I’d like to look into taking my pension early, maybe to semi retire but not sure where to begin…
Email your pension provider and ask them what the earliest age is that you can take it. You can also ask them for an illustration for taking it now (if that’s possible) or taking it in say 5 years time, however check with them first to see if they would charge you for such an illustration. Some allow you 1 free illustration a year and then charge for subsequent ones.
Thanks, I’ll look into that
I was a postie.
God bless our Posties - walking miles in all weathers!
I took early retirement from the NHS at 60 instead of 65. Financially it was a bit of a culture shock at first - but soon adjusted and have never regretted it.
So was I for a while - SW1
I was a postie, too … but only a Christmas temp … 
I was full time but I actually found I enjoyed it. I needed money to get back to god’s own country and as an electronics/communications technician I was being offered about £35/week as a postman I started on £50.
Christmas, the best time to be a postie. Christmas Pressure, once over the ground, job and knock…I miss that.
I loved the actual job, I left because the people I had to work with/for were complete a***holes 
After he died (he was 51) I was left with the proceeds of the 4 pensions he’d taken out during his working life, plus the firm he worked for paid me a years basic salary tax free, a Death in Service payment.
I couldn’t touch that money, if I could I would have retired years ago, so I was careful with it and tried to make it work as hard as I could without taking any risks with it. I am not averse to using the interest that money made though, my opinion is I made it work so the interest it earns is mine. I did manage to save a small amount as well.
It’s that interest and savings plus the lump sums from the my own 2 pensions that are financing my retirement. The original cash is still there, still earning interest.
If there was a problem with the house, or the dog needed expensive treatment or if I needed to replace my car I would be happy to dip into the original cash but I just can’t use it to finance me sitting on my arse when I’m still fit enough to work. That would feel…wrong, just wrong.
And really, given a choice, I’d give it all up and have him back like a shot 
You tell 'em Mags 
Hello Nice to chat to you.
I was 55 in June 2018, and took 25% of my pension pot from my employment (for the last 35 years) a nice sum that did and is still doing exactly what I wanted it to do, and also take a pension from it.
What I would say to you is ask for a statement from your pension provider most send one annually and would show you the breakdown.
If you plan to take it and want it as soon as you legally can, let them know a couple of months in advance especially if you are staying in employment as I did.
You simply fill in a form give them bank details and sit back and wait. I have to say I also re-joined my company pension scheme., and also have a small pension from previous employment which I will take at 60.
I loved it working 24 hours and had took a couple of steps backwards career wise so no stress. My mind was thinking often I could sort that but then my brain said “not your job anymore” I came in one day to find a sign on my work locker that said “what do you want to do? ask a boss who is in charge or Karen who knows”
Think my turning point was like you I worked nights for a good few years and we lost 4 people Simon 39 heart attack, Dave 59 heart attack, Liz 61 stroke and Mark last year 57 heart attack (also diabetic 1) nights is not lifestyle friendly. In my opinion.
Have fun.
Good to see you Kazz 
I would love to find a way to retire at 55. It’s just so boring looking into how the pension works. I know that I can draw at that age but I’ve not looked into the financials.
It’s really not difficult. Just email your pension provider and ask for an “illustration” for taking your pension at 55 both with a 25% lump sum and without a lump sum.
They will tell you exactly how much your pension is worth in total and what that means in terms of monthly payments.
Then you can make your decision.
They will likely send you a form to complete before they can do the illustration (think it was called an LDA form). It’s a simple form asking what other pensions you have and what their current value is etc.
Our Foxy was too, I believe.
Hi Kazz.
Reading your post there is easily the closest scenario to what I am experiencing. You took your pension at 55, worked nights and at 60 you are looking at taking another pension - as I will be from my RAF service. Like a mirror image in fact! 
I’ve been further looking at this now and it’s really going to prove very useful in clearing mine and my wife’s debts, her car paid off plus paying for mine and my wife’s funerals (in advance), a new bathroom and possibly a nice holiday too - all for a quarter of the pension (the tax free sum).
I will also be able to leave the night shift and beforehand I’ll be talking to my firm about a similar job on the day shift (though ideally I don’t want to work shifts at all anymore) Perhaps even re-training for a different role at the company.
It does make sense to stay with this company though as I’d lose all my holidays if I started again somewhere else - I’ll wait until I’m 60 to do that. We’ll see.
But as you say, we see so many people lose their health due to working nights. I’ve been on them over thirteen years now and I’m almost certain that my chest and coughing complaints are due to these unsociable hours. On my shift of 18 people most of them are or have been suffering illnesses, mostly diabetes-related, heart problems or bad backs and sciatica.
Time to get out then soon and I’m predicting at the most one more year and then it’s time to move on.
Nice post, Kazz. Thank you
Hi
Take it Floydy.
I did, it was either me or two of my employees to meet May’s cuts.
Younger, kids and a mortgage, so I took the bullet.
I took the maximum Tax Free, paid off the mortgage, downsized, gave the kids the money and so happy now.
Work the system, you can get a lower paid job, wack it into a Pension, get 20% tax relief on it, which is a huge amount, take the maximum lump sum and get another pay out tax free.
Annuities go up and down, cash in the bank is yours.
A reasonable plan Swims so long as one is able to survive on that lower paid job wage. Comes down to lifestyle choice and living within one’s means I guess.
My adage has, and will always be, make paying any debts off the first priority because debts accrue interest. Pay the debts off and you massively reduce the overall amount that you will have to pay. Same goes for a mortgage. Pay it off as soon as humanly possible as it can knock tens of thousands of pounds off the total repayable amount.
There’s an interesting debate to be had about whether it is better to sit with debts and pay into a pension, or whether it is better to temporarily stop paying into a pension and instead use the available money to pay off the debts.
In the first scenario, running with debts and/or mortgages, you are accruing lots of interest payments making the total repayable amount much higher than it otherwise would be. In the case of a mortgage the difference in interest paid and total repayment amount is staggering. Pay an extra £100 a month off your mortgage and you could save a stonking amount on the total loan and see the mortgage paid off years earlier.
In the second scenario, you put all available monies into paying off the debts and mortgage instead of paying into the pension pot. So your eventual pension amount is less than it otherwise would be but you’ve saved a collossal amount of money paying the debts/mortgage down.
You’re only getting 20% tax relief on the first £2,880 paid into your pension. The amounts you save by paying down more towards a mortgage is surely phenomenally better no?
Interested to hear yours and others thoughts on the debt vs pension equation.
Double check on your tax free entitlement, mine was 33% unknown to me.
I took mine out back in 2013,taking the 25% then reinvesting the rest into a private pot,that were the rules at the time.At the end of last year I received a letter from the then pension provider to get in contact,about being owed some money,which I duly did,it turns out they paid out the 25% which was a mistake after doing some calculations they then paid me another 8% tax free of the original fund,not even my financial advisor at the time knew of this.The 33% was set up by the pension provider.