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Retirement


Kidder said:
Figured bit of public sector. No disrepect intended. It's hugely not possible to retire early in private sector that early
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Not sure that’s true. I turn 55 next year. Only ever earned about average salary. It’s all about how much you’ve managed to put away and what you expect in the future.
My company have not been the most generous with how much they contribute, but far from the worst. They currently match personal contributions upto 7%.
I could retire fully if I really wanted to, but wouldn’t be flush. As it is I might work a couple of days a week in a lower grade job just to have some beer/holiday money. pension would cover the monthly costs. Wife likes her job and is going to continue working part time.
 
Nero the dog said:
Not sure that’s true. I turn 55 next year. Only ever earned about average salary. It’s all about how much you’ve managed to put away and what you expect in the future.
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Certainly, your own management has a major effect on your wealth, or lack of it.

Nero the dog said:
My company have not been the most generous with how much they contribute, but far from the worst. They currently match personal contributions upto 7%.
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Slim999 said:
In a couple of my public pensions, the organisation would put in 2 or even 3x my input .
Sofif I committed 8% , - they'd be putting in 16-24%.
This meant that some £12-£16k per annum was going in
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In a nutshell, private vs public pension provision.

I think current minimum employer contribution is 3%, so a good chunk of employees in private companies will only get that. Public sectors employees get far more.
 
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Kidder said:
Figured bit of public sector. No disrepect intended. It's hugely not possible to retire early in private sector that early
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Don't know how it's hugely not possible. I packed in at 56.
Slatz63 said:
Forgot to drop back in here to let you know I've given my notice. Retiring last day of February.
Four more paydays then dancing to my own beat forever. 🤠
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Great to hear. I finished in April can thoroughly recommend it 👍
 
NorbertColon said:
It's a different world when the end is in sight, and a better world at that.

In 5 weeks time we ( my wife retired the same day) will have been retired 7 yrs and we are only 62.
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Congratulations. I'm a little bit behind you, I'll be 61 in Feb when I hang up my work brain.
The two months since I gave notice and the three I've got left are fun. I feel free enough to be honest with people. Very liberating not caring what the high paid help think of you and not being bothered about an end of year review. :)
 
Slatz63 said:
Congratulations. I'm a little bit behind you, I'll be 61 in Feb when I hang up my work brain.
The two months since I gave notice and the three I've got left are fun. I feel free enough to be honest with people. Very liberating not caring what the high paid help think of you and not being bothered about an end of year review. :)
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Hope your last months are easier than mine, it was hell. My boss and ex boss nigh on completely blanked me for the 12 weeks, arseholes.
 
Matt Hopkins said:
Hope your last months are easier than mine, it was hell. My boss and ex boss nigh on completely blanked me for the 12 weeks, arseholes.
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I'm lucky, leaving with every best wishes. They were chuffed I gave 5 months notice. They've been able to recruit a replacement for me and they'll get a 2 month handover.
I want the business to succeed and I'm not burning any bridges. Never want to work again but want to leave on good terms.

Starting retirement with an intensive Spanish language course in March. Can't speak anything other than English and want to spend time off the beaten track in Spain so need some language skills.
 
I got an email about my Government pension a couple of weeks ago. I spent a lot of years working the winter here and dossing about Europe in the summer so about 10 years ago I worked out I would just have the 30 years NI contributions needed for a full state pension. Imagine my surprise when I found out I won't be getting a full pension because in 2016 the rules changed and you now need 35 years NI contributions to qualify. I can't even pay for the years I'm short because you can only go back 6 years. I've paid NI every year since I left school but it seems all these years where I've only paid between 30 and 40 weeks per year count for nothing as you need 52 or 53 weeks.
45 years self employed by the way and I paid into a private pension for the past 35 years.
 
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Matt Hopkins said:
Hope your last months are easier than mine, it was hell. My boss and ex boss nigh on completely blanked me for the 12 weeks, arseholes.
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Completely unacceptable, that's almost childish, when I was in charge people knew how I felt that because I told them (mainly in private) but would never have done something like that. As you say, complete arseholes.
 
Slim999 said:
Think he was talking more about average salary related pensions

Obviously if you've been in the super bracket or £60k+ per annum then retiring early is achievable

But you'd be in a small percentile that earned that much

In general for average salaries in the range £25k - £50k then the private pension will rarely deliver what the public pension can in terms of size of pot.

In a couple of my public pensions, the organisation would put in 2 or even 3x my input .

Sofif I committed 8% , - they'd be putting in 16-24%.

This meant that some £12-£16k per annum was going in
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Wow, private companies will often put in 2 x your contribution but with a maximum of !0% if you are lucky. Prior to retirment I was putting in 20% of salary for a few years bu the company only put in 10%. If the company had put in 40%, happy days but would never happens in the private sector.
 
Aldhun said:
Wow, private companies will often put in 2 x your contribution but with a maximum of !0% if you are lucky. Prior to retirment I was putting in 20% of salary for a few years bu the company only put in 10%. If the company had put in 40%, happy days but would never happens in the private sector.
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Mine pays 10% and I currently pay 25%. I wish that I had started hammering my pension payments a couple of years ago, but would never give up shit loads of great holidays and supporting the Sunderland economy heavily for the sake of boosting my retirement fund
houghton cut head said:
Mine pays 10% and I currently pay 25%. I wish that I had started hammering my pension payments a couple of years ago, but would never give up shit loads of great holidays and supporting the Sunderland economy heavily for the sake of boosting my retirement fund
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What people conveniently forget when it does come to Civil Service Pensions however, their pay has been shit for 40 years to get a very average pension. So whilst an AO on £22K may only pay 4.6% contribution and the Government 26%, they will have had a shite wage for 40 years and will get an £11k pension when they are 65
 
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Tuono said:
I got an email about my Government pension a couple of weeks ago. I spent a lot of years working the winter here and dossing about Europe in the summer so about 10 years ago I worked out I would just have the 30 years NI contributions needed for a full state pension. Imagine my surprise when I found out I won't be getting a full pension because in 2016 the rules changed and you now need 35 years NI contributions to qualify. I can't even pay for the years I'm short because you can only go back 6 years. I've paid NI every year since I left school but it seems all these years where I've only paid between 30 and 40 weeks per year count for nothing as you need 52 or 53 weeks.
45 years self employed by the way and I paid into a private pension for the past 35 years.
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I take it you've checked on the Government Gateway to see exactly what you're due to?
It's a misconception that you will need 35 years it only applies to people born this century, your payment will have been worked out using the 'transitionary' calculations.
Doesn't help you if you've had official confirmation but might help someone else 👍
 
Slatz63 said:
I'm lucky, leaving with every best wishes. They were chuffed I gave 5 months notice. They've been able to recruit a replacement for me and they'll get a 2 month handover.
I want the business to succeed and I'm not burning any bridges. Never want to work again but want to leave on good terms.

Starting retirement with an intensive Spanish language course in March. Can't speak anything other than English and want to spend time off the beaten track in Spain so need some language skills.
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That is the way it should be and the way I want to go. Have a polite conversation, possibly even a year in advance. Tell them I plan to leave, give them a date and offer to hand in my notice well in advance, help to recruit and induct a new person etc.

An employer taking the huff and blanking someone does them more harm than good. If someone was being shit with me, I'd be really tempted to save up all leave in the last year and hand in my notice, making sure either the long Christmas or Easter closure were included and my last day was a Sunday. I think I could actually trim a 3 month notice period down to about 7 weeks doing that. Then if you don't produce any handover notes or anything, what are they going to do, give you a bad reference for your next job....oh wait.

Far better to go out happy and supportive of each other.
houghton cut head said:
Mine pays 10% and I currently pay 25%. I wish that I had started hammering my pension payments a couple of years ago, but would never give up shit loads of great holidays and supporting the Sunderland economy heavily for the sake of boosting my retirement fund

What people conveniently forget when it does come to Civil Service Pensions however, their pay has been shit for 40 years to get a very average pension. So whilst an AO on £22K may only pay 4.6% contribution and the Government 26%, they will have had a shite wage for 40 years and will get an £11k pension when they are 65
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I'm not sure how they compare to university pensions, but that is currently about 9% employee, 21% employer pay in, with defined benefits up to earnings of £41k. For every year worked, you get 1/85 of that back per year as your pension. So someone on say £35k gets £412 per year for life (plus inflation).

Anything over that goes into a defined benefit, which is essentially just a savings account. I think it works where someone on say £45k has their account going up by about £50 per month.

Until recently, people paid in less, but got 1/75 out, so £35k would get £467 per year back.
 
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Need to get to work on my retirement plan now!

At 47 I'm targeting 55 as the age I'd like to retire (depending on if youngest goes to uni), or winding right down. Was recently lucky enough to be made redundant meaning I can get hold of my final salary pension (25/60th's) with no penalties at 55. My redundancy package allowed me to clear all debt (apart from mortgage), and I'm refusing to get into more, and I managed to jump straight back into employment with a firm where I contribute 5%, with the company 10%, so will have 8 years of that too, although probably won't get that until 65.

Aim of next 8 years is to get the mortgage paid off, which is around 50% of value, and buy a new camper van and get that paid off by renting it out, so that its all paid at retirement so I can head off exploring the UK/Europe, with the 25% lumper from my pot. Get excited thinking about it, and its still years away!
 
TheWanderer said:
Need to get to work on my retirement plan now!

At 47 I'm targeting 55 as the age I'd like to retire (depending on if youngest goes to uni), or winding right down. Was recently lucky enough to be made redundant meaning I can get hold of my final salary pension (25/60th's) with no penalties at 55. My redundancy package allowed me to clear all debt (apart from mortgage), and I'm refusing to get into more, and I managed to jump straight back into employment with a firm where I contribute 5%, with the company 10%, so will have 8 years of that too, although probably won't get that until 65.

Aim of next 8 years is to get the mortgage paid off, which is around 50% of value, and buy a new camper van and get that paid off by renting it out, so that its all paid at retirement so I can head off exploring the UK/Europe, with the 25% lumper from my pot. Get excited thinking about it, and its still years away!
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You sure about that? In April '28 the pension age goes upto 57. So you might have to wait a couple of years.
 
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