Early-retirement wannabe

justme111

You are explaining why you don't retire completely. The question I asked was completely different.
So you will be able to do as good a job in 3 days as you would in 5?

nearlyrich

In keeping with the original thread I have just left my FT job last week, my plan was to stop working at 55 and I made it with 10 days to spare.

jamesd

nearlyrich wrote: »

In keeping with the original thread I have just left my FT job last week, my plan was to stop working at 55 and I made it with 10 days to spare.

Congratulations!

Marine_life wrote: »

After months (and some might say years) of pontificating I've taken a major step and begun negotiations on moving to a part-time contract. ... but I guess that at 51 I am still not psychologically ready to take such a big leap in one go.

Nothing really wrong with that, even if it's a delay of sorts. If you're enjoying it or gaining from it enough it's fine. After all, some people choose to work until they die of old age and are happy with that choice while doing it.

Marine_life wrote: »

The thinking behind the 70% is that it effectively means a four day week followed by a three day week with the idea being that every other weekend will be a four days off

I think that's a pretty good part way step. Though it does seem that you could get lots of five day weekends out of it if you wanted to, by having three days at the start of one week and four at the end of the next. Might be a bit of a challenge for colleagues to keep up with where you were in the fortnightly schedule, or for you if you didn't want varying weekend durations.

Marine_life wrote: »

I'm fancying buying a camper van at the moment

I've been pondering RV'ing in the US but that first requires half a million Dollars invested to get the relevant investor visa and legal permanent residence, unless I want to buy and put into storage a lot of the time and maintain two homes, or spend much of the year outside the US. Having the funds to do this if I want to is my excuse for still working. That and a job that I generally find good to fine.

Marine_life wrote: »

I could have asked to spend more days working from home (and that is one of the options I discussed) but i think that might have make me feel like a fraud ... One thing i am not worried about is whether I will be able to do a good job.

Trust and actually working can be issues but things like having to be online in a virtual workplace can help with that, if the company is truly set up to have lots of people doing it. One of my places ended up with an article in Fortune some years back due to its successful use of worldwide remote workers. In one way or another I've been doing the work at home thing full time for around fifteen years now. One thing you can't beat is the commute...

jamesd

atush wrote: »

if they lasted a long time. Which they dont (not even twice an incandescent in my experience). Add in the lack of decent 60-100w equivs

I've definitely had more failures than I'd expect given lifetime claims. But then I roughly understand the failure curves so know some will be expected to fail early. Still more than I like and should expect given the claims and even my dozen plus hours a day use level. Even so, for me I think I've been getting enough use out of them on average to be well in profit.

atush wrote: »

the lack of good frosted candle shaped (to fit the 10+ light fixtures I have that take them )

I have some but never use them, so no experience there because the incandescents haven't failed over the last ten years at my use rate. I'd just replace with LEDs if I was using them, even standards size if those would fit the fixtures, ignoring the cosmetics, but that's me. Everything I actually use is now LED or some compact fluorescents that haven't failed or dropped too much in light output yet.

Some frosted candle LEDs are available but I've no idea about reliability or light output and their costs aren't pleasant for the quantities involved at modest usage levels.

westv

justme111 wrote: »

You are explaining why you don't retire completely. The question I asked was completely different.
So you will be able to do as good a job in 3 days as you would in 5?

You aren't his boss, are you?

gallygirl

nearlyrich wrote: »

In keeping with the original thread I have just left my FT job last week, my plan was to stop working at 55 and I made it with 10 days to spare.

Fantastic,and it seems summer has eventually arrived so enjoy :T. PS - how did you enjoy Sunday night ?

Wednesday2000

nearlyrich wrote: »

In keeping with the original thread I have just left my FT job last week, my plan was to stop working at 55 and I made it with 10 days to spare.

:T Well done!

atush

jamesd wrote: »

I've definitely had more failures than I'd expect given lifetime claims. But then I roughly understand the failure curves so know some will be expected to fail early. Still more than I like and should expect given the claims and even my dozen plus hours a day use level. Even so, for me I think I've been getting enough use out of them on average to be well in profit.

I have some but never use them, so no experience there because the incandescents haven't failed over the last ten years at my use rate. I'd just replace with LEDs if I was using them, even standards size if those would fit the fixtures, ignoring the cosmetics, but that's me. Everything I actually use is now LED or some compact fluorescents that haven't failed or dropped too much in light output yet.

Some frosted candle LEDs are available but I've no idea about reliability or light output and their costs aren't pleasant for the quantities involved at modest usage levels.

Not seen a single frosted LED candle, let me know what shops you see them in?

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

Its relatively simple.

I'm not sure that I am ready to retire fully - despite what some might say, 51 seems quite young to step out completely. Of course there will always be the fatalists who say "you could get run over by a bus tomorrow" but with average life expectancy I could have another 30-40 years left i.e. more time than I've been working.

Secondly in an era of historically low returns I want the money!

I could have asked to spend more days working from home (and that is one of the options I discussed) but i think that might have make me feel like a fraud so this feels like the more honest option. There are some other complexities that I will now have to deal with so lets see how sustainable the situation is.

One thing i am not worried about is whether I will be able to do a good job.

Your going part time seems an excellent first step. Let us know how you get on.

gadgetmind

atush wrote: »

There are some lower watt LED candles but they hurt the eyes if they are strong enough as they dont do them frosted.

I'm about to start experimenting as we have 50+ candle bulbs to replace. I'm tempted to try some of the mock filament style ones.

Tell me where you buy and i'll make a pit stop when I am across.

I buy a lot online from Simply LED but also get EverLED and others from Amazon. There is some real junk coming in from China, some of it downright dangerous.

This brave new world of lights costs me more money. To not any better effect. And my electric bills havent gone down.

Replacing the 750 watts of incandescent/halogen in our kitchen with 70 watts of LEDs paid for itself in the first 6 months. The lighting is also far more pleasant.

I've even gone 100% LED on my five aquariums!