I was looking forward to retirement

[Domdom]

If you take him to Spain it really will be carrying on El Banco De Mamá Y Papá!

Si, Perot no es une grande problema para me. He might even meet a nice Senôrita and make a decent life there. Maybe decide to go travelling.

 

[Onoff]

Si, Perot no es une grande problema para me. He might even meet a nice Senôrita and make a decent life there. Maybe decide to go travelling.

I read that straight off!

Where I work most of the cleaners are Columbian and I always try and learn. Being the kind chap I am I like to greet them first thing with a fair warning after my morning visit...

"Esperas diez minutos, el baño huele mal!"

 

[Alan Reynolds]

are u claiming your state pension as well . you can defer it and get the full amount back paid if u pack in later. if u dont claim it and snuff it its gone and wifey cant claim any of it

I deferred my state pension for 5 1/2 years as they were giving 10%. I took the lump sum when they stopped that. Then the cheeky buggers took 40% as income tax! It took a fight to get it all back, once they have it they don’t want to give it back.

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Quite right also if you still have some years to pay for your full NI contributions to state pension it is not worth paying the last year's. Also from HMRC

Not sure that’s true. I deferred mine as they were offering 10% interest on it if I deferred and got a lump sum of £70,000 plus I somehow ended up with quite a tidy state pension afterwards. I did have to fight to get back the 40% they decided to tax on the lump sum though.

 

[Bobtail4x4]

2 years will soon pass

The last 48 certainly did.

 

[Domdom]

"Esperas diez minutos, el baño huele mal!"

¿te refieres a los desagues?

 

[Onoff]

¿te refieres a los desagues?

It's more to do with what I do to the drains...

 

[RichardM]

Not sure that’s true. I deferred mine as they were offering 10% interest on it if I deferred and got a lump sum of £70,000 plus I somehow ended up with quite a tidy state pension afterwards. I did have to fight to get back the 40% they decided to tax on the lump sum though.

I meant the last year of your contributions to the state pension. If you retire before making full contributions (37yrs) you can make up the missing years, but check the increase in pension you would accrue for the last year (1year) contribution is worth it to you

 

[badabec]

I retired at 59, seven years ago. Blood pressure dropped, resting heart rate dropped (not to zero luckily), no more migraines, no more rows with the wife.

At first I though I may have to get a part-time job or start cutting people's grass etc. My wife retired at the same time, we went from two incomes to zero.

Dogs got up and eaten so that's today's worry off the list. I just never thought I’d turn into a worrier.

I guess what will be will be with the housing. Ironically it seems that letting agents can’t get enough properties round here so we had been discussing putting some of my lump sum into one and getting a return.

I am off loading my property portfolio, it has become a royal PITA. No tax relief on mortgage interest, Councils wanting licences, jumping through hoops etc. All so that your tenant can shower twice day, dry clothing on radiators and never, ever open a window. Then the bleeding heart of 'my house is damp, the landlord won't fix it'. Gardens never, ever get seen to, apart from a giant trampoline and a load of dog poop. If you are a worrier, property will do your head in.
You will need a float, one year I had to replace five gas boilers. Plus fence panels, cookers, fridges etc.
The main snag with property is that you can't sell just a bit of it, it is all or nothing. If you have tenants, you have to kick them out, so getting the funds can easily take 6 - 12 months.
I sold one of mine a few years ago and put a lump sum from the proceeds into a Prudential Investment Plan. I have withdrawn 5% per month since August 2019, the fund is still worth more than I paid in.

 

[roofman]

I retired at 59, seven years ago. Blood pressure dropped, resting heart rate dropped (not to zero luckily), no more migraines, no more rows with the wife.

At first I though I may have to get a part-time job or start cutting people's grass etc. My wife retired at the same time, we went from two incomes to zero.




I am off loading my property portfolio, it has become a royal PITA. No tax relief on mortgage interest, Councils wanting licences, jumping through hoops etc. All so that your tenant can shower twice day, dry clothing on radiators and never, ever open a window. Then the bleeding heart of 'my house is damp, the landlord won't fix it'. Gardens never, ever get seen to, apart from a giant trampoline and a load of dog poop. If you are a worrier, property will do your head in.
You will need a float, one year I had to replace five gas boilers. Plus fence panels, cookers, fridges etc.
The main snag with property is that you can't sell just a bit of it, it is all or nothing. If you have tenants, you have to kick them out, so getting the funds can easily take 6 - 12 months.
I sold one of mine a few years ago and put a lump sum from the proceeds into a Prudential Investment Plan. I have withdrawn 5% per month since August 2019, the fund is still worth more than I paid in.

Providing housing for the Jeremy kyle fodder is a mugs game. Only way to enjoy owning rentals with a better chance of sleeping at night is to own property's that command monthly rents above the Government benefits threshold. After owning 5 property's in the early 2000,s i could not wait to offload them at the end

 

[addjunkie]

Providing housing for the Jeremy kyle fodder is a mugs game. Only way to enjoy owning rentals with a better chance of sleeping at night is to own property's that command monthly rents above the Government benefits threshold. After owning 5 property's in the early 2000,s i could not wait to offload them at the end

I concur, I had 3. One superb pair of tenants, the others were a real pain. Sold those two after 7 years far too much hassle. The good pair I hung on too, till one day I eventually persuaded them to buy it off me after 9 years. All the perks of letting property ownership have been gradually eroded reducing your return on investment. And if the wrong group end up in government itll get even worse. Then when you do sell you pay a chunk of capital gains.

Holiday lets are a better return but come with an element of work to maintain the standards and suitable properties tend to be at a premium. The tax man still gets his chunk when you sell though.

 

[Farside]

I've been retired two years now, and the five or so years prior to that was sheer hell, with continual pains from back injury, knees, shoulders, etc. Once I could put all that crap behind me, I just got into the habit of doing stuff for myself at my own pace with no customers breathing down my neck.
Miraculously most of the pains gradually went away when I didn't have to be somewhere at some time to do some god-awful awkward work in horrible condtions.
If I'm working on my own place, the horrible condtions are mine and I can just take whatever time I need to sort it out.
Oddly, I've got just as much disposable income now as I had previously, and that's just on a fairly ordinary Irish pension. When I was working, I was earning pots but pots were going out, too.
Only fly in the ointment right now is the rocketing cost of energy, which will affect me a fair bit.
Oh well, just have to get on with more insulation, in that case.

 

[premmington]

I concur, I had 3. One superb pair of tenants, the others were a real pain. Sold those two after 7 years far too much hassle. The good pair I hung on too, till one day I eventually persuaded them to buy it off me after 9 years. All the perks of letting property ownership have been gradually eroded reducing your return on investment. And if the wrong group end up in government itll get even worse. Then when you do sell you pay a chunk of capital gains.

Holiday lets are a better return but come with an element of work to maintain the standards and suitable properties tend to be at a premium. The tax man still gets his chunk when you sell though.

I would agree.

Capital Gains tax is cruel and nasty.

I too am so pleased to be getting out of the rental game!

 

[redlig]

Good luck, mine's 23 and no sign of getting a job!

Do what my old man did. When I was just 18 he gave me 2 weeks to move out . I was gone in 1 week and never looked back . Best thing he ever did as it made me stand on my own 2 feet. Both my daughters left to go to UNI at 18 and funded themselves by working and also made their own way and again never rehoused with us. All done with no aggro and we all are best mates. I think parents can be superprotective nowadays. People will say it was easier then but it didn't feel easy at the time . Just great to make your own decisions and live with the results.

 

[dobbslc]

Oh well, just have to get on with more insulation, in that case.

You can always burn those old GS tyres to keep warm!

 

[lchris21]

I'm 5months into a 12month contract that finishes 4 months before I'm 55. Got loads of plans and lots of hobbies and pastimes I do and still plan to do, till I cannot. Started planning my get out of working life about 10years ago after having had enough. Plan is to sit tight and sit out the 4 months till 55 then retire. My current boss keeps threatening me with a full time job as they cannot seem to get anyone decent with enough experience through the doors these days. Might hang around for the winter if the golden handcuffs appear, but otherwise I'm gone...no ifs or buts.
Have been slamming into savings and pension over the last five years, so not a mega pot, but comfortable.
After leaving school in July 84, and starting my apprenticeship in the September I think after 39years minus a few months here and there I've done enough for the British economic efforts........
I'm must be a bit odd....will work all day, but I've never really loved working? Preferred sinking my efforts into non working interests.
Over the years ive seen lots of people not make retirement or not last too long in it....I don't intend being in that category

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Miraculously most of the pains gradually went away when I didn't have to be somewhere at some time to do some god-awful awkward work in horrible condtions.

I believe stress can manifest itself in strange and unexpected ways. Glad you're happier now .

 

[Wedg1e]

2 years will soon pass

I decided last year that 30 years with the company will be enough for me, which will be in November '23. It's already down to 19 months!

 

[Wedg1e]

Do what my old man did. When I was just 18 he gave me 2 weeks to move out . I was gone in 1 week and never looked back . Best thing he ever did as it made me stand on my own 2 feet. Both my daughters left to go to UNI at 18 and funded themselves by working and also made their own way and again never rehoused with us. All done with no aggro and we all are best mates. I think parents can be superprotective nowadays. People will say it was easier then but it didn't feel easy at the time . Just great to make your own decisions and live with the results.

When I was 19 I got a schoolie pregnant (OK, technically she'd just left); my mother decided it was time I moved out. Trying to make the best of it I suggested we got married (the girl, not my mother). By the time I was 22 I was unemployed, divorced and a single parent.
At work we've had 22 year olds who could barely tie their own shoelaces, thought the world owed them a living. It doesn't.

When my daughter got together with the guy she's been married to for 18 years, she came to see me, took a deep breath and said that they were planning to move into a rented flat together. She was right to expect me to say 'over my dead body', but it wasn't for the typical fatherly reasons - I said I wouldn't stand by and watch them lining some landlord's pocket with rent money and if needs be I'd help them buy their own place. Without my help, they bought a Victorian mid-terrace that cleaned them out, but another 18 months and they would never have got onto the property ladder.

One of my mates is in his early 60s and still has two of his kids at home - one's 22 and the other 27!

 

[Morrisman]

I retired last year at 56 and went back to work 3 months after we moved

I retired very comfortably from the oil fields at 56, living the dream, I thought at the time......

..... unfortunately it played hell with the long term affair my cnut of a wife had been having for years...... and six months later the marriage was all over.

She kept the dream house in the Philippines, I grabbed our daughter and headed back to blighty. I think I got the better part of the deal, but the whole thing is still something I'd not wish on my worst enemy. 6 years on and I'm still gutted at how life can turn round and kick you in the sack so easily.