u/LowHighlight4015

Hi all, I’m looking for advice on how to approach financial independence with a defined benefit pension, specifically around how best to bridge the gap before I can access it.

My goal is FI rather than full early retirement. My DB pension will form the core of retirement income, so the main challenge is building enough accessible assets (primarily ISAs) to bridge the period before I can draw it, or deciding whether it makes sense to draw it early with actuarial reduction.

I work in education and, in an ideal scenario, would like to step back in my late 50s. That could be through partial retirement (taking part of the pension early) and/or moving into a lower-stress, lower-paid role while drawing down investments.

Context:

• Age: 33

• Salary: ~65k

• DB pension: 1/57th accrual annually, has ~10k/year accrued so far

• S&S S&P 500 ISA: ~3.5k (early stages - my approach had been to save any remaining monthly funds into here as was mostly saving for many life events, which are now done, and then anything spare went in here)

• LISA: ~7k (have been adding a £100 a month to this for a few years but open to moving it to the S&S ISA or elsewhere instead)

• Emergency fund: ~9.5k

• Married with child

• Large mortgage: ~500k remaining

• Spending (rough but working estimate): ~£2k month/£24k a year (this is going to increase in the short term due to childcare costs but for the sake of argument, let's say spending ~£3k/£36k a year as a late 50s planning number

• Current investing: moving forward want to work with ~£6/700 a month (roughly 15% of monthly salary)

My questions:

• for someone in my position, should I prioritise ISA contributions almost exclusively or split with LISA/mortgage overpayments?

• how do people with DB pensions typically bridge a 10-15 year gap? is it mainly ISA drawdown or mix in with early pension?

• has anyone used a phased retirement approach with a DB scheme? how viable was stepping down to a significantly lower paid role? is it better to reduce hours instead?

• actuarial reduction (this is something I am not clear on at all) - how do people decide whether it is worth it vs bridging longer with an ISA?

• if aiming to step down in mid to late 50s, what sort of ISA pot would you want to feel comfortable bridging with?

I’m conscious most of my wealth will sit inside the DB pension, so I want to make sure I’m building enough flexibility alongside it and not locking myself into taking it too early unnecessarily.

Thanks in advance for all of your comments and advice. I've learnt a lot from this sub but I am still in the nascent stages of my learning. I appreciate you all educating me further.