Having problems deciding whether to press that resignation button....

ian16527

I have just hit the button to go onto wind down for 6 months.

I did try the part time route of not working Fridays and it was OK but I think I've had enough as the job is now admin more than technical ( chartered engineer).

So its 1 months notice then down to 24 hours for 3 months then down to 20 hours for the last 3 months.
I will be 57 in Jan

SouthCoastBoy

57 on the 27th Jan by chance?

Similar age to me, I am still undecided, haven't got the confidence, would like to go in June, I would also be 57.

Linton

I retired at 55 without any qualms.  The deciding factors were:
1) I desparately wanted to leave the job and did not want the hassle of finding another.
2) We had been thinking about it for the previous 10 years.
3) I had made a detailed year by year stress-tested spreadsheet financial plan based on very pessimistic asumptions showing where the money was coming from and where it was going. for the rest of our lives
4) We knew what we wanted to do in retirement.

So it was just a matter of waiting a few months for the next round of voluntary redundancies and then standing up shouting "me! me!".  EVerything had been considered and we were satisfied there were no major risks.

Albermarle

Linton said:

I retired at 55 without any qualms.  The deciding factors were:
1) I desparately wanted to leave the job and did not want the hassle of finding another.
2) We had been thinking about it for the previous 10 years.
3) I had made a detailed year by year stress-tested spreadsheet financial plan based on very pessimistic asumptions showing where the money was coming from and where it was going. for the rest of our lives
4) We knew what we wanted to do in retirement.

So it was just a matter of waiting a few months for the next round of voluntary redundancies and then standing up shouting "me! me!".  EVerything had been considered and we were satisfied there were no major risks.

Unfortunately not every company has regular rounds of voluntary redundancies . In fact in the companies I worked for it was never offered , apart from the odd individual case, as a way to get rid of somebody .

Dead_keen

Can you take a couple of months off as a sabatical and see how it feels?  

I did three days a week (Mon, Tue and Thu) and it was a nightmare with two "Fridays" a week.  I managed to keep boundaries as I had a very defined thing to do with my own time (2005 to 2008).

Four days a week was easy (2009 to 2010) when I started a new job as, again, I had a very defined thing to do with my own time.  Then I went full time until I went four days in October 2019.  That was a nightmare.  There was an expectation that I would be in constant touch with people and I didn't have a clearly defined thing to do on my day off.

I took two months off this summer and after the first month resigned as it was so good!

It is very tempting to stay on for one more year as you get a year's extra savings and one year's less spending to worry about.

Workerdrone

mat1964 said:

I posted on this previously, but things have moved on.  I have a choice to either retire at the end of May 2022 (a month before I turn 58) or the company have offered me 3 days a week as an alternative.  The problem is my health is not great and I have seen from others who do 3 days, that it often ends up as 5.  I could get some occasional part time work if I do resign completely.

Finances are okish but not great:

Cash £70k (but will need to finance a car as have to return company one)
DB in payment £8500 (index linked to RPI) plus another £1400 from another DB in 2 years which will also give £9k lump sum..
DC pots around £310k

We are debt free.  Largest fixed costs are Council tax £3500 a year, estate charge £1000 a year and Electric/gas/Water/Broadband/TV around £3000 a year.

Partner has no pension provision but we will both get full SP at 67 (she will get hers 2 years before me).

I think we will need around £25k a year.  It seems we will just about have enough and I would be very happy to stop work after 40 years.  However, just can't decide - given the new offer of 3 days a week and only have until end of this month to make a decision.......

Possibly not the right thread for this post but of those bills I’d wager electric and gas being the biggest. Problem is at a guess in retirement you’ll be home more. For me as a homeworker I switched to the whole Honeywell evohome setup years ago (zoned heating) so I only heat the rooms I use when I need them. E.g the bedrooms can drop to 12 degrees during a cold day but the lounge is 21 /22 or whatever I set it to and hall/ kitchen 18. Bedroom
heats up to correct temp before bed and kitchen warmer in
the mornings etc. made v good annual savings on gas. Of course I assume you’ve done the switch all bulbs to led etc. just one of those pre retirement expense things

Albermarle

It is very tempting to stay on for one more year as you get a year's extra savings and one year's less spending to worry about.

Or two more years , or even three .....

Although staying on longer than really necessary , is kind of frowned upon by some posters , it does mean you can maybe retire with a big cushion and not really have to worry too much about money at all .

mat1964

Workerdrone said

Possibly not the right thread for this post but of those bills I’d wager electric and gas being the biggest. Problem is at a guess in retirement you’ll be home more. For me as a homeworker I switched to the whole Honeywell evohome setup years ago (zoned heating) so I only heat the rooms I use when I need them. E.g the bedrooms can drop to 12 degrees during a cold day but the lounge is 21 /22 or whatever I set it to and hall/ kitchen 18. Bedroom
heats up to correct temp before bed and kitchen warmer in
the mornings etc. made v good annual savings on gas. Of course I assume you’ve done the switch all bulbs to led etc. just one of those pre retirement expense things

We have zoned heating - can control each area on my phone.  We moved to a new house only recently just as prices shot up so stuck on an expensive variable rate, which doesn't help.  Nearly all our bulbs are LED.Albermarle said:

It is very tempting to stay on for one more year as you get a year's extra savings and one year's less spending to worry about.

Or two more years , or even three .....

Although staying on longer than really necessary , is kind of frowned upon by some posters , it does mean you can maybe retire with a big cushion and not really have to worry too much about money at all .

Yes staying on would help financially, but it's not all about that - my health is not great and working such long hours doesn't help.   We don't want an extravagant lifestyle post retirement, just to to be comfortable.  I am trying to work out if that will be possible if I retire in 6 months.

sheslookinhot

Dead_keen said:

It is very tempting to stay on for one more year as you get a year's extra savings and one year's less spending to worry about.

Unfortunately you also get one years less of your life in your retirement years.

To the OP, you must blank out the 2 days you drop from your 5 day week. If you have an e-calendar mark them as non-working days. Do not entertain any communication with your work on those days. They are yours, time is precious and no doubt your employer will be dropping your salary. Make you 2 days off final. I.e. same 2 days a nail you retire.

Finally, you must drop 40% of your work. Discuss this with your manager and agree and effect the transfer BEFORE you go part time.

pensionpawn

No problems regarding whether, it's just when! My wife has just moved from 80% hours to 60% hours and will move to 0% hours next November. She works in retail so going just before Christmas is wise from a mental / physical health perspective too. I hope to go to 70% in April however I have a feeling that my company is not going to offer me time when I want to take it. In my discussions with my boss I have been careful not to sound boastful, threatening or like I'm attempting to blackmail them, when trying to "educate" my management that having reached 55 I now only work for them as it suits me and I could retire at the drop of a hat. I would prefer to crank out another couple of years on reduced hours however it's beginning to look like I might just tell them that it's game over next summer as they're just too blinkered / inept at managing staff to put in the effort find a work / life balance that suits both parties. Time will tell...