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

silverwhistle

kidmugsy wrote: »

If your garden is on heavy clay soil, consider moving to a house on a light loam. Then you'll be able to garden for many extra years. There's an awful lot of satisfaction to be had from gardening, and from eating its products.

Or build raised beds...

ManofLeisure_2

melanzana wrote: »

HELLOOOO!

I'm here..... And work is over!

All I can say at this minute is that my shoulders have gone down for the first time in years.

I had a great time clearing out my office. I found things I never knew I had, including a 20quid note in the bottom drawer, yay.

It was a lovely final day. I did not want any tea party or booze up or anything, but colleagues called in all day with little gifts and cards and flowers. It was lovely, and tad emotional. But I'm over that now!

Off on holidays tomorrow to celebrate.

I feel indolent already!

Best to all.

No better way to start retirement, than with a holiday. Have a wonderful time

DawnW

I have enjoyed reading this thread, as I went through the same experience myself at the end of April this year, took early retirement from an increasingly stressful job aged 60. My pension, which was not large in the first place due to having been a SAHM when my kids were small, and having spent quite a few years at uni after that, was actuarily reduced by 25% :eek: However, I decided to do it nevertheless, as I have savings to dip into if need be, the mortgage on our little house is paid and I have no debts. So far I have not had to, in fact I am still saving, despite the fact that my pension is not much more than a quarter of my former take home salary.

My husband took early retirement a couple of years ago, and his pension is also small, in his case due to low earnings. So expensive holidays (which we never took anyway) are out, but we manage just fine. It means being quite frugal, but this is a small price to pay for the freedom that I now have. I haven't quite decided what to do with it as yet, and think I will need to do something more than cooking, gardening and babysitting at some stage to avoid my brain shrivelling, but am still firmly in holiday mode at the moment

Good luck to all who have taken this step, or are considering it. I know that we are very lucky to be able to do so. On the other hand, there are lots of enthusiastic and talented young people out there who need jobs, and I was happy to step aside and let them have the chance to climb the ladder.

Marine_life

Glad you made it and keep us updated on how it goes.

melanzana

Well folks, I got back from a week away yesterday.

First thing I did was unpack as usual. I then went (as usual) to the wardrobe to sort out my work clothes for the week. Took out the clothes, then realised...no, I don't have to do this anymore! Weird.

But wonderful just the same!

Today I woke up at 6.15, as usual...and got up when the alarm went off. (Set it without realising I didn't need to!) Sheesh, I was heading for the shower, when it hit me...no, you do NOT have to do this! I have to say, I stayed up. Sat at the kitchen table savouring a coffee, and looking out at the birds and the sky. Never had time for that before.

So the day went great. Just the usual stuff.

I do think sooner or later I will have to have a routine of sorts. Not a heavy one, just a bit of a routine.

But for now....the feeling of not having to back to back a return from holiday, with a return to work is amazing.

It's a nice time to be off. The weather is great, and the days are bright and long.

Winter may be a challenge. But the night classes start then!

And I am going to take my fifteen year old bike out of the shed and get it going again. I am lucky enough to have a back gate that gives on to a park with bike trails. NEVER used it, never had the time!

Could be fun. And good for me too.

Thanks for all your kind wishes.

Will keep you posted, if you wish.

Mel.

kidmugsy

melanzana wrote: »

Winter may be a challenge.

Have a week in Madeira every January. It bucks you up no end.

Goldiegirl

Glad you had a good holiday:)

Please do keep us posted, it'll be interesting to hear your progress.

We'll almost certainly finish work at Christmas.

It seems like a natural end time, and we are going on holiday for Christmas week, so it'd be even more difficult than normal to go back to work on 2nd January.

It is a bit of a concern to stop work in winter, as it could be a bit isolating..... But we have some things in the house that we could do if we wanted, and we are going on holiday for 2 weeks in March, and then it'll be spring. So I think we should be fine.

I've bookmarked this thread, as I want to return 4 days before my end date, to say how it feels!

kidmugsy

March is too late; the days are already much longer. It's January for winter sun!! As soon as all the littlies are back at school and the prices plummet.

mazzy

My husband is retiring in December age 65 and I plan to retire April 2015 as I thought it would be good to finish at the end of a financial year. I am hoping to pass some tax allowance to him under the new rules. I will only be getting about £6,000 a year for FS pension and will have to wait until 2018 to get my SP.

kidmugsy

mazzy wrote: »

My husband is retiring in December age 65 and I plan to retire April 2015 as I thought it would be good to finish at the end of a financial year. I am hoping to pass some tax allowance to him under the new rules. I will only be getting about £6,000 a year for FS pension and will have to wait until 2018 to get my SP.

If you have spare money you could contribute it to a private pension in this tax year, while you still have the earnings to justify a sizeable contribution. Then you can withdraw from it in 2015-16 and 2016-17 tax-free, using the part of your personal allowance that will otherwise not be exploited (i.e. about £4500 p.a.).

It's none of my business, but has your husband considered the advantage of deferring his state pension?
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/299286/dwp024-apr-14.pdf