Early Retirement or work another 5 years?

[redwood13 56]

A month or so ago I contacted BUPA re their renewal policies and they replied:

 

Dear Mr. Redwood

 

Regarding your question of our renewal policy, please kindly be

informed as follow ;

 

The member who join before the age of 61 years, and continuously

insured, are guaranteed renewal for life. Members who join after the age of 61 years are guaranteed renewal up to age of 70 years inclusive.

 

Please find all information regarding to private health insurance by

Personal Care. You'll find everything you need to become a member of BUPA Health Insurance as well ;

 

[Additional details re Personal Care are available on their website http://www.bupathailand.com/ & an attached file gave details re costs and benedfits for various plans]

 

If There's any problem of the attachment or further information you

require please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely,

Miss Sirikorn Sirisup

Team Telesales Leader

BUPA Health Insurance

tel. (662) 2367533-42 #629

[Eneukman 1]

Useful to know that Redwood. I should therefore be covered for life though my insurance doesn't cover me if I have a stroke because of my blood pressure problems though it's well unnder control at the moment. According to my wrist montor it is 106/73 with a pulse rate of 64. Not bad considering 4 years ago it was 200/150!

 

Swimming (non-stop!) for an hour per day must also help keep my blood pressure down as well as improving my fitness levels.

 

Alan

[richardm 1]

I too would like to retire early (aged 50) to Thailand in a few years time. This seemed to be going to plan.

 

However I have recently read that under the new Pension Bill (I am referring to the UK) due to take effect in April 2006 that any company or private pensions which currently does allow this, will end. It will be raised up to the age of 55, staggered over the next 5 years.

 

One example is here:- http://www.qck.com/pensions-2006.html

 

I checked this against the government's web site for pensions and also my company pension provider. They both say the same. The new age for early retirement will be aged 55 before you can start drawing the pension.

 

Does some knowledgable member know if I am I correct on this? As I dont want to spend an extra 5 years in this western wasteland if I can help it.

[Owen` 2]

Concerning a new UK pension law:

 

I have noticed in this thread that there are comments made by the Brits and Americans that would be useful to both if we understood each others' normal arrangements.

 

FYI in the US the government "pension" plan is called Social Security. It starts paying out an inflation adjusted amount at age 65 for current retirees. That age is due to slide upward over the next few years, in terms of at what age it starts. There is also an old age medical insurance plan called Medicare that covers only beyond age 65 for a very small premium (which all Americans have extracted from paycheck at all ages).

 

As for company pensions, this is becoming a thing of the past in the US. Only 1/4 of companies in the US pay a traditional pension to retirees. Some of those programs do "early outs" and start pension payments for employees in their 50's, but the norm is 62-65. Government employees still get this, though the pension is not very big.

 

The norm for the US now is more or less personal pension plans called 401K's (the paragraph number in the tax code that authorizes them) into which people put money that they then invest in stock shares or mutual fund shares and the growth they obtain is tax-deferred each year until retirement. It is for this reason that you hear about guys in this thread talking about having hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiply by 4% to get the Trinity based withdrawl rate. They will start tapping their 401K accounts and are concerned they will run out.

 

So if your new UK law goes from age 50 to 55, you're still getting a good deal vs much of the US.

[wagger 0]

"A" day is next April and along with many other changes the retirement age goes up to 55, i'm not aware of any way it is planned to be staggered! i'm caught in the same trap.

 

From 55 you can then release cash from private pensions but not from the state pension which remains at 65.

 

The restriction on being able to cash in your private pension is because of all the tax relief that was given as the pot accumalated.

 

I wouldn't worry too much because there are many things you can do to get at this money and also more relief available to you and more flexibilty following "A" day eg being able to put your house into the fund and claim tax relief on it.

 

I plan to borrow against my fund until 55 and pay back out of the 25% tax free cash drawn you can take.

Edited October 2, 2005 by wagger