When can we retire?
At first, retirement meant 67 because, well, that was when retirement happened. Once the spreadsheets showed earlier might be possible, I explored 60. Mathematically interesting. Personally incomplete.
Karen is two years younger. I could not picture calling myself retired while she was still getting up for work every morning. Our pensions are individual. Our retirement is not.
Why the earliest date was seductive
A spreadsheet naturally hunts for the earliest date that works. That is useful, but it can quietly turn retirement into a finish line rather than a life we are entering together.
It also encourages false precision. A date can be feasible in a spreadsheet and still be wrong for the people living it.
What the date had to satisfy
We tested mortgage timing, pension access, ISA building, the start of Karen’s teacher pension, the gaps before both State Pensions and our desired spending pattern. We also asked what we wanted the first decade to contain: travel, weekends away, family, running, golf, fishing, gardening and enough freedom to enjoy good health while we have it.
The date had to work financially, but it also had to feel like the start of the same act for both of us.
Why March 2035 fits
I will be 62. Karen will be 60. The mortgage should already be gone. The former mortgage cashflow should have spent more than six years building ISAs. Karen’s pension can begin and our other pots can bridge the years before State Pensions.
So March 2035 became the working retirement date. Not the earliest imaginable date. Not the cleverest-looking date. The one that best fits the household plan we are actually trying to fund.
The answer we can explain
Mortgage gone before retirement. Redirect the freed cash into ISAs. Retire together in 2035. Use pension and ISA deliberately in the early years. Add the annuity when it has a defined job. Let State Pensions take over more of the load later. Spend more while active, less later, and keep a flexible buffer.
Spreadsheets and websites can get you a long way — but you have to keep coming back to one question: what’s important to us?
It reflects our ages, pensions, mortgage, tax position, priorities and assumptions. The useful bit is the questions we asked—not copying our answer.
Official information we checked
Rules change. These links are for checking the underlying rules rather than treating our experience as guidance.