Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

TBC15

Overall, I'm really glad I retired earlier than I planned. I just wish I had made better plans and investment choices 10 years ago as I would be in a stronger (and safer) position now.

What would you have done differently?

jim8888

Great post, highlighting some of the less obvious retirement challenges. I convinced myself I was retired at 50 when I was made redundant at work, but after a year I decided to go back to the career I'd pretty much enjoyed. Some of my observations:
1) Sitting at a desk is a killer. I hadn't noticed for 25 years previously, but when I returned to work it was scary, the physical change. (I'd been a regular visitor to the gym on my year out, still am, but I was much more out and about when not working.)
2) Your point about earning v spending is a major psychological challenge. For me, it felt like going from bringing in 2k a month to spending 2k a month instead which, in my book, felt like a 4k a month disparity! Dealing with that, despite spreadsheets telling me I needn't worry, was a worry!
3) Work can be really fulfilling in a way that, say, voluntary work just wasn't. I find it hard to explain why. It was a combination of things for me - money, social, teamwork....plus, I always enjoyed the job I was in, which I know isn't the case for everyone.
4) Having a structure to your day is really important, with defined things to do, people to see, places to go. Otherwise the days just drift, and you find yourself classifying going to the shops to buy some biscuits as a major goal/achievement.
5) Fifty was too young to retire. None of your peers (or none of mine) were in the same position. My wife, part time and enjoying her job, had no interest in giving her job up either, even although she could have. Maybe she was worried of being stuck 24/7 with me (which is only a slight jest).
6) Maybe I didn't stick at being retired long enough. You have to commit to the lifestyle, which can be fantastic. But I just couldn't see myself as retired and fought against it.
7) I chose to go back to work. It's a lot different choosing to work than feeling you have to, and knowing you can leave tomorrow.

Before I was made redundant I was a big fan of the FIRE movement and was making plans along those lines toward that objective. In the end, however, I found I couldn't be a champion for retiring early, but I absolutely would be a cheerleader for ensuring you're Financially Independent.

Anonymous101

jim8888 wrote: »

Great post, highlighting some of the less obvious retirement challenges. I convinced myself I was retired at 50 when I was made redundant at work, but after a year I decided to go back to the career I'd pretty much enjoyed. Some of my observations:
1) Sitting at a desk is a killer. I hadn't noticed for 25 years previously, but when I returned to work it was scary, the physical change. (I'd been a regular visitor to the gym on my year out, still am, but I was much more out and about when not working.)
2) Your point about earning v spending is a major psychological challenge. For me, it felt like going from bringing in 2k a month to spending 2k a month instead which, in my book, felt like a 4k a month disparity! Dealing with that, despite spreadsheets telling me I needn't worry, was a worry!
3) Work can be really fulfilling in a way that, say, voluntary work just wasn't. I find it hard to explain why. It was a combination of things for me - money, social, teamwork....plus, I always enjoyed the job I was in, which I know isn't the case for everyone.
4) Having a structure to your day is really important, with defined things to do, people to see, places to go. Otherwise the days just drift, and you find yourself classifying going to the shops to buy some biscuits as a major goal/achievement.
5) Fifty was too young to retire. None of your peers (or none of mine) were in the same position. My wife, part time and enjoying her job, had no interest in giving her job up either, even although she could have. Maybe she was worried of being stuck 24/7 with me (which is only a slight jest).
6) Maybe I didn't stick at being retired long enough. You have to commit to the lifestyle, which can be fantastic. But I just couldn't see myself as retired and fought against it.
7) I chose to go back to work. It's a lot different choosing to work than feeling you have to, and knowing you can leave tomorrow.

Before I was made redundant I was a big fan of the FIRE movement and was making plans along those lines toward that objective. In the end, however, I found I couldn't be a champion for retiring early, but I absolutely would be a cheerleader for ensuring you're Financially Independent.

Do you think that if you had a very time consuming hobby, which came with its own social circle and offered structure to your days, say 2-3 days a week, that you might have felt differently about your retirement?

I'm already seeing some benefits from pursuing FIRE, particularly F.I. My aspirations to pursue my hobbies much more could see me going part time very early or working full time and retiring in my late 40's. I honestly think that I'd retire from full time work now at 37 and live a very busy fulfilling life. I am aware that this may be a false impression I'm having simply because of the pressures and time constraints of working full time in a fairly stressful job.

OldMusicGuy

TBC15 wrote: »

What would you have done differently?

Followed the advice most people give on here, which is to invest in passive multi-asset funds with a bias towards equities. I was ignorant about investing and was like many posters that come on here. I would have said that I did not want to take any risk, did not trust IFAs and I could not handle downward market movements (did not think long term). Thus many of my pensions were sat in too low-risk investments that did not grow, especially over the bull market run. If I had just lumped everything in the default BlackRock 85 fund that my most recent SIPP sat in, I would have been much better off than I am now.

jim8888 wrote: »

Fifty was too young to retire. None of your peers (or none of mine) were in the same position. My wife, part time and enjoying her job, had no interest in giving her job up either, even although she could have. Maybe she was worried of being stuck 24/7 with me (which is only a slight jest).

I would agree with this. I was still at the top of my game at age 50. It was when I got to 55 that I really started to find the combination of stress and travel taking a toll on my body and my health. Every year after that got harder and harder.

Personal situation and your partner's opinion is also very important. Our son was off to uni when I was aged 57 and after that my wife (who ran her own small business doing soft furnishings) started to get fed up with me being away and preoccupied with work. Once she had more time on her hands and was an "empty nester", she was keen to spend more time with me, as I was with her.

So for me the period between 55 and 60 would have been the ideal time to give up or maybe do consulting work on an ad hoc basis. I also realised that every year after 60 is very precious because your own mortality starts to loom very large on the horizon. So even going 3/4 years earlier than planned will make a big difference to me.

JoeEngland

thriftytracey wrote: »

I was going to wait until aged 60 (I am 59 this month) but the last couple of years I have found work to become increasingly stressful and tiring added to that I seem to be more affected by brain fog and memory issues. So, I made a decision 12 months ago to go in May. Of course Brexit and global market slowdown put loads of doubts in my mind but I decided my health is more important and as my OH is retired I want to spend as much time with him as possible as he has a life limiting condition.

I am counting down now and these months are passing oh so slowly! Added to that a colleague has just moved teams and there are no signs of replacing them, so my workload has now doubled.

I can sympathise with brain fog and how that makes work harder than it has to be. About 20yrs ago I took medication for anxiety and when I came off it a couple of years later it seemed to have permanently affected my memory. And for the last 10yrs I've been on medication for neuralgia which has an advrrse side-effect on memory and cognitive ability. These days I find work much harder because of this but I'm reluctant to tell my manager about it, especially as I'm in the probation period of a new job. Sometimes people probably think I'm an idiot asking certain things even though it's mainly due to the medication wrecking my brain.

Keep hanging in there!

MallyGirl

Our daughter should finish uni in 2025 at the earliest (gap year or 6 year course may change that to a year later). We will then be 58. I suspect that it is going to be hard to carry on working much after that. We are also likely to be without dogs by then as we don't plan to get another one when the current 2 pass. We will probably still have a cat. It is going to be a very empty nest so that would be a good time to travel. Both our employers are open to sabbaticals which might be a way to ease DH into it - I am sure I would not want to go back afterwards but he is undecided.
We are 51 1/2 now so a little way to go yet.

segovia

I need to do some serious culling of expenses, we are hitting a £5,000.00 a month cash burn at the moment. We have no debts, that's just day to day living my rates, water, gas, and electric are nearly £500.00 a month.

J

MallyGirl

my council tax, water, gas and electric are nearly £600 :eek: but I still don't spend £5k a month

Anonymous101

MallyGirl wrote: »

my council tax, water, gas and electric are nearly £600 :eek: but I still don't spend £5k a month

How are they so expensive? Mine are less than half of that!

bugslet

Water, metered 26.00
Gas and electricity 56.00 British gas dual fuel so would get a better desk but CBA
Rates 79.00(12 months)

Three bed semi