WEBVTT

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Yesterday, I wrote the most exciting one line

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email anyone can ever send to their HR department

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and that was, please accept this email as notification

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of my retirement. So I'm 55 and I've done it.

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I've actually told the employer that I'm leaving

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to retire. Now earlier in the week, I also wrote

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to all my defined benefit pensions. I've got

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three different ones. And I wanted to start drawing

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my pensions and claim all my pension commencement

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lump sums. So the postman for our house has been

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busy this week squeezing a ton of paperwork through

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my letterbox. And now this weekend, I've got

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the pleasure of filling them all in. Well, it's

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definitely going to be worth it. So how did I

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get to the decision that now is the right time

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to retire? I mean, it wasn't... spare -of -the

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-moment decision. I've actually been weighing

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up my options now for about 12 months. What I

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did is I collected all my pension details together,

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and it was a bit of a mess to be honest at first.

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I actually had eight defined contribution pensions

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and three defined benefit pensions, so 11 in

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all. The spreadsheets are put together laying

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out all the different options for drawing them.

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It was just really, really complex. And to be

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able to truly trust that I had considered all

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the options properly and that I'd interpreted

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all the fine prints in them correctly across

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all these 11 pensions was just so hard to do

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really. And I just wasn't getting any confidence

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in it all. So I decided then to simplify things

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and I opened up a SIP, a Self -Invested Personal

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Pension. What it is, I moved seven of my DC Pensions

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into this new SIP. Now this helped me really

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to understand where my income would come from

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when I retired. Now, knowing how much you get

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when you retire is actually only half the equation,

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isn't it? The other thing you need to know is

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how much you're actually going to need to spend,

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how much you're gonna need to live on. Now, this

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sounds easy, but to get to the level of comfort

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that allows you to press that eject button from

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your full -time job, you really want something

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more than just kind of working out on the back

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of a bank statement. So about a year ago, what

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I did is I downloaded an app on my phone called

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Snoop. I don't know if you've tried it, it's

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pretty good, but this connects to all my bank

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accounts, all my cards, all my different cards,

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and for the first couple of months, you end up

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telling it kind of everything that you've spent,

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and it knows what you've spent, and you categorise

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it for it. And after the first couple of months,

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it kind of then knows everything, really, and

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it puts everything that you spend in the right

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kind of categories for you. And then you... pretty

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much from that can work out how much you need

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to live on. Now I've had the app installed and

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I've been using it now for 12 months and I've

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looked through all the reports it gives me and

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I'm pretty confident, well really confident really,

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but I know exactly what I need going forward.

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So now that I've got this confidence where the

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money's coming in and pretty confident on what's

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going out as well, thankfully the numbers did

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add up when I looked at them. So I have pressed

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the button. Now, I enjoy the job I do now, but

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I've got a lot of hobbies that I'm really passionate

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about as well, and I just wish I had more time

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to do them. So, after weighing up all the different

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options, I decided it's the right time for me.

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Now, Tracy, my wife, has decided she's not quite

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ready to leave her job yet, but she's fully supportive

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of me retiring first. Um, chill then. Follow

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me out, retire when she feels it's exactly right

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for her. So what happens next? Well, I still

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need to serve my notice at work, obviously. You

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can't just put your notice in on Friday and leave

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on a Monday. And this gives me some time to sort

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out my pension to make sure that I don't have

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that earnings gap between when my last salary

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payment comes in. And after simplifying my pensions

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last year, I've now got a SIP, the company pension

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for the organization I... currently work for,

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and then I've got the three defined benefit pensions.

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One of them is for an ex -employer, which is

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PwC. One was for the local council that I work

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for, and the other one was for my universities

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that I worked four or five years for as well.

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And the plan is to take the maximum tax -free

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lump sums from each of these three defined benefit

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pensions. And then what I'll do is I'll leave

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my SIP invested to continue to grow hopefully

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until I've kind of spent all my tax -free lump

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sums. And at that point I may need some extra

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cash to top up the money I'm getting from my

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defined benefit pensions. Now, I don't expect

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really to touch my SIP until I'm about 60. That

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should keep me going. pretty much until I'm 67

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when I start to claim my state pension. Now after

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67, I'll have obviously my defined benefit pensions

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I've just mentioned, plus my state pension, but

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I'll likely have spent all my SIP. If I hadn't

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done the planning over the last 12 months and

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worked out... exactly what money I have coming

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in and exactly what money I have going out, then

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I'd never have the confidence to do this really.

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And what I probably would have ended up doing

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is continuing to work until I'm 57, 58, 59, maybe

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even 60 purely because of my lacking confidence

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from a finance perspective and knowing I have

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the right amounts of money. Now, what I'm going

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to do, I'm going to chart my journey. up until

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the day to leave and well beyond as well. So

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if this interests you and know how it all works

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in finalizing retirement, don't forget to hit

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that subscribe button and I promise I'll keep

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you up to date. See you on the next one.