When do you intend to retire?

[speling bee]

probably around 50/55

my main concern will be that I will just spend all day at the glof course or in the pub (or both) and I do not even play that much glof now.

the thought of sitting around the house while the wife nags on about god knows what scares the living hell out of me

Don't worry. I'm sure she'll divorce you and take the house before you retire.

[vetran]

if your house is paid for its possible to live OK on £10-15K . Of course that wouldn't pay Mich's wine bill but it is possible.

[speling bee]

if your house is paid for its possible to live OK on £10-15K . Of course that wouldn't pay Mich's wine bill but it is possible.

How much are your Council Tax, utilities bills, house insurance? Do you intend to run a car?

[vetran]

How much are your Council Tax, utilities bills, house insurance? Do you intend to run a car?

I have done it for a year on £12k with 2 cars and £2K council tax. Key thing is that you actually NEED very little and the cost of living can be very cheap if you want.

I would much prefer to be on £20-30K.

[lukemg]

In regards to the 4% - yes this is an accepted removal rate such that you never run out of money no matter how long you live. see firecalc
I think its too cautious as the house is enough to leave behind, the rest is mine to spend.
SO - another general rule is 25X current expenses if you want to leave some and 20x current expenses if you don't, which I think looks right.
OR you can use:
1k/month - minimum
2k/month - comfortable
3k/month - very comfortable, multiple hols etc

Another one I saw (yes I have been looking into this) had a varied withdrawal such that the lot is gone in 30 years, relies on a reasonable 6% average annual rise (lets face it, thats long enough) so you take the following amounts from your pot.
1 4.00%
2 4.11%
3 4.23%
4 4.36%
5 4.50%
6 4.66%
7 4.82%
8 5.00%
9 5.19%
10 5.41%
11 5.64%
12 5.90%
13 6.19%
14 6.51%
15 6.88%
16 7.29%
17 7.76%
18 8.31%
19 8.94%
20 9.69%
21 10.60%
22 11.70%
23 13.08%
24 14.85%
25 17.21%
26 20.00%
27 20.00%
28 20.00%
29 20.00%
30 20.00%

While you probably still retain some earning potential in the early years I think this works well and I intend to follow it when I pack in.

[lilelvis2000]

Seen some contractors in late sixties still raking in the corn. Will you be long since retired? What's your plan?

I'm fed up already and would retire yesterday if I didn't have kids to take care of.

[tomtomagain]

Does that leave the £1M asset still there at death, or does it assume spending it as part of the 4%?

Well that depends on your personal strategy. You can aim to spend it all and leave nothing. Or live of the return. Or, more likely, a bit of both!

My point really is although it sounds great to retire at 50 - 55, what do people intend to do with their remaining time? And how would they fund it?

If the answer is "I love my garden and pottering about, have no kids, don't drink and don't like travel" then they can probably do it on a few K per year.

If you've got grand visions of visiting every country on Earth then you might need a bit more.

I'm just curious to know what everyone is thinking they'll be doing when they no longer need to go into an office!

[mudskipper]

I'm just curious to know what everyone is thinking they'll be doing when they no longer need to go into an office!

Not really discussed it, but I suspect my vision is quite different to Mr ms's.

Quite fancy a camper van and just go where the will takes us

Actually, as long as we could rig up sky sports, he'd probably not notice if I moved his armchair...

[tomtomagain]

26 20.00%
27 20.00%
28 20.00%
29 20.00%
30 20.00%

Guessing years 26 - 30 are your care-home fees.

[xoggoth]

if your house is paid for its possible to live OK on £10-15K

Am I the only old fart on CUK who has retired already?

True enough that when you don't have all the costs of working/mortgages/kids etc you can get by on not a huge amount but I would not fancy living on 10k. I have over £22k for just me. Surprised it was that much considering my lackadaisical approach to pension contributions.

I got 6% on my annuities compared to 12% for my bro in law who retired about 10 years before. By the time some of you lot retire annuity rates will probably be 0.5%, so better start saving.