Early-retirement wannabe

westv

38 years working here so far.

Spreadsheetman

Marine_life wrote: »

Oh really!

Good to know - thanks.

Yes, it's really off-putting.

The lime green font colour on buttons and links makes them hard to see too against a white background.

jamesperrett

Congratulations on finally going for it.

I'm not far behind - only 27 working days to go after nearly 37 years for the same employer.

Marine_life

bugslet wrote: »

I have earmarked 31 12 2019, could probably go now.

What's stopping you?

bugslet

Marine_life wrote: »

What's stopping you?

1. The easiest, I need to have a discussion with my accountant to understand better the financial options if I were to wind the firm up. I can do a reasonably accurate guess on sale of assets and ditto on what is left on the books - fortunately we are nicely solvent. I need to work out what the impact of paying redundancy would be.

Very broadly speaking I have 350k savedin the business. By this time next year if I stay in work, a similar amount in a pension. I get the enhanced state pension at 67 of £175.00 p.w. I'm 53 now.

Then the unknown quantity of what is left out of work, which bit of a conservative finger in the air, before tax and redundancy payments, would be around 400-450k, out of which that 350k would have to come. The tax liabilities would give the accountant something to consider.;)


2. There are contractual reasons why I couldn't sell the business now - those may change early next year. A sale is preferable to just walking away from both a tax postion and staff TUPEing over.

3. Some of my staff are into their third decade with me and a lot in the second decade. We're a small firm, there's an emotional connection with them - yes, I am a softie:o

4. I have to make all these decisions myself. I'm used to doing that, but it's nice to bounce an idea around with someone who is equally impacted by it. I'm sure having Lady ML to mull things over with was useful. The social aspect of work doesn't affect me as I only see one of my staff really. The rest are out all day.

5. I'm not that hacked off with work yet, but it's probably not too far off.

Sorry you asked now, aren't you!

Techno

My first day of semi-retirement :j:j I am on 'school holidays' until the 1st September so still getting paid as a full timer then 2 days per week in work, 1 day per week in college doing an NVQ in cooking and food prep and 4 days off per week :D:D:D

Spreadsheetman

bugslet wrote: »

1. The easiest, I need to have a discussion with my accountant to understand better the financial options if I were to wind the firm up. I can do a reasonably accurate guess on sale of assets and ditto on what is left on the books - fortunately we are nicely solvent. I need to work out what the impact of paying redundancy would be.

Very broadly speaking I have 350k savedin the business. By this time next year if I stay in work, a similar amount in a pension. I get the enhanced state pension at 67 of £175.00 p.w. I'm 53 now.

Then the unknown quantity of what is left out of work, which bit of a conservative finger in the air, before tax and redundancy payments, would be around 400-450k, out of which that 350k would have to come. The tax liabilities would give the accountant something to consider.;)


2. There are contractual reasons why I couldn't sell the business now - those may change early next year. A sale is preferable to just walking away from both a tax postion and staff TUPEing over.

3. Some of my staff are into their third decade with me and a lot in the second decade. We're a small firm, there's an emotional connection with them - yes, I am a softie:o

4. I have to make all these decisions myself. I'm used to doing that, but it's nice to bounce an idea around with someone who is equally impacted by it. I'm sure having Lady ML to mull things over with was useful. The social aspect of work doesn't affect me as I only see one of my staff really. The rest are out all day.

5. I'm not that hacked off with work yet, but it's probably not too far off.

Sorry you asked now, aren't you!

Interesting. I managed to successfully merge my company with a much larger one a few years ago.

There were several good business reasons for this, but also the personal one that ER would be much, much easier if I were a smaller fish in a bigger pond. It's getting close now and will happen with minimal business disruption. They might not even notice I've gone if I'm quiet about it

Marine_life

Spreadsheetman wrote: »

The lime green font colour on buttons and links makes them hard to see too against a white background.

I've changed what some of the buttons do and added a blog link on the "about us" page. I kinda like the lime green so I will live with it for a while.

bugslet

Spreadsheetman wrote: »

Interesting. I managed to successfully merge my company with a much larger one a few years ago.

There were several good business reasons for this, but also the personal one that ER would be much, much easier if I were a smaller fish in a bigger pond. It's getting close now and will happen with minimal business disruption. They might not even notice I've gone if I'm quiet about it

I nearly did a Joint Venture a while back, but the other larger party were adding us on as a complementary side to their business rather than us being their core business. It soon became evident that they had unrealistic expectations.

I also had an offer to purchase us last year and as I said for contractual reasons, it would be better to wait till early next year before pursuing that.

Good luck with your plans.

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

I've changed what some of the buttons do and added a blog link on the "about us" page. I kinda like the lime green so I will live with it for a while.

There seem to be holes in your trip report, but will enjoy your blog.

Even if I dont go such cold places on holiday. Where I live is cold enough in winter (was 50s the other day- in july) so I dont go places like Norway or Alaska lol.