Moneymakeover Retirement Readiness advice for late 50 something wishing to retire between now and 60.

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gearoid

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Age: 57
Marital Status: Married
Spouse Age: 59
House: Mortgage Free from September. Value of house approx 280K
Family: Just us, no children
Debts: None

Spouse's Finances

Spouse is entitled to a Public Sector Pension of circa 35k p.a. payable at 60 (December this year) along with a lump sum of 105k. Also has a few smaller private sector DC funds circa 50k.

Alongside this, my spouse currently has a private sector job 3 days a week for 60k p.a.

She has current savings of 50k and an inheritance coming of circa 50k in the next few months.

She intends to work for another 1.5 - 2 years at which point she can claim the mixed class pro rata contributory pension.

My current financial situation:

Job 90k per year permanent IT dev in finance/insurance industry

Liquid Assets: 730k between 480k in raisin and the rest in ETFs, and individual shares.

Pensions
Pension 1 - Old DC Occupational Pension - 319k - Mix of European and Internation Equity
Pension 2 - PRSA - 415K Mix of European and Asian Equity funds with Zurich, Corporate Bond Funds, Prisma 4 and Active Allocation. Recently sold US after great performance
Pension 3 - Current DC Occupational Pension 339k - Age balanced Irish Life
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Total Pensions 1.07 million

Total Liquid Assets 730k

Net worth separate from my wife : 1.8 million

I have made 83% of PRSI contributions and would aim to pay for the rest to secure full contributory pension at 66.

I am currently in a full-time job that is stressful as I have little control and a lot of regulatory issues and detail.

I have run through a lot of AI tools, and checked with a reputed financial adviser. My assessment of current spending is that we could live very comfortably on 70k p.a.

Financial Adviser, Claude, Deepseek, and Chatgpt are all bullish that I could retire now before my 58th birthday, fund the next ten years from liquid assets, move the three pensions into the PRSA, and use partial vesting of different PRSA policies to allow tax-free accumulation as long as possible

I want to consider short-term IT contracting until 60, just in case, but would appreciate thoughts on an immediate retirement, or when I turn 58 in a few months. My wife wants to continue her private sector role for a year or two, as she doesn't want to stop work completely. This contracting would require maintenance of a presence in a rental apartment currently costing 1500 euros per annum, plus travel from 240km away. The two locations is adding 30k to our bills that could be removed if I retire.

I understand we're in a comfortable enough position, but it's a big move to retire this early, and I am obviously cautious. In the meantime, I'm examining the self-employed option,

Thanks for your attention,
Gearóid






Thanks for your review and attention!
 
You are in a great position to retire immediately as advised my so many sources, hard to say what material difference bringing in 40-50k a year from contracting for 3 years would make to your overall position.

The combination of your liquid assets, pensions, and your spouses DB pension are pretty much the ideal for financial modelling of retirement risk. With possibly the issue is too much of longer term funds is not in pure equities. I’m sure you’ve run models and found that you are much more likely to have too much money in 5 years than too little. We will be in the same basic position in 5-8 years and are gradually planning to retire earlier and earlier based on how good the figure look (allowing for the fact that we still have those years to navigate and have kids etc)

Unless you are planing to buy a boat or take up something really expensive I can’t see what the caution is based on.
 
gearoid said:
Pension 2 - PRSA - 415K Mix of European and Asian Equity funds with Zurich, Corporate Bond Funds, Prisma 4 and Active Allocation. Recently sold US after great performance
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gearoid said:
I understand we're in a comfortable enough position, but it's a big move to retire this early, and I am obviously cautious
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With the PRSA you can stagger/phase your access to retirement benefits (tax free lump sum and ongoing income from a vested PRSA or ARF) if you want, by splitting a chunk of the main PRSA off into a smaller policy which you retire. That way access to retirement benefits isn't a one time only/all or nothing event/decision with your PRSA never mind your other pensions. And you could even dry run your retirement and go back to part or full time work if you decide that you might prefer that. You have a lot of flexibility this way.
 
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€70k a year is a lot of spending for two with no mortgage /remt. I would find it hard to spend that and we are a family of four. You’re in a great position and with the stress of your job you could think about retiring now. Go and enjoy it.
 
Retire now while you are both healthy and have the finances to do it, hind sight is a great thing, as I said before I could have retired at 60 but kept saying add one more year to the pot and then illness and death arrives at your door and you can't get back time .
 
You have more than ample funds to retire immediately with full confidence.

In fact, I would argue that you have reached a point where you are now exchanging your (ever diminishing) time for money you don’t need.

Your wife will have a guaranteed pension of €35k and you have €1.8m to generate an additional €35k to meet your €70k spending target. More than enough.

And that’s before you take account of the contributory State pension.

Congratulations, you’ve won the game. Enjoy your retirement.
 
If it were me I would be sitting on a beach in the med for a month before heading to Carrinean or Barbados after Christmas.

Stress and plate spinning and regulatory obeyance (see also complications) are something I am familiar with. The stuff that causes sleepless nights.

A lot of annual bonus payments ( pay out only if you haven't given notice) if there's one on the horizon then perhaps wait till the day its paid into your account and hand in your notice that day...though you're not stuck for it. I used put it all to AVCs or share purchase.

If not, then spend 10 mins today writing out your resignation letter and hand it in tomorrow. I know in my job it was 3 months, if not you could be finished with the magical roundabout by mid September.

If you have AVCs when you retire, convert to an ARF and done correctly, you should continue to get 52 class S stamp and continue to earn toward full COAP. ( State Pension).
 
Persia said:
If you have AVCs when you retire, convert to an ARF and done correctly, you should continue to get 52 class S stamp and continue to earn toward full COAP. ( State Pension).
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Just to note that this also applies to a vested PRSA paying €5K+ p.a. as per the phased/staggered retirement strategy that I mentioned above. Although in this case, with such generous funds available, such a conservative approach arguably isn't necessary.
 
Although I live abroad in a lower-cost EU country than Ireland, our situation and financial resources are broadly similar to what you describe.

I had a stressful job in IT and was enjoying it less and less. After delaying the decision during Covid, I finally stopped working in my mid-50s a few years ago. My wife still works because she enjoys what she does and like yours she already gets a state pension.

I have zero regrets. In fact a health issue since I retired - after a lifetime of perfect health - vindicated my decision to enjoy life, not continue with pressure at work.

My reasonably well-diversified and sensibly-invested "pot" has grown in value since I retired, not shrunk, making me now think about actually starting to splash out a bit more after a few years of being cautious with spending.
 
I have read a lot of posts over the years from people asking if they have enough to retire on.
I thought I'd give you an idea of how well off you actually are.
I am 58 and my wife is 59.

I was forced to retire early from my construction job. I was working for Sisk, the largest construction company in the country.

Due to their work practices I was left with a serious back injury. I have been out of work for 11 years. My mental health deteriorated
very quickly and I became a different person virtually overnight.

My wife cares for our adult daughter who has an intellectual disability. My wife's own health is now an issue.

I had worked for over 30 years for various companies in the UK and Ireland.I had only just enrolled in a proper pension scheme, a few years before my injury.

Our total income is 260 euro invalidity pension and 270 euro Carers allowance.
My monthly pension from the Construction pension scheme is 49.50 per month! A little over 12 euros per week!!
 
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I must agree with the above. I see posts here every day of the week with people asking have they enough to retire on who have incredible pension pots, expected inheritances and plenty of savings. You’re all flying it. Retire, enjoy a stress free life while you can. I have a neighbour, saved like mad, AVCs, the lot. Retired at 62 and is now so debilitated with Parkinson’s in his late 60s that he can’t enjoy life. All that scrimping and saving was for nothing. Money is no use if you don’t have your health.
 
Just another thought, ignoring pension contributions youre only really up 30k after tax by continuing to work as rent and fuel are mucj higher.

This is not even 2% of the value of your pension pot. It's really not worth it. Retire asap. You wont need to draw down much for another two years too if your wife ia continuing to earn.

Never heard someone say they wished they had spent more time in the office
 
I just want to thank all those who took time to reply here with your analysis, expertise, advice and thoughts on retirement. I am reading through them all and having a good think before making any firm decisions, largely now for non financial, less tangible reasons. You've all been a great help . @Persia , I will update this when I've made a firm decision. Thanks again. Gearoid
 
In my case continuing to work would require continuing to maintain two locations, one a small rented apartment at 1600pcm, given work is in Dublin and our primary residence is outside of the commuter belt. If I had mortgage free accomodation in Dublin it would obviously much more positive for savings.
 
@gearoid

You find your current role stressful and maintaining a Dublin apartment is obviously very expensive.

On the other hand, you have roughly twice the level of assets that you need to comfortably meet your projected expenditure in retirement. Frankly, you could have retired years ago.

So what’s holding you back?

I’m not trying to have a go, I’m genuinely intrigued.
 
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