Motivation for early retirement

Wenlock

I suspect most "voluntary" early retirees, like me, go because they are sick of the job or cannot cope with the stress.

Obviously there are those with substantial pensions and savings who retire for "positive" reasons such as to travel more or do voluntary work.

In my case the initial relief at escaping the stress was enormous. However I quickly got used to not working and probably don't fully appreciate the freedom most of the time.

Despite having limited financial means nothing at all would persuade me to work again!

jerrysimon

As with so many things in life, the reason something happens or the benefits of it are not always apparent at the time.

I had an amazing job for the last 16 years of working, but new management and the death of a dear friend turned my life upside down in the last 18 months contributing to the decision to retire early at 56 rather than a planned 58. I was fortunate starting work at 16 gave me 40 years of a DB pension.

Looking back I am grateful for those difficulties in the last 18 months. I would probably have carried on working till 60+ otherwise and I realise now you cant change your mind and retire early after the opportunity has passed you by. You can always work longer for more money. However if you do go early and hate it, you can always go back to work if you want

brewerdave

Altho' I was pushed into it by successive redundancies, I'm very glad now -I've outlived 5 of my former management colleagues who all died in late 50s /early 60s:( -when I'm sat on the bank fishing ..............:)

reeac

I resigned at just under 63. I was fed up with the crap initiatives that a new broom set of top managers persisted in inflicting on us and they wouldn't let me retire so I suffered an actuarial reduction in my pension and resigned. Decided that I had better things to do with my life. Never regretted it for one moment.

OldMusicGuy

I hope you can see the trend here - mid to late 50s is the crunch time. When you are 40, it is hard to envisage a time when your health starts declining rapidly, when the "excitement" of work turns to stress and anxiety, and you are also faced with your own mortality as you start getting the emails about schoolfriends dying and some work colleagues dying young through ill health.

I never thought about early retirement at all, I had a rewarding and well paid job. I was saving into a DC pension but not enough to retire early. I assumed that 63/64 would be when I would start thinking about retiring as my SP is 66. I assumed I would use the years from 60 to 64 for heavy saving, as our son would have finished uni and be making his own way in the world.

It all changed for me in my mid to late 50s. I found the work stressful, hated having to travel all over the place but more importantly my health was suffering. You really notice the ageing process in mid to late 50s and you either have to focus on staying fit or those problems lead to premature death. Also, my workplace is more focused on younger people that can take all this in their stride. There is no option to "scale back" and have a lower workload.

I realised work was literally killing me. So I decided to go earlier than 63/64. I'm not in the financial position I would like to be but with my wife's support we are going to make it work. I am retiring soon aged 60. I wish I could have gone a few years earlier.

Although my decision is based more on "negative" reasons, when I take a long hard look at my life, I realise there are so many things I enjoy and that give me purpose that are not related to the world of work (in my case, IT). So I would be crazy to waste more of my few remaining years on work.

My advice to my son is to save heavily and early into pensions and other investments so that by the time he gets to his 50s he has options. If he loves his work and still wants to do it, great, carry on. But if the time has come to get out of the rat race, make sure you are financially able to do it.

As a counterpoint, my grandfather was an example of someone who faded away quickly when he retired. He had led a pretty amazing life, having fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front in WWI, been a senior civil servant and worked with Churchill during WWII. When he retired he didn't have anything that gave him a similar purpose or focus. His health declined and he died within about 5 years of retiring.

sandsy

We're 50 and 51. SPA at 67.

We could go at 55 and it would be reasonably do-able or we could wait until 60 and it would be financially very comfortable. I suspect the key factors affecting it will be:
- level of work satisfaction
- health
- childrens' decisions re. post-school education/training
- having a clearer view on how to spend the time in retirement

robin61

For me it's not a binary choice between the positive and negative reasons suggested by the OP. It's actually a bit of each. Firstly not having to put up with the stress and corporate nonsense but also I'm becoming more aware that I'd like more tome to spend on things I want to do and that time spent working is time I don't get back.

OldMusicGuy

sandsy wrote: »

We're 50 and 51. SPA at 67.

We could go at 55 and it would be reasonably do-able or we could wait until 60 and it would be financially very comfortable. I suspect the key factors affecting it will be:
- level of work satisfaction
- health
- childrens' decisions re. post-school education/training
- having a clearer view on how to spend the time in retirement

Perfect! Well done to you both, I think that is exactly the right place to be based on my own experience.

jerrysimon

reeac wrote: »

I resigned at just under 63. I was fed up with the crap initiatives that a new broom set of top managers persisted in inflicting on us and they wouldn't let me retire so I suffered an actuarial reduction in my pension and resigned. Decided that I had better things to do with my life. Never regretted it for one moment.

Just like me in the last 18 moths, three rundancy rounds and I always missed out so just resigned with actuarial reduction like you.

tempus_fugit

For me it was a bit of everything. I hated the job, which had gone downhill for various reasons, and the prospects of further jobs were receding as I got older and due to changes in the local market (Aberdeen, oil etc). But I had also been planning it for a while anyway as I felt that I wanted to have more time to do things etc. As it is, a severance package was offered to both my wife and me at around the same time, so this was the catalyst that made us take the jump. I would have liked to have gone part time for a while but that was never an option in my line of work, but now I do some voluntary work in a related area and I'm quite enjoying that, so it suits me fine. Have been retired over a year now and have no regrets whatsoever.