Plan to retire in 7 years, is it feasible?

homeowner said:
Yes I agree. I was late starting a pension (early 30s). I made the decision to favour paying off the mortgage because I was alarmed at the pension levy which was introduced and my thinking was they could do worse in the coming years. As it turns out they didnt. I would rather own my own house outright, there was a lot of uncertainty after 2008 about the housing market, ability to repay mortgages etc.... Anyway my pension performance was awful in the years 2007 - 2017. I took it under my own control and ploughed it all into global equities (thanks to the good advice here) and since then it is actually doing well. Its an interesting topic - which to favour?
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That’s really interesting.

Two misguided strategies which have led to a poorer outcome.

1) The pension levy is an irrelevance and should not colour people’s analysis

2) Maximise pension before paying down one’s mortgage is the correct approach all other things being equal
 
misemoi said:
Have you explored the possibility of changing roles for a less busy/stressful one instead of full on retiring? I totally get the burnout and the desire to retire early and use the hopefully healthy/energetic years.

But is there any opportunity to say do part time consulting work in your fields, or even retrain as something you always thought you would like to earn some income for a few years and keep you just busy enough to not burn through as much cash? You could try this and stop if it doesn't work. Like of working in an ice cream shop or tour guide in your preferred holiday destination etc.
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I am confident I can fill a week with my own hobbies and interests. I am amazed at people who say they would be bored in retirement. Working in any capacity would be a last resort for both of us. But each to their own.
 
Thanks everyone for very informative and interesting points. At this stage we are only planning. We are 7 years away from planned retirement so a lot can happen in between. Its good to discuss these points ahead of time. I am an avid planner. Sometimes planning something is as enjoyable as doing it :) I will look back at these comments in the coming years and see how things tracked vs what I had planned.
 
@homeowner

1. How much are you contributing to your pension monthly in terms AVCs to max it out? At a cost to you is that 1725? I am looking at your take home pay vs my monthly take home pay (similar salary levels), and your take home seems too high if you were both maxing out contributions.

The relevant question to ask is when did you pay off your mortgage and start to max out AVCs and what is your employers contribution to pension?

If you are both adding 34,500 (115k *0.3) to your pension pot a year for the next 7 years that is 500k into the pension pot given a total (excluding growth) of 1.2m Eur. Plus an estimated ~500k of savings +200k of shares + future shares. Am I missing something?

What I am missing here, that says you can't retire early?
 
Gordon Gekko said:
You can if you’re 51 like these posters.

But in any event, that’s not a sensible reason to neglect pension funding.
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But these posters don't have a mortgage.....

You said maximising pension contributions is the correct approach vs overpaying mortgage. Not contributing to a pension at all is not sensible, but there is risk for the majority of people of not being able to afford their mortgage payments should they lose their jobs prior to being able to access private pensions at 50.

The majority of people use two incomes these days to get a mortgage, losing an income reduces ability to service that debt. The prudent approach is to overpay your mortgage to a level the monthly repayments are sustainable on one income before focusing on maximising pension avcs. Alternative approach is to build a rainy day fund to cover mortgage payments.

I just don't think it is a black and white case of one approach vs the other. This is just my opinion :)
 
DublinHead54 said:
But these posters don't have a mortgage.....

You said maximising pension contributions is the correct approach vs overpaying mortgage. Not contributing to a pension at all is not sensible, but there is risk for the majority of people of not being able to afford their mortgage payments should they lose their jobs prior to being able to access private pensions at 50.

The majority of people use two incomes these days to get a mortgage, losing an income reduces ability to service that debt. The prudent approach is to overpay your mortgage to a level the monthly repayments are sustainable on one income before focusing on maximising pension avcs. Alternative approach is to build a rainy day fund to cover mortgage payments.

I just don't think it is a black and white case of one approach vs the other. This is just my opinion :)
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They don’t have a mortgage most likely because they’ve prioritised that over pension!

Note my use of “all other things being equal”
 
homeowner said:
I have often thought of that too. At the moment the company is going through high growth and we will either be acquired in the next 5 years or we will be market leaders, at least that is the thinking. Our shares are doing well. My personal view is cashing them in now is the wrong time. I will be reassessing in the coming years. The 200K is a projection of my current shares which have vested plus the ones that will vest in the coming 2 years at today's market price after tax is paid. It is conservative and not accounting for the price going up which I am confident it will going by what I know of our plans. I will also be getting similar tranches yearly for as long as I am there which I have not factored in either. However nothing is certain in life as we all know. What would I do with 200K in cash if I cashed them in is another question that is on my mind.
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In case you are not aware, you will also have to pay capital gain tax when you eventually sell your shares which is tax on the profit made between the price they vested at and the price you sold them at.
 
@homeowner are you planning to save your early retirement pot from your post-tax income? This only makes sense if you are both maximising employee contributions and AVCs.

There is a mid-way between full time work and full retirement. I am in my 50s but with kids older than yours. I am contracting for 7/8 months over the winter and take the summers off. Works out very well financially and from a work/life balance point of view.
 
What I did was...
I lived off my retirement budget for the last few years of employment, as a trial run.
I was able to save all my salary income for those years.
 
In your shoes, I would continue maximising the pension and also put 35k of after tax income into each pension, rather than cash. Retire at 58, cash in the bigger pension. Tax free lump sum 200k from pension 1 at 58. Plus remaining quarter of pot at 20 percent tax would give you approx 250k to last the first 4 years. You must then drawdown 4percent from age 61, approx 40k. Cash in pension 2 at 62. Same scenario except you will have to draw down 4 percent per annum immediately. So lump sum plus approx 80k before tax from 62 to 68.
 
homeowner said:
Thanks everyone for very informative and interesting points. At this stage we are only planning. We are 7 years away from planned retirement so a lot can happen in between. Its good to discuss these points ahead of time. I am an avid planner. Sometimes planning something is as enjoyable as doing it :) I will look back at these comments in the coming years and see how things tracked vs what I had planned.
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What's your plan if you are made unemployed tomorrow?
What happens if one of you doesn't want to give up work in 7 years?
What happens if one of you fall ill?
What happens if you fall out?

Each of those has happened to people I know including me.

There is no way I believe in 7 years you'll be able to live on 50K based on current spending and age of children.

If you are retiring in 7 years why are you expanding a house?
 
dishwasher said:
@homeowner are you planning to save your early retirement pot from your post-tax income? This only makes sense if you are both maximising employee contributions and AVCs.

There is a mid-way between full time work and full retirement. I am in my 50s but with kids older than yours. I am contracting for 7/8 months over the winter and take the summers off. Works out very well financially and from a work/life balance point of view.
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How did you manage to source the work with the breaks?
 
Dr Strangelove said:
For now I would even contribute to pension over tax relieved limits - you still get CGT-free appreciation that you won’t get with ETFs. It still make sense to keep some cash.
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@Dr Strangelove I did not realize this was allowed!

I max out my AVCs, to the tax relieved limits, and I still have surplus cash to invest. Are you saying I can add a lump sum to my pension pot and avoid the CGT associated with ETFs?

Where could I learn more about this?
 
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