While you are working you will probably be paying into a pension pot. This could be a government pension, where payments are taken automatically from your pay and it could also include a work pension where an employer pays in as well as an employee. It could also include private pensions that just you pay into. Of course, if you give up work, you can still pay into some pension pots. You have to be employed or self-employed to pay into the government pension, but you do not for other pensions schemes. However, you will need an income to cover these payments and your living expenses and without a job, you may not have access to an income like this. The longer you pay into a pension pot, the more money you will be able to get out as an income once you retire. This is why many people will not retire early, as they want the benefits of having a higher income while they are retired. Giving up work to retire will mean that you will normally have a lower income. Unless you are able to access other income such as pensions or other funds, you will be likely to have a lower income. Even if you do have access to a pension, it still may not pay you as much income as you will get from a job. It is certainly worth calculating what change to expect in your income and thinking about how you will manage on that income, both in the short term and the long term. You may have been finding that you have been managing well anyway and not spending all of your income and so already know that you will cope well, which is why you made the decision to retire early, but unless you are confident it is worth giving it some thought.
