I was quite chuffed the other day to discover that if I die whilst still working in local government (and after thirty two years of it I’m not looking to move elsewhere) my loved ones get three times my final salary.
Reading this thread, I'm beginning to think that TZUK ought to be split into TZ-UK-Basic-Rate-Or-Lower and TZ-UK-Higher-Rate-Or-Higher.
That way those of us that only aspire to a working wage similar to the retirement "wage" of others can enjoy our Aldi prosecco, Skoda and Vostok lifestyles blissfully unaware of the Krug champagne, Porsche and Hublot ownership within the gated community.
Time to drag my elderly, decrepit frame back t' grindstone...
I one of the lucky ones who still has a final salary pension, and have been paying into it since I was a young lad.
I’m 51 and it’s currently worth £40k per annum for life, and rising at the rate of ~£2.5k per year. I can take it unreduced at 60, given I was a member scheme before they changed the rules to 65 in 2006.
So, if I go at 55 it’’ll be worth £50k pa. But will take a charge of 3% pa for every year I retire before 60 by Company agreement (4% if not). So, at 55 I will get a not to shabby £40k to £42.5k pa.
If I work until 60 (unlikely), it’ll be over £60k pa, but I don’t need that amount, and life’s too short.
All my mates in the same industry went contracting in their 30s and doubled their salary overnight. I thought I was a mug staying as a permie on half their income. But, on hindsight it was the best thing I ever did.
That is a great position to be in! Playing the long game has definitely worked in your favour. I sometimes wonder if those that I know that have been contractors for a long time made much provision for their older age. Having said that, I know lots of people that have only ever been employed as permanent employees and they have almost zero provision in place.
58. It was a simple calculation. What I was being paid to work, A. What I would get as a pension if I retired, B
A - B = C, What I was actually working for.
As C wasn't worth the aggravation of working it was a clear and simple choice.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
I'm 51, and I suspect I won't be retiring particularly soon, mainly because I have a daughter who has another 7 years school fees followed by (hopefully) university...
That said, I'm in the fortunate position position of having a job I love and enjoying going to work every day, so I'm not in any rush. The commute (from the 'burbs into central London) is increasingly onerous however, and at some point this is what will lead to me retiring, I suspect.
My wife and I have decent pots at the moment (~£500k each) but I think our taste in holidays will soak up most of what that returns ;) Fortunately we're nearly mortgage free, so that will help free up a few quid each month.
Good decision on the FS DB scheme - I'd give my right arm for one, I'm at the mercy of DC (ignoring the DIS upside). With that tidy pension, you'll be able to afford a TAG or several pairs of gloves. [P.S. I don't count myself in the posh boys club.]
Are the DB schemes index linked? Not that I have one.
Many think the official CPI figure is cooked.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate...flation-charts
This has been on my mind recently for a variety of reasons.
49, kids 13 & 17 (state schools, hopefully university bound) & a late arrival aged 4. A job that's undeniably very well paid, but new boss & new owners mean the stress is rising exponentially (albeit i believe i cope better than most) & despite running one of the few areas of the Co actually making money, job security is starting to feel shaky. The enjoyable aspects of the job are diminishing vs the grind. Nowhere in the industry is great, so new start isn't the answer.
Planned to work until 65, only started properly investing in Pension at 30, over that & other pots have c.850k, 13 years of mortgage to go with 400k remaining & equity of say 700k, likely a few opportunities to take proper lumps off it in next few years so hopefully can accelerate that time frame.
Quietly, not discussed with wife or IFA yet, i am starting to think max 60 & out. Not enjoying it, too many horror stories of minimal healthy years after work (it's not the healthiest industry from a lifestyle perspective).
Not like me to share like this on the 'net generally, but it's been on my mind a lot, so timely to start thinking about either upping provisions (tricky) or scaling down retirement income, but actually enjoying some years after work.
If you want to crunch some numbers there are a number of pension providers with calculation pages to try out some scenarios:
https://www.direct.aviva.co.uk/myfut...anner/AboutYou
Basic Rate? I may be one of the untouchables! I can retire this year at 60 if I can manage on just short of £100 per week.
I spent my career initially in the green suit, then years making other people wealthier, then finally in the public sector, hence the gold plated £100 per week pension. Through most of my life there has been nothing left over to put into a pension, and I have hardly lived a life high on the hog. I don't have the responsibility of my own property as the BTLers were able to offer more. Luckily I am able to take pleasure in the simpler things, and I have no one to impress, but with a death in service pot of over £50k, and a history of early deaths in the family, there is little point going on to retire at 66 1/2.
I cut my hours to 4 days a week several years ago because I felt that time was more valuable than the amount that I was getting paid for it. When you earn this little it is not a great loss. I have never really had much interest in being wealthy. I wanted enough to live on plus a little bit. Most of all I wanted to be happy and healthy. If you covered up the badge on you car it's unlikely that I would have a clue what it was. If I could afford a vanity plate, I would give the money to the foodbank instead. I have almost always wanted different things to others. I would rather be cycling around the Cairngorms that sat on some foreign beach getting a tan. Air travel has become too loathsome for me to cope with unless I absolutely have to. The only thing that I regret is not living in a nice house in a nice area, although I suspect where I live now has a better view than most have, and my neighbours are excellent. I can see the hills and the (sea) voe from my house. I wouldn't want to live on a new estate where the houses are big, but there is barely a shoulder's width between you and your neighbour.
I'm still baffled at how some of you have gotten such large pots. I'll put it this way. My salary is pretty decent. I'm not going to say what it is other than the fact I'm only allowed by HMRC to pay in £10k a year tax free to my pension. I'm 42 and my pension pot is a fraction of what many of you are saying you have although given current payments into pension and investment strategy I'll be at the lifetime allowance figure at around age 62.
Despite having a decent salary I have zero savings - mostly due to divorce and also paying medical Bills for my son when he was hospitalised long term overseas a few years ago. Plus seeing my beloved father save for an amazing retirement only to die of cancer 6 months before it (and then have his assets all hoovered by his ex wife) I've decided to enjoy many of the finer things in life now which is why I don't sh*t the bed when I flip a watch on SC at a £1.5k loss a month after buying it because it is just money. Have around £390k mortgage left on a flat in London which I'll clear off at pension taking time at 62. Have a property in Thailand and land there via the missus, plus will inherit half of a house in a nice area of Poole in Dorset.
Wife has no pension whatsoever as she has to look after our disabled son although now she gets NI credits towards a state pension. She won't get a full one Am thinking of starting a trivial pension of around £100 a month for her just so that will be worth around £45k in 20 years and allows us to take some more money out tax free. Massive shame she can't work as she had a great job previously but life is what it is.
So in theory I should have a way bigger pension than most of you but actually I'm asset poor in comparison. Employer is a tech start up (albeit owned by a VC firm funded by a big tech giant). Pension contributions from employer are the bare minimum ( around £1,300 a year) but on the flip side on top of aforementioned salary I get annual stock that is worth anything between £25k and £140k depending on what the eventual sale price of the company is (reality is somewhere in the middle). Knowing my luck HMRC will find a way to tax me on that too so perhaps an enhanced pension contribution would be better but obviously the upside is better. Job security wise I dont worry about my ability to keep earning this salary long term as the reason is I enjoy and am passionate about galvanising teams around a purpose and making a business much more effective. Because of my passion for it I end up being good at it and taking a leadership role in start ups seems to be an ideal environment for me as a result and opportunities consequently present themselves.
So I figure that whilst circumstances dictate that we may not end up with as much as others, what we have (multiple properties plus I'm usually able to make a business more effective and enjoy that meaning there's always a project to keep me occupied) means we will be comfy enough. Theres always the danger of working 2 more years to get that extra £10k a year pension spend only to realise that you didn't need it and you just got cancer or a stroke and wish you'd got off the train a few years earlier. Or you don't get sick but are too old to enjoy much of what the world offers
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Last edited by ryanb741; 1st February 2020 at 08:42.
Ryan, it’s not about how much you earn but how much you save — and there are more ways than saving than just a pension. Though buying a watch and flipping it for a £1.5k loss a few days later is probably an indicator of where the problem lies :-)
I probably earn less than 1/4 of what you do so I had to get inventive when thinking of retirement planning. I went down the BTL route, but there are other options. You need to make your money work harder, especially when you have less of it to begin with.
So for me, I set a goal of £1.2m by the age of 55. I set that goal at age 38 (I’m 42 now, same as you) so worked out what I needed to put in to get there and I do it religiously. I ploughed everything in at the start. And if I need (for example) 5k to put into the BTL business this year, that gets done regardless of what nice trinket appears in SC.
Now no one can predict the future so things could all go belly up at any stage, but you can’t work that into a plan really.
Last edited by demonloop; 1st February 2020 at 06:58.
I'd planned to finish at xmas and as luck would have it redundancies came up so I volunteered and was accepted, as was everybody else you volunteered.
It wasn't a big amount as I'd only been there 4 1/2 years and was only on an average wage.
At 61 with knackered knees after 45 years of manual work I'd had enough.
Ive got 2 final salaries to take or get a CETV??? a small stake holder pension at the last firm and another final salary that I've been taking since I turned 50.
I'm not making a decision with the main 2 final salaries till June when I'll start seeing IFA's.
Oh, and the state pension forecast says I'll get about 50p more than the average of £169.
Makes sense. To clarify, I don't include my property and that of my wife as part of the retirement pot, I only classify the SIPP as pension assets. Re saving it makes total sense of course but I saw my father do this only to die before retirement and not be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour. So that hit home too. But I guess already having a home to move to overseas combined with being able to rent out a London apartment to part fund retirement is helpful. I'd imagine we will always need to look after our son and he has no siblings so I would want my pot to remain substantial after the death of my wife and I in order to fund support for him after we are gone, but of course the properties would form a big part of this.
Ryan
The figures being quoted on here aren’t the norm, they are very high compared to the majority of people (possibly this being a watch forum and people here may earn more than the average?). Also if any are final salary schemes that have been transferred across, the values paid in recent years have been quite staggering. Reality is throughout the U.K. pension planning was and still is very low for a lot of people. The automatic enrolment for employees was introduced to combat this and with increasing employer contributions it will, but it will take decades I guess to see the results.
If it’s viable for you, you can pay £2,880 into a pension for your wife every year and with tax relief that will make it £3,600. You could even do that for your son. Regarding your employment and with the pension restrictions due to salary, being a start up, I’m wondering if you could restructure your package in a more efficient way? It being a start up with share options there may be some flexibility?
Money doesn’t always make you happy. Hey, I’ve a pot load of cash and I’m tripping over my assets. But so-and-so has more than me. How’d that happen? There seems to be a fair amount of willy waving in this thread. Be happy with what you’ve got and remember that the majority of folk are living hand to mouth. And not always because they’re bone idle or feckless, either.
Enjoy your retirement. It’s an odd word, isn’t it? It’s not like you’re retiring from life just because you’re stepping off the treadmill. In some ways life is just beginning because now you’re time rich. I had the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy a couple of years ago, but chose not to. I still enjoy my job and some of my colleagues are closer to me than family. My evenings and weekends are mine and the annual leave provision is generous. I’ll work on until I feel like I’m going through the motions.
Thanks yeah it's an odd word and an odd feeling too.
I was doing a double day shift before I finished, meaning I was up at 4-40am or getting home at 10-30pm.
Now I lie in till 9 O'clock without feeling guilty or having to set the alarm.
As I said we all know friends or family who didn't get to enjoy retirement.One of my mates was 11 months into his retirement and dropped dead on his mountain bike.
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You’re right, money doesn’t make you happy. I’ve some extremely wealthy clients I’ve dealt with over the years and some appear to pursue wealth over happiness. Others just seem to get it right with what they have. . . .
Around 3 years ago a couple came in to see me. Both aged 60. He had worked since 15 and had a pension pot of 200k. She brought up their 3 children. They lived in a house worth 180k. No other assets apart from some savings. He did a physical job and had been given the option of driving 40 miles a day to a new site to continue in his job. He said it was too much and asked me if I thought he could retire as he was fed up with it. I had my doubts.
Anyway to cut a long story short, we agreed to take out the tax free allowance every year plus the 25% tax free cash (this year 12.5k so 16.66k in total) until state pension age, then we’d look to reduce it down. I told them that firstly I was concerned that the pot would deplete as they would be taking out too much and secondly I didn’t think they could live on it. They informed me that they weren’t ‘spenders’ and just enjoyed life. They reckoned they could live on 1k a month all in.
Every review since then and they have lived within their means and even saved some. They love the outdoors and walk around the coast of Devon regularly, have their grandchildren twice a week, he fishes a lot, they have two holidays abroad a year and generally keep active and busy. More importantly they seem very happy. Money just isn’t important to them. What they enjoy is free.
Their funds have done well and held their own. I’ve even encouraged them to spend a bit more. They will if they need to. I really admire them and they are actually probably the richest clients I have. Their wealth is happiness.
You might see it as willy waving, I just see people being honest about their positions and offering advice on how they got there. I find the information in these threads enlightening and often very useful.
Agree that money doesn’t make you happy though: I just see it as security for my family. Something I certainly didn’t grow up with. I’m not a “spender” by nature and live on very little money.
Last edited by demonloop; 1st February 2020 at 09:55.
‘What profiteth a man if he gains the world but looses his soul’? I was contemplating this on a decent salary but well stressed. Luckily the final salary scheme enabled me to bail out at 56 and now at 67 topped up by the old farts state pension things are fine.
No kids though and no mortgage so small outgoings enable the two of us to tick over nicely without having to watch the pennies.
Ryan, definitely not will waving on my part, sharing as people had asked & also because i'm going through a period of thought on this whole situation.
As you asked & without going into specifics, at the threshold you are at i,e now max £10k going in (before 2016 i think it was capped at 40k) , take that salary & a 15% company contribution +5% from me x 10-15 years & you can see with a fair investment wind it starts becoming meaningful. Realising some share options in the good times helped too.
Alex
Last edited by luckyal; 1st February 2020 at 11:34.
When I started this topic I wasn't expecting people to be quite so candid about their positions.
The fact that people have I don't see as "willy waving" just a willingness to share the facts.
I only have to view some of the SOTC posts to know that there are some very wealthy people here and I expect that; it is a forum for people who like collecting things that are typically expensive. Good for them I say.
It is useful to have this discussion here as this is not a discussion I could have with my mates down the pub as it would be both inappropriate and embarrassing ... but to have this discussion on this abstract level is very useful and I am learning some useful things.
My dad died age 66 in 2008 and since then I have been very focused on retirement and time ... hence my interest in "the number".
Given that everyone lifestyle is different I wasn't expecting a figure but more importantly a view of what people thought would be a reasonable draw down rate from their investments; and how they viewed their own property in that ...
Currently I own my own home, investment property, a portfolio of ISAs and have a small pension.
I am in my early fifties and currently my expenses are 3.5% of my investments (excluding my own home) and 2.6% if I include it ...
So ... am I there? Is that a safe draw down rate to throw the towel in?
In 2015 when I was 57 my final salary pension provider changed hands.
Not only did I not know that it was a final salary, I thought when I left my first job in 1990, I'd transferred that pension into the new firms scheme???
So now I've got 22 years worth of final salaries in 2 schemes and while it won't be a massive salary the members contributions were buttons and I'm talking the price of new Omega Seamaster Bond money.
I feel lucky that despite my ignorance, financially it could be a lot worse.
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^^ I’d say you’re there now! Retire in peace!
I'm also very intrigued and following this thread. It's easy (and somewhat depressing) to compare ones position with others but it definitely depends on what you want. My question is what are people building towards? Is it a big pot and then live off the interest (my plan)? Or just draw it down - so estimating how long one lives - because thats what it looks like some above are planning to me.