Blimey. Reading this thread has made me realise how old the membership seems to be. At just 44, I seem to be a young whippersnapper
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Retirement Thoughts
- Thread starter Ian28
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I'm not going to feel guilty about working hard to get into a well paid job with the same small limited company for 30 years and doing as much as I could to pump money into my group personal pension. If the changes hadn't been made to the rules on how you can draw the money down I would be at work for a few years yet.
With careful planning we will be living on a joint income roughly the same as a 40k salary. Its a lot less than I earn now but as I have young guys who work for me and pay mortgages with added kids on about the same money I reckon I shall manage fine without a the mortgage or any loans on anything.
I know how fortunate I am to be able to pull the trigger on retirement at 55 but the plan to do it began when I left the RAF many years ago.
With careful planning we will be living on a joint income roughly the same as a 40k salary. Its a lot less than I earn now but as I have young guys who work for me and pay mortgages with added kids on about the same money I reckon I shall manage fine without a the mortgage or any loans on anything.
I know how fortunate I am to be able to pull the trigger on retirement at 55 but the plan to do it began when I left the RAF many years ago.
Ooooh 44 I remember 44 yer whipper snapperBlimey. Reading this thread has made me realise how old the membership seems to be. At just 44, I seem to be a young whipper snapper
There are often circumstances well outside of our control that smack us in the nuts, sorry to hear that its happened to you guys.You got shafted too @widu13 . I feel your pain.
.... lucky you who can retire so young !! .... in Italy it is not possible .... otherwise the pension is not paid or it is ridiculous .... I just got out of work at 64 years after working for 43 years non-stop .... now I would like to enjoy my free time before it is too late !!
To be fair, it's not really possible in the UK any more either - most of the final salary schemes mentioned above were closed to new entrants circa 20 years ago and replaced with much less attractive defined contribution schemes - most people now have to look forward to retiring at 67 (likely to soon be increased to 68).
Yip. Sadly the government moved the goal posts on us. Those we paid to represent us and fight our cause we're a total waste of space. They simply rolled over and refused to take the government on. One individual started a movement to try and right the wrong and gained a large following via social media. His plan was to take the government to court of his own accord. However judges and the FBU went to court first, making the same arguments about their pension. They've been successful. Government was defeated on the grounds they discriminated on the basis of age. What they will do next however remains to be seen. But in a profession where you latterly paid 14% of your salary towards a pension after 30 years service, many have walked out the door in disgust. Widespread feeling of being betrayed, having effectively been mis sold their pension. I was one of them.
Will be interested to see what this stock market crash does pension wise but somewhere between 55 and 58 is my new target with my current career. Whereas it was 52 to 53 before.
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I think being ex forces (RAF 23yrs) ..it tend to push you towards a well established structured company as employment with that you might not get high salary but it’s the perks that a well managed final salary pension can give ...you where never really paid well in the forces, but gave me a free pension ....fortunate I am ..but maybe more luck than judgement
The biggest shafting that a lot of guys and girls got was CPI.......RPI was not brilliant it only just got you on par with inflation but as you say “he who shouts loudest”
While I won't get a massive pension from her majesty it will kick in at age 60 and is worth having. I will mostly be grateful to the RAF for the training as an aircraft engineer which has meant I was never likely to be out of work.I think being ex forces (RAF 23yrs) ..it tend to push you towards a well established structured company as employment with that you might not get high salary but it’s the perks that a well managed final salary pension can give ...you where never really paid well in the forces, but gave me a free pension ....fortunate I am ..but maybe more luck than judgement
I was in supply and movements ( blanket stacker ) craziest think they got me to do was refuelling a Wessex ..rotors turning with an open line fuel nozzle ..sitting on the sponson..but it was great fun and yes ..taught you lots of skills. Oops sorry reminiscing
This was nearly the route I took on leaving school. If I recall correctly though, the RAF and maybe the forces in general were trying to offload skilled service personal (around 1994). Ended up doing a mechanical maintenance apprenticeship with Exxon instead. But I've been having this conversation with my son of late. He's considering the RAF. Suggesting to him that an airframes, propulsion systems or avionics trade would serve him well in civvy street.
Most of it's already been said above but I would add is that I retired at 55 (by coincidence, 10 years ago to the day!) and have never regretted a moment of it - I don't know where my time goes and I am rarely bored as the Mrs will always find me something to do when I'm not out on the bike or have other plans of my own. Unfortunately she is still working (the price she pays for being a fair bit younger than me) but that will hopefully be sorted this year after which the campervan and open road await (if this fecking virus business ever goes away).
If you get a chance to retire early, just do it. If you find yourself missing the structure and discipline of a working environment, you can always go back to it knowing that you would have the financial independence to give then two fingers if you wanted to!
If you get a chance to retire early, just do it. If you find yourself missing the structure and discipline of a working environment, you can always go back to it knowing that you would have the financial independence to give then two fingers if you wanted to!
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Exactly what i did. I quite enjoy my day job but my Motorsport stuff at weekends in addition to my job in the week was meaning i was going multiple weeks on end without any time off. The sensible folk would say to reduce my weekend activities but my mortgage has been paid off a while and the as income exceeded the expenditure, I decided to reduce my working day from 5 to 3. I'm still earning a fair wage, have enough time for myself now and enough money coming in to enjoy life and our new baby. I guess I could have worked 5 days for longer and retried sooner, however the way i looked at it was i would prefer more free time when I'm young in favour of when I'm older and possibly less able to enjoy it. The macabre side of me also thinks you may as well live life before retirement as you cant be sure you wont pop your clogs before the day rolls around.
Blimey. Reading this thread has made me realise how old the membership seems to be. At just 44, I seem to be a young whippersnapper
At 41, i guess I'm also in the whippersnapper group here!
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Word of warning ..when loads of people that where airframes etc....left the forces they had issues with the Civil Aviation Authorities about working on civilian aircraft ...yet another licensing authority.....even ground support guys got meet with don’t have commercial experience...crazy world we live in.......But The RAF is the best out of the three
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But The RAF is the best out of the three
Something that only crabs, ex crabs or aspiring crabs say
Always someone envious....ex grunts ..Wafu’s....ummm didn’t take long to bite......got to love urSomething that only crabs, ex crabs or aspiring crabs say
Made in.....or Be the Best ......T6 banter/forces banter.....Happy Days
There is a worldwide shortage of aircraft engineers and no sign of demand diminishing anytime soon. Not because of the increase in flying and airlines, present circumstances excepted, but because most of the young people with the grit and intelligence to make good aircraft engineers and other trades get funnelled into university by both our academic systems and the UK’s peculiar class system that downgrades the social standing of skilled trades.
I have lads in their late twenties who work for me and have a couple of aircraft type ratings that take home between 40 and 50k a year. If you want to work North Sea you can earn more.
The forces are not the training ground they used to be in the 70’s and 80’s usually training is restricted to direct trade activities and has limited depth to it. However for determined individuals there are self starter routes and a few good colleges teaching aircraft engineering. AST in Perth for example.
As @VanDamMan has said there is a lot of regulation involved and dealing with the authority but that’s where the professional skills are recognised through the licence and it shouldn’t be easy.
Sorry for the thread creep
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