Four working days to go before early retirement! How did you feel at this stage?

JohnB47

jim8888 wrote: »

I walked into the office three days ago, was sat down by my boss and told "There's no longer a position for you". I've just turned fifty one and have worked solidly building my career since 1986. Incredibly, almost thirty years.
I must have known it was coming as I've been reading Early Retirement Extreme and Mr Money Moustache websites for about the last three years and fantasising about living the kind of life that they espoused, with the freedom every day to do as you pleased.
I'm extremely lucky in that I'm pretty financially secure because I've been a saver and investor for a long time (thanks mostly to The Motley Fool website!) But I just cannot get my head around the fact that I could now actually retire.
I've spent the last few days in a mild state of euphoria, working on financial projections and pinching myself, unable to believe that I might never have to work again. Can I actually handle that? Can I actually believe it?
Tomorrow morning I'll wake up, jump on my bike and cycle down to the bBannatynes gym past all the cars queuing on the ring road on their way to the office. I'll have a swim, a cup of coffee in the cafe and a read of the paper. Back home, potter around, maybe tidy the garden up. Then I’ll take my wife to lunch and do some cooking in the afternoon before heading to the pub for a few evening pints with my mates. I'll not be telling them what's happened this week though, because I'm a bit scared it's all a dream!

Good luck in your next phase of life. It's your choice now, of course, what you do. Fully retire, go part time, change career? Either way, bear in mind that there'll be a period of adjustment, not always smooth. I remember that I became manic in my spreadsheet calculations on whether I could survive retirement on my company pension. I soon went part time, still am, and all has been well. No need to have fretted.

Take it easy for a few months until you get used to your new situation.

mgdavid

Hey let me be first to say 'congrats'.
I never met anyone yet who said 'I wish I'd have stayed at work longer'.

coyrls

enator wrote: »

Got an email this evening confirming acceptance of my VR. This could be retirement...

:beer: :j

I haven't heard yet (pretty convinced we have the same employer). Could be back to Plan A for me.

kangoora

coyrls wrote: »

I haven't heard yet (pretty convinced we have the same employer). Could be back to Plan A for me.

Does it begin with a B and end with a T?

coyrls

kangoora wrote: »

Does it begin with a B and end with a T?

No and I don't think I can reveal the name as it's been made very clear that it must remain confidential. I dare say it will be in the news at some point. It does seem like there's a bit of a cull going on in IT companies in general, based on the posts here.

atush

Perhaps a previous cull of IT workers is behind the failure of the UK air traffic control at swannick?

kangoora

coyrls wrote: »

No and I don't think I can reveal the name as it's been made very clear that it must remain confidential. I dare say it will be in the news at some point. It does seem like there's a bit of a cull going on in IT companies in general, based on the posts here.

Off topic, but I'm starting to believe UK (and USA) based IT companies are not going to be happy until 50-75% of their employees are based in India. We've just had another cull in another area, staff are being 75% replaced by sub-contract Indian staff.

I am almost physically dreading having to deal with a bunch of scripted jobsworths, 80% of whom speak barely legible English (there are some good ones, no doubt, I have an extremely good engineer working for me at the moment).

Still, at least the board, senior executives and VPs can make their insane annual bonuses for throwing UK employees on the scrap heap and the shareholders will no doubt be pleased with reduced costs in the business. I doubt the UK government will be happy at losing all that tax and NI income and potentially paying out unemployment benefits etc...........

I'm just glad I'm not that many years from retirement and hopefully I can cling on for another 5-6 years. Luckily I'm in a customer facing role with direct client contact so it may be OK.......

Bitter, moi........

Dunnit

No different to steel, coal and mining then? Jobs for life went 25 years ago.

gadgetmind

kangoora wrote: »

Off topic, but I'm starting to believe UK (and USA) based IT companies are not going to be happy until 50-75% of their employees are based in India.

The case isn't quite so clear cut for UK companies, but it's a no-brainer for any technology companies on the US West Coast where engineering graduate starting salaries are $80k - $100k, and experienced people can easy get $150k to $200k, or more. Similar figures for the UK are half that, which makes the decision harder.

But you don't have to go to India, where salaries are creeping up. Many countries in Eastern Europe have a great education system, a surplus of engineers, but few home-grown technology companies. We use a subcontracting company in Serbia and I've just made a job offer to someone in the Czech Republic.

Note that it's not really just a salary issue as finding good engineers is hard in the US and UK but much easier elsewhere. The most recent project that I had to get moving in a hurry is now across three continents, with Western Europe and the USA not featuring!

So saying, the bulk of our really key development is still in the US and UK.

EdGasket

jim8888 wrote: »

I walked into the office three days ago, was sat down by my boss and told "There's no longer a position for you". I've just turned fifty one and have worked solidly building my career since 1986. Incredibly, almost thirty years.
I must have known it was coming as I've been reading Early Retirement Extreme and Mr Money Moustache websites for about the last three years and fantasising about living the kind of life that they espoused, with the freedom every day to do as you pleased.
I'm extremely lucky in that I'm pretty financially secure because I've been a saver and investor for a long time (thanks mostly to The Motley Fool website!) But I just cannot get my head around the fact that I could now actually retire.
I've spent the last few days in a mild state of euphoria, working on financial projections and pinching myself, unable to believe that I might never have to work again. Can I actually handle that? Can I actually believe it?
Tomorrow morning I'll wake up, jump on my bike and cycle down to the Bannatynes gym past all the cars queuing on the ring road on their way to the office. I'll have a swim, a cup of coffee in the cafe and a read of the paper. Back home, potter around, maybe tidy the garden up. Then I’ll take my wife to lunch and do some cooking in the afternoon before heading to the pub for a few evening pints with my mates. I'll not be telling them what's happened this week though, because I'm a bit scared it's all a dream!

Then the wife will get fed up with you around the house all the time or else give you a list of jobs to do around the house as "you have nothing better to do". Good luck but no guarantees you won't wish you were back at work somedays