It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

OldScientist

Sea_Shell said:

Kim1965 said:

There has been so much coverage of the 600000 boomers who have retired early  in the last 2 yrs. Driving wage nflation, causing skill shoertages. So apart from taxing these people back to work, how else can early retirees be encouraged back into economic activity for the greater good...? I am starting to feel guilty about thinking of retirement at 58 lol

Ah, now you see that doesn't include me!!   I retired over 3 years ago, and I'm not a boomer.   

We'd already "seen the light" before Covid.

What would it take to encourage me back to work..."all the tea in China" might do it.   But then again, no.

If our plan goes south, then there probably wouldn't be an economy left to get a job in!!

The same for me - I'd retired from full time work 3 years ago aged 56. I did subsequently do a short term contract with my old employer that paid on hourly rates that were about 50% higher than what I'd effectively been paid previously (because I actually got paid for the hours I did). Since then I've done stuff that has interested me for free (e.g. 4 scientific papers and 2 papers, so far, on aspects of retirement finance). Of course, free work doesn't count economically, even though it can be valuable.

Because our plan relies on my DB pension in the early years, it might fail if inflation moves higher than about 15% for more than a few years or my DB pension falls into the pension protection fund before I reach state pension age.

MK62

If inflation moves higher than 15% for "more than a few years", I doubt you'd be facing retirement plan failure alone......

Kim1965

Interesting replies. As i am working full time (day off today) I struggle to envisage life without work, having said that, i know i dont want to work full time., but i will need to do something pt to make the numbers work. 
 So i wonder how difficult was it to acclimatise to retirement? It also seems that if the Gov are to "encourage" retirees back to work, they have very unwilling subject. 
 

CarolWHerts

I retired in 2021 at 60, although this was planned thanks to a nice DB pension built up earlier in my career.

So now I fill my time with volunteer shifts at the local vaccination centre, volunteering with a couple of local arts organisations and, the biggest time commitment, caring for a disabled friend and my elderly and disabled parents, helping them live more independently in their own homes.

None of this is paid work, so doesn't appear in the national income statistics or contribute to 'growth', but I would argue that it's certainly a contribution to a better community. I expect many of the newly retired will be doing similar things.

I did enjoy my job, which in theory could be done flexibly, but found that providing serious support to elderly and disabled people, particularly navigating the NHS system, requires a seriously empty diary, otherwise you're always letting someone down. And it wasn't necessary, so I stopped.

Silverbullet036

I think I can top most of you , I 'retired' at 49 in 2018 and there's absolutely no chance whatsoever of me going back to that daily grind. My wife has decided to join me at the end of march next year and she will be 55. We feel like we have bought ourseves 'time' , time spent with more than likely the best health we are ever going to have left.

Being frugal and careful not to waste money on pointless material possessions has paid off. Accumulation phase complete and decumulation phase about to begin

OldScientist

Kim1965 said:

Interesting replies. As i am working full time (day off today) I struggle to envisage life without work, having said that, i know i dont want to work full time., but i will need to do something pt to make the numbers work. 
 So i wonder how difficult was it to acclimatise to retirement? It also seems that if the Gov are to "encourage" retirees back to work, they have very unwilling subject. 
 

Acclimatisation is not the same for everyone and not necessarily trivial. In my own case, I was exceedingly happy to stop work (essentially because it was exacerbating my mental health issues), but I missed a number of aspects of work (many colleagues, occasional satisfaction over a job well done), but not others (interminable meetings, unrealistic targets where everyone had to be above average, and an ever increasing workload for diminishing appreciation). It probably took a year before I stopped having a nagging guilty feeling (in that year, I undertook the short contract I mentioned above, but also ended up with a relatively mild form of long covid that did put things into perspective).

Having things outside of work that you like to do and that make you happy is essential... personally mine include gardening, walking (the long covid put paid to running - hopefully, I'll be able to start again eventually), photography, reading, music making, writing, (some) DIY, and having the space and time to think. Oh, and interacting with the odd internet forum here and there!

MallyGirl

Our challenge as a couple is that I would stop tomorrow as I don't like my job and have plenty of things I would rather be doing (gardening, running, walking, travel, reading, volunteering, learning new stuff) whereas OH doesn't really have hobbies. He would enjoy the travel and walking, and he'd be able to get more out of his swim membership, but he is not sure what else he would do. Amongst our friends we are not the only ones with this mismatch.
I have agreed to stick it out till daughter finishes Uni when we will be 59. After that if he wants to stay on that will be his choice but it won't be mine. I suspect that when it comes to it he won't want to be working when I am not.

NedS

Kim1965 said:

There has been so much coverage of the 600000 boomers who have retired early  in the last 2 yrs. Driving wage inflation, causing skill shortages. So apart from taxing these people back to work, how else can early retirees be encouraged back into economic activity for the greater good...? I am starting to feel guilty about thinking of retirement at 58 lol

I've not retired yet, but I'm pretty close. Events at work are only bringing that forward.

What would entice me to stay a little longer, or to return to work had I retired - feeling appreciated and being able to make a meaningful contribution in the work I do - not something I feel at present. So I will shortly be joining the ranks of 50-somethings that are economically inactive through choice. Do I feel guilty - no, I just feel completed unappreciated and under-valued, but certainly not guilty.

michaels

Big picture though is workers 'produce stuff' and non-workers don't so if there is a lower proportion of workers then there is less stuff per head to consume.  How that plays out in practice is that wages and prices will get bid up (even when retired we all intend to carry on consuming stuff) so our pots will buy less.  This is probably just a reversal of the impact of QE that inflated asset prices relative to earnings which is what made people feel rich enough to retire early in the first place.

LHW99

michaels said:

Big picture though is workers 'produce stuff' and non-workers don't so if there is a lower proportion of workers then there is less stuff per head to consume.  How that plays out in practice is that wages and prices will get bid up (even when retired we all intend to carry on consuming stuff) so our pots will buy less.  This is probably just a reversal of the impact of QE that inflated asset prices relative to earnings which is what made people feel rich enough to retire early in the first place.

Thing is a large proportion of the UK economy is services, which don't really produce "stuff" to consume, and a good proportion of the services will be B2B. Yes there is hospitality, but other services provided to consumers such as NHS, elderly care, cleaning don't have much headroom for price increases, even if they are still being consumed.