The beauty of nearing retirement is...

quirkydeptless

vulcanrtb said:

This thread has got rather interesting. One side simply can't understand the other. For me, it's obvious that retiring as early as possible is the way to go, but for the 'other side' it's obvious I'm wrong. Neither of us are right, of course.
You do what you want to do, and so will everyone else  👍

.........

enthusiasticsaver

My husband and I took early retirement some 3 or 4 years ago in our late 50s and never regretted it.  The benefits to us of no longer being wound up by the daft changes both of our employers brought in during the later years of our working lives.  Luckily we had saved and both had decent pensions so financially we have as good a level of income as when working.  We have interests and friends and family which keep us occupied during the hours we did spend working.  I am not sure why it was that we suddenly both stopped enjoying work but it did coincide with a period of change in both our industries and unfortunately listening to people who are still working things have not improved since. We feel we were lucky in being able to leave when we did. 

enthusiasticsaver

bostonerimus said:

EdSwippet said:

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

My point was that your work should not dominate your life so that the transition between working life and retirement is not major. I would say that it's a pity that you didn't do the things you seem to be enjoying in retirement while you were still working.

I would agree to a certain extent and indeed some of our interests and pastimes we enjoyed while working have been enjoyed more in retirement simply because time is more plentiful.  However for most of us work not only takes up a great deal of time but also energy and some challenges I have taken on since retirement are simply because I have time and energy now to enjoy them.  When you are working it is all too easy to spend weekends and weeks off just catching up on jobs at home, enjoying downtime with the odd holiday and social occasion thrown in.  Only when I retired did I really think about things I wanted to do while I was still fit and relatively healthy.  When I was working and bringing up a family there never seemed to be a time when I could focus on things I wanted to do. Retirement helped me redress the balance.

Dazza1902

I have been a tradesmen most of my working life. I did work for 10 yrs in a corporate environment and remember having to doff my cap and tow the line, politics etc which I hated.
Being self employed brought a new set of issues, not enough work, mostly too much work, unrealistic customer s, delayed payments, etc.
The beauty of nearing retirement for me is I can now pick what work, what customers , what hours. It's a failing body , coupled with wanting more time for me, that drives my wish to retire. Most of the people and the interaction with them I shall miss. The physical hard work and grime I can do without.
I have plenty of hobbies and interests , summertime I can fill. I do however worry slightly about being bored in winter. So I can see both sides of this discussion.

Ibrahim5

I retired early feeling exhausted and burned out. I had never had a good break. The first 6 months just felt great. After a while I started missing the interactions and the teamwork. You could meet old work colleagues at the pub but it's not the same as having a challenge that you work together to overcome. So I thought of returning. The thought of setting the alarm clock every day made me realise that I couldn't go back. I now class myself as 'unemployable'. I always thought the transition from working to retired could be stressful. The question for me was whether delaying it made it easier or harder. I decided that making the change at a younger age would be easier. The longer I did the same thing everyday the harder it would be to change. So unless you are planning on dying on the job I think it's best to retire early.

trevjl

I am in this quandary myself.

I enjoy my job, mostly. Enjoy the traveling, currently sat in quarantine hotel room in Thailand for 14 days, waiting to do a 12 day job ! But when in the works, although local management is mostly fine, the H&S and bull that comes down from head office is killing me.

I have crunched the numbers through cfw1994's spreadsheet a million times and I can go, but do I really really want to ???

I have always said I would go at 60 (Nov 22) but not sure I can last till then. Thinking maybe next Spring would be a good time and apparently I only have to apply to go on the T W a T shift, for a 3 day week. Maybe that's the way to go. (edited as when i put letters together it just comes up wit !!!!!)

gundo

It's interesting reading here how so many rely on work for social interaction. My social interaction comes from my personal life not my work life. I don't dislike my colleagues but they're mostly just acquaintances. One reply even said that they meet younger people at work. Well I guess I'm very fortunate in that my hobbies give ample opportunities to mix with people from all backgrounds and ages, and also gives opportunities to travel both in UK and frequently abroad. The people I met in this way have much more in common other than being thrown together by financial necessity and circumstances, in fact we share a common interest, dare I say passion for that pastime. That group of people transcends nationalities and is very international, I can travel through most of Europe, America and even parts of Asia and meet people I know and I consider are friends. I don't get that from my job, working in an office in some fairly anonymous provincial city.

As others have said, each to their own. As soon as it's financial prudent, I'll retire with pleasure and relish for future possibilities.

cfw1994

trevjl said:

I am in this quandary myself.

I enjoy my job, mostly. Enjoy the traveling, currently sat in quarantine hotel room in Thailand for 14 days, waiting to do a 12 day job ! But when in the works, although local management is mostly fine, the H&S and bull that comes down from head office is killing me.

I have crunched the numbers through cfw1994's spreadsheet a million times and I can go, but do I really really want to ???

I have always said I would go at 60 (Nov 22) but not sure I can last till then. Thinking maybe next Spring would be a good time and apparently I only have to apply to go on the !!!!!! shift, for a 3 day week. Maybe that's the way to go.

Just on your last point: I started this discussion back in Nov19 - was wondering the best time to 'step away'...I sort of felt either just at the end of a tax year or a bit either side felt right, both financially but also weather-wise....

Well, I left at the start of May, and think it was perfect 😎👍   Well, the weather has been....variable, but actually, that is one reason I *like* British weather.   I've spent enough time in California to know the constant sunshine would drive me crazy!
   
Actually, we have pretty decent March and April's, so maybe those might be better....but into May gets some salary in the new tax year which (if HRT) might lead to some tax refund later

It has been great having a decent 3 months to kick things off with, & more of summer to enjoy - we like the odd festival, so that feels like a proper break even during this cray pandemic.   Hopefully next spring won't be as locked down as this...

Enjoy the spreadsheet! 
& remember: nobody has a crystal ball on things (not you, not me, & nor do IFA/FAs, of course 😉), so keep calm, stay in control and remain flexible....that's our plan, at least....let's see how we are all doing in 10 or 20 years!

jimi_man

I was fortunate enough to have an enjoyable job that wasn't the best or the worst paid in the world (police) but came with one of the best pensions in the world that commenced when I had done my 30 years at 51. I missed the banter/colleagues for a while but after a few months I went back to work - I had always planned to do this with two children at uni - and I contracted for two years (ironically, initially back with the same force that I had just left) before accepting a job in the Civil service. 

I plan to work another 18 months or so and then stop completely. I may go part time for the last year, the Civil Service are pretty good around that sort of stuff. 

The main point being that I have done the hard break when I retired from the police. I consider the people I work with now just colleagues and that's it. Working from home I rarely see anyone anyway, so when I leave it will be a very painless parting. I'll be 57/58. My wife will be a similar age and she'll stop too. We both have a plan of what we want to do and have hobbies that we want to develop further, some joint and some not. I have no intention of getting another job or voluntary work to fill my time.  

gundo

cfw1994 said:

Enjoy the spreadsheet! 

I love a good spreadsheet! What is this spreadsheet? Can I get it too please?