41 looking to retire at 50... possible ?

Plan B is Benidorm. Cheap apartment, cheap beer and food,
and "knees up mother brown" cabarets each night.
 
fistophobia said:
Plan B is Benidorm. Cheap apartment, cheap beer and food,
and "knees up mother brown" cabarets each night.
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Then he can definitely retire at 50. He'll only need to fund about 10 years.

Until the OP answer Huskermu's questions it's pointless going any further in the discussion.

And retiring early might not be the holy grail some think. It's not for everybody.
 
For me there are 3 questions the OP needs to answer first before they can start thinking about retiring at 50
1. Why do you want to retire at 50
2. How much does it cost to fund your lifestye at the moment
3. What type of lifestye do you want when you retire and how much will that cost to fund.
 

One item that has been overlooked is your savings rate. You're not actually saving that much for someone with no kids or mortgage who wants to retire early. You should be living off the lower income and saving the full second income at the very least. Come retirement you'll probably be living off less again.
 
That second income after tax is about €61,000. So they're not far off it.
 
PGF2016 said:
I was suggesting living off the lower salary and saving the higher salary. 61k sounds like the after tax income of the lower salary.
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You're correct, it is. I misread your post, I thought you meant live off the higher salary and save the lower salary. My bad.
 
Purple, I could not agree with you more and feel its a point that is forgotton in many a discussion here
 
You can definitely achieve this worthwhile goal, I retired at 47 leaving my job on a severance package, I would have been planning like you on a 50 departure and was working towards that but it came a tad earlier for me. I did not have the same assets you outline or salary for that matter, now in my 50's life is good, I worked hard for maybe ten years double jobbing and investing in yielding property assets that are working a treat ( all offshore in a company, taxes paid before the masses jump on it ).

This is a solid life goal, well done for focusing, it will take effort and planning but the rewards are tremendous in terms of life flexibility and all that that means to individuals, each one is different but do ensure you have income from some source post age 50 - property or pension or ideally as in my own case, both.
 
On one point mentioned above, I don't believe anyone on Eur100k gross and making any kind of pension contribution is bringing home a net of over Eur5k per month. The days of effective tax rates being 40% are no longer with us, (and I do mean effective, not marginal tax rates). With a salary of Eur100k, possibly BIK on health insurance (a likely benefit on that salary in a multinational) and contributing even 10% to a pension is going to being to bring someone down closer to Eur4.5k per month and if only starting a pension now, at a 20%contribution, nett per month would be down just under Eur4k per month which is Eur48k per annum and a long way off Eur61k. These numbers can be easily run on the deloitte tax caluculator webpage
 
Thanks all for the great feedback. Lots to consider here. Just back from travel with work so need to digest all of this!
 
fistophobia said:
Which Vanguard ETFs are you invested in? Are you aware of US estate taxes on amounts over 60K
These are USD denominated funds, correct? Currency risk?
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Hi, yes USD denominated. ETFs are Vti, vxus, bnd, bndx. I understood a non us broker would result in no estate tax from another AAM thread. Sounds like i need to confirm that thanks!


Super feedback thanks. We did a budget and estimated spending would be 35k/year including some contingency.

PGF2016 said:
Questions for @teaandbiscuits: Are you open to downsizing or moving to lower cost geographies?
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Hi, yes we are certainly open to moving in Ireland. My wife wants to live in the country and keep chickens! Other countries? maybe, have lived abroad in the past and liked it. Our current house is a 2 bed so little room for downsizing.

huskerdu said:
teaandbiscuits - you cant answer the question until you have estimated what income you think you will need to fund your life.
You will need to fund approx 37 years. and don't forget inflation.
.
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Yes I should have included this in the original post. We had estimated 35k a year and had increased this by 2% a year to account for inflation. Not sure how realistic a inflation buffer that is.


Good questions!
1. Tired of working, want to enjoy life while young enough to do so. Lots of hobbies and interests but no time.
2. We've started to track this seriously now, the answer we always had before was "not much" but we may be in for a surprise
3. Comfortable nothing very extravagant, our interests tend more towards the outdoors than expensive things and big nights out. Run one car.
Sorry it's late here and I'm on a tablet (hate typing on these things!), hope the above makes sense.

Purple said:
All of these discussions leave me thinking that living for today with an eye on tomorrow is the best way to go.
We don't know what the future holds, man plans and the gods laugh and all that.
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Great point and we agree. It seems like today is all about work though which is wearing us down!
 
The way to retire early is to have a high savings rate and clear the mortgage. This has a dual effect - increases your stash and reduces what you need to live on - you train yourself to live on less. For those of us who did it closer to age 40 (me included), the AVC and pension route is of no use. I would focus on eliminating or reducing recurring costs. I do not want 25% of my money in a lump sum, an ARF, an annuity or to be tied into financial products.

The end goal is the same - financial independence.
 
It is a crying shame that opaque charges, poor investment strategy, and bad press seem to have turned many people off pensions.

There is no better way to save for retirement.
 
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