The Retirement Thread

[PaulSB]

It’s always worth knowing that women can claim for a number of years NI if they are bringing up children 😀

Yep. We've done all we can on this. For reasons we cannot fathom Mrs P still seems to need another three years contributions. She'll gain £35/week so very worthwhile.

We've stopped chasing it for the moment - obvious reasons - as we have three years before she gets her SP.

 

[PaulSB]

You've still not found what you're looking for!!

Just haven't got round to buying it!

 

[PaulSB]

@clid61 may I echo @Exlaser2 's advice. It's very important to understand all your expenditure before you retire. I do mean everything, coffees out, newspapers, it's easy to remember the big stuff but it's the minor things which mount up. We cut a lot of unnecessary day to day spending and I still put plenty of effort in to finding good deals on energy, insurance etc.

I went through 12 months of bank and credit card spending to discover our costs. If you have online banking you should be able to download all this in to a spreadsheet.

We have two pensions which cover careful but comfortable living. Bikes, holidays, big household items, etc. all come out of savings or draw down from my private pension - we don't take income from this as to do so would put me above the tax threshold.

We planned it this way. We know how much we can spend from our savings and/or draw down annually until we are 100. Once Mrs P's state pension kicks in we don't have to touch either.

Of course much depends on one's attitude to inheritance. The kids will get the house but I hope the bank account will have very little in it! Too much and I haven't had a good retirement

 

[screenman]

Morning all, first coffee consumed and now wondering what to do with the day after my swim.

 

[Paulus]

Good morning all.
An early start today.
It's going to be a grey cloudy day, all day.

 

[Mo1959]

Morning. Long lie for me this morning.

Roads are still wet and no doubt the trail will be muddy but I will head out for a walk at first light. Fed up going out in the dark so be nice to actually be able to see the scenery for a change. Probably means I will struggle to go out on the bike later, but I might try a short one. I am definitely a morning exerciser.

Paul, I thought The Sister was ok but never really got as gripping as I was hoping.

 

[welsh dragon]

Morning from a very squelshy Wales. I had enough of listening to the rain and decided to get up. It hasn't stopped for 24 hours. O can hear the rain and see a he of a lot of most outside

On the plus side, it's gone quite warm here.

Stay safe folks.

 

[Drago]

Like Rudy Giuliani's man vegetables in a Borat film, I have risn!

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Morning all, bright and breezy today. Autumn leaves still looking good for now.
For the weekend we will need one of these but with the umbrella held horizontally and inside out.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Good morning folks

 

[clid61]

Thank you all for the advice , it was something niggling me for a while , I'll certainly be taking all advice on board and investigating.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

If you are thinking of retiring early be realistic about how much you really need to live on . I retired last year , I had three pensions . I took two as monthly income which gives me about £1300 a month , the third I took as a draw down which I haven’t touched yet . I have no mortgage or loans and the money pays all my day to day bills BUT doesn’t pay for holidays or one off expenditure ie bike , boats , white goods etc. Luckily my wife still works fours days a week so her money pays for all these things. But if she wasn’t working I would have had to dip into savings or my draw down pension to pay for these things . The trouble with being retired is you have more time to spend money lol . Retiring early is great , but please please be realistic about how you are going to live .

I have the state pension, pension credit plus a small works pension, gives me £850 a month coming in, my Good lady gets 40% of a state pension, we're fine with day to day expenditure but big unexpected bills are a challenge.

 

[Dave7]

If you want to get the maximum you can get, you may have to pay extra NI contributions to cover the years from 2016 until you get the State Pension if you retire before state pension age.
I've recently paid just under £3000 to bring my contributions up to scratch.
It sounds a lot, but it's a no brainer considering the return on capital outlay.
You need to check this out as you may not get as much state pension as you initially thought.

I had a full pension but paid to bring MrsDs up to 100%. As you say "a no brainer". Sounds morbid but you have to equate lump sum vs pension payout vs life expectancy .......we got value after 3 years and that was 7 years ago.

 

[Dave7]

If you are thinking of retiring early be realistic about how much you really need to live on . I retired last year , I had three pensions . I took two as monthly income which gives me about £1300 a month , the third I took as a draw down which I haven’t touched yet . I have no mortgage or loans and the money pays all my day to day bills BUT doesn’t pay for holidays or one off expenditure ie bike , boats , white goods etc. Luckily my wife still works fours days a week so her money pays for all these things. But if she wasn’t working I would have had to dip into savings or my draw down pension to pay for these things . The trouble with being retired is you have more time to spend money lol . Retiring early is great , but please please be realistic about how you are going to live .

We dip into savings every month but that is, as they say, because we can.
We both get full state pension and I get £3K per year private pension.
We have decent savings and (as I am 73) can afford to help the family out as needed.

 

[Dave7]

It’s always worth knowing that women can claim for a number of years NI if they are bringing up children 😀

MrsD did that plus x years as carer for her poorly mother.