For Tiger Mate....as I said, I am 110K words into the 'book' and just reached 42....13 years left to write about. As for my real age, I am as old as I feel but younger than my teeth!

I know several officers who needed to have wisdom teeth inserted. Seriously though, if you've got your finances sorted and you're not going to suddenly develop a jet-setting, playboy lifestyle, then as several eminent posters have already said, you don't need a lot of money to retire. But I wouldn't have swapped my time in the forces for anything.

And that underlined bit is the critical aspect. I am eternally grateful that I started saving early, investing wisely [most of the time] and generally planning ahead. Strangely, I was effectively forced into that as a Fg Off, paying the mortgage on my parents' retirement home whilst at the same time paying OMQ rent, supporting Wife #1 and bringing up 2 smalls. "Skint" was my middle name for years ;)

The "Earning Years" are often less than half of our time on the Planet ... make best use of them, and then the charmingly called "Later Years" can be pleasurable, instead of endless worry.

The world is your oyster
 

Anyone who retires from a long career where; structure, teamwork, leadership, technical savvi and discipline are prevalent - Military / First Responders / Law Enforcement etc. they are extremely desired and sort after by industry as a whole!
These skills and abilities are ones that you cannot teach except be being immersed in them for a long time.
Seriously, if anyone with this type of background was to approach a commercial organization for "looking for something to do" they will do everything in their power to cater to your needs and desires - short weeks / type of role / offer flexibility etc.

Best of Luck - Just remember you are wanted and needed for your second career, whatever that my be!

I only served a short time in the RAF and so never found time to dislike it, nor what my career might have looked like. Last week I reached my 25 yrs point in the police. I love the job, but there is so much more I want to do. I've some outside business interests - managing a hugely talented young singer, helping with my daughters fashion business, supercars, and hopefully an airshow in 2016 or 2017. But the big one is to build a distillery - a proper one. Its a massive one, but whether I choose to go at 50 in 3 yrs time, or stick out the remaining five until my full 30 years, at least I'm enjoying everything!

There are some days though, that I do wake up and wonder what it would be like to think "Hmmm, I've nothing to do today......."

If you flick through the posts above you'll find those who have "successfully" retired, never wake up thinking that.

But you sound like you have a ton to do yet...and that's just as cool. GL with it all.

As maxims go, "When you're about to breathe your last, will your final thought be 'Bugger, I wish I had worked harder for the boss and less time with (insert 'x' here)'" has to be up there. Financial security is vital, but try not to look at everything in terms of financial success or failure.

Retirement is like a Norway det. You leave the warmth and comfort of a sauna and throw yourself into a snowdrift - scary and invigorating (but you're only here once). I think back and never realised that my time 'in' was only a means to an end. I found it hard to see perspective, I found it hard to even find the time to consider life outside the goldfish bowl.

As you get older, you realise you make mistakes and that as the years pass, time cannot undo those. Don't make the mistake of wishing you had done something differently, something that you really wanted to and something that you could realistically have done.. but didn't have the courage to.

There are transition phases that we all experience in life, but hardly any of us recognise them until much later. We bought a sea facing bolt hole a few miles from the Gower very recently, it might not be the slowdown but it's certainly the start. Accumulating wealth is one thing, but realise that you save for a reason - know when to shift from accumulation to decumulation.

Plan!!!

When I'm 65....
 

Question for the Old Guard. Assuming you live in the UK, what happens to your monthly RAF pension when you reach 65 and are entitled to a State Pension, bus pass etc.? Does it reduce at all?

For example, if the RAF pension is 'X' and the State Pension is 'Y', does the RAF pension reduce to 'X-Y' or do you actually receive 'X+Y' from a grateful nation? Or, at a later date, 'X+nY' if you elect to delay your state pension a while in order to receive a better one?

Banquerre-free terminology in the answer, please!

The only thing I remember from my retirement resettlement briefing was how disappointed I was with Aldershot, where it was held. I'd expected the 'Home of the British Army' to be immaculate, with manicured grass lawns, white painted kerbstones and an overall air of spit and polish about the place. With ramrod-straight Sergeant Majors reminiscent of Richard Attenborough's RSM Lauderdale from Guns of Batasi keeping unfortunate squaddies on their toes..... But it wasn't - it was a shabby, uninspiring dump. Which sadly confirmed my rather jaundiced opinion concerning the way things were heading in the UK Armed Forces.

x+y

Assuming there's enough money being generated to pay it of course. The g'ment cut the rate for deferring the state pension from 10.4 to 5.8% pa. Hardly worth it.

Thanks, Al R!

Although according to the latest edition of Which?, 'Anyone who is eligible for the state pension before April 2016 can benefit from an attractive annual rise of 10.4% for each year they defer it'.

Whereas if you qualify after April 2016, the annual increase will fall to a less attractive 5.8%.

Hence those currently aged 64 could still benefit from the better rate if they defer before reaching 65?

You're absolutely right, I forgot that lead in - I thought it had already started. I think that deferring the pension at aged 65+ is probably a risk too far. The increase is minuscule whereas you can do something worthwhile with the cash for that extra year or so in the meantime. What would I consider doing?

If I didn't need it, and I'm assuming that if I'm considering deferring it, I don't, I'd consider taking it. I'd then consider chucking it into a cheap as chips personal pension (if I had relevant UK earnings to justify it), getting a minimum of 20% tax relief (up to £3600 gross for even a non UK tax payer) and (hopefully) getting some investment growth on top of that.

Then, as someone with a defined benefit pension of the size that most of us have, I'd consider the pros and cons of taking it with practically no controls (tax free cash and the balance drawn at marginal rate or kept and bequeathed if it isn't needed).

You could (conceivably - nothing guaranteed) invest in cash funds and still beat the 5.8%. If I died before aged 75 (from April 6 onwards), it would be left to my partner or the local dog's home free of tax and not lost to George Osborne. If I died after aged 75 it gets taxed. Best I spend it then!

Beags,
Got there last November . They add your State Pension on to your Service Pension, then tax the combined income together, deducting the tax total in one lump each month off of your RAF Pension.

Service pension and state pension are both taxable income. Combined, with no other income, I live comfortably and don't pay higher rate tax. Bus pass is useful. Free TV licence will be nice. Unfortunately daughter is about to get married so that will make a sizeable dent in the Genstabler finances next year!

Genstabler,

Check your PMs.

Biggus,
Ditto!

Al R

Taking the OAP at 65 would have led me to pay 40% tax on it, as I was still working as an RAF (CC) Reservist and also getting a full Service Pension.

I now get 131.2% OAP at 20% tax.

I can live on that, as BBQ wine can be had for £1 a bottle down here, and also the sights on the beach can be quite attractive in the summer.

It's an old truth that very few people say on their deathbed, "I wish that I had worked for longer". Every day is a weekend for retirees.

There's a world of difference in waking up and thinking, 'what have I got to do today' and 'what do I want to do today'. In my opinion, that is the very essence of retirement.

So true, Surplus. I've always been an early riser, but it's so much easier when you don't have to.

Likewise with work. Now that I work full time at what used to be my hobby, I try to make sure that I can always say 'Don't want to, today', but rarely do I say it unless there's something else that I want to do.

Tengah,

Good on you, I hope you enjoy the wine and the sights in absolutely any order you want. There are lots of options (we forget inverse commutation too, of 05 - which can be useful if you don't need the money too much, are in poor health and have a much younger partner who would benefit from an extended income stream).

Me though, if I was a 40% payer at 65, I'd opt for "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", take the state money as soon as possible and go for 40% tax relief. I suppose a lot would rest on my health, my view of investment growth, inflation, regulation and legislative change, my personal and financial circumstances and those of my partner. I'm glad it's worked out for you.

Not to be overlooked either, an AFPS scheme member can allocate part (max 37%?) of their pension to a dependant. In return for an immediately lower pension, a nominated dependant (younger partner etc) can receive a higher pension when they die. Nothing in life is free, the actuaries sharpen their quills and many factors determine the amount of your dependent's pension in return for that which you have given up. But it might be estate planning-wise and tax advantageous for some.

In keeping with new civvy legislation, I wonder if '15 allows you to pass that to any beneficiary though, I wonder of voxpop could help. A useful estate planning tool, especially if benefit crystalisation event guidance can work in your favour. AFPS 15 offers the chance of commuting income at state retirement age for yet another lump sum if that's preferable too.

Enough with pensions already.. it's bank holiday! Enjoy the beach Tengah, Happy Easter and Happy Pension 'Freedom' Day everyone.. ;)

Edit: The reason for announcing cutting the state pension age from next year is all too clear. Many basic rate tax payers will become higher rate tax payers when they plunder their personal pensions this year and next. Many would have liked to defer their state pension for a higher later income - and the net result would be to minimise the tax to be paid in the year when they liquidate their pension savings. But cutting the state pension deferral rate, effectively, neuters the benefit of doing so. Fiendishly clever, despicably efficient - and it highlights what pension 'freedom' really is all about. Raising money.

Normally I'd be right up there with a cynical put-down to, but I'm not so sure here. Aside from a philosophical desire to give people a real choice in how they utilize their life-long savings (with emphasis on "their"), there is a massive need to reverse the colossal "zero-pension" trend in this country.

For all sorts of reasons, the overwhelming majority of young earners in today's society don't have a pension (very few of them have property either). This has simply got to be fixed, and whilst today's measures will have virtually no impact on the problem, they are a long-overdue step in the right direction.

Both pension and the property market need massive, and sustained, surgery or this country has no future.

I'm not intending to try it out but from one news report, I gathered that should an eligible person "cash in" their pension for the maximum lump sum and subsequently blow the lot by the age of 70 (for example), they would still be able to claim a means tested benefit/pension.

It doesn't sound right, so did I get the wrong end of the stick?

P6Driver - I understand that is the case and indeed, given it is their lump sum/pension savings they have accrued, what they choose to do with it is up to them. They are no different than the less well prepared/fortunate who didn't have that money saved in the first place. I also understand the State Pension is not means tested (although you need to qualify by paying NI for 33 years for the full amount). The means testing comes under the Pension Credit part of the payment, designed to help those not able to survive on the State Pension they receive. Re the earlier question about service and State pension being X+Y, I think there is a bit of jiggery pokery re the SERPS element so in fact you get X+Y-Z where if you didn't have the service pension you'd get Y+Z?
My old man discovered this on his State pension age and wasn't best pleased!!

P6,

From last year, there was a concerted drive within g'ment to regard the basic state pension as a right and not a benefit, because it has been earned to varying degrees by people paying National Insurance Contributions. It'll be a different matter for various other means tested benefits. DWP rolled out guidance a couple of weeks ago, warning that if you blow it, don't come crying to us.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...p-benefits.pdf

I see that Nicola Sturgeon has been arguing again, this morning, that as life expectancy north of the border is lower, Scotland will be exempt from increases in the state pension age. Fair enough. Given that life expectancy for military retirees is generally lower too, should they also be exempt. Coming soon - a personalised retirement age, based on the results of a DNA and contingent on you wearing a gym/sports tracker..

TOFU,

Yes, to a point. Accrued money attributable to tax relief should be ring fenced. The rest, well.. why not cash some of it in if that's what you want? Given the number of silver surfers around here, I'm expecting to see lots more 3 year old Merc SLs on the roads this summer. Just as soon as the cruise has been completed of course. Notwithstanding that, it's the next scandal of course!

Sandy Parts & Al R,

Thank you for taking the time to clarify that for me, gents.

Yes, it is permitted. I sit with a serving Colonel

Gents


many thanks for your input.....you've come up with some real pearls of wisdom........and I mean some real pearls of wisdom!!! I'm only 50 so I can't imagine I'll be twiddling my thumbs for too long. I want to put something back into society if that doesn't sound cheesy......I mentored in the Fire Service (both formally and informally!) so I'd love to help those less fortunate than I am. Either that, or somehow try to get involved in aviation one way or another.......I'm not a million miles from the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington so that might be something to consider. It's only been 8 days so it sort of feels like I'm on leave, but I keep waiting for some kind of emotional melt down but I haven't had time for that yet.......I'm too busy!


Thanks again gents.

MD:ok:

If your near the coast the RNLI can always use ex service experience

Approaching 50 and enjoying my second career. Beard grown, no bull**** tolerated, (another) final salary pension, lots of holidays, freedom to retire any time from now until I'm 70, although in reality shortly after my mortgage is paid off and my sons' (10 & 7 yrs old) uni' fees are covered.

Of my 1990 - 2012 time inside on balance I enjoyed about 3/4, but I don't miss much about it any more.

Mopardave,

I think you've answered your own question with the last comment of your post!
And believe me, it won't change! Enjoy your retirement!:D

I left after 23 years, and not a moment to soon. I enjoyed most of the time I spent in, not all of it. But, I'm glad I joined.


I left, and never looked back. If I'm honest, I don't actually enjoy flying anymore either.


The RAF (Fast Jets), is for young men and you will know when it's no-longer worth the effort. I'm having a great life on the 'outside', enjoy it!

Al R

The money lost in defering the OAP, allowing for 40% Tax, is regained in about 7 years at 131.2% with 20% Tax. Rather than my financially incontinent ex-wife spending it, I am now halfway to getting it back, and all for me!

It depends how optimistic you are about your future. I personally hope to equal my Great Grandfather who retired from the Wiltshire Police, at 50, as an Inspector and claimed 46 years full pension.

LOL Kintyred............why hadn't that occurred to me?! You're absolutely right mate.......I haven't bloody stopped thanks to Mrs MD......she's a lucky girl!:ok:

For those of us who were always paid to do their hobby, 'work' is never a burden. I've just turned 60, so sadly no more single-pilot public-transport for me - I really miss the police, air-ambo and lighthouse support stuff.

However, after a brief (2 year) interlude with my previous (excellent) employer in their training office, teaching multi-engine and IR, I have now found my way into my ideal way of life. Mon-Fri, starting at 9 and never finishing after 5 (unless massive amounts of overtime are paid), I get paid for flying modern light twin helis at <30 feet around the delightful UK countryside. Managed 4 hours 50 minutes today - no paperwork, no secondary duties - bliss!

Who needs to retire when you can have this much fun and have people throw money at you?

Interesting comments by some.
Mopardrive - retiring @ 50 cannot be good for anyone - mentally, that is. You are far far too young to do sweet FA @ 50. Every single person I have met who has 'tried' to retire @ 50 has found life "challenging" to say the least. Great for the first 'X' years but they all tell me that after that they are struggling to stay sharp...if that is the right description. Yes of course it's great fun doing very little daily, answering to no-one, tinkering with your hobby, charity, interests but the common thread with all of them is that they miss the daily 'challenges' that work brought, the interaction with other humans on a professional basis, the problems that needed resolving and so on. OF course there is a time to say goodbye to all that, even for filthy rich people, but 50 is ridiculous - you become a nuisance not a nicety.
Willard: With a 7 year old, you are going to be working until you are 65 then???

I guess there is no 'ideal' age to retire. Each to their own, but I would suggest that there is a 'minimum' age to retire and in this modern age of medicine and welfare - 50 is way way too young assuming you have 20+ years of healthy time ahead of you.............
As they say: "One Life - Live It"!
Thud: You seem to have struck gold. We have a roughly similar background but now I am driving a desk in aviation rather than flying one! Enjoy!

As one who 'retired' at 50, I have no complaints about the last 20 years.
Busy enough, without being told what to do on a daily basis.
Sufficient intellectual stimulation to defer senility for a while.
Enough free time/cash to indulge my/our interests.

I think the biggest positive was having the freedom to choose what to do each day, juggling the mix of desires and essentials and ensuring the week's "To Do" list was completed in a timely manner ... and not having to worry too much if things slipped to right a bit. Although looking at this desk, awash with various pieces of paper and a fairly long "To Do", I may be slacking a bit - I shall have to speak to myself sternly.

I shifted to occasional, part-time work at 45, and am completely retired at 52. I have too much to do to have time for work!

I guess the key question is, do you know what you will do with your time? If you do, you should be trying to 'retire', i.e. achieve future financial security, as fast as possible. I achieved this by building my own house, learning the skills as I went along. Personally, I knew what I would do after my working life was over when I was 18, but I guess most don't.

I think that one vital ingredient in the fulfilment that retirement has to offer comes long before you actually retire. I am aware of people; often high fliers in the command chain, who if you take the military away from them, nothing remains. These people will find their retirement date an impossible hurdle to navigate. Upon my own retirement, a good friend emailed me with these comments: "Welcome to the rank of all ex-officers"; and whilst those who know me well reckon that I stopped being 'military' some time ago, I have the rest of my life to juggle the many interests and hobbies that I have accumulated other the years. ..... and the comments about mental as well as physical challenges are valid. I was rubbish at languages at school, yet found over the years picking up colloquial verbal language very easy. I am now going to embark on academic Russian; for no other reason than... I can! .... and I am going to visit some of those countries that have thus far have been on a forbidden list. I have already done Cuba for example.

One important consideration for the recently retired couple is to allow each other their own space. My significant other has her own snug to which she can retire, eat chocolate and watch some of her medical programmes on TV while I watch manly adventure things downstairs.

Thomas coupling, you argue strongly that ‘retiring @ 50 cannot be good for anyone.’ If that is what you feel is necessary in order to achieve mental stimulation or feel some sense of purpose, then good luck Sir! I retired from the RAF two and a half years ago at age 55 and have no desire to seek paid employment. Now pursuing educational, charitable and social activities the major challenge is how to select and achieve chosen purposes whilst balancing the limited time available. Struggling to stay sharp? I don’t think so….

Sorry if this sounds a little punchy, it must be time for the medication....