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

Mrs_Z

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The biggest tip I can share is that, for anyone with decent salaries coming in, being able to retire early is much more a mental / behavioural thing than a financial one.
...understand your personal money/happiness curve. You also need to understand your work / happiness curve and then work out how those two curves interact to find the point where the utility of more money is less than the utility of more freedom / less work stress.
What really helped for me was experimenting with living to different budgets. Starting from 2015 my plan was to try living on what my likely income would be if I retired at that point, expecting it to be too low and a struggle at first, and then, once I reached a point where I was happy on that level of spending, I could stop. I learnt an awful lot about my own money/happiness curve from that experiment - mainly that I didn't actually enjoy spending money anyway but love the buzz of cleverly cutting costs!
Originally posted by Triumph13
”This is really interesting. As you say, we tend to have a tendency to think that the retirement is all about the numbers and money in the bank. I would not classify myself as a big spender by any means, but rather a selective one, what I don't like is to 'waste money' but that I guess can mean different things to different people.
I've been tracking my spending and at present it is a little bit over what I aim the early retirement monthly budget to be. At present I have commuting costs and work lunch costs for example which I would not have at retirement. But to give it a real go, I've decided to trim the monthly living budget for the next 3 months to what I envisage having in retirement and see how I get on.

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I'll be 55 in June.

I always feel a little bit out of these threads. I have wanted for a long time, the option to retire early. I read Your Money or Your Life about 15 years ago; it may seem a bit dated now, but the principles hold true and it really did change my way of thinking. However, I'm not a spreadsheet type of person. I jump and worry afterwards.

So my tip, is sometimes you just have to jump and see what happens. I've done it a few times over my life and it's always worked out OK.
Originally posted by bugslet
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bugslet - Just been watching some morning TV on my day off and on the wall of one of the houses was a plaque which said 'Jump and the net will appear'.
Originally posted by Techno
”Yes - these! You need to take chances in your life. I have taken few risks in my time - calculated ones as I'm not a spontaneous type - but in all cases there was no need for a safety net in the end. I guess I was just being over cautious.

Couple of people have mentioned health issues. That is also something that is playing in my mind. Earlier last year OH had a bit of a health scare. All is ok now but it did make me think that time is precious. I also know of two couples who were on brink of their retirement only for one partner to die suddenly.

So much to think about in order to try and get the timing right. I have a calendar at work that only goes to June 2020 - I keep pointing it out to colleagues with a smirk that's when I'll be out... let's see how it all pans out!

Fatbritabroad

The psychology is the bit I find really interesting about the whole thing tbh. I really admire people who've followed their dream and done something they love. They do say if you do something you love you'll never work another day again. I enjoy my job but I'd really struggle to go for something lower paid. I'm not sure I'd do it even if I could afford to. I'm not sure that says particularly good things about me tbh but it is what it is

Fatbritabroad

That said I have always chased the money and got where I wanted to be a few years ago years ago and promptly had almost like a mid life crisis (very early at 32) as i realised the money didn't make me happy. That's when I found the fire community and got at least the financial independence bit as a goal

Techno

I have got to admit - having been adamant that I wanted to stop work, actually doing 2 days per week is great. It is enough to keep the wolf from the door and stop me from being bored. I am actually enjoying my work again but without any of the responsibilities and moving from 5:2 to 2:5 work day ratio leaves lots of time for leisure activities and, for the moment, we aren't having to dip into our retirement savings which leaves more for later

dont_use_vistaprint

Mrs_Z wrote: »

For me it's about work/life balance. The work + commute takes currently 50+ hrs a week of my time. I certainly don't love my job. I tolerate it. However, I want to give the best service possible, it's only fair - but it comes at a cost (to my personal life). The work has been rather stressful since last year and will continue so this year and that is affecting me. I hugely resent the fact that I'm not free to spend my time as I wish. I want to spend more time gardening, I also have an allotment which is my 'happy place'. I want to go to the gym at my leisure, not 6am in the morning or only at weekends. I would like to have a dog at some point in my life. I would like to travel, check out the sights in London and other cities, read more, cook more, socialise more. Many things that I'd like to do simply don't make the grade at present on the priority list because of work and lack of time.
And before anyone asks, part-time is not an option unless you have dependant children

That's makes sense that something has to change. I read 12-week year a while back and worked a lot of Interest vs Commitment to make sure I'm doing the right things. To commit to work like that you need strong desire, to honestly count the cost, and only then can you act daily on the commitment not the feeling. Without the desire the cost is always going to be too high.

Spreadsheetman

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

I'm interested in why people choose to retire early, I'm the opposite and want to work for as long as my mind and body allow, I love the work, the people and what it allows me to do - travel , adventure, impact etc. Spending money on me and my family is fun too.

As you say you may get a part-time job or start a business, so is this actually about retirement or just looking for a better job ?

Speaking for myself, I've just run out of steam after the last 20 years of hard graft. It's time to stop and actually enjoy life a bit instead of being yanked around daily by client demands, employee nonsense and HMRC.

I'm not saying I'll never work again, but it would have to be totally on my own terms and to my own schedule. If I start another business it would be very low key, zero/low growth and definitely not employing anyone else.

bugslet

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

I'm interested in why people choose to retire early, I'm the opposite and want to work for as long as my mind and body allow, I love the work, the people and what it allows me to do - travel , adventure, impact etc. Spending money on me and my family is fun too.

As you say you may get a part-time job or start a business, so is this actually about retirement or just looking for a better job ?

Not so different from spreadsheetman. A business tends to be all consuming. I do the least hours I've ever done a week, 55 + 15 hours commute a week, as you get older, it definitely feels like too much. I don't miss holidays, but then I don't take them. I've had 3x2 week breaks over Xmas an 4 x 1,week breaks in 28 years.

The biggest push for me though is as I said, not enjoying the job as the corporate rubbish has become endemic. I had 26 years of fun (mostly) and I still think the world of my drivers and the customers I deal Sith day to day, but the bull that comes from on high from people that haven't a clue is intolerable.

As for why work in retirement, I have no family at all. I have friends but they have their own lives so I don't expect to see much more of them than I do know. I do expect t to have time to make additional friends. I was thinking of training to be a garden designer. I've done my garden myself and chip in ideas for others gardens, so it would be a hobby that brought in some money but didn't tie me down to having to be somewhere at x time every week.

kev2009

Hi,

Will follow the thread with interest.

I'm 41 and based on my pension predictions from there online tool, i can't see myself being in a position to retire until minimum 62. If im still in work by then and can manage, if i can get to 68 which is what my official retirement age will be, then obviously i'd get more pension.

However, if i was 60 and made redundant, assuming I was still in my current job i'd have a fair few years of redundancy built up and i think i would retire then rather than look for another job. I *may* consider some short term contract jobs like 3 or 6 months but that would be all if I needed to.

Would love to retire sooner but i don't see my finances stacking up to enable me to do that, mortgage is currently over another 27 years i think which i'm hoping to try and reduce and would love to have it cleared by 55 but we will see from there.

Kev

Mrs_Z

Fatbritabroad wrote: »

The psychology is the bit I find really interesting about the whole thing tbh. I really admire people who've followed their dream and done something they love. They do say if you do something you love you'll never work another day again. I enjoy my job but I'd really struggle to go for something lower paid. I'm not sure I'd do it even if I could afford to. I'm not sure that says particularly good things about me tbh but it is what it is

Thank you for your honesty! Like I mentioned previously, gardening is one of my passions and whilst I happily spend hours tending mine, I have often thought that I would not want to do it for living at £10ph. Whilst I don't exactly love my current job, there are plus sides in that I have many wonderful colleagues and the pay is good. I keep reminding myself that every month that I stay equals a month of early retirement in the bank.
It's the decisions made by higher management that are the pain. It seems that every change is something that makes our life more difficult on the ground level or adds another step or an obstacle for getting the job done. Year after year we need to produce more with less. And then there is the usual c**p with SLAs and KPIs that frankly speaking somebody drafted in their wisdom in such a way that they are pretty impossible to measure.

MallyGirl

bugslet wrote: »

I was thinking of training to be a garden designer. I've done my garden myself and chip in ideas for others gardens, so it would be a hobby that brought in some money but didn't tie me down to having to be somewhere at x time every week.

When I worked part time (when DD was a toddler) I decided I needed to keep the brain cells working and also I needed to spend time talking to adults apart from hubby. I was a homeworker at the time. I studied horticulture (with the RHS) and then did a BTEC in garden design. We even put together a college team and did a garden at Chelsea. I did start a little design business but it was difficult to juggle with my job and DD so it ended up spoiling my hobby. I still have it as an option for the future though.
Go for it!