Advice on early retirement - who's done it? (3 Viewers)

[carolyn]

Have to say the opting out or sp2 was never explained properly and think most would have been happy to pay a little more so it did not affect the private pension.

I agree. I had no idea .I’m sure the accountants knew but with so much going on I really just let them do their job. Nick was the same at Westlands . He’d retired at 60 and it was only Martin Lewis about 3 years ago when he started writing about it and Nick had just started getting his reduced state pension that we had any idea we could top it up. We did it straight away before the mad rush. It was too late to get it right up to the max though.

We went to a 3 day retiring planning thing and no mention was made. I was financially savvy by then, or so I thought. That was laid on by Westlands.

He told his golf buddies who had been seeing IFAs every year since they’d retired and not one had mentioned it! They’ve all done it as well now.

I retired at 55 so my practice accountants told me to buy 2 years then. I’m sure they would have kept me up to date. I’ve got to buy 2 or 3 before my next birthday . The “hotline” said don’t do it too soon. In case I snuff it and then it’s wasted. Those were my words, he laughed. I was a student until I was 24 so they don’t count other than the last year.

 

[Fragle]

? Mines saying £5000ish a year, is that good????

Well it’s better than my pension so yes

 

[Tonks]

As soon as I saw this thread I thought” Here we go a good 500 Willy waving replies guaranteed”
There must be a very small minority of people who can afford to retire really early and all these people seem to be members on here.
I’m still searching for a forum for skint Yorkshiremen looking for second jobs

Here's a reply from someone who currently has no idea when they'll ever be able to retire! I have a small pension pending (at 65) from a company I worked for for 9 years in my 20s. I get sent a single sheet of paper from them every year and it's a closed pension so there's no way to log in anywhere to see what/if this actually means I'll get, but it won't be much.
I also have a pension which started when I was at my last employer, and which I pay into on an ad hoc basis now. When I went Freelance I couldn't afford to pay anything into it for over three years, and now I'm certainly not making any significant impact with what I can afford to pay in. Not having an employer to contribute hurts.
As I'm single, I don't have the advantage of being part of a couple with two pensions coming in. The costs of living alone are higher.
I'm still paying a mortgage and there's no realistic way of paying it off significantly early although I do pay down against it when possible.
Looking at my expenditure/bills spreadsheets, I cannot see how, even without my mortgage payments, I'll be able to retire on what funds I can expect to be coming in. And I don't live an extravagant lifestyle at all.
When I think about it overmuch, I find it deeply depressing, especially now I'm in my late 50s.
The best I can hope to do I fear, is to reduce my working days in about five years time.

 

[Saucer]

? Mines saying £5000ish a year, is that good????

You need to allow for reductions for retiring early. Most of your pension will probably be the 1995 scheme and be assuming you retire at 60. Each year before that will take about 4-5% off the annual amount to allow for you taking them for longer.

 

[DandJ]

As soon as I saw this thread I thought” Here we go a good 500 Willy waving replies guaranteed”
There must be a very small minority of people who can afford to retire really early and all these people seem to be members on here.
I’m still searching for a forum for skint Yorkshiremen looking for second jobs

In and amongst the inevitable willy waving (you only have to read certain posters posts to know who they are (they don't mention taking "the car in for a service", they tell you exactly what sort of high end car it is...) there are some great bits of advice (some of it should be copy/pasted onto forums frequented by teens, 20 and 30yr olds.....because as one member has mentioned...if one is thinking about pensions and asking questions in their late 50s...it's probably too late for any real planning.

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[Roby2008]

Retired at 61, not as early as some but enough to make me feel good......cashed in some small pensions at 63, paid off the house, now enjoying month long breaks in between working on the house and hobbies............just back from 4 weeks in the UK and Normandy.....2 weeks then off to Budapest for a course then probably some Germany, who knows...

 

[carolyn]

In and amongst the inevitable willy waving (you only have to read certain posters posts to know who they are (they don't mention taking "the car in for a service", they tell you exactly what sort of high end car it is...) there are some great bits of advice (some of it should be copy/pasted onto forums frequented by teens, 20 and 30yr olds.....because as one member has mentioned...if one is thinking about pensions and asking questions in their late 50s...it's probably too late for any real planning.

I was certainly one of the ones who was advising you with all of your joint health issues to get out now but knowing that you’ve worked all your life in the NHS as a nurse I think it’s still true that if you take your pension before 55 it really does get hammered a disproportionate amount. Well worth taking advice though.

Regarding your wife. I don’t understand why if she’s also a nurse and has had a stroke and needs a wheelchair quite a bit why she’s not on disability( or whatever it is called now) with a view to getting a full pension on those grounds. The unions are normally really helpful on this sort of thing.

 

[Bailey58]

That's so amazing. Our lass works at a donkey sanctuary and she'll love that

Good to hear someone else supporting this forgotten group. We had a collection box in the 70's for The Donkey Sanctuary, Elizabeth Svendsen's place in Sidmouth. She's long gone but we still have a yearly standing order going in.

 

[PaulC70]

You need to allow for reductions for retiring early. Most of your pension will probably be the 1995 scheme and be assuming you retire at 60. Each year before that will take about 4-5% off the annual amount to allow for you taking them for longer.

so I'd be hammered if i retired 5 years early :-(

 

[Carpmart]

In and amongst the inevitable willy waving (you only have to read certain posters posts to know who they are (they don't mention taking "the car in for a service", they tell you exactly what sort of high end car it is...) there are some great bits of advice (some of it should be copy/pasted onto forums frequented by teens, 20 and 30yr olds.....because as one member has mentioned...if one is thinking about pensions and asking questions in their late 50s...it's probably too late for any real planning.

Yes, the earlier you start saving in a pension, the more value one gets. Should be taught in schools! Kids need to understand tax relief and compound interest.

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[carolyn]

so I'd be hammered if i retired 5 years early :-(

You’d obviously get less retiring at 55 than at 60 but it’s a steady incremental amount once you reach the magic 55. There are tables you can access, I’m sorry I can’t remember how you do it but I’m sure you can find out through the NHS retirement people. I thought you could get a statement if you were thinking about it within the next year. It doesn’t mean you have to do it. You get it from the NHS not HMRC.

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

Yes, the earlier you start saving in a pension, the more value one gets. Should be taught in schools! Kids need to understand tax relief and compound interest.

Wish I had a pot invested from birth per the video Gromett posted recently…

 

[lorger]

so I'd be hammered if i retired 5 years early :-(

Yes and no, I was told that for DB pensions (final salary) they work out how much you get by multiplying the average age.

Example
Retirement age 60 pension £10k Pa
Average age 84 so 24 years pension
Means your pot value is roughly £240k

Take your pension at 55 you then roughly divide £240k by 29 years
New pension would be £8.2k Pa
So you get the same amount if you live to the average age, I know FS is paid until death and some will live longer and others die younger. The only number you don’t know is when it’s your time, so you need to think do I need the money now or do I want to have more money when I’m older and don’t need as much, only the individual can answer that.

These figures are just examples and my understanding of how it works after talking to our pension department.

 

[Saucer]

Yes and no, I was told that for DB pensions (final salary) they work out how much you get by multiplying the average age.

Example
Retirement age 60 pension £10k Pa
Average age 84 so 24 years pension
Means your pot value is roughly £240k

Take your pension at 55 you then roughly divide £240k by 29 years
New pension would be £8.2k Pa
So you get the same amount if you live to the average age, I know FS is paid until death and some will live longer and others die younger. The only number you don’t know is when it’s your time, so you need to think do I need the money now or do I want to have more money when I’m older and don’t need as much, only the individual can answer that.

These figures are just examples and my understanding of how it works after talking to our pension department.

That’s pretty much how it works. If you retire 5 years early ypu have 5 years more pension, so that’s what the government actuaries dept determine, how much of an annual reduction would be need to cover the fact you’ll (on average) be getting it for longer. On average it should even out.
Apart from the 1995 pension, everyone in the NHS is now in the 2015 scheme that has a later retirement date.
Someone earlier asked if OP has Special Officer Status that allows them to retire on full pension at 55. The last few people on that are retiring now, and I suspect he’d be very aware if he had it as all pension statements would refer to it.

 

[Saucer]

so I'd be hammered if i retired 5 years early :-(

You need to do a bit of homework. Look at your Total Reward Statement, which you get through work every year. The one for the past tax year is due about now. That will tell you your 1995 (assuming you’re in that) and your 2015 benefits. To complicate it a bit, after you’ve done that, look up what the McCloud remedy is. Bottom line for you is that instead of leaving the 1995 pension in 2015, this will have moved to 2022. So 7 more years in the older pension, and much better if you want to retire earlier.
As I said earlier in the thread, much more specific information on other forums.

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[PaulC70]

Thanks all, yes Im delving into it all now and joined a few good looking groups on facebook which are nhs specific too.
This is a screenshot with my number redacted just in case lol.
So 2 things.
1. Normal pension age on the 95 scheme says 60 but I believe on some research that because I was in the scheme as a nurse pre april 95 I should have special class ie able to take from 55. Im awaiting confirmation from the Pension authority on this via email.
2. Im assuming the £5851 number is the yearly pension i'd get.

 

[alex n]

We finished last October. Me 56, him 58. OH was lucky enough to get redundancy (affectionately known as the dundy bus). When the bus came, he got one of the 4 seats & got his dundy and pension lump sums along with his full DB pension with no actuarial deductions.

Having spent 12 years working for IFAs, we did not seek advice. I used my modest DC pension to buy a fixed term annuity, to bridge the gap to state pension which, along with rental income, provides my own income. We are mortgage & debt-free.

We take advantage of the starting rate for savings by moving cash into accounts in my name to mitigate our tax liability as much as possible.

The main problem we'll have is learning how to spend money in retirement, having been savers all our lives. Nice problem to have, but I'm worried we'll regret not spending.

Now, all we need now, is for the money-pit motorhome to get delivered so we have something to spend money on. Which will come first, the MH or our state pensions

You'll only regret not spending if you feel you're doing without.

 

[Dutch 68]

Thanks all, yes Im delving into it all now and joined a few good looking groups on facebook which are nhs specific too.
This is a screenshot with my number redacted just in case lol.
So 2 things.
1. Normal pension age on the 95 scheme says 60 but I believe on some research that because I was in the scheme as a nurse pre april 95 I should have special class ie able to take from 55. Im awaiting confirmation from the Pension authority on this via email.
2. Im assuming the £5851 number is the yearly pension i'd get.

View attachment 909124

You can request retiring early on grounds of ill health, and don’t loose out I believe?

 

[carolyn]

Thanks all, yes Im delving into it all now and joined a few good looking groups on facebook which are nhs specific too.
This is a screenshot with my number redacted just in case lol.
So 2 things.
1. Normal pension age on the 95 scheme says 60 but I believe on some research that because I was in the scheme as a nurse pre april 95 I should have special class ie able to take from 55. Im awaiting confirmation from the Pension authority on this via email.
2. Im assuming the £5851 number is the yearly pension i'd get.

View attachment 909124

What about the 2015 as well? Will you get any from that.

 

[PaulC70]

What about the 2015 as well? Will you get any from that.

Yes but Im assuming that not until 67 with state pension. plus theyve not updated it since 3/22 looking at my current statement.

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[Al n Val]

the 60’s decade is also known as sniper alley if you can transit this decade without too much of an issue you should be reasonably ok for the next few

I hope your right

i’m 70 and the last decade i’ve had both hips replaced, a double hernia op and a prostrate biopsy which was clear

Bring on the next decade

 

[carolyn]

Yes that is the normal pension age but you can still choose to take it earlier but it would obviously be reduced, even the 2015 scheme you can chose to take at 55. If you look at the document I refer to in #116 it’s clear. The protected status that someone mentioned for some 1995 holders was just Psychiatrists and maybe psychiatric nurses as it was felt their jobs were more stressful so they could go at 50 at a sort of levelled up rate. Long gone now.

 

[Soycd]

If you have not done so already, and if you are in a union then I would ask for pension advice from them. They will have pension specialists, mine (NUT) were invaluable when I had to take early retirement at 56. Mine was a very different situation in that we had no choice as the job I was dissapearing along with hundreds of other jobs in British Forces Germany. Also possibly speak to a pension advisor? This may have already been advised here, I have not read every post. At the end of the day, on this forum you will get a very mixed bag of people, all with differing pension arrangements, or not. From my experience specialist advice, from people that understand your pension scheme, inside out, is the best move. Good luck.

 

[PaulC70]

Yes that is the normal pension age but you can still choose to take it earlier but it would obviously be reduced, even the 2015 scheme you can chose to take at 55. If you look at the document I refer to in #116 it’s clear. The protected status that someone mentioned for some 1995 holders was just Psychiatrists and maybe psychiatric nurses as it was felt their jobs were more stressful so they could go at 50 at a sort of levelled up rate. Long gone now.

Yes they got rid of the protected status disappeared after the closure of the 95 scheme, but any nurse, physio, health visitor or midwife as long as they were a member before 1995 seems to be protected? https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/Special Class Guide-20181080-(V1).pdf top of page 5.

 

[VXman]

so I'd be hammered if i retired 5 years early :-(

Yes your lose money but you would also have your pension for 5 years more than you would have had. I did the calculations and worked out I would be 70 before I started to lose out. At 67 the state pension would kick in and I reckon in my mid later 70's I'd probably start doing less so needing less money.

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[lorger]

@pualC70
Your pension seems low compared to your wage, Lorraine has worked with NHS and local government for the past 30 years in an admin capacity. She was part time for about 15 years while our daughter was at school, her wage isn’t anywhere near yours but her pension is coming out higher than yours.
She has asked for a calculation if she was to start taking it this year as she has just turned 55, this will then allow us to make the decision of taking it or leaving it until 60. We will probably leave it but need the figures do we can make an educated decision.

 

[Saucer]

Yes they got rid of the protected status disappeared after the closure of the 95 scheme, but any nurse, physio, health visitor or midwife as long as they were a member before 1995 seems to be protected? https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/Special Class Guide-20181080-(V1).pdf top of page 5.

That is a fact. But only the minority that had the status. April 1995 to be precise.
Your 1995 part of the statement stops at 2015 and so doesnt account for years between 2015 and 2022 which will be added because of McCloud. That’s good news. However where have all the missing years between 1994 and then gone? Did you leave the nhs or the pension, given the statement suggests you have less than 10 years membership.

 

[Hymerboy]

Before retiring at 57 we went to see a financial advisor, all he seemd to be interested in was advising us about various insrances I.E Health, life insurance, childrens insurance ect, by the time I would have paid for all these there was not enough to retire on anyway, so I dumped him, did my own calculations and worked out that we would never be rich but could do it, here we are 19 years later and loving it. By the way we both got our pensions at 65 which is a massive boost and well worth taking into account.

 

[PaulC70]

That is a fact. But only the minority that had the status. April 1995 to be precise.
Your 1995 part of the statement stops at 2015 and so doesnt account for years between 2015 and 2022 which will be added because of McCloud. That’s good news. However where have all the missing years between 1994 and then gone? Did you leave the nhs or the pension, given the statement suggests you have less than 10 years membership.

I did leave from September 07 until September 2013 so that's likely it (left nursing as burnt out) but 94 to 07 alone is 13 years

 

[Saucer]

I did leave from September 07 until September 2013 so that's likely it (left nursing as burnt out) but 94 to 07 alone is 13 years

It’s showing as 11.5 calendar years total in the 1995, so the years before 2015, of which 9+ were pensionable, implying you were part time or not in the pension. On the upside, and as I said before, you should get another 7 years added to that assuming you were FT between 2015 and 2022. So the non-2015 pension would be 1/80 of your final salary for each full pensionable year (9yrs + 7yrs). This would then be reduced depending on how many years you left before 60.
Probably as much detail as we should go into it on a motorhome forum

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