Retirement Planning & Experiences

[Flashback]

So...... I'm just about to reach my 40's, but I'm semi retired at the moment. I recently fired a client, off my own steam. They would have happily kept me on.
I could quite comfortably call it a day now and be done with it, but I need to keep myself busy so I am sure I will keep doing something. I admit, I'm probably against the grain here, but I worked hard to get to where I am. Money isn't everything, anyway.....

Happy me and husband both doctors transitioned VERY EASILY - but we both worked part time in last twenty years pre retirement

Mrs FB is doing that. Well, she was...... then worked out she was working as much and not getting paid, so now back to full time, but compressed hours so still only does 4 days/week.

I'm only 57 but starting to think more about retirement given it's generally expected to be within 8-10 years. After my 40 years in my industry is 10 December this year, it'll be good to start to take more time away from home and start travelling more.

Doing the (what we think will be) final family holiday in January 2025 (skiing in Japan), now that my daughter has finished school. She's off to Uni and will be looking to spread her wings (which we encourage particularly as she has access to Australian, English and Irish passports).

Don't think I'll have a problem retiring - but hard to know until it happens. Father and mother both "worked" until age 75 so they could continue to contribute to super - that doesn't interest me.

Nike! Just do it......

Mr Denali took 18mths long service then resigned and retired at 54. It's been 10yrs now and he has no regrets

I'm 56 and talking about going part time but I like working and think it would take me a very long time time to enjoy full time retirement.

Of course if we win powerball, I'm outta there

Amen to that, I can/would love to retire, but I'd need something to keep me busy........ which would mean going back to work again!

 

[kpc]

I want and can retire now but +1 not having a bar of it....so as a compromise I will start taking 3 months of LSL at 1/2 pay (have ~24 months ) + AL + conference leave next year onwards so will only be working ~ 7 months per year til the big R in 8 years' time, possibly less.

The deaths in their mid 60s, sadly on the same day, a few months ago of 2 AFFers, @tuapekastar and @sergeyvzn helped me decide to do more travel now whilst Im still healthy enough to do so!

 

[Quickstatus]

What % of current annual income are people here retiring on?

 

[kpc]

What % of current annual income are people here retiring on?

A mate said I need a retirement income of 200K pa to maintain my current lifestyle

 

[9171]

A mate said I need a retirement income of 200K pa to maintain my current lifestyle

I assume that is net, after tax?

 

[SYD]

A mate said I need a retirement income of 200K pa to maintain my current lifestyle

Anyone who owns their own home probably needs significantly less and still have a comfortable travel lifestyle! At one point, I calculated about $50k for myself would be ok but fortunately failed in getting that low so far!

 

[MARTINE]

Anyone who owns their own home probably needs significantly less and still have a comfortable travel lifestyle! At one point, I calculated about $50k for myself would be ok but fortunately failed in getting that low so far!

That doesn’t even pay for the coffee!!

 

[TheRealTMA]

That doesn’t even pay for the coffee!!

Let alone the wine bill!

 

[Scarlett]

Just passed the half century and my retirement will be at 55 years and one day old! (due to my pension scheme allowing access) Can’t wait.

Golf three or four times a week: maybe twice a week at wherever my home club ends up being, then a couple of games somewhere else. Hopefully broken up by regular overseas travel with the golf sticks.

Maybe do some irregular work if there is a particular project or event that is interesting.

 

[Quickstatus]

That doesn’t even pay for the coffee!!

Let alone the wine bill!

Luckily I'm not big on both.
I've done flights in F where not an alcoholic Bev passed these lips in the lounge or in cabin.

 

[MARTINE]

Luckily I'm not big on both.
I've done flights in F where not an alcoholic Bev passed these lips in the lounge or in cabin.

I don’t drink alcohol but coffee…

 

[Bindibuys]

We decided about 25 years ago that we could not trust the government with us getting a pension. So set out to make our own.
Purchased our first investment property, then 2nd. Sold the 2nd about 3 years later (a real little cash cow) which let us pay off our own mortgage.

More properties purchased, and in the 20 years all paid off, and now I live off the nett income stream, well actually our holiday fund.
As hubby now has a finish date, he is getting offers from clients to come work for them, he will probably work 2-3 days a week, to keep his mind active, but we have plenty of work to do here on the farm. Fencing, clearing and general tidy up of paddocks.

We have already sold 2 of the properties last year, and will sell more in the next couple of years, as the income stream will not match the sale price for money in the bank.

Thank you Wesfarmers for paying for my husbands uni degree all those years ago, having a partner that has his head screwed on financially has put us on a comfortable path. (but I still own waaay to many clothes....)

 

[RooFlyer]

Anyone wondering what they might do in retirement to fill in the time.... family history! Good chances are it will fairly well consume you AND for the majority of us, lead to more overseas travel to investigate. Some of the prettiest villages in England and Scotland I have visited have been way off the beaten track to see where the ancient rellies lived (and some current ones).

 

[drron]

Current preservation ages were set ages ago and have not changed at all.

It would be political suicide to tinker with that for the foreseeable future. Besides, there would be some sort of phased rolled out if it were to change eg current preservation age was progressive from 1960 to 1965.


Apart from some specific professions (judges, pilots?,…), we don’t have mandatory retirement anymore. But good luck to anyone over 55 trying to re-enter the workforce!

Actually I believe commercial pilots do not have a compulsory retirement age. I had a small part to play in how CASA got around this.
In 1993 I attended the Phyisicians conference in Hobart which was at the Wrest Point casino but as I was a lifetime gold in the initial Sheraton scheme I stayed at the Sheraton at the harbour not long before it became the Grand Chancellor. I walked every day to the Casino and back. Another attendee was staying at the Sheraton and we walked together. He was the Chief Medical Officer of CASA.

One day we talked about his problem. CASA wanted to bring in a compulsory retirement age of 60 for commercial pilots but there legal advice was it couldn't be done.The legal team was right.

Compulsory Retirement

This report deals with complaints by four pilots who were compulsorily retired at age 60 from their employment with a major airline. The complainants submitted that the decision, taken pursuant to company policy, constituted discrimination on the ground of age . The respondent submitted that the...

defence.humanrights.gov.au

I suggested that he consider compulsory stress tests for pilots and they did.
I was quite experienced and by my calculations had supervised some 4000 stress tests. I said that age 60 a reasonably fit person should be able to complete Stage 3 of the Bruce protocol which was 9 minutes. But also should reach a heart rate no more than 85% predicted maximum for that age. My rationale was that if they completed that task they were fit and a lower risk of a sudden medical incident in the sky. If they couldn't you probably didn't want them flying a plane you were on.

 

[Quickstatus]

I said that age 60 a reasonably fit person should be able to complete Stage 3 of the Bruce protocol which was 9 minutes

Though these days it's more about the cognitive capability.

Our hospital has instituted no on call for 60 and over.

 

[Quickstatus]

family history

Apparently that was all sorted out a few years ago. MrsQS did a family trace from Christchurch NZ back to the old place. Eventually the trace went cold. It was suggested by some experienced genealogists that the likely scenario was that Mrs QS was a descendant of a servant girl who had an illegitimate offspring with the Earl. So despite early excitement with the Earl, the interest waned.

 

[kpc]

Though these days it's more about the cognitive capability.

Our hospital has instituted no on call for 60 and over.

That seems a bit on the young side!

 

[RooFlyer]

It was suggested by some experienced genealogists that the likely scenario was that Mrs QS was a descendant of a servant girl who had an illegitimate offspring with the Earl. So after that the interest waned

Don't give up! Boris Johnson, in Who Do you Think You Are had one of his lines traced to an illegitimate child of some German nobleman, and then following that up, he got connected to the Kings George and then of course way back through the Royal family!!

 

[Quickstatus]

That seems a bit on the young side!

Perhaps but the policy was not surprisingly well received by the over 60s. Cognitive decline is more noticeable when under stress or fatigue etc. Being on call for emergencies is actually quite onerous.

 

[Quickstatus]

Don't give up!

Mrs QS and family kept going trying to disprove the illegitimate theory but couldn't. There were some other branches in the family but no Royal family or person of importance other than 1 criminal.