Thinking of giving in my notice at work

well non financial - you may get bored - so it makes sense may to do freelance to make more money.

financial - like you say, any large expenses and you may be screwed, plus you should consider rising prices and that i guess...

good on you though, i might do something similar when i am 30 :):)

and being nosy, how long have you been saving for to do this, and how much do you think you will spend a year?

Thanks for the encouragement. I've been thinking of doing it for years but never thought I'd ever be able to do it. I haven't been saving but the money comes from the proceeds of my house sale so I've decided to throw caution to the winds and give it a go. I'm seriously fed up with the rat race, commuting and all that and don't really feel I've much to lose. I've worked out that I need around 728 per month, including all bills, food and petrol (at 20 a week. I think I could cut that down but won't know by how much till I try it.) I'll get rid of Sky but keep my mobile. That's it really. I just don't know what I might have missed and haven't included anything for NI/pension as I don't know what's involved or quite what questions I should be asking.

Jen

if, after a year or 2 you can see you will run out of cash then you can always start working in the 2rd year so if it was me i would almost certainly do it - you have to think about what you would do after the 3 years when you would need to come back to work. If you are 54 now then you will be about 57 then so still a bit of retirement age so you will need to do somehting in those years.

i suggest sleeping a lot - hardly costs anything :)

No advice to offer, but just wanted to say go for it!. Good on you.

Just remember when you do get bored, when you've had enough of watching daytime TV, tired of going for walks etc etc, just remember the s*it days at work.

Enjoy your life for bit. Of course, even with that amount of money you do realise you could lie on a beach somewhere don't you? Visit Thailand for example.

Dare I mention your pension provision for when you finally retire?

If you think you've already got this covered, and with the pitiful OAP (perhaps reduced if you haven't got the full 39(?) years contributions) and any private / occupational pension, you reckon you'll have enough to live the lifestyle you want for the next, hopefully 40 + years, then why not have a ball now.

OTOH if you calculate you won't, then clearly you need to do something about it. That might mean biting the bullet, staying in the rat race for another few (6 - 11 years), and saving as much as you can in that time, hopefully assisted by an employer who will also chip in to your pension fund.

With people generally living longer, and governments cutting down on pensions, then some hard decisions might need to be made.

Rgds

__ Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

Bitstring , from the wonderful person J Ashton said

You'll probably want to make voluntary (class2) contributions of ~400/year, in order to ensure you can collect a full basic state pension (whatever that's going to be worth). Check with the pensions forecast service.

It would be rather beneficial if you could get your company to terminate you with redundancy pay (as someone in HR once said to me 'never leave without a package'.). Preferably after 5th April, so you can use next year's tax allowance (just incase they make you a generous offer .. i.e. >30k).

As someone else already said, you do need to figure out what you are going to do with your free time. And where you plan to do it (i.e. if you are a house owner you can extract a lot of equity by selling in London and buying in Wales .. however that will disrupt your social life more than somewhat).

Congratulations on reaching this position !

I've had 3 years off after I was unfairly dismissed from my last job. I was living off the settlement for the first year and savings since.

I haven't downsized because I've always lived simply and happily with no serious commitments I live in a nice cottage in a nice part of the country and I appreciate it.

My situation contrasts with yours in that I own a house with a small mortgage that I let out which gives me a profit of ~£300pm whereas, you have cashed in and presumably got a nice sum in the bank. I could sell it, but it would only reduce my monthly loss from ~£540 to ~£490. For comparison, if I sold, my outgoings would be ~£800/month, so similar to your figure.

Have you checked your figures on a spreadsheet ?

Please don't be offended by anything, but here's my musings -

Pauls comment about being on a beach is worth considering and taking further; entry requirement permitting, you could live for a decade or more for the same money in some parts of the world.

Although giving up work for a year or two might be attractive it might be better to work part time and go for a longer period of time, or any combination of the two. eg 1 year off 5 years part time.

The even better news is that since the average salary is ~£27,000, the median salary is ~£21,000 and the national minimum wage is ~£11,000 you should easily be able to cover your costs if you ever need to work again. This should give you the freedom to do part time work as well.

If you get bored, you could always investigate voluntary work, which could also give you new skills & experience which you could use to get another job and or change careers. Many people have skills they don't use, which could earn them a good living; they just fall into the rat-race. "What color is your parachute" is often recommended as a good career/lifestyle change book.

The basic state pension you will get depends upon the number of years you earned more than the NI lower earning limit or had NI credited for other reasons. The chart in NP46 will tell you the scale. Send off for a forecast. Links on my webpage Class

To make the money go further, there's some Gilts (interest paying loans to the government) that I'm currently considering and you may wish to consider. These are amongst the safest investments but they pay a fixed amount of interest, so you lose out if inflation goes too high -

Convertible 2011 pays 7.32%pa or 4.78%pa if held to 2011 - There's a risk that the government will convert it into another type, that's why it's got a flat interest rate above the norm.

Treasury 7.25% 2012-2015 pays 6.68% or 4.96% if held to redemption. Unknown time of redemption between 2012 & 2015.

I'd be looking to take advantage of the current high yield, and selling them before redemption.

See the excellent Debt Management Office (DMO) guide and ask again if you want to get your head around these. The published prices flatter the returns (clean pricing), you must calculate the dirty price to get a true representation.

Is there any CGT due on the property ?

Over the 3 years I've been surprised at just how many people are happily working part time and/or have home businesses allowing them flexibility to work when they want. You simply don't get to see this 'alternative society' when your working 9-5. It's a real eye opener that made me set up my own business in the hope of doing the same.

There's a great bunch of people on the Motley Fool - Living Below Your Means board .

Have a holistic look at your insurance cover for lifes disasters, it's a good idea to do this whatever your employment situation. I decided that I can do without my contents insurance, but kept my sickness insurance (aka PHI).

hth

Daytona

Dayt> Congratulations on reaching this position !

Thank you so much to everyone for taking the trouble to reply. The beach idea, though attractive to some, isn't really me. One of the things I would like to do is get involved in my local community more, either voluntary work or just get to know people better. As I live in a stunning part of the country now, it's daft not to know it better when others pay a small fortune to spend their spare time here. There are also tourism-related and seasonal job opportunities I thought I might check out. But only part time - nothing regular as I don't want to get back on any professional treadmill again. And as you say, so much goes on when you're out at work between 7 and 7 - I'm missing it all. I also have some freelance work that will bring in a couple of hundred pounds a month too so I'm hoping I can do those things and eke out the savings a bit. Also babysitting for local families. As a long term member of the teleworker association I feel pretty well prepared to take the plunge as it's been a dream for years and years. And am happy to take risks too, in fact, relish the opportunity to take the risks. I really don't want to wait till I'm 65 and retired before trying all my ideas out. Or to look back when I'm 65 and wish I'd done that when I was 54. My children have flown the nest - so what the hell!

I very much appreciate all the links and will follow up. My main reason for asking on here was because I wasn't sure what to do about pension and NI and you've given me some info to investigate further. Insurance too. So many thanks.

As someone who jumped ship at 49 (about 6 years ago) for some people it works.

Money, you need a bit more than you actually think and have to carefully consider whether you'll need a new car etc. Big capital expenses can be a problem and work out at quite a lot per month. Your figure of around 750pm is reasonable if you are not the sort of person who has to have and do everything. There are savings in not working, you can often get low waged or no waged discounts, you do it at the cheap time of the week and have the time to chase up the 5 discounts. On the other hand there are costs, envelopes cost a fortune when you have to buy them!

NI should be OK. Check with them but the rules IMHO are you have to have 45 years credited, from 60-65 you can get them automatically credited if out of work. You are also allowed 1 year off for good behaviour so you must pay 39 years to get 100% pension. If you started at 16 then you must pay up to 55 years old to get the full payment. Otherwise one or two years of voluntary class 3 (not 2 as someone said) is by my calculation worth while. I believe if you become self employed you can get the credit cheaper provided you have no income.

Don't come to Thailand - everyone does that and many people do not like it. Stay where you are and do the voluntary work.

You might be able to squeeze 6 months of Job seekers allowance out of the state, worth about 65 per week and gives you something back from your NI payments and gives you your stamp for those months.

Good luck

Mark BR

You simply de-register from the Mail Preference Service, and suddenly you get envelopes for free!

Not sure what you mean by "provided you have no income". As self employed you get NI cheaper (class 2 at £2.05 per week instead of class 3 at £7.15 per week), with no extra to pay (class 4) until your SE income exceeds £4747 per year.

Ah is that what it is, I looked at it a few years back but felt that the inland revenue would refuse to accept self employed with no income!

Mark BR