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When do you stop working / making money ?

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    #61
    Originally posted by Chuck View Post
    I completely agree. However, I would have thought that by the time you are in this position, the kids, if you have them, will already have completed university and are no longer a burden.

    I'm 50 soon and not very far off this "target". However, at 50 you could still have 40 years to go before you snuff it. That is a very long time to live off savings, so this probably wouldn't work. However, at its simplest level, you could still take 25k per year, which isn't bad, and better than many do while they're still working.
    Invested at an average 3% (which is a fairly conservative estimate) and you're happy to spend the capital, a million will last thirty years drawing down 50k per annum which will go a long way even if you have a moderate coke habit and prefer Verbier to Val Thorens. If you get past eighty you will only need enough for a blanket and a bowl of soup a day anyway.

    Friends of mine get by on his fifty grand pension and that's managing ten acres with horses. They still find the cash for at least six holidays a year.

    There is also a huge cost to working - the lunches, the travel, the coffees out every day, the little treats because you're knackered. It's at least a grand a month so out of an average ten grand contract income, take four off for the tax man, another one for the above, you're only left with five grand anyway and you've sold your whole life!

    I LOVED contracting, did it for twenty years, and love what it's given me now which is freedom. I have to consider things like expensive hoidays a bit more carefully but big fat hairy deal. If I could find gigs which were a couple of days a week or a couple of weeks every other month I would have done them, but I am quite happy living my life.

    Horses for courses. I would rather tighten my belt and enjoy the life. Others will work 'til they drop and be the richest people in the graveyard. Good luck to 'em, I'm going for a walk by the river now (c:

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      #62
      Originally posted by Fred Bloggs View Post
      ........
      Staff bloke again working overseas taking home GBP 10k a month tax free, all living costs paid for, in role I consider to be more like a paid vacation. State retirement age is six years away and I get 2 x deferred final salary pensions about GBP 25k per year in five years time.

      When will I pack it in? Probably when working no longer feels like a paid vacation actually.
      Can I have this job please when you're done with it?

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        #63
        The sad reality is that we're all going to die and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.

        Some people apparently love working and will do it until they are no longer capable or wanted. I think that's simply an excuse; they're too lazy to do more meaningful things in the one life they've been given.

        Others realise there is more to life than hacking away at a never-ending forest. There's always more money to be earned... of course there is, because it's fake. Time is the one true currency. You can leverage time but you can't buy it back: it's the most valuable thing of all. There will come a point when you realise that you may be wasting time and then you will choose to stop doing it.

        The earlier you realise this, the earlier you can plan and build your escape from the artificial construct of the money world. I wish I had woken up earlier, but it was only in my early 30s that I understood. 15 years later and I'm almost there, though somewhat delayed due to kids - but for me, without kids it would mostly have been pointless. And I will teach my kids everything I had to learn on my own.

        As for a more defined number: well, the family could live off £2k a month if we wanted, but I will choose to live off between £6k to £8k a month (after tax), bearing in mind raising a young family. How I get there is not yet entirely clear, but the track is laid and I'm well on the way.

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          #64
          I'm thinking of renting out the house (no mortgage) in the UK and living on the rental income whilst renting in Spain and trying to get work from home IT work.

          Can rent a 3 bedroom villa with a pool for €700 / month on a long term rental.

          I think that time to quit the UK rat race has arrived.
          First Law of Contracting: Only the strong survive

          Comment


            #65
            Originally posted by ChimpMaster View Post
            The sad reality is that we're all going to die and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.

            Some people apparently love working and will do it until they are no longer capable or wanted. I think that's simply an excuse; they're too lazy to do more meaningful things in the one life they've been given.
            <snip>
            Some people actually do but very few of them work in IT.

            They tend to do jobs that involve flora, fauna or other human beings with little government interference.

            Why do you think people do voluntary work once retired when they could sit on their behinds, especially when some of it is very intense work?
            "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

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              #66
              Originally posted by _V_ View Post
              I'm thinking of renting out the house (no mortgage) in the UK and living on the rental income whilst renting in Spain and trying to get work from home IT work.

              Can rent a 3 bedroom villa with a pool for €700 / month on a long term rental.

              I think that time to quit the UK rat race has arrived.
              Learn Spanish or take a local and you can knock 25% off that, in places you would actually want to live. I am a big fan of Granada: Ski Lodge, Country Home, Pad in City and Apartment on the beach for less than my old 2 bed in W10. 3 on AirBNB at any given time.

              This is all completely offset by the new noose around my neck in Osterbro, CPH.

              Comment


                #67
                Originally posted by SueEllen View Post
                Some people actually do but very few of them work in IT.

                They tend to do jobs that involve flora, fauna or other human beings with little government interference.

                Why do you think people do voluntary work once retired when they could sit on their behinds, especially when some of it is very intense work?
                That's what I meant by 'more meaningful things'.

                It's important to retire into something, not just from something.

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                  #68
                  Originally posted by ChimpMaster View Post
                  Can I have this job please when you're done with it?
                  Sure. No peoblem.
                  Public Service Posting by the BBC - Bloggs Bulls**t Corp.
                  Officially CUK certified - Thick as f**k.

                  Comment


                    #69
                    Originally posted by BlasterBates View Post
                    I wouldn't advise going for a high divdend portfolio, firstly because often high dividends aren't usually sustainable (I have experience of a stock that paid high dividends for several years and went bust or simply reduce their dividend) and secondly you're missing out on great stocks because most pay 1-3%.

                    I would consider a reasonable "high dividend" portfolio paying between 3 and 4%
                    That is not really high yield then. The FTSE 100 returns 3.62% at the moment.

                    My experience of running such a high yield portfolio for the last ten years, is that a high yield porfolio returning 5% is quite reasonable.

                    As long as you spread the risk by have enough different companies, then even one when cuts it's dividend, or in the worst case goes bust, the outperformance of others will smooth things out.

                    Originally posted by clearedforlanding View Post
                    GBP 1M is not enough, assuming couple, 2 children, university.

                    Inflation is going to erode into your lifestyle very quickly if you are living off 'interest'.
                    I think it is more than enough if you invest it in dividend yielding shares, as the dividends tend to rise with inflation. That is my experience anyway.

                    I'm considering selling up, moving somewhere outside of London, and "retiring" on my dividend income. It's about 39k a year at the moment. I had planned to carry on for longer to build a bigger war chest, but at 45 and with young kids I think its time to think of other more chilled out ways to spend my time.

                    It does feel a bit scary turning down well paying contracts, but my old man died before he even got to the official retirement age...

                    Comment


                      #70
                      Interesting thread.

                      I'm 38 and have no kids and I've never been married and I never will do that (I'm not the provider type). I've been contracting the last few years off and on. When I've not been working I've traveled and spent lot of time seducing younger women (18-24 are best), London, Poland, Russia, all over. (not Thailand - that's sponsorship). My life is pretty simple, I'm not dreaming about living life in the future, I'm focused on today and the next 3 months.

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