Case study Have I enough to retire now ?

Cavanbhoy said:
Would OP not be entitled to Social welfare
Payment's of Jobseekers if he wished to claim for himself and spouse.
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Wouldn’t dream of it to be honest , Cavanbhoy. As jpd says jobseekers benefit is for people looking for work.
 
Thanks wheeler dealer. Anybody got any ideas on any other part time/ working from home maybe or other roles that are readily available to which you refer for people in their late 50s/ early 60s. Don’t have to be “ easy peasy “ as I’m more than prepared to put in the graft and the renumeration doesn’t have to be massive either.Just want to get out of the industry I’m in , I don’t enjoy it anymore as it has changed so much , not for the better.
 
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You sound exactly like me.
I hated the industry i was in.
All of a sudden i had chance of redundancy and at the same time mortgage was paid off.
With a bit of calculation and soul searching both myself and the other half retired not very long ago.
Best thing we ever did.
Once outgoings are below incomings then you are ok.
In our case it ended up that we will spend even less than we thought we might.
Big ticket items will all probably be gone before you retire. Like mortgage, commuting expenses, insurance, lunches at work, expensive cars (you lose interest in them as you get older ). When covid is gone you can fly widweek and holiday off season etc.
Its amazing how much the spend falls buy.

I worked for a charity to fill in the hours. But it wasnt long before they were giving me deadlines and rostering me for weekends etc and then giving out to me for being 5 minutes late. You would think they were paying me. I just gave it up.
 
OMG_OMG said:
You sound exactly like me.
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If I remember correctly, you had a mortgage-free home, an education fund put by for the kids and, perhaps most importantly, a spouse with significant public sector pension entitlements.

I would suggest that your circumstances are quite different from the OP's circumstances.
 

I was more referring to the hatred of the job I was doing and one day decided to look into just retiring.

There were about 5 years of getting all those ducks in a row for a potential retirement at 60.
Just happened I was able to pull the trigger much earlier than planned.
I think the OP is actually in a better position than I was 5 years before I pulled the trigger.

He has grown up children and only has €40k left on the mortgage, with enough savings to clear all their debts.
Much better pension too.

What made it clear for me was I worked out what my outgoings were, what I could get them down to and then how much was coming in.
I would definitely advise that OP.
For instance how much in monthly payments are you going kill by paying off the mortgage and the car loans?
When he mortgage is gone, you can knock of the mortgage protection insurance too.
 
I worked in various odd jobs suplimenting what little pay I got working on the family farm .The nicest job I had one winter was working in a cash and carry .The duties included stocking the cash and carry ,picking orders and doing short van deliveries in local town .There was no time schedule ,they left you tip away I guess I was handling a fair share of drink and money and the boss trusted me but pay was not much better then minimum
 
Codogly said:
Personally I wouldn’t be relying on the state pension in your planning if I had an ARF with 1.250m …changes are coming and not for the better.
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OMG, what are you saying? That just because one would have a reasonably good occupational pension that they might not honor the contributory old age pension, eventhough one has fully paid up all required contributions?
 
knockshe said:
OMG, what are you saying? That just because one would have a reasonably good occupational pension that they might not honor the contributory old age pension, eventhough one has fully paid up all required contributions?
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Nobody can say for sure what might happen to the contributory state pension and qualifications criteria for same in the future.
 
ClubMan said:
Nobody can say for sure what might happen to the contributory state pension and qualifications criteria for same in the future.
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We do know however what the demographic future looks like (less young people working and paying taxes to fund more older people's very generous state and PS pensions). At some point that demographic reality is going to turn into financial reality.

My only personal plan excludes the state pension. If I get it, great. If not, I'm covered.
 
Truffade said:
I don't include it in my retirement planning
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That's over cautious.

Of course it may fall in real terms and they may increase the eligibility age. But someone with a full lifetime of PRSI contributions is always going to get a contributory state pension.
 
I dont include the state pension in my plans either.
I retired early last year, have 32 full years PRSI stamps paid.
If they do means test the contributory, I would get nothing.
Some of us cant bear another year in the job, due to stress or whatever.
I was more focused on the living expenses side of the equation for last few years.
For every 1K you knock from annual living expenses, thats 25K less you need in pension pot.
I am aware of inflation, and doing a quick check - 3 of the 4 main categories driving inflation, I am not affected.
 
fistophobia said:
I dont include the state pension in my plans either.
I retired early last year, have 32 full years PRSI stamps paid.
If they do means test the contributory, I would get nothing.
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How can you say that when nobody has any idea how a hypothetical contributory pension means test might work?
I can empathise with this very much.
Packed in the job myself last year due to the stress/burnout and am still trying to decide what to do next, if anything...
 
Future pensions were touched - they were pushed back in phases to 68 - that might well be rolled back, but that decision meant anyone planning to to retire at 65 and depending on the COAP had to budget for another 40,000 euros. Also I think a weak promise to keep the OAP at 1/3 of average wage stopped being mentioned.

State pension age to be set at 68 by 2028 in radical overhaul of qualification structure

AN INCREASE in retirement age over the coming decades was confirmed yesterday at the launch of the National Pensions Framework…
www.irishtimes.com

I can control to some extent how much I save and invest, how much I put into a pension fund - but I've no control of what happens to COAP.

Will it be paid out at 65 (SF proposal), 66, 67, 68+?
Will it be partially means tested?
What will be the requirements in terms of payments to get the full COAP pension.
Will it be worth less than now relative to average earnings when we retire?

There's little to be lost by ignoring the COAP from your retirement planning, if you depend on it your retirement age is decided for you.
 
ashambles said:
that might well be rolled back,
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It has been. The 2011 legislation to increase state pension age in stages to 68 by 2028 has been repealed.


ashambles said:
I can control to some extent how much I save and invest, how much I put into a pension fund - but I've no control of what happens to COAP.
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There will always be much more uncertainty around the future value of your ARF than your state pension. Investment risk is a lot greater than political risk.

ashambles said:
There's little to be lost by ignoring the COAP from your retirement planning,
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Only a capitalised value of €300k-€400k. Maybe if you're Elon Musk it's immaterial but for 99.9% of us it is very much a part of the picture!
 
You said pensions were not touched - a plan to delay them for 3 years was introduced.
Also they were raised from 65 to 66 in 2014. Or has the transition state pension been reintroduced?

That pension age is still under active review, the raises have been deferred there is no certainty.
Politically it'll be difficult to raise beyond 66 but to keep pensions at 66 or return them to 65 will have a cost - they may squeeze the COAP in other ways to fund it.

When I say I'm ignoring it, I'm ignoring it as a predictable source of income between 65 to around 70 - which are important years in peoples retirement, if it's there great. If I'm around at 80+ then it's quite likely the COAP will be my main or only income.
 
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