Everybody's personal circumstances are different and will affect whether taking your pension early is a good idea or not Robert TRobertT wrote:A great example of why it's not a good idea to take your pension early!dparr59 wrote:I took my pension at 50 in August last year I had in just over 25 years service when I left royal mail in 2006
there was then 3 choices on offer :
offer 1 is what I took was 18,500 lump sum and about £60 a week
offer 2 was £10,00 lump sum and £65 a week
offer 3 was no lump sum and £70 a week
In my case, having other income (from Rental Properties and Investments) it was a very good idea for me to leave RM and take my RM pension early at the age of 57 1/2 yrs (in 2008 after 18 1/2 years service).
I was offered the choice of a lump sum a little over £20K (plus repayment of AVC contributions) and a pension of £66 a week, or no lump sum and a pension of £88 a week.
What I gained back in my life of course is the 40 hours a week I was spending at RM (plus traveling time to and from work), a social life again, no stress and pain from the job and a chance to utilise my time once again on my hobbies and interests outside work
I was fortunate enough to be in this position, I appreciate others are not.