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

[sojourner]

This topping up lark though - they want massive amounts off you to top up to what amounts to a fucking bread-line pension anyway. You think 'Well why bother? Could bloody die well before then!' and you've pissed away hundreds on a pension you'll never see.

Also, if you don't qualify for a full state pension, I understand you can get a top-up in the form of pension credits.

I would bloody love to retire btw. I've worked full time since 1984, with approx 3 months unemployed in all that time, plus 5 years spent on FE/HE. I fucking hate working, I've only ever done it to eat, have a roof and pay bills. I wouldn't get bored in the slightest, loads I could be doing instead of working!

One last thing - one of my dreams is to have a housing co-op/home for ageing ravers and stoners, where we all pay a small amount for nursing care/all bills etc, grow our own, look after each other in practical and spiritual ways, making it much nicer and less of a soul-destroying final part of life.

 

[Edie]

This topping up lark though - they want massive amounts off you to top up to what amounts to a fucking bread-line pension anyway. You think 'Well why bother? Could bloody die well before then!' and you've pissed away hundreds on a pension you'll never see.

Also, if you don't qualify for a full state pension, I understand you can get a top-up in the form of pension credits.

I would bloody love to retire btw. I've worked full time since 1984, with approx 3 months unemployed in all that time, plus 5 years spent on FE/HE. I fucking hate working, I've only ever done it to eat, have a roof and pay bills. I wouldn't get bored in the slightest, loads I could be doing instead of working!

One last thing - one of my dreams is to have a housing co-op/home for ageing ravers and stoners, where we all pay a small amount for nursing care/all bills etc, grow our own, look after each other in practical and spiritual ways, making it much nicer and less of a soul-destroying final part of life.

Am totally invested in that plan. Seriously. Would love that. We should consider this.

Matey has a lake house he built in upstate New York which is fucking lush and has a turret and hot tub and kayaks. It could form the North America branch of the commune. (I may have to do some work on getting him bought into the plan, but it might be less than I think as he’s very open minded and has a proper Frontier spirit. His best mate lived on a survival commune in Canada as a young woman and built her own home and raised her kids there in the woods from 17!!).

Anyway. YES to alternate ideas to retirement. Plus your an excellent cook and a poet and I haz my skill set, you can smoke weed and I’ll have a rocking chair please and crochet.

Anyone else potentially in?

 

[Yossarian]

I think that when I'm in my 60s and I've finished working, the thing I'm going to want to do most is just relax, take a long trip, see some new things and appreciate the world from a different perspective.

Then I guess it'll be back to work the next day after the mushrooms wear off.

 

[sojourner]

Am totally invested in that plan. Seriously. Would love that. We should consider this.

Matey has a lake house he built in upstate New York which is fucking lush and has a turret and hot tub and kayaks. It could form the North America branch of the commune. (I may have to do some work on getting him bought into the plan, but it might be less than I think as he’s very open minded and has a proper Frontier spirit. His best mate lived on a survival commune in Canada as a young woman and built her own home and raised her kids there in the woods from 17!!).

Anyway. YES to alternate ideas to retirement. Plus your an excellent cook and a poet and I haz my skill set, you can smoke weed and I’ll have a rocking chair please and crochet.

Anyone else potentially in?

Fabulous

This is it - we all have skills to bring, it could be brilliant, with no bastard raking profits off us. More people could come in as other folk die.

 

[kebabking]

Retire at 55, move up north - Lakes, Scotland, Northumberland - spend my remaining time scooting about the landscape on an ATV.

Very fortunate - Army pension with, at that point, 34 years pensionable service.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I've been retired since 2017, odd to begin with but OK now.

My OAP is £171.98, which is actually more than I expected.

 

[Edie]

I've been retired since 2017, odd to begin with but OK now.

My OAP is £171.98, which is actually more than I expected.

Is that a week? How do you go on living off that? Is it tough or do-able? I’m assuming you have no mortgage and your missus also gets a pension of some size?

 

[Sasaferrato]

Is that a week? How do you go on living off that? Is it tough or do-able? I’m assuming you have no mortgage and your missus also gets a pension of some size?

That's a week. Mrs Sas has her OAP, which is a bit more than mine.

I have three other pensions, none of them large, but it all adds up. The mortgage is paid off.

Because when interest rates dropped umpteen times, and I didn't alter the DDI, the mortgage was paid off early. Mrs Sas had the, as it turns out, brilliant idea of putting the mortgage money into a savings account for gas and electricity. It is one hell of a help just now.

We're not rich, but not poor either.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Retire at 55, move up north - Lakes, Scotland, Northumberland - spend my remaining time scooting about the landscape on an ATV.

Very fortunate - Army pension with, at that point, 34 years pensionable service.

I shifted my Army pension into the Roche pension scheme when I left the Army, a superb move as it turned out.

 

[shakespearegirl]

I’m thinking I’ll do another 4 or 5 years of part time work… although the work I’m doing at the moment might lead to a start up which tbh I’m a bit unsure about signing up to… This will put me at 57/58 to retire. Will have paid my 35 years NI by then so will be the £182 when it’s due, have small private pension and savings to fill the gaps.

I did retire from the former career at 49 due to stress and general fuckedoffness, but found I was bored and needed to do something! Have managed to swerve super stress jobs but that’s had a massive impact on earnings.

Mrshakes took a career break 5 years ago at 52, he’s now decided that was retirement…

 

[Edie]

I’m thinking I’ll do another 4 or 5 years of part time work… although the work I’m doing at the moment might lead to a start up which tbh I’m a bit unsure about signing up to… This will put me at 57/58 to retire. Will have paid my 35 years NI by then so will be the £182 when it’s due, have small private pension and savings to fill the gaps.

I did retire from the former career at 49 due to stress and general fuckedoffness, but found I was bored and needed to do something! Have managed to swerve super stress jobs but that’s had a massive impact on earnings.

Mrshakes took a career break 5 years ago at 52, he’s now decided that was retirement…

It’s mad when you think about it, that if you retire at 55, first 18 years you probably didn’t work, 55-80 is 25 years of not working supported by 37 years of working. That’s a fucking good deal

 

[Sasaferrato]

It’s mad when you think about it, that if you retire at 55, first 18 years you probably didn’t work, 55-80 is 25 years of not working supported by 37 years of working. That’s a fucking good deal

My late father was retired for 21 years, at the time he died, his work pension was more than his salary at the time he retired.

 

[izz]

Didn’t start saving for a pension until I was 30. Have a private pension which will pay out a bit, definitely less than what the state pension will. The benefit of that is it’s accessible at age 58 I think.

I’m 41, and I joined LGPS at age 40 1/2, I think I’ll aim to accrue 25 full years in that (don’t plan to change jobs as I have very good job security and like what I do) and try and go at 65 and a half, maybe on a flexible retirement basis like marty21

Retiring in the spring seems better than the winter I think. Longer days and better weather to ease the transition.

DEFINITELY, retire in Spring or Summer, I left at the bang of 31/12 and did nothing for months, blaming Winter

 

[MickiQ]

My late father was retired for 21 years, at the time he died, his work pension was more than his salary at the time he retired.

My Dad retired at 60 and he's 88 in July so he has been retired for 27.5 years now. Before my Mum went into a care home last June between my Dad's private pension, 2 state pensions and attendance allowance for my Mum they had a net of about £3K per month. It's dropped to a bit over half that now but they were saving massive amounts of it which has ended up being sucked into care home fees for my Mum.

 

[Sasaferrato]

My Dad retired at 60 and he's 88 in July so he has been retired for 27.5 years now. Before my Mum went into a care home last June between my Dad's private pension, 2 state pensions and attendance allowance for my Mum they had a net of about £3K per month. It's dropped to a bit over half that now but they were saving massive amounts of it which has ended up being sucked into care home fees for my Mum.

Our one and only has been told she'll inherit the house, there is unlikely to be much cash. We have some savings, but that is basically disaster/funeral money.

 

[shakespearegirl]

It’s mad when you think about it, that if you retire at 55, first 18 years you probably didn’t work, 55-80 is 25 years of not working supported by 37 years of working. That’s a fucking good deal

A big chunk of ours is also house profits, but I’d have a bigger pension pit if I’d not massively overpaid mortgage

 

[Edie]

Yeah the generational divide between the boomers (you lot over 60 who got a goood deal out of life) and gen X (those of us who got on the housing ladder prior to 2008 tend to be ok, those who didn’t less so), and Millennials/Gen Z is stark.

 

[LDC]

Retire at 55, move up north - Lakes, Scotland, Northumberland - spend my remaining time scooting about the landscape on an ATV.

Very fortunate - Army pension with, at that point, 34 years pensionable service.

kebabking

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yeah the generational divide between the boomers (you lot over 60 who got a goood deal out of life) and gen X (those of us who got on the housing ladder prior to 2008 tend to be ok, those who didn’t less so), and Millennials/Gen Z is stark.

When my generation dies off, and the next generation inherits, it will help.

Not too soon though.

 

[LDC]

I'd really like to retire at 55 tbh (and plan to tbh) as working in the NHS has shown me a shit tonne of people that get sick and die before making retirement age 'proper' and have seen a few friends already not make old bones. Plus I hate working and can easily fill my time with reading, lying on sofa with a dog, looking after chickens, walking, pissing about on here, etc.

I own a house outright now with no intention of moving until elderly, or at least much older. When I get to pension age I will have a small NHS pension of 10 years (if I can make that...), plus the State pension, plus a very small one from a few years in another job. So just need to get from 55 to 67 somehow... Might teach or do something else stress-free (not saying teaching generally is easy, I was meaning in my field of medicine or similar) and very part-time if needs be.

Do think at some point might be up for something like the older peoples' commune idea mentioned by Edie and sojourner above, fuck ending up alone and/or in a home.

 

[Edie]

When my generation dies off, and the next generation inherits, it will help.

Not too soon though.

They not going to inherit tho cos the Government will of sucked it up in social care fees. Or am I being too cynical. There will be a significant transfer of wealth for sure.

 

[kebabking]

kebabking

View attachment 359319

I'll tell you this for free, Brampton is going to fucking get some...

 

[Elpenor]

Yeah the generational divide between the boomers (you lot over 60 who got a goood deal out of life) and gen X (those of us who got on the housing ladder prior to 2008 tend to be ok, those who didn’t less so), and Millennials/Gen Z is stark.

Very much so.

 

[Edie]

Very much so.

Imagine getting 3k a month pension

 

[Elpenor]

They not going to inherit tho cos the Government will of sucked it up in social care fees. Or am I being too cynical. There will be a significant transfer of wealth for sure.

Transfer of wealth (and home ownership) from individuals to private corporations is what I think may happen

 

[kebabking]

Imagine getting 3k a month pension

 

[Edie]

Do you wanna join our commune

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Well I'm in my late 20s so I'll come back in 40 years and let you all know

How did you end up on here at this point?!

 

[muscovyduck]

When my generation dies off, and the next generation inherits, it will help.

Not too soon though.

There's not going to be much to inherit after all the care fees I suspect

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I have probably the best pension in existence but didn't start into it until late (aged 30). It's currently being attacked by the Govt/Bosses. I had my child late, he's 9 and I'm 49 so early retirement isn't a thing whilst I'm trying to support him through education etc.
I've worked since the age of 13. I can't imagine me not doing unless incapacitated. I think It'd be really unhealthy for me to be doing nothing. I'm institutionalised from an early age into working. I know it involves exploitation of wage value or whatever but the other option is fucking worse.