Has the crisis changed your retirement date?

[afcdibby]

Personally I'll be 52 this year and plan to at least semi-retire and leave RM in 3 years time. I have a personal pension to drawdown until 60 and hopefully beyond, to provide an income equal to the personal tax allowance each year, plus the tax free cash. Which considering I currently live on less than that, due to saving heavily for retirement, I should be OK money wise. It's effectively a pay rise!

At 60 I plan to take my NRA60 along with some of my AVC's, which should give me a higher income than at 55, then my NRA65 at 65 plus the remainder of the AVC's and DBCBS.

I should also have a small amount of CDC pension, which I will either take at 67 as income, or possibly transfer to the personal pension, depending on how much it's worth - and the 'DB Lump Sum'.

I also have ISA's to dip into if I need to. Plus I'm mortgage free.

All my equity based investments have gone down in value to some degree, but the personal pension has reduced the least because that's the one I'm going to dip into first, as I've 'life styled' the investments over the last few years.

I've already seen my state pension age increase from 65 to 66.2 and now 67, so hopefully it won't increase any further. I'm currently 3 qualifying years short of what's needed to get the current £175 per week. But who knows how we'll be paying for the covid-19 bailout and for how long?

It's always a worrying time when markets fall, and we obviously don't know how long they'll take to recover, but I'm still confident my longer term plans will come to fruition. In the meantime i'm continuing to save.

I'm the same age as you, except you're totally clued up to pensions and I havn't got a clue. I do have a Government gateway account, having been a self employed courier for a few years, so I do know my N.I. contributions are up to date and I will get maximum state pension when I get to 67.

[renrag40]

My gut feeling is that when the financial fall-out from coronavirus becomes clearer that the state pension age will get bumped up again, probably to at least 70

Why would that be? The reason the retirement age has been rising is because life expectancy has risen....... surely Covid 19 will have a negative effect on life expectancy wouldn’t it? Look at all the poor buggers dying in care homes, they are dropping like flies....... they are not included in the death figures on every news bulletin, that is just the figure for people who have died in hospital.... I wonder why that would be?

It's probably because the government are borrowing £Billions to fund the covid-19 crisis such as the furlough scheme, etc. I think it was something like £330 Billion in total the last time I heard.

It will have to be paid back sooner or later and by someone. Don't be surprised if the normal working man has to pay his share one way or another!

It will have to be paid back and the answer is later....... much, much later.......... I read somewhere that we have only recently repaid sovereign debt built up during the First World War.
As for who is going to pay it back....... it’s always the working man that pays it back. The poor pay taxes, the rich have accountants.
It will be a lot more than £330B by the time they have Covid 19 in check. There are 5 times as many people furlowed than the government expected and therefore presumably budgeted for. Helping the self employed was not included in the original package. Loss of tax revenues( income tax, vat, corporation tax etc) over the next year will run into the high tens of billions.
The costs of brexit? Who cares nowadays? Small beer in comparison.

[Schiff]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

[stephen500]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

I am mortgage free and my pension will be reasonable.
I have heart disease and if I wait till the exact right time to retire, I will be like my grandad was, forced to retire after a stroke, with as it turned out, 2 years left stuck in a chair.
There are people in my office, not short of a pound or two, doing plenty of overtime, that just go on and on. Some have two pensions as well.
They never have enough money.
Leave it till the right time and you may find yourself 6 feet under before you get to enjoy your pension, in fact you may be lucky enough to get your death in service, which your other half can enjoy.
I will take my chances, I will be 59 years and 10 months in December and provided I manage to prise my pensions out of Capita and RMPP, I am off.
This is my view and it may not be appropriate for others!

[Schiff]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

I am mortgage free and my pension will be reasonable.
I have heart disease and if I wait till the exact right time to retire, I will be like my grandad was, forced to retire after a stroke, with as it turned out, 2 years left stuck in a chair.
There are people in my office, not short of a pound or two, doing plenty of overtime, that just go on and on. Some have two pensions as well.
They never have enough money.
Leave it till the right time and you may find yourself 6 feet under before you get to enjoy your pension, in fact you may be lucky enough to get your death in service, which your other half can enjoy.
I will take my chances, I will be 59 years and 10 months in December and provided I manage to prise my pensions out of Capita and RMPP, I am off.
This is my view and it may not be appropriate for others!

I agree that, for you, the numbers stack up so that you should easily have sufficient through your lump sum to subsidise your RM pensions until your state pension starts, even if that gets put back by a year or two.

Others may be making the decision to survive on less income with less room to cope with unknown future changes made by the government. If I were in that position I would now be considering delaying that leap into retirement rather than risk a lengthy period living in poverty. Poverty itself can take years off your life. An extra year or two working part-time then looking at finances again after another couple of budgets is possibly a price worth paying to ensure financial stability.

[stephen500]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

I am mortgage free and my pension will be reasonable.
I have heart disease and if I wait till the exact right time to retire, I will be like my grandad was, forced to retire after a stroke, with as it turned out, 2 years left stuck in a chair.
There are people in my office, not short of a pound or two, doing plenty of overtime, that just go on and on. Some have two pensions as well.
They never have enough money.
Leave it till the right time and you may find yourself 6 feet under before you get to enjoy your pension, in fact you may be lucky enough to get your death in service, which your other half can enjoy.
I will take my chances, I will be 59 years and 10 months in December and provided I manage to prise my pensions out of Capita and RMPP, I am off.
This is my view and it may not be appropriate for others!

I agree that, for you, the numbers stack up so that you should easily have sufficient through your lump sum to subsidise your RM pensions until your state pension starts, even if that gets put back by a year or two.

Others may be making the decision to survive on less income with less room to cope with unknown future changes made by the government. If I were in that position I would now be considering delaying that leap into retirement rather than risk a lengthy period living in poverty. Poverty itself can take years off your life. An extra year or two working part-time then looking at finances again after another couple of budgets is possibly a price worth paying to ensure financial stability.

I agree with you. But some just make excuses and just want to live in luxury at work. I know people at work, with both their Rm pensions and wages with over £700 a week coming in, and I am confident, not much outgoings, but still hang on to work. It's like they are addicted.

[Woody Guthrie]

For some people unfortunately work is their only form of social contact and validation.

This is especially common in men who are socially conditioned from a young age to be providers and judge their value through earning potential.

It's not actually the money that drives them but the fear of losing purpose and status within the family.

[RobertT]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

Personally I'm planning on retiring earlier than most at 55 in 3 years time, and have tailored my pension provision so that it becomes higher and more stable between 55-67(SPA). That way any extra working I either want or need to do should be while I'm still relatively young(55-60). The last thing I want is to be working into my 60's.

For me, 55 is the limit as far as working for RM is concerned, I don't intend to do myself an injury by staying too long for a company that doesn't give a sh!t about it's employees. I've seen that happen to others and it aint happening to me!

Obviously we're living in uncertain times and nobody knows what's around the corner, but I'm still confident my plans will work out.

[stephen500]

Those who are planning to retire in the near future may be prudent to defer that retirement until the dust from this crisis settles. We don't know yet how the government will deal with the debt that it has created. They may massively increase taxes, charge NI on pensions, attempt to inflate away the debt which would quickly erode away the value of savings that people are relying on. They could increase state pension age meaning that those savings would also need to be stretched over more years.

If you haven't yet made the leap into retirement then your options are still open. Those who have recently retired have far less options. Looking for a new job out of neccessity in their late 50s or early 60s at a time of much higher unemployment is not a position that I would want to be in.

If you are certain that you can live comfortably on a lower income than your pay from Royal Mail then why not simply revert to part-time hours for a period until the economic impact of Covid 19 has become clearer?

Personally I'm planning on retiring earlier than most at 55 in 3 years time, and have tailored my pension provision so that it becomes higher and more stable between 55-67(SPA). That way any extra working I either want or need to do should be while I'm still relatively young(55-60). The last thing I want is to be working into my 60's.

For me, 55 is the limit as far as working for RM is concerned, I don't intend to do myself an injury by staying too long for a company that doesn't give a sh!t about it's employees. I've seen that happen to others and it aint happening to me!

Obviously we're living in uncertain times and nobody knows what's around the corner, but I'm still confident my plans will work out.

Yes I have done my 43 years and that is enough for me. I have seen changes and more are coming and they won't be good, especially for us older ones. I personally don't know how some people manage to work as they get older. I would like 12 years of retirement, so death is penciled in for 72 and retirement at 59 years and 10 months. I intend to go abroad on holidays, hopefully if they still exist on cheap flights with the likes of Ryan air and Easy jet. Travel is one thing that you get some thing back from. I am going to use my lump sum to supplement my Royal Mail pensions till my state pension and then have that help out. I want to get some enjoyment in the early years and don't ever want to have to sit in one of those high chairs in a care home!

[bucks123]

I am planning at retiring between 55 and 60 depending on performance of RM DC pension and my SIPP / ISA investments. Definitely not going beyond 60 as I want to have a good 10 years of active life away from being tied to a job.

If anything this crisis has made me more determined to focus on my retirement plans. It has also highlighted the need to understand how to manage sequence risks so that I am able to deal with the volatility of the stock market and have some safer pots to draw on when times are bad so that investments are not ravaged and I run out of money.

Managing retirement is much more complicated than it used to be as people can have multiple workplace pensions (DB/ DC), private pensions, savings, investments, a state pension and have to be proactive in dealing with these while accounting for all the variables like inflation, unpredicatble investment returns, changes to government pension policy etc etc.

[heapsy]

To help us pay for it, they are already looking into scrapping the triple lock they introduced for the state pension. Can you guess who's going to pay for it boys and girls? Got it in one, the current tax paying workers, not the ones already retired. That's right. You and me.

[bucks123]

To help us pay for it, they are already looking into scrapping the triple lock they introduced for the state pension. Can you guess who's going to pay for it boys and girls? Got it in one, the current tax paying workers, not the ones already retired. That's right. You and me.

Someone should remind these "think tanks" that we already have one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world!

My understanding from the proposal is that it would apply to all (including existing pensioners) as it relates to the annual uplift applied to the standard state pension amount and the report suggests the older generation need to take a share of the burden of paying for the cost of the crisis.

It was another "think tank" report (led by Iain Duncan Smith) that suggested, in 2019, that the state pension age be delayed further and faster in a report called "Aging Confidently" which would have had everyone born after 6/4/1960 waiting until they are 75 before being able to claim their state pension. Nothing has happened with that (yet) and there was a lot of criticism fed back about the inability of people to work at that age unless they had an office job and even then employers would not be keen to employ/retain people in their 70s.

I am still going at 60 whatever the goverment does even if I have to turn to doing a bit of busking to top up my income

[stephen500]

To help us pay for it, they are already looking into scrapping the triple lock they introduced for the state pension. Can you guess who's going to pay for it boys and girls? Got it in one, the current tax paying workers, not the ones already retired. That's right. You and me.

Someone should remind these "think tanks" that we already have one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world!

My understanding from the proposal is that it would apply to all (including existing pensioners) as it relates to the annual uplift applied to the standard state pension amount and the report suggests the older generation need to take a share of the burden of paying for the cost of the crisis.

It was another "think tank" report (led by Iain Duncan Smith) that suggested, in 2019, that the state pension age be delayed further and faster in a report called "Aging Confidently" which would have had everyone born after 6/4/1960 waiting until they are 75 before being able to claim their state pension. Nothing has happened with that (yet) and there was a lot of criticism fed back about the inability of people to work at that age unless they had an office job and even then employers would not be keen to employ/retain people in their 70s.

I am still going at 60 whatever the goverment does even if I have to turn to doing a bit of busking to top up my income

Same here going at 60, actually just before. I am just glad I bought my house when I did and I am mortgage free. I have no idea how those on a pension will be able to afford rent, when they retire. A house 2 doors from mine is £750 a month, three quarters of what my pension would be!

[bucks123]

Same boat here. Wife and I worked in same company and were lucky to both get a big redundancy payout 12 years ago. My mates were all blowing it on holidays, cars etc and we did the boring thing and paid the mortgage off

This is the elephant in the room for young people. It's going to be very difficult for them to ever buy a house and also to put enough money away for retirement (especially as final salary type schemes are all but dead). You need 200k in investments to safely drawdown £700 a month which would only just cover a mortgage/rent payment in some places let alone money to live on and pay bills.

It does seem that every generation is getting hit harder.