £268,275 less any tax-free lump sums you have already taken from pensions.
 
Oh this is an important factor - thanks for pointing that out !

It is indeed. If you have no other income between 55 and 67 then it makes it much more attractive to take the money earlier. (Same applies if you'd be a 40% tax payer at 67 Vs 20% at 55).

£6k tax free is equivalent to £7.5k taxed. So if wait until 67 to take £12k per year you'd need to live to roughly 82 to 'break even'.

Different for everyone but by 82 I reckon I'd be content to have got there rather than annoyed I missed out on extra £s by waiting.

Edit: Not financial advice. Just my personal outlook.
 
I’m the same mate I didn’t work all these years to become a nanny or be at someone’s beck and call.
It’s nice but takes some settling in to but everyone’s different. I tell ya It’s nice being able to say Ahhh fukkitt I’m away to where ever to see one of me mates. Or getting a midweek afternoon “fancy a pint the morra” text
I don’t live with my partner and we share a dog so that works well like.
I bloke I worked with did this all wrong.

He had two daughters who for a while worked at the same place. They would be forever popping in for money, and he was always a pushover. Then one of them got pregnant and her boyfriend moved in. Her room could not fit a double bed, so the boyfriend slept on the sofa. If they woke up in the middle of the night, he could not go down to the living room, and often could not go in there on a morning either if the boyfriend was sleeping in.

Then as he retired, the baby was born, so his daughter went back to work and he became the full time nanny.

65 years old, a good career and the end result was living in a house with a baby, not being able to use your own living room and spending all your retirement 'freedom' doing baby care (which is the hardest work). The daughter would often go out or away for weekends and not even ask, just hand him the child, pick up a bag and be off.

I think I'd rather keep working, and be telling the boyfriend to fuck off or find somewhere for the three of them to live.
 
I bloke I worked with did this all wrong.

He had two daughters who for a while worked at the same place. They would be forever popping in for money, and he was always a pushover. Then one of them got pregnant and her boyfriend moved in. Her room could not fit a double bed, so the boyfriend slept on the sofa. If they woke up in the middle of the night, he could not go down to the living room, and often could not go in there on a morning either if the boyfriend was sleeping in.

Then as he retired, the baby was born, so his daughter went back to work and he became the full time nanny.

65 years old, a good career and the end result was living in a house with a baby, not being able to use your own living room and spending all your retirement 'freedom' doing baby care (which is the hardest work). The daughter would often go out or away for weekends and not even ask, just hand him the child, pick up a bag and be off.

I think I'd rather keep working, and be telling the boyfriend to fuck off or find somewhere for the three of them to live.

Fuck that
 
I bloke I worked with did this all wrong.

He had two daughters who for a while worked at the same place. They would be forever popping in for money, and he was always a pushover. Then one of them got pregnant and her boyfriend moved in. Her room could not fit a double bed, so the boyfriend slept on the sofa. If they woke up in the middle of the night, he could not go down to the living room, and often could not go in there on a morning either if the boyfriend was sleeping in.

Then as he retired, the baby was born, so his daughter went back to work and he became the full time nanny.

65 years old, a good career and the end result was living in a house with a baby, not being able to use your own living room and spending all your retirement 'freedom' doing baby care (which is the hardest work). The daughter would often go out or away for weekends and not even ask, just hand him the child, pick up a bag and be off.

I think I'd rather keep working, and be telling the boyfriend to fuck off or find somewhere for the three of them to live.
Said this loads of times recently we have raised a fukkin selfish generation. Tried to give them what we didn’t have but fukk me hasn’t it backfired.
 
Just remember at 67, youll lose 20% in tax, so taking early youll pay less tax on it
That's what I'm up to at the moment ... take one of my pensions now with the 25% tax free lumper up front and the rest paid monthly for 5 years ... will take me to 66 and a bit and others kick in at 65 and then the state one at 67 ... I'll bung the 25% in an ISA and use the monthly stuff for living l, keeping all me other savings in ISA's and some premium bonds for a bit of fun. Pointless taking it later and paying tax as the state pension will be at the tax threshold anyway.
 
I think packing it in at 57 and doing something p/t sounds good. If you can.

Not sure i'd be able to do nothing tbh. 3 days a week.... tues-thurs sounds canny.
I'm half tempted by that. I have been aiming for 58 (still 9 years, 8 months away!) to go completely, but if I can't quite afford it or get to 57 and want to leave the job I'm in, I'm well known in the community where I work and take a leading role on one committee, so one option might be throwing out there on various forums that I'm retiring but would be available for project/consultation work. Certainly if I did that today, I think a few places would be interested in getting me in.
 
I'm half tempted by that. I have been aiming for 58 (still 9 years, 8 months away!) to go completely, but if I can't quite afford it or get to 57 and want to leave the job I'm in, I'm well known in the community where I work and take a leading role on one committee, so one option might be throwing out there on various forums that I'm retiring but would be available for project/consultation work. Certainly if I did that today, I think a few places would be interested in getting me in.
Don't wish your life awa5wait8ng for retirement, enjoy the moment.
 
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