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What do you think about retirement and when will you do it?

If my plans regarding work are fulfilled, I don't intend to retire at all. I won't be working for money and I'll be doing my own thing, one that I see value and meaning in. I can't imagine anything else I'd rather do.

Retirement is part and parcel of this rotten employment system but if you have the opportunity to get out, retirement becomes redundant. Work, unfettered by workplace hierarchies, dependence for livelihood and long hours, is a joyful pastime that keeps the brain active and gives both a sense of purpose to the worker and resources to the community. I'm not saying anything new, and I'm in a privileged position to even be able to work towards that goal but I just wanted to mention that the whole idea of 'work most of your life and then you can go on perma-holiday' is a raw deal.
 
I've had 10 jobs in the 44 years I'd been working. I'd somehow managed to acquire 8 different pension pots over that time. Every letter that came in from the pension companies I adopted the super adult attitude of putting them in the drawer and worrying about it later

Then, in my second to last job, I worked a mile from a very dear friend. I used to pop round her house on a semi-regular basis, often just to unload about how shit my current job was. She used to do the same, so it was a mutual support system.

Then she said

"why don't you retire, that's what I'm planning on doing"

my reply was along the lines of

"only old people retire"

and when I was met with

"but you are old"

That was sobering, but also started a chain of events. I met up with her financial Johnny and we got talking, discussing what an early retirement could look like. My only requirement was to "get me over the line, (I was just gone 60 and wanted out. So get me to 67 years of age and state pension), I don't care if it's not pretty, I just need to stop working

First thing was to go into the pension drawer and figure shit out

Luckily lock down / furlough working was happening so I had the head space to start doing things I should've done years before

I compiled a list of all my jobs - and associated pensions, if applicable

Then I sorted out my pensions into piles. Luckily the number of pensions and the number of piles of letters was the same. Then I put contract numbers, account reference numbers into my basic form. Then I started phoning people up. I quickly got through to all the relevant companies and got a working total of my pension pot(s)

Back when I was in my early 20s one of the chaps I worked with ended up working for a pension company. Of course, he ended up phoning round all his mates trying to sell them stuff. I can remember him telling me then, that if I took a pension out when I was 21(?), paid into it for 5 years and then froze it, by the time I came to retire it would be worth 25% of my pension. I didn't believe him, but I took out a pension any way. It wasn't quite 25% of my pension pot, but if I'd not taken it out when I did I wouldn't have been able to have taken early retirement.

I've kept myself pretty frugal for the first year, and to be honest I'm a little too "near" so I'll be looking at taking a little bit more of my pension pot. But I'll be able to get to 67 and when my state pension kicks in as well, well life will get a lot easier. I'm not one of those uber lucky final salary pension bods but with me and Mrs Voltz we'll just about get by a bit better than OK

What I have taken to doing though is all "young" people I've been working with I've tried to help them understand pensions whilst there's still time to do "something" about it. But given that when I was their age now I was in a comparatively well paying job and had spare money and they are fresh out of university with student debt and are being paid appallingly in comparison I worry about what the future holds for them. Basically, they're fucked
 
I had a similar experience - a very sensible older colleague would always do a little talk with new employees saying you really should pay into a pension straight away, even if it doesn't seem much because the company matched it (or better at times) and it would grow slowly but surely. Sounded very alien to us at that age but luckily I did. It's the sort of thing I can imagine having never done for years otherwise as i was on a relatively low salary for so long and was shit with money.
 
Deadline to plug national insurance gaps extended until April 2025 - The Independent

People have been given nearly two extra years to plug gaps in their national insurance (NI) record going back to April 2006, following another deadline extension. The original cut-off for voluntary NI contributions from April 2006 to April 2017 was April 5 2023 but in March this deadline was extended to July 31 2023. Now, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has said the deadline will be extended until April 5 2025.
Click to expand...

Very slightly updated 'how to do this' at Martin Lewis' site
Voluntary national insurance contributions — moneysavingexpert

The further extension to the deadline appears to be because they are struggling to process the applications they are getting, and people have had difficulty contacting the DWP.
So if NI top-ups are relevant/useful it's probably not a great idea to take this extension as an opportunity to put off getting around to it.
 
Lurdan said:
Deadline to plug national insurance gaps extended until April 2025 - The Independent



Very slightly updated 'how to do this' at Martin Lewis' site
Voluntary national insurance contributions — moneysavingexpert

The further extension to the deadline appears to be because they are struggling to process the applications they are getting, and people have had difficulty contacting the DWP.
So if NI top-ups are relevant/useful it's probably not a great idea to take this extension as an opportunity to put off getting around to it.
Click to expand...
I'm not even trying to fill really old gaps and I'm stuck.
I have until 2026 I think...(my state pension age)
When I first attempted I sat on the phone for ages being bounced between 3 separate departments.
I got a bit further recently, but when I go to payment it asks me for the reference number from my "bill" ...

Pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance

How to pay your voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contributions - Direct Debit, bank, cheque, payslips
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

1686583023183.png
 
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Acc
gentlegreen said:
I'm not even trying to fill really old gaps and I'm stuck.
I have until 2026 I think...(my state pension age)
When I first attempted I sat on the phone for ages being bounced between 3 separate departments.
I got a bit further recently, but when I go to payment it asks me for the reference number from my "bill" ...
Click to expand...

According to the Martin Lewis site link I posted:

NSNSaic.png


The contact link in that screencap is to

National Insurance: general enquiries

Contact HMRC for changes of details, rates, credits, Statutory Payments, online statements and for help with gaps in your National Insurance contributions
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

Hope that's the one they're asking you for.

I didn't have to top-up myself so I have no practical experience to offer about that. I would urge people to get schedules of what NI they think you've paid and get an estimate of state pension. Even if it's years off this will establish that you can successfully contact them. Quoting what I posted on another thread last year:

Lurdan said:
Contact them as soon as possible to check you can in fact contact them. I had a lot of difficulty with the DWP's old ID verification system to get a statement of my estimated pension, because despite having lived in the same place for over twenty five years, and had tax/NI returns sent off with my address on (it was me that did this), they didn't have my current address :mad:
They had a very annoying automated telephone answering system which required you to say what you were inquiring about at each step. I remember I got through this, after more than one attempt, by saying 'details' very loudly to more or less everything. This got me to a human (or what passes for one in the DWP) who gave me the right direct number. When the Pension Forecast arrived they'd managed to get my surname wrong :facepalm:
Click to expand...

Moral: never underestimate the capacity of the DWP and HMRC to be less than useful.
 
The DWP and HMRC don’t share info with each other - HMRC don’t even share info between income tax and tax credit departments, so you need to inform all agencies if there’s any change to your circumstances.
I found this out the hard way when I had to pay back about £5k in overpaid tax credits cos I assumed they’d stop them when I was no longer entitled to them as they’d know I’d got a job and was working full time on account of the income tax and NI that I was paying them.
 
Orang Utan said:
The DWP and HMRC don’t share info with each other - HMRC don’t even share info between income tax and tax credit departments, so you need to inform all agencies if there’s any change to your circumstances.
I found this out the hard way when I had to pay back about £5k in overpaid tax credits cos I assumed they’d stop them when I was no longer entitled to them as they’d know I’d got a job and was working full time on account of the income tax and NI that I was paying them.
Click to expand...
That is the most common reason for Tax Credits overpayment.

If you get a bill, look carefully at the dates being claimed for. If it is over six years prior to you being asked to repay and THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE BEEN CONTACTED ABOUT THE OVERPAYMENT, you do not have to pay. For this, you can thank me.

I took up the over six years thing with my manager, then his manager, then his manager then my MP. About a month after this, a warning appeared on our guidance stating that debts over six years old, payment may be requested, but it cannot be enforced. Could have been pure coincidence of course...
 
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Sasaferrato said:
That is the most common reason for Tax Credits overpayment.

If you get a bill, look carefully at the dates being claimed for. If it is over six years prior to you being asked to repay and THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE BEEN CONTACTED ABOUT THE OVERPAYMENT, you do not have to pay. For this, you can thank me.

I took up the over six years thing with my manager, then his manager, then his manager then my MP. About a month after this, a warning appeared on our guidance stating that debts over six years old, payment may be requested, but it cannot be enforced. Could have been pure coincidence of course...
Click to expand...
Mine got 'overpaid' while it was actually an amount we were entitled to anyway, however apparently I had not said I had moved house, despite claiming everything from that house, receiving the money and paying the bills. I had also just done 3 years of accountancy training so I was ever doubtful about me somehow forgetting one of the few important things I needed to do. £2k they took out of our benefits, I even found a rule that apparently no one there knew about that if you 'falsely' claimed but were actually able to claim that legally anyway that it would be written off whatever sum claimed v what could have been. Took me hours on the phone as no one at the place knew anything about it, then they made up some shit about having applied this 5 years ago without telling us?!? so it was not allowed within the time period. Am now remembering this (was like 10 years ago) and thinking I may contact my MP about this as its clearly bullshit. Plus that would pay for a replacement shed for the alice in wonderland bullshit the council left in the garden and leave plenty left over.
 
Funny that; as time goes on I love it more. I miss nothing about my old working life. I never want to get a job again to feel the sense that all I'm doing is sitting in a corner waiting to die in harness.
 
izz said:
Rapidly coming up to two years retired now and, insanely, find myself feeling guilty when I hear the neighbours go off to work around 07:00, forgetting that I used to go off to work around 05:45 😄
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Mrs21 still occasionally feels guilty, she used to get up just after 6 & leave before 7 . I'm at my mum's place this weekend , I suspect she is still sleeping , ON A MONDAY MORNING!
 
brogdale said:
Funny that; as time goes on I love it more. I miss nothing about my old working life. I never want to get a job again to feel the sense that all I'm doing is sitting in a corner waiting to die in harness.
Click to expand...
I loved my job, the interaction with colleagues and students, the friends I had through work, I loved it so much that I'm considering doing it voluntarily.
 
I've found earlier posts in this thread where I said I would retire this summer but nope still working, I'm 66 now and have had a letter to claim my state pension. I haven't done so, whilst I'm not paying NI anymore leaving the pension unclaimed gets me deferment benefits of an extra 1% for every 9 weeks I leave it. (Another thing I didn't know about before now either). Plus of course If I start drawing it whilst working it will count towards my tax allowance. I keep saying that I will retire when my contract ends but they keep offering me extensions to it. At some point I will have to put my foot down and say no more. The thing is I don't really have a master plan for retirement yet other than a vague desire to 'travel more' and I am still helping to support Youngest Q at Uni who is 3 years into her 5 year course.
Mrs Q has taken the plunge and told her headmaster that she will retire at the end of the current school year in Summer 2024 (she'll be 62 the following August).
She has declared she wants to "A Lady Who Lunchs"
Financially I have no worries at all about how we'll cope, I have a generous final salary pension from Evil American Megacorp, I've been stacking money in my personal pot since I've been running my own company and even when I stop working I will need to keep the company going for a couple of years whilst I pay out what's left in there as dividends to me and Mrs Q. Taking it all out in one go will land me with a stonking tax bill. (I await certain Urbs to now show up and rant about this)
 
dessiato said:
I loved my job, the interaction with colleagues and students, the friends I had through work, I loved it so much that I'm considering doing it voluntarily.
Click to expand...
Education is a particular case.
I only worked in IT support in a University, but I sometime get the shivers when thinking about the chain of events that led up to me getting that job in spite of my own educational underachievement and the lovely working conditions and what the hell else I might have ended up doing instead - even the cycle ride there and back was pretty well the sweet spot for exercise and its being tolerable in bad weather...
I massively miss the human interaction ... having retired with Covin in full flow, the guaranteed annual viral infections rather less so ...
 
gentlegreen said:
Education is a particular case.
I only worked in IT support in a University, but I sometime get the shivers when thinking about the chain of events that led up to me getting that job in spite of my own educational underachievement and the lovely working conditions and what the hell else I might have ended up doing instead - even the cycle ride there and back was pretty well the sweet spot for exercise and its being tolerable in bad weather...
I massively miss the human interaction ... having retired with Covin in full flow, the guaranteed annual viral infections rather less so ...
Click to expand...
I fully understand that. Although there's some very toxic working environments in education I was lucky enough to, mainly, be away from that. I loved strolling, in the sun, to and from work, stopping off in a local bar. In the summer I'd drive, roof down, through the highways and by-ways when off site. Going to meet staff, students, for drinks/meals and especially sobremesa...
 
dessiato said:
As time goes on I hate it more. I miss everything about my old working life. I want to get a job again to relieve the sense that all I'm doing is sitting in a corner waiting to die.
Click to expand...

i'm still (until they change the rules again) 13 and a bit years off my state pension, so can't speak from experience, but i think that taking the approach that retirement means you just stop everything and sit in a corner is not a healthy one, and i think i've seen studies that suggest that keeping physically and mentally active in retirement tends to go with living longer and more healthily. (of course people who are already healthy will be more able to keep active, but think there's something in it)

some retired people manage to keep fully occupied with house and garden and extended family, many take on new interests, others find a way of continuing some sort of work, even if it's not full time, or on a voluntary basis.

some seek regular part time work, others seek out short term / consultancy type roles, or set up a small business that can be run part time.

obviously within reason - i'm in my 50s and don't have the energy i did in my 20s, but it's not a binary thing. some people get in to a 'i can't do everything any more therefore i can't do anything any more' state of mind.

i don't know exactly where you are, what your line of work is / was, what other interests you have, or what your financial circumstances are, but really think it's worth looking in to options.

most volunteer organisations depend heavily on the 'retired but still active' generation, and what's out there ranges from the fairly basic level to being company secretary / finance director. of course in some volunteer organisations you can be finance director one day and sweeping the floor another.

it's fair to say that voluntary organisations vary - some are run by a clique and a few are frankly toxic. not all are. the other extreme is where you get asked if you want to put up to go on the committee if you turn up a second time...

i can't offer local ideas, but in most english boroughs / counties, there's a volunteer centre / bureau (some are more online than physical now) - or try web search on volunteering + your county / nearest town or whatever.
 
Sue said:
I bet there are loads of charities working with refugees etc who're desperate for people to teach English. And speaking other languages will no doubt be a big plus point too. :cool:
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Unfortunately there's few/none locally that seem interested. I've contacted some who haven't replied. Except RNLI, who need fundraisers, but, again, none local to me. Next year I'll spend more time in Lincolnshire where there's more opportunities. I'm much happier, and busier, there.
 
dessiato said:
Unfortunately there's few/none locally that seem interested. I've contacted some who haven't replied. Except RNLI, who need fundraisers, but, again, none local to me. Next year I'll spend more time in Lincolnshire where there's more opportunities. I'm much happier, and busier, there.
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I've been running a once a month sewing project for refugees for the last year, the last session is this Saturday. Once a month has been great as it isn't too much of a commitment, I've had time prepare properly, and I've also seen the increase in confidence over the year.

Prior to this, I tried several times to volunteer at the local refugee charity but they have been really unresponsive and quite snooty

You might be better talking to local community centres about running something, or even starting your own group in a local cafe.
 
dessiato said:
As time goes on I hate it more. I miss everything about my old working life. I want to get a job again to relieve the sense that all I'm doing is sitting in a corner waiting to die.
Click to expand...

dessiato said:
I loved my job, the interaction with colleagues and students, the friends I had through work, I loved it so much that I'm considering doing it voluntarily.
Click to expand...

dessiato said:
I fully understand that. Although there's some very toxic working environments in education I was lucky enough to, mainly, be away from that. I loved strolling, in the sun, to and from work, stopping off in a local bar. In the summer I'd drive, roof down, through the highways and by-ways when off site. Going to meet staff, students, for drinks/meals and especially sobremesa...
Click to expand...

Iirc you have retired quite recently and moved from Spain to Scotland. It does take time to decompress from worklife. I found the first few months difficult after having been used to a routine. After 6 months I got a temp Xmas job in a chain store. After Xmas i was offered a permanent job if i wanted it, but working there had reminded me how much I hated commuting and just going to work, sleep, and repeat every day. I appreciated not doing anything and after 12 months I didn't miss work at all.

Also it seems to me that you miss the Spanish weather and lifestyle. I have thought about spending more of the winter somewhere sunny but I found I got bored after four weeks and wanted to come home.
 
Elpenor said:
Key thing is to retire from work but still do stuff. Hobbies, study, social groups ;) , voluntary work etc
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I agree wholeheartedly, but with the single caveat that (geriatric) parental care needs have the capacity to completely subvert such good intentions. I think a significant proportion of folk 'not working' are compensating for the lack of any coherent elderly adult social care in this fucking country.
 
brogdale said:
I agree wholeheartedly, but with the single caveat that (geriatric) parental care needs have the capacity to completely subvert such good intentions. I think a significant proportion of folk 'not working' are compensating for the lack of any coherent elderly adult social care in this fucking country.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is very true. But not sure that’s an issue for dessiato particularly I think? who I suppose I was responding to.
 
brogdale said:
I agree wholeheartedly, but with the single caveat that (geriatric) parental care needs have the capacity to completely subvert such good intentions. I think a significant proportion of folk 'not working' are compensating for the lack of any coherent elderly adult social care in this fucking country.
Click to expand...
That is what brought us back to the UK. We gave up everything in Spain to be with my very ill f-i-l. He then went and died.
 
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