Taipan wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 11:02 am
That's a thing that makes living abroad so attractive. My Mate lived near Murcia for a good few years. He has a pension from the Army and LFB that he managed to get early due to bad health. He said the cost of living in Spain was so much cheaper compared to here, that he never felt like he had to compromise on his spending. He's back here now and doesn't stop moaning about how expensive it is to live here!
Which bits though ? I've never thought supermarkets in spain/france were any better than the UK ? certainly not night and day anyway.
When going out for food, again, not too different. Pizza is £12... or 12Euro anyway... so essentially the same in France as in the UK.
Beers £3-4 a go... so i'm not seeing much in terms of savings there.
Spain when we've been to Orgiva for example could potentially work out cheaper in some ways... but not much from what i've seen.
Taipan wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 11:02 am
That's a thing that makes living abroad so attractive. My Mate lived near Murcia for a good few years. He has a pension from the Army and LFB that he managed to get early due to bad health. He said the cost of living in Spain was so much cheaper compared to here, that he never felt like he had to compromise on his spending. He's back here now and doesn't stop moaning about how expensive it is to live here!
Which bits though ? I've never thought supermarkets in spain/france were any better than the UK ? certainly not night and day anyway.
When going out for food, again, not too different. Pizza is £12... or 12Euro anyway... so essentially the same in France as in the UK.
Beers £3-4 a go... so i'm not seeing much in terms of savings there.
Spain when we've been to Orgiva for example could potentially work out cheaper in some ways... but not much from what i've seen.
I guess it depends where you are, but where he was (San Pedro del Pinatar) beers and food were very cheap. Cheap enough to eat out most of the time. A meal with a drink included in a lot of places used by ex-pats were under 5 Euros. Most things in the supermarkets were cheaper too, but we found this to be the case in Catalan supermarkets too. Things like council tax was ridiculously cheap and of course you don't need much heating. He had a heating system in his place but only ever used the log burner to take the chill out of the occasional winters evening. I didn't ask him about his car and bike insurance. Wished I had now!
I gave up working for a living on Jan 4th, a day after 65th birthday.
I have 34 years in a final salary scheme. It’s divided into pre-2009 and post-2009, so it’s two schemes in the same job. The pre-2009 scheme has paid its lump sum and two instalments by now, as you’d expect.
The later scheme has paid nothing yet, because there are Additional Voluntary Contributions. No money can be released until the AVC money is settled in an annuity (or whatever the pensioner does with it). I did not know that, until they sent the forms last November.
Yes it has taken this long for the fate of the AVC money to be negotiated.
It’s no problem to me, because it’s only 1/3 of my pension and I have the lump sum and monthly instalments from the older scheme and quite a lot of accessible savings and a paid-off mortgage. Oh and a good working wife haha.
But it could be a problem for someone else who has AVC in a sole scheme or in all their schemes.
I just thought it might be a helpful warning to someone.
JackyJoll wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 6:57 pm
I gave up working for a living on Jan 4th, a day after 65th birthday.
Happy retirement.
Thanks. It’s something of a shock.
Sounds like you had a plan and were well prepared for it, it sort of crept up on me. I'm younger than you so might yet do some more work, then again I might not. I'm more or less enjoying van life at the moment so we'll see what happens.
I've been pretty busy planning my retirement lately, I'd like to be financially secure enough to not have to work at fifty-five, even though I probably still will.
You'd be stark raving mad to rely solely on an annuity, unless it was a very secure final scheme that you could bet your life on.
You'd also be unwise to rely solely on the UK state pension.
I'm aiming for a mixed bag, pretty evenly split between...
A financial portfolio that I can top slice tax-free every year.
Cash.
Physical assets that I can liquidate or take income from.
An annuity.
My plan is to get to a position that any two of those in combination would be enough to live on, then the other two can be left for a period of time if they're not performing or they're a bonus. E.g. if my stocks/shares portfolio is down for a year or two then it wouldn't make sense drawing from it, so I'd leave it until it's back on the up.
Then (if I live long enough) the state pension as a bonus at sixty-seven, which in todays money is about fourteen hundred quid for the two of us.
I've been thinking about semi-retiring this year. Just drop down to a 3 day week, but, money has never come easy to me and we're not big earners etc. So, walking away from money to basically loaf about, seems kinda wrong and a bit hard to get my head round?
Taipan wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:06 am
I've been thinking about semi-retiring this year. Just drop down to a 3 day week, but, money has never come easy to me and we're not big earners etc. So, walking away from money to basically loaf about, seems kinda wrong and a bit hard to get my head round?
Same.
My philosophy is to make hay whilst the sun shines, but I still want to get to the point where I can do it if I want.
It's like not having a mortgage, it was never a problem paying it, but it's still a nice feeling not having to.
Taipan wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:06 am
I've been thinking about semi-retiring this year. Just drop down to a 3 day week, but, money has never come easy to me and we're not big earners etc. So, walking away from money to basically loaf about, seems kinda wrong and a bit hard to get my head round?
Retirement = loafing around. LOL. I wish.
If you don't mind doing what you're doing and they pay you, keep at it TP. Reducing the days is a great way to ease into 'loafing around'.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
I can’t advise anyone, because I’m quite stupid at this stuff.
Just mentioning things I didn’t know about until I tried to to get some pension money.
My old workplace didn’t only have what was regarded as a mediocre pension scheme 34 years ago.
There was an on-site hairdresser, dentist, doctor, nurses, physio, tool borrowing scheme, at least six eateries of various types, newspaper van, putting green, quoits and a weekly prayer meeting (that was an ecumenical matter).
Most of these quaint amenities faded away as culture changed.
Taipan wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:06 am
I've been thinking about semi-retiring this year. Just drop down to a 3 day week, but, money has never come easy to me and we're not big earners etc. So, walking away from money to basically loaf about, seems kinda wrong and a bit hard to get my head round?
Retirement = loafing around. LOL. I wish.
If you don't mind doing what you're doing and they pay you, keep at it TP. Reducing the days is a great way to ease into 'loafing around'.
Fuck me, I have never been busier ...
I just don't have to fly long haul to do it !
