Early Retirement - (nearly) one year on

lisyloo

I don’t think everyone has a massive choice of jobs in their 50s.
My partner was made redundant late 40s.
He was a divisional manager in IT.
Absolutely no chance of finding a less qualified job e.g. project management (not done for 10 years) or coding (not done for 20 years).
At his level companies are very picky at finding the right individual.
He was out of work for 12 months before he found somewhere in London.
As it happens it’s highly paid and meant we could afford a bolt hole to avoid a long commute.

Some people may have hobbies they can turn into a job.
DH was not in great physical shape for a job that was in anyway physical.

Just an anecdote but I don’t believe it’s always easy for people in their 50s with an established career.
In particular for men there is a self-esteem aspect.
My view is that women often see themselves as mothers, wives, sisters etc. and value themselves in different ways to men who have a more singular view as a provider (our generation anyway).

So for us I don’t see there was a massive choice.
DH had few options and would have been depressed if for example we’d lost our 5 bed home.

You are extremely lucky if you have a decent paying job with no stress.
I earn less and I work hard and suffer stress from the work pressure (I’m leaving next week for a new job).

For us I’d say it’s worth it to retire at 55 instead of 67, but DH does have high blood pressure (treated).

To say is it worth it there needs to be an alternative and for us the alternativ3 was unemployment, depression, loosing our home, so I’d have to say yes it’s worth it.

People seem to think you can just downshift, but no one would employ DH as a programmer as he wouldn’t have any experience for 20 years and they want someone hungry not someone looking for a stopgap who will move on and not be loyal. In my industry (IT) they want someone who’s hungry for the job.

OldMusicGuy

swindiff wrote: »

All of you guys that mention high levels of stress in your previous employment which caused health issues. Were you particularly well paid and was it worth it at the time? Did high earnings enable you to retire 10 years earlier than would have otherwise been possible? I dont earn a fortune, but not on the poverty line either at just over £40k with a decent DB pension, but my job causes me no stress whatsoever.

Great questions. I think quite a lot of people posting about pensions tend to be from "professional" jobs which are often well paid but involve stress. I also worked for large American companies for most of my life and in all of them there was a noticeable "long hours" culture (being first in the office and last out). I also worked in the IT industry for over 30 years and as that was largely a new (and US-dominated) industry, the culture in that industry was very much long hours, lots of stress but also lots of fun and good rewards if you worked hard and were successful.

So if I look at myself 5 years ago, I had ended up in a senior position (because I had a lot of experience) and was paid very well (into six figures). I loved my job but it was very stressful. I was in a client-facing role and everything I did was tracked and scored by both my clients and my managers, we had to maintain very high satisfaction scores and were subject to pretty brutal annual performance reviews. I had done the same job for quite a long time so was pretty good at it but found that once I reached 55 the constant demands to "perform" coupled with lots of travel just got too much. Despite still really enjoying some aspects of the work, I had to stop.

Did the good pay allow me to retire early? If I had invested my DC pensions better 10 to 15 years ago, I would definitely have been able to retire at 55 if I wanted. It has allowed me to retire at 60 though and I'm happy about that.

The key message is that however much you earn, the earlier you think about pensions and saving, the more options you will have in later life.

ams25

Superb post OMG (Omg Omg! ). I quit my (stressful) corporate job at 52 about 2.5 years ago but with primary age school kids I'm more retired from the corporate world than retired full stop, but my experience reasonates. Less time to do stuff than you think (plus kids eh), but more relaxed generally, feel healthier, gym 3 or 4 times a week, just about got used to changing from lifetime saver to spending down my savings.... (a real mind f&&$ but gets easier every year right...). 100% no regrets....enjoyed my 30+ year career but was done.

Like the format..perhaps will borrow it..be good to see others adopt too. Sharing stories can only be helpful.

ukdw

akh43 wrote: »

I will be getting a DB pension of approx £1,070 a month as I am taking the full lump sum of approx £85k (£48k of this is AVC's I have been paying into for past 4 years) these figures are from July 18 quote and have had wage increase since then so new figures will be a little higher. As I have been paying AVC's of £1k a month for past few years I am used to living on approx £200 less than my monthly pension will be and have saved money on that income so I am sure I will manage fine on my pension.

I was considering limiting my lump sum to my AVC level due to my 15:1 lump sum commutation ratio.

Is taking a smaller lump sum or making a one off AVC contribution to bring your AVCs up to the max lump sum level an option for you?

Whether it is worth doing depends on whether you need the extra £37k lump sum (or £29,600 net extra AVC contribution) and what your pension commutation ratio/payback period is.

crv1963

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

swindiff wrote: »

All of you guys that mention high levels of stress in your previous employment which caused health issues. Were you particularly well paid and was it worth it at the time? Did high earnings enable you to retire 10 years earlier than would have otherwise been possible? I dont earn a fortune, but not on the poverty line either at just over £40k with a decent DB pension, but my job causes me no stress whatsoever.

I think that in the scheme of things that I was well paid, and that I am in my current role. I've moved up, across and down during my career. Was it worth it? On balance for me personally then yes, I can honestly say that I have and am enjoying my working life.

I do think that especially for professions you can get trapped. I know and have worked with many who fear changing role because they like what they earn but necessarily what they do.

Think OMG has hit the nail on the head with- "The key message is that however much you earn, the earlier you think about pensions and saving, the more options you will have in later life".

Had I given this process of retiring at 55 serious thought 10 years ago we would have retired at 55 instead of being in the position of trying to make sure I go at 60. Playing catch up at 55 is no where as easy as starting earlier.

JoeEngland

lisyloo wrote: »

I don’t think everyone has a massive choice of jobs in their 50s.
My partner was made redundant late 40s.
He was a divisional manager in IT.
Absolutely no chance of finding a less qualified job e.g. project management (not done for 10 years) or coding (not done for 20 years).
At his level companies are very picky at finding the right individual.
He was out of work for 12 months before he found somewhere in London.
As it happens it’s highly paid and meant we could afford a bolt hole to avoid a long commute.

Some people may have hobbies they can turn into a job.
DH was not in great physical shape for a job that was in anyway physical.

Just an anecdote but I don’t believe it’s always easy for people in their 50s with an established career.
In particular for men there is a self-esteem aspect.
My view is that women often see themselves as mothers, wives, sisters etc. and value themselves in different ways to men who have a more singular view as a provider (our generation anyway).

So for us I don’t see there was a massive choice.
DH had few options and would have been depressed if for example we’d lost our 5 bed home.

You are extremely lucky if you have a decent paying job with no stress.
I earn less and I work hard and suffer stress from the work pressure (I’m leaving next week for a new job).

For us I’d say it’s worth it to retire at 55 instead of 67, but DH does have high blood pressure (treated).

To say is it worth it there needs to be an alternative and for us the alternativ3 was unemployment, depression, loosing our home, so I’d have to say yes it’s worth it.

People seem to think you can just downshift, but no one would employ DH as a programmer as he wouldn’t have any experience for 20 years and they want someone hungry not someone looking for a stopgap who will move on and not be loyal. In my industry (IT) they want someone who’s hungry for the job.

I work in IT and know how difficult it can be if you want to downshift you're role. Because of the nature of IT, technical skills can quickly become out of date if you've not been programming for a while. If you have more generic skills like project management or business analysis those skills don't erode as fast, but probably still have a sell by date.

Spreadsheetman

JoeEngland wrote: »

That's interesting what you say about being tired all the time. I'm 52 and have noticed in the last couple of years that I feel more tired. Is this something many people in their 50s and working FT experience? In my case it doesn't help that my body clock is late to bed and late to rise, so the weekday alarm has always been a major thorn in my side!

Absolutely. I've just turned 57 and over the last 5 years or so work has just got increasingly mentally draining. It's not the workload that has changed, it's my resilience / enthusiasm / energy not being what it was.

Fortunately I'm going part time this autumn so that should hopefully make things more manageable for the remaining year or so before I stop completely.

ams25

swindiff wrote: »

All of you guys that mention high levels of stress in your previous employment which caused health issues. Were you particularly well paid and was it worth it at the time? Did high earnings enable you to retire 10 years earlier than would have otherwise been possible? I dont earn a fortune, but not on the poverty line either at just over £40k with a decent DB pension, but my job causes me no stress whatsoever.

I had well paid but high stress jobs from my mid 20s and enjoyed my career and the pressure up to my 40s, but then started to get burn out symptoms. By around 50 I realised it was a health issue if I carried on. Always thought I would go to 55ish but at 51 even 4 more years seemed untenable so planned my exit.

I was lucky in that I started saving and investing as soon as I started earning (was not really sure why...no FIRE movement back in the 1980s) and living modestly (rather than frugally) which meant I could stop at a relatively young age. As I enjoyed it most of the time and because now I hopefully have a good few years to enjoy the fruits I would say it was worth it, but I would have a very different view if I had not saved and or spent excessively and been forced to work another 10 years.

I am sure many people here are self selecting savers by nature, but to anyone here with a demanding job (aren't most these days) at their career peak 30s and 40s don't assume you 'll feel the same in your 50s. The more options (financial resources) you have available to you later the better even if it means some sacrifices today. Imho and experience.

MallyGirl

Very true - another IT worker here. It does allow me to work from home with a bit of travel to the office (needs an overnight stay so limit to once a month) or to clients at the beginning and end of projects. I moved from programming to a role where the delivery tool is Word - I wouldn't want to go back and try to compete with kids who grew up coding in their bedrooms.
I recently had my first job interview in 20 years and the feedback on why it was a 'no' was that I didn't have 'a passion' for the technology involved. Very true - it is just a job and I reserve my passions for things closer to home.
I suspect I will stick with current employer until retirement or till they don't want me anymore and have to pay me to go away. With 15 years service a redundancy payment would probably be enough to make the retirement decision for me.

swindiff

I work in academia so was never going to earn a fortune but think I have a good life-work balance. When I was younger I always assumed I would retire at 65, but have fairly recently reevaluated my situation and have decided that 60 is the age for me. Currently 48 and started seriously paying more into the DC part of my pension about 18 months ago. Am currently salary sacrificing 1/3 of my salary. If I can continue to do that when I do retire at 60 I will not be taking a pay cut to retire, in fact I will likely be better off in retirement than I am working.