How we made our decision to retire early at the age of 51

[@Sweetie8387]

I’m 39 and work for government . Doing everything I can to overpay mortgage and then save to retire at 52. I’m on track. This video is inspiring an I will coming back to it to help reflect and drive me forward thank you for sharing and congratulations 🎉

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou

[@barrylong8274]

My grandmother from Co.Meath had a great expression that suits you guys.'Enough js as good as a feast'. Wise words.Looking forward to hearing and following your journey and I think you are 100 percent doing the fight thing.Good luck!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Wow - what a great saying and so true for us! I think you might hear Richard saying that in future vlogs! Thanks for watching the channel x

[@wanderingsofalanandcaz]

Love it guys. Your journey is like looking in a mirror at our thoughts at the minute.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It’s a big decision, but we have had no regrets so far - 18 months in. In the end we decided that nothing is irreversible and at the worse if we wanted or needed to, we could go back to work! Good luck!

[@wanderingsofalanandcaz]

@@earlyretirementwanderlust Thanks guys. We’ve dropped you a message on Instagram 👍

[@tripswithgriff]

Like others, YT just threw up some of your vlogs to us and we are exactly the same....retired 18 months ago at 51 after 30 years NHS & high pressure jobs and similar losses around us, bought a campervan on a bit of an impulse and got another puppy....Fast forward 18 months and we've travelled the hell out of it around the UK loving every minute of it and various adventures. We've just sold it and are awaiting a slightly bigger & better van and a whole new book of adventures. Looking forward to more of your vlogs as we have plans around some of the same trips you've done in Scotland and Europe by the look of it!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you for your lovely message. It is definitely strange after leaving such high pressure jobs but we have never looked back and love travelling/exploring in the van. It makes everywhere so affordable and accessible with limited planning needed. Losing Richards brother and dad within weeks of each other certainly gave us the determination to live our best lives… and we are loving it! Hope the new van brings lots of new adventures and memories. We have not really touched on what’s out there in the UK, let alone Europe 🚐

[@tripswithgriff]

@@earlyretirementwanderlust Totally agree. My wife close family and we lost good friends too early, and it really does make you think about priorities and what matters in life. We still haven't quite got the balance right and I have enjoyed the videos on structure, routine and health and its definitely inspiring me to make some changes this Xmas. Strangely I found it easier to do MORE fitness work when I was working long hours than I've managed since retiring?! Happy Xmas and New Year!

[@shineyrow9001]

I left teaching at 40 for another job. I turned 51 this year and just like yourselves, I reflected on the experience of Covid and bereavements in the family. As a result, me and my wife went on the company's pre-retirement course in March 2023. We've done our sums and will be retiring when I turn 55 and can take my teachers pension and my other occupational pension. We will potter round, visiting places in the UK and just enjoying the time we have left. We re-homed a dog from a shelter last month and look forward to enjoying life rather than grinding at a job. Keep up the good work and keep posting - I want to see how well you get on!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thanks. There are just so many lovely places in the uk to explore. I feel we have only just scratched the surface so far. We have no regrets, no boredom and very little stress now compared to life as a teacher! Good luck in your retirement x

[@jimmyd6279]

You two are so inspiring! Not buying into all the money is everything bullshit!Living and experiencing is real wealth.Congratulations.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you

[@driftingintoretirement]

Retired yesterday at 55. Covid has been a blessing in disguise to assess what is important in life.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Congratulations on your retirement. Time to enjoy every moment doing things that you love. It is a strange feeling at first x

[@shineyrow9001]

Covid has absolutely been an opportunity to stop, think and reflect. Life is too short, isn't it?

[@tristagt835]

This is great, so inspiring!!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you - we are still loving our early retirement 18 months later from making that video 😊

[@tessbrown9885]

Thank you for the honesty, this is really good and enlightening.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thanks for the feedback Tess- it's always nice to hear.

[@chrisharris4223]

Nice video and congrats on the early retirement! I am planning to also retire at 50 (43 now). Very refreshing to watch a retirement video (I watch a lot) that is not so focussed on the financial element, where the main aim is to get a very affluent position to feel comfortable enough to then take the plunge. I like your style and wish you all the best

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you. Maybe we should have watched videos more with a financial element 🤣 we just decided after a tough year that time was more important to us than money and we would have enough to get by reasonably comfortably - its would not suit everyone. I suppose for us we have the attitude that if the worst came to the worst we would just have to work again, nothing is totally irreversible maybe only Part time until we get our teachers pension. Not a major disaster - or we could air bnb our cottage while we travel. Happy planning x

[@LotsMore2C]

Have stumbled across your vids (thanks to YT algorithms) and really appreciate them. Now watched several. Since I began working (Aussie teacher), the pension age has been pushed from 60, to 65, and is now 67. So, at 63, I am very interested in what you present and your take on things.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thank you. The retirement age for us went up from 60 to 65 so it has been with a some detriment to our pension and finances retiring so early but we weighed up the choices - did we value time or money the most? We keep thinking the worst that can happen is we have to do some temporary jobs occasionally 😬

[@roblowry9457]

Just stumbled onto your site and it really resonates. I'm a teacher in UK for over 30 years and my wife and I are looking to take the retirement leap. I will be 57 so will likely take the teacher pension early, rather than wait to 60. We were careful, paid the mortgage off early and with the tax free lump sum and a small personal pension think the money will be OK. Travel is definitely high on the to do list. Looking forward to 2023.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It feels like such a big step to take but at the moment it still feels like we have done the right thing as our time is so precious to us. Good luck and enjoy your travels x

[@TheBabblingBrookes]

We can definitely resonate with a lot of what you have said 😍

[@ellon118]

Great honest video, your story is so similar to mine this past year, but I've not made that big decision yet to retire, My wife would retire tomorrow! It will be interesting to see your journey.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It’s certainly a big decision to make and our teachers pensions certainly helped!

[@jasonthomas5925]

Thanks for your honesty …..Good luck 😀👍x

[@drivingbalu7952]

you are so lucky. In Germany you retire with 67 after 45 years of work when your life is nearly over. The earliest you can retire is 64 but then yoo get 14,4% less pension. Retiring with 51 is just a dream. I live in the wrong country.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

In England we will not be able to access our state pension until we are 67 (or perhaps 68 by the time we get to that age!) We can access our teachers pension from 55 but with a huge reduction compared to if we continued to 67. We made the decision that time was more important to us and that we would adapt our lifestyle to our income. We know we will probably need to do some sort of part time or seasonal work at some point until we are 67. We definitely do feel fortunate that we are in the position to be able to make that decision.

[@stevezodiac491]

I retired at the same age as you at March 28th 2010 at 51 years old but the decision was made for me. I went through a major steelworks closure but fortunately I was over 50 and then you could retire with your final salary company pension at 50 under the circumstances of redundancy. Gordon Brown changed it on April 6th 2010 to 55 years old. Although it was not a full pension, it wasn't far off because I had bought 8 years extra pension annual voluntary contributions. I came out with a large lump sum including, pension lump sum, redundancy lump sum, pay in lieu of notice and my monthly pension, the whole lump sum being completely tax free then. Being a good final salary company pension, I was contracted out from the state pension, so there was a shortfall on a full state pension at 66, so I have bought 6 missing years and going to buy the final 2 extra NIC years to make a full state pension as well. The pay back period for these NIC payment years is 2.9 years, so it is a no brainer and will have my money back by 69. I have never looked back really, keen sports cyclist still, to quite a high level and camper vanner. No mortgage. Don't want another job thank you. Keep fit, health is also wealth. We go camper vanning nearly every fortnight, year round !

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

You give us hope we have made the right decision. We just have to get to 55 to get the teachers pension which will be at a reduced rate but enough for what we want or need. Yes we must make sure we keep up the NI contributions to get our full pension. We are so enjoying having the time to get out travelling and hiking now we are in the dales

[@AlanMETALMAN]

Very interesting watch to be honest and very well done to you both. It is something I can relate to as me and Mrs Metalman both took voluntary redundancy and early retirement in 2010 at the of 55 and I can tell you one thing - we have never, not for one second ever regretted it or thought we made the wrong decision, in fact it was the best decision we have ever made. So much has happened over the last 12 years (too much to write on here) so I hope your early retirement is going to work out as well for you both as it has for us! Take care, cheers Alan

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou. We are so looking forward to enjoying our time together, setting up a new home in the dales and having time to spend with people we love. The travel will be ace too!

[@macdaddymgiarc]

I am planning a 'freedom 55' retirement (a couple years away) and glad to know that there should be no regret when I do. I love when I see comments like this. Thank you for sharing your story with the world.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou and we hope everything goes to plan for you x

[@auntiemandy5638]

Every days a school day , Good for you guys for going for it, you only live once

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou

[@camillesaint3544]

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou

[@stut1969]

Well done for taking the huge step and being brave enough to do it. Its my wife and our plan to do the same, but well be in our late 50s when we are able to. We have the motorhome and currently do a lot of travelling in it. We have done the Outer Hebrides twice and were there last September, your videos look so familiar to ur

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou. It felt like such a huge step to take and a lot of planning but so far we are loving retired life! In the years before we retired our campervan was our haven to get away as much as possible including pretty much every weekend - Scotland being our favourite destination x

[@johnallport4575]

Nice to meet you both, we find your videos very interesting. Looking forward to watching more of your adventures. Who needs Laithwaites when you have Jens cellar 😂.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou 😊 I think Jen might need laithwaites again after we leave 🤣 it was nice to meet you both

[@Asylum5g]

Glad to have found your channel. Couldn’t agree more and looking to retire this year from teaching at 50. Though with very young kids a very different retirement plan! Really useful to hear your experience. TY and best of luck.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Yes our having children relatively young was a huge advantage in our early retirement. They are 24 and 26 now and both have moved onto the same road opposite each other in Manchester 🤣 also an advantage that it gives us somewhere to stay while we are renovating the cottage! Hope your plans come to fruition x

[@johnristheanswer]

Can you take that at age 50 in UK ?

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

We can’t get our pension until we are 55 so have no income at the moment and it does affect your pension as we are not contributing for those few years but for us it was worth the sacrifices and the extra years of travel and experiences we can have. It came down to a money versus time decision for us and we value time more! (We do also realise we may need to do some casual work at times!!)

[@johnristheanswer]

@earlyretirementwanderlust Sounds like a good plan. I guess the other contributor has a similar plan. I thought it was 55 for ' everyone ' now such as police , fire , nursing etc. 50 seemed very young. Best of luck

[@Asylum5g]

True retirement from teaching is at 60 or even later now in the UK. I always wanted to have the choice by the age of 50 so had some side income streams to help achieve that goal. Currently on phased retirement of part time as fits in with my life. Best wishes.

[@thelittleredbus]

We are in a very similar position as you albeit at 55. We took early retirement in Aug 2022, leaving highly stressful jobs to seek a life of adventure with our rescue dog Lukaz, travelling in our trusty old VW T3 Syncro. We own a house outright (safety net) and have a pension and an annuity to provide a stable income until we teach state pension age, when the annuity will drop off and be replaced by the state pension. I commend everyone to overpay their mortgages, even if only by a tiny amount, consider private pensions and avoid credit card debt (not easy I know), paying any balance off as soon as possible as a priority over savings etc. small amount of money squirrelled away in ISAs make nice little contingency pots for disasters or even occasional treats. We started with a 5 week tour of West Scotland, Skye and the Outer Hebrides and in 2 weeks we set off to Europe with no plan, no itinerary and just the 90 day Schengen limit to restrict us (thanks Brexit!). Eventually as we are emboldened, we plan to follow the silk route to the Far East, maybe then shipping the van to Chile and exploring the Americas. We want to learn how to use KZbin , improve our photography & drone flying and get to grip with video editing. We have a blog already, though it’s a little out of date and we plan to bring it up to date soon, possibly launching a TikTok channel as well. We hope to inspire people in a similar position to put adventure ahead of work and to enjoy the world, no one thanks you if you drop dead at work! This life is not a dress rehearsal.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It’s awesome isn’t it being able to make plans and have the freedom to travel. Wow the Silk Road trip sounds very adventurous in the van! One of our trips when we can access our teachers pension is to either ship our van Nelson out to Nova Scotia or buy a van out there and tour Canada and the USA for a year x

[@cambbrown6205]

I would say don't completely rule out supply teaching. It is a powerful thing to know that you have the freedom to leave whenever you decide (not that I ever did). It has been hugely interesting and enjoyable to see different schools without the burden/ stress of a teaching 'career' and great to be thanked daily for your help. It also enabled me to delay taking my pension until I was 60 and it had grown just a little bit more.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thanks for this Camb, it was something that we considered in our planning, but preferred to leave it as a very last resort! We loved our time in teaching and do miss working with the young people, but I guess we both needed a break from the profession. Each to their own. Glad you are enjoying the videos.

[@pollypocket2081]

Good luck on your journey... very difficult choice when we are conditioned to work work work to survive in this material world with very little time for the important things in life ... enjoy 🦋🍄🌸

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Thankyou it will definitely be abit of a roller coaster for a while as we do up the cottage but no regrets so far 😊

[@MrBerry67]

As we age - time and health is far more important than money- providing you have enough money to live of course

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

That does help

[@kburt20]

Helps of course if you work in the public sector....

[@doyoumind.atall.stopspying5572]

Both me and my cousin decided to retire

[@johnd4348]

Retire early is you can while you have your health. My parents waited until they were over 65 and their health was bad. Could not do very much. My father was in construction and his body was shot from hard work since the age of 15.

[@jagman999]

The biggest asset you have are guaranteed pensions for life. This is a once in a generation opportunity.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

We certainly didn't realise for the first half of our teaching careers how fortunate we are with our teachers pension scheme!

[@goingmouch3753]

Hi, thanks for sharing again great in-depth Vlog and into your lives obviously… Just like to say I don’t think you were privileged. I think you worked very very very hard to get where you are and were!!!

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

Such a lovely comment- many thanks. I guess we just count our blessings every day and are truly grateful for everything that early retirement is bringing us. We loved our jobs teaching, but love our retirement life more even though in monetary terms we have much less. We genuinely try to live by the “less is more” philosophy.

[@dmb2236]

Love this! I hate what education has become! Everyone is so angry and confrontational! I pray I can make it at least two.5 more years! 26 years 20% penalty….28 years full Retirement….I’ll be 52!!!!

[@rosemaryspencer1501]

Made the right decision,life is short.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It sure can be!

[@johnd4348]

I know more people who died before 65 than those that lived pass 65. None made it till retirement.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

This has been a big consideration in our early retirement

[@thepropertyflipper]

I'm not sure how to phrase this question but here goes. If my wife and I are selfish we can retire now (56/54). However we are conflicted to keep going to help support our two kids ( 18/20) who will be going to Uni soon, so we have to support them and would like to help them with deposits for 1st house etc. Did you have the debate about how much help to give your children before retiring?

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

A tricky one. We were in a fortunate position that our children were 24 and 26 when we retired so didn’t have the worries of supporting them through uni. They are both living independently with their partners and one is in the process of buying a house already. We do have occasional niggles about what would happen if they fell out with their partners and needed more support but they are in good jobs and we believe we would always find a way of helping if needed! Our ultimate thought is, we could go back to work if needed, it’s not an irreversible process!!! (Although that would be a last resort) sorry that is probably not much help for you!

[@geoffwalmsley3066]

not being funny but not every job gives you the pension to retire at 51, think you've deserved it going through the stresses of teaching.

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

I agree we know we are very lucky! We have had to make a few sacrifices to get to this point with no pension until we are 55 😬😬 Richard keeps saying we are living on love but we couldn’t see ourselves having the energy to keep teaching to a standard the children deserve no matter how much we loved it.

[@stevezodiac491]

@@earlyretirementwanderlust No pension at 55 because of the Labour Party and Gordon Brown in particular. I retired at 51 with my works pension (allowed from 50 then), not only that all my lump sum payments were tax free, now they are included in your annual earnings tax allowance. Gordon Brown changed the rules on 6th April 2010, so you can blame him that you are not getting yours until 55 and the pension windfall raid he made at the same time but nobody replaced it when investment rates became poor. Remember you will have to pay further cash NIC contributions from now on when you are not working, to get a full state pension. You need to get advice on what you need to buy. I have just paid £800.80 for 2021 - 2022, it is expensive but the pay back is less than 3 years post state retirement age. If I were you and I was the same myself with 35 years NIC contributions and expecting a full pension, get yourself a gov gateway access and check out your pension forecast online. In 2016 the state pension rules changed and i was contracted out as well, which you probably would have been pre 2016. The outcome of all of this is that my state pension forecast was less than a full pension and I have had to buy 8 extra NIC contribution years, to get a full state pension at 66. You need to investigate your paid up contribution forecast and any shortfall you may both have to get a full state pension, don't expect that you already have it ?

[@earlyretirementwanderlust]

It is a bit of a minefield but yes we have looked into the NI contributions already and like you decided it was worth it to get the full pensions. Thanks for your comment as it is definitely something to be aware of

[@Sweetie8387]

This is useful thanks