When is enough enough

enthusiasticsaver

It is a no brainer and I would say you could afford to go now.  You have £600k of investments, some of which you can access now and some you can access at 55.  You have 16 years to cover until you reach 65 when your DB pension kicks in and will pay you approx £25k per annum which will more than cover your outgoings plus your SP kicks in presumably a year or two after that.  So the £600k only needs to cover 16 years and you can calculate on around 3% growth per annum.  

If you are confident you can manage on £20k per annum and that is certainly doable for a single retired person I think you would be mad to go on working in a job you do not like.  Life is too short. You have no dependants so leaving an inheritance is presumably not something you are bothered about and you have your house to cover additional care costs should you use the whole £600k to cover the early retirement years.  I would do it. 

enthusiasticsaver

The mental preparation for retirement is as important as the financial and you are young but others have done the same. There is a diary called digging up squirrelled nuts by a couple who retired  in late 40s and admittedly retiring as a couple is different to a single person but there are so many options for you to find social contact elsewhere other than work you could easily fill your time.  We retired at 58 but we have children and my pension is lower than my DHs as I had career breaks for childcare and maternity leave reasons.  Our assets were less than your £600k but we do have £38k of DB pensions which we actually ended up taking early even with the reductions on the grounds if we left it until NRD it would push DH into HRT and most people need more income at the beginning of retirement.  We have hobbies, other friends who are retired and a family and grandchildren and manage to easily find enough to occupy our days and have become fitter and definitely happier with no work stress.  We both count our lucky stars we have not had to work through this pandemic although it has meant we are more available for childcare for grandchildren than normally when we are out and about but we are ok with that. 

Langtang

cfw1994 said:

No-brainer!
https://www.cfiresim.com/14f8303e-0626-4884-ab0a-20661261ef9b might help alleviate your concerns, albeit I lumped your 400k savings and 200k DC pot together. 
Numbers-wise you have no issues at all, IMHO....mentally, well, that's your call: figure out how to spend your days happily, & crack on!

Excellent link, thank you. I feel better looking at those numbers. 

Sea_Shell

As the author of the aforementioned Squirrelled Nuts thread, I say on those numbers what are you waiting for.

Go for it!!!


Or, if you don't feel ready, ask to reduce your hours and go part time.

Maybe even a sabbatical, if they allow it.

The cliff isn't quite so daunting if you've stepped half way down it first!!

RetSol

You mention psychotherapy and I think that it might help you transition from your current life to a more fulfilling existence. You have a lot of years ahead of you (hopefully) and need going forward to use your time and energy in ways that are meaningful to you.  Counselling or psychotherapy could be a way of helping you to identify what you need now and what will make you tick from now on.  When you leave your job,  a weekly therapy session would also give some structure to your week.  I left a permanent job at age 46.  I took voluntary severance and had no plan and fewer financial resources than you.  I have never regretted it but it did feel like stepping off a cliff to start with.  I thought at the time that I did not identify with my job. I was wrong!