How close am I to my early retirement?

MallyGirl

Reading is my area. Property that is worth living in moves very quickly. Everywhere you look there are new flats being built and they don't stay vacant for long. As long as your flat is walking distance from the station (and therefore also the town centre) then it won't be a bad investment as long as there isn't a property crash. The biggest issue is the lack of new schools to match the new builds but a one bed flat isn't for families with school age children anyway. 

I have done that commute - it is not fun as you are likely to have to stand most days (once covid is past) unless you get a train around 7am. You can save money by splitting the ticket at Maidenhead for a 10 minute hit on the journey time.

IamWood

Thank you very much @MallyGirl. This is very helpful.

I sent you a private message regarding the flat if you don't mind. Thank you!

Roger175

IamWood said:

I have now formally resigned from my current job and the new job starts in early February. Funny though my current employer has suddenly found extra funds and is willing to give me a big pay rise. They provided a counter-offer, for which I politely declined. However, they insisted and promised that they would like to match my offer if I could share the number. I seriously doubted they would if they knew the number was more than doubled. Anyway, I did not share any details of my offer and handed in my resignation letter. 

TBH, their behaviour to retain me simply pushed me away. I understood they simply panicked and were afraid to lose my in-depth knowledge of the system. Well, they should blame themselves for taking everything for granted for so long.

I also made an offer for a one-bed flat in Reading. Am I too hasty in this process? Should I wait a while before making a firm commitment to purchase the flat?

Your advice is always welcome.

Thank you!

Update:

My boss just sent me another email for one more chat after New Year regarding my current position and pay. I know it's not a good idea to stay with current employment after resignation. Should I decline it or attend the meeting to see what he would like to say?

I have been in the position of your current employer, allow me to offer a little insight - Until last March I was a very long term director in a practice specialising in construction cost advice. We had built the practice up over many years but were always in a difficult position when it came to recruitment. There seemed to be a maximum rate which we could charge for services in our area, above which clients were just not prepared to pay. Despite the fact that we offered a very competent and professional services, there was always a one-man-band freelancer somewhere, who could do it cheaper (the type who works off their kitchen table with no overheads), so quoting for work was incredibly difficult. One had to keep rates low enough to maintain a constant supply of work to keep the staff busy, whilst desperately trying to keep it high enough to cover the overheads and pay the staff a reasonable rate. Yet, despite knowing these difficulties, some of the staff were constantly demanding higher and higher wages. We operated in a town mid way between several large cities and we simply couldn't complete with city wages and furthermore, we found many Building Contractors would often poach our staff (many of whom we had spend years training), simple because they could offer more, because they were able to adjust their overheads almost on a job by job basis. This lead to a situation where we, the directors, found ourselves earning less than some of the higher paid staff. This despite the fact that they took little responsibility (in terms of running the business and the associated risk/stress), they simply worked their hours and then went home to a relaxing night in front of the TV, leaving me and the other directors fretting and laying awake all night worrying how we would cope. After many years of this, I just couldn't cope any longer and have now left and joined the freelance brigade. On a personal level, it was the best thing I ever did, but I still have years of resentment about how we were treated by some of the staff. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand it from their point of view and can understand why they would chase the money, but please don't feel you were being hard done-by. You seem to be suggesting that your employer has miraculously found the money to pay you more and implying that he should have been doing this all along, I suspect that is very far from the truth. He is probably panicking, knowing that he will find it very difficult to replace you in the current climate and trying anything to retain you, despite the fact that he probably cant afford it.

jamesd

MallyGirl said:

You can save money by splitting the ticket at Maidenhead for a 10 minute hit on the journey time.

Sometimes this rule can be useful:

14.2. If you are using a Season Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as a concessionary pass, ranger or rover in conjunction with another Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then the train does not need to call at that station for your combination to be valid.

Since it overrides the usual:

14.1. Unless shown below, you may use a combination of two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train services you use call at the station(s) where you change from one Ticket to another.

It's something I've used from time to time with regional rangers, though interestingly a guard who knew I was using a ranger told me that I could only buy if the train stopped at the station I was adding from, so knowledge may be uneven.

I don't know whether the Reading to Maidenhead season plus Maidenhead to say Paddington combination would be cheaper than direct to Paddington, though.

Also worth looking into whatever potential the Network Gold card you can get for having a season ticket in the area might offer, though I think that's limited to no earlier than 9:30AM. Extra tickets to connect with a place the train departs from after 9:30 can be an option so you're using the discount for much of the journey.

Of course you're the local expert, it's been a few decades since I lived in London.

jamesd

IamWood said:

My boss just sent me another email for one more chat after New Year regarding my current position and pay. I know it's not a good idea to stay with current employment after resignation. Should I decline it or attend the meeting to see what he would like to say?

You'll still be working there so if your boss wants to meet you, do what your boss says.

No great harm to tell the boss why you left in as much detail as you like. Retirement and winding down happens and it's perhaps possible that you'll be offered some form of consulting contract that can viably be combined with the new job. You might ponder what you'd want from such a contract, if you'd take it at all.

IamWood

Roger175 said:

IamWood said:

I have now formally resigned from my current job and the new job starts in early February. Funny though my current employer has suddenly found extra funds and is willing to give me a big pay rise. They provided a counter-offer, for which I politely declined. However, they insisted and promised that they would like to match my offer if I could share the number. I seriously doubted they would if they knew the number was more than doubled. Anyway, I did not share any details of my offer and handed in my resignation letter. 

TBH, their behaviour to retain me simply pushed me away. I understood they simply panicked and were afraid to lose my in-depth knowledge of the system. Well, they should blame themselves for taking everything for granted for so long.

I also made an offer for a one-bed flat in Reading. Am I too hasty in this process? Should I wait a while before making a firm commitment to purchase the flat?

Your advice is always welcome.

Thank you!

Update:

My boss just sent me another email for one more chat after New Year regarding my current position and pay. I know it's not a good idea to stay with current employment after resignation. Should I decline it or attend the meeting to see what he would like to say?

I have been in the position of your current employer, allow me to offer a little insight - Until last March I was a very long term director in a practice specialising in construction cost advice. We had built the practice up over many years but were always in a difficult position when it came to recruitment. There seemed to be a maximum rate which we could charge for services in our area, above which clients were just not prepared to pay. Despite the fact that we offered a very competent and professional services, there was always a one-man-band freelancer somewhere, who could do it cheaper (the type who works off their kitchen table with no overheads), so quoting for work was incredibly difficult. One had to keep rates low enough to maintain a constant supply of work to keep the staff busy, whilst desperately trying to keep it high enough to cover the overheads and pay the staff a reasonable rate. Yet, despite knowing these difficulties, some of the staff were constantly demanding higher and higher wages. We operated in a town mid way between several large cities and we simply couldn't complete with city wages and furthermore, we found many Building Contractors would often poach our staff (many of whom we had spend years training), simple because they could offer more, because they were able to adjust their overheads almost on a job by job basis. This lead to a situation where we, the directors, found ourselves earning less than some of the higher paid staff. This despite the fact that they took little responsibility (in terms of running the business and the associated risk/stress), they simply worked their hours and then went home to a relaxing night in front of the TV, leaving me and the other directors fretting and laying awake all night worrying how we would cope. After many years of this, I just couldn't cope any longer and have now left and joined the freelance brigade. On a personal level, it was the best thing I ever did, but I still have years of resentment about how we were treated by some of the staff. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand it from their point of view and can understand why they would chase the money, but please don't feel you were being hard done-by. You seem to be suggesting that your employer has miraculously found the money to pay you more and implying that he should have been doing this all along, I suspect that is very far from the truth. He is probably panicking, knowing that he will find it very difficult to replace you in the current climate and trying anything to retain you, despite the fact that he probably cant afford it.

Thank you @Roger175.

I understand your points perfectly and appreciate them.

I hope I didn't give the impression that I was always chasing the money which is far from the truth as you can see from my original post.

The two companies are in completely different fields and understandably on different pay scales regardless of regional differences. Several years ago, I joined my current company accepting a massive pay cut just because it would make my life easier so I could have more time with my children. I understood they might pay me at the high end compared to the regional pay scales due to my unique skill set. I've had a limited pay raise over the years and the reason was that they didn't want the imbalanced pay range in the firm. I accepted it because it was my personal choice anyway.

My children are now ready to go to universities and don't need me as much as before. The new job offers me a chance to return to my original fields which happen to be highly paid in the current situation.

I will attend the meeting requested by my boss and share all my honest thoughts. I may still decide to leave, but at least I'm honest with myself.

Thanks to you all for all your helpful advice!

SMcGill

Should I decline it or attend the meeting to see what he would like to say?

It costs you nothing to have a final meeting as long as you can stay calm, polite and firm.

IamWood

I replied to my boss and explained everything honestly. The boss responded with all the exciting opportunities he could offer and would like to explain them to me in person. However, the counter-offer is not mentioned. I'm a little annoyed, to be honest. I feel he is not ready to match the number of my new job offers but hesitated to say so.

I only hope to finish this chapter of my career gracefully, but at the moment it seems very frustrating to just let me go peacefully .

MaxiRobriguez

IamWood said:

I replied to my boss and explained everything honestly. The boss responded with all the exciting opportunities he could offer and would like to explain them to me in person. However, the counter-offer is not mentioned. I'm a little annoyed, to be honest. I feel he is not ready to match the number of my new job offers but hesitated to say so.

I only hope to finish this chapter of my career gracefully, but at the moment it seems very frustrating to just let me go peacefully .

Just keep calm and continue to make considered, informed and polite decisions to both your old/new employer. There is no need to be annoyed.

IamWood

Thank you!

I'll respond with a clearer decision on my part if it is not at all clear with a formal resignation letter.  My commitment to honouring my acceptance of my new job offer would be enough for them to accept my resignation?

I always thought that every employee is replaceable. They may not want me to set a bad example right now.