Plotting for an early retirement - anyone want to join me?

JoeEngland

I've had a funny day regarding finances. The bad news is having to shell out a few hundred quid on roof repairs now the first two quotes are in. The good news is that our house is worth a lot more than I thought it was probably worth, and substantially more than I'd pessimistically assumed for the financial plan. The valuation is kosher because it's based on what a similar size house on our street sold for recently. That news was a big relief as it will give us more contingency funds and some extra holiday money once we've moved.

MizzPenniless

Hello, I'm late to this thread and just been reading through all the posts enviously. I would like to retire early (or hopefully before my state pension age which is 67, for now anyway), but don't have a big enough work pension so for me it's a pipe dream. I will be leaving my job at the end of August through a mutual agreement to leave scheme with a payout of 6 months salary, and am thinking of it as a trial run for early retirement / mid-life gap year.

Hopefully I will get some ideas from these boards of how to live frugally so that I can at least go back to work part-time rather than full time when the money runs out.

missile

Andyed201 wrote: »

...I am going to go and get a job that pays a third of what I do at my level, but is back doing the work I really enjoyed.

That did not work for me. I found you can never go back there again.

crv1963

missile wrote: »

That did not work for me. I found you can never go back there again.

I agree that going back to the same place/ team would be difficult.

People are to used to dealing with you at a different level. The solution for me was to move Teams/ location. So on a personal level, I am able to enjoy working at a lower grade doing a job that I like, as is a colleague of mine who has also worked in a different team at a much higher level.

Some team members questioned why I would want to work at a lower pay grade especially those who are still fighting their way up the greasy pole! My stock answer is "because I can, I enjoy it and I wanted to, rather than had to."

missile

I think you might find it is not that easy and I found it was not as enjoyable as I had expected it to be. It is a good plan and I wish you success.

crv1963

missile wrote: »

I think you might find it is not that easy and I found it was not as enjoyable as I had expected it to be. It is a good plan and I wish you success.

I think it depends on a multiple of factors- how much has the job/role you used to like changed/ moved on, your personal aspirations and views of the role, your team members reception along with their views of the role and management and of course the sector or profession you are working in.

I moved back to a clinical role after working many years in a managerial role. Being back at the coal face certainly had its' challenges, but I've now been doing it 11 months and before that I had stepped down to a different clinical role in a different Team, so I had a clear idea of what I was getting into.

Having said that I did say to Mrs CRV last night that I am intending to retire soon, I will probably give notice at my next supervision and put the written notice in early next year with a view to retiring and taking my pension in May 2020.......this follows reading other threads and in particular k6chris thread that has been moved to the discussion time board.

I don't feel defined by my job and several long standing friends in my profession have retired and tell me that they are having a ball! The sun is shining here and I feel my counting down the hours to my night-shift tonight makes me wish I was able to do some of the jobs around the garden rather than going back to bed!

missile

Sorry, I had not realised you had already made the move.

I was in a similar situation. I retired early, did not need the money but missed the challenge. I was fortunate to find a less taxing job, which actually paid more working as a consultant.

I have now retired once again.

crv1963

missile wrote: »

Sorry, I had not realised you had already made the move.

I was in a similar situation. I retired early, did not need the money but missed the challenge. I was fortunate to find a less taxing job, which actually paid more working as a consultant.

I have now retired once again.

I actually made the move for a number of reasons, I relocated to a different part of the country so left the organisation I was in a senior role in, then I worked 9-5 in a role for a few years and finally I had a period of sick leave and was advised to either go part time in that role or full time but with 12 hour days/ nights so having more time away from work in another team.

I find that with my shift allowances I actually earn the same money as I did in my senior role 10 years ago, as public sector pay has been held down for so long. As the allowances are pensionable I find myself in the position of facing retirement with the same pension I would of got had I not made the move to a (for me) less stressful and time consuming role.

No taking work home and doing 3-4 hours preparation for the following days meetings or finishing reports or complaints, do my shift, sometimes I have to stay on a little to finish paperwork but then it's goodbye see you next time!

That said I'm finding 3 shifts a week is a bind and am going to give notice that I'm retiring end of May 2020. I expect that I'll then pick up some shifts every month for a couple of years, not because I have to but because I enjoy the work, once there it is busy/ challenging so flies by. Sort of ease myself into retirement and save the earnings above the pension into a SIPP.

savingholmes

We would love to retire early or as some of the fire people say have mini-sabbaticals - currently reach state pension in 2037 but that seems way too far away. Need to come up with a cunning plan that bridges that gap.I mostly enjoy my job but OH doesn't. I wonder whether consultancy would be the way to go longer term...

crv1963

savingholmes wrote: »

We would love to retire early or as some of the fire people say have mini-sabbaticals - currently reach state pension in 2037 but that seems way too far away. Need to come up with a cunning plan that bridges that gap.I mostly enjoy my job but OH doesn't. I wonder whether consultancy would be the way to go longer term...

That's only 18 years, which seems a long time, but 1982 when I first started work seems like yesterday! Have you got a plan? We started out seriously looking at it all 2 years ago, before that it was all a bit nebulous. The information here has been invaluable.