To those who retired early, what made you take the plunge (and any regrets?)

agent69

Took early retirement February last year, with a plan to travel the world and see all the sights.

Then Covid struck .....

brewerdave

Made redundant for the 3rd time @ 58 - and each job had been much less fulfilling than the previous one. Decided to have a few months out of the rat race but by the time I started looking around for work again, the financial crash of  2008 had really knocked the bottom out of the jobs market, so I decided to take one of my DB pensions and pack it all in .

blisteringblue

I retire in 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours    Not that I am counting.
I am only 53, so have to self fund for 18 months.   All my spreadsheets say I can afford it, so lets give it a go.   What's the worst that happens?  I have the luxury that I can pick up some freelance if needed?
Current job can be stressful, but don't think that is the reason I am going?  Always planned on only working till I was 55 but I think since covid I'm firmly in the "life's too short" bracket now so am trusting all my spreadsheets. 
  
Go on, take the plunge .....

ErinGoBrath

I am going at 55 and a bit if finances allow. See my signature for details.

cfw1994

blisteringblue said:

I retire in 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours    Not that I am counting.
I am only 53, so have to self fund for 18 months.   All my spreadsheets say I can afford it, so lets give it a go.   What's the worst that happens?  I have the luxury that I can pick up some freelance if needed?
Current job can be stressful, but don't think that is the reason I am going?  Always planned on only working till I was 55 but I think since covid I'm firmly in the "life's too short" bracket now so am trusting all my spreadsheets. 
  
Go on, take the plunge .....

I'll take your 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours, & raise (lower!) it.....36d, or 14½wd, or 92 working hours.......
High stress countdowns....
I suspect a LOT of working people have spent much of the past year evaluating their life choices, options, and what is really important to them.  In the inexorable fight between time & money, time has to take a lead at some point.

blisteringblue

cfw1994 said:

I'll take your 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours, & raise (lower!) it.....36d, or 14½wd, or 92 working hours.......
High stress countdowns....
I suspect a LOT of working people have spent much of the past year evaluating their life choices, options, and what is really important to them.  In the inexorable fight between time & money, time has to take a lead at some point.

Haha love it, I did almost beat you, I was leaving 2 weeks ago, but my company surprised me by actually recruiting my replacement right away, so I agreed to stay on for a formal handover.  Wasn't like I had a new job to goto 😂

zagubov

blisteringblue said:

cfw1994 said:

I'll take your 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours, & raise (lower!) it.....36d, or 14½wd, or 92 working hours.......
High stress countdowns....
I suspect a LOT of working people have spent much of the past year evaluating their life choices, options, and what is really important to them.  In the inexorable fight between time & money, time has to take a lead at some point.

Haha love it, I did almost beat you, I was leaving 2 weeks ago, but my company surprised me by actually recruiting my replacement right away, so I agreed to stay on for a formal handover.  Wasn't like I had a new job to goto 😂

That's how it should be. I've always advocated phasing in retirement and also phasing in new employees with a mix of part-time education and employment.
They should have kept day-release in-work training, expanded the Open University massively instead of turning all the polytechnics/HE colleges into full-time degree factories.
I retired at 59, went back to work full-time and am reducing my work gradually to fewer days per week  as the years go by.
No regrets.
Still keeping the social benefits and contacts of work, still using the skills it took a lifetime to develop, lots more financial security.
Might not suit everybody but exactly right for me.

cfw1994

blisteringblue said:

cfw1994 said:

I'll take your 44 days or 28 working days or 1033 hours, & raise (lower!) it.....36d, or 14½wd, or 92 working hours.......
High stress countdowns....
I suspect a LOT of working people have spent much of the past year evaluating their life choices, options, and what is really important to them.  In the inexorable fight between time & money, time has to take a lead at some point.

Haha love it, I did almost beat you, I was leaving 2 weeks ago, but my company surprised me by actually recruiting my replacement right away, so I agreed to stay on for a formal handover.  Wasn't like I had a new job to goto 😂

Let’s call it an honourable draw 😂
My replacement has also already been sorted (internally, I was on the panel to interview).  

Luckily they are already well versed in the products....I just need to handover my secret list of networked contacts, as zagubov put it, built up over decades, & I can relax knowing things can still work well....after all, I will still own some shares in the place!

Dansmam

agent69 said:

Took early retirement February last year, with a plan to travel the world and see all the sights.

Then Covid struck .....

Sympathise - I went in July with plans to travel as soon as lockdown ended. Little did any of us know... Still, we've had plenty of time to research, read maps and plan 😉

Parking_Trouble

I was in a well paid job, worked most of the time from home in the final few years. I planned for retirement at 60 but left at 61. I could have carried on forever but I had grown tired of it, the politics and people who couldn't grasp better ways of working. I'd  lost focus and zest for the job.
I retired 20 months ago and I have really enjoyed it so far. Lots of projects and holidays at the start.

We have no worries financially. Better off I think since I stopped saving and the nest emptied.

Covid has been a problem for travel but building an over-engineered shed and BBQ shack single handed has kept me occupied.
I really like (most of the) time being my own. It's like every day is a weekend day. I find days whizz by. Only the dog walking is a fixed (but enjoyable) routine.

My wife still works part time. She doesn't like the fact that (most of the) time is my own and thinks I should be 'working' 10 hours a day 7 days a week. 

Looking forward to three UK holidays as restrictions lift. Hopefully a Caribbean cruise early next year.

No regrets. I don't miss work at all. The camaraderie dissipated years ago. My longstanding work friendships were established more than 20 years ago.