Prestigious cars or retire early

facade wrote: »

I used to think like this, and worked hard to put money aside "for my retirement". Now I think I'd rather find a way to live cheaply and do without all those "rewards" I promise myself for working hard by simply not working hard any more.

Personally, i dont "work hard" - far from it if truth be told - but fortunately get well paid for it.

I used to knock my !!!!!!!! in, but i knocked that on the head when i turned 40.

I've fortunately found a niche whereby i can add value to the organisations i engage with, not have to work terribly hard to do so and get well paid for it.

facade wrote: »

There's not much point in dropping dead shortly after you retire, or worse before you even get there, because you kept on and on working.

Conversely :-

(a) theres not much point in retiring and eking out an existence until you die.
(b) you might not make it to retirement even if you plan to retire early.

motorguy wrote: »

Am i reading this right? You're saying retire with nothing and let other people - presumably the state - support you? Is that not what all the dole heads down the dole office have done then?

I mean to use my savings to survive rather than keep a "nest egg" that the state will seize if I need care.

And as for the "dole heads" who have never done a days work in their life, have lived with a higher disposable income than me and will get a full state pension, (whereas I won't because I was contacted out, yet still paid a fortune above the threshold for a full pension)- I wish I'd had the sense to join them when I left school, my biggest mistake was to get a job in the first place. :rotfl:

The difference between an OK retirement and a great long retirement that gives you the cash to do everything you would of missed out on would require a pension pot in the millions. Regardless of how much you save in your short working life that well beyond the means of the majority. Except those still able to retire on gold plated pensions (thinking of civil service and higher management) or those who got lucky with particular investments.

So you tend to see those who have lived an austere and boring life to save for a better retirement still end up having an austere and boring retirement anyway (just a bit more comfortable than those who didnt and a bit longer). Frankly i would rather spend my money enjoying the life i have while i am young enough to enjoy it and have the money to enjoy it and keep my boring austere years short.

Think I must be the only person who genuinely doesn't intend to retire, just don't see the appeal in it. I'm only 30 atm so might change but I quite like my current job and I'm currently studying towards a degree in a field I've been interested in my whole life, so if I'm lucky enough to get a job in that I'll happily work forever.

Both my granddad's worked into their 80s (one passed at 89, the other at 90) and both were physically and mentally as strong as you could be at that age. I think working while older helps give some people a purpose and helps keep them sharp.

One thing I absolutely don't understand is why people want to wait to go travelling. I've been with my wife 7 years overall, first 4 were spent saving for a house and a wedding. The thought of scrimping and saving for another 20 years before being able to enjoy ourselves scared the hell out of us so we said sod it were going on holidays now and have been abroad 10 times since.

That's led to some crazy memories over the last 3 years. Like renting a scooter in Thailand and getting utterly lost, (we left the hotel at 7am that day and got back at half 10ish) which led to finding a monument with the most spectacular views I've ever seen, before eventually being rescued by a nice guy from a random house we stopped at, who despite not speaking a lick of English and my Thai being limited to "hello", "thank you" and "lightning", led us back to a road where we knew how to get back to the hotel from.

Or renting a boat and finding a pristine and totally isolated beach in a cove of a little island in ibiza, before getting the boat stuck on rocks (managed to wiggle it off after about an hour of trying) and then almost capsizing the thing when we chased after a ferry so we could try jumping its wake.

Or going to Amsterdam for new year's eve and stopping for a quick drink in bar in the red light district, which led to us skipping our pre-booked meal and the nye event we'd paid €40 each for and partying in there till 7am with people, quite literally, from all over the world (U.K., USA, Poland, India, Morocco, Germany, Norway, Italy, Kuwait are the ones I can remember).

I doubt very much if we'd waited till 50 any of that would appeal to us or that we'd be stupid enough to do it but I can guarantee when I get to 50 I'll look back on those trips, laugh and think I can't believe I actually did that but thank my lucky stars I did.

Seize the day, live a little, **** the future etc etc.