Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

crv1963

vulcanrtb wrote: »

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'.

I have had similar conversations and I too find the next year attitude from some colleagues. I had an interesting chat with a colleague who is just starting out and looking to earlier retirement/ buy a house etc. he spent time reading on this site and has I believe registered, quickly grasped that being self disciplined helps the younger as well as older self.

skycatcher

I too worked in the IT industry. Started as a software engineer in the 80s then project manager, programme manager (incl overseeing a vast Y2K infrastructure programme). Eventiually promoted probably 1 Level above my capabilities! Hit a rough patch in the early 2000s and was off with stress (thought I was having a heart attack!). After about 18 months back suffered again with stress and decided that was it - I coudn't go back. So my wife came up with a business idea we could do together and luckily I was able to take a VR deal and left work. I was 45 with a young family but we thought better to be together as a family even with a huge drop in income.

Anyway roll forward 15 years or so and our business is still going albeit part time a couple of days a week and I'm due to take my DB pension later this year. Luckily I put all my taxable VR into my pension as that was an option when I was leaving which meant I have almost a full DB pension from my former company. Our business only just covered our day to day running costs with nothing spare.

Sure we have lost out on many lucritive earning years but I've been around for my kids growing up and got to do something I enjoyed in the latter years. Plus it has gradually led me into semi-retirement. We learned to live within our means. As others have said the more you have the more you spend - perhaps not all wisely. We have leanerd to get by (quite comfortably) on c£20k/pa. When my pension starts it will be c£34k/pa so we are in the fortunate position of having an increase in our disposable income in retirement.

I consider myself very lucky!

crv1963

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. 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

I too share an office with some with this attitude. I am amazed that some have almost the same amount on credit cards as their annual income. Sure they have nice holidays/ cars/ material stuff but as one said to me "I will never retire, I'll have to work until I drop, so I'm not in the pension anymore!"

Such short sightedness would make me weep, were I not able to step back and think that you're making a lifestyle choice and it is none of my business, when I told her I was retiring in 2021 or 2022 I was told "Stop being selfish I'm sooo jealous!"

Lomcevak

crv1963 wrote: »

I have had similar conversations and I too find the next year attitude from some colleagues. I had an interesting chat with a colleague who is just starting out and looking to earlier retirement/ buy a house etc. he spent time reading on this site and has I believe registered, quickly grasped that being self disciplined helps the younger as well as older self.

There's a ray of hope with our graduates and apprentices, who for the past few years (almost) all seem keen on saving - they don't earn a huge amount but have a monthly savings challenge (complete with trophy) going on in the office, although their main focus is house deposits rather than pensions. Lots of talk about boosting savings through overtime, second jobs and side-hustles, etc. I'm quite proud of them

The sole exception is an 18-year-old apprentice who reports to me, who in his first week of employment managed to buy a brand-new £24k car (with nearly £4k insurance) on a £17k salary. D'oh!! :eek:

bugslet

comsym wrote: »

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.


.

Great post!

That's much how I hope my finances will be. I know I waste money on quick food, money on magazines when my brain CBA with a book and a myriad of other easy fixes, so I hope to see a similar pattern to yours.

JoeEngland

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

But was your reply what you really meant?

MallyGirl

Terron wrote: »

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

I did quite a bit of Y2K work and, as a result, there were no issues with any of the systems I was involved in. I did, however, choose to spend millennium eve in the middle of nowhere in Wales, under no flight paths! Just in case others hadn't been as thorough!
It worked out well as OH got down on one knee at midnight and we have been married for 18 years now

aldershot

JoeEngland wrote: »

Wow, you must have a good tolerance for stress if you accept cancelling holidays as a price to pay for extra income.

At one previous employer (investment bank), the internal expense reclaim system had a line item for "unrecoverable expenses from cancelled holidays" There is always a balance between stress and reward but don't shed a tear for those (it used to be me) in the City.

cfw1994

Techno wrote: »

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

Yup, well aware of this logic....which works well for OpEx...less so with CapEx ("let's get XYZ, that will be useful for when we are retired, let's replace the <windows/heating/car/insertMajorItemHere> before the income is lower, let's help the 'kids' with some savings whilst we can", etc !!!)

Bravepants wrote: »

The trick to retiring early is to never live beyond your means.
<snip>
"If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich."

More true words - & an ethos we try to instil in our young adults.

Lomcevak wrote: »

The sole exception is an 18-year-old apprentice who reports to me, who in his first week of employment managed to buy a brand-new £24k car (with nearly £4k insurance) on a £17k salary. D'oh!! :eek:

Well, there is always that point that you are only young once....I did have my share of "hot hatches' in my 20s when I could really have saved money....but you've got to live a little first!!

Enjoy the cheaper things - travel, but when you are young, travel frugally (camping is great, hostels to travel the world, etc).

It is all a big juggling act :easter_ba : let's face it, none of us get out alive, so make the act a world class one! :beer:

Ganga

One thing i have noticed reading all the replies in this post is that a lot of people think that because they have high paid high tech jobs that they are the only ones who found/find their jobs/lifestyle stressfull,i can assure it is something that isfelt in the full spectrum of employment.
Loosing your job when you are the main breadwinner wether you earn six figures or five figures a year is still a person loosing their job.
It could be argued that the people who earned massive salaries should be in a better position to withstand unemployment ( if even temp ).
Only my thoughts/ramblings but i am sure a lot of posters will not agree