Stopping work early with big change to lifestyle?

Peelerfart

What ermine said + you're a long time dead, no pockets in a, and hey! Were only here for a look around :-)

fatbeetle

I'm retiring in 20 days, aged 58, wife has already retired aged 54. We're planning our retirement, knowing that we will take a modest hit on our expenditure. We're also planning on keeping fit, eating healthily, and filling our time with our hobbies and friends.

cns06

Its been a while since I updated this thread so thought I would chip in. We have passed some big milestones in the last few months and its been 3 years since we really got our heads down to concentrate on early retirement.

We have now paid the mortgage off. That was a biggie to enable our early retirement. It took a couple of months to sink in we had actually done it. To start with I was a bit disappointed because I had read so many times that people had this great feeling they had done it but I did not get that but now I do feel much happier for it.

We are now saving around 80% of our income. Again a big tick to enable the early retirement.

We have gone through all our outgoings and removed the chaff. We cancelled sky, changed broadband supplier, utility supplier. Easily saving us £100 a month.

Now its a matter of time.

At our current savings rate I hope to click past our goal towards the end of 2022. The numbers keep moving all the time but it comes back to around that figure of 25-35k per year as I have stated earlier. Hopefully we can get to around the mid point of the 2. We also have a lump sum which we have put to one side to allow a few years of travel once we stop work without the need to worry about how we would pay for that.

We have spent some time in another part of the country recently looking for property. The property there is comparable price wise to our own and due to its location we could use it as a holiday let when we are travelling - if we wanted extra income.

We now stand at about 60% of our target hopefully I can check in next year and we will be over 70%.

bugslett

Good luck to you cns, you are doing great!

I retire in 13 days, I can't quite get my head around it! I've left my mortgage in place, around 17k to pay so that I have a credit record. I feel comfortable that I can pay that off if I want or have to. Personal preference, no criticism btw, it must be a ncie feeling to know your home is literally yours .

crv1963

Good luck cns06, we're still at the wheel but have a handle on the direction.

We saved several 100 by re-jigging our utilities and are trying to get the big ticket replacement items while still in paid employment. We too are trying to live within our target pension income as we head towards it, to avoid any shocks when we start.

lisyloo

I took less money to do something I enjoyed a lot more 3 years ago.
3 years and I’m back up in salary but enjoying what I do a lot more.

I think a decent gap or a job change (doesn’t have to be be massive) can work wonders.

There I a trade-off in retirement, but I still want to be able to travel, get a massage now and again and afford to sometimes get my hair done at the salon rather than doing it from a box a home, so for me I’ll be going until 55 and maybe a few years, but if you actually enjoy your job it’s much less of an issue.

rnj

Interesting thread for me, only just come across it.

What will you do when stop working?

I'm of a similar age (I think) and need something to retire to. I've already travelled a lot and continue to do so, I could travel more and for longer I guess... but that's all I would do differently as far as I can tell.

Was off work for a bit but got bored and needed to be doing something, I now have a far less stressful job for slightly more pay. Thinking of going part time at some point, haven't yet as I feel guilty! If I dropped dead tomorrow I wouldn't feel bad for having not retired.

lisyloo

rnj wrote: »

What will you do when stop working?

This is a tricky one for me because I work away in a city so it will be a totally different lifestyle.

Initially many jobs at home like decorating.
Also currently 2 elderly parents for which there is potentially a great deal of need and time to be spent, so will depend partly on them and the treatment/attention they need.

After that don’t have a clear idea but it’s quite hard when you’re going to be living somewhere totally different with a very different lifestyle.

Sea_Shell

Just an idea...

As you run your own business, is it not an option to employ someone to manage the more stressful parts of it and you go part-time??

Or would having (any) employees be even more stressful if you don't already have a "workforce".

bostonerimus

You should live for a few years on your retirement budget before you actually retire so that there are no nasty surprises. But what I did was to live frugally while I worked so that I could save enough to retire early without any change in lifestyle. I was spending around $30k while I was earning $140k gross and I retired in my early 50's and I'm still spending $30k even though I could spend a lot more. I keep my self very busy and have a long term plan to leave substantial amounts to my family and some local charities.