Not so much retire but not have to work full time. I enjoy what I do and can work for some decent pocket money one or two days a week, which is my plan in 4 years time at 55, for as long as I can or desire. Mortgages covered, children off my payroll as dependents by then, business sale plus a 24 year final salary investement in the Boots Company pension scheme, plus subsequent payments into a private scheme, should see me OK. Key thing is to have good health to enjoy.
There are an impressive number of people on this thread who have either already retired early or feel that they will be able to.
I am truly amazed at the same. It's odd because some of those very same people are among the first to get all hot and bothered whenever the subject of public sector pensions comes up and start banging on about gold plated pensions and everybody retiring early.
As a public sector worker already with more than 25 years in, I am absolutely 100% certain that even if I manage to keep my job there is no way on earth I will be retiring before another 25 years have passed. Then if my genetics run true to form I’ll die within two years. Triffic…
I see the LGA has announced today another year of the pay freeze (i.e a pay cut) hence that’ll add further to the time I’ll have to work before I can afford to retire.
I work for the NHS and could retire at sixty (I'm 56 now) by that time I will have accrued 20 years service and my gold plated occupational pension would not be sufficient. I will therefore have to plod on for a further six years until my state pension kicks in. Regardless of those two incomes I doubt I will have a wonderful retirement but I guess compared to some I'm lucky.
Didn't want to get involved in another pensions argument but can't help it. BA your Local Government pension is based on your FINAL year's salary. Your pay being temporarily frozen means you pay less, it has nothing to do with how your pension is worked out at retirement.
If you end up with the average salary scheme you went on strike for, your pension earned today goes up in line with inflation so you pay contributions on actual pay and get a pension based on inflated pay. What are you moaning about, your pension would be increasing relative to your pay.
I've yet to meet a public servant who has much idea how his pension scheme works but knows for certain when he is worse off.
I will probably have to work until at least 70, have a private pension but can't afford to pay more than £70 a month, apparently when I retire I will get £115 a month from it. Lucky me.
No chance of retirement for me. I'm 35, divorced with a daugther and life is a huge struggle just to make ends meet. Had to give up my car and I've had 1 holiday in the last 16 years. I just get on with it and accept I have to work my balls off just like my parents did.
Just hope I meet a rich woman or win the lottery. Bearing in mind I'm so skint and hardly go out anymore, there's more chance me winning the Euromillions than there is me meeting a woman full stop.
Don't know if i'm envious of not of those who have been able to stop working early. If you couldn't stand you job / profession, then good luck to you. But i know that if i was doing something that i enjoyed i'd want to keep doing it for as long as i could, regardless of the financial aspects.
The key for me over the next 20 years i suppose is not to aim to get out at that point, but to find a job / role that i enjoy and can take some pride in. That will do me.
However, i don't think the London Club should bother sending me any membership forms for the next few years ! Just worked out the percentage of my monthly salary me and the wife actually get to live on once all the bills are paid, and it truly is depressing.
Feel very sorry for the next generation. Life is not going to be easy for the majority.
I want to retire at 60 which is in 6 days time (29th which will also be my 15th proper brithday ). however looking at my pension projection for next week when it matures it will be when I'm 100
I think the dream of being retired is at its strongest the further you are away from it. 10 - 15 years ago i'd have loved to have retired but now i'm quite happy doing what i do and actually enjoy coming into work. I'm 40 now and recognise the need to push on more and start earning some serious money that will hopefully allow me to enjoy a decent retirement and help the kids get started. Once we pull out of recession, the opportunities will hopefully be there. The down side is will it be at the expense of my reasonably easy lifestyle at the moment? I've never chased the pound note as much as i could have and don't have a great pension but have nearly paid off my mortgage and have no debts and plan to start 'going through the gears' at work now. It's all about timing your run into the box i reckon but i'm a firm believer that you need to enjoy doing what you do and if you do, chances are you'll be successful at it.
I like what I do too much to retire - I will just wind down a bit. I guess my answer is "as long as I enjoy it".
I'm guessing you live in Thailand....wondering what it is you do for a living that you like so much tma........the mind boggles and the images are limitless!!
Well, I used to spend about three-quarters of my life in Thailand and other parts of Asia, but it's nearer a quarter to a third these days. No need for your mind to boggle too much - it's not a string of dodgy "bars" if that's what you're thinking.
originally I planned to retire between 55 and 60...........now looks like its going to have to be between 60 and 65.
you have to be going some to retire before age 55 nowdays.............unless you are a policeman, in mental health services or have been in a company pension scheme since aged 18.
Hey i'm in mental health services and for me it'll be 67. no early doors in the NHS nowadays.
If you want 2 retire b4 65 ur in the wrong job! You can only play so much golf or fish etc
Can't agree with this. Everyone is different and why is an arbitrary age the right number for everyone? Whenever people say that they'd get bored if they retired I personally see it as a huge lack of imagination. Of course if you love what you do then by all means carry on as long as you can, but if you work to live rather than the other way round then the sooner you can retire comfortably and indulge your real interests the better. I cannot wait.
horses for courses really. If you have a few kids and want to give them a decent start in life, naturally, you'd probably have to keep working. If like me and my wife you have no kids, no mortgage etc then why flog yourself to death. Retire early, maybe get a little local job to give you something to do plus a little bit of cash, enjoy life, travel the world etc. I could easily spend 6 months in Oz living at various relatives and have a whale of a time spending not a lot of dough. Beats working imo.
Don't know if i'm envious of not of those who have been able to stop working early. If you couldn't stand you job / profession, then good luck to you. But i know that if i was doing something that i enjoyed i'd want to keep doing it for as long as i could, regardless of the financial aspects.
The key for me over the next 20 years i suppose is not to aim to get out at that point, but to find a job / role that i enjoy and can take some pride in. That will do me.
However, i don't think the London Club should bother sending me any membership forms for the next few years ! Just worked out the percentage of my monthly salary me and the wife actually get to live on once all the bills are paid, and it truly is depressing.
Feel very sorry for the next generation. Life is not going to be easy for the majority.
My grandparents generation had it far harder than most now. As a society we perhaps need to get back to what it was like then a bit more ...saving up to afford things rather than over consumption and getting into self- imposed debt just to gratify ourselves because we "need" a holiday abroad, new car, new 3 piece suite, flash 60" telly, sky, game consoles, nights out every week etc which a lot of us our guilty of and has become deemed a right rather than a luxury .
Rioters arranging their escapades via blackberry's, donning £100 trainers and sports gear whilst pleading poverty summed up a sad reflection of the country we live in.
Go up the Glades or Bluewater on any given weekend and its rammed choka full of people putting stuff they dont really need on the plastic probably just to make themselves feel better.
Consumerism and celebrity are the new opiates of the masses.
no pension scheme at my current place of work, get paid weekly by the time i have paid the child minder bought the shopping for the week im lucky if i have £10 left for the week, as a 30 year old man it really is quite depressing how the future is looking. just dont have any spare funds to be putting away for when the day comes when i cant work anymore, i know it sounds morbid but i think my pension will come when the sad day comes and both my parents pass away, me and my sisters have been told that we are in there wills, sounds horrible to write stuff like this but with there policys and the house which will be sold it really could change our lifes and be a parting gesture that my mum and dad would be so happy to see us all comfortable, my dad is 72 and still working part time at buck house and dosnt look a day over 50 so expect him to still be working in his 80's so hope im a very old man by the time this happens.
Didn't want to get involved in another pensions argument but can't help it. BA your Local Government pension is based on your FINAL year's salary. Your pay being temporarily frozen means you pay less, it has nothing to do with how your pension is worked out at retirement.
If you end up with the average salary scheme you went on strike for, your pension earned today goes up in line with inflation so you pay contributions on actual pay and get a pension based on inflated pay. What are you moaning about, your pension would be increasing relative to your pay.
I've yet to meet a public servant who has much idea how his pension scheme works but knows for certain when he is worse off.
I'm well aware if how my pension is funded thanks Dipps but thanks again for another condescending post on the i subject.
My relating todays LGA announcement to my retirement is not based on my pension pot increasing in line with inflation or not but more around the point in life where I will be able to both afford to retire (because my financial commitments are at such a level) PLUS I have access to that retirement fund. As I said for me and pretty much all public sector workers that point is getting further and further away.
That might be what's making me less than happy do you think?
Don't know if i'm envious of not of those who have been able to stop working early. If you couldn't stand you job / profession, then good luck to you. But i know that if i was doing something that i enjoyed i'd want to keep doing it for as long as i could, regardless of the financial aspects.
The key for me over the next 20 years i suppose is not to aim to get out at that point, but to find a job / role that i enjoy and can take some pride in. That will do me.
However, i don't think the London Club should bother sending me any membership forms for the next few years ! Just worked out the percentage of my monthly salary me and the wife actually get to live on once all the bills are paid, and it truly is depressing.
Feel very sorry for the next generation. Life is not going to be easy for the majority.
My grandparents generation had it far harder than most now. As a society we perhaps need to get back to what it was like then a bit more ...saving up to afford things rather than over consumption and getting into self- imposed debt just to gratify ourselves because we "need" a holiday abroad, new car, new 3 piece suite, flash 60" telly, sky, game consoles, nights out every week etc which a lot of us our guilty of and has become deemed a right rather than a luxury .
Rioters arranging their escapades via blackberry's, donning £100 trainers and sports gear whilst pleading poverty summed up a sad reflection of the country we live in.
Go up the Glades or Bluewater on any given weekend and its rammed choka full of people putting stuff they dont really need on the plastic probably just to make themselves feel better.
Consumerism and celebrity are the new opiates of the masses.
I used to love my work, but over the last couple of years it's all got so serious! I used to do good work and have a chat and go to the pub a couple of lunchtimes a week. Not any more - even having lunch away from your desk seems to be frowned upon these days. Does this ring a bell with anyone else?
I thought I'd carry on working and never "officially" retire, but these days I can't wait for the day when I say goodbye to work for the last time... whenever that may be!
I used to love my work, but over the last couple of years it's all got so serious! I used to do good work and have a chat and go to the pub a couple of lunchtimes a week. Not any more - even having lunch away from your desk seems to be frowned upon these days. Does this ring a bell with anyone else?
Too right it does. Take an hour for lunch here (even sat at your desk) or head off home at 5.30 and you'll get looked at as if you have just pulled your strides down and walked across the office on your hands with a lit sparkler protruding from your backside.
Comments
As a public sector worker already with more than 25 years in, I am absolutely 100% certain that even if I manage to keep my job there is no way on earth I will be retiring before another 25 years have passed. Then if my genetics run true to form I’ll die within two years. Triffic…
I see the LGA has announced today another year of the pay freeze (i.e a pay cut) hence that’ll add further to the time I’ll have to work before I can afford to retire.
[sobs quietly to himself…]
BA your Local Government pension is based on your FINAL year's salary. Your pay being temporarily frozen means you pay less, it has nothing to do with how your pension is worked out at retirement.
If you end up with the average salary scheme you went on strike for, your pension earned today goes up in line with inflation so you pay contributions on actual pay and get a pension based on inflated pay. What are you moaning about, your pension would be increasing relative to your pay.
I've yet to meet a public servant who has much idea how his pension scheme works but knows for certain when he is worse off.
Don't know if i'm envious of not of those who have been able to stop working early. If you couldn't stand you job / profession, then good luck to you. But i know that if i was doing something that i enjoyed i'd want to keep doing it for as long as i could, regardless of the financial aspects.
The key for me over the next 20 years i suppose is not to aim to get out at that point, but to find a job / role that i enjoy and can take some pride in. That will do me.
However, i don't think the London Club should bother sending me any membership forms for the next few years ! Just worked out the percentage of my monthly salary me and the wife actually get to live on once all the bills are paid, and it truly is depressing.
Feel very sorry for the next generation. Life is not going to be easy for the majority.
My grandparents generation had it far harder than most now. As a society we perhaps need to get back to what it was like then a bit more ...saving up to afford things rather than over consumption and getting into self- imposed debt just to gratify ourselves because we "need" a holiday abroad, new car, new 3 piece suite, flash 60" telly, sky, game consoles, nights out every week etc which a lot of us our guilty of and has become deemed a right rather than a luxury .
Rioters arranging their escapades via blackberry's, donning £100 trainers and sports gear whilst pleading poverty summed up a sad reflection of the country we live in.
Go up the Glades or Bluewater on any given weekend and its rammed choka full of people putting stuff they dont really need on the plastic probably just to make themselves feel better.
Consumerism and celebrity are the new opiates of the masses.
if the question is what time /age do want to consider start taking a pension then 65
subject.
My relating todays LGA announcement to my retirement is not based on my pension pot increasing in line with inflation or not but more around the point in life where I will be able to both afford to retire (because my financial commitments are at such a level) PLUS I have access to that retirement fund. As I said for me and pretty much all public sector workers that point is getting further and further away.
That might be what's making me less than happy do you think?
I thought I'd carry on working and never "officially" retire, but these days I can't wait for the day when I say goodbye to work for the last time... whenever that may be!
Feeble minded culture.