How close are you to retirement?

[darmstadt]

Not retiring if this happens

[Tarquin Farquhar]

I thought you might be a young whipper snapper so was giving you a friendly pep talk. I really agree with you, we are all doomed

I think this is going to be a whopper of a recession that the general public ( plus IT people in banking and the public sector ) have so far been shielded from but most IT contractors have felt the full force.

Things will come back up but I agree it might be a long way off yet and some of us will no longer be solvent.

This "recession" is permanent IMHO

[rootsnall]

Mrs. TP and I have about £2.5m in the bank. £500,000 of that is from our recently-sold house, and is separately invested in a safe vehicle that generates enough income to cover our basic housing costs (i.e. monthly rental, for now).

At a 4% withdrawal rate, the remaining £2m gives us about £80,000 per year, or about £6,700 per month, before tax. Our average monthly outgoings usually do not exceed £2,500 (calculated regularly since we got married in 1996!).

I think (well, I know) we're in good shape, but I just can't shake the feeling that it couldn't hurt to have a bit more.....

That is a warchest, I thought mine ( ours ) was a biggish one. If you are currently living on £30K pa then I think you can relax a little on your projected £80K pa. You'll be saving while doing nowt. I'd say looking after and preserving £2.5m would be enough of a job to keep me busy and on my toes.

[rootsnall]

The biggest long-term concerns are taxes, inflation, and healthcare costs.

Also, there is the issue of generating tax-efficient income from all of our diverse investments......

Unless you have a disaster then you haven't got any money worries short or long term. Devote a day or two a month to conservatively managing the wad and enjoy doing what you want the rest of the time. Easy peasy ! If you don't enjoy being retired then move onto Plan B.

[Fred Bloggs]

I would have thought that with >£2m assets to look after, that would have been the full time job!

Actually, I think engineering is about 10 years behind IT in the low cost outsourcing scene. But it is happening. I might just get another 10 years out of this at which point I'll be 63 and just about ready to take the job in B&Q till 65. I look what's happened to all the engineering design and management jobs in the middle east and wonder if we're going to be taken over low cost highly qualified engineers here in the UK just like out there. I think only the defence and nuclear industries can survive with British jobs in them longer term due to the security issues.

[ChimpMaster]

Don't you worry; once Gordon's hyper inflation kicks in, all that money will buy you a postage stamp.

Well that worked out well.