Another week rushes past - towards retirement!

I hope the speed at which life rushes past is an indicator that I am enjoying life. I am but I wouldnt mind if it lasted a while!

And so to further remind me that I am rushing towards old age at a rate of knots my pension statement arrived this week.  My statement tells me how much I would get for my company pension if I left the business now and then retired at 65. It also gives you the amount you can expect if you stay in the current position until 65.  I also emailed the pension company and asked for some idea of what I would get if i left at 60.

Its unlikely to go up any more because I am pretty much at the top of my tree, except for director and that's not for me.  To get a payrise, other than the standard annual little rise which we occasional get, my job would have to change considerably

I haven't decided on when to retire yet but i thought it might be handy to share the process which used to help my decision making.

I took my current monthly budget and removed any payments which I wont have when I retire, like kids mobile phones, mortgage, second car costs.

I created three columns each with the same costs and then subbed in the income figures from:

Retire @ 60 and take full pension
Retire @ 60 and take a lump sum of £100k and reduced pension
Retire @ 60 but this is the amount of state pension and company pension I would get at 67
Retire @ 65 and take full pension
Retire @ 65 and take a lump sum of £100k and reduced pension
Retire @ 65 but this is the amount of state pension and company pension I would get at 67

Oh dear, so many possibilities. My current thought is play it by ear. I can certainly manage at sixty but I am far more in the jam at 65.

Maybe plan some additional income to add into the mix will make it easier.
I also need to remember that I very much like my job, my company is super flexible (so I have a month off at the end of the summer & work from home one day a week) and I work for an organisation that houses people and provides car and support services, so heavy on the feelgood factor. So its not like I am barking on the exit door.

So much to think about but I like it all set out in a spreadsheet