Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

Lomcevak

Bravepants wrote: »

Me: "Oh !!!!!!!"

Conference Chainperson: "Sorry, did you say something? There's a terrible noise on the connection.

Me: "Me, oh no, nothing!"

My favourite was a conference call led by an executive vice president, who waffled on for ages. Eventually after a couple of hours of this waffle, a voice pipes up

Anonymous Voice: I'm <bleeping> bored

EVP: What! Who said that! Identify yourself

Anonymous Voice: I said I'm <bleeping> bored, not <bleeping> stupid.


<Anonymous Hangs up>

Automated voice: "Dave Smith has left the conference call"

bugslet

smutput wrote: »

I just dedicate my time trying to annoy the right people enough so they actively want to get rid of me. Must try harder...

I gave customer notice, customer suggested they could make changes that would mean I'd change my mind and stay. Several months later and a particularly fractious meeting, which I followed up with an e-mail telling them exactly how incompetent and downright liars they were and that really sealed my exit;). They've never answered it, but then again it was solid truth and I think they can't answer.

Lomcevak wrote: »

My favourite was a conference call led by an executive vice president, who waffled on for ages. Eventually after a couple of hours of this waffle, a voice pipes up

Anonymous Voice: I'm <bleeping> bored

EVP: What! Who said that! Identify yourself

Anonymous Voice: I said I'm <bleeping> bored, not <bleeping> stupid.


<Anonymous Hangs up>

Automated voice: "Dave Smith has left the conference call"

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

It's a Monday morning, I needed that!:D

AnotherJoe

smutput wrote: »

Yet another IT bod here. With, hopefully, only 21 months left at work.

I was hoping to be able to volunteer for redundancy in the next year but, unfortunately, the incompetents in charge brought in such a useless company to replace us that we've had to clean up their mess (at a fraction of the cost) and do it properly.

At least now I don't actually care enough to worry about the giant pigs ear they're making of everything because it's not my future. I just dedicate my time trying to annoy the right people enough so they actively want to get rid of me. Must try harder...

I found my last few months very liberating exactly because of that, when you know you're leaving and so you dont have to go out on a limb to rectify the organizations stupidity.

Terron

thriftytracey wrote: »

If only .... Camera on desktop means I cannot do this.

A friend of mine was on a video conference call from home and had to lift his cat up to the camera.
It had been sat on his lap and he had been stroking it.

bugslet

Terron wrote: »

A friend of mine was on a video conference call from home and had to lift his cat up to the camera.
It had been sat on his lap and he had been stroking it.

It gets better!

As I have a Giant schnauzer and an OES x Newfie, they'd just block the screen if they sat on my lap!

cfw1994

Firstly, thanks OP (OMG!) for the post, useful (& entertaining!) discussion from this!
Strikes me there is a high % of 'older' (50+) workers in IT here....all with years of experience and suitably cynical with it: I recognise it so well :beer:

Equally, it has been a (generally) well-paid industry for many for the past 30 years, & has enabled many to retire early, or consider it.
I'm still working, perhaps have a few years left, but equally aware that it could end at any time, & feel grateful that I am in a position where if I had to go, I think I could.
I still enjoy the team I work with & people I directly interact with (& some great customers), although there is a whole heap of 'corporate sh** that goes with the territory these days!

For those in this industry, I bet half the challenge is adjusting to a much smaller income: the £30-36K people talk of here is sadly not 2/3rds of many IT workers take-home, & in my experience, outgoings often expand to meet the income available :shocked:

Anyway, still working on our numbers, figuring things out.

Interesting about the fact that many need the structure of the work-life, & how females often manage that better. I know I am pretty well glued to being online, & need to address that over coming years (months?!) to maintain other interests. Still play sport, still walk a fair bit, so not overly worried, but the high blood pressure is stubborn....

(edit to add - yeah, conference calls....plenty of fun on those over the years.....nothing like someone snoring loudly on a call !!)

Techno

Cfw1994 re 'For those in this industry, I bet half the challenge is adjusting to a much smaller income: the £30-36K people talk of here is sadly not 2/3rds of many IT workers take-home, & in my experience, outgoings often expand to meet the income available'

What many (including me) try to do is in the last year or so, try to live on your projected retirement income. We have decide to keep going (part time) which means we aren't saving but neither are we drawing anything down. If we can survive comfortably on this, then we should manage nicely when we stop completely and begin to draw from what will now be an undepleted pot

westv

I wonder how many IT people were able to retire using the money they made with the Y2K "bug" scare? :D

Lomcevak

cfw1994 wrote: »

For those in this industry, I bet half the challenge is adjusting to a much smaller income: the £30-36K people talk of here is sadly not 2/3rds of many IT workers take-home, & in my experience, outgoings often expand to meet the income available :shocked:

I think this is quite often true, many of my peer colleagues have pretty high-spending lives now. Particularly true on the sales-focused side, where the culture breeds a lot of competition for who has the best car / holidays / house etc.



In my particular case, one of the smartest things that I've done is keep my lifestyle fairly constant as my salary ramped up (also true for Mrs. L, who has gone from part-time lecturer to full professor in her academic field) - so we've gone from quite stretched with a large mortgage ten years ago, to saving 65%+ of our monthly income and mortgage almost paid off now. Ok, it means I drive a six year old Octavia (great car!) rather than a new E-class like my colleagues, but i'm ok with that and we don't slum it by any means

Bravepants

The trick to retiring early is to never live beyond your means. It took me a good long while in my career to earn decent money, and while in the past I'd spend more than earn due to setting up a home, car loans, mortgages, gadgets, DVDs, games etc. my partner and I now save over half our salaries each month - and we have a great life full of friends, families, hobbies and days out (when we're away from our desks that is!).

If your focus is on buying big houses and big cars you will never retire early if you don't have the discipline. I heard a saying a few years ago, and it has become my own mantra:

"If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich."