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What made you 'pull the trigger'?
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MoneySavingExpert
Chair, Martin Lewis · Editor, Marcus Herbert
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Vocational freedom has arrived
I guess my main trigger was the recognition of all our mortality!
I enjoyed the vast majority of my IT career, & feel very lucky to have had the travel experiences I did with some great colleagues, many of whom I keep in touch with…. but it is slightly scary how little I have missed it since stopping in May 2021 😜
I had always intended not to work to SPA….I think I put 50 as my goal several decades ago.
About 5 years ago I went to 4 funerals in just over 12 months 😔
The markets weren’t super kind to my mainly DC pot, but I firmly (foolishly? desperately? 🤪) believe they will eventually recover….& we have some cash funds to call upon in the meantime.
It gave us more time to spend with family…elderly MIL passed last year, and now we are having something of a travelling adventure start to this year.
Very much took on board some words of wisdom from both folk here and older pals - you do need a plan how to “fill your days” - as mentioned earlier in this thread, to “retire to something, not from something”. For most retired folk I know, those days aren’t long enough!
Health is so important.
Nurture your hobbies and friendships, and good luck in your quest for freedom: remember, live your best life, none of us get out alive 🤪
I started seriously thinking about retiring early largely inspired by a book (Early Retirement Extreme) and a blog (Mr Money Moustache). At fifty, I took the plunge when my employer and I parted ways and I received quite a generous settlement package which, I thought, combined with savings and investments, would see me to 55 and my pensions. It turned out I wasn’t ready for retirement at that age and I returned to work after a year, ending up staying with that employer until I was made redundant at 57. This job was at a much lower level than the one I had previously, but the fact that I felt I was choosing to do it made a big difference. Over six years, it made a quite big difference to my financial position too.
I’ve been retired over two years now and turn 60 this year. I still miss the social side of work and would admit to sometimes finding it difficult to fill my days in a way that I find fulfilling. On the other hand, I’ve taken ten strokes off my golf handicap, I’m fitter than I’ve ever been, I’ve widened my social network and my wife’s retired too this year, which makes a big difference from doing so on my own. I’m a bit surprised at finding I still have to apply myself to retirement and, while some days are great, on others I find myself slightly envying my ex-colleagues still at work. I muse that I’d like a part time job (but then it would have to be only on the rainy, wintery days that I select!) I still feel I’m adjusting to the facts of life, that I’m sixty, I’ve had a great career and that I should now enjoy the spoils of it. But I still feel as if I’m 40, that I can still contribute, that I have decades in front of me and that I should only retire when I’m really ready for it. Will I ever be though?
I could probably have retired late Fifties, but just carried on as it was a reliable, well paid job, that I had been doing for years, and could largely do in my sleep. Plus the best sort of boss- one who was very busy and lived in another country !
Eventually when 61, I said to my family I would retire in two years. They said logically what was the point in waiting another two years, you might as well just get on with it, So I did, although it was about a year before my replacement was in place and trained, due to Covid.
200 days left (not that I’m counting)😀
Regards VES/VER, assuming NPA does prove to be 67 I think you would be entitled to 21 months. Current rules are 1 month per year of service with a max of 21 months. PT just reduces the service, a bit like in the old final salary schemes, with FTE earnings used. Compulsory redundancy is max of 12 months but voluntary has to be offered first.
New scheme, which was knocked back in a judicial review a few years ago, was 3 weeks per year of service with a max of 15 months and still 12 months for compulsory I think. Also not sure if voluntary had to be offered first. It was only really knocked back on a technicality, due to lack of consultation, and they launched a consultation a while back so I assume if large scale redundancies are planned they would probably try and get it through. Keep them fingers crossed!!
What nobody has mentioned is loss of benefits when retiring. I get paid for private health insurance for myself and subsidised for my partner as well as cheap travel insurance which covers pre-existing conditions.
Having been treated for cancer in 2021 made me realise that life is short and I should retire, but I'm reluctant to lose the benefits and the salary and pension contributions although I probably have enough to retire on.
On the other hand I do not have to drive up and down the M1, M6 etc unless I am going somewhere I want to go.
To a large extent, these benefits are there to stop you leaving, for exactly the reasons you say.