Retire early (living off savings)

[bongtom]

I retired in my 40s (although I never planned to it just happened) and now live in SE Asia. There are cheaper or equal places to live in Europe (Spain, Eastern Block countries, Belize etc) but here has the right weather, right food and very hot chicks!

Some banks here pay 7% to 8% PA on deposit savings...

[languagetimothy]

There's been a couple of threads similar to this to which I've responded, anyway my situation:

I'm 55 bunked out a couple of years ago after my last contract finished (finance) and have been living off savings.
I have about 300k equity in my house, a couple of modest pension pots, around 200k
I'm fully paid up on Govt pension (if they still pay it when I'm 67)
I also have a place in Portugal.

my planning is all for the next six months or so. I'm off!

[Robertj21a]

languagetimothy said:

There's been a couple of threads similar to this to which I've responded, anyway my situation:

I'm 55 bunked out a couple of years ago after my last contract finished (finance) and have been living off savings.
I have about 300k equity in my house, a couple of modest pension pots, around 200k
I'm fully paid up on Govt pension (if they still pay it when I'm 67)
I also have a place in Portugal.

my planning is all for the next six months or so. I'm off!

Excellent. You'll never regret it.

[bitchstewie]

jonah35 said:

A big house is kind of pointless. Some of my friends live in large homes and they joke about how they only need the kitchen living room and bedroom and kind of joke they have too much space but deep down they mean it and some of them have a huge mortgage

Every now and then I watch Escape to the Country or something similar and I'm always amazed at the number of couples who appear in their 60's so it's just the two of them but they "need" a minimum of 4 bedrooms and seem to be looking at sodding huge piles just so they have a few rooms spare when the kids visit.

I'm not suggesting everyone live in a bedsit but it does make you wonder, that is assuming any of them actually do it v just wanting to be on TV it does seem a little odd, unless their assumption is their home is "cash" and they'll downsize should they need to.

[baliongo]

bhstewie said:

Every now and then I watch Escape to the Country or something similar and I'm always amazed at the number of couples who appear in their 60's so it's just the two of them but they "need" a minimum of 4 bedrooms and seem to be looking at sodding huge piles just so they have a few rooms spare when the kids visit.

I'm not suggesting everyone live in a bedsit but it does make you wonder, that is assuming any of them actually do it v just wanting to be on TV it does seem a little odd, unless their assumption is their home is "cash" and they'll downsize should they need to.

After walking the dog and having breakfast i plan to look into this some more,there are many rural properties for sale (we want some land for animals) that could give us a comfortable £200k spare cash after selling our property..Bedsit no but there is money to be made changing property.

[RC1807]

bhstewie said:

Every now and then I watch Escape to the Country or something similar and I'm always amazed at the number of couples who appear in their 60's so it's just the two of them but they "need" a minimum of 4 bedrooms and seem to be looking at sodding huge piles just so they have a few rooms spare when the kids visit.

I'm not suggesting everyone live in a bedsit but it does make you wonder, that is assuming any of them actually do it v just wanting to be on TV it does seem a little odd, unless their assumption is their home is "cash" and they'll downsize should they need to.

I agree, Stewie - no point having a huge house for "maybes"..... I've already told our teen daughters that as soon as they fk off to Uni, I'm selling our 5 bed / 3 bath house and and downsizing. Why? Because I need to ensure my wife and I have enough income and savings for retirement. My wife didn't return to work when our eldest, now almost 17, was born, and became the all important stay-at-home-Mum - so we'll be on 1 pension pot.

OP: I don't think you've enough £ behind you, honestly, to retire now, unless you move somewhere far, far cheaper to live - like Thailand or the Philippines.

[anonymous-user]

OP, I think only you can tell. Expenditure is a personal thing. I know I lack the ability to live happily on the kind of budget you mention but if you can then more power to you. I'd go for it especially if you have a fall back of pulling in some part time work one day.

Fwiw, I retired six years ago and the missus a couple of years later so we live entirely off savings. Initially we savagely reduced our expenditure because most of it related to treating ourselves after a hard days work; 'go on you deserve it'. It has crept up over time though because of having so much time on our hands. Example, I used to do 8,000 miles per year when we actually needed a car to commute whereas now we don't really need a car I do 15,000 miles per year because on a nice day why wouldn't you just go for a drive out? You will need willpower to fill your days without spending money.

[dai1983]

languagetimothy said:

I also have a place in Portugal

My mother in law retires in two years and plans on relocating to the SW with us. My Mrs is an only child so part of our plans is to maybe club together and buy a place with a granny annex and maybe some income potential from holiday flats.

I had a browse of places for sale in Spain/Portugal and found a really 3 bed house with 1 bed annex and an amazing looking pool. We’d look into it in more detail when the time comes but what’s the reality of it over there? We’d ideally rent it out as much as we could with the MiL probably wanting to be over there in the annex quite a lot then we’d join her for hoildays etc.

[baliongo]

RC1807 said:

OP: I don't think you've enough £ behind you, honestly, to retire now, unless you move somewhere far, far cheaper to live - like Thailand or the Philippines.

For the last 5 years i have worked 6 mths of the year and banked some of those earnings,we comfortably lived on my wifes part time earnings (£14k) during each of those years...i am prepared to top her earnings up with my savings if need be for days out and enjoying any time we have together..

£120k divide by £7000 equals 17 years but i dont expect to be topping her earnings up too much.As said its down to whether i think i can do this and i believe i can with ease and still have £50k + £36k as emergency fund.

Time will tell i guess and the next full year off will tell me how possible this is.....

[anonymous-user]

baliongo said:

Time will tell i guess and the next full year off will tell me how possible this is.....

Good luck. Please let us know how it pans out.

[red_slr]

baliongo said:

RC1807 said:

OP: I don't think you've enough £ behind you, honestly, to retire now, unless you move somewhere far, far cheaper to live - like Thailand or the Philippines.

For the last 5 years i have worked 6 mths of the year and banked some of those earnings,we comfortably lived on my wifes part time earnings (£14k) during each of those years...i am prepared to top her earnings up with my savings if need be for days out and enjoying any time we have together..

£120k divide by £7000 equals 17 years but i dont expect to be topping her earnings up too much.As said its down to whether i think i can do this and i believe i can with ease and still have £50k + £36k as emergency fund.

Time will tell i guess and the next full year off will tell me how possible this is.....

Just make sure you invest that money rather than leaving it in cash or inflation may be an issue.

[baliongo]

Hang On said:

Good luck. Please let us know how it pans out.

Thanks i will,its great to see others have done this be it with more money to play with and i have tested the water over the last 5 years working just 6 mths a year.
I can always take on agency work when and if (plumber/pipefitter) so that is my fallback.

Time for my second cup of coffee while i sit here with my dog alongside me while others are stuck in traffic or are on overcrowded trains..

[tankplanker]

bongtom said:

I retired in my 40s (although I never planned to it just happened) and now live in SE Asia. There are cheaper or equal places to live in Europe (Spain, Eastern Block countries, Belize etc) but here has the right weather, right food and very hot chicks!

Some banks here pay 7% to 8% PA on deposit savings...

My in laws did something similar, although in their fifties and to Turkey as my father in law is a Turkish Cypriot. At the time it looked like Turkey would eventually be able to join the EU, and was reasonably progressive, at least on the coast where they live. We all know how that turned out, and they are stuck there as they have too much cash invested locally and would struggle to move the cash off shore now. If moving abroad to retire I would always have a plan upfront for what to do if you decide you don't want to live there anymore. I'm also increasingly worried about what we are going to do once they get to the point that they can't look after themselves.

I'm hoping to retire on savings in a handful of years time ahead of drawing my pension in my late fifties, but I plan on keeping the UK as my base for this reason.

[languagetimothy]

dai1983 said:

languagetimothy said:

I also have a place in Portugal

My mother in law retires in two years and plans on relocating to the SW with us. My Mrs is an only child so part of our plans is to maybe club together and buy a place with a granny annex and maybe some income potential from holiday flats.

I had a browse of places for sale in Spain/Portugal and found a really 3 bed house with 1 bed annex and an amazing looking pool. We’d look into it in more detail when the time comes but what’s the reality of it over there? We’d ideally rent it out as much as we could with the MiL probably wanting to be over there in the annex quite a lot then we’d join her for hoildays etc.

Unfortunately I don't know the reality of it because my place has a long term tenant of seven years or so. It's all a bit scary but it's either this or getting back to work and really don't want to do that.
I don't know anyone there but it's a good size town not far from the coast. My days at the moment often include tennis (reasonable club player) and the town has a tennis club. Hopefully this will be a good way of meeting folks, I'm quite sociable.im also a guitarist that plays in a typical pub band... hopefull something to get involved in too there is a live music scene in the area.

Be aware that if you are not a resident in Portugal and you rent it out you pay full tax on the income (less some expenses but not mortgage). It is of course a fair bit cheaper to live out there.

[baliongo]

Decided to sell one of my motorcycles as both are delicate things that get used rarely which will release between 15-25k depending which bike goes...

The wife has a new Toyota aygo (i know) and my ageing Alfa 156 is looking worse for wear after many reliable years so something newer and reliable would suit better.

We could get by on just the Aygo but cmon a nice large estate is what i am opting for...

[FocusRS3]

OP- i am most definitely learning towards your way of thinking.

Sick to death of the rat race and a declining/depressing city business so trying to take some steps towards preparing for it to end.

Have told the wife when it happens i'll not be returning so we will have to live accordingly.
Have kids school fees but the cash for this is stuck aside.

Selling up is what we are trying to do now as i'm 50 this year.

Watching this thread with interest

[baliongo]

FocusRS3 said:

OP- i am most definitely learning towards your way of thinking.

Sick to death of the rat race and a declining/depressing city business so trying to take some steps towards preparing for it to end.

Have told the wife when it happens i'll not be returning so we will have to live accordingly.
Have kids school fees but the cash for this is stuck aside.

Selling up is what we are trying to do now as i'm 50 this year.

Watching this thread with interest

I showed my better half this video earlier.....just for kicks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0EoyTzcFOI (living in a car on $800 a mth)

[bitchstewie]

baliongo said:

Decided to sell one of my motorcycles as both are delicate things that get used rarely which will release between 15-25k depending which bike goes...

The wife has a new Toyota aygo (i know) and my ageing Alfa 156 is looking worse for wear after many reliable year so something newer and reliable would suit better.

We could get by on just the Aygo but cmon a nice large estate is what i am opting for...

Again, that's just "cash" you can draw on.

You really should explore and work out what you can do that will provide some return on whatever you have vs. leaving it all in the bank.

[Ari]

PositronicRay said:

Ari said:

PositronicRay said:

Ari said:

Robbo 27 said:

A financial adviser has told me that I should be looking for over £250K in cash or easily transferrable assetts (not property) to have a stress free retirement and also have around £2000+ a month in pension income on top of that.

Love Pistonheads.

What's wrong with that? Equates to around £40k p.a. before tax.

Okay well firstly, here in the real world, people don't often have a quarter of a million pounds kicking around in cash when they reach retirement, as well as a pension chucking out over two grand a month plus a paid for house or two.

Secondly, to suggest you need that as a minimum for 'stress free retirement' is absurd. It would be lovely, of course. Lots of things would be. But if you own a modest house outright then a pension of half that and cash reserves a fifth of that amount would be more than enough to live 'stress free' on. Run the yacht, a new Jag and pay for winter in the Caribbean? Nope. But to live 'stress free'? Absolutely.

Depends on your current situation. £24k p.a. + £250k isn't unusual and for a couple certainly doesn't run yacht/new jag/winter in the Caribbean lifestyle.

Who said anything about 'current lifestyle'? The claim was that you need to own a house, have quarter of a million pounds in cash and two grand a month coming in just to be 'stress free' (ie no money worries). Absolute nonsense.

[Ari]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I like to think we're a pretty frugal, low maintenance couple, but living on £500/month
Council tax is £220, (ok, we have a big house in a London borough, so many would pay half that), then electric, gas, phone and broadband, house insurance, car insurance, running the car, food, water rates, etc.

Not sure that's doable in the long term.

Nothing stopping you downsizing from your big house when you retire though.