What made you 'pull the trigger'?

To say I am 'planning' my retirement is a bit of an understatement - I have multiple spreadsheets dealing with historical and future outgoings, projected pension income, inflation rates etc. To be fair, I often have a bit of spare time in the morning so often spend an hour or so adjusting figures and making small changes to prospective dates so it doesn't get in the way, and whatever happens I want to be able to say that at least I covered all the bases when I make my final decision on when to leave work.

I dislike the place I am working at but have been there for over 38 years(!), the job has changed a huge amount recently though so I just want to leave, the plan is to then get a part-time, minimum wage job for a few years just to keep me busy for the two days a week I will have spare.

But as my prospective date gets closer and closer it is actually becoming quite scary - I have had the safety net of doing a job for decades that I can do easily so the idea of not doing it any more, as much as I dislike it, is very unsettling. But I am definitely going to leave in the next year or so, so my question to others is, what made you settle on a date to retire?

Was it:
I have enough money
I am fed up with my job
I want more spare time
a significant birthday (60 etc)
health

I would imagine for most people it is a combination of the above, but which was the actual one that made you think the time is right? I am at the point where I am working out whether I should go on X date, or 5 weeks later but perhaps I am going into it in such detail as a form of delaying tactic, as I can always think of a reason why I should go slightly later, then I work out that actually, sod it, I may as well go a month or two earlier!

I am guessing this sort of anxiety is recognisable to a few of you?

Mortgage free!
Debt free!

Time poor...
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Replies

  • gerdogerdo Forumite
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    I'm nearly 62 and have always planned to leave at 63 (40 years working so have had enough). Iike you I have all the details worked out and have projected my pension to be worth X amount when I hit 63. Problem now is that my DC pension is down 20% over the last 8 months so is not projected to reach the X figure I had hoped to retire on so I'm currently working on a  plan B.

    When the time comes, I won't have any doubts about pulling the trigger, that time can't come soon enough.
  • garyeldergaryelder Forumite
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    My dad always said to me retire around my 60th birthday but prior to that I got Covid bad so that was it I asked for redundancy which I got plus a lump on top 
    I sold a flat which gave me a lump sum to last me 7 years plus I have another flat I rent out
    not touching my personal pension until 5 years time but I’m having second thoughts and I m thinking of taking 4% a year from April 2024 20k

  • SilvertabbySilvertabby Forumite
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    We had always intended to retire at 60, and that's what we did. As Mr S is a couple of years older than me,  he took on all of the household chores for those two years when I was still working and he wasn't, so that was almost like going part time for me!

    Finances are a little different for us, as we have 80 years of public sector DB pensions between us.  May have been different if our pensions were all or mostly DC, especially as annuity rates were so poor when we retired and the concept of juggling investments/drawdown would have been an alien concept to us.




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