Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

thriftytracey

Hear, Hear! I took significant salary sacrifice a few years back to pay into my pension so got used to a drop. Then over the last couple of years have been living on 2/3 income and saving the rest. Haven't missed it and not sure what it was spent on .....


Ha - I work in IT industry too and seen so many changes and none for the better. Now a global corporate - living the dream eh?

crv1963

With all you IT tech people with your plans- and well done to you- I can feel a comedy book coming. I can just imagine you all working away at your work stations on the same conference call, laying your get out of jail plans in splendid isolation then discovering you all had the same goals at the end!

Or is that my warped Nursing sense of humour?

Lomcevak

crv1963 wrote: »

With all you IT tech people with your plans- and well done to you- I can feel a comedy book coming. I can just imagine you all working away at your work stations on the same conference call, laying your get out of jail plans in splendid isolation then discovering you all had the same goals at the end!

Or is that may warped Nursing sense of humour?

There are a few of us, every now and again I stumble upon someone reading Mr Money Mustache over lunch and discover they're plotting their escape too. But most of my IT colleagues are like the chap I share an office with, who has £45k of credit card debt he never pays off, despite a £100k income. He has a nice set of golf clubs though

uk1

Bravepants wrote: »

The trick to retiring early is to never live beyond your means.

Good advice.

I'd say that the other trick is that whatever you have to live on, and whatever level of comfort that provides, then only think contentedly of "what you have, and how lucky you are to have it" rather than agonise about "what you do not have".

Those things might include for example the freedom of deciding within reasonable limits what you can do each day without someone else telling you; that you share your life with someone you have chosen who is wonderful; that at the current moment you and your partner have no serious health issues etc.

Don't think twice about the things you cannot have or do not have. It is simply wasted negative energy.:)

kangoora

JoeEngland wrote: »

I've done worse than that. When working PT for a very disorganised boss I sent a text to him by mistake, it was meant for my wife and said "I'm reaching the end of my tether with ..." where it was his name in the message! Luckily that was shortly before I resigned, but did lead to an awkward conversation with me trying to explain it as a mistake and really about someone else and sent to the wrong person.

I had similar, dealing with a stressed out client on the phone and getting an urgent IM from our Projects Executive (very senior, in charge of over a 1000 project managers ).

I rattled off a reply which, unfortunately, ended up being

"Go tit" (instead of 'got it') to which he responded "TIT !!!!!&$&%$"

Luckily he saw the funny side after I explained

pjcox2005

Lomcevak wrote: »

There are a few of us, every now and again I stumble upon someone reading Mr Money Mustache over lunch and discover they're plotting their escape too. Most of my IT colleagues are like the chap I share an office with though, who has £45k of credit card debt he never pays off, despite a £100k income. He has a nice set of golf clubs though

I've always read this thread in the background, thinking ahead to early retirement even if it's a way off.


I've also always resisted buying new golf clubs as mine work as well as the user on the end of them, but seeing it written down I'm wondering if your colleagues have the right idea. I do love the look of shiny new golf clubs!

vulcanrtb

Another IT guy in his 50s here, though I am in security. Many of the posts here have struck a chord!
I've been trying to encourage the much younger generation of IT / security people in my place to start saving into their pensions, which they have promised to do 'next year'.

thriftytracey

kangoora wrote: »

I had similar, dealing with a stressed out client on the phone and getting an urgent IM from our Projects Executive (very senior, in charge of over a 1000 project managers ).

I rattled off a reply which, unfortunately, ended up being

"Go tit" (instead of 'got it') to which he responded "TIT !!!!!&$&%$"

Luckily he saw the funny side after I explained

I always have a finger stumble the word "account" and always spell it incorrectly in emails and messaging, (leave you to guess how). Thank heavens for Spell checker is all I can say.

Terron

westv wrote: »

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

Why the quotes around "bug"? It was a real issue, which was almost entirely dealt with in advance. E.g. the NI benefit system would have stopped making payments but it was fixed in 1999.



I got a few hours of overtime, a free fleece and tickets to the Millenium Dome out of it - no fortune.



Y2K was not the first such problem, nor the last. 2010 caused a problem for some phones and POS systems and 20 million people in Germany found that their credit cards would not work,. The next major one will be in 2038

comsym

I've been retired for a few years having sort of fallen into it. I originally planned to take a year off after a large contract and high stress. This stretched to 2. Then I went back to work but sort of knew that I could get by if needed be. This didn't go well as once the cash for my life train of thought was broken I never really committed.

What my time if had shown me was-
I had a little more income than I expected as I had more time to manage my money. Even simple things like making sure cash was in a better interest rate account than elsewhere helped. I was able to cut down on fees and do a little better with returns.
I needed a little less income than I expected as I'm able to prioritize my expenses and seek out deals on anything major. Also I have the flexibility to travel when things are cheap and buy when sales are on.
Discretionary expenses dropped. No more coffees and sandwiches at the train station. No more magazines for the train journey. Some things were obvious such as no daily parking fees, but the minor expense added up too.
I had the time to actually do things myself rather than pay a handyman. Being practical and unhurried, I enjoyed it too.

All of this came down to having the time and the inclination to do things for myself. When working I'd been fried at weekends and just let things drift. Even when I knew I should be shopping term deposits for example, I wouldn't.

I'm poorer than I numerically could have been for sure but my quality of life and possibly longevity is improved.


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