Early-retirement wannabe

Marine_life

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I'm just wondering - have you ever thought about a phased retirement. Maybe drop to three days work a week, before you stop work completely

I wish that were an option but I have never seen anyone do that successfully. In the past we have had young mothers do a job share but frankly it was an unmitigated disaster. In other cases people have dropped to four days a week but end up working extra hard to make up for the day they are missing!

Nevertheless I am now only 62 days away from my earliest resignation date and am looking forward to that liberating feeling. There are some big changes coming in our life which could materially move the game on.

.....watch this space.

JasonPr

GingerFurball wrote: »

13% is the maximum I'll get in employer contributions. But the way I look at it, 18% of my salary plus tax relief is a pretty good start particularly as it's only costing me 5%.

13% is excellent. I get 6% and I believe that's considered pretty good. My colleagues in the US (same company) get 4%.

jamesd

madeinireland wrote: »

I absolutely hate my job and its incredibly stressful. I was close to taking voluntary redundancy a couple weeks ago but now I'm going to soldier on for another year or so - I blame Jamesd :-) who has tempted me to stay on with a plan to solidify my financial position by recouping any 40% tax I pay over the next couple of years.

LOL. Should I take a bow? Or maybe you'll curse me every day for the next year?

madeinireland wrote: »

I am counting the days to retirement and I will have no problem with that and will not miss the job one bit.

I'm not counting the days but I am thinking that it'd be nice to be gone and thinking about just leaving more often, regardless of whether I can afford to or not. I'm probably not going to look for another job after this one, however I end up leaving it, so I'd best be sure I keep diligently working at getting myself to the point where I can be comfortable.

cattermole

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I've never come across that attitude


In my observations, the general attitude to the early retired is of admiration, being pleased for the early retiree, mixed with a bit of jealously.


I'm just wondering - have you ever thought about a phased retirement.


Maybe drop to three days work a week, before you stop work completely


I've got the feeling that you find the 'how to fill my days' thing slightly stressful. At least by reducing the work gradually, you can ease yourself into the different way of life.


Incidentally, I work two days a week, and I have no problem filling the other five days. But I imagine my life is a bit different to yours. I'm not sure you'd feel that housework, cooking (for pleasure, not just essentials), working on my eBay business, doing jigsaws, reading, working on my family tree, going out for walks and days out, is what you are looking for from life,

Sounds great I think being able to do flexible retirement is a massive help and I'm really hoping it will work out for us. It bridges the gap between getting the State Pension as well which is going up and up what seems like daily!

It does depend a lot on the employer though and the job you do and how willing they are to accommodate or how easy it is to find another job.

My next door neighbour took early retirement at 55 and he sits all day in the house, watching day time TV and he's a miserable sod to boot His wife is much younger and goes out at 8am and comes back at 8pm.

My OH can't wait to spend more time on his hobbies and us spending more quality time together while we still can.

atush

GingerFurball wrote: »

Haha, that's all being looked at once my debts are paid off.

13% is the maximum I'll get in employer contributions. But the way I look at it, 18% of my salary plus tax relief is a pretty good start particularly as it's only costing me 5%.

A few of the people I work with have opted out, which I think is crazy.

Yes, they are crazy flushing all the Free Money down the toilet.

Freecall

Marine_life wrote: »

There are some big changes coming in our life which could materially move the game on.

.....watch this space.

Well Marine Life, this couldn't be the pitter-patter of little fins or flippers could it?

We will await with bated breath.

:beer:

115K

Goldiegirl wrote: »

In my observations, the general attitude to the early retired is of admiration, being pleased for the early retiree, mixed with a bit of jealously.

Yes, I think it is jealousy and the thought that if people made different choices they could have retired early or be set to retire early.

I wish I had started saving a lot earlier in life.:D

Marine_life

Freecall wrote: »

Well Marine Life, this couldn't be the pitter-patter of little fins or flippers could it?

We will await with bated breath.

:beer:

Given that my wife is 51 and things have moved on (if you get my meaning ) that would be a medical miracle.

tell_it_how_it_is

Marine_life wrote: »

Given that my wife is 51 and things have moved on (if you get my meaning ) that would be a medical miracle.

He/she didn't mention your wife!

petepool

Hi all
arrived at this thread a few months ago from an early retirement blog and found the discussion very helpful so that to all who shared. So in that spirit....

Current situation
Packed my job in a few months ago aged 48, my wife plans to do the same later this year. Looking to spend savings until we can take pensions at 55. I enjoyed some of the work and people but the commute, working hours and office politics were driving me mad. Currently refining how much we'll need post work and organising savings to provide that.
One child has left home the other has returned from Uni.

How did we get here?
We earned good salaries ~£130k joint for the last couple of years but when I got promoted during my 30s we decided not to move house but pay off the mortage using an offset mortage. Once this was done the extra when into ISAs/pensions. I always used company SAYE, share save schemes to the max.
I took redundancy from a large corporate 5 years ago and was able to pick up contract work since then so didn't spend the redundancy check.My wife has continued to work in the public sector.

This leaves us now with £250k in ISA, cash, Money purchase pension pots of ~£550k and final salary pensions of £24k pa. (at 55).

Whats our number?
Current tracking , since I stopped work, suggests we spend about £36k a year so I'm working on having £40k pa to allow for holidays, !!!! ups in my spreadsheets etc. Note we spend (wasted) much more than when we were both working e.g. M&S ready meals or takeaways on the way home now I cook from fresh most evenings

That's the factual stuff. I can honestly say I feel much better not working I've been focussing on several projects we wanted to do round the house but found difficult to fit in when were both working full time and just enjoying having the time to explore the local area, see family, friends etc.

Anyway I hope this helps as much as reading others experiences did me.