55 retirement?

[comeracing]

Hi after some figures please,this pension jargon not easily understandable,and this probably been asked in the past,but wandering if anyone on here has recently retired and took there pension at the age of 55, ive made pension contributions from summer 1996, and i reach 55 in another 5 years,im just after some figures to work on please .

[rambo1]

Not sure on your specific numbers, but your normal retirement age 60 part of your pension will be reduced by 5%/yr ,so 25% and the NRA 65 part (from2008) will be reduced by 50% .
Maybe bump this thread to the pension section. Robert t is a pension whizz on there. He should sort you out but in short you'll be taking a very big hit of your total pension by taking it at 55 (balanced somewhat by the fact that you will of course be actually getting that reduced amount for 5 and 10 yrs longer respectively. Hope this helps.

[RobertT]

Hi after some figures please,this pension jargon not easily understandable,and this probably been asked in the past,but wandering if anyone on here has recently retired and took there pension at the age of 55, ive made pension contributions from summer 1996, and i reach 55 in another 5 years,im just after some figures to work on please .

The figures will be specific to you based on your hours of work and pensionable pay.

Everything you need to know will have been on the two pension statements you should have got not too long ago.

Each of them will have Age60 and Age65 figures on them. Simply add the Age60 numbers up to give you what you'll get at 60 and the Age65 numbers for 65.

Then take off 5% for each year you plan to take your pension before those ages. As Rambo1 correctly says, if you want to take everything at 55, your Age60 benefits will go down by 25% and your Age65 benefits by 50%.

As someone who's actively planning on leaving RM and retiring at a similar age, I would strongly recommend you start saving like mad, unless you already are.
Pensions are a great way to save due to the tax breaks available. Each £1 you pay into a personal pension only costs 80p, while each £1 going into AVC's only costs 68p.

Also worth noting is the new CDC pension isn't expected to start until the latter part of 2022 at the earliest and maybe into 2023, so in the meantime you'll be building up more lump sum via the DBCBS.