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How close am I to my early retirement?
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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.I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
& Credit Cards boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.3 -
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!0 -
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?11 -
MallyGirl said:You can save money by splitting the ticket at Maidenhead for a 10 minute hit on the journey time.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.1 -
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?
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.4 -
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 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!1 -
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.
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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
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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
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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.
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