I feel like retiring at 60 - 65 is too old

CreditCardChris

Ganga said:

Its alright retiring early as long as you have something to do with your life/time. What are you going to do? sit on the couch and watch tv? 

Enjoy waking up naturally without an alarm clock, enjoy being able to take holidays or hiking trips on the fly without having to plan months in advance or find a way of working it into my time off. To wake up and think "sod it, I'm just going to lay on the beach today". Going on a 3 month cross country drive through America without worrying about whether my job will be there when I get back.

Not having to work isn't about sitting on your backside all day watching TV, it's sitting on your backside all day watching TV if you want to.

That's what retirement is, being able to do whatever the hell you want when you want as long as you have the money and your health permits.

Anonymous101

MaxiRobriguez said:

I'm of a similar age (33) and came to a similar conclusion that I wanted out of the workplace way before 60. Currently I'm on target to do it by 50, having started in earnest about 4 years ago.

I'm sacrificing £25k annually into my pension, and putting around £5k annually into an ISA. I use the rest to pay bills, mortgage and have a fair sized pot for weekend jaunts and an annual all inclusive holiday. It seems like a good balance. To give more room on the pension funding, I keep our mortgage LTV high and don't overpay either on the premise that inflation may at some point eat at the debt and even if it doesn't, avoiding 40% tax on pension contributions and using that to pay off the debt in the future is a better move.

I'm anticipating over the next 17 years to end up with a pot of around £750k in the pension and around £150k in the ISA, and that will cover early retirement for both me and the wife (who will receive an NHS pension at 67+ too).

But then I'm well paid, quite frugal, and I'm easily entertained by going on a walk, reading or playing computer games hours on end, so it makes getting into an early retirement position quite straightforward.

If you want it enough, you can get it if you plan for it.

Absolutely.
I read this article this morning and it illustrates very well how little effort it can actually take over a long enough time period.
http://bankeronfire.com/how-to-lose-your-job-in-10-years

I think I've mentioned to you previously that I'm a similar age (38) and have been on the path for around 4 or 5 years too. My starting savings rate was about 20% but through consistent incremental increases (earning more and spending less) I've managed to increase that to around 70%.
My way of thinking is that if you have a clear goal, Financial Independence, which can lead to retiring early... then by keeping that near the front of your mind you're able to make huge strides over a not so huge time frame. Most people just look at the gap from where they are to where they need to be and are put of by the seemingly enormous distance. In reality small changes, especially ones made early, compound over time and so the main large task becomes less and less daunting. 

Ceme3000

CreditCardChris said:

Ganga said:

Its alright retiring early as long as you have something to do with your life/time. What are you going to do? sit on the couch and watch tv? 

Enjoy waking up naturally without an alarm clock, enjoy being able to take holidays or hiking trips on the fly without having to plan months in advance or find a way of working it into my time off. To wake up and think "sod it, I'm just going to lay on the beach today". Going on a 3 month cross country drive through America without worrying about whether my job will be there when I get back.

Not having to work isn't about sitting on your backside all day watching TV, it's sitting on your backside all day watching TV if you want to.

That's what retirement is, being able to do whatever the hell you want when you want as long as you have the money and your health permits.

You are spot on. The freedom to do exactly what you want in the day without 'having' to go to work is priceless. I get that some people are lucky enough to be in jobs they enjoy, myself, I hated work. What I don't get are the comments that seem to think you should only retire early if you have some defined lifestyle plan in place, because otherwise you will end up watching TV all day.  Rubbish! 

I had no lifestyle plan when I finished work 18 months ago and apart from on a couple of hunker down snowy winter days my TV never goes on in the day.  I never set an alarm, I potter about, I keep myself busy on little projects I set myself, i have my hobbies, I find stuff to do! Sometimes though I actually enjoy doing nothing! Nothing for me is chilling in the garden on a hot day, headphones on listening to podcasts, enjoying a home brewed beer!  Why the heck would I choose to work.

barnstar2077

Ceme3000 said:

CreditCardChris said:

Ganga said:

Its alright retiring early as long as you have something to do with your life/time. What are you going to do? sit on the couch and watch tv? 

Enjoy waking up naturally without an alarm clock, enjoy being able to take holidays or hiking trips on the fly without having to plan months in advance or find a way of working it into my time off. To wake up and think "sod it, I'm just going to lay on the beach today". Going on a 3 month cross country drive through America without worrying about whether my job will be there when I get back.

Not having to work isn't about sitting on your backside all day watching TV, it's sitting on your backside all day watching TV if you want to.

That's what retirement is, being able to do whatever the hell you want when you want as long as you have the money and your health permits.

You are spot on. The freedom to do exactly what you want in the day without 'having' to go to work is priceless. I get that some people are lucky enough to be in jobs they enjoy, myself, I hated work. What I don't get are the comments that seem to think you should only retire early if you have some defined lifestyle plan in place, because otherwise you will end up watching TV all day.  Rubbish! 

I had no lifestyle plan when I finished work 18 months ago and apart from on a couple of hunker down snowy winter days my TV never goes on in the day.  I never set an alarm, I potter about, I keep myself busy on little projects I set myself, i have my hobbies, I find stuff to do! Sometimes though I actually enjoy doing nothing! Nothing for me is chilling in the garden on a hot day, headphones on listening to podcasts, enjoying a home brewed beer!  Why the heck would I choose to work.

When I have mentioned my plans to retire early to people at work I have had the response "But what are you going to do all day?" more than once.  Some people seem to be so pre-programmed that they just go with the flow and don't question what they are doing with their time.