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Post by nickpoole on Aug 20, 2024 9:28:52 GMT
I'm 66 next March and will either retire then with CS pension plus State pension or stay another year and plough the state pension into AVC.
So this thread is about retirement! Opportunities and threats, what's great about it and what to beware of.
I've been waiting to retire since i started work at 18 but now it nears I find I haven't got a clue what to do with it!
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neilj
Member
Posts: 6,485
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Post by neilj on Aug 20, 2024 12:28:59 GMT
Be sure to check you get a full state pension, sometimes with Public sector pensions you're entitlement is reduced
If so it is normally financially advantageous to buy back missing years in your NI record
As to what to do with your retirement, it's worthwhile putting in time to plan your future so good to get some ideas
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Post by nickpoole on Aug 20, 2024 13:09:56 GMT
Be sure to check you get a full state pension, sometimes with Public sector pensions you're entitlement is reduced If so it is normally financially advantageous to buy back missing years in your NI record As to what to do with your retirement, it's worthwhile putting in time to plan your future so good to get some ideas I get all my CS pension plus the state pension. I think there's some reduction if you have service before mid 80s, which I haven't. My state pension fc is now full new flat rate version, so no point buying any more NI years. My current NI contributions don't buy me any more pension as i'm 66 just before end of tax year. My wife is only 52 so she'll plough on till 60 I think and won't get state pension till god knows when. |
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Post by lens on Aug 24, 2024 22:32:27 GMT
Personal feeling is that it's not a good idea to work full-time and then give up altogether and suddenly. Everyone is different of course, and a lot depends on the job but my own view is that there is a lot to be said for a spell of working part time before retiring completely.
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Post by alec on Aug 25, 2024 21:08:37 GMT
Tend to agree with lens on a staged withdrawal from work, which is what I'm starting to engage with in the next year, but I'd also say that I'm not actually looking to construct this as 'retirement'. I'm looking to start doing new kinds of work, just ones that I don't have to do to put a roof over my head. However you choose or can afford to approach this, I think you need to plan it, to a degree at least. What I would tentatively suggest to nickpoole is to spend a bit of time imagining what you would like to do with your time and energy once you no longer have the demand of paid work. What is important to you, what do you enjoy, is there anything you've sometimes thought about doing but have never had the time? And your ideas of what retirement means could easily change as you work through them. |
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Post by nickpoole on Aug 26, 2024 5:59:54 GMT
Tend to agree with lens on a staged withdrawal from work, which is what I'm starting to engage with in the next year, but I'd also say that I'm not actually looking to construct this as 'retirement'. I'm looking to start doing new kinds of work, just ones that I don't have to do to put a roof over my head. However you choose or can afford to approach this, I think you need to plan it, to a degree at least. What I would tentatively suggest to nickpoole is to spend a bit of time imagining what you would like to do with your time and energy once you no longer have the demand of paid work. What is important to you, what do you enjoy, is there anything you've sometimes thought about doing but have never had the time? And your ideas of what retirement means could easily change as you work through them. Well my immediate plan is to spend the mornings writing (fiction) but as any would be writer knows, keeping that daily appointment with oneself is tough. |
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Post by mark61 on Aug 26, 2024 12:28:36 GMT
I am also on the cusp of retirement from full time work, dropping down to two days a week and working for someone else shedding the responsibility of running my own Practice. Working within the Criminal Justice system has become a grind. I realised during Covid that more than anything I wanted to be time rich, I'm sure it will be odd to begin with but looking forward to spending time on what I actually enjoy doing.
I think I would find going from full time work to full time leisure unsettling.
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Post by nickpoole on Aug 31, 2024 7:35:12 GMT
I am also on the cusp of retirement from full time work, dropping down to two days a week and working for someone else shedding the responsibility of running my own Practice. Working within the Criminal Justice system has become a grind. I realised during Covid that more than anything I wanted to be time rich, I'm sure it will be odd to begin with but looking forward to spending time on what I actually enjoy doing. I think I would find going from full time work to full time leisure unsettling. I have never really had too much problem frittering my time away doing zilch. Quite like to change that when my time is my own! Probably first step is to quit this place again. |
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Post by mercian on Sept 1, 2024 20:45:10 GMT
I retired in 2016 but hadn't been a full time employee since 1989. I did have periods of intense activity, but only when working for myself. Then I accidentally got into the NHS on reduced hours and pretty much coasted for the last few years though I got through more and more original work than my colleagues.
I'm very bad at self-motivation but one project I've started is to record family stories (i.e. stuff that isn't documented on Ancestry.com etc). As the only child of an only child I'm the last one alive who knows most of the stories such as when my great-great-grandfather drowned in a water butt. I thought it might be of some interest to future generations.
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Post by shevii on Sept 8, 2024 10:39:34 GMT
I retired in 2016 but hadn't been a full time employee since 1989. I did have periods of intense activity, but only when working for myself. Then I accidentally got into the NHS on reduced hours and pretty much coasted for the last few years though I got through more and more original work than my colleagues. I'm very bad at self-motivation but one project I've started is to record family stories (i.e. stuff that isn't documented on Ancestry.com etc). As the only child of an only child I'm the last one alive who knows most of the stories such as when my great-great-grandfather drowned in a water butt. I thought it might be of some interest to future generations. There are a lot of projects out there mainly via the local history centres called "living history" where they record such things so you might want to see if your local library/history centre has one of those projects on the go. You might even go viral in 200 years time if someone finds it and people start saying "blimey- did they really think like that back then?" (smiley). |
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Post by birdseye on Sept 16, 2024 20:01:42 GMT
I'm 66 next March and will either retire then with CS pension plus State pension or stay another year and plough the state pension into AVC. So this thread is about retirement! Opportunities and threats, what's great about it and what to beware of. I've been waiting to retire since i started work at 18 but now it nears I find I haven't got a clue what to do with it! Your last sentence is a really sad one. You are saying that you have not enjoyed / wasted the large part of your life. Likely you will find that financially you will be better off than you now imagine since you will lose a lot of day to day costs and get some benefits like the bus pass. Your problem is likely to be boredom unless you already have hobbies and interests to fill the time. Sure there is less real time to fill - the old saw about "wondering how you ever had time to go to work" is true - it reflect your declining productivity as you age. Nevertheless, you need something to prevent you wasting what time is left to you in front of daytime TV. Do quickly the interests / plans that involve fitness and health. Your decline as you age is parabolic - 5 years from 75 to 80 is far worse than 5 years from 65 to 70. One surprise you might find is how much you miss the social side of working. |
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Post by nickpoole on Sept 17, 2024 8:28:44 GMT
I've been waiting to retire since i started work at 18 but now it nears I find I haven't got a clue what to do with it! Your last sentence is a really sad one. You are saying that you have not enjoyed / wasted the large part of your life. Glad to see you bring your political approach to debate into the retirement thread. I've enjoyed my work on and off but would rather be financially independent and not have to do it. Thanks everybody (including birdseye!) - i'm pretty sure I won't be bored but agree some planning and structure required (hence this thread!) |
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Post by alec on Sept 17, 2024 16:25:48 GMT
nickpoole - I think I understand what you say, and disagree with birdseye. Most of us have to work, and if we find some enjoyment & fulfillment in that necessity then it's good, but let's be honest - many don't. For most of our lives 'retirement' is too far off to seriously contemplate, other than with a few vague notions. It's actually quite nice not knowing what you're going to do with time once freed from the earning imperative. It's a chance to take stock of where you are and where you've been - one of those inflection points of life, like leaving school or college. I'm enjoying the uncertainty, and not having a clear plan is fine, in my view. At no point in my life have I ever known what I'm going to do with myself beyond the next year or two, and it's been all the better for it.
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Post by nickpoole on Sept 19, 2024 17:24:47 GMT
“Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke.
Art thou one ENTITLED to escape from a yoke? Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he hath cast away his servitude.
Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free FOR WHAT?”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
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Post by leftieliberal on Sept 22, 2024 13:46:16 GMT
I'm 66 next March and will either retire then with CS pension plus State pension or stay another year and plough the state pension into AVC. So this thread is about retirement! Opportunities and threats, what's great about it and what to beware of. I've been waiting to retire since i started work at 18 but now it nears I find I haven't got a clue what to do with it! You also have the option, if you choose to continue working, to defer your State Pension. At present you get an extra 1% on your pension for every 9 weeks you defer (5.8% for a year). Back in 2013, when I reached State Pension Age, it was 1% for every 5 weeks, which was a good deal. The annual increase in the extra pension, though is linked to CPI (like the CS pension) so you don't get the full benefit of the triple lock. As far as I know you don't get any additional benefit from delaying your CS pension (at least not if you were in the Classic pension scheme as I was), so taking your CS pension and working part-time as I did is one possibility (I retired from the Civil Service and went to work for a company in the same line of business). |
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Post by nickpoole on Sept 22, 2024 16:04:50 GMT
I'm 66 next March and will either retire then with CS pension plus State pension or stay another year and plough the state pension into AVC. So this thread is about retirement! Opportunities and threats, what's great about it and what to beware of. I've been waiting to retire since i started work at 18 but now it nears I find I haven't got a clue what to do with it! You also have the option, if you choose to continue working, to defer your State Pension. At present you get an extra 1% on your pension for every 9 weeks you defer (5.8% for a year). Back in 2013, when I reached State Pension Age, it was 1% for every 5 weeks, which was a good deal. The annual increase in the extra pension, though is linked to CPI (like the CS pension) so you don't get the full benefit of the triple lock. As far as I know you don't get any additional benefit from delaying your CS pension (at least not if you were in the Classic pension scheme as I was), so taking your CS pension and working part-time as I did is one possibility (I retired from the Civil Service and went to work for a company in the same line of business). i can't really see the point of deferring the state pension - basically it would mean giving up £12K income to get 5% more a year a year later (about £600) so I would be £11400 down on the deal straightaway! |
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Post by leftieliberal on Sept 22, 2024 20:12:17 GMT
You also have the option, if you choose to continue working, to defer your State Pension. At present you get an extra 1% on your pension for every 9 weeks you defer ( 5.8% for a year). Back in 2013, when I reached State Pension Age, it was 1% for every 5 weeks, which was a good deal. The annual increase in the extra pension, though is linked to CPI (like the CS pension) so you don't get the full benefit of the triple lock. As far as I know you don't get any additional benefit from delaying your CS pension (at least not if you were in the Classic pension scheme as I was), so taking your CS pension and working part-time as I did is one possibility (I retired from the Civil Service and went to work for a company in the same line of business). i can't really see the point of deferring the state pension - basically it would mean giving up £12K income to get 5% more a year a year later (about £600) so I would be £11400 down on the deal straightaway! It depends how long you think you will live after retirement. Breakeven (ignoring inflation) is 17 years, so 66 to 83. As a 65 year-old your median life expectancy is slightly over 20 years. I took advantage of it when it was much more favourable (I only had to reach my current age to break even). If you are not even aware of the option; you cannot assess whether it is better than AVCs or not. |
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Post by nickpoole on Sept 22, 2024 21:44:58 GMT
i can't really see the point of deferring the state pension - basically it would mean giving up £12K income to get 5% more a year a year later (about £600) so I would be £11400 down on the deal straightaway! It depends how long you think you will live after retirement. Breakeven (ignoring inflation) is 17 years, so 66 to 83. As a 65 year-old your median life expectancy is slightly over 20 years. I took advantage of it when it was much more favourable (I only had to reach my current age to break even). If you are not even aware of the option; you cannot assess whether it is better than AVCs or not. I am aware of option, thanks. But with state pension using up the the £12570 allowance (alongside a life annuity I already have fixed at £1428) the tax advantages are with the AVC as well as a year's worth of investment performance, if any. But yes, certainly worth you making the point. |
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