![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_292547608.jpg\")
Adrian and his team achieving the world record for 4 x 800m in Nuneaton for the M55 category. They hold the outdoor and indoor record<\/p>\nAdrian Haines retired at 53 and now spends his days training and competing in athletics tournaments, enjoying what he calls \u201ca simple life\u201d. <\/p>\n
The 58-year-old from Crawley was a lead material supplier in engineering for 38 years before deciding to retire in July 2022, something he is able to do as he has saved into a pension since he was 18. <\/p>\n
The \u00a320,000 he draws down each year is more than enough, he says. <\/p>\n
It was personal circumstances that made Adrian consider early retirement. He was signed off from work for a number of months after developing long Covid and also lost his wife in 2020.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI didn\u2019t completely plan it but I went back to work [after being off from long Covid] and I lasted two weeks. I saw my health deteriorating again and I quit on the spot and I haven\u2019t looked back. I live a simple life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Adrian began saving into his workplace defined benefit (DB) pension \u2013 a type of pension that gives you an annual guaranteed income for life in retirement \u2013 when he turned 18, and didn\u2019t think too much about it as it came out of his wages each month.<\/p>\n
He estimates when he first started working he was putting in about \u00a315 a week into his pension and this figure grew as his earnings did.<\/p>\n
In the last five years leading to retirement, Adrian was told about the tax efficiency of putting large sums of money into his pension and began ploughing \u00a3100 to \u00a3150 per week into his pot.<\/p>\n
Then, in 2021, Adrian converted this into a defined contribution (DC) pension following his wife\u2019s passing. This type of pension gives you a pot of money which you can draw cash from flexibly, and Adrian draws down \u00a320,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Generally, DB schemes are more generous than DC schemes so it is often not worth converting them, but there were specific circumstances which Adrian thought made it worth doing in his case.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cMy final salary pension had a spousal element but after my wife passed, I thought I am on my own, so what\u2019s the point of having a spouse scheme if you have no spouse?\u201d <\/p>\n
When a person dies, if they had a DB pension most schemes continue to pay a certain amount to the surviving spouse, civil partner or dependents when they die, which is what Adrian\u2019s pension had.<\/p>\n
How to transfer a DB pension to DC \u2013 and whether it\u2019s worth it<\/p>\n
To transfer a DB pension to a DC, you first must get a transfer value (CETV), which tells you the cash equivalent of your DB pension benefits if you were to transfer.<\/p>\n
It is important to note when you transfer from a DB to a DC you are no longer getting a guaranteed income for life and are instead moving your money into an invested pot of cash.<\/p>\n
The value of your DC pot can go up or down depending on market conditions and it\u2019s finite. It could run out, unlike a DB pension, which generally continues paying out until you die.<\/p>\n
If the value of your DB pension is more than \u00a330,000 you must, by law, get advice from a regulated financial adviser to do a transfer. This is to make sure you\u2019re aware of the risks of transferring.<\/p>\n
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon said: \u201cThe main reason that people choose to transfer their DB pension into a DC pension pot is to give more flexibility in how and when to take their pension. DB pensions provide a fixed income for life which usually increases in line with inflation, and is payable from a set date, although it\u2019s possible for it to be paid earlier or later than this. <\/p>\n
\u201cDC pensions give much more flexibility, allowing people to choose to take a regular income or lump sums from age 55-57 from April 2027 \u2013 and they can vary the amount they withdraw. If they have multiple sources of income this flexibility gives more control over their total taxable income to avoid crossing a tax threshold.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose in poor health or with limited life expectancy is another common reason to consider a DB to DC transfer, as individuals can withdraw the money now to benefit from it immediately or pass it on to loved ones. Others may have multiple sources of income, so may not need to rely on a DB income.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian says his outgoings are minimal and does not want expensive things.<\/p>\n
He says: \u201cI haven\u2019t got a mortgage, apart from my athletics and buying a bit of gear and going into competitions I don\u2019t really spend a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to eat good food from supermarkets, but I\u2019m not a spender. I don\u2019t need to go to the shops and buy the latest gear. I pay my bills and run a car and my youngest son, who is 21, still lives with me, but the \u00a320,000 I draw down is more than enough and any excess I put into savings. If my children need help I can dip into my pot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI feel that a lot of people think they\u2019re not prepared to take the plunge and retire because they\u2019re too worried about the finances, and obviously it depends on your outgoings and how you want to live. But I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s easily manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n
After retiring, Adrian was able to focus more on his middle-distance running and regularly competes in athletics competitions.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI am an 800-metre and 1,500-metre runner and have been doing it for 18 years. When I retired, I became a full-time athlete. I compete in Masters Athletics, European championships, World championships and British championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian and his team achieving the world record for 4 x 800m in Nuneaton for the M55 category. They hold the outdoor and indoor record<\/p>\n
This winter, Adrian went altitude training in South Africa and beach training in Goa and says he enjoys the social aspect of competing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an incredibly positive vibe, which you don\u2019t necessarily experience in day-to-day living. You\u2019ve got the social aspect as well, you\u2019re meeting up with people that you haven\u2019t seen for a year or so. I\u2019ve won medals at the Europeans and the Worlds. I train hard and I love it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Adrian will be going to the Golden Spike in June, a world-renowned athletics competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetiring early was the best decision I ever made. I live off a moderate lump sum pension and enjoy a simple life. But living the life with lots of exercise, travel and healthy eating,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Haines retired at 53 and now spends his days training and competing in athletics tournaments, enjoying what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[49288,84,4176,4178,4174,4175,4204,56,54,55,183653],"class_list":{"0":"post-530264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-pensions","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-retirement","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-world-athletics-championships"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}