WEBVTT

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It's been a week since I set my notice of retirement

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to my employer. That's been quite a rollercoaster

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for Tracy and I. I mean from nasty surprises

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in my pension valuation letters to what comes

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next really for retirement. I mean also excitement

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at beginning such an important chapter of our

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lives really. So I'll start off with the nasty

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surprise of my pension valuation letter. So I

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received a letter from Aviva regarding a defined

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benefit pension I had. I was at 12 years of PwC

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and I checked this pension online must be a hundred

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times. So I was pretty sure I knew what was about

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to arrive in the valuation letter. So I started

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reading and the amounts I would get when I retired

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was pretty much exactly what it said in the online

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version. The options to take tax -free lump sums

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were pretty much the same as well. I was about

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to give a sigh of relief and then I spotted a

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little short paragraph tucked away under a table

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at the bottom of the page that said basically,

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when you reach stage 65, your pension will be

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reduced in line with the basic state pension

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reduction. Write to us if you need to know more.

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No more, of course we need to know more. My...

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My pension calculations all assume that when

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I start getting my defined benefit pension, I'll

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get it basically until I die. I mean, isn't that

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generally the idea of a defined benefit pension?

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And I basically expected to go up in line with

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CPI or RPI, but I wasn't expecting it to reduce

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by this undisclosed amount when I reached 65.

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And I certainly wasn't expecting to have to guess

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by how much. So of course, I wrote to them to

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get some more detail. And after getting the second,

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third and fourth opinion from basically everyone

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I know who knows about pensions, the response

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from Aviva Aride was just gobbledygook and I

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still didn't know. how much of a pension would

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reduce by when I reached 65. The closest guess

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everyone came up with when trying to decipher

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the legalese they sent me was that the pension

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would reduce by 16 % of whatever the basic state

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pension is at that time I reached 65. I mean

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I don't actually get my state pension until I'm

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67 so that's quite a blow really. I mean having

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looked this up on forums the advice is to go

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back to them. and ask them to apply the reduction

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now while I'm 55, rather than get a surprise

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when I'm 65. And then at least I'll know what

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I'm getting and I'll have some certainty on my

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numbers. So I have written again and now I'm

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just kind of waiting for their response. I think

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I'll try and find a bunch of Philadelphia lawyers

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to help me interpret their response when it does

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eventually arrive. Trace and I thought we'd been

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through everything and we never spotted this

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BSP reduction notice anywhere when looking at

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our pension statements online. And it just goes

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to show you can never be 100 % certain of these

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things. I'll let you know what their response

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is as and when it arrives and expect this is

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going to impact a lot of people getting defined

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benefit pensions. Okay, so other things. I had

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a couple of days off this week, Monday and Tuesday.

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I purposely didn't plan that much really. I know

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when I retire, it'll be hard to plan something

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for seven days a week for the rest of my life.

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So I thought I'd try a couple of unplanned days.

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I mean, Monday was great, chilled, watched a

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bit of TV, sat around. By Tuesday, I was really

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bored. And that doesn't bode well, does it? When

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I'm planning to do for the rest of my life. I

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keep having to pinch myself though that my time

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is about to become my own and I won't be tied

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to this kind of tight work schedule or wake up

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every weekday morning running through my mind

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and what kind of work activities I've got on

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for the day. I think I'll just have a second

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cup of coffee and a leisurely read of the news

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and that sounds good to me. An important saying

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you'll hear a lot in retirement planning is that

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it's important to retire to something and not

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away from something. I've never really disliked

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work, so I don't feel that I'm retiring away

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from something, and that's good. As far as retiring

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to something goes, I certainly have lots and

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lots of hobbies, but they ... do tend to be indoor

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hobbies, sitting down type hobbies, and that's

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not going to play well into my aim of getting

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fitter in my retirement. Things will be different

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when Teresa retires, as we have a lot of joint

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activities we enjoy, you know, walking outdoors,

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that kind of thing. So I do need some discipline

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and making sure I don't spend all day sitting

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in front of the keyboard, whether that be a piano

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keyboard or a computer keyboard, really. So a

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mixed week for me, and I'll let you know how

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I get on as I get closer to finding out what

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my final pensions are actually going to be as

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I trawl through the mountains of paperwork coming

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through my letterbox. So I'll see you on the

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next one. Cheers guys.