Will the "new normal" and WFH delay your retirement plans?

drummersdale

ex-pat_scot said:

I know quite a few who were/ are planning on retiring soon, but have paused plans.
Their thinking is that their current WFH arrangements are not too onerous.
If they stopped, then they can't yet do the travelling and adventure they have planned, and would be sat at home wasting time on t'internet except not getting paid for it. They will retire, but only when things emerge post Covid.

I'm 2.5 to 3 years away, by which time I rather expect we will have some sort of comfortable rhythm, even if not full "pre Covid" normality.

Where can I get one of these jobs where I can waste time on the internet AND get paid for it 

cfw1994

drummersdale said:

ex-pat_scot said:

I know quite a few who were/ are planning on retiring soon, but have paused plans.
Their thinking is that their current WFH arrangements are not too onerous.
If they stopped, then they can't yet do the travelling and adventure they have planned, and would be sat at home wasting time on t'internet except not getting paid for it. They will retire, but only when things emerge post Covid.

I'm 2.5 to 3 years away, by which time I rather expect we will have some sort of comfortable rhythm, even if not full "pre Covid" normality.

Where can I get one of these jobs where I can waste time on the internet AND get paid for it 

Describes a good 93% of people who work in IT, I reckon….although 82% of all statistics are made up on the spot 🤣

OP….the original Covid lockdown certainly stalled my leaving for 12 months.  

I had already been ‘home based’ for a couple of decades, although often “flitting around” the UK/Europe and US with work.  Was about to hand in my notice, then realised not much would happen, so stalled it about a year 🤷‍♂️

I kind of used it as a time to get used to the thought of retirement.  Obviously work was zoom-tastic, but I did think of it as a chance to ease myself into not doing the usual work things (physical team get togethers, that kind of thing!).  Having that ‘secret’ knowledge that I was preparing for a change was in many ways slightly liberating, I found….

Gone since May, enjoyed/endured cycling LEJoG as a “kick start” to being away from the desk, pedalled 4,300km in total during 2021, despite having gone fewer than a couple of hundred I’m in 2020 🚲😜
We’ve done a couple of music festivals, several comedy gigs and some local breaks, although an elderly/frail MiL will limit our movements much beyond that for the time being.  Haven’t regretted a minute….as a wise man said, you’re a long time dead 🤪

mjm3346

i retired early and it turns out an unexpected massive gain was almost 10 years of covid free retirement instead 18 months - given the increased death rate among the over 60s if I was still working I would want to be retired asap 

bostonerimus

I retired early almost 10 years ago and I'm glad I did. One thing I'd recommend though is having a fair bit more than you think you need before you RE ie be conservative in your financial planning. I ended up taking a part time job to help an old colleague out and I'm the only person in his 5 person company who ever goes into the office/lab anymore. Everyone else is writing software or doing management/admin that can be done remotely; I'm building things in a cleanroom and I can't do that remotely...

33scott

WFH really opened my eyes to the prospect of retiering early. I've now got 3 years, 3 months and 18 days to go (yes, I have an app) until I can go at 55. Prior to lockdown and WFH I would have said I would work until at least 62.

For me WFH broke the wheel of wake up, drive to work, work, drive home, cook, eat, wash up, collapse on the sofa exhausted, repeat.

IvanOpinion

I always said I would retire at 55, I didn't, I love my job too much.  We were allowed to WFH for 1 day per week and I never settled into it so stuck to the office.  I have now had nearly 2 years WFH and realise how much I hated the rush hour traffic so, I have told my boss I will not be back in the office except under social or emergency needs.  He is happy enough but senior management may disagree - if they do then that will trigger my retirement. 

The majority of staff have also made it clear that if they are forced back into offices then they will be moving to other jobs that allow WFH.  Fortunately it is an employee market out there at the minute in my line of business. On the downside there is a small, but very vocal, minority who laughably seem to think that because they want a return to office we all should be forced into it "otherwise there would be no atmosphere" - sorry guys I do not care about your 'atmosphere' and I am not there to provide you with a social life.

bownyboy

Our plans have been delayed but more due to Covid and lack of uncertainty over travel. What it has done though is increased our FIRE stash as I’ve worked throughout pandemic from home which has been pretty stress free and easy money. 

Like other people its opened my eyes to the absolute savagery of daily commuting on South Western Railway and the pointlessness of being in the office everyday ‘because’.

Idiot_Savant

freedomseeker said:

I found the pandemic actually gave me some thinking time after getting off the merry go round for a while and realising there is more to life than my job. So created my retirement spreadsheet, found this forum and starting hatching my escape plan.

There's always more to life than work - life itself. To paraphrase the old adage, do we live to work, or work to live?

BTW, I finish up on Friday..... ;-)

gundo

Nearly 57 and I've been WFH since March 2020 (my employer has been very good but also we have a good union so that makes the employer not be too silly) and to be honest it's given me a different taste of life. I'm bitter that previously I was very rarely allowed to work from home despite the fact that it was blindingly obvious that my job is easily do-able from home, all that commuting and stupid unnecessary early starts, petrol, speeding fine (scared of being late as my then boss was a tyrant) etc etc. Such a massive waste of time. The lack of office politics, manager looking over my shoulder and better work-life balance means that I would be extremely loathe to go back to the office more than a day or 2 a month.

I plan to go at 60 but it's very tempting to go earlier as I'd rather do other things. My interest in my job and in fact my area of work has fallen off a cliff. I may go reduced hours from next April. I still have 3 years of NI to contribute to get full state pension.

rickenbacker330

WFH speeded up my retirement plans. Like everyone else, I was WFH last year (IT job in the City), but got made redundant at age 55. At that point I decided that I was retired as the numbers added up and it had been in my mind anyway. Maybe in more normal times I may have tried to pick up another job, but the thought of working somewhere new and having to WFH didn't really do it for me.