Retiring early: Persuading the Spouse

meer53

I'm nearly 60, i feel nowhere near wanting to retire. I love my job, even when i hit retirement age, i plan on taking a part time job, health permitting. Just shows how different we all are.

jennyjj

meer53 wrote: »

I'm nearly 60, i feel nowhere near wanting to retire. I love my job, even when i hit retirement age, i plan on taking a part time job, health permitting. Just shows how different we all are.

I respect that. I gave it lots and lots of thought. By going to a 3 day week, I had turned a pleasurable job into a pleasurable paying hobby which was less of a chore.

I don't know if I'll regret taking myself away from that paying hobby, but my current thinking is that I've now freed up 7 days a week that I can dedicate to any pastimes or whims that I can come up with.

To each his own. Maybe we can both revisit this thread from time to time to confirm that we are still comfortable with our own choices.

smjxm09

I left BT at 57 and took retirement because BT became a different beast as the years past. Under constant quarterly reviews and set targets on performance that were impossible to achieve everyone was fed up.

To say I hated the job in the end was not an understatement of the truth. I can fully understand why anyone would stay in a job that they loved but I was at the other end of the pond. When I left I was released from pain and torment. Now I can go to the local village pub during a weekday lunchtime when I could have been at work, sit in front of a roaring log fire and remember how my life has changed for the better.

Acquinas

You get one chance at this life. If you have done your sums and worked out that you can manage or more than manage then you should be planning your exit from work. But if you honestly think that your OH cannot reconcile herself to that then why don't you look for something part time that you could transition to for a while to give her a chance to get used to the idea? There are some echoes of conversations in my own household here, as my wife is a financial worrier too, though the incessant noise about rising pension ages convinced her in the end that there was less risk involved in crystallising the pension entitlement than waiting for the goalposts to be moved again. But ultimately, she cannot be in a position to dictate to you an issue that is so important to what you are.

jennyjj

Hi Acquinas,
I made my transition slowly, completely and sucessfully over the course of the year, so as to minimise disharmony. It was a slow and steady campaign that I have no regrets about at all.

First, I made it clear that I INTENDED to quit,

Then, I started to demonstrate that we could afford for me to quit.

Then about 6 months of 3 day week.

And now... I've quit. I'm no longer a wage slave. :T:j:T:j

I still need to make an effort to not let the transition introduce stress, but I deem the long exercise to be a 100% success.

Acquinas

jennyjj, good for you. I've "downsized" work rather than quit entirely, but my OH is still clocking up 45 hour weeks and driving herself into the ground and here's a bit of resentment on her part that I have managed to plan rather better than she has. All the same, I'm not rubbing her nose in it and spend much of my newly liberated time trying to ease things for her on the home front. Ultimately though, the saying that "death is nature's way of telling you to slow down" is the star I steer my life by.

gallygirl

I retired 21 months ago at the age of 53. I had planned for years to go at 55 but a change of circs gave me the chance to go sooner. It took me 10 minutes from OH telling me to hand in my notice to me doing it :rotfl:. OH had retired the year previous at 55 but did have a short return for a few months which confirmed he was ready to leave work behind him.

We now live overseas, having never lived together before, despite having been together for 18 years :eek:. Yes, we ruck sometimes but both have our own interests and circle of friends as well as a lot of joint ones.

As for holidays - firstly there is no 'end of holiday dread', worrying what you're going back to etc. Secondly, there's nothing like a nice lunch out the day after you get back to celebrate that actually, life really is one big holiday now. (The latter works particularly well if you went on holiday with wage slaves who are all back at work ).

OP I'm glad you took the plunge and it is working out well :T.

molerat

IMO too many look for the reason not to retire early rather than the other way round. For years my goal was to retire at 55 but was waiting till I actually reached that point to ensure all the financials were confirmed and then plan the actual date. I had a falling out with senior management and told them to stick their job at 54/10 and retired with 3.5 weeks notice. Have never once regretted it and have been doing what ever I want for the past 7.5 years.

To repeat what was posted by jennyjj ...... JFDI ........ a phrase well known to me as that was my last employer's style of management !