Who are they and what do they live on?

A BiL of mine retired at 53 - voluntary redundancy with I gather a fairly good pay off and a reasonable pension. He was also an only child and the sole inheritor of his parents’ assets not many years later. Ditto from a childless aunt, so they’ve been quite comfortable. I know he has never regretted it.

My husband retired at 60 and took on full time care of his Mum (schizophrenia and vascular dementia) I then retired at 63 last October - we exist on small private pensions and I very fortunately received an inheritance when my Mum passed away so we have no mortgage - husband now 67 so getting the state pension too has made a big difference and I’ll get mine in December 2025. We will both get full state pensions as both worked full time throughout our lives.

I have a few friends who retired early, one who single, no children and a job in banking retired at 55 and lives comfortably and a couple who inherited as only children from parents and one sadly who’s GP husband died at 64 leaving her grief stricken but financially very secure. Our two older children of 36 & 38 both have good jobs and partners with good jobs are all planning to retire between 50-55, one has share options and the other a second property both specifically for retirement and food solid private pensions - good for them we say !!

I'm not sure what would entice me back to work. I wouldn't take a cut in salary from what I was earning before, and would take badly to not having the challenge of a role with responsibility. I would want to have some say in my hours, and definitely the right to work from home at least 50% of the time. I definitely wouldn't want long hours, but at the same time I couldn't be bothered with being tied by a couple of hours a day - we like to be free to go away when we feel like it, and the remuneration for a couple of hours wouldn't compensate for losing that freedom. I would prefer something near to home and not too expensive to get to (no free public transport here until SPA).

I can't see there being a queue of employers willing to offer something like that, can you?

I was a teacher as I said earlier and nothing would entice me to return. It was teaching which exhausted me.

I retired at 60. Have a private pension and paid off my mortgage. I started saving for retirement from 30 onwards

My husband retired at 55 and then did consultancy work for another few years. I was working from home and retired along with him when he finally stopped. People sometimes forget how much expenses are cut when you retire, travel to work costs for a start.

I retired at 60 due to redundancy. Mortgage paid. Private pension but no way could I afford to buy a house and live off the rental as mentioned. Certainly wasn't easy having to use redundancy payment. State pension made a difference.

One of the unacknowledged pension scandals is that private sector employees never negotiated similar pension deals as those in the public sector. This leads to a lot of Daily Wail moaning about public sector 'gold plated' pensions in an attempt to set private sector employees against the public sector. The underlying reality is that the public sector trade unions negotiated those pensions to the benefit of their members, mainly in the 1960s. Other unions failed to negotiate them on behalf of their private sector members and moreover many private sector workers failed to unionize, especially junior and middle managers who saw themselves as natural Tories: their misplaced political loyalty did not pay off. The Tories' attitude to present-day strikers concerned about the cost of living and inflation erosion of their wages says it all.

I retired at 55, DH was still working and we downsized the next year, after which he retired too. He's older than me and had earlier access to his pension, and we had the spare money from the house too.
Since then we've downsized again and love living in a much smaller place: it's much less expensive to run and we actually like to see more of each other rather than rattling about in a bigger house. It's also a blessed relief to have less maintenance and cleaning to do!

We've both taken early retirement. Lucky enough to have private payouts which provided lump sums and monthly income.

I have retired aged 62 and have a small pension, my husband still works full time but wants to retire before reaching 66. We have saved up money to help out our pensions until state pensions kick in. We want to assist with childcare (I already do and my husband is keen to as well). We want to spend time together. No big spending plans and mortgage paid off.

My DH had to take early retirement due to ill health over 11 years ago. He is now 62 and had a stroke 3 weeks ago. He did get a pension from Royal Mail, not as good as his salary though.
I retired early 2 years ago and accessed 2 private pensions, not huge amounts, my state pension is due May 2024.
We manage OK, and we are happy and that is the main thing.

My husband took early retirement at 58. His Dad died at 62 and he was determined to have some leisure time and pension before he went. We have had to change our lifestyle a bit to make up the loss of a very good salary but it has been worth it to have him home.

My husband had to retire at 57 because of poor health and being deaf. We sold a large property in Hampshire and bought a small estate bungalow in Norfolk and invested the money.
My son retired at 56 after working hard for 35 years in the USA for an American multinational becoming a director. He has four pensions. GB and Us retirement pensions, and two company pensions.

I retired at 59 and live on a small NHS pension and my savings, which will be very depleted by the time I get state pension.
I have chronic health problems and just decided I was too tired for travelling and working any longer. I made sure I had everything I needed before I left so that my expenditure would be minimal, pension covers bills, and although I gave up a £2k monthly salary the benefits are priceless

I realise the situation is slightly different for us, as we don't live in the UK, but probably the way we manage is the way others manage to retire early too.

We had planned for DH taking early retirement at 60, as he had paid into the early-retirement scheme all his working life, and that he would be 60, the year I qualified for normal retirement.

The law regarding retirement was changed so neither of us were entitled to pensions of any kind in 2016, and being unemployed due to redundacy and no longer eligble for unemployment benefit in 2013, we sold our flat in Copenhagen, bought an old motor-boat and spent the next three years sailing on the canals and rivers of Europe.

This was the cheapest form of existence we could find. We worked out how much of the money we had in the bank from the sale of our flat we could use annually for living expenses, and still have the down-payment for a house in a cheap country district in hand, and in 2016 we bought a house, and sold the boat.

Doing so, tided us over until I qualified for my pension at 67 in 2018. Since then we have lived on my pension, which is only possible because we bought a house in a country town were property prices and taxes are fairly low, and so near the German border that we could further reduce our cost of living by buying a great deal of what we need at the cheaper German prices.

It has sometimes been a battle to make ends meet, so we are crossing our fingers that DH will qualify for his pension after his birthday in July. As the law stands now, he will, but trust the politicians not to change it, I dare not.

I imagine some similar kind of reduction of expenses, sale of property etc. makes early retirement possible with a little bit of luck in any country. If you are willing to do without holidays abroad, do not run a car, give expensive presents, and to do as much shopping as possible in the cheapest stores and in charity shops.

Neither of us would dream of going back to work - we feel we have worked hard since we were in our late teens and would rather live carefully financially now and enjoy our remaining years than soldier on at work.

kittylester

DH has a good private pension but there is no way that we could have managed if he had retired early.

Then again, we had far too many children!!

I don't really see what having many children has to do with it.

I am glad to hear you do have many, but surely if you are of retirement age, or nearly there, they ( or most of them) are adults and earning their own money?

I decided to stop working at 50 in 2006 when it was made clear that I would not keep my job if I insisted on taking a possible 3months sick/recovery leave, even if I took maybe six weeks with lighter duties at first? Nope wouldn't agree so I thought ok , I'll pack in.i cashed in a couple of wonky rubbish pension pots I'd taken a holiday from in 1995 due to crap projections.they enabl d me to clear loans overdraft, and keep about 5k savings.DH had one year to retirement from cops , so we had his pension(not a gift I emphasise, cost him a huge 12%of salary over 30 years thank you) and we still had mortgage of £400/month as we're start again divorcees in 1999. We've been careful, had a gift of me being half a beneficiary of parents' very modest estate that paid chunk of mortgage off. BUT. we're quite frugal. No stupid world cruises or daft midlife crisis cars etc. Were careful and thrifty , treating ourselves modesty, our biggest expenditure was an increased verandah(conservatory to most) which we use the life out of but have low expectations in the blitzing around like a travel advert stakes! Simple tastes and little treats but mostly pretty un glamorous lifestyle. All my jewellery and good clothing bought when I was earning a sizeable whack so don't need to shop til I drop either. Quality counts.

I am due to get my state pension this year. I am currently working full time in a sedentary job that isn't stressful but isn't well paid either.

However, I am stressing out about not being able to afford to retire. I only have two small work pensions as I have never earned a big salary. My DH has no work pensions. He is still working and is younger than me.

Since Covid I have wanted to take more holidays as life is short. We have been having two decent holidays a year and have really enjoyed them. I am lucky that we both still have our health. I also think that being in a work environment can help to keep you young. I know people who have retired and have turned into 'old people' almost overnight.

I am considering reducing my hours but carrying on working for a couple of years - health permitting. We still have a mortgage.

I would be more stressed out if I was worrying about money all the time because I had retired early and my income was substantially reduced. I am not a spendthrift but being frugal, watching every penny and not being able to afford to do things would really get me down. I do enjoy being at home, gardening etc. I appreciate that some people do not have a choice through illness, redundancy etc.

I took early retirement at 62 to look after a grandbaby for 3 years along with DH, also retired some years previously. We both had public sector pensions and were surprised to find we could easily live on them and pay the mortgage after we returned home once DGD started nursery full time. Some instinct persuaded us to pursue Equity Release Lifetime Mortgage in early 2020 which paid off our mortgage and, once the Equity company's interest is paid off following both our deaths, should provide sufficient profit from the sale to leave a decent lump sum for our DC and DGC based on the value of the property when we bought it in. 2006... Since then we have saved nearly £5,000 a year in mortgage payments and been able to assist both our children with major challenges they faced during the pandemic. Our needs have always been very modest. We had only one holiday abroad during our working life and one car between us. We live a very simple life on a beautiful Scottish island and are still managing on our pensions,....so far.....

I retired at 57 due to ill health and my husband retired at 55 we both have work pensions but don’t receive our state pensions for another two years

I retired early with a reduced pension having used my lump sum plus savings from a previous house sale to buy a rental property which brought in a small income. I was exhausted by juggling care and career and commuting to be honest. Then found I could claim carer allowance for what I was already doing. Once I reached state pension age the carer allowance stopped, a bit unfair as I still manage a lot of quite complex medical procedures and rarely get a whole night's sleep. My partner, who is younger, was offered a great redundancy package and retired and now he claims the carer allowance and does a large amount of it. We both have a busy time as carers and couldn't find time to work so won't be looking for the foreseeable. I'm probably too decrepit to work many hours and I can't see anyone employing me given I left a job I really enjoyed several years ago as I didn't have the capacity to run round like a headless chicken all day. Commuting was definitely the worst part, the uncertainty, the hours wasted by waiting for late trains, standing in crowded corridors, really dampened my enthusiasm for a job I otherwise enjoyed. I wouldn't go back to it for any amount of money now. I could be better off financially but life's too short and I'd rather meet friends and walk the dog.

grandtante, we have 5 children so we had little opportunity to save and the 2 younger ones were still at (or had just left) university.

My post was really a light hearted response to Galaxy's post.

I retired on a state pension at 62 (and 3 months) during the period when female pension age was on a sliding scale depending on your year of birth. I worked the majority of my life in office jobs where anyone lower than a manager or anyone working part-time (ie women like me with childcare responsibilities) was not given the opportunity to join an occupational pension scheme. Thankfully that was outlawed by the Sex Descrimination Act but it was too late for me to build up any worthwhile pension pot and I'm quite envious of friends who had public sector jobs in teaching and the health professions who now have very comfortable pensions. However, I have a younger partner who is still working and still 3 years from getting his state pension. Our dilemma has been - should he carry on until 66 or retire now so that we can spend some time together? I've already been retired for 8 years and don't want to wait another 3, particularly as my health is not brilliant. But if he stops work now, we must live on my state pension and make up any shortfall with savings. I think we should go for it; we have no mortgage and are far from extravagant but I'm not sure we'll actually have enough to enjoy retirement if prices keep rocketing. We knew our age difference might eventually cause problems - perhaps other Grans have faced a similar dilemma with a younger partner.

Grandmagrewit

I retired on a state pension at 62 (and 3 months) during the period when female pension age was on a sliding scale depending on your year of birth. I worked the majority of my life in office jobs where anyone lower than a manager or anyone working part-time (ie women like me with childcare responsibilities) was not given the opportunity to join an occupational pension scheme. Thankfully that was outlawed by the Sex Descrimination Act but it was too late for me to build up any worthwhile pension pot and I'm quite envious of friends who had public sector jobs in teaching and the health professions who now have very comfortable pensions. However, I have a younger partner who is still working and still 3 years from getting his state pension. Our dilemma has been - should he carry on until 66 or retire now so that we can spend some time together? I've already been retired for 8 years and don't want to wait another 3, particularly as my health is not brilliant. But if he stops work now, we must live on my state pension and make up any shortfall with savings. I think we should go for it; we have no mortgage and are far from extravagant but I'm not sure we'll actually have enough to enjoy retirement if prices keep rocketing. We knew our age difference might eventually cause problems - perhaps other Grans have faced a similar dilemma with a younger partner.

Not in quite the same boat - but, we had to make a decision to live on less.

Prices will, I'm sure keep rocking upward for some time, so it's not a decision to be taken lightly.

However, with a bit of planning (and no mortgage) we were amazed at how much less we needed to spend simply by not going to work. Less spent on fuel for the car (and we downsized the car) - and of course for some, there won't be the public transport cost. Oh, and we certainly bought less clothes. Most of all, because we were both at home we were able to plan meals efficiently / economically, we had the time to shop around for gas and electricity deals, too

It might be an idea to sit down together and work out what you think you can reasonably live on, taking into consideration future inflation (goodness knows what % figure to work with tho') and have at least a base-line to work with.

There's always the option, if your OH does retire - if things are tight for a while, or if you want to plan for a holiday - for either of you to perhaps do a part-time job on a temporary basis during retirement. Especially as industry is crying out for workers at the moment.

Also you can, like my late mother when she eventually retired - seriously grow your own veg. She grew potatoes, carrots, onions, Jerusalem artichokes, and various other vegetables. She had a small outhouse (brick shed) in which she stored all the roots in sand, onions on a string hanging on the wall, and things like green beans etc, she salted down in brine and kept in jars for future use. I don't remember her ever shopping for vegetables at all! Of course, this all assumes you have a garden. She also invested in a large freezer and bought meat and poultry in bulk. Our local butcher has regular 'offers' for bulk buyers, saving £££s.

I'm 81 now - and anyone below 70 now seems like a baby to me! I hope you get lots of time to spend together - it just needs a little thought and careful planning. But the clock is ticking forward... good luck, whatever you decide!