Regret retiring too early with not enough money?

moneyistooshorttomention

Gers wrote: »

Yep, enjoying the times I've worked for. I never intended to work myself into a grave the way my brother did. He loved his work and died doing it. Not worth it.

The thing that strikes me there is that your brother loved his work and he, quite possibly, regarded it as ideal to "die doing it". It must be awful for people that love their job to find other things/purpose/etc in retirement.

Those of us that hated our jobs/were counting the days off on the calendar can struggle with finding purpose in retirement. So I can only imagine what it's like for someone that loves their job.

Some years back I recall knowing someone that seemed to love their job (as far as I could make out) and they centred their life around it. It was only a pretty low-level job and couldn't have paid that much. Fast forward to when they retired and I just knew they would die literally only months after retirement (ie as they had centred their life so much around that job). I was correct. They had precisely six months of retirement and then died - exactly as I had expected.

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The thing that strikes me there is that your brother loved his work and he, quite possibly, regarded it as ideal to "die doing it". It must be awful for people that love their job to find other things/purpose/etc in retirement.

Those of us that hated our jobs/were counting the days off on the calendar can struggle with finding purpose in retirement. So I can only imagine what it's like for someone that loves their job.

Some years back I recall knowing someone that seemed to love their job (as far as I could make out) and they centred their life around it. It was only a pretty low-level job and couldn't have paid that much. Fast forward to when they retired and I just knew they would die literally only months after retirement (ie as they had centred their life so much around that job). I was correct. They had precisely six months of retirement and then died - exactly as I had expected.

I know one person who loved their job which was the centre of their life, was forced into retirement at 60 and still loves their retirement life at 89.

gadgetmind

jennyjj wrote: »

Maybe tell your boss unnofficially roughly when you'll be going.

I'm 53 and told my boss a while ago about my plans to retire at 55 at the same time as I dropped to a 4 day week. We seem to qualify for "the 1%" on any metric, and live in the "grim North" where the bills are a little lower, so shouldn't struggle.

I'm also starting a new business, which does involve investment of time and money, but could also bring in handy cash in retirement. My business partner reckons it'll be worth £50m in 5 years but he is a bit of an optimist!

gadgetmind

BTW, sharing my plans unofficially has worked very well. We've already started some low key handover of some of my team (spread across four continents, so very hard work to manage them all) and a new role is being created to let me use more of my creativity and entrepreneurial flare.

I actually enjoy work but am banging my head on the LTA (all DC) so won't go on much beyond 2018-Q2.

aldershot

Ganga wrote: »

I know you said it is not about the money but you will have TWO MILLION to last you in your retirment and you are stressed!can you imagine what it is like for the rest of us :eek:,only joking ,i do not begrudge you what you have earned but a lottery win would not put me in the same bracket:rotfl::rotfl:

Yes I know and it was never meant to sound smug. That was almost the point. We probably reached "the number" a few years back to be honest. Mrs Aldershot retired in June and wonders how she ever had time to go to work. So I am actually trying to get to the bottom of my stress (assuming it is retirement related) when I really have nothing to be stressed about but that just makes me stress even more

[Deleted User]

aldershot wrote: »

Yes I know and it was never meant to sound smug. That was almost the point. We probably reached "the number" a few years back to be honest. Mrs Aldershot retired in June and wonders how she ever had time to go to work. So I am actually trying to get to the bottom of my stress (assuming it is retirement related) when I really have nothing to be stressed about but that just makes me stress even more

It sounds like you are viewing retirement as an all or nothing ie going from a big city job to day time tv.

Why not keep working but something perhaps local / part time/ of interest so you have a purpose. My boss ( big wig banker ) became the financial bod of his golf club another the same but for his racing syndicate.

Retirement doesnt = no more useful purpose

Ray_Singh-Blue

gadgetmind wrote: »

I'm 53 and told my boss a while ago about my plans to retire at 55 .... I'm also starting a new business, which does involve investment of time and money, but could also bring in handy cash in retirement. My business partner reckons it'll be worth £50m in 5 years...

Not exactly pipe and slippers then? :money:

kidmugsy

Ray_Singh-Blue wrote: »

Regarding the 2 different figures in post above about houseold wealth.

Household weath as defined by the National Office for Statistics (post 2) includes the value of any pensions, including notional value of defined benefit pensions.
... An index linked final salary pension of £30K per year could be worth around £1 Million, which I suspect is a reason why the second figure seems much higher

For anyone of State Pension Age they really ought to throw in the capital value of the state pension too. After all, an index-linked £8k p.a. would be worth about a quarter million, wouldn't it?

And yet I'd guess they don't, offering perhaps some spurious justification. Or am I being too cynical?

jimi_man

gadgetmind wrote: »

I actually enjoy work but am banging my head on the LTA (all DC) so won't go on much beyond 2018-Q2.

Doesn't that really go to show the inequality of the LTA between DC and DB schemes. I've just left work and started my FS pension, which is a DB index linked pension of £30k pa and I'm 51. I have no idea how much it would cost to fund, but according to the statement I got, I've used 60% of my LTA.

It's not a complaint by the way, more of an observation, but it does seem in DB scheme that when they value them, age seems to have no bearing on the value. The value would be the same as if I took it 10 years later. Weird.

silverwhistle

michaels wrote: »

I don't think I can retire before 55 on 36k pa joint income for life for self and DW ...

9 more years of work feels like a life sentence though

Why not? :-) The activities I mentioned in my post above are done on a monthly pension of <1100 plus FITS from my solar plus random lessons/translations. I haven't touched my sharesave dividend stream yet and have been thinking of doing drawdown on it until my SP kicks in.

Not to pick on you, your thread was just a hook, but I sometimes wonder what people spend their money on.

I've been doing my holiday budget for my January skiing holiday, (cheapest time to go and often decent snow too..) and realised that with new girlfriend coming accommodation and car transport costs have been halved!

Perhaps we just all need to prioritise our spending, whatever our levels of income. I'm all too aware that when I see others with far larger pensions that there are even more with far less,.

To all those who worry about not doing their important job and losing status/purpose/meaning; there are always alternatives. I left a large company in my late 40s, with the dreaded combination of boredom, lack of motivation and being in the appropriate job. I occasionally get stress dreams which involve that work. Never do they relate to the teaching I subsequently did, which was far more demanding on a personal basis.

Anyway, I came online to check the time and prep for a Skype language lesson tom... aargh, today.. I have singularly failed.. I'll do it later.. and I can.