I just posted a letter to the pension company yesterday to add some APC’s for 5 years, in the hope I can start considering it a few years later.
That makes me feel old 
Investing in bikes has mental benefits of course 
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Took release from BT aged 52, calculated I could survive (just, on a ‘no new bikes’ basis) on the lump and Pension, worst case. Opted to take minimum lump but to start the pension immediately.
But have snaffled a 3 day/week job, so overall still a significant drop in income but enough and worth it for the massive hike in quality of life.
Getting a pension is weird, feels like a salary for doing no work, you get a payslip and everything 
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You buggers. Reckon I’ll still be working at about 85 because my pension is negative equity by then! 
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That’s exactly my plan. I’m 50 now and have been expecting to be made redundant every year since the financial crash. Somehow I keep hanging in there but still can’t see me getting to 55 and getting early retirement with no reduction to pension.
I’m on the maximum redundancy payment (@2 years salary) but would take a significant hit taking pension early so would probably need some kind of part time/low paid job to make life easier.
How many years did you have in the fund by then though TRO? I’ve only paid in for 25 years so far, so no chance of going just yet, 55 would be a push.
Although, as you’ve said, some kind of PT job or lower stress\wage would keep me topped up. And in theory I could use some of the lump and my AVC\savings to top up until I get the state pension, which is about £9k PA. Although I’ve still got a few more years of NI to pay for that, and all of these will be subject to income tax. I do have a figure in mind that I could retire on though, equally I’m not trying to wish my life away.
Now I’ve reached 50 it’s not as old as I once thought really, particularly if we keep ourselves in shape and do the things we like.
At least one lad I know worked at the steel plant from 16, it closed down about 9 years ago but he basically got a full pension about 50, hasn’t worked since and is regularly in Spain cycling and looking for a house. The finally salary pension probably finished about 8 years too soon for me.
My problem is I love travelling, and although I do it on the cheap, it’s still not that cheap.
Sorry GB, keep paying and you might escape one day
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When I first graduated, I worked for a large organisation, that I will leave nameless, that had just spun out of the public sector under the Thatcher privatisation programmes… I was given a junior management position, and as a ‘green behind the ears’ 22 year old, one of my first tasks was to discuss with a number of long term, older members of the team, about a voluntary redundancy option prior to a huge reorg… I was sad for them at the time, thinking, here they are, 50, being put on the scrap heap, with heavy implications of ‘take it as the reorg won’t be kind’, as I gave them an envelope with an offer of a very decent cash lump sum, and an immediate full pension. Here I am at now in my mid 50’s, realising finally why they skipped out of the door with smiles on their faces… 
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You’d have thought they might have taken you out for a beer or two.
They wouldn’t have been seen dead in the same boozer as me… they were old school civil servants, who truly believed that Thatcher had sold them down the river, and was filling their beloved org with mangers who hadn’t got a clue. (in fairness, in my case, they were largely right on the last bit)
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The good old days when firms used the surpluses on their pension schemes to pay for redundancies 
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Mrs W and I have always had a boring attitude to pension saving and we never had kids, so we should be set to retire when I hit 55 in about 7 years time. We’ll be selling the house in London and moving to somewhere much cheaper Oop North too, so that should release a nice lump sum. The pension freedom rule changes are certainly more appealling than having to pile everything into an annuity.
I’m just hoping that the rumours about planned changes to the date that you can access your pension aren’t correct - there’s talk of it shifting from a blanket 55 to 10 years before your state retirement age. That would probably mean waiting another 2 or 3 years
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It is going up to 57 in 2028. The Gov’t have announced it but not put into law yet.
I paid into my BT final salary scheme for 22 years. I was (luckily) one of the last to join before it closed to new entrants.
The terms have been gradually reduced and a couple of years before I left they closed it entirely and any further benefits were accrued through a defined contribution scheme we were put on. Starting that so late meant that scheme was never going to be a significant factor so it was really about what to do with the static 22 year pot.
Whilst it is way off the pot of gold I was on a trajectory for I can have nice things if I work PT, then once the mortgage is done and Mrs TRO’s local Govt scheme kicks in we’ll be able to have nice things without either of us working.
When I modelled taking it at 52, 55, 58 and 60 I was surprised how much the value retained at 52. That may be unique to the BT final salary terms. Part of that was driven by my old man who plotted and planned and sacrificed most of his working life for a retirement that he never got to see a minute of.
Another thing to note is your spending goes down as you get older and the world shrinks, also pensions are not subject to NI so you take home a bigger proportion than the equivalent salary.
Feels like the right call so far…
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I’ve got a feeling that doesn’t affect me as there’s a cut off date and I might be inside it.
Just 8 years of contributions on my BT final salary scheme, but even that’s worth having compared to a defined contribution scheme.
I’m 55 in 2027, so as long as they don’t change it again I should be OK 
There’s an estimator on our fund, and going at 60 instead of 67 only reduces by about £7k PA, and some of that would be taxed, I’d expect it to round out about 20% given the limit starts about £12.5k? And as I said above at some point I’d get the state pension to bump it up.
Although I suppose every year I take it early, I’m not paying in and with the employer contribution which is quite a lot.
Ours changed from final salary to career average about 7 years ago, but the final salary bit is protected, then my CARE contributions went up about 3% due to my wages hitting a threshold.
I don’t spend a lot of cars etc., don’t have one of these subscription cars and don’t really plan to.
A bit like your father I’ve seen several good colleagues from work who must have had fairly substantial pensions and savings and only survived between 2-8 years after finishing work, they retired early-mid 60’s. And a friend who died earlier this year that was only about 52 at the time. Apologies for the doom and gloom!
Glad it’s working out for you though
I used to hate going to leaving do’s where the leaver had racked up the full 30 years, usually with 2/3 years salary lump on top to go early.
You could see on their faces they were minted for life. Wasn’t fun contributing to their leaving gift as well…
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My super is all the place like a mad woman’s shit. I have a half decent fund in Oz. (although been too scared to check it since COVID!) Mrs FP has a bit as well over there.
Over here, it’s a bit of this and a bit of that and I need to herd those cats together into what I’ve just joined.
I have to be resident in Oz before I start drawing that, unless I want to pay a further 20% on the two lots of tax I’ve already pad on my super. (you think the UK are good at taxing the shit out of you? They are rank amateurs compared to Oz)
Somehow I have to slam all that together, have enough to eat and put a daughter through uni in Oz (mega expensive) when I’m headed towards 70.
sucks to be me 
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I’m on a final salary scheme (which has been watered down over the years by not taking into account all of your rises) but my company knocks 5% off for every year you take it early.
Most of mine is at 60 but a few years ago they put it up to 65 and I declined to pay the extra to keep the remainder at 60 so I’ve got a bit of a mixture now.
If I were to take it at 55 (along with my private pension) I’d be looking at a 25% reduction on the majority and 50% on the rest which would be quite a hit. I’d also be a few years short of maximum contributions having started at 17 (nearly 18).
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Hmm, been having a look at the early pension deductions and I don’t think 55 will happen unless I’ve got my numbers wrong. Not sure how you are managing TRO unless you were the Chief Exec @ BT?
Although it could change in a few years with the payments going in. And my current lifestyle of racing & holidays isn’t cheap 
excluding this year.
58 seems more reasonable. Unless I could drop down a day or two, but I’d probably still have to do the same amount of work.
Let’s get back to training
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5% a year reduction for early retirement sounds about right to me. The rough multiplyer for an annuity is that you need a pot about 20x your desired annual pension.
If you’re taking your defined benefit pension early then there’s less time for investment growth before retirement and you would hopefully expect to be drawing your pension for longer. I’m a trustee of our DB scheme (but sadly not a member) and the people who retired early all seem to be living to be very big ages, so early retirement probably results in a longer overall life expectancy too,
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